This is the first World Cup since I retired. As a result of that I've seen 95% of the matches from start to finish. It's been a great competition so far. I go back as far as Chile in 1962 and this is heading to to be one of best ever if not the best. Great games that will live in the memory, great goals that will also live in the memory. The refs have got to get a lot of praise for this, they've been terrific. They've let the games flow and only got the cards out when absolutely necessary. A refreshing change from our league football when every serious challenge seems to bring a card and sendings off seem to happen about every third game. All they need to do now is award post match yellow cards for simulation incidents like the one were Suarez went down holding his head after getting a knock in the middle of his back.

You really can’t make statements like that after not watching any of the non-England games. This World Cup has been a brilliant spectacle. There has only been a single 0-0 and that’s because both sides conspired to make it so.

There isn't such thing as a "transfer budget", there's a budget for contract renewals, agent fees, transfer fees and wages. That is 18m, 10m higher than last year (so I've been told). Which is why there are target lists A, B and C. If you allocate a large section of the budget for one player on the A list you'll have to look at players on the C list for other position. Worth remembering not many transfers are paid up front, so if we sign a 1million pound player on a 4 year deal in most cases that 1m would be split up over 4 years, in some form, e.g. 400k, 300k, 250k, 150k.

You do talk some rot.

How do you know they were one sided if you didnt see them? Haha. South Korea and Mexico both beating Germany, Spain held by Morocco and only just beat Iran who also drew with Portugal. Switzerland drew with Brazil who also didnt score v Costa Rica until injury time. France just beat Australia. Iceland drew with Argentina who also toiled v Nigeria. Uruguay just beat Saudi Arabia. Barring the odd exception (Panama) the smaller countries held their own, creating a lot of interesting games. Part of the beauty of the World Cup group stages are David v Goliath ties and now we are at the serious stage, and already Germany, Portugal and Argentina are out. Been fascinating.

Rovers seem to be trying the budget airline pricing model. The aim is to keep s/t price increases low but start to charge for the additional items that were previously either free or not required. The 1875 club was always a stealth s/t price increase and frankly isn’t needed for any reason other than to raise income via the back door. A football club’s membership is its season ticket holders. The fact that priority can be paid for rather than loyalty really sticks in my throat. The 1875 club was a transparent attempt at income generation by means other than raising s/t prices. Charging more to buy your match ticket on the day....what on Earth is that all about ? We are not a rail operating company. Encourage people to attend, make walk ups easier, don’t discourage any potential fan. Charging to go in a bar and selling one of the benefits as being able to watch the 2nd half in the bar - rather than you know, from your seat...seems perverse in the extreme. It seems clear that Waggott has a mandate to raise turnover - I don’t have a problem with that, we need money to buy players, pay fees etc but it’s very interesting to compare and contrast with the style and approach of Andy Holt at Stanley who makes it plain that ripping off the fans is at best a short-term option. Some strategic thinking wouldn’t go amiss here...

Because it is, lad was about to tap it in and win the game before a cynical foul (I think he knew what he was doing and would have taken a red card ala Suarez v Ghana in 2010), feels right that they went on to win. Justice!

To be fair, it’s hardly unreasonable for you to question a winger failing to register a goal or assist. I personally love Bennett for the drive, effort and commitment he shows for the cause.

Bennett was superb and my player of the season. We have weaknesses but he isn't one of them.

And if we start next season with the same obsession with trying the 5 at the back we will likely be punished again against much stronger opposition. Ive no doubts Mowbray will try it again and unless we have a different squad i doubt it will work. If we get relegated next season after losing our first 2 can we erase them from the results?

It's gone from boring to brilliant in less than a page!

I take it you’re as obnoxious in real life based on that first sentence... I’ll say it again so it makes sense this time; Id like to think the manager picks his list based on ABILITY before any enquiries to agents/clubs! It’s really not that difficult to grasp.

But Silva & Asensio are no stronger that Iniesta and neither are in his class as a footballer.

I just can't get my head around somebody paying for a season ticket and watching the second half in a bar (unless I've misunderstood). It takes all sorts I suppose.

