I guess its how you define world class, but by whatever they had Messi in 2022 who qualifies. And while they had some modest players in defence, the likes of MacAllister, Di Maria, Alvarez, Martinez in that final were all very very good.

What Southgate achieved given he didnt really had any proven world class players except Kane and Walker is really impressive... Others like Saka, Bellingham, Stirling, Foden etc are all good at various times but have not stepped up to look really top level. Most of his teams had many very modest players like Pickford, Rose, Lingard, Alli, Henderson, Delph. He did it by having a clear strategy and plan, and luck in the draw. Rarely pretty but got us far in four successive tournaments. Southgate is undoubtedly the second best ever england manager. We are starting to look really confused again, not really sure what Tuchal is aiming for. Very hard to look at english players now and see who the definitive players to build the team around are, and what system will get the best out of them. We are as always suffering from the "English disease" of too many similar attacking players who fail to work together which has plagued us for decades. I would say though Wharton looks like exactly what we need. He is the sort of player who improves everyone around him and is decidedly different from the standard box to box engine rooms we tend to play in midfield. Surely cant be long till he gets a crack?

Him and Samba were our best ever defensive pairing for me... Watching since 1992. My best team from that tome till now : Shearer. Bellamy Duff. Tugay. Sherwood. Ripley. Le Saux Nelsen. Samba. Berg. Friedel Seems strange to have so few players from the prem winning season but Id put it down to the general quality of the league improving so much from the 1990s to the 2000s. More players played under souness/hughes (7) than Kenny (5). Adds up to 12 as Berg played in both periods.

I like Beck but hes missed a lot through injury and once a layoff like that happens its at least a 50% chance the same happens next season. Pickering already is injury prone in that role so id be hesitant to go back for him.

I have to say he looks like he spent last night hot boxing his car. But hey its the summer, they deserve a break!

Im inclined to give the scouts the benefit of the doubt as recent pretty random additions have worked out okay. Hope he is decent.

Agreed - Wrexham have ambition, glamour and the opportunity for the players to hugely raise their profile to help their football and post football careers. I imagine many players would take moderately less money to play there.

Yup asset stripping through negligence. A properly engaged owner with less money would make a huge difference just by planning ahead, making the key decisions at the right time, being creative with resources when needed, building a relationship with the fan base to boost crowds and income. We are always on the back foot unable to plan.

Yeah agreed on this - makes us feel like we have the whip hand but from the players perspective must make them feel that the club isnt playing fair, just putting off deserved improved contracts. If we are not able to offer competitive deals for established players the only option we have to keep them is offer improved deals early while they look attractive to the player. As soon as we are within 18 months of the contract expiring we are buggered.

My theory is Dolan is relatively close with BBD, Lenihan, Rothwell and discussed the huge financial upside on going on a free with them. Decided hed rather go for that rather than say an extra 3k-4k a week... Over two years 4k a week is about 400k. He might be able to get a 1M signing fee plus a much higher salary on a free. The issue is we've created the case studies to make going on a free almost the sensible choice for any aspirational player.

Travis could do better than Derby I think. Could see one of the relegated prem teams going for him. Hes had a great season, I will be very surprised if we dont get bids.

Yeah... I mean if Venkys are really committed to balancing the books through player sales Brittain is one of the most likely sources to even begin to do that. With Waggott getting potted I wonder of part of it was him letting probably around 26M of talent (BBD 15M, Dolan 5M, Rothwell 3M, Lenihan 3M?) leaving on a free in the last 5 years. Maybe a bit harsh as the root cause is the Raos not funding new contracts but I guess Suhail could have thrown him under the bus.

Crikey, what a bizarre statement. Don't think I have ever seen anything rovers related so significant issued in so few words. I have no idea if Waggott going is a good thing or not...depends who comes in next. While I am not a fan he is not the biggest clown in the clown car. We could easily end up with something much worse. All comes down to if there is any real quality planning behind the scenes. I wouldn't bet my house on it at all.. Am I right to think part of the problem could be that Suhail brought in Broughton and by extension JDT as part of a total club operating model refresh (young players, increasing value yada yada), then Waggott made Suhail look like a mug booting out Broughton and replacing with his own man Eustace who wanted experienced players. Now Suhail is reasserting his authority?

Its incredible that two clubs who have spent between them the best part of half a billion quid can be so extravagantly awful. But so delicious! The only thing that has kept my interest in the prem has been seeing them both plummet down the table. Terrible game but enjoyable nonetheless. I hope we can look forward to more of it next season. Not sure notts forest or crystal palace would take a player off either side except maybe Fernandes or Van der ven. Strange times indeed.

