Marquis

[Donny Exile in York]

And we could have won a couple of games had we signed quality players and acted super quickly. The board have let the management and supporters down again.

How is it the boards fault? Baldwin said in his last interview he's been nagging McSheffrey to make signings every day just for his/fans excitement. McSheffrey wants to take time and get the right people.

And if you believe all that you hear from Baldwin then Boris Johnson hasn't been indulging in garden parties whilst the rest of us stayed indoors.

[RugbyRover]

So we signed Agard to stop him being picked up by a relegation rival and then let JM be signed by Lincoln 

I know which of the two I would have signed.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

And we could have won a couple of games had we signed quality players and acted super quickly. The board have let the management and supporters down again.

We could have signed prime Stock, Wellens and Coppinger and still been long odds on to go down. That was the reality of the situation, even on January the first. This is now the start of the medium to long term rebuild. Avoiding costly errors that could hinder that is important this month. The quality of players available in the summer will be far better than what is available now.

The damage was done last January, in the summer and then compounded with the chronic injury situation. People losing their head and making more bad decisions now would really put us on the back foot next season.

Another couple of smart additions this window in addition to the drip feeding of players returning could put us in a decent place to build a bit of form in the last 10 or so games of the season. That should then translate into a positive start to the next campaign.

Would agree with that. Can understand the frustration Marquis signing for Lincoln causes which is compounded by other targets not yet arriving and the one or two escaping our grasp.

I'm sure Hoden and Radio Sheffield will be inundated with reaction as we've seen already, and are going to be busy preparing some very probing questions which will need to be addressed.

We know what's needed and we know the club have done alot to try and get the right players in but there's obviously still much to do however,  the way things are going, many will see it as not trying hard enough.

[normal rules]

I do wonder if a certain Mr Cowley has had an influence here. Given he is held in very high regard with the Gimps

[roversdude]

We definitely need to start being more aggressive where transfers/loans are concerned rather than waiting for things to drop into place.
I’m a big backer of the board but when statements come out about x number of offers agreed with players etc, it’s not surprising that there is frustration.

[Cramby10]

From a Rovers perspective this isn't good. Assuming Gmc rates him too. Hard working front line player who can hold the ball up and knows where the back of the net is for sure.

He'd have been a player to bring back positivity to the fans and give us a sense of optimism for the battle ahead. Even a fighting chance of staying up? But no.

Our transfer strategy and lack of ability to deliver on needs is awful.

We've needed a CDM all season and yet continue to not deliver there too - A marquee forward would have been great (Agard isn't that).

I've been very pro board - up to now. 

We apparently got rid of Wellens nice and early to be ready for January signings and we're gonna get out business done nice and early. We took 2 weeks to announce vilca, Dhalberg and Cukur were going and have only brought in one loan player and Agard.

I'm pissed off seeing us not compete on or off the pitch! Enough of the BS from Baldwin about Rovers setting deadlines etc.

Time to show ambition.

couldn’t have put it better myself. I am at that point now. I have shown great faith in the club but apparently now we can’t compete with the likes of Lincoln and Mansfield and sign Plymouths and MK’s cast offs. Our transfer dealings are nothing short of disgusting of late. This is no knee jerk reaction. This is the fourth terrible window in a row!!
And this Younger chap must be laughing his cock off at us. He’s getting paid for f**k all.

[Cramby10]

And we could have won a couple of games had we signed quality players and acted super quickly. The board have let the management and supporters down again.

How is it the boards fault? Baldwin said in his last interview he's been nagging McSheffrey to make signings every day just for his/fans excitement. McSheffrey wants to take time and get the right people.

interesting point. They said the same about Darren Moore too.

[silent majority]

And we could have won a couple of games had we signed quality players and acted super quickly. The board have let the management and supporters down again.

We could have signed prime Stock, Wellens and Coppinger and still been long odds on to go down. That was the reality of the situation, even on January the first. This is now the start of the medium to long term rebuild. Avoiding costly errors that could hinder that is important this month. The quality of players available in the summer will be far better than what is available now.

The damage was done last January, in the summer and then compounded with the chronic injury situation. People losing their head and making more bad decisions now would really put us on the back foot next season.

Another couple of smart additions this window in addition to the drip feeding of players returning could put us in a decent place to build a bit of form in the last 10 or so games of the season. That should then translate into a positive start to the next campaign.

Now that is the best, and more reasonable, approach to the situation we find ourselves in.

We have to fine balance this, because if we go into next season with an overloaded, over expensive, injury laden squad of players then the future of this club could be much worse than we would like it to be. If we have to slash away at a over-bloated budget to get it back on an even keel we could do more harm than we would like to and then have to suffer the consequences.

If we get it right then next season could be very good, get it wrong and we fall away badly.

[NickDRFC]

I’d have at least hoped we were in for him as signing him would have given the club a massive boost but I can see why, even if we were, he’d have gone for Lincoln over us. We’re a very different club/team from the one he left - off the top of my head only Rowe & Anderson are still here, and we’ve gone from a penalty shoot out away from Wembley to the club with possibly the steepest downward trajectory in the league. Appleton is a well respected manager so could also see why that might have played a part over us/McSheffrey.

