Carsley should have stayed as England manager

No way Pickering can play LCB when we play two CB’s.

Two good goals from Elliot. We need to find a striker though, the lad from Big Club never touched the ball.

Twitter rumour that we are away at Southampton on the opening day. Would be a horrendous opener.

New signing in the medical department 😉

It’s not our first rodeo.

I wonder what sort of take up they’ll have for these 🙄 https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2025/june/25/2025-26-etc-trial-dates-announced/ Oh and ‘changes in structure’ - that’s one way of putting it. https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2025/june/25/rovers-women-trial-dates-confirmed/ ‘Begin a new journey’ - what an absolute piss take.

All going as predicted so far. Linked to players we can't afford. We laughed at the 90 percent of players signed by pre season -and right we were. Baath/Weinman gone Dolan as good as gone Forshaw back in... quelle surprise. Two cheap Euro signings in. No contract renewals in sight for Travis, Brittain, Tronstadt or Hyam. I'd say its going exactly as most of us envisaged.

Yeah sorry, it was meant as a dig at the club, in the I hope that they did chuffin' well go and see him live!

I’ve no particular issue with four senior centre backs and then relying on youngsters. It was the club who suggested (by seeking a left footed CB and to retain Batth) they didn’t think four is enough.

Just wondering with Batty now looking like staying, whether they are considering Pickering as a left CB option. That would leave the new signing (whoever that may be), Wharton and Pickering as left sided , with Hyam, Carter, Atchison and O'Riordan on the opposite side

Batth played a bigger role than expected with Hayden Carter injured more often than not. RCB we have Hyam and Carter, and LCB we have <new signing> plus S. Wharton as backup, with Pickering and youngster being able to slot it. While Batth had a great season and was a contenter for player of the season, I wouldn't offer him a two-year deal. We have plenty of experienced players in the squad, and hopefully the ones left have learned a lot from Batth.

I watched the Central Lancashire League a lot. I remember seeing Gary Sobers making 140 odd for Littleborough against Castleton Moor at Partington St. They ended up with 9 fielders all on the boundary ropes. Just the bowler and the wicket keeper near the bat. Sobers walked out to one ball, missed it, and just kept walking. The keeper ran up and stumped him. Garys knees were knackered. He was wearing the most elegant whites I’ve ever seen. He looked a million dollars. The Moor were financed by a local bookmaker, Tommy Heneghan. A typical bookmaker, a little tubby guy in a suit. He’d set up a table by the ground entrance to take all the entrance fees himself. With Sobers playing it was going to be a big gate. I’d arrived about 10 minutes late. Just in time to see Sobers hit the ball out of the ground right by where Tommy had set up his little table. The ball was in the gutter so I said to Tommy - “ Give me the ball Tommy, I’ll throw it back on “. Tommy said - “ No it’s OK I’ll throw it on”. So Tommy goes to throw the ball back on, only It stuck in his hand a bit, and went straight through the windscreen of some poor spectators parked car. This was just as the owner was getting out of the car ! The guy wasn’t pleased to say the least. He marched up to Tommy saying- “ What the f—k are doing you dozy little bastard ! “ Tommy shit his pants and said “ Look at that sign up there, you park at your own risk “ The guy said - “ I’ll take my chances with Soberx but not with a fool like you “

I’d forgotten that one! We can’t be blocking those (dare I say cheaper) youngsters with better, more experienced players can we.

They usually state that We don’t want to block the pathway for the youth

Based on that article: We wanted to sign a left sided CB and for Batth to stay but now we’d be happy with signing the first but relying on a youngster in place of the latter. A right winger is a priority so Weinmann not staying doesn’t alter our plans. Re the first - presumably the club are happy for our defence to be weakened then - if not why, does it appear we’re not pursuing a Batth replacement? Re the second - if Weinmann leaving doesn’t alter our plans what were we going to do with him if he stayed?? Everyday there are more questions than answers.

Atcheson is highly regarded at his age level,Still a couple of years off making a statement. O’Riordan needs a league 1 loan this season even if it’s 6 months to see if he can cope with the level. At the time being we are an injury away from relying on Wharton to step in and after how long he’s been out no doubt be prone to niggles at the start. Definitely need another CB to come in, At least the spine of the team is sorted going in to the season if both Travis and Tronstad stay. If any of the latter go and we don’t sign a CB we have no spine and I would fear the worst

Crucially of a team that didnt score enough goals to begin with, that never even as a team came close to filling the Szmodics void and whose attack is the main (on pitch) weakness. We are still 3 attackers light and loads of goals. Badly need a right winger straight for the first team, it always seems to be a debate between people thinking that Hedges is a reasonable squad player or simply not good enough, then he ends uo being a regular. We need someone to compete with Cantwell off the striker, and another proper striker. Ohashi I dont see being prolific but Gueye certainly wont be. Even wide left, we dont really know what we have on our hands

No surprise they can't be bothered to add extra needs to the list, for all we know the 6/7 they mentioned already factored in Batth and Weimann leaving. I half expect them to announce Pickering as the new Left Footed CB and Batty as an exciting young option behind Ribeiro at LB. O'Riordan I still have no idea what to think, seems great in L2 but not done much else; have to hope its a S Wharton situation. Atcheson I have heard good things from the academy.

Circa 15 goals walking out the door for nothing in Dolan and Weimann. Who's filling that void?

Agree with most but I don’t think Val is a yes man

Dann another dubious signing and he didn't want to come here to boot..

Every chance

I see that Elliott Jackson is basically reported that we wont be replacing Batth and Weimann. Bit of a propaganda piece justifying the decision and even saying that there is no downside to giving Forshaw a new deal. What about that he isnt good enough? I dont get how you can go from thinking you need say 6 or 7 to still needing the exact same number after 2 unexpected exits. Surely you decided on a certain squad size for a reason. I recall that the stats regarding us starting new signings on opening day are particularly low and I wouldnt be surprised to see none in the side on opening day this season. The 2 we have signed feel like squad signings (especially De Neve) and I wouldnt be surprised to see a bit of a wait before anyone else comes in. The only change to that IMO would be if any of Brittain/Travis/Tronstad leave beforehand. I feel like our main 11 will include Hyam, Carter, Brittain and probably Ribeiro, probably Toth in goal, Travis and Tronstad and then Cantwell, Kargbo, sadly Hedges and then Yuki. We will just sign 4 to pad things out, and we do need better squad players but we need more than that and also to improve our main 11.