bluebruce

Uhh actually guys, the Hart thing is even worse than anybody seems to have clocked, according to the LT article anyway. They say he isn't eligible to play for us this season due to having just come back from his loan at Shrewsbury. If they're right, this means we have given him the extended deal not as extra LB cover with the injuries and issues there, but for one of only two reasons. Either the misguided sense of loyalty JacknOry mentioned, or...because they're considering giving him another deal. And tell you what, why in the world has Platt been given another year? The lad is pushing 23 and just played out his season at Conference level. What the fuck do we think he is going to offer? Conversely I'm not comfortable with some of the younger lads only getting 1 year deals. If they have a good season we have another Brennan situation. I know times are tight but I wonder how many of them could have had 2 year deals if we weren't pissing about with Platt, Hart and Smallwood. Edit - oh and before anyone points it out, I know Hart has only played for one club this season and the rule is 2. But the LT are saying it, so I'm wondering if there is some odd rule about his loan having been until the end of the season meaning they're the only club he can play for or whatever. Or they might just be wrong.

Crap incumbents at the time, too. Except Lenihan.

I can only think there are two possibilities here. You have either skim read my post, or the point contained within it has soared over your head like an albatross wearing a rocket pack after taking a ton of speed and coke. Because you certainly haven't answered the points I made. All you've done is make the same points again. Let me try to break it down again. Scenario 1: We get the players we want on free transfers in preparation for the Championship. We get promoted. At best, we now have some new squad players instead of first teamers, or at worst we spent a piddly amount of our new £200 million influx of funds. Neither is a problem. Scenario 2: We don't get the players we want on free transfers for our Championship season. We don't get promoted. We have a very limited budget and we now need to recruit 2 goalkeepers, 2 CBs, 1-2 LBs, probably an RB, and potentially wingers, strikers, and TM's latest addition to the CM collection (we don't need that one but history shows it will probably happen). Very likely, very few of them are available for free as many of the best freebies are gone. We now have to spend transfer fees or loan fees for almost all acquisitions. If you want to reply to these points again, please actually make a point yourself that relates to them. So, tell me what you disagree with about these theoretical scenarios. Because unless you disagree with them, it isn't logical to reply that signing freebies is flawed, or that missing them is fine.

There are quite a lot of players about to go out of contract, we could talk to them if we know what budget we have. They need tying up as soon as possible. McLaughlin was one of them. The more we can tie up on frees nice and early, the less pressure we have to spend heavy when the window does open and the most desirable free agents have been snapped up. This isn't a terrible point, but it's flawed. It would make sense if we were in a relegation battle. It would make sense if we were in a promotion battle from League One again. But it doesn't matter for a promotion fight to the Prem, because the money on offer there completely changes the game. Yes this changes targets, but it also changes resources to such a degree that a free signing like McLaughlin has an irrelevant impact on our budget if we have those riches. This applies to any free signings we could get at this stage. In the case of a goalie in particular, they could easily just become our 2nd or even 3rd choice when buying new ones. In the areas where we should be recruiting, this should apply to most freebies we would look to sign, assuming they are of a reasonable calibre. Squaddies at best, irrelevant to the budget and loaned out at worst. By the time the real transfer window opens and fees get involved, we should know where we are. It's only likely we could tie up 2-3 desirable freebies before then, if that, assuming we got our shit together.

This got me thinking about long-term pursuits. I'd say the longest ones we are aware of that panned out are: Gallagher - was a target when we came up wasn't he? Panned out might be generous considering... Armstrong - I bet TM was tracking him from when he rocked up, having worked with him at Cov. But for sure we took him on loan, then followed up with a protracted summer chase. Rothwell - was a target in the January of our League One season when we ended up with Payne instead. The fails are: Bauer - the big one, a whole year wasn't it? Just for Preston to gazump us, that one was really embarassing and he's had a fine season, and although we got Tosin instead we're an injury from an inadequate partnership as nobody else seems a suitable partner for Lenihan. Next season we're very likely to not have Tosin. We needed two CBs and could have done with both, although maybe we were going for both and were too honest to Bauer about this and his chances. McLaughlin McGinn (arguably, more a protracted summer chase than a truly long-term pursuit I think?) Can't think of any others, feel free to add, but if I'm right then I suppose that makes a roughly 50 percent success rate on the long-term targets that we know of. Problem is we seem to cock it up the most in the areas we consistently fail to recruit, defence and GK. Bauer and McLaughlin also wouldn't have cost that much and were freebies, which means we had even more time to tie them up and no fee involved, no club to negotiate with. The successes are all attackers. Gally is gash for what we paid so far, Rothwell was cheap, brilliant when on song but still hasn't done it consistently enough yet. Armstrong was a triumph if he keeps up his 2020 form.

