The point is the past is also the present. As it has been for the last 12 years... You are right it's not all on them, the Stooges they've appointed are culpable too. (not selling players and getting money for them Vs going on frees for example.) As for the owners we seem slow on getting round FFP compared with other clubs, for example, then there's the no money given to replace Armstrong, not to mention last January. You can't have not knowing as an argument for you and against my point. It cuts both ways. Also no one ever said get the wrong signings. And what's your hope based on? The evidence shows them screwing up time after time. I may as well hope to play for Rovers at nearly 40 if evidence isn't a criteria. Thats some PR and a half! A disappointment? Think disaster or poor would be a better way of putting it. They have both been terrible. Also Morton has nowhere near the impact Hyam does on the team. Not same category of signing. It's also worth pointing out are we really happy with a guy who's getting towards missing half our games? And as for Szmodics he's had as many good games as bad. Not sure he's the best value for money. Personally I think he will come good but at present it's hard to qualify him as a raging success. Especially given what we paid and our budget. That's not my job. I'm not a scout and in the know who is available and the like. What I think we should sign is a striker and hard man midfielder at the very least.

Sorry mate that's nonsense.There's a common denominator over the last 12 years messing us about. To ignore it is daft. For all the new stuff we have - and boy don't they sound similar to the old - there's a ton the same. Most significantly the owners who call the shots. And of course we've seen the owners year after year under invest in this team. We've seen contracts run down before. We've had new recruitment strategies and teams before. So all the evidence shows that given the constants and the previous new starts - we still are weak in this area. It's naive to think everything has changed. It's counter to all the evidence. Fair enough that's quite subjective. However I think it would be a stretch to call it a strong window. Two utter clangers, and one of the good players missing 40 percent of the games, and only Hyam vastly improving the first 11. That's not a great window. Again I refer to the points above! Given the history of the club no wonder people are worried and disappointed we aren't getting bodies through the door. Yes the result at the end of the window matter more however good additions early on could give us an edge in a few games. And I think we can clock how it's gone as a window before the end of the season.b

Call me a grumpy badger if you like but I generally think evidence should influence my opinion! And it's not as if we haven't had 12 years of misrule, an incongruous transfer policy (increase value yet contracts running down) and the fact we arsed up near the exact situation last year - not to mention imo an average summer transfer window -- to make us sceptical it will right this year. All of those things bar the transfer window are absolute facts. So I struggle to see how people can't see why others aren't relaxed about the window.

If it's the one I'm thinking of j think he has struggled at Wigan at this level and also at Rangers. If I'm thinking of the wrong one ignore me! Mind you what we need is the right players. Kuqi was never Prem standard but worked in our team. Gestede hasn't really done much other than at Ewood. If you get the right fit then the players can make the step up if the role suits them. Unsure if that's the case here though.

He did! Thanks for the correction. Loan with option to buy I think. Either way the point stands that he hardly spent his way out of trouble.

Agree with the second sentence. Totally the case. And can't remember the last good decision they made. First isn't correct though - a good manager doesn't need a ton of signings to stay up. Big Sam only added in Diouf to keep us up (and had some injury issues too as I recall.) Hughes did get 3 players in but 2 were for peanuts and the third (Savage) was injured for a good part of the run in. Neither needed to rely on signings to stay up.

Yes I read this, and it all seems rather crazy. The more I read on it the more it seems the senior Reynas are a lot of trouble. Domestic violence is totally wrong and I deplore it. This two issues however seem to me to be separate. I mean their son was badly behaved at the tournament. His fault he didn't get in the team and maybe they should have looked closer to home as to the issue he wasn't in the team. Revealing this now is just an act of spite rather than any moral justification for it. And it's probably - given the severity of the issue - cost the coach his career. It's unpleasant and vindictive. Mind you Reyna jr won't have an easy time either. It's drawn more attention both to his poor attitude and the baggage that comes with his interfering parents. What a circus.

Blimey! That is a swap I would do! Dembele is decent, and Wallace was excellent at Millwall and a good swap in itself. Aside from the eggs being in more baskets that's improving the squad. Mare to miss out on this alone. Mind you with Giles whacked onto the right I dare say they would have been rendered pointless by Dembele being in net and Wallace at centre back...