Football clubs don't work with specific "transfer budgets"... they have yearly club budgets which cover all expenses including agents, wages etc. If we only sign players on 5k a week we will have money spare for transfers, alternatively we could get a load of frees on 20k a week.

Its been one of the best World Cups I have seen so how you can come up with an opinion like this without even watching hardly any of it is stupid. How can you expect others to respect your opinion on anything when you trot out crap like this?

There were four teams playing yesterday that were all at least a goal better than England. The work rate of the Uruguay team was amazing, you could have wrung their shirts out in the sink after the game. That's what playing for the shirt means to me. When did our lot last play with that level of intensity ?

Denmark's last penalty was the worst on target penalty I've ever seen. Dummy, wait for the keeper to dive, then fluff it straight at him ?

A collection of some of the worst penalty takers in recent memory. Jeez... half of them looked like they'd never kicked a ball before. Modric very lucky that his penalty went through, could easily have missed two out of two. No reason to fear Croatia based on tonight.

The law changed recently and now if the referee deems the challenge to be genuinely for the ball it is a yellow card. A cynical challenge would be red.

It's a funny one really. After his sending off I felt as though he was the energy of the side and the most consistent performer. He was excellent in CM and at a crucial part of the season fit into the gaping hole at right back (which would have been filled by Caddis' fat arse). Although I am grateful for other players, I voted him player of the year for those reasons. He's a very good player and will step up, no doubt about it.

Bit OTT. For me he was dreadful on the right wing, excellent in central midfield, and solid but unspectacular when filling in for Nyambe at TH. On the evidence of last season his best position is definitely CM but whether he could make an impression there in the Championship must be debatable. I'd like to see an experienced Championship midfielder come in to play alongside Smallwood but once again that would take money I'm beginning to doubt we have very much of.

In the first half of the season, on the wing, he didnt contribute nearly enough for a man of his ability at that level. Very few assists and no goals until Wimbledon away. When he moved to the centre of midfield, and latterly right back, his performances were very good. I never said he was one of our weaknesses, his problem is what position suits him best. That said, half of the people who voted for him as player of the season including reasons such as his social media usage, his fist pump etc, which should have nothing to do with anything.

Home to Barnet as well iirc until we had to change it at half time because we were getting humiliated by the team bottom of Div 4.

Started with three at the back at Southend, home to Doncaster and at Charlton and lost all three. That's 60% of the games we lost. The vast majority of games we won last season were with a back four - fact.

I had this as a Spain certainty but Iniesta is the one player I would not drop. A close to 100% pass completion rate is what Spain need to drain the energy of crowd and Russian team so Iniesta is dropped. Just what Putin ordered...

Nobody knows the budget mate, everyone is just guessing. But if our wage bill was £8.5m last year then it stands to reason it may have gone back up if contractual wage increases on promotion have kicked in.

Honestly it’s been amazing, From the start up until now I’ve loved it. The only lowlights being the France 0-0, the Japan farce and the England Belgium game. It will stay long in the memory this one, imagine if it’s the one we finally win as well, the beauty of it is there’s no obvious candidate and 5-6 teams are all in with a shout

The sort of player and the sort of price we should be in the market for.

Exactly. Lenihan is already a good Championship centre half and he’s still a young lad. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him playing Prem level in his later 20’s.

A player I would like Rovers to sign is Marcus Maddison from Peterborough. His stats and particularly his assists are amazingly good. He made most of Jack Marroitt’s goals last year. He is a player that Mowbray has said is a quality player and is at the right age etc. The Peterborough chairman also promised him he could leave if they got an acceptable offer. He could be one where there has been an offer made but which is way too low. However, the longer the window goes on the more a compromise might be made. This is pure wishful thinking on my part btw. I just hope he wasn’t the player rumoured to have been kicked into touch because of wearing ripped jeans etc.

