Maybe Whiteman was one of the ‘couple’ of players Mowbray said we had agreements in place for at the fans forum. It definitely felt like at least one of those was for a foreign player. But Whiteman does fit the mould in terms of age, profile and affordability.

Ben Whiteman - See post from @Sparks Rover who’s his pal

Is mad that we desperately need two keepers, a cb and a lb and we’re having talks with a Cm tmrw! ? Couldnt write it

I must admit when I saw the “we’ve not had full clarity” line I did think it appeared that something had moved. As if he’d had an outline budget. Just seemed a bit more focused

I have to say @Sparks Rover I really hope you’re bang on the money with this. I’ve been really worried that we wouldn’t have any cash to spend this summer. Assuming Whiteman’s in for talks tomorrow that means, A - we do have budget and B - we’ve got a plan. Delighted if so.

Bloody hell...if we sign him you do realise I’m gonna have to do a full 180 and ‘love’ him ?????‍♂️

I’m not sure if they do anymore. A 3 points increase on last season with big gaps now opening up in the squad would suggest its going to be difficult to even repeat this years performance, never mind improve it. The return of Dack will of course help. Id suggest that this is as good a time as ever to review our Collective goals and make the change if necessary. TM still has pros. The lads will always play him and his introduction of youth is good. I just wonder if it’s all got a bit stale? If I were the owners and I wanted a custodian of the club to keep us inching towards our goal then great. But if I want promotion next season the Tony is not our guy...argh, tough one!

Big questions of the manager imo. Statistically 5% improvement on last season which seems even more negligible when you consider the turnover of players which is about to ensue. No doubt the injury to Dack contributed to the final points total but it’s not been good enough overall. Finishing on 70pts this season would’ve been acceptable to me. Weve finished exactly where our budget sits but we need to overachieve to be successful. Time for a change? Yeah, seems reasonable to me.

I’ll hazard a guess that the twitter account claiming Travis to Coventry isn’t even run by a human. Looks more like a ‘bot’ set to pull clicks. Maybe Rovers and Coventry fans were particularly active at that point of the day etc...send a a tweet like this and Boooom...

Will certainly give those teams with bigger budgets and squads a big helping hand as it stands.

I understand what you’re saying and the way you are rationalising it feels, well, rational. I confess that I haven’t seen enough of him at any level to make a judgement. The point I’m making is that aside from your opinion ‘they’ see him as an 8. Someone to sit next to the 6 (Trav) and dictate the play from deep. They see the time he creates on the ball and his ability to pick a pass into those forward positions as his real strength. They want him taking the ball on the half turn from the CB or Trav and starting our attacks. i don’t think any of us would be as obsessed with seeing him as a 10 if he wasn’t so slight. But he will fill out.

I think you’d have to know what was really going on with Chapman to make an informed opinion. ??

I like the idea of a loan to Holland or Belgium. Or they could just use and integrate him like City have with Foden who faces the same / similar challenges physically.

Fair enough. I don’t think they’ll loan him out because they think he’s the best of the bunch and can effect the team positively now. On a personal note, I wouldn’t loan him out to League 1 either. Loan stints aren’t great for every player. I think they need to get him playing alongside as much quality as they can. Play him next to Trav and get him feeding Dack and playing passes Trav can’t...be interesting to see.

Yeah, 5 subs apparently.

Your point doesn’t really stand up other than in your mind. Because they see Buckley as an 8. A position that we don’t have that much cover in. There’s nothing ‘hyperbolic’ about the basic opinions of people who watch them all play every day.

Current Rovers first team and youth team coaches.

Tbf I’m not professing to have seen that much of Buckley but it seems that he’s the one they believe is the real deal. That’s not because he’s tearing up the 23’s as such. It’s because when you work day in day out with footballers you just get a feeling that you are watching someone special. Two lads I know who are still employed in professional football as a scouts watched Buckley in cameo appearances this season for the first time (both matches in where I thought he was “alright”) and they absolutely raved about him. They also said two Prem clubs were watching him in those matches. ??‍♂️

Let’s see. I think how much we have to spend will be a big decider. Who knows what formation we’ll play but that seems to be the one he likes

Argh, tbf, ever time I see SG live I can’t get over how big he is. He often looks like a 15yr old playing in an U11’s league. Im desperate for him to start using it. Get a few bookings and rough defenders up. If he got it right running in from the right he’d be up over any left back and with a run on the CB I’d bet on him more often than not. Physically he should be every bit as dominant as Rudy was.

I was never a forward tbh mate but absolutely agree. Though I do think had Gally been better positionally and more aggressive he would’ve easily got 15 goals this season. Let’s hope he’s turned the corner and we can fully transition to thIs possession based game ASAP

It’s a great point. I have been frustrated a few times with Gally where we’ve hung crosses up to the back post and he hasn’t been aggressive enough. Downing played a few in early in the season as did Johnson from a deeper role in those first 10 games when he was playing out of his skin. I also remember Cunningham putting some great crosses in. Maybe Rothwell played on the left of a three in midfield Cutting back or Arma as a left forward could put more in to the back stick? A new LB with a wand would work? Gallagher hasn’t been getting into those positions in general. When he has he’s often been a bit airy fairy instead of literally steam rolling defenders at 6ft 4/5in tall.

Good point. There have been a lot of brilliant, small players but Ardiles was one of the best ever! The key here is that in spite of his size, they are trying to play him. He just literally needs to grow into his body. Pretty much like BB seems to have done. Buck isn’t never gonna be a big strapping lad but once he meets his potential physically I think he’ll have as big, if not bigger impact than Trav. He’s certainly a much better footballer than Trav anyway. Can’t wait to see them playing together.

Agreed. But the full cost of the deal is the real focus here. Brereton and Gally were seven figure fees but their wages are in our structure and therefore FAR less than what the top players in the Champ are being paid. I saw someone mention Bamford the other day at £7m. Aside from the problems he’s had there. The total cost, I’d say is prob around double. £2.5-3m a year on wages? Im not defending Brereton and Gally btw who’ve both been poor. I just hope Sat is a sign of things to come. BB looked a really exciting prospect. Playing like that he’d play every week and scare the life out of teams. Gally wasn’t great but I was delighted to see him come from wide, rise high and steam into that header. He just needs to find a way to do it every week like Rudy did. It’s pretty impossible to stop once you get that right.

I honestly don’t know what JRC’s best position is. TM seems to talk about him as a left side forward a lot? Coming in off the touch line and getting into the box? Whats his goal scoring record like at youth level?