Hiwula & Fejiri INJURED

[RoversAlias]

Oh dear. Jordy Hiwula out for "several months" and Okenabirhie at least eight weeks, according to Wellens.

Leaves us with a forward line of only Bogle, Cukur, Barlow and Taylor to choose from. What do we do now?

[roversdude]

Ffs couldn’t write it - what has happened to Hiwula

[grayx]

Pretty sure Taylors still injured too

[RoversAlias]

Ffs couldn’t write it - what has happened to Hiwula

Crocked by Sheff Utd, took a bad blow just before half time.

[DonnyOsmond]

Brilliant.

[glosterred]

Well it wouldn’t be the Rovers without a long term injury just as the season kicks off



COYR

[PDX_Rover]

Loan.

[the vicar]

Oh dear. Jordy Hiwula out for "several months" and Okenabirhie at least eight weeks, according to Wellens.

Leaves us with a forward line of only Bogle, Cukur, Barlow and Taylor to choose from. What do we do now?

RW will now go for a loan striker young lad he has to

[the vicar]

Pretty sure Taylors still injured too

im not sure but I thought it saw where RWsaid Taylor could be back nor the Walsall game but I might be wrong

[Rovers91]

Think he will definitely bring in a loan and probably give Harrison a contract before weekend as well.

[the vicar]

I also think Reed will be one we will sign that is cos he is still on trial

[EasyforDennis]

I also think Reed will be one we will sign that is cos he is still on trial

I think he will sign Gardner before Reed.

[scawsby steve]

I think people should bring their boots next Saturday.

[Jonathan]

Starting to feel a bit concerned ahead of the season, the squad is just so thin. We made such an aggressive and impressive start in the transfer market this summer, and the talk was still clear about the priority voids still to fill:

A goalkeeper
A defensive midfielder
Attacking players (plural) on loan.

The first two haven’t materialised, and we’ve brought in one 18 year old striker on loan so far.

Something changed with the budget after what we were told initially. I’ve seen it said that the players that have come in are earning more then those that they’ve replaced ‘like for like’. But then you consider that Lawlor left after his contract expired, Coppinger the same, and a number of loan players that ate significantly into last year’s budget.

That Wellens could once talk of the other positions he wanted to fill, and then all of a sudden we’d run out, suggests something changed in the background.

I understand the uncertainty all clubs face, but it feels like there’s an imbalance in the management of expectations from what we were originally told, to where we are now. And unless something changes again then it’s hard to see how we can be particularly competitive at all with what we have. The significant rebuild that was needed after years and years of over-reliance on loans has only just started and we’re well short to cope with injuries.

[Redandwhite]

Are you suggesting wellens has had his budget cut from what was promised ?

[Michael Gibson]

Absolutely no chance has the budget increased it quite clear, just the annual sales pitch of Baldwin to shift a few more season tickets, one thing that gets me which nobody’s talked about is why did the club take out an elf loan if the owners are that supportive???

[mpc123]

Absolutely no chance has the budget increased it quite clear, just the annual sales pitch of Baldwin to shift a few more season tickets, one thing that gets me which nobody’s talked about is why did the club take out an elf loan if the owners are that supportive???

Funny

[roversdude]

Yawn

[jmt23]

The same way in which companies that made multi millions/billions did, to then have to pay some/most/all of it back - to ensure they stayed in business in the one of the worst crisis to ever hit the whole economy.


We have not sold anywhere near the same amount of season tickets, around 30% down I think. There are still a lot of people worried about Covid- and rightly so.

[Padge_DRFC]

Maybe they expected to have sold more season tickets by now and are some way short? It's clear we haven't gone the way a lot of other clubs in that regard. Some teams clearly showing they've missed their team for a year where as Rovers it's gone backwards on season tickets again.

[the vicar]

Starting to feel a bit concerned ahead of the season, the squad is just so thin. We made such an aggressive and impressive start in the transfer market this summer, and the talk was still clear about the priority voids still to fill:

A goalkeeper
A defensive midfielder
Attacking players (plural) on loan.

The first two haven’t materialised, and we’ve brought in one 18 year old striker on loan so far.

Something changed with the budget after what we were told initially. I’ve seen it said that the players that have come in are earning more then those that they’ve replaced ‘like for like’. But then you consider that Lawlor left after his contract expired, Coppinger the same, and a number of loan players that ate significantly into last year’s budget.

