26 minutes ago, Blue blood said:

For those saying there is plenty of time, remember what happened under Coyle and (in effect) throwing away those first 5 games. The squad wasn't strengthened to the end of the window, we lost 4 or 5 and that was the difference maker. 

Sure there were plenty of opportunities to rectify it all the way through the season but what's done cannot be undone. I'd have thought after that not too distant debacle we wouldn't be so blase about getting signings in in decent time. 

Of course not all business would be done till the end of the window and of course it's vital to get the right people in rather than any old duffer. But we have also learnt under Venkys someone is better than no one and there are 4 first 11 places that needed filling plus squad players plus arguably Armstrong and Elliott.

That we have only done one of these so far before the start of the season is pretty alarming. Added to which this is on top of any other business that may need to be done. If Bereton goes that's another striker needed. And we don't do deals quickly - goodness there's only so much time in the day under the most competent of outfits - so leaving it all to the last minute seems dangerous in the extreme. 

There's two ways of looking at that though. Yes, those losses were very important in us eventually going down. But the bigger problem was that the squad was poor over the whole season (until Mowbray took over at least) and a lot of that was due as much to the signings that were in early as much as missing those who were in later on. 

Put it this way, what did more harm? Not signing Emnes, Gally etc. a couple of games early, or going into the season expecting the likes of Stokes, Greer, Byrne and Samuelsen to be first teamers?

Sounds like an obvious point, but we can afford to wait if it's what is needed to get the right players in. 

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

This league is a grinder. You’ve got to be able to fight for the right to play your football. That’s been our failing over the years. Too much prospective son in law material and not enough JoeyBarton/Robbie Savage/David Speedie type bastards.

Maybe Kompany knows that and is getting rid of the players who don’t fancy the battle.

Completely agree - but an issue for them is that they're losing some of their harder players too. THB and the other young lad from City might be made of the right stuff, but they won't replace what they had with Mee and Tarkowski. 

They could easily end up having a strong season, but at this point it's incredibly tough to judge. 

3 minutes ago, longsiders1882 said:

I’m assuming on Roberts just based on us signing another right back - could be they’ll play right side in tandem as both are attacking full backs.

The figure for McNeill is around 10 million plus add ons. After his last 2 seasons probably as good as we could do post relegation. I think there is a player in there but I’m not sure we will ever see it. Everton fans will be far less forgiving of him turning circles to avoid using his right.

Cornet also sounds like will be done in next couple of weeks - he’ll be a miss but both were expected to go. If we bring in a new striker and replacements (after Manuel Benson from Antwerp apparently) we couldn’t really hope for much more.

Obviously this is caveated that the replacements for them need to be up to scratch, but personally I think it's good thing for you that they're sold. McNeil will have much more quality than most at this level, but it's no good in his position if he doesn't regularly score and/or set up goals, which given his recent record would be a fair risk. Obviously no such issue with Cornet, but you'd worry about his hunger and physical capacity for such a tough league.

1 minute ago, Ghost7 said:

I think the point is very simple and it is that we would have a better chance of getting points if a few more quality signings had been made before the opening fixture(s) and we might live to regret that come the end of the season. It's hard to understand why we aren't all united in disappointment on that front. We haven't really done anything in the transfer window so far to influence a good start to the season, I'd like to see anyone argue that (although there probably is someone!) 😂

Without putting words in anyone's mouth - I think we probably all are to an extent. The disagreement comes with how urgent that it is to have players through the door before the first game vs being patient to get the right players, potentially at a lower cost.

I would've definitely hoped that we would've had at least one or two more in by now, but at least the biggest issue with our starting line up (right back) is the one that's been sorted. I'd like to think that it's only one or two games before we get more reinforcements in though, and it's definitely going to be a long old season if we don't get at least three or four more in. 

4 minutes ago, longsiders1882 said:

Hearing it’s all but done. Also hearing we’ve signed a Brazilian right back which must suggest Roberts is on his way - or Lowton.

Assuming that it's a decent 8 figure fee, I suspect you might've got the better end of the deal with that one. Surprised that Roberts is going - I had thought that he would've been one of the ones more likely to stay.

