Yeh Hedges seemed an odd buy from his profile, and hadn't impressed after half a season. But he is really coming to the fore now. Sometimes players just take time to feel comfortable in a new area, club, formation, managerial style (or two already in Hedges' case, well done him...maybe JDT suits him better), league and set of teammates. Understandable as we're all human and that's a lot of change at once. Some people adapt faster than others.

I guess we'll have to never not rate a player again then, because they might turn all Brereton Diaz somewhere down the line. (I do think it's early for writing off Szmodics though...but it's not weird, he just hasn't played very well)

Wow, are you trolling him or really this obtuse? He said if you don't know, stop answering, and then you answered him again that you didn't know!

Maybe not the best abbreviation. The positive candidates might be HIV positive 😛

Not 2.5 mill guaranteed. The 'plus add ons' suggests it could still reach that. Still, a relief that it wasn't the full amount guaranteed, he hasn't looked worth 2.5 mill (or 1.8) so far.

I don't think anybody disputes that he wants it this way. That's why he is doing it this way, because he wants it. I and some others think the logic is very questionable, and that's what we're discussing - the merits or demerits to Blackburn Rovers FC, not whether the manager is happy with a decision he himself has made. Thinking it's the wrong decision doesn't mean I don't support him anymore or want him sacked, everybody on planet Earth gets things wrong sometimes, every single person. Personally, I hope he changes his mind on this one over time, but we're all aware it won't change on the basis of this messageboard decision. I've actually half-considered emailing the club about it, but I know it wouldn't even reach JDT's eyes if I did. None of us think our posts are going to change club policy (I mean, there was that time I gathered all the possession data near the end of the season to show we did better with counter-attacking football than when we controlled possession, then after the summer we changed to counter attack...but I'm not naive enough to think that's why it happened!). But we'd still like to discuss all these things we can't change, otherwise there's not much point in the forum? Even yourself, I bet your output on here would drop by about 90% or more if nobody disagreed with the club's decisions, in order for you to disagree with those posters.

Careful now, Tony Mowbray will be quoting you as an example of Rovers fans thinking it's still 1995! Shearer was something else. When he went one-on-one with the keeper you were almost already celebrating.

This exodus of staff to Sunderland is really starting to take the piss.

Agree it would be great for your colleague to see that, but, goal drought? He's gone two games without scoring and has scored 4 in 10 games. I don't think that qualifies as a goal drought! Again, 4 goals in 10 isn't bad, but we never had a £12 million offer. Broughton is on record recently saying that none of the offers reached 8 figures.

Yep, being able to see is really conducive to learning.

If the U21s played on a different day, he could go and have a look at a few young players playing an actual match instead of training.

The new regime, all the noises suggest it came from JDT personally.

The chances are at least one or two will come through who aren't being highly anticipated too (and probably that one or more of the three you mentioned won't make it how we hope). Just the nature of the game I expect you'll agree, especially with young players who can improve or stagnate suddenly. I don't get to see much of the youth teams sadly, but what little I do see, and the plenty I hear on here, we seem to have a good overall crop, and a few players' names keep cropping up as having potential. Hopefully one or more of them surprises you. Garrett and Harlock (or was it Haddow?) don't seem to be too far off the first team picture as they've made matchday squads. I thought you really rated Burns?

Smacks of adhering to the rules.

Unstick your pipe. We don't live in Ancient Rome. Language evolves.

Still bored?

Hopefully we re-enter negotiations once he turns 18 and we are allowed to offer more than 3 years. How difficult those negotiations are to do depends on many things between now and then.

Every manager has poor runs. (To be clear, Mowbray-level death spirals are beyond sackable)

Today we had 61% possession, lost 2-0. Bristol 63%, lost. Stoke 71%, lost. Reading 65%, lost 3-0. Dominating possession, but it's the wrong kind and we can't play it well just like recent previous seasons. Sheff U is the only defeat where we had less possession (44%). We beat QPR with 49%, Swansea 3-0 with just 29%, WBA with 40%, Watford with 46% and Blackpool with 55%. We did have wins with high possession (74% and 68%) in the cup but against inferior lower league opposition. A very strong pattern that matches with previous seasons, in fact so far it exceeds them. I'd suggest we're still a stronger counter attack side than possession-based.

Good day for the kids, both picking up their first wins, just the first team dropped the ball. Hopefully kickstarts both their seasons.

Not sure you understood my post. My scenario was the one in which game time in both teams wasn't mutually exclusive.

Been there 2 or 3 years I believe, if he's still there. Fell out of love with the professional game a long time ago, think he has a mate at Stoneclough, so just plays there for fun. Did a very honest interview a while back if I recall.

5 goals (4 of those in the cups though, only one in the league). 4 assists. In 73 appearances. Not a great record, though not sure how much of that was off the bench. But we've had worse. I remember quite liking him as a squad player tbh, but maybe I'm just remembering patches of him being alright. Definitely worked hard, but I wouldn't put him in the Lowe category for lack of anything beyond that. Wasn't great, mind.

So would I. But I'll take 3 points at senior level over 3 points at U21 level every day. The real solution would be to have U21 games after senior games (when feasible) as I've said before. Then anyone who didn't get enough minutes on the Saturday can play for the U21s the next day, keeping them match sharp and improving the U21s chances.

I'd echo the 'strange signing' verdict for now. That was my view when we signed him, for the price we paid anyway, and though he started perfectly with a goal, and has missed a few games through concussion, I haven't seen much to change my impression. However, it's still very early days, and the people who decided to sign him will have seen more of him than the rest of us combined. Too early to render a real verdict, these are just early impressions. Players sometimes take time to settle and this time next year (or even next month) we could be saying what a good signing it was.