v Swansea City (a) - 20/1/26

[HowzBRFC]

Injuries are part of football, but the volume and morale of players and fans is down to the environment.

Rovers has suffered the same fate, fading away for the last 5 years, but when has the manager or board going to look in the mirror. The lack of planning, transfer gambles, common sense around letting the whole spine of British, championship experience walked out the door was criminal. The attendences are poor so i'm not surprised the players prefer playing away with some atmosphere. 

The injuries are because:

• The recruitment over the years has been terrible so players can't get rotated as quality nose dives. Most recently Val played Litherland & Forshaw 3 games back to back .... hamstrings gone
• The pitch at Ewood is a mud bath and will take its toll on the players 
• The pitch has resulted in playing 2 extra games 
• I'm sure there are more examples

Val and the board can't moan, they caused this. The fans have a right to moan and be worried for the future. 

[G Somerset Rover]

One big upgrade he could make is to swap out captain marvel, McLoughlin, for Pickering at LCB - Harry has never let us down in that position. He was also extremely liked by two managers who shouldn't ever be mentioned in the same sentence as Valerien Ismael.

Clearly it's pounds, kids and favourites before common sense, so I don't expect anything to change.

Edited 2 hours ago by G Somerset Rover

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, G Somerset Rover said:

One big upgrade he could make is to swap out captain marvel, McLoughlin, for Pickering at LCB - Harry has never let us down in that position. He was also extremely liked by two managers who shouldn't ever be mentioned in the same sentence as Valerien Ismael.

Clearly it's pounds, kids and favourites before common sense, so I don't expect anything to change.

Maybe they’ve hoping to off load Pickering and they don’t want him getting injured ?

[roversfan99]

@ruggles1995 you say that Baradji tried but I dont think he did at all, again. He was signed after a very strange career, being relegated from the Swiss league having been in the lower leagues in Italy before that. A Championship move should be an absolutely massive opportunity for him.

He clearly has more ability than most of our signings but he just strolls around, doesnt bother running back, regularly gives the ball away dawdling and just is symptomatic of how we have been run down. Hes is one of our more talented players, we have plucked him from obscurity and he cant even be arsed.

Another symptom would be that McLoughlin has regularly worn the armband and often (not last night) played in the middle of a back 3. Absolute crap.

[RevidgeBlue]

5 hours ago, OsloRover said:

If you all think Dom Hyam would have solved our leadership problems you’re deluding yourselves.

Two words - Lewis Travis. I always said he was the heartbeat of the team when we were doing better

But according to many he has a sub par scuffler.

[RevidgeBlue]

37 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

@ruggles1995 you say that Baradji tried but I dont think he did at all, again. He was signed after a very strange career, being relegated from the Swiss league having been in the lower leagues in Italy before that. A Championship move should be an absolutely massive opportunity for him.

He clearly has more ability than most of our signings but he just strolls around, doesnt bother running back, regularly gives the ball away dawdling and just is symptomatic of how we have been run down. Hes is one of our more talented players, we have plucked him from obscurity and he cant even be arsed.

Very strange player, looks like he has a lot of ability, but generally it never seems to quite come off for him and I can't quite decide whether he's putting it all in or not.

I'd be surprised if he's still here next season option or no option. 

[Torgeir]

How many senior players have had their contracts renewed this season? Scott Wharton is the only one I can remember but he's a true Rover and spent the majority of his senior career on the treatment table unfortunately. 

Ismael is blaming injuries but the game last night was dead and gone and the two subs he made were youth players. Why isn't he letting Ohashi rest for 15-20 mins when he's highly ineffective? Toss Pratt up top, who cares... if we're waiting for everyone to come back from injury in order to be able to win games, Ismael should ensure we don't take maximum risk of suffering further injuries

[Mercer]

14 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Thought it was £75k but thanks for the time line. Could it have been £90k with Terry Garbutt chucked in?

That would have been an extremely dark day in my young life.

What's the saying - It's always darkest before the dawn?

True in 1974, but now we don't have a Gordon Lee, we have the current twonk and I can't see any signs of a dawn whatsoever.

Think Gordon Lee used the proceeds to rebuild - his first four signings were all instrumental in our success:

• Graham Hawkins was the key one - stole from PNE for circa £20k
• Andy Burgin a class act from Halifax - think his fee was less than £10k
• Graham Oates - so influential in midfield and chipped in with goals - circa £15k
• Ken Beamish - did what he needed as a number 9 for us in the Third Division - circa £25k

Happy days - who will ever forget the Ewood promotion clash with Plymouth when Rovers fought back from 2-0 down to run out winners at 5-2.

1975 - promotion was our aim to crown a centenary of fame!

2025 - 150 years on, wonder what the 2025/26 epitaph will be!!!!!!!!!!