3 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Based on premise you need 2 players competing for each position and the bids that have gone in:-

GK - ok

RB - ok

CB - need at least one.

LB - ok (probs not a priority but an upgrade needed at some point unless Pickering/Edun improve dramatically under JDT)

CM - need at least one (Morton?)

AMR - ok

AML - need at least one if BBD goes (Berget?).

AMC - need one to compete with Dack (Szmodics?)

Striker - Are Vale and SG enough if BBD leaves? 

Undoubtedly not. I'm hoping that our midfield across the board will be chipping in with more goals than they did last year, but the loss of goal threat if Brereton goes is immense. Would certainly need a replacement. 

1 minute ago, HedgesAdmirer said:

For me he’s not a modern full back, he’s just a centre half who can run 

I actually think that's right - I'd have been happiest to keep him on the right side of a back three - but I don't think there's anything to be gained by making out that he's not very good at the defensive side of his game. 

1 minute ago, HedgesAdmirer said:

Nyambe’s defensive capabilities were limited past 1 on 1 defending, awareness and positioning was poor 

Not sure I would agree with that on last season's showing. I've said quite a lot that he's replaceable because of how poor his attacking output is, but defensively I don't think there was much to criticise last year. 

Looks like the McNeill debate might be academic, as he's supposedly in talks with Everton. 

9 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

"Oven-ready." 🤮 

We need 4 players if we're to kick on - we've signed one. Apparently we have a highly thought of CM coming in on loan. 

Bring me Styles and a CF and I'm happy. I'm delerious if you bring in a quality CB too.

 

I think a first choice centre half is still an absolute must to be honest - arguably as important as another midfielder which is also essential. As much as I'm happy to have Carter getting games this year, he's not proven at this level and Ayala is made of glass. Wharton is the only proven player who you'd expect to play most games in a league season. Add in that JDT might favour a back three at times, maybe one won't even be enough. 

32 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Good post. I think the difference under Coyle was we played with proper wingers - I think he scored about 12 that season and 4 or 5 were with his head. Another was that screamer of a volley! He's a better player than he's given credit for. 

Agree on the 'first touch', he isn't a natural with his back to goal like Graham was for example....Sharpe did make the point though that in pre-season he has dropped a lot deeper than he used to and has been linking up play on the deck a lot more than he did under Mowbray....that touch round the corner for the Vale goal was sublime!

Agree on his instinct to get in the box under Mowbray, he was often 5 yards behind where the ball ended up. Hopefully that was just a confidence/coaching thing and that he'll be more proactive under a more attacking coach. 

I think you're completely right about him being a better player than he's given credit for. Some very good finishes in the relegation season and his physicality (even though he doesn't make the most of it in my view, but that's a different issue) is still a challenge for defenders. His weaknesses (alongside maybe the teams/coaches weaknesses) are pretty bad ones, but I've always thought the 'Gallagher is rubbish' and 'Gallagher is good but played as a winger' views are both wide of the mark. 

I was thinking of mentioning Graham, so I'm glad you've done it for me! I think the only way that he could play as a lone striker is if we wanted him to score goals and not much else, because he definitely can't hold up the ball in the way that someone like Graham did. I don't think we'll be playing with proper out and out wingers under JDT, but we might be playing with wing backs who get crosses in, which we never really did under Mowbray for some reason, even though we often had the players to do it.

I think Pickering was the one who was really given a torrid time against Celtic. Carter struggled too, but was clearly out of position. We can't be expecting him to replace Lenihan or Van Hecke with the same quality, but with two successful L1 loans I'm happy to have him as an option to see how he does. On paper, he has established himself at a higher level than Wharton before he took his chance.

25 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

I watched him quite a bit and my assessment is above.  Not quick enough or comfortable enough on the ball to play in a 3.....

Almost all of my knowledge of him is from the handful of Rovers appearances that he's made and second hand reports of him from his loans. I'm surprised that you mention his lack of comfort on the ball though. Without claiming that he's Beckenbauer, I thought the consensus was that he could play a bit for a player of his size?

