BlackburnEnd75

Pears as much as id like to see him leave cannot go without an adequate replacement. At the moment we are weaker than last season in the following areas: Right back (new lads looks promising but isn't better than brittain at this moment) Centre back (in the short term) Left back Centre mid Right wing Backup keeper (if pears goes) We are stronger in the following areas: Backup right back 1st change at Centre mid Backup striker (gudjohnsen over Gueye) Potentially left winger (new Japanese fellow) Potentially depth for the no. 10 (Swedish lad) I'm not fully sold on our business so far. We need a few of the new lads to be run away successes to consider that we have done anything other than regress massively. Still not sorted out tronstad and hyam either.

Tbf I thought tronstad was exceptional in the second half.

The usual suspects come out and start questioning the manager. Not defending or attacking VI but why dont some fans spend half as much time questioning the man who hired VI if you think he's the main problem and assembled the previous squad and out together this squad or suhail who has consistently worsened this club.

Based on last season he is the exact opposite person i would want to captain the side. A fair weather player if you ever saw one. However, we are lacking in genuine quality and there is a lot of talent in him. Giving him the armband looks to be a plan to get him to take more responsibility on the pitch. Saturday was a decent example of this. Ultimately if this form continues and the chips are really down. Is he someone you would want leading you into battle?

I'm trying really hard to not draw the same conclusion. My only defence of him is he's definitely not a right back. Looks mobile but not a lot else.

Can tavares and presumably baradji (or whoever) replace Travis's consistency and availability. Tavares doesn't have a history of playing a lot of games. Baradji is supposedly carrying an injury. Thats before we get into wether they can hack the pace of the league and gel in. Travis is a battle hardened championship centre mid. Who is available for 85-90% of most seasons.

I agree with all of this. Quality of the first 11 needs to be improved to save off the upcoming threat of relegation.

Toth Abeliosu. Hyam. Mclouglin. Ribeiro Tronstad. Tavares Henriksen. Cantwell. Kargbo Ohashi Subs: Pears, Wharton, miller, Pickering, Buckley, Hedges, tyjon, De Neve, Gueye.

I stand by it. Don't think it'll work out for him here as a winger. Maybe he will end up at left back. Decent finish though tbf.

This is the 4th time I've seen de neve. Unfortunately in my mind he is already cemented in as the symbol of this side. As a left winger he is absolutely bobbins. A reasonable athlete but offers very little. If he's our starting left winger this season we are genuinely screwed. Especially with Hedges currently the incumbent on the right. Symptomatic of the downgrading of everything at this club.

A lot of talk of Travis not wanting to renew his contract. I'm surprised nobody is considering that the powers that be don't actually want him to renew his contract. He' presumably over the 10k mark as it is and he's not exactly going to renew for less is he. Suhail is probably more than happy to get a couple of million quid for Travis and replace his 15k a week for someone on half of that. As club captain I'd imagine that Trav is pretty annoyed about the situation which should have been sorted months ago.

Toth Miller. Hyam. Wharton. Pickering Montgomery tavares Henriksen. Cantwell. Kargbo Gueye

I'd rather he didn't also. Either dish the dirt or leave the platitude.

Anybody else concerned that not that many players have played 90 mins in pre-season. Really poor first half today but the 20 mins after half time were encouraging. Kargbo looked a handful in that spell scoring and putting one on a plate for gueye. I get how they want to use him as an impact substitute but we have so little out wide in terms of threat from de neive and hedges that he's going to have to start. Tyjon isnt ready yet. Montgomery is physically ready and needs a loan but imo he isn't ready to start here. The new right back looks athletic but sloppy on the ball. There's a lot riding on miller as brittain is sort of our main creative outlet at right back. I suspect we will get miller and another in before the club move on to trying to shift another high earner (hyam or Travis perhaps). The race to the bottom continues.

Numbers game though isnt it. Thats still bodies and wages covering centre mid. Would i prefer another centre to any of the 4 behind Travis and tronstad? Yes. But we've a lack of bodies elsewhere.

We desperately need a right winger. we dont need a third striker, we'd just like one. We need cover for cantwell unless tyjon is ready now (don't think he is). We could do with extra cb cover. Baradji confuses me unless we lose one of the current centre mids as we currently have 5 senior ones (travis, tronstad, tavares, buckley, forshaw) and young Montgomery who they appear to like. My guess is one more permanent unless brittain leaves and then to see what the premier league loan market brings

From memory he shouldve had surgery on an (ankle?) Injury, we opted not to give it him and he came back and was pretty terrible for the rest of the season.

We've got to put 2 x 11 out for this game. Posted the below to see the depth: Injured - tavares Late returners due to international duty who may not play - toth, ohashi 1st 11 Pears Brittain. Carter. Hyam. Ribiero Travis. Tronstad Hedges. Cantwell. Kargbo Gueye 2nd half Mikalski Duru. Youth cb. Wharton. Pickering, Buckley. Forshaw Jrc. Tyjon. De nieve Leonard Subs: Montgomery, Batty, garrett,

Another cm

I would like to know this also. Please could someone explain in more detail how suhail has been here from the start. It needs clarifying.

Interesting that this conversation happens and within an hour there is an article containing similar information in the LET. Proof that Jackson is a frequent reader of the forums?

Broughton hired JDT He gets credit for Eustace. After that im struggling other than perhaps suhail has made that job virtually impossible.

I agree, he had it between the ears but his legs were struggling by the end before his injury. I'd wager money after a big injury that he'll struggle to replicate last seasons return.

Makes me laugh that these club employees come and go without communication with the owners but Glen has Balaji Rao reading his messages! On the meeting club issue, i believe that the 'no suhail no meeting' stance is fully justified. Without him there it's all pointless spin from the club. If the Venky's have magically woken up to the fact the club isn't being well run then I'd be offering up suhail in particular as a sacrificial lamb. On a separate point, was further disappointed to see waggott in the fans forum minutes claiming that the owners had put in x amount over the last 3 years rather than tell us exactly how much since the summer of 2023.

The plan was always to sell him in that summer But instead we sold him to the first bidder that came along when other potential bidders were not in the market due to ffp. Archie gray went that summer for north of £40million. And he's not the player wharton is. I don't understand how people argue that we got a good price for him. A once in a generation player for our academy.