joey_big_nose

Time will tell with Rothwell but in a good footballing side well managed like Brentford he will be a top player imo. He's bound to get a good move. Probably the only player apart from Armstrong, Travis and Kaminski who would get a move to a side above us in the table.

Really disappointed we are letting Rothwell go. He's not been managed well by Mowbray at all imo. Mowbray seemed to take the approach to bully him a bit which seemed unfair. He had his faults but it wasn't his attitude. Needed more if an arm round him. Feels a lot like Cairney. Genuinely talented but strangely not valued. Likely to go on to a higher level like Cairney. Seems totally self inflicted. Other players far less promising treated better.

Would have kept Bell and let Johnson and Bennett go. What on earth is the point of keeping players over 30 who are so injury prone?

To be fair to Mowbray Armstrong and Travis have really improved. Brereton as well but he was appalling so has improved from a pretty low bar! But then again Nyambe, Lenihan, Rothwell, Gallagher haven't improved. So, mixed bag really. Should be doing beter.

That he's missed the playoffs by 20 points, and survived an absolutely horrendous 12 game run through Feb and March, suggests to me he's here for life now. Venkys analysis maybe "we're not going to invest to go up, so may as well stick with Mowbray as it will be cheaper than get someone new". Issue is all the ingredients are there for relegation next year, but I don't think Venkys can or want to see that.

As an aside how much better than Douglas has Bell been? Douglas is absolutely shocking imo. Worst first team signing in a long time. Really hope Pickering is a good un. Left backs been a real problem position for us all the way back to Warnock.... Also I would give Bell a new contract as backup. I think we can get more out of him.

Classic Mowbray. Goes through good run, bad run, good run, death spiral, now back on the up with some really good performances. That's the way it's always been with his managerial tenure at Rovers and his clubs before. We might have a good summer of recruitment, we might start next season really well. But we will all know the spiral is on its way. As an aside I don't really get why people think we play poor football. Id say we play very entertaining football on the whole. It's the glass jaw that is our issue. But what's the point in sticking with a manager who you know is not going to get you up?

Fines for 9 of the ESL teams announced. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2021/may/07/nine-of-european-super-league-rebel-clubs-commit-to-uefa-competitions The retrospective fines seem pretty pitiful. £2m roughly per club which is probably around their weekly wage bill. Even the future £100M contract break clause seems hardly much of a barrier. They'll be looking for bigger numbers. I'm interested to see if the PL takes a harder line. Looks doubtful to me.

I wonder if Evans, Holtby, Trybull, Elliott, Downing, Johnson and Bennett will all go? That's 7 midfielders! That will leave us with Rothwell, Travis, Davenport, Buckley so we'll need to sign at least two more.

Bellingham also looks like a player who could burst onto the scene and make a huge difference for England. And Rice has come on hugely in the last year. We're starting to look really strong in every position except centre back and GK. If we can find one top CB and one top GK we will maybe hope to get on France and Belgiums level. (As an aside I don't think we've ever really had a football rivalry with the French? Not sure why? Probs just never really drawn them at tournaments. I can't ever think of us playing them in a knockout round? Scotland, Germany and Argentina are our rivals. France don't come anywhere near those 3).

Totally agree I'm sure Rotherham will play 343, sit deep and let us have the ball, and we won't know what to do, and then they nick something on a set piece. That's basically been the straightforward way to get a result out of us. Huddersfield played right into our hands (4 at the back, very open attacking style) but I can't see Rotherham doing the same.

Harvey will definitely play PL, just not sure at the Champions League level. Could end out carving out a career mid or lower table. 17 though so could rapidly come on. With BB its just about if he learns to get his head up and improves his final ball. If so could be a yo-yo player I think. He's improved so much in 12 months it's not unthinkable he could keep going. I thought he was the worst striker we ever had in his first season... As an aside its been pointed out since we've focussed on being direct and counter attacking him and Gallagher look so much better. Interested to see if we continue in that vein. It's so hard to pick out who will do well. Armstrong statistically has been fabulous at Championship level. Hes quick, scores on his own counter attacking, poaches, gets goals from range, does have a link up side to his game that he showed yesterday. Not one dimensional like Rhodes was/is. Got so many tools. But... I've got a nagging feeling he will bomb at PL level. Lacks physicality, not quite clinical enough, feels like good prem defenders will sideline him easily. But then again people said that about Bamford and he has thrived. I guess you don't really know till it happens.