29 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

How many did he get under Coyle playing centrally in a shite team with a shite manager?

He spent a part of that season playing wide in a forward three too.

I think the Gally can't play wide thing is really overdone to be honest. He obviously couldn't be further away from a winger in a traditional sense, but the biggest issue like you say is that we don't get enough quality balls to him when he's in the box, which we can still do if he plays 'wide'. Big Sam used to do this all the time with Kevin Davies.

It's true that his weaknesses (esp. his first touch) are badly shown up in the ways that Mowbray set the team up, but I think that would be just as true if he played centrally. The slightly worrying thing is that we've had Douglas, Giles, Pickering and even Downing at left back who are all meant to be crossing specialists, and none of them really managed to get Gally into more scoring positions. This might be their fault, and it might be Mowbray's fault with how he saw their jobs, but it might also be down to Gally's lack of nous when it comes being in the right place at the right time, and if that doesn't improve then a change of system and better crossers can only do so much.

4 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Time for Broughton to show us what he's made of and that he has more about him than Waggott/Mowbray/Venus.

When do players have to be registered by to be eligible for Saturday?

You begin to wonder how Clubs in the lower leagues with a budget a fraction of ours  ever manage to sign any players as we seem to find it a mystical art completely beyond us.

Lower standards. Usually not paying significant transfer fees. A larger pool of 'acceptable' frees because contracts tend to be shorter at that level. 

The squad obviously needs substantial strengthening, but it's not a coincidence that most Championship clubs (at least those who don't have parachute payments coming in) tend to leave a lot their transfer activity fairly close to the window closing. The players who are easy to get are usually straightforward because nobody else is bothered about them. Cardiff have brought in 12 players, but I don't think many would make it into our XI on Saturday. 

2 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

According to Transfermarkt his market value is £900k, which means they'll pay more than that.

Personally I thought he was an infuriating player. Quick, skillful, but 7/10 made the wrong choice.

I think back to the Sheff U game at Ewood where he and Poveda were brought into the XI. Khadra, deflected goal aside, seemed to do nothing other than give the ball away for me. Poveda on the other hand looked a real player. Real shame what happened there.

He (Khadra) obviously has talent and I'd love it if we signed him on a four year deal. A bit of football intelligence and he could do some real damage in the prem with just a tad more experience - but the worry with players who have so much pace is that they never get that know-how because they can rely on their speed.

4 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Hopefully their keeper throws one in like he did for Khedra’s free kick last year. That was looking destined for 0-0 up until that point.

It did, but we were missing an unreal amount of chances on the way, first half especially. In the end we were a bit lucky, but had Rhodes still been playing for us we would've won 3-0. 

2 minutes ago, TimmyJimmy said:

Do we actually win season openers?

We did last year! 

Other than that though it was something like one win since Souness or something daft, so I take your point. 

10 minutes ago, JoeH said:

You can't have a pre-season like that and not get given the chance to go out and continue it. If it doesn't work in the league then fine, but I'd say it makes the most sense. Outside of him we'd need speed, Vale's great but not someone who's going to eliminate with pace. I think 3-4-3 is the system that suits our centre-backs the most, and obviously it suits Brittain. I think it gives Brereton his suited wide forward role. Makes the most sense in my head.

I think that's a fair comment (and being 21, he needs to be getting games now if he is ever to make his mark here).

That said, I'm cautious about reading too much into pre-season form. Might be a little risk averse but I think having Vale as our first option off the bench is a fair reward considering where he was in the pecking order last year. 

9 minutes ago, JoeH said:

3-4-3

T. Kaminski

H. Carter
D. Ayala
S. Wharton

C. Brittain
L. Travis
J. Buckley
H. Pickering

T. Dolan
J. Vale
B. Brereton Díaz

 

No Gally in the XI Joe? I can see the appeal of going to 343 now that Brittain is through the door, but I'd be surprised if both Dolan and Vale get in front of him (although I'm looking forward to see what Vale can do if given the chance). 

