Yeah, that’s just not true.

I know 100% that I would rather have the right ones in the last day of the window than the wrong ones by tomorrow morning.

I know I don’t really need to explain this to you because I’m 100% sure you get it…. Disclaimer - I’m not absolving the recruitment team, who may or may not be useless. But, the primary reason that most business for the January window hasn’t been done is purely financial. Everyone wants the highest quality possible for the lowest price (unless you’re Man City). So, effectively when you don’t have the big bucks, you have to play the game. You can even put a £2m bid in for a player like BTA and Cov can wait to accept it for a few days whilst they call every club possible to get £2.1m. Most of the business this window will be done at the back end. We might have multiple bids in for multiple players (or not), but the fact that none have dropped in so far is unlikely because the Recruitment department are sat on their arses and more because we don’t have the 30% uplift it takes to tip the deals over. JE seems happy with the efforts which leads to believe that the work is ongoing. fwiw - I only care about quality. When we sign them is less important.

Oxford 0 - 1 Rovers (Gueye) Pears Brittain. Hyam. Batth. Beck Forshaw. Sonny ACD. Cantwell. Dolan Gueye Subs - Toth, Sanderson, Litherland, Buckley, JRC, Weimann, Hedges, Leonard Back 5 and Sonny pick themselves. I would start Forshaw over Buckley away from home. I think he will give us some more steel in there. In the forward positions, Cantwell is a shoe in. ACD and Gueye turned the game on Wednesday night and deserve a start. It was a toss up on Dolan and Weimann,

Absolutely. Opinions are opinions… But, Robins wanting to re-sign BTA is a far stronger indication that he’s worth a punt than Steve from British Gas, who’s watched the EFL highlights show twice and spent 10 minutes on TransferMarkt, saying his “Fukkin Shite” If you catch my drift?

Shame - seems odd that a player who is absolutely terrible, who the Cov fans are seemingly willing to “drive him there…” is now being chased by the manager who paid £3m for him last summer? So, Mark Robins sees something in BTA….who wouldve thought it!? 👀🙈

Mate, you won’t get any argument from me. I said within 10 minutes of seeing him make his debut vs Stockport that there’s a player in him and he’s FARRRR better than Sam Gallagher. It’s taken time, but with his physical attributes, ability to hold the ball and win flick ons etc, he’s always going to be a handful. I also feel there’s a goal streak in him, that you get with strikers who aren’t great finishers but often get on a roll where they score 5 in 5 games. One thing is for sure, if we can get the Makhtar Gueye, who turned up last night playing consistently, like that that for 70 mins a game, we will fuckin terrorise defences. 💪🏽

For 60 mins that was the worst we’ve played this season. Buckler, Cantwell, zHedges anf Dolan stunk the place out. Then Big Mak came on and turned the game on its head. ACD’s dummy for the second was FILTHY, as Cantwell finally clicked into gear. Standouts - The back four were excellent again. Brittain the pick and a worthy MOM. i fuckin love our manager. I haven’t said that for a long time!

How DARE you be so reasonable!? I’m going to report you to the lead moderator l, and….oh 🤣

I have to say, I’ve always liked Thomas Asante. Whenever I’ve watched him, he looks dangerous. He’s quick and mobile. Scares defenders. Scored 11 in 39 last season, but seems to have fallen out of the team there. Limited to sub appearances and the team not doing well. Is better than anything we’ve got and could be a shrewd signing. Interesting.

Interesting post from @joey_big_nose about playing Cantwell deeper. For weeks now I’ve been watching Cantwell and I don’t think he’s a #10. He looks better in deeper areas and impacts the game more. He is the guy who ‘assists the assist’. I don’t think he has the killer instinct in terms of a pass or a shot to play so high. A midfield three of JRC, Sonny and Cantwell could work.

Honestly, I’ve never heard a single negative about his attitude. In fact if / when anyone talks about him it’s all positive. In my opinion, Bucko literally is a poor man’s Adam Wharton. He’s good on the ball, and plays on the half turn. He sees the pass, but he’s not quick enough to make it, then wants too much time and often loses it. When he does pass it isn’t as good as Wharton either, but then neither are most of the Premier league. Bucko just hasn’t developed. He pissed the younger years in our academy by all accounts. He’s just not kicked on. It’s a shame.

Good point - I can’t see Eustace making the lad his vice captain if his attitude is in question. In fact, it would stand to reason, based on the fact that he’s playing little or no minutes and still got picked as vice captain over Hyam, Weimann, Batth, McFadz etc, that it’s very likely he’s seen as a model professional?

As in, not in question amongst the coaches etc.

Pre Wharton, Buckley was internally revered as the ‘next big thing’. In truth, he has all the ingredients and in spite of what is said on here, his attitude is not in question. It’s been re-written in here (more times than I’d care to say), but 6 months after he broke in, the season he was ‘Young player of the year’ there were literally scores of Premier League clubs coming to watch him. He was being touted as the next big thing. I posted in here that I was in the players lounge at half time and I spoke to the Everton scout who said there were “a dozen or so PL clubs looking at Buckley” and that Rovers had intimated it would be £10m to even start a conversation. To qualify this, I also stated at the time that I didn’t actually rate Buckley ‘that’ highly… (A bit which is often left out by the dullards who bring this up, year after year 🤣). Ultimately, Buckley had all the promise of Adam Wharton and never kicked on. It’s sad and he’s literally sat in last chance saloon. Weirdly, if he just showed some fuckin urgency and desire, I think he’s a FARRR better player than Baker and he’d have a career in the Championship, no problems.

