A few tidbits from Elliot on that podcast. I think he's already written some of this, but more may be coming in future articles: - Who knows what story/side to believe, but he says he had an 'off-the-record' chat with GB. Elliot rubbishes the story of the initial McGuire deal being cancelled midflight, although reiterates Venky's did suddenly pull the funding for the deal. Says the initial deal was for ~£2.5m*. When Venky's pulled the plug, McGuire flew over anyway to negotiate with Sheff Wed. They couldn't come to an agreement, so his agent came back to GB about a loan-to-buy, with the buy cost increasing to ~£3.5m*. *I'm probably misremembering the exact figures. Main point is his sources (probably Rovers-linked) are insisting quotes of up to $7.5m are way off. - GB is staying, at least for the short-term, and was actively chatting with Eustace before/during/after the Stoke game. He'll be speaking to the media about the transfer window during/after the international break in March as he wants to give Eustace some breathing space first. Not sure if SW will speak. - Elliot didn't seem 100% sure, but he's under the impression Eustuce is a SW pick. Interestingly, he also suggests GB wasn't the one who picked out JDT (so maybe SW made the first contact with JDT?), but GB had a role in bringing him in/finalising it.

He said nothing of use, very generic comments but he did slip in that 50points is the target that is what he was brought in for. Get us to 50 points. Well you've got 15 games to get 14 points John. Looking at our fixtures that seems a huge challenge and big club was a strong chance of at least 1 point. His words not mine! Ha, reminds me that 51 points didn't do the job back in 16-17. Hell, we probably 'deserved' relegation that year all things considered, but yeesh was that harsh... Apparently Peterborough has the record for highest point total while still getting relegated at 54. Had a quick look and apparently ~43 is the average needed for staying up. We're on pace for 53 (current form of course a concern), QPR in 22nd is on pace for 43. Looks like Cifuentes has QPR back on track, but worth keeping in mind there's still a few shit teams between us and them. Should be doable... although I say that having missed last night's game... What's so ridiculous about our current predicament is suppose Eustace fails spectacularly and we get relegated (unlike Mowbray where we got relegated despite decent form under him - I don't mean to spark that debate!) I bet it'd still be up in the air whether we sack him as we wouldn't have the cash on hand to pay him off.

I think a PSA needs to be sent out about not giving any credence to sites like these 🙂 (Even need to be wary of the 'per week' values in FM, which may be reasonably close to reality in terms of footballers' 'basic' wage - fwiw, they have Dolan at £5k/week (https://www.fmscout.com/club/blackburn.html_) = but total salary costs will be much higher due to bonuses, sign-on fees, etc.)

Huh. Wonder if it's too late to see if Eustace is willing to serve as an assistant under Lowe.

Yeah, limited financial damage aside and acknowledging the overall financial constraints, it's definitely been GB's biggest failure. Ennis... best guess is he was seen as a good bargain opportunity. Young striker who has scored some goals, out of contract, no compensation. But then showed up out of shape, his poor fitness should've been flagged/questions to be asked about his medical, JDT not impressed, and it snowballed from there... Maybe washes out now that we're rid of him, but not a mistake we could afford this year amid the budget cut. Strange with Hirst. I think it's documented that JDT did approve of that one. I think he just struggled to break into a squad that was doing quite well. Flubbed a few chances, lost both his and JDT's confidence... 12 goals in 44 games with Ipswich is pretty good, but not incredible. He's had 9 assists too, so maybe has worked as more of a complementary piece rather than the goalscorer there. Would need to read up more on Ipswich fans' views...

While only 'small victories', particularly with everything else going on, while GB* has generally failed to bring in a striker, it's at least some succour that the financial consequences of his two main striker acquisitions - Hirst** and Ennis - have been minimal. Something to be said about limiting long-term risks/managing to wriggle out of mistakes when you're in the strikers pound shop... And then when he finally had some money to spend on a striker... Whatever the final financials, a loan-to-buy for McGuire sounded sensible. I'll speak up for MLS's gradual improvement in quality (there have been recent cases of (successful) MLS sales of £5-10m in recent years), but there's definitely reason for caution about a 22 year old with only one big MLS season after getting drafted out of college soccer. Of course, if McGuire floundered on his loan and we happily moved on, the question would still hang as to what, if any, of the Wharton sale will actually go toward player investment... Rather pathetically, even if Ennis nets out to a small 'accounting loss', probably the biggest financial benefit is any relief his fee brings to our immediate cashflow (in order to, uh, fund the McGuire loan fee...) *I've generally been a 'fan' of GB, whatever happend with the McGuire fiasco, I can't be bothered to endorse/take a 'side' on any part of the Rovers hierarchy when the whole thing is rotten, with Venky's incompetence/clusterfuck finances setting the tone at the top... **Ipswich fans seem happy with Hirst. I recall posts taking bets on Hirst playing non-league football by now haha. Odd one. May simply have been a 'bad fit' here or JDT failing to get the best out of him. (I'm saddened I couldn't figure out if it's possible to add footnotes 😞)

