1 hour ago, 47er said:

 

This season he's mostly been below par but could do well in a higher league where there are more good players around him.

 

Or his lack of technical ability will stand out like a sore thumb in a team and league where everyone's touch and technical level will be high. 

Despite his time here looking like it won't end well, I do wish him all the best - but I'd be surprised if he was a big success there.

49 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

He KnOWs ThE cLuB ThOuGH

He 'just gets it'.

Tony Parkes and Bobby Robson at the end, love that.

I thought he looked alright in the couple of League Cup games I saw him play in, and he was actually one of the better players v Forest. But there must be a reason that he'll be 22 at the start of next season and has barely kicked a ball in senior football.

6 hours ago, RoversTilliDie said:

Since we beat Sheffield United at Ewood,  we have picked up 2pts out of 15. We need to go on a winning run, or our season will be derailed.

You must have missed the Reading home win out - it's five points from six games/18 points since then (not that that's anything to shout about, of course).

8 minutes ago, J*B said:

Is anyone really surprised? Who here can legitimately tell me the last time you watch Rovers be faced with a real big season defining moment and this team managing to fight to a victory?

The Sheff Utd home game at the start of last month felt like one at the time. But our form has been so poor since then that it definitely can't be classed as season defining now.

19 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

This Sunderland v Hull game is brilliant. Mowbray has twice got them ahead from losing positions.

And he couldn't hang on to either of them.

29 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I saw him in a recent under 21 game and he was distinctly average, at times lethargic. He gave a goal away (which can happen) but his body language didn't inspire me to think that he is ready for Championship football. He is without doubt the most talented youngster I have seen at Rovers for a long time but in professional sport talent isn't enough.

He was like that in the Forest cup game too just before Christmas, which I'm guessing was his last senior start if his last league one was start of November. He looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.

It's a shame as, if somebody had said at the end of August after the Stoke and Blackpool games that he'd go months without playing this season, you'd have been very surprised. I only saw the highlights from the Blackpool game but he was superb against Stoke when he came on - and was even playing well after that too, e.g. goal v Birmingham and lovely assist at Hull in October.

Hopefully he'll get there eventually.

22 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Is it?

They haven't qualified for the past two World Cups and Italy's Euro 2020 triumph (England's abysmal failure) cannot be framed as anything other than an anomaly, one made all the more unbelievable by Serie A's struggles to remain relevant in continental competition.

No Italian team has won a major European triumph since Jose Mourinho's Inter lifted the Champions League in 2010 and the golden years of Serie A are long gone because of incompetence, corruption, gross financial mismanagement and a lack of foresight

Mancini has questioned why Italian clubs never picked up the likes of Gnoto (sp?) at Leeds and Sacchi said that "Italian football suffers from cultural backwardness, There are no new ideas. Other nations are evolving but we are stuck 60 years in the past. The problem here is institutional."

England won in Italy for the first time in 60 years last night - that's how low Italian football has sunk. The second half revival (England sitting back as usual - memo to Gareth) offered some hope for them but, without another boom and bust scenario like 2020, I I don't see a big revival any time soon

 

 

The current crop of players (not necessarily the team that played last night) are better than the period I mentioned, which does cover the failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup under a manager that should never have been near the job (it'd be like England appointing somebody like Steve Bruce at his age now).

Things are never as bad as they seem - that failure to qualify for the 2018 WC preceded something which would have seemed impossible at the time, a world record unbeaten run (not just the seven games in the tournament) where they deservedly won the Euros. You say England's failure but that's only the final. Italy had sailed through the group before knocking out the likes of Belgium and Spain. They were deserved winners of the tournament. 

Yes England won last night, deservedly so after the first half showing. But they've played each other four times in the last couple of years. Both teams have won one (by one goal) and the other two have been draws. Two played in England, two in Italy. "That's how low Italian football has sunk" is OTT.

The domestic leagues are often separate issues, e.g. England's last failure to qualify for a tournament coming in the middle of the Premier League's last peak before now of 2005-2009. The decline of Serie A years ago from possibly the strongest domestic league there's ever been was indeed for the reasons you've given. But it's worked its way back up well enough to the point where it's very competitive at the top (Napoli are about to make it four different winners in the last four seasons), attendances are finally booming and no country has more representatives in the quarter finals of the three European competitions this season. That's all without having gulf or state-owned clubs and bottom half teams that can spend £30m on a player without anyone batting an eyelid.