That Wellens could once talk of the other positions he wanted to fill, and then all of a sudden we’d run out, suggests something changed in the background.

I understand the uncertainty all clubs face, but it feels like there’s an imbalance in the management of expectations from what we were originally told, to where we are now. And unless something changes again then it’s hard to see how we can be particularly competitive at all with what we have. The significant rebuild that was needed after years and years of over-reliance on loans has only just started and we’re well short to cope with injuries.

it wouldn’t be hard to increase the budget from last season, as we had mostly cheap or free loans like we want this season, so that might not mean a big budget or a top10 budget. And that is NOTa criticism of the board

[scawsby steve]

Starting to feel a bit concerned ahead of the season, the squad is just so thin. We made such an aggressive and impressive start in the transfer market this summer, and the talk was still clear about the priority voids still to fill:

A goalkeeper
A defensive midfielder
Attacking players (plural) on loan.

The first two haven’t materialised, and we’ve brought in one 18 year old striker on loan so far.

Something changed with the budget after what we were told initially. I’ve seen it said that the players that have come in are earning more then those that they’ve replaced ‘like for like’. But then you consider that Lawlor left after his contract expired, Coppinger the same, and a number of loan players that ate significantly into last year’s budget.

That Wellens could once talk of the other positions he wanted to fill, and then all of a sudden we’d run out, suggests something changed in the background.

I understand the uncertainty all clubs face, but it feels like there’s an imbalance in the management of expectations from what we were originally told, to where we are now. And unless something changes again then it’s hard to see how we can be particularly competitive at all with what we have. The significant rebuild that was needed after years and years of over-reliance on loans has only just started and we’re well short to cope with injuries.

Excellent post, Jonathan. Anyone who knows my posting history will be aware that I'm always supportive of the board, particularly Terry Bramall, and I always will be. However, something's not sitting right at the moment. Whether it's just a communications problem or not, we don't know, but RW's re-build has definitely been stopped in its tracks.

We'd better get some loans in pretty damned quick this week, or we're going to struggle to get a decent starting 11, let alone the bench.

[Padge_DRFC]

Also I'd get Horton in at left back and Rowe playing as one of the front 3

[Chris Black come back]

Even by usual standards the conspiracy theories about the budget have started early. I remember that the days when you’d get this at the end of the summer window. Gets earlier and earlier.

[ravenrover]

Could it just possibly be that more has been spent on the incomings, hence unable to cover all positions?

[Michael Gibson]

Like people have already stated big earners have gone only Rowe will be on a big wage, if anything something has changed and the rebuild has the brakes suddenly applied and a case of here Richie find a bargain feel to it…. How clubs like Lincoln and fleetwood and come to think of it several conference teams can show more ambition shows something isn’t right somewhere.

[Jonathan]

Absolutely not into Board bashing or conspiracies. The owners of the club are the ones best placed to make decisions in the short, medium and long term interests of the club. It’s clear that something has changed - and season ticket sales may be a contributory factor as suggested above.

As a fan, of course I care about the impact that has on the team / squad that we’re able to put out on the pitch. The suggestions in some quarters that we can’t even talk about it are nonsensical. We, the fans, are amongst the most important stakeholders the club has. I’d hope we can all filter out the relentlessly dissenting voices and share and respect other opinions, even where we don’t always agree.

For me, the depth of the squad looks concerning and it isn’t where I’d hoped it would be with less than a week to go to the season. I’d like nothing better than to be made to look stupid for voicing that concern.

[GazLaz]

We will be able to get in free loans once these players have done pre season with their parent club. Thats always been the plan.

[scawsby steve]

Even by usual standards the conspiracy theories about the budget have started early. I remember that the days when you’d get this at the end of the summer window. Gets earlier and earlier.

CBCB, you've not read Jonathan's post thoroughly enough. As he said, RW's recruitment drive started very early and very aggressively this Summer, but then came to an abrupt halt, with talk of players having to leave before other players could come in.

If there's no loan players coming in this week, are you confident we can put out a strong starting 11 next Saturday?

[aidanstu]

Could it just possibly be that more has been spent on the incomings, hence unable to cover all positions?

Even by usual standards the conspiracy theories about the budget have started early. I remember that the days when you’d get this at the end of the summer window. Gets earlier and earlier.

Is this a joke? We are less than one week away from the start of the season with no more friendlies to play in an attempt to gel the team, our squad is less than paper thin, full of kids and trialist and you think the concern has started early?