What i thought was weird about Derek was for a big lad he was really poor in the air... Could get his head on things but had very little control over where it went. Made him impotent in the opposition box and very dangerous to us defending high balls centrally. Think he played full back to keep him away from our goal as opposed to any talent as a left back.

Not sure why this discussion of Beck has turned into a roast of Williams. He was a more than solid servant to the club, always tried and covered multiple positions at LB and his better LCB roles. Beck I am not too bothered, he was talented but injury prone and honestly there was no chance he was coming back to us so why care? Ribeiro and Pickering is a solid LB duo to have, and if we want wing-backs, then Hedges and De Neve can both do that as well.

Agree with the Alcohol free beers. I play football on a Thursday and a group of us tend to go to the pub after. I have to drive there so was always on soft drinks but last couple of times opted for an alcohol free beer to see what they are like. I was pleasantly surprised.

I think PNE are in danger of relegation this season.

But the discussion wasn’t about future it was about past and present rovers careers not what they could become. That’s the point Iv been trying to make all along but your right let’s move on

Like asking... "Would you rather be kicked in the nuts or punched in the nuts?". I blame Venkys.

Only time will tell, maybe Bell had one 'peak' season when they got promoted and is now back where he belongs whereas if Beck can maintain his potential he'll perform higher for longer. You need to park this one up i reckon.

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