joey_big_nose

Sancho and Maguire too. And keep Shaw fit.

Agree with Kane. He seems to have totally changed his game in a way that suits Spurs but not England. England need him to channel Shearer, but instead he prefers being Dennis Bergkamp to Son's Henry. We don't need him messing about in an already congested midfield despite his excellent passing. Also whats frustrating is three of our outstanding creative talents don't really seem to be kicking on - Grealish, Sancho, Foden. Plus Rashford whose never convinced at international level is going backwards too...

Yeah, I think the NL is good. You wouldn't have got a game like that in a friendly. Hungary absolutely ecstatic. Playing 4 games at the end of the season when we have the season starting early due to WC is a bit mad. But it's the same for everyone. Southgates got a massive problem now. What's his best team? What's his best formation? Basically everything has been rubbish and hasn't worked. Probably given how poor our defence has been it will be back to 343. And we have 2 games against Italy and Germany to get it right. This will likely be Southgates preferred XI imo. Pickford Walker. Stones. Maguire James. Rice. Bellingham. Shaw. Sterling. Kane. Mount Issue is out of that who truly is in form and confident? England are producing a lot of good attacking players but no one really dominant. And defensively we are going backwards.... Hmmm...

Long time since we've played a proper 442. Probably the only time in the last 15 years is when we had Gestede and Rhodes I think? Maybe memory playing tricks on me but can't think of another front two pairing?

That he's brought his own support is very good. Hopefully they have a plan mapped out and can start implementing straight away. If JDT is happy for Broughton to handle recruitment it will mean they can just focus on working with the existing team. That's really the bit I don't quite get. Surely JDT will have a clear view of the sorts of player he wants. Maybe he gives a list of types of players wants and Broughton is tasked to find them and sign them? Will be interesting to see how it works. I also note that one of JDTs men is Performance Director and another head coach which to my mind further questions what DJs role will be? Will be a shame to lose him but looks like its on the cards. Wonder where Park fits in too.

Even if we paid a decent fee I think we'll struggle to get someone as proven. Let's face it when clubs were looking to buy Lenihan when he was under contract we wanted £5m minimum. That's what others will be looking for an equivalent. It's going to be a gamble on someone. It's so frustrating we've let a reliable proven Championship performer at the peak of his career go on a free. Rothwell too. Totally barmy.

Have to agree, I thought a bottom half prem club might give him a go as a squad player, but he's been available for ages and no one interested. So obviously the market rates him as no better than mid table champ. Personally while he is a bit rash and lacks positional awareness he is I think he's a very good player at this level. Good in the air, relatively quick, on a good day can pass very well from the back, strong. IMO we will struggle to find an equivalent replacement , but look forward to being proven wrong as others suggest.

We need to sign 2 CB, 1 RB, 2 CM, 1 ST (2 if BBD goes), 1 Winger, probably a goalkeeper too. With JDT incoming and Broughton here I think we'll see quite a few unknowns from Scandinavia pitching up in the coming weeks. Could be a bit chaotic with both new in role and having no working history together. Who gets final say on transfers? Broughton is going to have to be very skilled at stakeholder management to iron this stuff out and make it efficient and keep everyone on side. Also I do wonder if one thing we will miss with Mowbray gone is the good conveyor of Prem loans we have had. Hopefully DJ can keep that going. Weve averaged about 2 quality loans a season (albeit a lot of mediocre stuff too). It we lose that run rate we're in trouble. On the flip side Mowbray was relatively cautious in terms of pitching young players in. He'd play them, and play them often once they got a run. But he would introduce them slowly. I wonder if JDT and Broughton will be more aggressive?

Yes it does look a real challenge. A lot is really going to come down to Broughton, he's going to have to be excellent at managing upwards and downwards. It'll work only as well as he can co-ordinate everyone.

I mean well resourced compared to their competitors in their league

If it is a JDT/Broughton combo then here's no way to guess how good or bad it will be. We just need to see how it goes. On the + side JDT has won trophies and managed in the CL, and Broughton has been involved in building success at Bodo/Glimt On the - Broughton is doing a total new role for him and the club as DoF, and JDT has only a couple of years experience at a well resourced major club in the Swedish league. How transferable that is into the somewhat wacky world of Rovers is a mystery.

Sorry if I missed it but is there anything actually concrete that we have approached JDT?

Makes sense. I do wonder however if Walsh turned us down due to the mad Venkys setup and that's why we went for Broughton out of the blue.

I also can't see why we would go for Rooney. I'd much rather take someone with a good proven managerial record. Also realistically we won't be able to afford him.

Just a hunch?

Hopefully he will have a big list of cheap talented players to use. I reckon it could be an interesting season with a lot of experimental signings. Still can't really wrap my head around how a decent manager will sign on for our gig - needs to be okay with 1- Crazy distant owners, 2-Brand new DoF, 3-Small budget

What's particularly galling about it (and probably a big factor why Lenihan is moving on) is despite Lenihan being critical to Rovers, captain and playing most games Ayala is probably being paid double to miss 80% of our games.

He's a good all-round defender. It will be hard to find as good a replacement with the budget we have. I guess we will be finding out if Carter can step up, and trying to get a loan in of similar quality to Van Hecke or Harwood-Bellis.

I had a look too off the back of this and agree if you dig a little deeper he's really a well qualified academy director, not a first team anything. Not saying hell do a bad job but he's in this Sporting Director role for the first time. It's also a bit weird when you consider the part of the club that's been doing well is the academy under Damian Johnson. But we've brought in someone doing DJs role in another club and made him top dog. Where does that leave DJ?

Thing that worries me about the 48 hours is that Broughton may not have had time to realise how dysfunctional our setup is and is in for some surprises. Hope he doesn't pull a Lambert in a few months.

Have to wonder if Knutsen really fancies walking away from a CL club however small for the Championship?

Sounds very switched on, but obviously working at a lower standard than Rovers. I interesting quote in there "the project that really excited me was Bodø/Glimt. The joined-up thinking, strategy and journey they were on made me think we could do something really special." Surprised if he's coming based on a similar feeling at Rovers.

There's no way it's Dyche. JDT seems possible though.

Personally I'd take the Nations League every time over a friendly. Obviously nothing compared to the Euros or WC but at least competitive. We or Belgium, Spain etc might think it's a sideshow, but I am sure Hungary etc would love to win it. It's the League Cup of international football. Quite looking forward to Germany tonight. Hopefully go in with more energy and focus than Saturday night.

Yes - for someone like Ainsworth that he will get paid more is a huge advantage for us. But for our first choice managers they can get similar money elsewhere. So the nutters thing will be / has been decisive.