Yes, think it explains trying to shoehorn Moran into that role vs QPR. JDT essentially throwing up his hands to say "who the fuck else can play that role now that Wharton's gone?!" Then Moran kept drifting forward and Tronstrad struggled to do it himself. I understand the stick Morton got last year, but I think that explains why he was a regular starter after Buckley disappointed in the role, Travis clearly can't do it, and Wharton needed time to 'learn to be a pro' (understood that's controversial, but think we need to give JDT some benefit of the doubt there). I guess Buckley will get another audition and I guess we can hope/see if Ayari's up for it. Don't think Fleck's suited for it (and his current/ongoing fitness will be a concern anyway), can't trust Garrett with the ball... maybe JRC, but I don't know... There may be room for Travis to support such a role (although his general inability going forward ultimately hampers him...), but Tronstad clearly supplanted him.

Vale's goal at 3:45. Pokes in a sorta 1-on-1 under some pressure. Not optimistic about his chances here, but he does seem to calmly bury chances when he gets them. (I'm sure someone can remind me, but I can't recall him making any horrific misses last year). The problem is more how little he's able to create chances/find space in the first place... Gent also picks up an assist at 3:18, although just from simply laying off a pass for a screamer of a goal. His 2nd assist of the year, plus got a Cup goal a couple weeks ago. Seems he's now their regular LB after mostly being a sub to start his loan, which is good to see.

Yes, was about to post. Seems their sources are more on the Orlando side, but gives some new tidbits on the back-and-forth leading up to the 'admin error' (but no additional info on whatever the hell happened there). Summarising below due to paywall: - Just for context on the scale of salary involved, McGuire made $77,360+ last year (~£1,200/week) and produced goals at a rate equivalent or better to strikers making $2m+ (£30k/week). Orlando was nowhere close in salary negotiations, hence McGuire was pushing for a move and Orlando was accommodating. - We tried two loan offers in early January, but we didn't have the upfront money for a transfer/loan fee to entice Orlando, who needed money for a replacement. Sheff Wed also had a few offers declined. McGuire started pushing for a move. - We returned with a permanent offer after the Wharton deal (allegedly) gave us some cash to use. Agreed on an initial fee of ~£3m, with add-ons potentially taking that to ~£5m. Orlando would retain a sell-on clause, apparently a crucial negotiating point. - We booked and paid for McGuire's flight. McGuire takes off... Venky's call Waggott, GB, and JDT to inform them there was no money to make the deal. - GB called Orlando's director and McGuire's agent to apologise. Orlando tried calling McGuire to tell him he's welcome back, but unclear if they couldn't reach him as he made his connecting flight or he got onboard still hoping to make a deal with any English club. - Sheff Wed reopened talks with Orlando. Plymouth and Ipswich also expressed interest. Agent had McGuire stay in Sheffield, assuming Sheff Wed was the best bet. - Rovers apparently trying to make a deal for Brekalo around this time, an Orlando target, wouldn't have helped our negotiations with Orlando. We signed Koumetio instead. - Interestingly, apparently it was McGuire's agent that approached GB after the Wharton deal was 100% confirmed - the first contact since the original deal fell through - asking if we were interested again. GB said we could now only do a loan, Orlando said they'd only sanction a sizeable loan fee and higher purchase option. Agreed on a £550k loan fee and £5.5m purchase option, with add-ons potentially bringing it to £7.5m (the figure being this high is disputed) and Orlando still retaining a sell-on. Orlando were happy the hassle had at least netted them a few million. - Sheff Wed remained in the picture. Both clubs sent cars ready to pick up McGuire at the hotel. GB apparently made the final sell, convincing McGuire to choose us over Sheff Wed. Final agreements hammered out while McGuire was en route. He arrived 5 hours before the window closed for medical, etc. and the deal was done with 100min to spare. - We reimbursed McGuire's agent for the cab 🙂

Don't know if this has already been posted, but came across this video from a few weeks ago by 'Inside The Academy' featuring our Academy, focusing on the u18s. Includes interviews with Stuart Jones, GB, and a bunch of other academy staff. Going by the weather and GB mentioning 3 straight league losses + a couple big Cup wins with young squads, I think the interview was conducted in early October. Haven't watched it all (it's an hour long...), but did watch the GB bit. No real gossip/surprising tidbits, just generally setting out the framework they're trying to put in place for the Academy, etc.

