Yep, incompetence yet again. We are really bad at this.

I think it's a complete waste of time. Garrett has 29 Championship appearances and has scored 4 goals for Rovers (albeit primarily in the cups). It's a massive backwards step, and nobody on this forum is going to convince me that Garrett isn't League One standard despite what happened at Bristol (so please, I ask they don't waste their and my time). I don't think games at that level will benefit him, and it's not as easy for someone who isn't an attacker to shine, Markanday's numbers spoke for themselves. If we plot his likely career trajectory after a move like this...even ignoring that he's playing in a shit League Two side who are in the relegation zone and will probably struggle every week, so not easy to shine. Let's say he does well by the summer, what next? We aren't going to go 'oh well you did well in League Two so come and join our Championship squad again'. We are going to try to get him in League One, where he already should be. He then probably spends a season there, and comes back with a single year left on his contract. At which point, if he's done well again, we probably consider using him as a squad player. Given how shit we are with contracts, by the time he has had chance to impress enough to earn one, he doesn't end up signing it. And this is assuming everything goes well. For me this leaves us waiting too late in his development to know if we want to keep him around, and is just a backward step that didn't need to happen. If a League Two relegation battler was the only option, I would have MUCH rather kept him around as backup. He's better than fucking Forshaw, who we keep having to rely on, and for me no worse than Buckley (in fact I prefer him to Buckley, doesn't vanish in games as often). He's also the only other midfielder who you could say can play a similar role to Travis and Tronstad, who are absolutely key to how we play, as has been seen. I'm much less interested in some poor quality development football for him for 6 months than I am in having acceptable backup in CM. We better have somebody lined up. If we were going to plump for League Two you'd at least think we'd try to get him in at Chesterfield having done business with them twice already this season. But I'd have rather he try to establish himself in League One, IMO he was unlucky at Bristol and is definitely capable of playing in that league right now.

I can't imagine compensation being less than a million, more likely approaching 2. Dolan has 176 Championship appearances at the age of 23. We've had him since he was 18. We ain't only getting a few hundred k for him in a tribunal. It's possible he'll move abroad, and that's a risk, but I don't see it, and it's worth rolling the dice. A few hundred k is an absolute pittance, and probably about a fifth of what we could expect at tribunal. He's also a useful player, despite what some of our fans think.

Don't know, but I do know Eustace talked about Kargbo playing all across the front three, and he appears to have played exclusively through the middle when starting games this season, mostly up front but sometimes in AM: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/augustus-kargbo/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/549791/wettbewerb/IT2/saison/2024 Meanwhile, Youan can also play all three positions, and has also played primarily through the middle this season: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/elie-youan/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/465715/wettbewerb/SC1/saison/2024 So entirely possible signing both, or Kargbo plus Cissoko would have been as part of a fluid front three (or Kargbo playing up top in the latter case). Maybe this isn't the case, we really can't know unless the club come out and say, but it's theoretically possible (whether posters on here think it makes sense for other reasons or not, as I know I'm about to get some 'yeh but...')

Transfermarkt has it that Hibs paid about 580k Euros for him. I read an Edinburgh based article the other day that suggested a similar figure.

Well that was a quick collapse! Within 3 minutes, two of our main reputed targets heading to Championship rivals. Must be a record outside of deadline day.

Hope the chances of that are zero. A few hundred k would be a joke, and we will get more than that for him in the summer. As I keep having to remind people, we will be eligible for compensation unless he moves abroad.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2025/january/31/jake-joins-tranmere-on-loan/ Garrett in a shitty loan to shitty Tranmere, struggling in the League Two relegation zone.

Although the bigger the leaving package, the less we free up.

Nothing like when he assisted the opener last night?

Who is Frank Vare? First time I've noticed the name was on the bench against PNE. Another 16 year old, attacking mid apparently...promising? (Incidentally I believe the manager said we had three 16 year olds on the bench, but we appear to have had two, him and Dunn...next youngest was 18 year old Atcheson)

We haven't exactly shown we are good at renewing contracts since GB left.

I expect if the rules were different, and you could play for more than 2 clubs in a season, Garrett would have been loaned out tomorrow instead, and probably would have been named on this bench and other benches prior, potentially with some sub appearances. I really do think the 2 club rule is fucking stupid. At the least, loans shouldn't be counted in it. It discourages development of young players.

From what I've seen and heard, he and Markanday are probably the best finishers the club has. Yet neither provides enough all-round game to be a regular. Arguably both should have been tried more centrally...tbh I'd say further up than a 10 as I'm not sure they're creators. Not as traditional 9s either, as they've little in the way of hold up.

I think it just meant we happened to sign him today and the club know the fans are desperate for signings.

I don't know if you were mentioning him in relation to pace, but Pedersen wasn't quick at all. He knew where to be though in ways some of our current crop simply don't.

Think this is a fucking stupid loan tbh.

Only just seen it's that short, that's a fucking joke tbh. We will have to start renegotiating terms inside a year. Paying over what we wanted is all the more reason to ensure the asset is actually secure. If we're not willing to give at least a 3.5 year deal we shouldn't pay over our valuation anyway. The rumours about this deal length came out a couple of days ago I think, and said the player's agent didn't want to give more than 2.5 years but we wanted 3.5 years. The player had been reported as keen to join, so we definitely should've told his agent to swivel.

And Szmodics' sale paid for the lot of them. With possible transfer interest in Brittain pending to make more profit. You can't just cherry pick the best signings of the new era to sit against the worst signings of the last era. I made it a fairer comparison.

I don't think there's much between it. Brittain, Hyam, Szmodics, or Gueye, Ohashi, Cantwell? Meh. But again the point is more about what we have now vs then, not in the summer vs then. Park was Chief Scout, not DoF, and Gestede has shown a concerning inability to get contracts done.

The point isn't that it's rocket science to keep players secured on contracts. The point is that the people who have replaced Broughton aren't even capable of that. As for holding back a third of available funds, the regime have shown they wanted to hold back more like 90% of available funds. So not only is a third considerably better than that plan, but it's very likely it was suggested as a compromise since he will have been aware they wanted to do dick all with it. Again, the point is not that GB was brilliant, but that what has followed him, in terms of personnel and planning, is demonstrably worse.

That entire list actually cost very little in the end tbf. Wahlstedt, Telalovic and Ennis were sold on for similar fees and a profit respectively, probably more or less covering the O'Riordan fee. Hirst and Fleck were short term deals with no transfer fee. Essentially they all together cost just wages and signing fees. They were certainly a waste of those, but if just one had worked out it'd have been worth the relatively low expenditure. Telalovic is showing we might have been hasty with him.

Using Kent Exile's link from the previous page where Barrow fans were happy with Duru, it paints a different picture now (the link is for Duru as a keyword search on their forum, so it's got fresh posts). Comments now include: 'Duru found it tougher against fast technical opponents, he’s always going to look good when we are on the front foot but struggled when out and out defending was needed. ' 'For me Duru was found wanting tonight defensively. To many times he was the wrong side of the attacking player and it was no surprise when he got subbed. He is young and raw and has undoubted talent but the defensive side of his game needs some work IMO.' Early days though. And he needs these learning experiences.