As good as Szmodics has been this season, he has only shown this performance level in the last 18 months at most. He's a clinical finisher and a hard worker but he's not especially quick and isn't that much of a creator. The only way a club would really get return on investment from buying Szmodics is if they got promoted to the prem as a result. To be honest I think there is a fairly decent chance he stays this summer if he doesn't angle for a move, I don't think it makes too much sense for a club to buy him for more than £10m and it would be suicidal for us to sell him at that price given how important he is to us and our history in the transfer market. That said, we are not a normally run club and there is a high chance a bid around that amount will see waggotts eyes pop out of their sockets. Even at that stage it shouldn't be the end of the world, with that £10m we should really buy 4 players we could develop into players at Szmodics level. I have no confidence this would actually happen so yeah, try and keep him.

Saw the team and immediately put some money on us going down. Couldn't help myself, it was like an out of body experience

Apologies because I may have been at the special sauce this evening but... That was the most heartwarming rovers performance for a good while and it just reminds me that there will always be something left in this club even after the Venkys are done with it. We took on a nation state and came out an inch second best. Let me tell you because I watched this game with a magpie We had them scared for a minute there

I will admit I expected so little and got so much And that is football

Watched this game with my magpie flatmate who wonders how the hell we're in the lower reaches of the championship off that performance. If only he knew, nevertheless it was nice to watch him sweat during extra time and penalties. It was nice to watch rovers and feel *something*, the owners can't take that away at least. But We could be so much more than this COYB Venkys Out

This is so incredibly shite from both teams that it's genuinely entertaining🤣🤣

His record looks better when you look at his minutes played. A goal every 125 minutes. Will admit he looked a bit clumsy in the highlight reel

I sometimes wonder how easy it would be to run a 'ITK' account. Just follow the crowd enough and you're bound to get something right. And if you're wrong then 'something changed at the last minute'

Perhaps the rule in european comps which require a number of players trained at your club. (I think its 4 but not sure)

I thought Santa Cruz was sold for around £18m

If we were actually all in on the 'brentford' model, the Wharton money would give us a massive head start from where Brentford started. They only started getting £20m+ for players in their last few seasons in the championship. How many good, young, championship level players could a competent club get in if they were allowed even half of what we might get for Wharton? Instead we will probably get more excuses and more muddling along in the lower reaches of the league

For if anyone fancies a rant.

You'd hope its just us trying to be extra stingy and pay in instalments. Hopefully if push came to shove we could pay the full amount but it doesn't bode well haggling over such a small fee

The first signs of this a probably already taking root. Looking at City vs Arsenal, both teams have become so adept at pressing each other and making it harder for the other one to play out from the back that you can see numerous examples in those games of City going long to Haaland or Raya hitting long diagonals to Saka/Martinelli. They both will still mainly play out from the back against inferior teams as the equation is still "We have better players than them, if we have the ball more we have a better chance of scoring"

Which member of Pixies is it?

Every year in the championship there is a team that is perpetually on a 10 game unbeaten run but is somehow never higher than 14th in the table. Seems like every week you hear something like this on the mini highlights " *middling striker* tucked home to make it 4 goals in his last 3 games to ensure *insert club here* would take all three points, they've taken 13 points out of the last 15 available and can surely begin to start looking up the table" End the season 15th on 59 points

Listened to a podcast recently and they were talking about how Lewandowski will fit in at Barca given his age and the pressing game Barca want to play. In essence they suggested that a less mobile guy up front can still be useful in a pressing system by just ushering play into an area where other, more mobile players can press the ball. It's an interesting idea and could be a way to get Dack in the team. Past experiments with Dack up front haven't set the world alight though which could be a stumbling block

Haunting memories of watching the away game last year with my Everton fan mate laughing his arse off as we missed chance after chance. Anyways the way Swansea play could play into our hands as it did first game of last season (here's hoping) I'd go for the same team as QPR except stick Gally up top and bring Dolan in for Vale 1-2

The thread goes past 400. In your face Brian Lara

Looking at Broughton's comments it does seem like they've identified that Wharton and Garrett aren't completely ready yet so this guy is a stopgap until they are. Not the worst plan but will look foolish if 1. Morton isn't good enough and doesn't play anyway (a la Clarkson) or 2. Morton being here stops the academy lads development in its tracks. Would hope that we're still in for Styles though...

Like the football equivalent of a dog chasing it's own tail

Heard on comms that he's already equalled his goal tally from last year, admittedly he only scored 5 last year but if he carries on like this he should have 10-15 goals by the end of the season. Encouraging signs with Dack still scoring as he always does.

He cleaned up a hell of a lot of Travis' mess today that's for sure. I think apart from Travis and Rothwell everyone had good games with Tosin being the MOTM for me

Aside from the ones we hear a bit about (JRC, Butterworth,Vale et al) How does the rest of the u23s squad line up? Anyone doing well on the down low without attracting too much attention?

"We're getting a chippy do you want curry sauce or peas?"