Yeah, it's all guesswork, but supposing Ayala and Dack were on £14k/week and Brereton £8k/week (doing this per week is easy shorthand, but who knows what the total is with win/goal bonuses, etc), that's maybe £2m or so off the wage bill, so £23m instead of £25m. Kaminski maybe another £10k/week. Edun + Phillips won't have been on much. Sigurdsson, Tronstad, and Ennis probably aren't on Ayala/Dack-level wages, but that's a decent chunk right there. Pears, Pickering, Hyam, Szmodics, S. Wharton, JRC, Garrett, and Leonard are all on new terms. Other players may have yearly wage rises. Wahlstedt and Telelovic are probably cheap, but can't ignore lesser deals like those. When I say our 23-24 wages may be 'surprisingly high', I mean it may only be down to £22m-ish vs £25m. A 12% cut may not look like much, but it may be especially painful in an insanely competitive division with growing cost pressures everywhere. Where I suspect GB got fucked is he thought he had another £2m of wage flex/transfer budget to work with after bringing in those first 3, but then that suddenly changed.

Yeah, looks like last year's wages were a bit higher, or at least around the same as previous years, despite the likes of Lenihan, Johnson, Nyambe, Rothwell, etc. leaving. Partly due to Hyam, Szmodics, and Brittain probably not being 'cheap', new contracts, and bonuses related to our cup runs + a decent league finish. Hence likely seeing similar losses in the 22-23 accounts! Was more referring to this year, even despite the apparent sudden cuts and Brereton, Dack, and Ayala leaving. But it's anyone's guess. I'm certainly watching out for that... Can somewhat infer it from the funding Venky's was allowed to provide by the courts, but I'd be cautious about extrapolating that amount.

Yeah, I recall Nunes having some talent. Only one to manage more than a few appearances for us... he's managed an ok career since, bouncing around the 1st-2nd Portuguese leagues and still playing in the top Polish league. Taking a glance now, Henrique (0 appearances for us) actually managed a few years in the top Portuguese league, then a few years in the lower divisions before retiring. As for Paulo Jorge, Edinho Junior, and Diogo Rosado (all with 2-3 appearances for Rovers), can immediately tell they had the same agent shuffling them about as they all spent some time at now defunct Romanian club Gaz Metan. Jorge and Edinho both spent time at the same lower level German club, then some lower league Portuguese time before retiring. Rosado's still playing in the lower Portuguese leagues after time spent in France, Cyprus, Romania... Yeesh.

tldr: a fucking boring essay from that Canadian numbers nerd While there are some... passionate/angry posters I generally scroll past and maybe don't see much point in debating on some matters, it's not hard to at least understand why they're so pissed off. I admittedly get caught up debating shades of grey, seeing some merit to our alleged model. etc, but the overall failure of Venky's ownership is a black-and-white issue. For ~5-6 years, Venky's have funded a median-ish Championship wage bill (still less than half of parachute club wages!), which has kept us clear of relegation and on the edge of the playoffs a couple times. With our turnover, before player trading, that basically translates to an annual £20m operating loss. I won't say 'respected'... but that does need to be 'acknowledged'. Having owners that can stomach such losses separates us from Barnsley, Burton, Rotherham, Wigan, Wycombe, etc. (and Luton 🙂) in an ultimately unfair division. However, this year's cashflow SNAFU highlights our fatally flawed ownership. What good is a rich, 'benevolent' owner if they can barely transfer the cash needed to fund those losses? Whatever the model, suddenly needing to cut our budget by 15% / risking transfers due to sudden cashflow issues ties the hands of any seemingly competent director (GB), alienates talented managers (JDT), and bewilders clubs / agents we deal with. Even if Venky's have done their best to pull financial / legal strings to keep funds flowing this year (23-24 accounts will be interesting reading), it all highlights the risks of having pseudo-oligarch-like owners... Wharton's sale was sadly inevitable, which needs some acceptance. However, while there are risks to not cashing in with a decent offer on the table (see Dack), it's hard not to link selling now to this year's cashflow issues. Some of that may be bad luck (delayed Raya sell-on), but it's ridiculous if we've made that sale maybe a year early - with him signed to a long-term contract, happy to stay, possibly forgoeing an extra £5m as he develops, and meaning the contribution to our FFP window runs out in 25-26 rather than 26-27+ - because of cashflow issues due to our owner's legal issues. It's also simply fucking sad that we only got 1.5 years to watch a homegrown prodigal talent. Now, one way or another, we probably need average net sales of £5m per year if we want to maintain a median wage bill under FFP (as an aside, the sheer scale of the Brentford model needs to be acknowledged: their average player trading profit was £23m between 2016-21, capped by +£44m in their promotion year with the Watkins+Benhrama sales). Add in Raya sell-on, Kaminski, Phillips, I roughly calculate we have ~£12m of wages/fees to play with over the next couple years, but who knows what will happen if Venky's suddenly can only fund, say, £5-10m losses instead of £15-20m (with cuts to our wage bill having knock-on effects). At least GB has been proactive on contracts (getting that through Venky's heads is probably his greatest contribution; part of why I doubt our wage bill has dropped as much as some suspect), so we haven't quite sold the family silver. - Sheffield Utd supporting mate says Fleck's pretty washed, but also thought he can probably still do a job in the Championship. For the sake of getting this year over the line, with McFadz, I think there is some sense in bringing in a couple experienced heads without committing to an Ayala-like deal, but something to revisit in the summer. - Bit of a shame O'Riordan's signing has been so overshadowed, as that looks like a smart pick-up. - Good that Vale and Bloxham got loans, but disappointing that we couldn't sort loans for Gilsenan, Batty, Markanday, and/or Leonard. - McGuire's an interesting one as it's quite rare for an MLS draftee to excel like that. Possible we've caught him on a major upswing, but reason to be cautious. Loan-to-buy option lowers the risk (and amazing we've essentially funded that by shipping out Ennis) and maybe he will excel and we'll be happy to take up the option for £5m+ (sneer at MLS if you like, but it should be noted that (successful) £5-10m+ MLS sales aren't out of the norm these days), but if we apparently had to cancel a £3-4m deal to arrange that, it again highlights Venky's schizo funding.

