Excellent thread. I'm only making one change from the opening line up - Bellamy in for Dunn. I was tempted to stick Jermaine Jones in midfield over Sherwood (his work rate was incredible), but took the option of Sherwood with him being better on the ball. Hendry misses out due to not being the best with the ball at his feet. Friedel Emerton Berg Henchoz Le Saux Sherwood Tugay Bellamy Jansen Duff Shearer

Completely agree with this. Think it was the 2002 World Cup where he became the first keeper since 1974 to save two penalties in the group stage of a World Cup. He was just completely reliable. I can definitely find more goals where Schmeichel is at fault (or lobbed or chipped) than Friedel being at fault. I remember thinking it was stupid when we signed him when we already had Alan Kelly and John Filan - both of whom were excellent keepers. How wrong I was!

We were only one goal in a game away from getting into the play-offs. Something as simple as having someone on the near post to hack Coventry's injury time corner away and we could have been planning a trip to Wembley now. Fine margins at this level - I'm all for anything that can improve us even if it's only slight improvements. It all adds up.

I'm hoping we are fairly well down the road with signings....gives us chance to get the paperwork submitted before the deadline in September 😂

I'll tell you what struck me most about that list.... With Ayala and Diaz going, if Kaminski goes as well, every player on that list is British.

Or imagine a front three of Duff-Shearer-Jansen - with Jansen cutting in from the right on his left foot.

Just gone through some of the comments on him from earlier in the season on this thread. I was massively underwhelmed early on as well, but he's been much better in the second half of the season. However I must say that I'm underwhelmed thus far. It appears we have a over paid for a relatively limited player. However I’ve been unimpressed with Sammy so far For me he looks a poor man's Dack. Strange signing indeed He's not a bad player, but I am just struggling to see what he offers that Dolan doesn't and Vale is an able deputy for I'd echo the 'strange signing' verdict for now He's been anonymous for the vast majority of minutes he's played so far. Waste of £2m Poor signing, especially at £1.8m Its a message board and people judge players by their perfomances to date. Underwhelming is mine Underwhelmed to say the least. Markanday has caught my eye more than this fella and he seems to be in Siberia somewhere. Posh saw us coming big time and had us.

Top 3 managed 54 league starts between them.

I was having a look before at how common it is to find a 20 goal striker at this level. Over the last 10 seasons it's been achieved 47 times in the Championship. I was most amazed that we had two of them in 2014/15 (IIRC) - as Rhodes and Gestede both hit 20 league goals for the season. How on earth we didn't make the play-offs that season I do not know. 6 players reached 20 goals that season - 2 of them played for Rovers! A 20 goal a season striker would have got us into the play-offs at least this season.

This comment... “We all know what happened in the January window, there's no need for me to talk about it. Fans are clever,” Tomasson admitted.

Is that the one where you can eat something that you've dropped on the floor?

Is that a measure of a footballers ability? Find me a new striker that is 8 years better than Gallagher and left back that is 5 years better than Pickering.

We played 3 matches in September. He didn't start any of them. We won 1 and lost 2. "When he was out the team in Sept we tended to win" Tended to win one game.

When Buckley has started: W8 D5 L7 When Buckley hasn't started: W15 D6 L12 So if anything, we are ever so slightly better when he doesn't start, but not much in it. A more surprising one is Sam Gallagher. We've won 18 of the 30 games that he's started - 60%. We've won 5 of the 23 games he hasn't started - 22%.

It's probably only three players away from being able to compete in the Championship though. Definitely needs a goal scorer in place of Vale.

He's taking them on a journey.

Not sure what odds you'd get on them both to make the play-offs, as they're linked and it's not just a case of multiplying them, but here are the current best prices for making the top 6: Coventry 4/7 Sunderland 11/10 Millwall 11/8 ROVERS 4/1 West Brom 13/2 Preston 25/1 Norwich 25/1 Swansea 33/1

https://www.uptheclarets.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=69343 He's got a few admirers on here.

That'd be a win-win for everyone. The only chance they ever have of recouping a chunk of their money is if Rovers get promoted - suddenly the club looks like a viable investment. £25m invested in the squad this year would have secured automatic promotion IMO. Appreciate there are no guarantees - but aren't they funding losses similar to that every year anyway? "A report from Deloitte states the winner will earn additional future revenues of at least £170m across the next three seasons. That sum rises significantly, to £300m across the next five campaigns, if the promoted club avoids relegation in its first season back in the top-flight."

Now I've seen some ridiculous posts on here, but this is up there with them 😂

Reasons to be optimistic: Burnley haven’t won in their last 3. In Burnley’s last 5 away games – they’ve failed to win at Blackpool, Reading and Rotherham. Burnley have had more possession than the opposition in 40 of their 43 Championship games. Rovers have had less possession than the away team in 7 championship home games this season – winning 6 of them. Rovers have also won 5 out of 10 away from home where they’ve had less possession than the opposition. The stats suggest Rovers do better when they have less possession. Only the top 2 sides have more home wins than Rovers in the division. Burnley have failed to win more away games than they’ve won away from home. Rovers average exactly 2 points for game at home – Burnley average 1.95 away. Rovers have scored first in 15 of their 21 home games. Prediction: My heart says Rovers scrap and battle to a 1-0 win – maybe Hyam redeeming himself from weekend. My head says a game where Burnley have a lot of the ball and a game of few chances. Rovers take the lead but let it slip again and it finishes 1-1.

That's the ultimate nightmare. Burnley win the league at Ewood, Rovers miss out on the play-offs and Mowbray gets Sunderland promoted.

I was told this story in 2015 by someone who worked with his dad. I didn't know the name at the time - just told to keep an eye out for a 12 year old who was at Birmingham City. EDIT: And as pointed out above it was about Bellingham

City and Chelsea both tried to sign him when he was 12 but his family turned the move down. Chelsea offered his mum and dad £40k a year each and a house to move to London (and quit their jobs in the police). He would then have got a £1m signing on fee when he turned 17. His parents 'job' was basically to take him to training. People knew how good he was at a very young age and had tried to buy him before.

I'd be happy with that. Whilst Pears has done nothing wrong, I just feel a bit safer with Kaminski between the sticks. 5 academy lads should know how important the game is (only started 2 away) I like the look of that midfield 3.