The current Italy pool of players is better than around 2015-2017, which was masked a bit by an excellent defence and Conte squeezing every last drop out of what was overall a limited group at Euro 2016.

Obviously it's not a patch on the team stacked with legends of 20 odd years ago, but that's the case for a lot of countries. That Italy team would be the best national team in the world if it were playing now.

They did have a few injuries for last night, players that would surely have started (Bastoni, Chiesa, possibly Raspadori). Despite that Mancini got the starting eleven wrong IMO - and is possibly running out of credit after the Euros win. Picking a 35 and 32 year old to start at CB, none of which are even experienced internationally, is pointless when you've been talking about a rebuild. You may as well still pick Bonucci. It'll be Bastoni and probably a promising youngster called Scalvini there going forward, but there were still other options for last night. Tonali should be ahead of Jorginho now as part of the midfield. Pellegrini is out of form, though nice little through ball for the goal, whereas Gnonto is always a handful.

4 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Just been on their site for 20 minutes. It’s cheered me up no end. It’s comedy gold !

I had a look on there yesterday. Two of the first posts I saw suggested putting 'a screen up in Preston' and taking 7k there to watch the game instead (I've no idea either....) and the other mentioned putting a big screen up in a car park somewhere.

Strange bunch to say the least.

Ten years ago today.

Coventry dropping points is very good. A win for us tomorrow night and we’ll still be in a strong position.

God knows how anybody could concede 6 to Blackpool by the way, QPR are a real mess.

7 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

It's beautiful of football thats people have very different opinions on players and their performance 

It is. But surely there's no way anyone can think Gallagher's performance at Stoke was worthy of Championship team of the week? He scored, but was otherwise ineffective.

Good news about Sunderland winning. We know that they're no threat to the top 6 with Mowbray in charge, so keeping Norwich three points behind us would be great.

21 minutes ago, HowieFive0 said:

Right what day we reckoning ..? Fulham and Grimsby on the Sunday when trains running ..? us n Burnley Saturday  due to the trips away relatively short without trains so a little more accessible for the travelling fan ?

 

Utd-Fulham will have to be Sunday (Utd playing on the Thursday before), which will make City the Saturday yep.....but yeah you could be right about the trains being a factor.

Can't be long until they announce it can it?

Could have been much worse. Just wanted them at home when it was clear we were last two. Come on Rovers!!

27 minutes ago, Cuppliance said:

After getting the Burnley game moved due to the FA cup victory (I'm glad about that as I'm at a stag do that weekend) we may well end up playing them anyway in the cup.

I'm in a similar position. Going away the Sunday morning so I was first gutted the derby was moved to Sunday, then delighted last night meaning it'll be moved, but now I'm dreading missing an FA Cup QF....which could even be against that lot after all.

Get that draw done tonight and the dates/time sorted (preferably Saturday 18th for us) asap. Oh and come on Fleetwood!

Get in!!!

Cannot believe he missed that. No need to try and get it in the top corner.

47 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Cameron Stewart, Simeon Jackson, Tony Watt, Jay Spearing, Chris Brown, Luke Varney.

Endless list of shite in that era. A lot of issues on the commercial side, but by god the playing side is in a different place...

A depressing list. And if people have forgotten Chris Taylor from that era, how about Paul Taylor? 

1 hour ago, Sparks Rover said:

Ooohhh get you.  He wasn't even in the squad for the final.  That's says he didn't win one to me.

They wouldn’t have made the final if it wasn’t for this 👀

How has a dolloper like Waggott managed to work in football for 30 years? The mind boggles.

1 hour ago, J*B said:

Just had another of our six-fingered friends sign up @ClaretCardy .

Cardy! If you can have well natured-discussion with light hearted banter you're welcome to stay. Existing members if Cardy can't play nicely please standby on the report button.

Can tell they're winning a few games this season.

Whatever people may think of JDT and our overall performance levels this season, he can point out that he's had us comfortably in the top 6 (mainly top 3) for most of the season. He'd rightly then expect to be backed going into January and with the team needing strengthening in a couple of key areas. 

What he gets is one player on loan and then the O'Brien embarrassment. 

Yep, anything can happen now then it'd be back to desperate managers on the scrapheap being the only ones that'll be prepared to put up with how badly we're run.