Hopefully we have more irons in the fire - I get the point about not wanting to bloat the squad with the wrong type of player regardless of which league we’re in, but as DO pointed out Baldwin has been publicly pushing McSheffrey to get on with it so it sounds like there are other plans in place. The last thing we want is a disappointing window that leads to a second half of the season as miserable as the last 12 months have been.

[GazLaz]

And we could have won a couple of games had we signed quality players and acted super quickly. The board have let the management and supporters down again.

We could have signed prime Stock, Wellens and Coppinger and still been long odds on to go down. That was the reality of the situation, even on January the first. This is now the start of the medium to long term rebuild. Avoiding costly errors that could hinder that is important this month. The quality of players available in the summer will be far better than what is available now.

The damage was done last January, in the summer and then compounded with the chronic injury situation. People losing their head and making more bad decisions now would really put us on the back foot next season.

Another couple of smart additions this window in addition to the drip feeding of players returning could put us in a decent place to build a bit of form in the last 10 or so games of the season. That should then translate into a positive start to the next campaign.

Now that is the best, and more reasonable, approach to the situation we find ourselves in.

We have to fine balance this, because if we go into next season with an overloaded, over expensive, injury laden squad of players then the future of this club could be much worse than we would like it to be. If we have to slash away at a over-bloated budget to get it back on an even keel we could do more harm than we would like to and then have to suffer the consequences.

If we get it right then next season could be very good, get it wrong and we fall away badly.

If we do get relegated this season we could start next season as one of the clear favs for L2 with Salford, Bristol Rovers, Bradford and Swindon, depending who gets promoted this season. If everything it done right between now and then we could be going into the first game of the season with a 15% chance of winning the title and about a 35-40% chance of promotion. If we make the same mistakes we have in the last two transfer windows that could be down as low as 6-7% for the title and 20% chance of promotion. That’s a pretty big drop based on a few bad decisions over the space of a few months.

[Sammy Chung was King]

What happened to the substantial funds available to strengthen the team, that Baldwin mentioned?. Is it substantial compared to Frickley’s budget? .

[GazLaz]

What happened to the substantial funds available to strengthen the team, that Baldwin mentioned?. Is it substantial compared to Frickley’s budget? .

How do you attract players to come to a team rooted to the bottom of the league? It’s very difficult however much you have to spend. If they are of the standard that we require they are bound to hand other offers, whether that’s from other L1 teams that are in a better position or L2 teams in strong promotion contention.

[normal rules]

What happened to the substantial funds available to strengthen the team, that Baldwin mentioned?. Is it substantial compared to Frickley’s budget? .

I believe the extra budget was for an uplfit in players wages. NOT to go out and buy players. So it’s players out of contract and on loan. That’s where the extra budget will go.
I can’t imagine the kid from Norwich is on peanuts. Nor Agard.
And don’t forget, the scenario under Wellens was that Bogle would go when his contract is up. That may not be the case anymore. I imagine he is one of the better paid players also.

[roversdude]

Sammy they may well still be available but it’s frustrating watching other teams sign players.
Hopefully minimum we get a DM

[keyser_soze]

While I know we're not going to create as many chances for him, Marquis would definitely have been a statement of intent and really got the crowd excited. Can't help but compare it to when Billy Sharp did the same when we got relegated from the Championship.

[Chris Black come back]

The key point about this window is that it is not for this season, it is for August and giving ourselves a head start for League Two. We have zero chance of staying up this season, so let’s not get focused on signing the players to try and chase a fantasy.

[Jonathan]

What happened to the substantial funds available to strengthen the team, that Baldwin mentioned?. Is it substantial compared to Frickley’s budget? .

Aren’t you able to answer the question with you being in the know? You told us with a degree of confidence that we’d be signing Lalkovic, Butler and Green, possibly supplemented with McSheffrey re-registering as a player.

[DonnyOsmond]

While I know we're not going to create as many chances for him, Marquis would definitely have been a statement of intent and really got the crowd excited. Can't help but compare it to when Billy Sharp did the same when we got relegated from the Championship.

But that's the thing do you go for player A, who will get the crowd excited but not only score 6, or would you go for player B who isn't as exciting for the fans but scores 10?

[Colin C No.3]

Even though we look destined for relegation, I still believe Marquis would have come to Rovers had we shown interest.

He had his best playing days to date with us, including the top scorer in Lg2 award.

He knows he’s loved by the vast majority of the fans here.

He has ‘his song’ belted out during warm up & when he scores.

Only SM would be able to answer the question ‘Was he ever on our radar?’

[Canadian Rover]

While I know we're not going to create as many chances for him, Marquis would definitely have been a statement of intent and really got the crowd excited. Can't help but compare it to when Billy Sharp did the same when we got relegated from the Championship.

But that's the thing do you go for player A, who will get the crowd excited but not only score 6, or would you go for player B who isn't as exciting for the fans but scores 10?

