31 minutes ago, Tugayisgod said:

https://c.newsnow.co.uk/A/1128954054?-11198:839

Don't know him from adam, but interesting that it seems like he's available for a transfer rather than a loan. 

As much as I hope Nyambe will end up signing on, if we play three at the back again next year we'll need someone who can offer an attacking threat more than Ryan has been able to do. 

11 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Sadly still needed as there are enough of those bell ends to make homosexuality something a lot of people feel they need to hide.

I was in a musical recently and near the end of rehearsals the lead actor came out as bisexual. I was very saddened to hear him tell me his family were not supportive about it at all, and even his mum was quite nasty about it. He lives with her too, so that's extra awkward. Hopefully we reach a day when coming out is really just a formality of sorts, then not too long after that it stops being necessary at all, as genuinely nobody cares unless they're attracted to you. Probably still a way off, but progress has been made, in the West anyway.

There is still enough of an undercurrent of homophobia that we haven't had an English player come out since 1990. There have been countless thousands of men playing in England since then, there will have been hundreds and hundreds who were gay but didn't feel the environment was safe enough to say it, and that's damning.

You're right to recognise the progress. The below graph is from the British Social Attitudes of a few years ago, basically shows that as recently as our title win in 1995, only around 1 in 5 people were willing to say that same-sex relationships weren't a bad thing. 

Amazing progress in the 20 years which followed. There's another graph from a study a few years earlier which shows this trend is similar for people born in different decades, which means that it is people genuinely changing their minds on this, rather than just more liberal-minded young people replacing the older groups who might have different attitues.

This obviously isn't to say that Jake Daniels isn't going to get some pretty nasty stuff aimed his way. But hopefully this is a sign that he'll get much less of that, and far more support, than an equivalent player would have even 10-15 years ago. 

7 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Pompey hoping to land Carter for £500k this summer: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20143531.portsmouth-ready-go-sign-blackburn-rovers-defender-hayden-carter/

Would be a balls up for me. Let the new manager come in and assess him.

Don't like the fee being that low one bit. In his interviews he seems desperate to be playing games now (fair enough at his age) so he might push for it if our intentions were to keep him as a squad player to begin with. 

He's obviously still going to be a step down on Van Hecke, but I still like Carter. If he is to go, I hope we put an eye-watering sell on clause in there as I can see him developing into a good Championship level player pretty quickly. 

Good player Rogic, although I expect he'll have to do plenty more dirty work than he's used to if he joined a Championship outfit. 

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Sorry mate but my post should have said “ Leeds wouldn’t beat Rovers “ ! You can still like it as it was though ! 
 

As you say - you can’t keep having players sent off. You don’t win many games playing with ten for most of the game. I read somewhere that the dingles have only had 2 players sent off in the last 5 years in spite of being a team well known for “putting it about a bit”.  Leeds have had two red cards in the last two games ! 

Very surprised by that stat, but then maybe I shouldn't be. It's more evidence (not that Rovers fans were ever in danger of thinking this) that Dyche is more than just a throwback who gets success through playing ultra direct football.

It's never been easier to get a red card, especially with VAR. That they've only had two in five seasons tells you all you need to know about their manager who obviously takes care of the details.

40 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Yes, he was excellent at Blackpool, Leeds and Preston, and also got Huddersfield up in his sort time there.

I wouldn't hold his Sunderland spell against him as everyone struggles there and they were a sinking ship when he went in but since then it has been a succession of ill fated spells.

I wouldn't describe him as a failure at Bradford, Blackpool and Fleetwood, but certainly nothing there to warrant getting the Rovers job.

He always had Glyn Snodin and Ian Miller on his coaching staff until those most recent couple of jobs when he has worked instead with Dunny. Not blaming Dunny for the downturn but sometimes managers just aren't the same after losing their right hand man.

That's what I thought when someone mentioned getting Sparky back. Whilst I wouldn't advocate getting Bowen in as manager, I'd almost prefer that if we were getting one of the two. By all accounts he was responsible for us becoming the fittest team in the Prem, which was a massive part of success at that point. 

3 minutes ago, islander200 said:

The transfer embargo didn't help Bowyer one bit.He had to navigate an embargo through 2 or 3 windows.

He finished 8th in his second season here, it took Mowbray 5 seasons to do that.

When not under an embargo Bowyer did some very good work in the transfer market Cairney, Gestede, Duffy brought in for next to nothing.All sold on for  profits.

 

Don't get me wrong, his work in the transfer market (when we still had a bit of money to spend too) was exceptional in the early seasons. In fact it was so good that we definitely should have finished in the play offs with the squad he assembled.

His transfers when under the embargo were not of the same standard, sadly, although I don't really blame him for that. It was more not getting the most of the squad available before the embargo. Two strikers who scored over 20 goals, two centre backs who have gone on to play more than their fare share of premierleague football, Cairney who drove Fulham to their first promotion. Josh King who despite barely featuring went on to have a very good prem career. A massively missed opportunity, with a better team than we've had this year in my view. 