The ‘No Impediment’ bit is fact. Them not sending any cash since March 2024 is choice.

To be clear, not my opinion. The opinion of the coach / coaches who watch them train and play everyday. 🤷🏽‍♂️ fwiw - by generational, I think the context was ‘generational’ for the academy in terms of there being very few players ever expected to play in the Prem and for England. These three were expected to make that cut. We needn’t say anymore about Wharton, and Phillips could potentially go back to Spurs and kick on, but injuries have probably held Leonard back so far. I hope he stays injury free and gets lots of games and goals before the end of the season. Edit - To those saying he can’t finish, I haven’t checked but didn’t HL break quite a few Goalscoring records in the academy and get a raft in the 23’s prior to his injury? I’m sure I remember reading something.

True - but if you were the manager and you knew the club didn’t have the money to provide a Duff or Dunn, you would probably lean harder on the Shorts and Flitcroft types to get you over the line. I’m not saying we don’t need that quality up top mate. I’m providing a reason as to why the manger is harping on and on about leadership and character.

I like this mornings article. That’s the first time he’s intimated his confidence in the expected signings. There is a line in there also where he says he’d accept experience and pedigree from elsewhere which makes me think there’s potential targets abroad. For me, the discussion around Bamford and Wallace were just him answering a question and using the personal information he has. Fwiw - Eustace obviously highlighted our lack of leaders as being one of the key problems when he came in. He’s addressed it in some ways by bringing Travis back, Weimann, Batth and Mcfadz in. But he’s probably looking at the levels of quality we have vs the other promotion contenders, looking at his budget vs theirs and thinking “the only way we go up is by going to war” which makes having his generals more and more important. Last thing - I am friends with a couple of the lads who got Rovers promoted out of the championship with Souness. It’s well known that the manager barely ever had to even get involved because the dressing room, standards, behaviour and games were managed by the leaders - Flitcroft, Short etc. I think JE is leaning into this methodology too.

Leonard has a real chance. The last time I spoke to any of the senior / Academy coaching staff in depth was a week after JDT was brought in. At the end of our meeting (about other stuff) I asked specifically who were the jewels In the crown coming through…he was glowing in general but clear that Rovers had three, potentially generational talents who they expected to play in the PL and for England. Ash Phillips, Adam Wharton and Harry Leonard. I did come on here and pass on the info at the time. I hadn’t seen any of them play and he described Leonard as the most natural finisher they’d seen. “He always gets himself in the right place and he’s deadly”. Let’s hope it clicks for Harry. I certainly hope so.

Defence, keeper and Sonny pick themselves. Buckley makes sense and he’s a more attacking option at home. I expect Hedges and ACD to start on the bench after illness. Weimann the most likely to score a goal and hoping the penny drops for Leonard. Gueye, ACD and Hedges on at 70 mins. Forshaw for Sonny if we’re comfortable late on. Rovers 2 - 0 Pompey (Leonard brace..) Pears Brittain. Batth. Hyam. Beck Bucko. Sonny Dolan. Cantwell. Weimann Leonard Subs - Toth, Sanderson, Litherland, OG Macken, Forshaw, JRC, Hedges, ACD, Gueye

Fwiw - I think the Sanderson signing is smart. JE will see him as an Outliar in that he covers two positions and is great value for money. He obviously rates him as a player and a leader. Forshaw appears to be one lead by the recruitment team, in terms of being available, with championship experience, leadership qualities and cheap. Appears to have received sign off from JE on the proviso that the remaining money is spent on forwards. But honestly, I agree that it’s potentially weakened our squad, because he’s a direct replacement for Baker. So we’re going to need Buckley to step up massively and prove us wrong in the second half of this season.

Funny… I’m at home watching the Arsenal vs Man U match and my wife just sent me this. PS - Celia is our 8yr old daughter. My work here is done 💙

Honestly, I don’t know. We don’t know what’s been agreed. The manager seems like a realist to me. Not like JDT who was hell bent on his own narrative. My guess would be, they’ve agreed X and so long as they deliver it, he will accept it. He doesn’t seem annoyed with the two signings and Sanderson in particular looks 1000% JE.

The overriding feeling is that us going after time served Championship players looks like JE is in charge. Ive said this before but I’ve absolutely no idea why fully grown men lose their shit over some cat shagging, mummy’s boy with an X account, saying we’re about to sign John Utaka! 🙈🤯 Nixon is a bellend. But of all the hacks, he probably gets more right than most. Having said that, most of our ‘actual’ signings come out of nowhere. For me, the pertinent clues here are the type of players targeted. We have never (as far as I can remember) targeted experienced Championship players in this window. That tells me that the recruitment is being driven. Fwiw, I reckon the names mentioned so far are probably on ‘the list’ in as much as we’ve made enquiries, but the only reason we know about them is because the players camp are trying to drum up more interest. I’d imagine what we know is the tip of the iceberg… Anyway, final two pence…in my opinion, there are two things that matter most in this window. 1) That we improve those forward positions and add goals and creativity to give us the best chance of winning games. 2) That we keep the manager happy by giving him what he wants. At this stage, I’d say keeping the manager happy is most important. This is based on my (most) opinion that he is seriously fuckin talented and currently creating vintage 100yr old red wine out of bog water. So if he wants Denis Irwin, Andy Sinton and Mickey Quinn, give him it!! (This is a joke) Final point - there’s an uprising of folk sneering at those who are sensibly advocating that our managers decision on players is final. My retort to those is - “Nice one, I appreciate you won the PL with Bromley on Champ manager 9, but I’ll stick with the professionals for now” 👍🏼