The ability to run, for a start. 😉

I'm struggling a little here. How are we stronger in areas we've made no additions? Are you accounting for player development? Also at RB, our new signings being stronger than JRC is a claim. You must have seen something definitive?

RW is much more important than a CF or an AMC. Ohashi and Gueye struggled with service last year - they've certainly not going to get that from Hedges.

I thought you said yesterday you no longer responded to Mercer. That aged well.

Toth is worth 10 goals a season over Pears - it's a huge upgrade (and I'm not even suggesting he's a special GK).

And yet their GK made the two best saves of the night (from Russo and Hemp). It was simply a clash of styles - the Spanish possession style makes it seem they're in control of the game, but they didn't really carve out many chances. Nor could they handle our pace and directness - their CBs resorted to blatantly obstructing Agyemang (which the ref completely ignored) whenever we tried to counter attack. Quite frankly it's an awful brand of football - made worse by their playacting when you try to challenge them. Completely breaks up the flow of the game, especially when the ref buys every single one.

Bearing in mind most of the players signed were / are unknowns (to us), I’m not sure how anyone can argue we’ve strengthened or weakened those positions. Add in the context of a managerial change and the fact that we’re clearly not done buying or selling, I think it’s virtually impossible. At this stage last season under Eustace, we were massively weaker (on paper) than the season before having lost Szmodics. The outlook appeared bleak and no one predicted the season we ended up having, the notion of finishing one place outside the playoffs would’ve been laughed and ridiculed out of here. Now there are obvious gaps in the squad and the manger has said he wants a CB, RW and AM. To my mind, all we can do is see who we sign, review how they play when watching the matches and THEN judge if we’ve strengthened or weakened in any position?

I dont personally think that constantly typing out names sufficiently analyses whether we have enough QUALITY in any position. Id like a new striker because I would like someone who can be an alternative to Ohashi without having to change style. I want another attacking midfielder because I wouldnt want too much reliance on Tyjon too soon. Ideally one that can also play on the right if possible so that if Tyjon does a Travis (who to be fair was older and more developed) and is ready now, then the signing can cover wide right and Hedges becomes further away from the first team. Based on your linear naming of players, its just about having warm bodies. Not factoring in quality or readiness. I wouldnt want Forshaw to start any games for example.

11 if you include the ref.

I think it's a massive stretch to automatically assume there's huge improvement in either of them just because it's their second season coming up. They both performed quite creditably last season imo without absolutely ripping the Championship up, and the most likely scenario is they'll perform roughly the same again, maybe with a very slight improvement to reflect the season under their belts but again that's pure supposition. Out of the two, I'd say Gueye has the most potential for major improvement, I'd say Ohashi has been playing at more or less his limit.

On the actual game, apart from the penalties I thought we didn't turn up. It was so one-sided but Spain were woeful in the final third where it matters. Missed at least 6 good chances while we didn't create much at all. Looks as if we did more work on penalties than other team and just as well! All the drama came from the penalty shoot-out, the match itself was not a good advert for women's football. TBF, that's true of men's finals too on occasion.

How is that worrying? Looks like lots of exciting summers to me. Gestede said so.

Don’t disagree with much of that, and there are a lot of unknowns. If we go back to the beginning of last season all the talk was we were fucked because we’d lost 30 goals from SS. That clearly wasn’t the case. What changed was that we improved massively in defence, which was mostly due to the way Eustace set up the team. We got a lot of points winning games 1-0 so SS didn’t need ‘replacing’ in a like-for-like sense. In the pre-season predictions thread this time last season I made the point we’d do a lot better than the doom mongers predicted simply because of the way Eustace was going to set up. I think Derby may do well this season for exactly the same reason. This season is harder to predict as you rightly point out. VI is an unknown. There was no in between last season under him - we went on a relegation-esque run of form, and then on a promotion-esque run of form. I’m optimistic we will do well, but unlike under the very cautious Eustace I think that if it goes wrong under VI it will go dramatically wrong.