3 hours ago, DE. said:

Bowyer was also a rookie taking on his first proper managerial position. Mowbray had over a decade of first team management experience when he showed up here. For some reason that part is routinely ignored when comparisons are made between the two. 

I think that's fair - Bowyer was literally a youth coach before getting the top job. Well down the pecking order.

But when you get the top job you need to be held to the same standard. Bowyer can be proud of what he managed with the lack of any real experience, but the eventual underperformance under him after he steadied the ship is still hurting us now. 

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Leeds have got to get a win from somewhere but the way they’re playing the would beat Rovers at the moment !

Having a player sent off every game won't help!

For all that their fans believe their own hype, it should be a tasty atmosphere there at the weekend for such a massive game. They'll find out what their players are made of.

I expect Leeds to crumble if I'm being honest, but if they get the first goal it could be one of those strange end of season games when one team clearly needs it more than the other. 

4 minutes ago, JHRover said:

4-5 years ago around the Coyle/Mowbray arrival time I'd have been all over Grayson here as his stock was high at Preston.

But not any more. He seems to have lost his mojo and it would be a ludicrous, yet typical parochial Rovers appointment.

Wouldn't surprise me if Mowbray has dropped his name in there as they seem to get on well.

 

Was a serial L1 promotion winner, and you could say that was reasonably unfortunate to lose one or two of his previous jobs after establishing clubs in the Championship.

But yes, looking at his record at this level from where we are now, we simply cannot be looking at him as an option to take us forward. Worse than keeping Mowbray on, not even much better than a Coyle-level appointment.

The one thing you'd be clinging onto as a Leeds fan would be that their final two games are against teams with nothing to play for, although you can say that about Burnley too, at least for a couple of their games. 

If they can somehow get three points against Brighton at Elland Rd, and Burnley lose at Tottenham, then suddenly the Dingles look right up against it. 

If today's news is to be believed, Dyche won't be going to Watford at least. 

1 hour ago, Oldgregg86 said:

What makes carrick intriguing and woodgate , coco and Lennon bad choices ?

Track records of failure at this level, whereas Carrick may have the sorts of links with United that Lampard was able to exploit with Chelsea when he took over Derby.

Don't get me wrong, I'd also have plenty in front of him, but I wouldn't place him in the totally unacceptable bracket either. 

20 minutes ago, rigger said:

Or take a punt on Adam Wharton in the midfield 3. Loads of energy (although you wouldn't think it to look at him ), reads the game really well and picks simple, correct passes.

I don't watch the U23s, so I'll bow to your view on whether he's ready, but that's a big punt indeed for such an important area of the pitch. 

I went for Farke (voted before the multiple options became available!) but there are lots on there that I'd have as acceptable. Certainly makes for better reading than the early betting markets did, and on the off chance Nixon's list of Farke, Ainsworth, Hughton & Carvahal is right, I'd be pretty happy with any of those (maybe the most reservations about Carvahal).

If Farke wants the job, I really don't see the point of going for a more left field option to be honest, but some (such as Carrick) would be intriguing, albeit a big risk. I think most of the really unacceptable names aren't on that list, but I hope the likes of Woodgate, Lennon and Cocu don't get a look in. 

Very technically gifted player is Bannan, but really not what we need in my view. Bearing in mind that our midfield next year is already going to be including Buckley and possibly Dack, we need someone with the physicality to get about the pitch better than Bannan at this stage in his career. 

1 hour ago, jim mk2 said:

Hughton's past his sell-by date, surely? And he failed miserably at Forest last time out

Check. He's perfect for Rovers

Had a top CV at this level before the Forest job. Repeated success at multiple clubs. Wouldn't be at the top of my list if we could get Farke, but a bad 6 months doesn't make him a bad manager.

9 minutes ago, JBiz said:

Especially when you consider the amount of players who have improved in those years.

Surely, at some point, the player has to take some level of responsibility?

My lasting memory of Nyambe will probably be the last kick of the Coventry game.

Unless he signs a new deal, which I genuinely hope he does!

I'm sure Nyambe is very diligent and is working hard every day to try and improve that side of his game. Sometimes, though, there are certain aspects of the game which some players will struggle to get better at. I hope this isn't the case with Nyambe, but on this season's evidence you can't really say there's been any development at all in his attacking quality. 

32 minutes ago, Mellor Rover said:

Tom Barkhuizen anyone?

Don't like his goal record one bit, but then again that includes spells at being played out wide and even as a wing back. 

We need numbers across the park, so i) if he's completely injury free, and ii) asking for sensible wages then I wouldn't be against taking him as a squaddie. Under no circumstances can we be signing him with expectations of him being a key goal threat. 