😂 Now 99, that's not fair as it doesn't provide any context to what Lampard has achieved. It makes no reference to the fact he had a ton of Chelsea's promising youth at Derby or that Chelsea won the CL the season he was sacked. He just sounds pretty average according to this.

I don't think my previous post conveyed how weak I think the PL is this year. Look at the bottom 7. Southampton - after years of doing nothing with average players and managers it's no surprise they are bottom. Wolves - seem to have lost their way. Without getting the manager right and some Portuguese talent through their connections (harder when slipping down the league) they're going to struggle. Forest - impressive to be promoted but you can't whack in that many players and expect success. Like with QPR before mass change never does well. West Ham - surprising given the talent they have but maybe Moyes, like so many managers at so many clubs, has overstayed his welcome and gone stale. Everton - years of mismanagement has left a weak squad and they've a manager who struggles to be mediocre. No surprise they are struggling. Bournmouth - championship level squad and manager. Leeds - living in the shadow of Bielsa-ball which when the novelty has worn off isn't that effective. Leicester - when you see your best players go or continue to age and don't improve the squad you are going to have issues. Picking 3 from that lot to go down is a tough ask. All like they seem to be trying to get relegated. I imagine west ham have the quality to stay up, especially with a freshening in the managerial hottest, l but for the rest? They all should be very nervous.

Having looked at the prem table I was shocked by how poorly so many teams are doing and how many relegation candidates there are. My word what a time to go up. So many of the big clubs struggling, half a dozen teams striving to get relegated. It's a great time to get yourselves established. And shocking how poor the lower half of the prem is.

Looking at the last half dozen games I think our win rate of late is more like 1 in 3. That would see us with 7 wins and short of what's needed. I appreciate that's a bit of an arbitrary place to slice the cake so to speak, 6 games, but it is a worrying niggle I have. What makes it more challenging is there a load of sides with momentum, who it seems will pick up a lot of points. Boro and WBA spring to mind. After that there are a lot of others that are pushing hard too - clubs with good budgets who are inconsistent like Watford and Norwich, as well as some canny teams making the most of their resources like Millwall, PNE and Luton. One positive of late is that we have beaten weaker/out of form teams. So with the fixtures we have over the next few games (Rotherham and Blackpool I think?) we could really give ourselves a boost and ease the pressure for later on in the season.

An excellent summary which I think most would struggle to argue with. Only things I would add are: Brittain being able to play lb in our squad is another plus for him. I always say we can't afford to carry injury prone players and his appearance record is hovering just above making him not worth the money. Like Ayala a club like ours cannot afford numerous players, with long layoffs even for top quality. However as it's hovering above that I'd say it's a good signing, albeit one which was unnecessary if we had treated Nayambe better but that's not on the player. Szmodics I think will be judged in light of how much is spent (by us and other teams) over the next couple of transfer windows. If we don't spend much in Jan or next summer than it looks a poor transfer. Certainly if we say had picked up £6 million for Bereton and Szmodics was a third of that you'd feel it's not been reinvested that well. However he's done ok, shown some promise and from the comments when he signed seems to fit the blueprint. So lots of reasons to be optimistic too. Morton imo is a waste as he's not good enough to really enhance the team so just blocks out own players progression. Hard to measure but I feel the missed opportunity costs with him are going to be huge. Plus we all know we needed a hard man with experience in there. I think when you consider what resources we have available then it looks not that well spent. To have only 2 qualified successes in there is a poor return. A bit of leeway is given for the paper thin squad inherited and the late appointment, but still...

Sorry Chaddy but this simply isn't true. There has never been a player in Rovers history, and I suspect any other club too, where a player has cost a huge amount of the budget, done nothing for 2 seasons, not come good till the 4th, all at the same club. I cannot think of a single example. Often the player is shipped out, sometimes the manager carries the can. Never can I think of someone breaking the bank and taking 4 seasons to come good, and a club in waiting that long. Even if there is a case or two (and I'm pretty certain there aren't) the fact it's not commonplace shows it is unusual. And you can't build a case on the exception not the rule.

Blimey. In this league alone we have had Rhodes, Gestede and Graham, and even Armstrong, and yet there's satisfaction at the performance and ability of Hirst. No wonder the club is going backwards.

