We might as well just get Smallwood back?

???? maaaate...don’t do this to yourself. Buckley came on for 22 mins and created 5 chances and set up a goal IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP!! Massive difference in class between League 1 and Championship. The likes of Travis, Buckley, Holtby and even a fit Johnson Would rip up League 1. Smallwood is a great case in point. He was more impressive than Whiteman the last time he played in League 1!! Let that sink in...???

English based players are more expensive...If he was that good someone would’ve spent the money. I reckon there’s probably 3 or 4 better midfielders than Whiteman at Rovers.

He’s just a shit Richie Smallwood, shit Richie Smallllllwood...

??? ?

That was the easiest rise of the year. Night Sparky ?

I’m not sure Whiteman gets a game tbh....maybe at the minute but I wouldn’t want him to slow down Buckley’s development. A player who will Likely end up on a different planet to all of them.

Absolutely.

Mate, £300k is the reported average for Championship CEO’s. Ergo Swag is not ‘grossly overpaid’ His ability to do the job is a separate matter.

Haha it seems that my auto-correct knows of my love for chicken!! ??

I don’t know how much everyone gets paid. I’m just saying that considering the evidence, paying a mid table championship CEO, £300k a year cannot be considered ‘hugely OTT’.

Mercer, this is a completely moot point and now you’ve shifted the argument to performance which is opinion based. The fact is that he’s the Chairman of a mid table championship club with a mid table budget and his salary is almost bang in middle of the road for the division. It’s not a large sum of money for ‘hugely overpaid’ position. They’re paying the going rate. Whether you like him or not is of no consequence to this discussion. Your point was to highlight this huge sum. You referenced the PM’s poultry £150k in comparison and spoke of your experience’ in business because you wanted to create a feeling that somehow £300k is a lot of money for a Championship CEO and it just isn’t. Especially when you consider the average manager earns £900k and the average player £1.5m.

I don’t know what his kpi’s are, neither do you. I accept that his salary is around £300kpa. Which makes sense because that is the AVERAGE salary in the Championship for a CEO and we finished mid table with the 13th biggest budget (or something similar). Which kind of ends your theory about his salary being ‘hugely OTT’ right?.

Whether he’s good enough is a separate argument. My point was that £300k a year is pretty much par for the course.

It’s just the going rate it would seem Stuart...and let’s have it right most teams in there are losing money hand over fist.

I agree Joe. With this system we need more dynamism than Cunningham. Though he’d still be a mahooosive upgrade on Bell. Any names flying about lads?

You were doing so well until you used the PM for ‘perspective’ a position that pays such a low salary as a signifier of spending the tax payers money. This is the exception to the rule. I actually like your ideology around incentivised pay but how do you know the £319k isn’t based on salary and bonus? Other than that, I can’t accept that £320k is excessive for a CEO running a £20m turnover business with 150ish staff? In fact I read an article on average wages in the championship during lockdown which stated the AVERAGE Chairman / CEO in the Championship earns £300k.

£320k pa isnt a ‘big salary’ for the CEO of an organisation turning over £15-20m a year. The expectation of that role and scale more than justifies the number.

Absolutely.

Mate, what’s he supposed to say? “Listen, a few of our first team are shit and we’re desperate to replace them” He has to talk about “strengthening the group” and “creating competition” to maintain the harmony in the group. Every player who is signed has to be better than what you have or how do you sell it to the board? Come on guys, we can read between the lines here.

Missed the point completely.

Raya, like any player is worth what someone is willing to pay. The Arsenal keeper coach loves him and they have the money. I’m genuinely happy for Raya. He’s a good keeper with potential so this is lucky break that many won’t get. I provided one sided facts on purpose to prove how distorted this whole argument is. The principle point of my post was to say that there is no one, single or primary reason for not getting in the top 6. So we agree on that. ??

You’re taking yourself down a dark, murky hypothetical hole there. Let’s get it right, there is no one reason why we didn’t go up last season. But if you are going to hang your hat on replacing Raya with Walton then why not the season ending injury to Cunningham? playing him over Bell would’ve netted us 7pts surely? Or what about narrowly missing out on Harrison Reed to Fulham? Surely he could’ve carried us home? The list is exhaustive. The elephant in the room here is Dack. Our best player by miles! If we HAVE to play this game then his season ending injury is surely the reason we didn’t reach the top 6, right? He’s the most likely Rovers player to effect any game and he was out for 50% of the season. The answer is of course that no one facet is the reason we fell 7pts short. But for you to point out that the loss of a VERY inconsistent Keeper for another VERY inconsistent keeper is THE reason for us not getting in the playoffs is...well... just wrong. Walton conceded less goals than Raya did in the season before and had more clean sheets. Fact. Rovers missed out on promotion for a whole host of reasons. Not replacing a decent goalie with a better one was a contributing factor, but 100% not the primary one.

I don’t think we’ve been 2/3 away from challenging for the top 6 before mate. If ever there was a time to get a couple of top loans in, now is that time!