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grizfoot

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Everything posted by grizfoot

  1. I suppose it depends on the context you look at it in. JDTs last seven games: W0 D2 L5 F8 A17 GD-9 PTS: 2 Eustace's first seven games: W0 D5 L2 F6 A8 GD-2 PTS: 5 Actually a 150% increase in points! But at this juncture it is perhaps less of a turnaround more of a plugging holes in a sinking ship hoping you can nurse it back to shore before the worse happens.
  2. Sums it up perfectly. I think under a well-run club having a player of Adam's talent coming through would give you the incentive to spend a bit more money in the transfer market and have a real push at promotion knowing if it didn't work out you've got a £20m player to cash in on as insurance. Don't think I've been as gutted at a player leaving since Phil Jones, or going further back to when Duff left. At least those two left to clubs who were challenging for trophies at the time. We've just sold our best talent in a generation to Crystal Palace, Crystal-bloomin'-Palace! let that sink in. I really don't think this is what Uncle Jack had in mind when he built the academy. Wish the lad all the best, got the talent and raw ability to go far but as we all know the career trajectory of a footballer is often a difficult thing to predict.
  3. I must be a little mad like any football fan traveling such a distance on a midweek, setting off at lunch time not getting back till gone three. All in the hope, the dream of another memorable night like in Leicester, like at West Ham's rented Olympic Bowl. Only this one would be a magnitude or two up, to find one on a similar scale you'd have to hark back to 2013 when a Michael Appleton led Rovers side won at The Emirates with Colin Kazim-Richards bagging the winner. As if jolted by our third kit, images of playing Chelsea past flashed up in my mind. Mourinho grey-coated, Hughes grey-haired prowling the touchline. Back when a player nicknamed 'The Axe' was allowed to live up to his nickname. Back when players wore baggy shirts, Back when you could name the Chelsea one to eleven and know each one of them had genuine class. Back when we could bring Tugay off the bench for the last twenty minutes to see out games. Back when we got under the noses of the supposed called Premier League elite, yes we might not have always won but we nearly always give them a game, especially at Ewood. Sent many multimillion pounds worth of footballers and their managers back home to London like a group of sulky children who've just been told the Pleasure Beach is shut. Picture Big Sam chewing gum, wry smile, a looming spectre of a lost decade of us not being able to even play games at places like Stamford Bridge. As for the actual match itself. The announcement of the teams, the fact Chelsea had gone more or less full strength and we had strung the best team together JDT felt he could, easily five or six short of our very best team. Set it up for an even more difficult task. The approach and message was clear, five across midfield, one up front, try and play but keep things tight and maybe we can get more adventurous as the game wears on. I don't think the endeavour was ever in question. But Chelsea passed the ball around well, as you would hope of a team that cost a king's ransom to assemble. Yet in front of goal they weren't particularly great, they squandered plenty of good chances, a thing to give hope to a team chasing an unlikely victory. Then came the individual errors that led to the goals. Leo not-any-better-than-Pears-no-matter-how-hard-we-all-try-to-wish Wahlstedt flapping one down into the middle of the box for some defender, fittingly named like a French supervillain, to slot home and dash our hopes. Perhaps unfair to think such a thing but you'd never have seen Brad Friedel do that now would you? not in a thousand years. Second Half was much the same as the first, on the back foot. Then here it was, a chance. A good chance at that. One long ball over the top, a glitch in the blockchain, and we could all dream again if only for a few seconds. Again maybe unfairly my mind flashed back, a Bellamy or a Benni McCarthy would have slotted that one away in their sleep probably. Why perhaps even Shefki Kuqi or Jason Roberts might have hit the target. That being said perhaps I do Leonard a little bit of disservice as it wasn't by any means the easiest of chances, but on nights like this those are the ones that need to go in. I do like Leonard as a player, shows plenty of good traits of an old-fashioned no.9. Keeps getting in good positions, hopefully with more time and experience he'll be putting away more of those types of chances. Then the second error, Brittian playing a sloppy pass into midfield that was intercepted, whilst not completely gifting them a goal it did offer up a very presentable chance that a player of Sterling's quality was only too happy to take. Not to sound like a broken record but I thought again, perhaps unfairly, I can't imagine Lucas Neill or Brett Emerton ever playing a ball like that. From that point on the game kind of petered out, although Sigurdsson really should have at least given us all goal to celebrate deep into stoppage time, the only consolation is that it would surely have only been a consolation by that point anyway. Perhaps rather forlornly then this fixture only cemented one thing in my mind, and that is the chasm between clubs like ours and Chelsea nowadays, the knowledge of how much we have fallen and how far off our team of today is from even our mid-table scrapping Premier League sides of years gone by let alone those lucky enough to remember the heights of the mid-nineties. Yet if there's one thing to be proud of. One thing that remains a constant, it is the fantastic support. What else can you feel but immense pride as the Rovers fan belt out a rendition of "There's Only One Jack Walker" forth into the hushed backdrop of Stamford Bridge. Amidst the epicentre of London's wealth and at the very birthplace were all this modern day mega rich football owners began it seemed a more hauntingly poignant tribute than ever before.