I'd note some caution as Bradley was probably 2 years past his retirement date 🙂, amid TFC being a general basketcase last year... Certainly an interesting one. Rare to see an NCAA product explode like he did at the MLS level, let alone at higher levels. Orlando fans seem quite fond of him.

Some of the hate Gallagher gets is... bizarre. He's a flawed player, but c'mon.* *I bravely say so after a game where he played well. Siggy's got some concerning attributes, but he does have that 'moment of quality' potential that too many of our attackers lack... JDT's overall record against L1/L2 clubs in the Cups: 6-0-0, 27 GF (4.5/game) 7 GA (1.2/game). It has its flaws, but his attacking style certainly tears up lesser competition...

Yeah, I also thought that was an interesting aside from Waggott. Does highlight that even if Venky's have generally provided a... 'generous' amount of funding over the years, some of our sclerotic decision-making seems to link to that funding being incredibly inflexible (even before this year's cashflow SNAFUs). Seems we get a fixed budget every year, and I guess like any subsidiary within a business empire of sorts, we have to fight tooth and nail for flexibility on top of that, causing painful delays, even with an unprojected cash inflow like a cup run. This Athletic article about Mowbray's slow-motion departure (undoubtedly fed by friends of his) highlighted how Suhail happily downplayed his experience in football matters (and the article claims Mowbray ultimately got along with and respected the role of Suhail) but then inevitably gets over-involved negotiations. Even 'simple' deals drag on forever; see Moran's loan deal or the O'Riordan signing. We obviously need to wring everything we can out of our pounds, but not to the point of paralyzing the club. It should be noted that while the cup runs definitely helped our finances last year (going by the VLL accounts, we're probably looking at our best turnover since the PL), it will have also caused other costs to go up (I look forward to many fans' surprise that our wage bill was actually grew last year when our official accounts come out in ~April!)