"More money than sense", "shame on those fans", "apologists" ... Stuart, is this really the sort of language to be using about Rovers fans, especially coming from someone who preaches constantly about fan unity? Just so you understand - Blues Bar match day membership has been available to purchase for at least 10 years, probably 15 or more. In previous seasons I have seen it announced every year on the website, and also advertised with flyers in Blues itself and in the Club Shop, and on the big screen during games. Do JW Upper Central Season Ticket holders also have more money than sense for choosing to pay 50 quid extra to sit on a padded seat closer to the half way line than their pauper cousins out on the JW Upper Wings? I guess if you'd bothered to do a tiny bit more research into this rather than rushing to launch another thread to beat up BRFC / Steve Waggott with, you wouldn't now need to be moralising about the spending decisions of your fellow fans ("apologists") in an effort to save face. Panic over Stuart ... #asyouwere PS what's your opinion of people who pay for speedy boarding? In fact why stop there, what's your opinion of people who go on holiday?

Whole spend for 2018/19 season. Renewals of Conway and Graham probably take out 1m. Rothwell probably around 750k? That's 8.25m left for the season.

Why?

Only If it leads to a goal or penalty. If it leads to a corner which leads to a goal then the attacking team benefits. If it is borderline there's no real issue but I've seen a couple where the attacker was 3 feet off and the linesman played on.

The amount of extra cash the club will make through 1875 membership, Blues Bar admission and even 18% price increases on season tickets will be minimal, especially when there is no real incentive to have 1875 membership this year. If increasing revenue is the aim then there are far more profitable ways of doing it through sponsorship and corporate but both require greater levels of effort to achieve results. I'm not impressed in the slightest by Waggott's across the board price increases but I bet his employers will be. Having to pay a £10 membership on top of my £350 to get priority for away tickets despite having a 100% purchasing history over the last few years leaves a sour taste in the mouth. If you're doing a priority scheme it needs to be a points based system. Club cash is also a waste of time when the cheapest shirt or training wear item is about £50 and the money can't be used for tickets.

Maybe Tony Mowbray has said its been a poor world cup?

I read up on Wikipedia and youre right - Xhaka, Behrami and Shakiri were all born in the the former yugoslavia. Plus the squad has a further six or so players born in Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia, so all ex Yugoslavs.

You don't half chat some rubbish Chaddy. The world cup has been superb. Having not watched the games you're in no position to formulate this opinion

I'm saying that because " at the moment " I see no signs of us having serious cash to spend. I hope for everybody's sake that I'm proven wrong.

Really enjoyed both game today and I haven't watch much of the world cup as I been working or with family. Watched every game that England have been involved in.

Wonder how many world cups Yugoslavia would have won if they had stayed together. Think of a mix of the Serbian and Croatian teams with some of the best players from Switzerland (assuming their families had stayed)

I think that's all fair. We are miles off the standard of players that Brazil, Spain, France and Belgium have, and lack the kind of individual quality of Croatia or Uruguay, but we're competitive against anyone else who got through. The target remains the quarter finals. That's a good tournament.

Tremendous respect to Uraguay from a nation of just over 3million ( less than Scotland) serial acheivers at the world cup!

I'd be worried if we where playing Armstrong as a lone front man with Dack behind. Imo Dack needs to play behind a target man type to get the best out of him.His best attribute in my opinion is feeding off a player who can hold the ball up and pass it off to him with his superb timing of his runs into the box.Dack wouldn't score anywhere near as many goals playing behind a small nippy foward like Armstrong. Agree with others that Armstrong should forget about playing as a front man and learn properly how to play the role we had him in last season.

“A star is born” - Linekar re: Mbappe. He’s the second most expensive player of all time, thought he might have known about him.

Criticism of Samuel on here is a bit over the top at times. He contributed his share of goals last season and showed glimpses of real talent during some games like the example above. He still has a lot to prove, but the fact he is working hard to do so is a real positive and I hope he does well next season.

I suppose The Sun and Nixon don’t have any form for lying, to be fair.... ’Phil Parkinson hopes to tempt Rodwell to Bolton’. I hope to tempt Scarlett Johansson to be Mrs K-Hod, but I’m also realistic...

Yeah...really, really good news..aren't we so lucky to have owners like these! Eight torturous f'kin years in the making

I was irritated by his 'get real' interview whIch I saw as support for Kean. As a local lad he should have known more than any other player how we all felt about Kean and the way the club was being wantonly pillaged by Kean and his associates. I hear him no malice but I don't feel any sorrow about him leaving.