Right now it's looking like option C

[normal rules]

Even though we look destined for relegation, I still believe Marquis would have come to Rovers had we shown interest.

He had his best playing days to date with us, including the top scorer in Lg2 award.

He knows he’s loved by the vast majority of the fans here.

He has ‘his song’ belted out during warm up & when he scores.

Only SM would be able to answer the question ‘Was he ever on our radar?’

Whilst I’m unsure if Marquis returning would have been a good thing, they say you should never go back and all that, i have emailed Liam to get him to ask this at the next opportunity. Just out of interest.

[keith79]

We are fishing in a different pond now.

[keith79]

What happened to the substantial funds available to strengthen the team, that Baldwin mentioned?. Is it substantial compared to Frickley’s budget? .

it changed from substantial fund to we can afford 4 players that the manager wants

[Donnybax]

And we could have won a couple of games had we signed quality players and acted super quickly. The board have let the management and supporters down again.

We could have signed prime Stock, Wellens and Coppinger and still been long odds on to go down. That was the reality of the situation, even on January the first. This is now the start of the medium to long term rebuild. Avoiding costly errors that could hinder that is important this month. The quality of players available in the summer will be far better than what is available now.

The damage was done last January, in the summer and then compounded with the chronic injury situation. People losing their head and making more bad decisions now would really put us on the back foot next season.

Another couple of smart additions this window in addition to the drip feeding of players returning could put us in a decent place to build a bit of form in the last 10 or so games of the season. That should then translate into a positive start to the next campaign.

Now that is the best, and more reasonable, approach to the situation we find ourselves in.

We have to fine balance this, because if we go into next season with an overloaded, over expensive, injury laden squad of players then the future of this club could be much worse than we would like it to be. If we have to slash away at a over-bloated budget to get it back on an even keel we could do more harm than we would like to and then have to suffer the consequences.

If we get it right then next season could be very good, get it wrong and we fall away badly.

this is what you said on January 8th SM:
“Look at it differently.

What would the new manager, and his assistant,  think if we suddenly turned round and said forget all that stuff we told you in the interview, forget everything we asked you about the January window because we've changed our mind?

Until its mathematically impossible there's nothing wrong with trying to salvage our position. If we can finish the season with some momentum and can get the new players fitting in well it will bide well for whatever next season brings.“

A massive difference to this post. I really feel for G Mac.

[Upton Rover]

Marquis never wanted to come he still wants to play L1 football next season

[jamesrover17]

What happened to the substantial funds available to strengthen the team, that Baldwin mentioned?. Is it substantial compared to Frickley’s budget? .

How do you attract players to come to a team rooted to the bottom of the league? It’s very difficult however much you have to spend. If they are of the standard that we require they are bound to hand other offers, whether that’s from other L1 teams that are in a better position or L2 teams in strong promotion contention.

Agree with this 100%... We aren't an attractive proposition right now, but we could be in the summer... Its the same for other clubs, Newcastle springs to mind, all the money in the world but they are 2nd bottom in the premier league, so MBappe isn't exactly going to be jumping a the chance to sign... Slightly different to us but still!

[Sammy Chung was King]

What happened to the substantial funds available to strengthen the team, that Baldwin mentioned?. Is it substantial compared to Frickley’s budget? .

Aren’t you able to answer the question with you being in the know? You told us with a degree of confidence that we’d be signing Lalkovic, Butler and Green, possibly supplemented with McSheffrey re-registering as a player.

Most of our fans haven’t a clue who is signing, a small number know who were are trying to sign, but love the power of keeping it to themselves. It’s quite pathetic really.

I said it with a hint of sarcasm because that’s the level of ambition in the board we have.
When we are kicking off in the Conference league, then some might realise the truth.

I’ve seen it with some people’s posts on here. “Where’s the proof of what you’re saying?!, “How do you know Marquis wanted to join us anyway?!. How do any fans unless they are a personal friend of the player know whether he wanted to join?.

 A forum is about opinions, some on here wanted a signed document before they see things are true. It’s like posting on a history channel page, where you have to produce sources!.

[roversdude]

Sammy believe me a signed document would not be enough for some people

[keyser_soze]

While I know we're not going to create as many chances for him, Marquis would definitely have been a statement of intent and really got the crowd excited. Can't help but compare it to when Billy Sharp did the same when we got relegated from the Championship.

But that's the thing do you go for player A, who will get the crowd excited but not only score 6, or would you go for player B who isn't as exciting for the fans but scores 10?

Right now it's looking like option C

Yes - of course option B would be ideal, we would all prefer us to sign the next Marquis - but then there is also the option C, the possibility they could do neither.

[drfcbenny625]

Seen a few people on twitter say Marquis isn't what we need because he needs 5 chances to score a goal but I think they're missing the point of what a good striker brings to the team. He creates a lot of those chances himself because of his work rate, his positioning, his movement and just his knack of being in the right place at the time. Marquis would have been exactly what we need imo.