8 minutes ago, DE. said:

Mowbray has been working with Nyambe for nearly 5 years - surely it's on him and his coaching team if Ryan is still deficient in such crucial areas of his game? Then I remembered this is a man who never takes responsibility for anything. 

Possibly, but it could also be that Nyambe doesn't have it in him to improve that side of his game. Every player has their ceiling. It's not as though Mowbray hasn't been banging on about improving that side of his game for years either.

6 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

This again shows the problem with Mowbray recently deciding he is a “development coach”.

Results when Nyambe has been in the side have been consistently and significantly better than when he isn’t for years.

Mowbray doesn’t seem to care about that and is more interested in encouraging individual players to do things that they aren’t naturally good at and are supplementary to their roles.

Wants Nyambe to be better at attacking, doesn’t seem to mind Pickering can’t defend very well. Persists with Gallagher out wide even though he’s a complete fish out of water. More bothered about his keepers commanding their area than saving shots… he’d have hated Brad Friedel. All this lends itself to costly decisions like playing Johnson/Holtby/Buckley/Clarkson as false 9, Rodwell as a centre back, JRC (by the way, his career is in danger of falling off a cliff) as a wing back. 

I don't disagree with some of those examples, but to be fair almost all managers expect full backs to have at least some attacking threat as a minimum these days. Playing like Alexander-Arnold is obviously never going to be him, so I agree there's an element of not asking him to go too far away from his natural game, but at the same time I'd expect our next manager to treat improving that side of his game as a priority. That's if he stays, of course!

4 minutes ago, Tricky said:

dont know why they just dont sell up...

EG Group (Issa brothers), Blackburn based, must be pretty loaded, wonder if they've ever considered investing...

Liverpool fans I believe. 

10 hours ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

Not too much weeping and wailing about Joe Rothwell having played his last game for us then.

Never much of a fan myself: I stopped getting up off my seat about three years ago as his runs so rarely resulted in anything, mainly I felt because he was a lot better at accelerating than he was at decelerating while keeping the ball under control once he got near the box. Only very rarely would he be able to score or set up a decent chance once the defenders started closing in. As a centre-mid he was just too inconsistent as a threat and too rubbish defensively.

Running down a contract once could be due to any number of reasons, doing it twice is symptomatic of calculating greed.

Will soon be forgotten.

I might be splitting hairs a bit, but calculating greed is probably a bit strong. Looking after number 1, certainly. 

Agree with your assessment of him as a player though. Seemed to have a bit of bad luck at first when it came to hitting the post and narrowly missing chances, but the numbers don't lie over his time here - for a supposedly attacking player with his talent he just hasn't been anywhere near productive enough. 

One thing that we'll miss though is his ability to get us up the park quickly. He definitely is premier league quality when it comes to breaking with the ball at pace, and we've relied on him doing that from deep quite a lot this year. His overall contribution won't be missed that much for me, but there are aspects to his game that will need replacing. 

1 hour ago, joey_big_nose said:

Rothwells best games were probably marginally better than Buckley's so far, but Buckley does look to me like he will be far more consistent when he hits stride.

We will need two more quality centre mids who can tackle and get forward. I'm skeptical like others are on Edun. May grow over time, but not ready for next season. Also quite lightweight for a mid (though we did say that about Buckley and he sorted it).

Reckon we need 2 centre mids, 2 centre backs, a left back, right back, GK, two strikers and a winger, at least half of them starters, and the other half near starter qualityy. Hell of a shopping list. 10 players! Assuming we get 4 good loans that's six buys.

How many quality players have we managed to buy outright a season? I think we've averaged about one or two who haven't been loans over the last three seasons. Last year it was only Pickering who went straight in. Hedges started to come through but he needed 3 months to settle. Hmm.

Agree that the midfield is lacking power if Buckley comes straight in. Trav is an excellent player at this level but he can't be the legs for the whole midfield. What we wouldn't give for a pre-injury Steven Reid now!

It's a pretty daunting shopping list. Hopefully good news on the Lenihan and Nyambe contracts will take a little bit of the pressure off.

At the same time, whilst we'll need numbers all over the park, I think the one thing which is really essential is that we bring in enough goal threat to replace Brereton, assuming he gets sold. Other positions depend more on what system the new manager will want to play - i.e. if we play with a back four we probably won't need two new centre halves with Carter coming back - but the one thing which really worries me about next year is that we won't have enough quality up front. 

25 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

He might well do, but it also might just be his style ala allardyce , I think it’s too big a risk to find out. As Iv said before this appointment might well be the biggest in the clubs history , it’s a real make or break moment , get it wrong and the fans will just never return and we will slowly tumble down the leagues , we need some kind of name to get fans returning. Ainsworth just isn’t it for me 

I agree that it's a big risk. Equally, I don't know what else he could have possibly done at a club of that size to show that he deserves a shot at something bigger and better.