He first came to my attention in the Sunderland documentary where he missed a lot of chances. I've watched him since whenever I've seen him and he has a good attitude but isn't very good and doesn't score with regularity . I'd be passing that one over.

That's half the problem. We don't have a go-to midfield paring. Players never play enough games consecutively together to form an opinion on whether that partnership actually does work. They seem to get rotated based on who the opposition is. Unless the manager is a tactical genius, such tombola-ism isn't going to be beneficial to the team.

Exactly. I watched almost every game last season and we regressed. Tony tries to convince us that our football progression is further on than it was a few years ago, but as far as enjoyment of watching Rovers go I preferred the League One and first season back performances, where we actually got the ball in the box and caused some excitement. We've boosted our performance stats in areas which might look good on paper, but we are going backward in terms of results and excitement. And no stat on earth will tell me Gallagher should be on the wing.

Gerrard has done a cracking job there, not just to get them back on top but to win the league by such a large amount and break the 100-point barrier. Their record in Europe this season is also impressive.

I remember a few legia fans with their kids being in the Fox before the game having their pics taken with Rovers fans and Rovers scarves. I remember the actual games as being pretty low-key surprisingly.

You see, that's where we disagree. I think he was generally average to poor. So our viewpoint on extending his contract is going to differ. At 22, you tend to know the abilities and limitations of players and I don't think he's going to be anything other than a mediocre Championship player. After 3 years we still don't know if he's a striker or a driving midfielder-cum-winger, as he doesn't look good enough at all as the former and all his better performances have come as the latter. I think he could be replaced and improved upon relatively easily by a decent coaching / scouting network, but it wouldn't make financial sense to the club to discard an asset and spend more money to replace it. And that's my problem. In order to try and maximise the value of the asset, we will not look at replacing and improving the team when I believe it would be relatively easy to do so. (although the amount of squad renovation required means that there are more important changes needed elsewhere) I'd be curious to see if a new manager came in whether he would see the potential in BB also, or if he would be limited in his appearances as the new manager would not have to worry about justifying the purchase.

This is another area to watch. With all of the other repair and replace that needs doing in the squad this summer, Brereton isn't perceived as an issue. But sooner or later somebody needs to decide whether to cut their losses and let him leave in 12 months, or offer him a new contract in the hope that he comes good and they can recoup some money in later years. I suspect new contract will be incoming over the summer as they will still feel they can get something back from the player, and therefore he will be shoe-horned in front of the likes of Dolan to justify it. He was better this season than the previous two, but he was still pretty poor.

TM - "If I sort the friendlies, can I stay" TM - "Hello?" TM - "Helloooo. Is anyone listening?" * silence * TM - "Yippee"

No, but we did finish 10th and get to a league cup semi final a couple of years later so I'm not sure it rings true.

I honestly don't care. I'll watch the Wed/Derby game. If we play some fringe players or try something tactically different I hope it pays off. However If we play then same tippy-tippy crap with a striker out wide then I honestly hope we get beaten, and Forest and Coventry go flying past us.

I've just downloaded PES2021 Lite for free on the PS4. Not had a PES game since about 2017/2018. On the previous version back then they had lots of online tournament that started at set times of the day which gave you and hour to qualify and then went into a knockout stage. It used to last 1-2 hours per tourney depending on progress. However on the Lite version all the tournemnts are either several hours with no ko stage (Home vs Away leagues) or the months-long E-competition. I know the lite version is stripped down. Does anyone know if the full (non-lite) game has the shorter tournaments like 2017/2018? Google isn't helping. Edit - it's only £13 so I just chanced it.

You could argue about the ratings slightly but overall the comments are fair enough.

SLEXIT

I wasn't writing an in depth editorial piece on the issue. I was scrambling a reply in between Microsoft Teams meetings. But you are indeed correct.

Cardiff, Newport and Swansea disagree. But point taken. I'm writing on here whilst trying to work you know !

Neville was making the point on Sky last night that City's owners, if any, were the ones most likely to back out on sporting grounds. It's highly unlikely they got into football to make additional billions. And it sounded on Sunday like they were the last to commit.