Some players are. Jason Roberts springs to mind. Made such a pest of himself he was worth another 5-10 goals to the team on top of what he got himself. Wouldn't mind if some of our forwards were of that ilk. Problem is the likes of Hirst and Vale don't score or contribute to others scoring either.

That's about a 60% availability rate. That's really not good at all. It's definitely injury prone especially when you consider it's lots of little injuries rather than one long layoff. A huge positive from a crap result. Surprised as thought the lad had lost his way. Here's hoping he can start to reach some of the potential he showed. You can always with effort find better quality. Certainly as a mid table championship club. Takes work and nous mind. Whether we have enough of that is another debate but the potential is always there to improve. Mind you when the guy is missing so many games it's not hard to improve on not being on the pitch.

I think part of our frustration is that he's clearly not at the level the club are pitching him to be at, whether that's our number 1 strike target, £5 million of talent, or even potential, or even just championship ready. I know it was a few years ago but Gally cost £5 million. I don't think Gally is all that but he is streets ahead of Hirst. Comparatively even taking inflation into account, it shows we could, no should, do much better than Hirst for £5 million.

Maybe your star striker's Thailand trip is an excuse? Perhaps he is questioning your managerial ability, if you think Hirst is up to a cameo appearance? 😉 Seriously though not sure of any redeeming features of the lad and I worry for anyone in the club who thinks he can be one of our strikers.

A few ideas: 1) Loans - the right loan can make a player, look at Wharton. 2) Gradual introduction - if they are expected to be stepping up immediately to fill places like a seasoned pro that's a lot of pressure and expectation. In many cases too it can be unrealistic. I think introducing them slowly with less pressure and expectation, where less is dependant on them will help ease them in more. 3) Don't do it all at once. My biggest gripe with our youth is all of them are expected to step up at once. That's never going to happen and adds more pressure to the youngsters and more demands as they are all trying to adjust at the same time. I'd just try blooding in a couple each half season. Otherwise you are making it way more difficult for them. We have to use youth. It's out biggest USP imo. However I think it's equally vital we have to do it correctly.

Agree. Ruins the game when the team best at cheating wins. Sure Messi is amazing but a big part of their win is their cheating ways. Gutted.

It's an odd one. You don't get 3rd after 20+ games by fluke. That just doesn't happen. And even if it's a false position/fortuitous it won't be wildly inaccurate, we'd probably be looking top 6 or 8. That said the amount of wallopings we have had isn't a fluke either. That's not a bad day at the office, that's a repeated pattern of woeful performances. That cannot be ignored either. So where does that leave us? A bit like concentrated Mowbray imo, we've gone from inconsistent WDL to more WLWL. Same stubbornness as well, albeit to play a certain style of suicidal football as oppose to the tombola and players out of position. Without the league 1 promotion and with the defeats being bigger it seems to put this in a more painful light. My big worries are that it's more likely the fine margins of the wins leave before the hammerings change to draws (or even wins). Add in any team can get a fluke goal and we haven't come back from going behind once and I feel if the margins are to swing, they are going to swing negatively for us. Factor in as well the squad is still worryingly thin and over reliant on youth and you feel the wheels could come off very quickly. Time will tell and 3rd earns JDT enough time to rectify things but I feel we may be seeing a repeat of TMs possession football season, only this time with a much weaker squad. Like last time it'll probably end with mid table and regrets over what might have been.

Get new owners and the rest will sort itself out by shaping up or shipping out.

Chaddy you can't just ignore evidence that contradicts your points! It's poor etiquette. Also you are contradicting yourself as part of your championing of Southgate was him getting us to the finals of the Euros! It looks a bit daft to have the Euros count as part of your pro Southgate stance, but not for the Lionesses. Also whilst the answer to your question is no, a foreign coach has won the Euros in the men's with Greece. Edit - Fwiw I think there is an interesting point in there. Most success has come from countries having managers of the same nationality. Of course that has to be balanced out with most of the times the winners are the best footballing nations and therefore have the best players and managers available but it's food for thought. Maybe we should be looking at how weaker nations do with foreign coaches va same nation? There's an interesting discussion here, so no need to ignore the other side of it 🙂

It's the lack of consistency that gets me. VAR have given softer penalties than that this tournament. When there's no consistency it's a pointless exercise having it.