You get nothing at all for weeks, then the floodgates open on transfer rumours and discussion.
You might recall me saying that I won’t indulge in mindless rumours, or certainly won’t repeat them on here. After all, any Tom, Dick or Harry can pretend to be in the know and make stuff up. That’s not what I want to do, I merely collate news that is out there and bring you my thoughts.
That said, I did get asked about Danny Rowe’s brother earlier. Given that he’s turned down Doncaster for not paying enough, I’d be surprised if that is on the cards. Anyway…
Hot on the heels of Enzio Boldewijn (a rumour dampened down by Michael Hortin this afternoon and, if anyone knows, Michael does) and Jorge Grant comes another tenuous link; this time to striker David Ball.
The report has appeared in the Blackpool Gazette. Ball, recently released by Rotherham, is a free agent and linked with a possible move to the Seasiders. He’s former Manchester City youngster who made his name playing for Fleetwood Town, bagging 49 goals in just over 200 outings.
That earned him a move to Rotherham where he scored eight in their promotion season, but he found himself out on loan last season with Bradford City. His modest goals to game ratio continued, he scored five in 35 as the Bantams were relegated.
The 29-year-old has played much of his football in the Championship and League One and has a career total of 83 goals from 373 outings.
He’s been linked with a number of League One clubs in the article, which could simply be a journalist selecting clubs at random, or it could be an agent repeating the list of people he’s had a very basic chat with. Along with us and Blackpool, Tranmere Rovers, Ipswich Town and Sunderland have been mentioned, as well as Bradford in League Two.
Port Vale, Walsall and Shrewsbury have been linked with him in another report, so it’s looking like a case of who isn’t interested in his services, rather than who is. Rotherham probably aren’t, given that they’ve just released him.
Ball counts Peterborough, Rochdale and Swindon as former clubs and has appeared in three play-off winning sides; Peterborough in 2011, Fleetwood in 2014 and Rotherham in 2018.
He’s a former Rotherham teammate of Lee Frecklington too, albeit only for a short period of time at the start of the 2017/18 season, as well as spending a season with him at Peterborough in 2010/11.
Doesn’t really excite one does he with those figures?