I agree with your vision but I don't think it will happen. I fear the clubs bemoaning the greed of the big 6 will suddenly change their tune when there is only £X amount of money left in the UK game, and that money is being divided up between the 86 football league teams. I think your Evertons and your Crystal Palaces that are speaking out about this now will suddenly go quiet once their income has dropped and when they realise that if other clubs go bust they will be able to get a bigger share of £X. Do you think Burnley's new owners would care? Do you think Venkys would care? I don't see a total reset for a long time. I see the Super 6 dining at an elite table, whilst the rest of the clubs ultimately will turn on each other and scavenge for whatever money is left over.

The point is many clubs will go under because of breakaway. Villa fans might think they will become a big club, but if their TV rights are slashed by 50% almost overnight how are they going to pay the ridiculous bills they currently have. Villa could be in as much financial jeopardy as Exeter over this. Do I want to see the Premier League kick them out. Damn right. But owners of all "non-elite" clubs are going to have to find some serious funding to cover black-holes over the next few years whilst the clubs become sustainable. Drawing up stumps on the 6 with no going back allows this European Super League to happen, and will be signalling the end for many football clubs in the UK. It's not a decision to be taken lightly. Ultimately I feel one of two things will happen. • Either the ESL goes ahead and the teams also remain in their domestic leagues, but a 'payment' is made from the ESL to the domestic leagues to allow them to take part, which funds the losses in TV rights. • This is stopped and the current formats continue with tweaks, but the 'Super 12' clubs are then allowed a bigger share of the TV rights for the Premier League and the Champions League featuring themselves because they are the ones that more people are tuning in to watch. Again, I'd love to banish the whole lot, but you have to be prepared for the collateral damage.

The problem is the money would drain quickly and clubs would have to readjust quickly. If Villa's TV rights were halved over the next 2 years they would have serious financial problems and could well go bust. With the knock on effect as could Burnley, Rovers, Blackpool or Morecambe. This has been rumoured for a while. Who is to say that the Sky / BT Sport, Bein Sport, Canal Sport etc.. TV contracts for the Premier don't have a clause saying that if any clubs walk away the contract can be re-negotiated. If it goes ahead, the 12 become untouchably richer, some of the rest of the UK teams will sink to a more palatable financial level and some of the others will go bust. @Wheelton Blue asks "I wonder what Burnley's owners are thinking" . Probably thinking that if this happens we can't get our money back, so do we cut our losses and pull the plug. Which may well be the same as Venkys and many, many other owners outside the big 5 and Spurs.

So no Big 6 in the Premier League. Not sure if that will be a breach of contract from the PL to the existing broadcasters / sponsors, but fairly quickly the Premier League money will dry up. Then the EFL money. All clubs from the likes of West Ham down will need to quickly cut their cloth and many will go bust. I suspect the ESL will pass some money across the the Premier League to 'allow' their clubs to compete and to keep the Premier league running. But those ceilings can be broken. We did it, Leicester did it. With regards to the money available for getting in the top 4 and a Champions League spot, Newcastle did it. Leeds did it. Tottenham did it and have now got their golden ticket. Previously it could, and was, done. Now it is to become a closed shop. .

But you can get there on merit. Just ask Burnley. In this situation with the ESL you cannot. That's the difference.

If this goes ahead, and the Premier League money starts to dry up as the media rights' deals collapse, that removes Venky's "lucky promotion" as an option to get their money back.

Because as much as the Premier League and Champions League was about greed, if you performed well enough you could get access to that money. The Premier League wealth was allowed to be shared to Barnsley, Swindon and Huddersfield instead of Leeds and Newcastle as their relative performances earned it. Leicester have been in the Champions League. In a season where several of the big 6 are under-performing, they may do so again along with West ham. It always felt like it took money to get at the money, but at least you could get at it on merit. This way you get at it by invitation only, and those that have it can never lose it.

i agree. That's why Elliot is a Premier League John Buckley and John Buckley is a Championship John Buckley.

Kind of a Premier League John Buckley then?