Hasta

Thats the strange thing. He's been here two years. His contract ends in summer 2022. His career has time on it's side, but I'm not sure Rovers do ! If he went on loan this season he would be in the last year of his contract when he returned. We will probably end up offering him another 2 or 3 years to try and salvage something from our 'investment' - which would be crazy. Mowbray and the club are going to have to be prepared to "write off' this investment for the good of the club and play him on merit alone. And if that means the wilderness a couple of months into this season then so be it.

Maybe that extra months salary money we paid to Smallwood and co. in July could have been spent on said landscaper instead.

44 appearances across 2 years for BB. He has had an opportunity. How long do we risk playing a weakened XI by including him just to try and hope he can repay that ridiculous transfer fee. When you have Armstrong and Gallagger, then Dack to return and hopefully Chapman geting a chance, its hard to see how Brereton gets game time once the season is in full swing. Getting Graham and Samuel out the door helps mowbray justify finding him a place on the bench. However at some point Mowbray will have to accept what he has done, rather than picking a player who simply isnt.up to it just to try and justify that fee. The problem is the squad has.so many problems that a 3rd choice striker isnt priority, and there appears to be no rumblings.from the academy with regards to strikers.

"It has been a really difficult decision but I'm 85 years of age and a diabetic on insulin. Covid has severely restricted my movements as I am classed as high risk, attending race meetings, even with limited attendance, will not be possible. I have also had tough business decisions to take due to Covid. Having had to furlough staff I could not, in all conscience, continue to race the same number of horses "

Probably "wow, we actually spent some money on buying a defensive player and it made us more solid and pushed us closer to promotion"

But if you are prevented from going on your holiday you have booked you get a refund. You don't get a live stream of Benidorm beach instead.

Although it will be a very expensive match day pass for ilfollow if there is a lot of BCD matches. The real carrot here has to be allowing away matches to be streamed as part of the season ticket package (free or reduced cost), bearing in mind there's going to be no away fans this side of Christmas. I know that will be out of Rovers control but the EFL / iFollow need to sort something out. In fact there's a decent money opportunity for ifollow and the clubs on away games here.

IFollow passes per season ticket for all games played behind closed doors. No refunds to be given. (which I suspect is what is coming here)

Back to Marcus Bent, I hardly recall anything of him after he left Ewood. However he went on to score 35 Premier League goals for a number of clubs, as well as making 55 PL appearances for Everton.

I seem to be in the minority, but I didn't thng that much of Cunningham when he was here. If the bar is 'are they better then Bell and Del' then it's a pretty low standard.

I don't think you understood the title of this thread. Donis isn't even in the worst 20 Rovers signings ever.

If we think we can get a fee for him we will be telling Keith Curle he is Beckenbauer.

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.