11 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Dack played an hour at the weekend. I don't think he will start but I don't see why he can't play another hour on Saturday.

He did indeed - that passed me by. To be fair if he's fit enough to deal with the intensity of a league game for an hour or so then I agree that he should be in there. I suspect we'll be seeing Dolan a bit more as a 10 this year though, probably starting on Saturday.

Feel a bit of trepidation about this one. I think we'll be fine over the season once we have a few more bodies in, but I can see why lots of outsiders would look at our squad at the moment and put us as lower mid-table. I'd take a horrible 1-0 right now. 

42 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Assuming no transfers between now and then:

Kaminski

Brittain Ayala Wharton Pickering

Travis Buckley

Hedges Dack Brereton

Gallagher

Subs: Pears, Carter, Edun, Garrett, Markanday, Dolan, Vale

I think that's our best team, but I'd be surprised if Dack starts with him only having 45 mins of pre-season. Would probably have Dolan as the 10 with Dack coming off the bench, and have JRC on the bench in front of Garrett.

1. Where will Rovers finish ? 

Caveated that I expect i) BBD to leave and ii) another four or so first teamers to come in, 12th. 

2. Who will be the Rovers (official) Player Of The Season ?

S. Wharton. Hopefully one of our attacking or creative players will prove me wrong and be consistently good enough.

3. Who do you think will be the breakout/breakthrough academy player this season ? (Let’s say under 23 at season start & fewer than 10 1st team appearances to be eligible)

Vale. Now or never. 

4. Who will win the Championship ?

Hard one, but I'll go for Norwich.

5. Where will Burnley finish ? 

5th. But could be literally anywhere from 1st to about 18th. 

7 minutes ago, tomphil said:

The Wigan move is odd but i suspect hes been offered good money for compared to here and as i said early i think he'll turn into a bit of a mercenary now.

For all we know someone else has said they want him but need to free up room first so he's been happy to take a short term deal elsewhere. These things happen in football the guy we've got now has obviously been on our radar a while but its only happened once Ryan has gone.

I think if he was on contract here but the club and himself made it known he wanted to move we could have at least got in enough to cover the Brittain deal.  That's how it's supposed to work if you want to go all Brentford.

Maybe, but the Wigan deal (which I agree is a little strange) suggests that he didn't have too much in the way of suitors at our level or above. If teams aren't making the effort when they don't have to pay a fee, presumably it wouldn't be straightforward to get decent money if we were trying to flog him.

I suppose when it comes down to 'protecting assets' - which we've been awful at - so much of it is successfully judging how players are going to develop and what they're likely to be worth down the line. If we think that Ryan, now in his mid 20s, isn't going to get much better then there's a logic in cutting our losses rather than paying him a good whack to stay a mid-level Championship right back.

7 minutes ago, tomphil said:

I think with the Nyambe thing we can now conclude there wasn't enough desire on either side to get it done.

Both sides at fault and letting it get to a that stage to lose him for nothing is criminal.  Once it's over though it's over the mutual love was dead and he'd definitely stagnated here over the last couple of seasons

Balls to him i hope he enjoys a bog standard Pie Crust season.

Even now, I'm not so sure. It's obviously galling in a way, but the fact that he can't attract anything better than Wigan even when he's on a free suggests that he's a long way away from being a decent sellable asset.

His strengths vs weaknesses have been done to death on here, but say we upped our offer to a decent level and he signed a new long term deal - that means we could be entering the territory of paying first XI wages to a player who isn't quite at the level we want to progress.

On balance I wish we convinced him to sign on but there's risk involved in keeping him on too.

17 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve seen Brittain play but reading their site he seems Nyambesque without the robust physique.

Barnsley fans having a go at him seem to be criticising his crossing more than anything else. That would be at least one difference to Nyambe because he never used to cross the ball in the first place!

Like you I'll wait and see before saying that he's an upgrade, but I'm pretty optimistic. He can obviously travel with the ball well, and if he can play in midfield you'd imagine that his all round game on the ball would be much better than Ryan's. Hopefully we don't lose too much on the defensive side.