The Miracles - You Really got A Hold On Me

Regarding the strikers. Both having played at this level is a double edged sword. OK they’ll be more experienced but teams will know a lot more about them now. They won’t be unknown quantities any more.

Aside from losing regulars of Weimann, Batth, Dolan and Beck (and probably so far only replacing one of them), one crucial 'position' where I think we COULD be weaker is in the dugout, personally. Under VI we finished the season strongly, but I do think the last 5, 6, 7 games of the season can be really strange in terms of results. Eustace did a brilliant job of getting results from the outset last season, particularly up until Christmas, when the schedule (and injuries) started to bite. He made us defensively strong, and developed a great sense of unity in the group. Pre-season has been really promising, but we'll have to wait and see if VI can get consistently good results out of what I believe is a really average (and increasingly inexperienced) championship squad. There are also quite a lot of unknowns in our current squad (see Chaddy's list above). Brittain will most likely leave, Wharton hasn't played a competitive match for 18 months, Carter is struggling badly with injuries, Tyjon is 17 and barely played men's football, Kargbo is back from injury and promising but has very few champ minutes, De Neve, Tavares and Alebiosu are unknown quantities with pretty uninspiring careers to date. McLoughlin on paper looks a steady replacement for Batth. With Weimann, Dolan, JRC and Batth we've lost a huge amount of Chamionship experience, not to mention 15 or so goals from last season. It's easy to say 'he's replaced him, he's replaced him', but the experience, know-how and reliability of the squad is undoubtedly a question mark, and in my opinion, a bit of a worry.

The context being that Toth is generally accepted to be better than Pears and so will be first choice. Last season Pears played more games than Toth iirc. IMO Pears is a liability. If Toth is consistently competent then he will be an upgrade on Pears IMO. Toth has also had a season to acclimatise to a new league. For that reason I think we’ll be stronger even if the personnel hasn’t changed.

Nope, you’ve missed the context. Try again.

The GK is the same then surely? Other than that, I don't disagree much. If we don't lose anyone we will be in a reasonably decent shape for the start of the season. You explanation for AM and CF being stronger is a bit of a stretch.

LW - Kargbo has a full pre-season under his belt and experience in the Championship. De Neve is an unknown. Hedges was used there a lot last season and everybody agree he’s shit (including you) so we are clearly stronger right? AM - Nobody really nailed down that position last season, think we used 4 or 5 players in there over the course of the season. Cantwell is a No10 by his own admission. He also has a pre-season under his belt and will be a lot stronger physically this season. He’s the best footballer in the team on his day. Tyjon by all accounts is a good footballer who may be able to influence games from the bench. Striker- both Ohashi and Gueye are now accustomed to the physical and mental demands of the Championship. Ohashi has also now had a full pre-season. Like I said, context matters.

You could also argue that both are no longer unknown players and defences will know how to play against them this year so they'll be less effective. You are just making assumptions, like we all are based on your particular view point. edit: just read your more detailed reply.

I bet they've been asked to by the hierarchy and the Social Media Manager has just gone "yeah, no, it's not worth the grief".

If you're going to try and hide behind the word "context" the actual context is we weren't exactly prolific last season and since then we've lost 14 goals out of the squad which haven't as yet been replaced. The rationale for this seems to be that even though we've seen no signs of it whatsoever so far, once the season starts proper, we're going to play some glorious brand of "Vi ball" which will miraculously turn Ohashi into a 20 goal per season striker and have the rest of the team chipping in from all over the pitch which they've never done previously. It might happen but it seems a bit pie in the sky to me. Or maybe to be be more accurate "Vi in the sky".

Updated the above to show the current contracted squad for the 2026 season. That is just 15 players in contract past this season, and we know the likelihood is zero to no chance that anyone worth their salt signs up in that time (see Dolan, Brereton, Lenihan etc. etc.) Only De Neve, Tavares, Alebiosu are in contract for the 2027 season (we have just 3 players contracted after 2 seasons away!) - extra year option for Pickering, Gueye, Ohashi and McLoughlin but it's rinse and repeat if we get to that stage. This is a very worrying time to be a Rovers fan.

The start of last season.