https://theathletic.com/5224892/2024/01/25/crystal-palace-adam-wharton-transfer-blackburn/ (paywalled) associated article, but it doesn't say much beyond the tweet other than Wharton's highly rated, etc. Whatever is a 'fair' price for Wharton today, I just don't see the case for selling him now. 1) Suppose we 'could' get £20m for Wharton now. Maybe a fair enough price, but you can easily imagine that increasing to an Alex Scott-ish £25m after a strong 2nd half. As good as Wharton is and will be, he's definitely had his blemishes in the first half and we can expect him to keep improving. 2) I totally understand the handwringing about our recent form, but (and I may regret saying this 🙂) I don't think there's a huge relegation risk given our 9 point cushion (let's not forget there are some rank teams in the division this year...). I think we are due for some degree of regression after an awful run. Maybe it would allow us to spend a few million to rebalance the squad for the rest of the season, but I'd lean toward that being short-sighted. 3) With this year's budget issues, this is a consolidation year of sorts... In FFP terms, getting £20-25m next year (or later) would set us up financially for 2024-25 through to 2026-27. A panic sell this year would see that runway run out in 2025-26. Getting the Raya money this coming summer helps in that regard too... (Obviously another question of the extent that money would actually be spent on transfers, maintaining a median-ish wage bill in this divison, etc. I will shy away from suggesting a warchest is afoot haha... At the very least, FFP would absolutely not be an excuse for a few years!) Other variables: - Venky's-related cashflow issues... if we're selling, and potentially foregoing an extra £5m in the future, simply to get some cash into the club today... well, that's as clear as it gets that our ownership is not fit for purpose given the financial 'demands' of this division. - If Wharton's head is suddenly turned by PL money, etc., frankly, there's a limit to how much you can block players from such opportunities as a middling Championship club. An unfortunate reality, but given his new contract, affinity for Rovers, etc., that risk is relatively low in this case.

I thought Lenihan only finally thrived when part of that back 3 with van Hecke and Wharton/Ayale. Gave him the freedom to break up plays in midfield, with the other 2 covering. Generally think you need to grade all CBs on a curve as to whether they're part of a back 2 or back 3!

"Criticism of Gallagher on this forum is way overblown"

Interesting that JDT brought up loaning out Batty: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/24035012.blackburn-rovers-boss-chrisene-deal-batty-plans/ Would make sense after loaning in Chrisene. Definitely needs some steady gametime after apparently more injury issues. I only count 7 starts so far this year with the u21s (across PL2/PLC/PLIC) + starting the Carabao game against Walsall. Only turning 19 in April, so still time and not a 'failure' that he's not a depth option. LT article on Chrisene: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/24036008.aston-villa-prospect-ben-chrisene-blackburn-rovers-loan/ At least looks pretty strong for a 19 yo going by the photos within and Villa fans suggest he's physically ready for the pros. Coming back from an MCL tear, but maybe benefitted from plenty of gym time. Kilmarnock fans raved about his spell there before he got hurt.

I'd note major caution about any of those sites apparently listing every player's wages. They're no better than ballpark guesses about confidential salaries. Same with FM. That's not unique to us. For example, the same site has PNE's basic wages at £12.2m, but their latest accounts have total staff costs at £23.9m. (Funny how pro salaries are so public in North American sports in contrast!) As KentExile noted, they'll be missing a lot of other bonuses, etc. Even if our basic wages may have fallen last year, it's worth noting that VLL's accounts up to March 2023 actually saw wages and salaries rise from £24.8m to £25.8m, likely due to a couple extended cup runs and a relatively successful season (total headcount also increased from 209 to 219). Likewise, VLL reported turnover of £19.9m, which would be our best result since parachute payments ended. Rovers' actual accounts for 22/23 should come out in April. However, it's this past summer where we may see significant cuts emerge... the 23/24 should prove interesting reading in 1.5 years' time...

Is Batty injured again? He hasn't featured for the u21s since 1 Dec. Also reportedly had a minor injury in the summer... Disappointing he hasn't stepped up to be proper depth at LB yet, but he's only 18. Injuries seem to be holding him back. He's only made 8 appearances across all competitions this season according to soccerway and only 17 last season. Other fullback options: Cirino's injured, haven't heard much hype around Haddow, Gent's on loan (starting to make consistent starts at Motherwell, which is good to see), maybe Duru as he's popped up on the bench recently and will turn 19 soon. Anyway, I can see the case for bringing in Chrisene as (cheap...) temporary FB depth. Apparently did quite well on loan at Kilmarnock before getting injured last year.

- I think something along these lines was mentioned earlier, but The Athletic is reporting that we've had two loan bids rejected for Orlando City striker Duncan McGuire, and are expected to be make a third loan bid (amid interest from FC Nantes, FC Utrecht, and RWD Molenbeek): https://theathletic.com/5177729/2024/01/04/mls-january-transfer-window/ (might be paywalled). 15 goals over 37 appearances in his rookie MLS season. - On O'Riordan's incoming, worth noting he's cup-tied for the FA Cup. May relate to the debate on holding on to Hill for one more weekend. Doubt we'd want to risk Hyam and presumably S. Wharton won't be ready. Perhaps time for Gamble... Such a shame that Barnes got hit with another long-term injury. - It's spread across L1/L2/Scottish Championship, but notable that O'Riordan's actually accumulated a decent amount of pro experience for his age: 76 league/cup appearances (+ a bit of non-league!)

The point is it's a silly way to rate/write off any GK coach.