He's so much better than he was a year ago. It's really light and day. His hold up play and running with the ball are both excellent. He was like Bambi on ice in 19/20, but this season he holds off, turns and runs so well. That said he really really needs to work on his passing, heading and finishing. Hes way too head down, and far too often carries the ball 30 yards and then makes a ridiculous pass to the opposition. Must have done that 3 times today.

I liked Villanueva, in the talented but not very effective bracket we specialised in for a while with him, Formica and Rochina. All of them could have had decent careers for Rovers with better managers I think.

Yes - while good I've not really been blown away by Eliott to be honest. He's got good stats but rarely beats a man, rarely scores. When he doesn't play I don't really think we miss him to be honest. He's incredibly young so sure he will come on. But seems a long way away from the likes of Foden, Sancho, Bellingham, Greenwood etc who are England's future. I'm not that convinced he will be a big player for England. The standout loan for me has been Harwood-Bellis. Cracking player, would love it if we could get him for another year. Would take Elliott too obviously. But if I could only take one it would be H-B.

The midfield should be 3 out of Travis, Rothwell, Buckley and Davenport between now and the end of the season imo. I assume (maybe foolishly) we will pull out the stops to keep Rothwell and let Trybull, Evans, Johnson, Holtby, Downing, Bennett all go. If we offer Evans or Bennett a new contract I'll absolutely lose it.

Huddersfield have been absolutely terrible. But also what played into our hands is they played 4 at the back which we always do much much better against than three. And honestly not having Douglas in the team makes a huge difference. He's just so weak defensively and no pace. Bell has his faults but he at least has recovery pace. I would really love to see a breakdown of our wins and losses against 4 and 3 at the back. I really think when you look at it we will have had a playoff season against back 4s but a relegation season against back 3s. Maybe I'll just sit down and work it out by scrolling through whoscored, if no one has a way to figure it out from a website or something?

I think Dowdens statement has killed it to be honest. It can't go ahead if the government says it will do everything it can to block it. Boris has obviously immediately identified this as a hill to die on which is smart politically. Resonates with all his populist, traditionalist, anti globalisation positioning. The 6 PL ESL clubs now need to figure out how to row back. Humiliating.

I really can't see what options the PL, La Liga, Serie A and UEFA have apart from to seriously sanction all the clubs. The short term financial costs are worth it to "stamp on it" like Neville said. Any sort of accomodation undermines the principal of competition that runs through European football. Everton, Villa, Newcastle, Leicester, Leeds etc are not going to accept being locked out of Europe forever. It's going to be scorched earth.

Had a think about this. It only really makes sense if the 12 are willing to get thrown out of their leagues and start the ESL as a regular league competition. That would explain why they are looking for 20 clubs... Plan A = PL, La Liga, Serie A accept the new format and they play ESL as a group/knockout midweek Plan B = PL, La Liga, Serie A reject the format and they play ESL as a full league tournament on weekends.

I think this is seriously on the table. As is all the players from the 12 clubs being banned from the Euros. It's such a huge transgression that the other 14 clubs in the PL and top Championship clubs will be getting together wondering if they should just kick them out for a season.

It's really hard to see who will be for this to be honest outside the owners. It seems such a monumentally stupid idea that has 0% chance of succeeding which makes you think some other angle is at play here. Reckon it could be about extracting more concessions from UEFA in the new format CL. But it could have the effect that UEFA decide to call their bluff.

Gut feel from me is they have misjudged it and the fans will be happy to go to war with the clubs. That fight has been brewing for a long time and this is just the spark it needs.

If he goes on a winning run now, which is standard practice for him, it will suddenly look a lot more plausible for him to stay. Venkys have shown they are disengaged so will pick the simple option. Reckon for him to be certain to go we will have to lose three of the last four. I can see Mowbray winning three of them and Venkys leave him in place.

I suppose it's about definitions really. I would say world class is you are set apart as one of the very best in your position, and your pretty much consistently brilliant. All through Rooneys career there were a lot of forwards who were at a similar level or better than him. Just playing in the prem while he was playing you had Henry, Nistelrooy, Bergkamp, Drogba, Aguero, Van Persie, Suarez all at a similar level imo. If United lost Rooney they could replace him with someone like that. Ronaldo was irreplaceable. If it's a very broad definition then I suppose Rooney would get in. But then so would dozens of players across the world at any one time. Ps. Anyway don't take my word for it. Ferguson took a different view and only said he had 4 world class players in all the time he was at United (Spoiler : Rooney isn't one of them, and not even cited as someone who should have been included by those who challenged him) : https://www.football365.com/news/ferguson-world-class-man-utd-cantona-giggs-scholes-ronaldo