  4. For the benefit of those not in attendance the Blackburn End went through a repertoire of disparaging chants relating to the masturbatory habits, body mass index and penny-pinching habits of Steve Waggot, who was on the pitch pre-match. I know not all views prevalent on this board are echoed in the stands but on this occasion they seem very closely aligned.
  5. Hope I'm wrong but having watched the replays back he took a hefty whack to the side of his knee whilst clearing the ball which is a classic type of scenario to pick up a medial knee ligament kind of injury.
  6. My respect for him gone up massively. I can understand in a lot of the interviews he's got to say the right thing, stay positive and support the younger players, etc But it was evident from the interview tonight that he's inwardly fuming with the January transfer window we've had and who can blame him. Not bringing in another striker is just absolutely baffling.
  7. Jussi Jaaskelainen has been Bolton's number one for the last 25 years. Steve Bruce has been manager of Wolves. Jason Roberts missed every one-on-one chance he got in his time at Rovers. It's glorious sunshine on the opening day of every season without fail.
  8. Behind them on away goals scored as per the EFL Regulations below: 9.2 If two or more Clubs have the same number of points, goal difference and goals scored the highest placed Club shall be determined by the respective League records against each other, taking into account in order of precedence, points gained, goal difference and goals scored. 9.3 If the above procedures do not separate the Clubs then the highest placed Club shall be determined by reference to the following criteria, in the order prescribed: 9.3.1 number of wins; 9.3.2 goals scored in away games; or 9.3.3 in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 9.4.
  9. Can't have that Morecambe deserved to win that game, we should have been out of sight in the first half really. In isolation the performance wasn't that bad it's just frustrating that we can't seem to shake the habit of conceding soft goals. One thing is for sure we need four or five quality players adding to the squad if we are to have much hope of finishing anywhere beyond mid-table this season in my opinion.
  10. Great to see him back playing ? Interesting enough looks like he was playing up top on his own with Gallagher on the right and Dolan on the left.
  11. Do I get extra points for naming the grounds? There's Hakan Unsal at Elland Road, Bruno Berner at The Emirates and Herald Goulon at Old Trafford! No one's said Dino Baggio yet.
  12. You only get the seven midweek away games on iFollow (providing everything is still behind closed doors). So you potentially save yourself £70 or so less £10 x how many times we are on Sky (presuming you have Sky and won't have to pay iFollow for those games).
  13. The Season passes make zero sense at the moment to people who buy multiple season tickets who live together or be able to watch games on ifollow together at £10 between them. Three adult season tickets holders would have to fork out £399 each for one of the passes, the equivalent of £17.34 per game, when they could currently watch it for £3.33 per person currently with one ifollow pass. That's £52.02 versus £10 per game for however long fans aren't allowed back into the stadium. I'm aware the pro-rata refunds are available off next season tickets (still money you've got to pay now though) and even taking that into account you are burning an extra £20 per game on ifollow passes you won't need.
