Telalovic looked odd to me today, like he was injured or drugged. He usually gets about and puts a shift in, but he looked really lethargic and not up for it today.

7 minutes ago, alex l said:

But we let Ennis go, and that was only confirmed later on when we believed McGuire was completed, along with Vale. Another attacker would have been needed to let Leonard go out. 

Don't think Ennis going is even a factor, as he barely played and was useless. If we would have Gallagher, Telalovic and McGuire and generally play one up front, Leonard would have been better with a loan I think.

9 minutes ago, jwlrovers said:

Am I being too cynical to think that this wasn't a mistake at all, but in fact intentional?

Maybe explains why a loan for Leonard never seemed on the cards... they knew he would be needed as one of three.

5 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

This is a load of rubbish.  He's been on the bench or not in the squad for more than half the season.

If you actually look at the facts, we tend to win when he's not playing and lose when he is....the stats are there for all to see.

Over rated chump but let's not let facts get in the way of the Bucko love in

I'm not talking about the whole season (he was poor early on). When he came back in a few months ago, he played well and we seemed to lose form once he got injured.

10 hours ago, Penwortham Blue said:

I think it is worth making the point that the death spiral started when Thomas was removed from the team, being ineligible for the cup QF. Thereafter, he’s had a few poor sub appearances and was equally poor against Knob End but we were probably more of a threat and better balanced with him starting and the subsequent results are a matter of record.

Think we lost it when Buckley got injured.

Kaminski deserved to be dropped when he got injured, just seemed to have lost it in the weeks prior. I would definitely be putting him back in now though.

Hedges played well, but that attempt at the end was criminal. Smash it and best case it goes in and at worst it goes in the stands, it's a goal kick or corner.

I think he has been found out a bit. His go to move is to quickly shift the ball onto his right foot and get a shot away, which he managed often last season. When he tries it now, it is blocked or he is tackled almost every time.

19 minutes ago, Neilbristol said:

TK or Pears tonight??

TK please, but I think it'll be Pears. I would have put TK back in from the Norwich game.

16 hours ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

Should've picked up a result away too. One of the misses of our modern era from Jason Roberts who somehow managed to miss from about two yards out. 

It's Nonda's miss that sticks in my mind.

17 minutes ago, JHRover said:

2023-24 season tickets should be on sale yesterday.

Never ceases to amaze me how clueless the Club and so many fans are about the situation with attendances.

We've 8000-9000 season ticket holders in a 31000 seat stadium. To be getting an extra 4000-5000 walk ons (almost 50% of our season ticket base) turning up for a lunchtime televised game with no ticket promotion is a good effort.

Can't imagine many other clubs would be able to turn around and say that only about half the people in the ground on Saturday were ST holders. Usually you'd be way higher than that.

Waggott can run a couple of promotions for midweek televised games, he can encourage people to wave their flags. Unless he radically alters his approach to season tickets and in doing so gets substantially more than 8000-9000 buying then it matters little.

That isn't just pricing, but is mainly. Also important is actually pushing them and how better to encourage people to buy than during a promotion push and in fantastic form.

Instead he will wait until the summer when the dust has settled and then try to sneak through further price increases.

 

Get them on sale now at a genuinely attractive early bird offer that runs until mid-April.

Offer at £299 until mid-April, then it goes up to £399... might get a decent number gambling that we get promoted. 

Should be selling them now at an attractive, limited time price point to capitalise on the feel-good factor at the moment and prospect of promotion.

Ideally, we could really do with a super cheap offer (back to the £199 days) to entice big numbers back, with the long term view that they stay for the following seasons.

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Don’t tell a Czech they live in Eastern Europe!

My Czech fiancée would concur.

Regarding your points @bluebruce, Czech Republic is pretty similar to the UK on this, with a tolerant/accepting attitude to homosexuality. They are also the least religious country in the world (based on % of population), which may contribute to this liberal attitude.

1 minute ago, rover23 said:

Just spoken to a Brighton supporting pal of mine about Undav..

He said he’s not cut it in the PL but could be great at our level. Also said the new manager isn’t a fan, he’s been playing a 19 year old kid ahead of him and he was a Potter signing. 

