Trying to change the subject, I really liked the comment attributed to VI that he didnt like bringing in loans from PL Clubs. I suspect he may be sorely disappointed when his only option is to pad out the squad with a few random loanees right at the end of the window though.

Just over 2 and a half weeks now to the here on in, such as Travis, Tronstadt, Brittain (although he has kind of gone already in my mind), or Pickering. Pre-season start of the new season, away at West Brom. All very quiet on the transfer front, albeit with the players in Spain for a pre-season kickabout and some sun. What is worrying me most as it stands is the prospect of losing any of our key players fromis important in terms of drilling a playing style and gaining team cohesion, and should we lose anyone key at this point, there will be inevitable impacts on whatever has been achieved during the pre-season run up. That is even before we factor in the challenge of integrating any incoming player(s) into the team. It isn't beyond the wit of our opposition in the league to be delaying their moves in order to derail any momentum we have built up, not withstanding of course that bringing our players into their own set ups would cause similar challenges to those we would face, but hey - maybe they have greater strength in depth and can take the hit, whereas we are paper thin in terms of talent and capacity to accommodate disruption. But don't listen to me - I'm just a crusty old codger, and I worry about all kinds of stuff that younger folk don't even consider real (yet!). I'd rather we got our shopping done, declared ourselves 'complete' and set out our stall accordingly, so that worried old gits like me can look forward to the new campaign, instead of being scared of the shadows that most certainly (to me) appear to stalk our club. COYB! Get ready.

The same as the 10 page discussing we used to have about pears who is worse least it’s a new name and for the record I don’t think Williams is better I think he’s had a better rovers career which is the point being made

Jesus christ. It's a damning indication of how boring this transfer window is when there's in depth discussion on the ability of Derrick fucking Williams... One of the most beige, nothing, average championship footballers we've had 😂

Seen a couple of " AI predicts the Championship" things yesterday. One bizarrely had us finishing 4th ( must have been programmed by chaddy) whereas one done by the Lancashire Evening Post had us finishing 17th and PNE 23rd. 17th coincides with where the bookies expect us to finish. Somewhat of a discrepancy there!

So if a promotion and prem season is a factor then can we say bell has been better than beck then?

It doesn't matter if Tyjon plays 4 games or 40 games, he won't be signing a new contract here, because nobody does. As proven for the past 19/20 months.

Yes I thought he looked better at CB as well.

Thanks. I have redundancy money and inheritance money still so I'm not that panicked yet but I'm just looking for something part Time to pay the bills. Worked 12 hours a day for 26 years. I'm going to take it easy from now on. Glad you found a job so quickly

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/the-12-richest-owners-in-the-202526-efl-championship-ranked/ FLW world have ranked the 12 richest EFL owners. I'd say they've substantially underestimated Venky's worth but even at that it makes it so frustrating that we're living hand to mouth.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/19136740

A promotion and a Prem season would confirm that. Personally on Williams i thought for the £250k it took to buy him he was ok but that's it, always to me looked like a centre half playing at full back.

My main question is what metric is beck being judged on? games played? Awards won? Clean sheets? Assist? Goals? im genuinely intrigued to know the basis of all this

I don’t or didn’t think Williams was a better ‘player’ as such he was better for rovers based on playing more than 20 games that has to count for something if we are judging players on extremely small sample sizes then your going down a big rabbit hole and I stand by what I said a left back over 100 games with a player of the season under his belt has been better for rovers than a player who started 20 games with 4 other sub appearances overall as a player is neck better and likely to have a better career highly likely but not for rovers

I've no real interest in the Lionesses but Sarina Wiegman wouldn't really be doing her job properly if this girl didn't deserve her place on footballing merit but was retained solely because she had been racially abused. The only thing she'll have to factor in is whether the others might down tools in protest if she drops Carter. You would hope the rest of the team would be mature enough to accept her being dropped on the basis of taking her out of the firing line for a bit.

Assume it goes live today?

Knew someone wouldn't be able to wait to make that connection! Im content that my opinion of Tronstad seems to be shared by every other Club in the top 2 divisions. With him "snuffing out the danger" and without Travis we also conceded the second most number of goals the season before last and only stayed up on the final day. It's also a game of opinions. We have people who dont rate Dolan but dont seem to have a problem with Hedges, people who thought Gallagher was OK, people who didn't rate Raya and now seemingly someone who thought Deryck Williams was better than Beck. Compared to that I think my assessment of Tronstad as very ordinary pales into insignificance. But if it amuses people to bring it up every time I make a comment on a totally unrelated matter - so be it!

Thanks for that Andy, just grabbed mine Similarly to the friendly games in Spain, you can use paypal instead of "link", which goes through much more smoothly

That made me smile Rev 😉 Coming from the arch-contrarian regarding Trondstadt!

It's a good move for Beck, am I bothered he's not come back here though? Not really. He's got a fair bit to learn about positioning and curbing the reckless challenges he was partial to, but Eustace will be well aware of this and will make him a better player in the long run. Big season for him as if he keeps fits and makes a few tweaks he can be pushing for a premier league move next season.

I've cut down a lot myself this year, never drank during the week anyway but did so religiously at weekends no matter what even just at home relaxing. Still drink but it's purely at social events now. There's some really good alcohol free options now if you genuinely just enjoy the taste of a beer, big fan of the Leffe you can get, even Aldi do an AF version of St Etienne (their knock off Stella) Which is decent. Good luck of the job front too, coming up to 2 years since I was made redundant after over 20 years service. I was lucky, landed a new job within a week or 2 but that initial feeling of panic was dreadful.

Works for me. I was logged in before purchase, then view subscriptions and the option is there. Was charged £0, which I had to authorize, then they pulled £140 without a new authorization after a minute or so.

It's a small sample, and for that reason it's hard to really say he is categorically the best. But looking at it purely in terms of the quality we got on a game-for-game basis, and purely since relegation to the Championship (impossible to compare with Prem days really) IMO Beck comfortably wins that. Whether he all-round is the best LB as an overall player we have had in that period is a different question that would have needed more time to say. I hope the distinction I'm making is clear. That said I do think he'll go on to have a better career than any of the others in that period (again, since relegation rather than 15/20 years). I'm not really counting the Olssons in any of this, as they were bought in the Prem era, I'm talking about players we signed since coming down. I accept it's a different convo again if you include them, and not what the original question was.

Interesting....I am having the same issue trying to use my credit card to buy the 25/26 pass which is now on offer. It's interesting to hear that PayPal may work, although that isn't a great option for me. Let's hope the Rovers can fix....some hope.......

Beck is a cracking player at this level but not many Championship teams this season will have their left back position competed for by players of the ability and experience of Pickering and Ribeiro. There are at least 6 positions that need strengthening before needing a third left back. Unusually for us, I can see there being intense Championship level player competition for places in every position by the time the window closes. I can also see a Pasha mentality that short/ expiring contracts being the equivalent of loans without the loan fee and PL/ parachute level wages... Not condoning it but looking in from the outside, this seems to be the mentality. By the time players and agents have had their cuts, transfer fees have to be 5m+ these days to make a serious difference to the club's finances. Incidentally, Boro who are chasing Britain have done zero new signings to date. We will go and loan Harrison Armstrong now and blow this theory away....