I agree, I think we have to temper the enthusiasm a little. If Swansea had made better of some half chances it could easily have been a different game - which seems to sum up the Championship.

I thought he was superb on Saturday - interesting season for him coming up.

I agree that Rothwell was like a Rolls Royce when running through the midfield, and I struggle to think of any central midfield player playing in this country who is as good. However, the end product from these runs is often lacking - getting tackled by the centre half after gliding through midfield - at which point the midfield can be exposed in transition. His passing is at best average, often giving the ball away in bad positions. Having said all that, he had a real purple patch at the first half of last season - and then dropped away in the second half of the season. He is a player who will always get people off their seats, and it will be interesting to see if he develops in the Premiership under a different manager.

Insider info - or just hope ?

With our lack of centre halves I think we might miss our emergency centre half - not advocating keeping Johnson, but we possibly need a utility player to help cover some positions (especially as we have also lost Nyambe who could also cover central defence.

When you look at our squad - with Carter already our for a month - we are now looking very threadbare. The Hartlepool match will be interesting - wouldnt be surprised to see another early exit as we will have to protect the few centre halves we have - unless we get someone in prior to the match.

It struck me when he was appointed. Not saying JDT is at the level yet - but the top managers adapt to the league they are playing in. Time will tell whether JDT has that level of ability (aka Mourinho winning leagues in different countries), but better than plodding along 😉

I think we dropped lucky with Diaz - for the first two years he didn't look like he was worth £20 let alone £20m. There was no apparent improvement in his game - if anything he seemed to go backwards as he lost confidence. Then the pandemic hit - games behind closed doors and his confidence rose. Then the call up for Chile - and his confidence went up another notch. He showed enough in the match at the weekend to think that last season wasn't a flash in the pan. Personally I don't think he left us in a weaker position (possibly just above when he joined originally) - we now have a younger squad than when he joined - but he did leave at a time when we had massive holes in our squad due to players leaving at the end of their contracts. The contract position is possibly not his fault, but similarly I don't think a young squad is entirely down to his master plan - you only have to look at his handling of Travis.

The key, for me, is for the attacking unit to be well drilled - i.e. Diaz drifts central, Vale moves out left etc. TBH - I was surprised how well it seemed to work on Saturday - given the limited time to embed the approach. We didn't create a huge amount of chances though - but we did have a number of opportunities created by the new approach just missing that final pass or touch.

Even those that rate him - question he is good enough for the Championship. Anyway - lets give him chance to prove himself. Maybe the plan is for him to run around for 60 minutes, tire out the defence and then Dack to come on and score a hat trick 😃

Totally agree - watching how the system seems to work - puts a large workload on the forwards tracking back etc. Indeed that seemed to be the main thing SG did well at the weekend - as he put in a hell of a shift for the team.

I think they have explained that - he is here to fill a gap while some of our own youngsters gain more experience (presumably from the bench and the odd cup match). Only time will tell how good he is playing at this level.

Agree about Buckley - but wow - when it comes off for him, he looks like a hell of a player. Can't help but feel he will occasionally be caught in possession - but a few of the touches he made yesterday created room in midfield like no other player we currently have.,

I thought Vale did ok feeding off scraps. He was obviously there for a reason - and worked hard applying the new tactics - its not about individuals but the team. There is no way that Dack could have done the same job for the team given how much of pre-season he missed.

Though not his best match - I think Diaz showed enough to start to prove that last season wasn't a flash in the pan. Two brilliant long range efforts that could easily have been goals - and at times he looked a step above most on the pitch.

Interesting to read so many different opinions. Early season matches are always a bit hit and miss. Some promising moves that came to nothing - but you could see the intent. I don't think anyone had a bad match - but some were only average at best. Though Travis goal was something else, my MOM was Buckley. Didn't think they would work as a pair - how wrong was I - if they can avoid injury and cards - they have the ability to really push us forward. Though you have worry about defensive midfield against better teams.

So lucky the ref realised he had already booked Buckley 🙏, plus Buckley has looked good in midfield.

So lucky the ref realised he had already booked Buckley 🙏, plus Buckley has looked good in midfield.

I think I mentioned before - does seem steep - but depends on how much success structured - ie so much for promotion, number of games, goals etc. I do wonder whether we are now looking at lower leagues as there is a better chance they will hit the ground running - but also, when you look at total cost (fee + wages over contract) they represent better value than ex-Premiership academy players who are probably already on a decent salary and Premiership clubs seem to be looking for increased fees.

Will wait to see how that £2.5m transfer is structured - I would hope some will be linked to appearances, goals etc - plus a big chunk related to promotion.

It is difficult to know for certain - but I thought JDT had discussed with Nyambe prior to it being withdrawn. At the end of the day, I suppose we had to put a time limit on it before committing to a replacement.

Very embarrassing for us that Nyambi would prefer to go Wigan than sign for us. TBH I would imagine Blackpool are, like us, trying to stick to a wage budget - these things happen.

I think the market will open up more when the Premiership teams settle on their squads for next season - having a ripple effect throughout the EFL. When you look at our current first team, it isn't too different to last year - we are just very exposed to any injuries.

First team or first team squad ? I wouldn't wany any player to have a guaranteed place in first team.

With a 50% sell on clause - I would agree