He thinks the club would try to recoup as much of the reported £4.5m they paid for him and get shut. 

Would be a wise move for us to include a buy option for the summer. Loan fee now plus an option to buy of say £3.5m+ add ons. If he bangs them in he’ll be worth a lot more than that. 

If it is wise, I'm pretty certain we won't be looking into that.

4 minutes ago, rigger said:

They give a discount on next seasons tickets, so they are not painted into a corner.

Some might not renew next season for whatever reason, so I don't think you can do that really. It is still devaluing this year's season ticket,

Personally, I wouldn't mind the next season discount, but a full season ticket should always be the best value and this would just ignore that completely, particularly if you won't renew. Not really the best advert for a full season ticket...

22 hours ago, rigger said:

Anyone who doesn't renew has not lost out, because they have received what they paid for. I was not saying that what I proposed was the solution. But just that the idea, that there is nothing the Rovers can do, to make this seasons half season tickets reasonably priced, is in my opinion utter rubbish.

The season ticket is supposed to offer the best value for money. How can you then have a half season ticket offering a better per match price? It goes against any sort of retail offer/contract offered in general. Sign up for a longer deal and get a better per month price for example.

Think others have mentioned it, but the real issue is that full season tickets are too high to start with, which paints the club into a corner for half season ticket and match ticket pricing.

1 hour ago, rigger said:

I don't get the idea that the Rovers can't offer cheap half season tickets because it will not be fair on full season ticket holders. All they need to do is give a reduced price, for this years season ticket holders, on the price of next seasons ticket. These prices are just clutched out of the air, to give an example:  Half season ticket for this season £120,Season ticket price for next season £ 299, Season ticket price for next season, for this seasons ticket holders £249. 

You might have people who won't renew next year (for whatever reason) and therefore lose out. It would also set a precedent that a full ST is poor value compared to a half ST. A full ST needs to offer a lower price per game than a half ST.

They can't do cheap half season tickets now, as it will devalue the full season ticket. Obviously the right thing to do was have this sort of pricing for the full season ticket.

I'm hoping if we somehow get promoted, that they will offer cut price tickets for bumper crowds, with the potential drop in revenue easily covered by the TV money (can't see this happening though).

Hoping there's more to come, but can't remember him doing anything at all apart from his goal. He's been anonymous for the vast majority of minutes he's played so far.

On 06/09/2022 at 22:14, roversfan99 said:

How many of the 6 summer signings would people put in our first 11 if everyone was fit?

Brittain is an obvious one, we have no other right backs.

Beside that, and of course at a very, very early stage. Would Hyam start over Wharton or Ayala? Szmodics over Dack? Hirst over Gallagher? And Mola and Morton look like squad players.

Brittain - for obvious reasons as you say, but I'm not convinced he's an upgrade on Nyambe yet.

Hyam - perhaps signed with 3 at the back in mind? Looks capable enough generally, but I would go back to Ayala and Wharton if given the choice.

Szmodics - not seen anything at all from him, barely seems involved in the games he has played in. I would 100% be playing Dack over him at the moment.

Hirst - looked promising to me, I would probably start him next match if fit.

Mola - who knows?

Morton - think he's been hit and miss so far and as you say, probably a squad player to rotate in and out.

Simon Vukčević - rumour was that he sold all of his possessions and became a monk.

1 hour ago, Swanson said:

Marius Lode got his work permit application rejected yesterday (no surprise). We were the club in the Championship with the offer, heard this from two different reporters.

Anyway, won't happen now.

Surely if this is the case, it would always be rejected initially as the criteria isn't met and they believe they can get it through on appeal?

2 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Don’t get me wrong - I’d go and pick up JPVH myself from Brighton, but if we hope to bring in the Liverpool lad too, I’m very intrigued to see how we’d keep all four centre half’s happy - not to mention Phillips too when we’re trying to tie him down to a new deal. Ayala is due a couple months out around the new year - of course - but when fit he’s got to be the first name on the team sheet.

If we got JPVH and van den Berg, perhaps we'll play 3 at the back more often?