Yeah I think Williams father was an American in the army stationed in Germany and his mother was Irish.

And interestingly enough Williams was born in Germany and the Canadian was born in Switzerland.

But you hear of it far more at football clubs with a large contingent of players from one country or who speak one language. There seems to be a real team spirit at the moment, and I think it helps having a mainly British group.

I think it is relevant. As I mentioned on another thread, Garry Flitcroft claimed that the best team spirit he ever played in was the 2000/01 squad - which was due to having a strong core of British players. You don't get your little groups of French/Portuguese/Spanish speaking players just forming little clicks. Nothing wrong with having foreign players - but I'd suggest a heavily British core of players helps the team spirit and reduces the chances of clicks forming.

You've got to give massive credit to Mowbray for the transformation of the squad over the last 15 months. Suddenly we have got competition for places. It's a very 'British' looking squad as well - with a massive number of British born players. I remember Garry Flitcroft suggesting the best team spirit he ever played in was when we got promoted - and the squad were predominantly British and all got on well. While this squad might not have the quality of the 2000/01 promotion squad - it certainly seems to have the spirit. You look at the number of youngsters with potential to develop further/be sold for more money in the squad - and that's far more promising than 15 months ago. Raya 22, Bell 24, Lenihan 24, Nyambe 20, Dack 24, Davenport 19, Travis 20, Armstrong 21, Brereton 19. OK, a number of those were here 15 months ago, but I bet they've all improved under Mowbray. Really impressed with how the squad is taking shape - and I'd struggle to pick a first eleven at the moment - which is a good thing.

Nothing wrong with his statement. I'd be more concerned if he said he was happy to sit on the bench and pick up a wage. Competition for places is good.

I am actually quite excited by this signing. He's exactly the sort of player that seems to thrive at Rovers - the sort that has talent but has lost their way. The lad just wants to play football. He's wanted out of Sunderland for obvious reasons - but they've been insisting on a £5 million fee - which no-one has been prepared to pay. He's had offers from Turkey (he went over and didn't fancy it) and Russia (but was concerned about the racism). It wasn't his fault that Sunderland gave him a massive contract which didn't have the normal 50% salary reduction on relegation clause. The figures I've heard were that he was on roughly £80k in the Premier League - around £70k in the Championship - and around £35k/£40k in League One. Sunderland have obviously been forced to not demand the £5m fee they were looking for. He was made to train with BOTH the first team and youth teams at Sunderland in an effort to force him out. He was also unpopular with the players purely because of the amount of the wage budget he was taking up. But again, that wasn't his fault. He's wanted to comeback to the North West for a bit - specifically Southport. Realistically that was going to mean Rovers, PNE, Bolton or Wigan. I'd have been gutted had he gone to one of the other three. As long as we have got him at reasonable wages - and I've no reason to think we won't have done - he can start enjoying his football again and show what a good player he can be.

I don't think people will risk £20m on Dack until he's shown he can do it at least at Championship Level. If he has a good season in the Championship though, I would expect the Premier League clubs to be sniffing around before long. £20m is nothing in today's market either sadly.

Great collection. The Shearer boot is tempting.

When we were linked with Valeri Domovchiyski years ago, I edited his wikipedia page before the media reported the story, to suggest he had run the 100m in under 10 seconds. This was then reported by numerous news outlets as being true. Was that a fact as it was more than 3 news sources reporting it?

This 1000 domestic goals is somewhat controversial. More than 500 of those were in friendlies or unofficial matches. He's basically counted goals he scored in his back garden.

David Thompson was twice called up for England by Sven Goran Eriksen - but he never actually made an appearance - so he was on the verge of the England squad. Absolute top player when he was fit and on form.

I got them through the official RLFC site. I rang the ticket line and one of the first options on the automated line was what to do if you hadn't received your tickets yet. It said something about being able to collect them at the ground - but when I bought them online it said tickets purchased before the week of the game would be sent out no later than 5 days prior to it.

Anyone going on Saturday? I ordered my tickets on Wednesday last week - but still haven't had them. Am I right in thinking they can just reprint them at the ground on the day.

Brunskill or Bowyer? Both equally as qualified as Kean to do the job I'd imagine.

Having said that - when they got rid of Allardyce and McDonald at the same time, there was no-one to step in a take charge.

RIP mate. I was there yesterday, though I didn't see the incident. Just show's how fragile life is - and football really doesn't matter at the end of the day.

It's simple for me - we should only keep the fittest people at the club. So Sam and Benny should go for a run and the first one to need a rest can f&*k off

I'd go with something similar LeChuck - but I'd pick Grella instead of Diouf. That way you could have a midfield three of Emerton, Grella and N'Zonzi - with Dunn and McCarthy playing off Di Santo. Dunn and McCarthy could play pretty much a free role and that would be a nightmare to defend against.

I think it was Dunn said that after Short opened the scoring against Burnley in the 5-0 win, he was running around shouting 'That's my first goal in 5 years!'. About 5 minutes later he dribbled along the bye-line before cutting the ball across goal, where it was deflected in by Steve Davis. He started running around shouting 'That's my second goal in 5 years'. Legend!

He was on Radio Rovers after the game on Saturday. He said it was a 6 month contract - and he didn't want to stay longer. He said his ideal job would be in the North of England - and he'd love to manage Rovers one day!

Ha Ha - If Andy Cole needed four chances to score, there is no way Roberts takes 1 in 3!