  14. That was my initial reaction when hearing the news. Given a lack of wingers in the squad I think three central defenders and wingbacks gives us more license to play two strikers up top instead of shoving players out wide who are clearly more suited to playing centrally.
  15. It's a peculiarity that we have added very few defenders to our squad since Mowbray has been manager. In fact a quick look shows we have made a total of 31 permanent signings in that time and only 6 of them have been defenders. Of the six, three have been and gone since and the only one to make a significant number of appearances for the first team is Amari'i Bell. Barring Bell and converting Bennett to a right-back as it stands our main defensive options are exactly the same as they were three seasons ago when we started that ill-fated season under Coyle minus old hands Brown, Greer and Ward padding out the squad we now have more options from the youth team to call upon as back-up at the moment. Perhaps the reluctance to strengthen is due to an unwavering faith Tony has in the likes of Lenihan, Mulgrew, Williams and Nyambe (all four of whom are full internationals I might add). The common agenda on here is that there's doubts over the overall quality of these players and that we need to bring in better quality ones. In fact the signings we've made so far in defence suggests maybe he just doesn't see it that way. In the past the likes of Paul Downing, Caddis and Rodwell have all been brought in to booster the squad rather than to be first choice options, I could be wrong but it seems to me that any defensive signing we make this window would likely fall in this category as well.
  16. Is the saving grace that the kit looks very light so probably won't be able to wear it half the time against any team that wears white? yellows! yellows!
  17. I think people have generally slightly under estimated how good Gallagher was whilst he was on loan here, he got 12 goals (one behind Graham who was our top league goalscorer with 13 goals that season). I suspect again he will be used both upfront or as a wide forward depending on how Tony sees fit. I must admit I'm a lot more confident having him as back-up central striker than I was last season when it was Brereton or Nutall filling that role.
  18. Looks more likely to be a diamond midfield to me with Smallwood at the defensive point and Conway at the attacking point behind Brereton and Armstrong upfront. Either that or 4-5-1 with Brereton upfront on his own and Conway and Armstrong out wide.
  19. Also a reminder that there's fireworks after tomorrow's game, so no need for early leavers to miss the end of the game to "beat the traffic" as I imagine there'll be plenty of people staying behind to watch those. ?
  20. If I looked it up correctly, first time we've scored five goals in a competitive game for five years! (last time being a 5-2 at home to Barnsley in August 2013)
  21. Starting to get a little worried, only a week and half to go till the season kicks off and we look really weak attacking-wise, only Graham & Dack out of the squad would I say are good enough to make an impact at Championship level and score some goals. Here's hoping Tony's got a few strikers and wingers deals waiting to go through.
  22. Seen clubs produce a number of different designs and then have the fans vote on which ones they like best, seems a good way of doing things. Seems madness to produce a kit and not consult the fans in some way, maybe they have at some point I don't know. But the sponsor is a horrible looking thing, reminds me of that other betting company one we had on the black/red halved away shirt which spoiled what would have been an amazing shirt otherwise. The best feature of this new kit is the retro sleeve details they have on a lot of the umbro releases this year, unfortunately they've gone for a light colour instead of a navy or a red which would have looked a lot better in my opinion.
  23. Does look like a squad devoid of creative players doesn't it. Kane only scores so many goals for Tottenham because he's got the likes of Eriksen and Dembele pulling the strings. Sterling only scores so many goals for Man City because of the creative genius of David Silva and De Bruyne. Looks like a squad set up to counter attack which in my opinion is the correct way to go about things about the top sides. But first England have to get past the likes of Tunisia and Panama who are going to be set-up to defensively.
  24. Funny I was just thinking about him the other day. Was in and out of a relegated Swansea side this season but was superb for Bristol City in the Championship the season before. You would expect him to be loaned out again from Chelsea next season. I think another striker has got to be the priority in this transfer window, would love a big marquee signing in that position.
  25. Yeah that's the one, Wolves player. Whether he's good enough for the Championship I don't know but he looked to have a bit of pace and trickery about him, which is something we lack going forward.
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