I'd rather he played next to Berg and formed a solid defensive foundation in defence with some aerial prowess, something we've been lacking in our last 3 seasons in the champnship and which we haven't properly fixed in 7 transfer windows. Its difficult enough with our probably limited budget trying to get players to strengthen our team. To also find ones with unnecessary attributes is even more difficult. Here is a damning statistic. We have known about these defensive issues for a while, and yet at the end of last season whilst we tried to convince ourselves we had a realist I've chance of the play offs we failed to keep a clean sheet in our last 11 games, conceding 2 or more in 8 of those games. Only Hull didn't keep a clean sheet in that period. This isn't a new manager coming into a club. This is a guy who has been here over 3 years, and yet our defending is an utter shambles. Yet he thinks the problem is we aren't passing the ball out of defence enough.

The problem is if what you are saying is true, we are going to turn down the Craig Short's for the Lorenzo Amoruso's.

Nah that's a bit of a myth too. Last season they got 28 points at home and 26 away. In 2018 they got more points away than at home. They are simply a side that makes it difficult for teams, regardless of venue. Kind of like when we were labelled the 'bully boys'. We knew we could also play a bit but the rest of the country started to believe we were a bunch of cloggers.

We got promoted last time with Short and Berg. Neither would step forward and start spraying the ball around. It's a myth that is what is needed to get us out of this league. Central Defenders first job should be to defend well. If they can then also play a bit it is simply a bonus. Unfortunately, because it's a bonus it puts them in higher demand / value. Dyche's football is nowhere near as bad as it's made out. What he does very well is spot a player to build the defensive spine of the team - Heaton and Pope, Mee, Tarkowski, Keane, Players also improve and progress under him. He then gets the best out of what he has going forward, often making a decent profit in the process and replacing them - Austin, Ings, Gray. If anyone would turn down the style and model Burnley are adopting there, on the grounds that the football is 'poor', then they are living in cloud chicken land.

And yet it was Lenihan at fault in the air for both Charlton goals that day.

Wanted:- Centre half who has the technical ability to play like a midfielder and play out from the back. Someone who is composed and can pass a ball. Maybe even one that is technically good enough to take free kicks and penalties. Basic centre-half defending ability is preferred but not essential. Recent international experience would be advantageous. Hmmm. Sound familiar?

I remember Donis tormenting one of the Neville's so much at Old Trafford that he got subbed after half an hour and Irwin was moved across to try and cope with him. Was a one trick pony with his speed and it didn't work out but far, far from one of our worst signings.

Nothing wrong with loan signings if they are to help us progress. They are often the key to successful promotion sides. Even back in 2001, for all the young talent we had available we still brought Mahon and Berkovic in on loan through the season to give us an extra bit of quality. Especially Berkovic during that run in.

Which will be "out" first:- Fixtures - 4/5 New Kit - 7/4 Season Tickets - 8/1 Tony Mowbray 500/1

He didn't drop that cross at Preston. He kind of just flapped around a bit with nobody near him but got no contact on the ball.

Just catching up. In the absense of a transfer links thread, has anyone actually reported us being interested in Muric and Iverson? Or is it just fan gossip which the tubby tabloid peddler has picked up on?

If we could have sold Raya, got an equal replacement and spent the money well elsewhere then I'd have been happy with the sale. That applies to any player. Unfortunately I don't think we did.

Give that no away fans will be allowed, I wonder if there will be money allowed to be made by streaming or beaming back away games.

Yep. You can play a possession based 3-2-2-3-1 whatever systems, but have the option to go direct or get it in the box during the same game. Again at Luton, for all the faffing around in the second half, it was a ball onto Grahams head that led to the goal. Unless you can collect the best players in the league, then in order to be a good side you usually needs to be able to mix it up.

Ask the same question at £350 with no guarantee of seat, stand, refunds or attending games like you said yesterday and see what the results are.

Thought I'd bump his thread back up. https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2020/july/ive-loved-every-minute-of-my-time-at-rovers/ Good words. Decent Rovers career.

The 12 point administration rule was brought in to stop teams overspending beyond their means and then just clearing the debts with administration. I don't know the ins and outs but not sure that's what has happened in this case.

This would be my 30th consecutive year of having a season ticket and I'm having serious doubts. No pubs as normal pre or post match. No atmosphere inside the ground. Many people are still furloughed or don't know their future economy / employment situation. It's going to be a very tricky sell for the club But as far as a I can see, you are saying that if the club says "it is £350 for a season ticket but we can't tell you which part of the ground you will be sat in or how the seating will be arranged. We also can't tell you whether you will actually be able to attend all of the games at Ewood, or whether you will need to watch many of them at home on an internet stream", that almost 4000 fans are going to sign up to that and pay £350 ???

I think you are being very optimistic there. I think your ultra-hardcore who will pay blindly without any idea of where they sit or when they will be able to attend games is less than you think.

This is a bit of a rambling post as I've only just started to think this through, but I'm undecided on next season. I'll consider whether I renew once we know what is being sold. Firstly how much will they cost? Then what will the match day experience be like? Just like part of the fun of away games isn't just watching the football for 90 minutes, for home games the social aspect is still important. Can I meet up with my mates who I only see nowadays at the footy and sit together? Will the concourses be in operation as normal? In September, you aint easily going to the WMC beforehand and calling in the Fox on the way back home. So what you may be left with is just turning up, sitting apart and watching a game of football with 7500 fans spread out and no away atmosphere. That isn't the match day experience for me. Rovers have allowed me over the last few weeks to experience sitting in my mates 'man cave garage' watching the iFollow coverage on his big TV with a beer. As there is a 'cap' on the number of fans allowed in stadia, at some clubs many home fans who normally attend may not be able to get tickets. Therefore will iFollow be opened up to UK fans for this season? Regardless, it is easy enough to get a stream even if it isn't. I struggle to get to some midweek games anyway. Do I want to commit to a full season, when given the choice for some games I actually might prefer to stream it with mates now rather than sit apart in the JW stand. From my point of view, the social aspect has always covered the 'drab football'. We enjoy the day and can laugh at how bad the football is for some games. Being bland on the pitch won't affect my decision, but what I feel the experience is going to be like might.

It's always up 50 minutes before kick off.

Only just catching up on this thread. The thing with Chapman is he is different. Has a different skill set than the other attackers. Last game and this game is irrelevant, but in those Barnsley and Wigan games when we we're piss poor, I'd rather have had some minutes of Chapman at the end than keep flipping up front between Samuel, Graham, Brereton, Gallagher. None of those are going to create you anything themselves. Having Chapman on the bench as a bit of something different would be imaginative. Dropping Gallagher and Brereton because they were poor at Wigan, then bringing them on to try and change the game a few days later at Barnsley, is unimaginative as a manager.

Without knowing what day they are paid and over what period that pay is for it's difficult to judge. I thought you meant they stopped topping it up from the end of July , therefore in August. If they were a normal business you can't really complain that a company that was being generous initially had changed strategy as the future landscape became clearer. But then you remember we offered players on big salaries an extra months contract and it all goes out the window.

From August, the club has to start paying the employees income tax, NI and pension contributions which were covered under the furlough scheme up until now. Therefore most of the 20% extra which the club have been paying to the employees will now be paid in tax, NI and pensions. The club aren't saving much money, they just don't want to pay out more from August than they were paying out in July. Not saying that's not worrying btw.

I've not followed it closely but have seen comments on twitter about there not being any significant creditors. If they don't have debts and don't owe HMRC a load of money (which most clubs normally do in administration), then from a Wigan fans perspective what is the reasoning they have done this?