and breathe..

.another transfer window closes .

This had been rather a quiet one for the Gas with just a single player signed until the final 24 hours .

The reality is that a number of players were moved out on loan – fringe players who were kind of contingency and were being kept in the wings just in case we are struck with injuries . You can see why a player who is out of contract in the summer would want to get some first team appearances under his belt for the remainder of this season – no matter which club it is for. It strengthens the football cv and helps them get a contract bearing in mind that they know that Rovers will be releasing them.

It has left us short on numbers and on the last few hours of the window there was a sudden burst of activity as we brought a few guys in on loan and used up some of the wage roll that had been suddenly become free.

The big question of course is – are our loanies any good ? Will they make us better as a team? The 64,000 dollar question.

You would think that the last people to be loaned out from a club would be the ones that no-one else wanted. That is however often not the case .

Elliott Anderson transformed the season that he was on loan with us and he was a late signing . JCH. Was a permanent signing who arrived late in the day, scored a bucket full of goals and we went onto make a million pound profit from him when he was sold just a year or so later .

My take on this – and once again it is very much a personal opinion based on little information – is that loan players fit into 2 basic categories . The first are the more mature loan players who do not fit in at their current club and are being sent out on loan to mitigate the cost to their employer and joining a club who will pay their wages- or part of it These tend to leave early in the window.

There is another breed of loanie who is basically a kid needing the experience of the man’s game. These might come at any time in the window and are a gamble for the borrowing club as the lad may be a bit of a liability until he adjusts – if he does – and only then will he prove his worth. The club who own the players contract will be careful where they send their stars of tomorrow so it is good for a lower club to have a record of treating their youngsters well.

Loanies – particularly young defenders are targeted by seasoned professionals in their first few games as being a weak link in any team and you can see opponents piling pressure in certain areas to find players out.

Thankfully this window we only have one raw defender. In years gone by we have had entire defences based on rookies who were all learning the game together and that resulted in some really atrocious defensive statistics .

So in the last few hours we made 3 last day signings – which almost sounds like panic buying . its mainly midfield and attack minded players who have something to prove in that they have not really reached their potential for one reason or another and will hopefully come good – at Rovers.

We have the Irish Messi or the Costa Rican ……… – insert your own legends name there.

Both of them look on paper like exciting signings and should excite supporters. Whether they do awaits to be seen.