I'd say it goes further up the line than that, and is more about Venkys not being sure what their own financial situation is going to be when everything is said and done.

That's how you do it. I don't know if there were rumours about Rangers before today, but they were quiet enough that this is the first I've seen. And bam, done same day.

And McLaughlin has chosen to move on.

Or they are acclimatising to being a League One side and his wage expectations are too high for their current budget, which I saw a report say. The months ago you mentioned have been pandemic months, with lots of clubs trying to figure out their budget. Expect they've just thought sod it, we will offer him what we actually can afford and if it works it works. Especially since we are dallying. He has been their number one for a long streak of this season now, has started making it into the Scotland side, has been offered a new contract at Sunderland, and the fans want him to stay. I'm not saying he is the answer as I simply don't know enough about his game, but to say he is a Sunderland reject is simply disingenuous. Was Conor Mahoney a Rovers reject?

He's not a Sunderland reject though. They want to keep him.

Nah, I reckon he has lost his love of the game and will just chase the best pay packet before his stock falls too much. Which may have the same result of not dropping down.

Hope we don't go for him. His days are done.

Away games aren't what they used to be. We were the only home side in the Championship to win today. Six away sides won.

I actually thought Gally made a bit of a nuisance of himself today. But he was also very clumsy.

Ridiculous, we are the only home side who won today, played very well against a top half team, and still no mention! Fuck em.

That second half we were excellent and deserved more goals. Well done lads! Did anybody else catch that the ifollow stats said we won 100% of our tackles?! I've never heard of such a thing!

Yeh he was just stood there really, shite decision.

Hope that Bambi fall doesn't knock his confidence. Shame as he has done reasonably well.

Walton's errors in the first half of the season were as numerous as Raya's or moreso, but without the brilliant saves to compensate. How spectacular the blunders are is irrelevant because they still shipped goals. He has improved a lot but still doesn't reach the shots Raya can stop at times. Would ditch him to have Raya back in a shot.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18524359.sunderland-make-last-ditch-attempt-keep-rovers-target/

This is the worst time in years to sell one of our key assets, in terms of the market. (Apart from when we were in league one) We would get far below the usual prices.

Ah that'll be because he hasn't really demonstrated any of that yet (well I'll give him the good balance). Average dribbling without the pace for it to matter, decent technically but far from fantastic (so far, at this level) and lightweight. As has been said, he's played out of position, still early etc, but I simply haven't seen anything yet to prove the level of hype he had in the u23s or, from some quarters, since. Bar odd brief glimpses. Hopefully he develops and shows what he is really about. I'd love little more than for him or any of our kids to shine.

Given the rationale given there for Boro letting him go, I wouldn't have thought so.

How do you feel he has looked in a straight comparison with Buckley? Personally I think he looks a better player and more likely to fit into the cut and thrust of Championship football once he finds his footing. Physically better, more stuck in, and technically hasn't looked any worse for me. Aside from Sheff W there was another game where I thought he looked decent but not outstanding. I can't remember which. He's been a bit anonymous in a few others, but so have players like Rothwell at times. Even Dack is known to look like he's barely there for a stretch (though obviously he does tend to still deliver the goods at the goal end). I'm intrigued to see how he does next season, and probably consider him the most likely to be the next breakthrough to regular football in our first team, if he gets enough of a run at it. These things can change so quickly though, especially when we've barely seen the players in question and they're youngsters breaking through. I remember seeing Jay McEveley mark Beckham almost out of a game and think he was gonna go on to be a star, whereas other youngsters have underwhelmed for a while before breaking through.

I'm sure you meant they should be shown the door. Sadly, I won't be surprised if one or two of them are shown the deal...