Unfortunately can't cross from deep (or anywhere really) to be effective as a wing back imo. Hedges is a bit of conundrum. Great energy, quite strong, reasonable technique for 1-2s etc, can create goals by coming inside and poking the ball through for the forwards as he has a few times recently. But for a midfield player has absolute zero long passing game and always has his head down. On the ball his perception of what's going on doesn't exist beyond 10 yards from where he has the ball. I'd definitely keep him as he's useful, particularly when we are looking to keep it tight defensively and have someone to carry the ball up the pitch. But as Tom says we really should try improve on him so he becomes a bench player.

I am surprised we let Markanday go as I assume after a decent season in the lower leagues he is worth something? But maybe there is a contractual impediment to activating the option to only try and sell?

Thats insane... 50k for a 34 year old in the Championship...

Yes... I think there is an bias against youth from managers who prefer to work with experienced players. But usually young players do better than expected in my time watching rovers. Sure they might not be brilliant, but compared to other not brilliant older players the gap is not maybe as big as anticipated. Creating an expectation to play youth is a good thing imo. Adds risks, but then again we have seen some really poor performances from players who are 28+ so I wouldn't sweat it too much. I'd say the balance in the ideal XI you would want is - 3 experienced pros (29 to 33 y.o.) - 5 mid career established pros (23 to 29 yo) - 3 promising young players from the academy (18 to 23 y.o.) An issue is often those young player spots are taken up by loans which is great when you get next level quality like Harvey Elliot or Van Hecke. But when it's mediocre performers like ACD etc we're giving away valuable experience to other clubs. All of this is a bit pointless if we can't get those young players to sign long contracts though and let them walk away for free.

That's a pretty attacking lineup you have here! Wowsers. But I think I understand what you mean, this is how we would be positioned on the pitch if completely dominating the game and had the opposition pinned back in their box. That said not sure Tronstad would be the deepest player. .. Also - there is no way we are going to sign 10 players. We just don't have the capacity to manage more than six or seven tops. So for me I would propose : Out : Dolan, JRC Do not renew : Dennis, Forshaw, Sanderson, Wiemann (would keep but injuries means we should probably swerve), Woodrow, ACB, Beck (I would sign if Liverpool were up for it, but I think they will want to retain him or move him on to another loan) Keep : Toth, Pears, Hyam, Baath, Wharton, Carter, Riberio, Brittain, Pickering, Tronstand, Travis, Buckley, Cantwell, Kargbo, Hedges, Buckley, Baath, Ohashi, Gueye, Leonard, Promote : Montgomery, Tyjon Just to standstill we will need to find seven players (2 out + 7 do not renews - 2 promoted from squad). Personally I think that's about the maximum our recruitment team can realistically handle, and so I would be keeping the likes of Hyam, Hedges, Pears and Buckley as if we move them on as well we will probably just end up with a smaller squad as we won't manage to sign anybody, and if we do it will be rushed low quality options. Finding and signing good players takes time and money, and I think supporters massively under estimate how difficult it is. Those seven we will (try) to sign I reckon will be a combination of - 1 left footed centre half - 1 right back - 2 centre mid - 2 wingers / wide forwards - 1 striker

Signing premier league players at the end of their careers usually turns into an expensive mistake. Not worth it imo. Id rather sign a player at that age who has performed at Championship level like we did with Baath. They know what it takes and are likely to be motivated rather than playing like they are disappointed to drop down a division.

crikey that is some top notch research... must have taken you ages! Are you saying that Baath has not made a mistake that led to a goal all second half of season? I know he was injured but that's some going. Still Hyam to me is one of the best defenders we have had in recent years. I would be significantly less confident if we had Sanderson or Wharton instead. Carter is more debateable and has real quality, but is very injury prone We've got so much recruitment to do the last thing we need is to do is try and replace players it is not critical to do so (Hyam, Gueye etc). Push them down to the bench by bringing in better first team players by all means, but we are not going to be signing the quantity of players to replace them on top of everyone else.

Yeah agreed, really decent season from him where hes been very good alongside Batth. After Travis, Brittain and Tronstad hes probably our most important player to retain.

Can't see Travis signing, kicked on hugely this year to being one of the best centre mids in the division. He will tread exactly the same well worn route as Lenihan, BBD and now Dolan. Weve created a conveyor belt to get our best players to leave on a free next year. I wonder if Tronstad will be drawn to the same sort of decision too.

Only player we have signed in Jan who looks like they have upside is Kargbo. He was awful against Sheff Utd but see enough in other games to suggest he can kick on. Ohashi is decent and looks solid, worried about Gueye who on form is excellent but has looked completely out of it since Ismael pitched up. Toth has hugely improved after a shaky start. After that its stop gap players. We are really relying on having the best window in years just to stand still with the players leaving / getting on which is very concerning.

Has a single "premier league" player we have signed worked out? Murphy, Etuhu, Fleck, Dennis etc all come and just have been terrible. Only one O can think of who was probably just about worth it was Downing but he was hardly transformative. Id be quite happy if we just avoided players who have played decent premier league time, the likelihood of them being motivated is pretty minimal and they cost an absolute fortune. Cantwell has started to show promise but has taken a long time to get there.