I agree with you. If all 4 were fit, they were playing. Now we have no idea. Injuries have played such a big part in Tuchel's decisions. James, Stones, Shaw, Hall, Guehi, TAA, have all been out for varying periods. Would Tuchel have considered Shaw and Stones if they hadn't been injured? They played less than 20 games between them all season. Will either of them play for their clubs if fit next season? Hall was excellent until his season ending injury. He'll be back fit for August, and will have Champs League football to look forward to. Same with Lewis-Skelly. Availability questions aside it should be Reece James or Trent at right back. TAA playing in Spain will be interesting. Real have Alonso coming in, and Carvajal will be fit at some point.

I know you didn't. I was affirming Mercer's point that 5 games a week is not outlandish. It doesn't pay well either, adding to the lack of appeal.

That doesn't sound unreasonable. An acquaintance of mine was a scout for a Prem team. He was always somewhere, be it at home or abroad. Same with another pal. He scouted players 16 and under for a different club. He'd spend his weeknights travelling the length and breadth of northern England looking for players other clubs had missed. Then writing up reports on each player he liked.

I think Wharton's injuries cost him. He wasn't really fit all season and was out for Tuchel's first squad selection. As has been commented in his own thread a rest this summer will do him good as he hasn't had a break for a long time.

It's looking like Southgate's trusted back 4; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw is no longer. Replacing them is no easy task. There is plenty of talent available at both full back positions so that should be easy to fill. It's central defence that needs solving. Guehi was excellent (1 slip aside) at the Euro's. Left footed Colwill looked like Maguire's long term successor not too long ago but seems to have plateaued. Konsa is steady away without being van Dijk. Branthwaite is "unproven" (i.e. not at a Champs League playing club). Who's left?

The game was meaningless as far as qualification goes but I hope that Tuchel learned from it. The crowd certainly let him know that it was unacceptable. He must know too. It's time for him to ditch his experimentation phase and start planning for WC 2026. Get rid of Walker, Henderson (J), Burn, Chalobah. I'd probably ditch Gallagher too. Play a left footer ant left back, a right footer at right back, and start thinking about a central partnership, All of us on here want Wharton to play. Kane was goosed at last year's Euro's but still has it. He'll score another hatful for Bayern next season. If he stays fit he'll be as effective as ever. It's what Tuchel does with Bellingham that will matter. He can be England's talisman but Tuchel needs to play him where he will be most effective and avoid a Gerrard-Lampard situation. If that means not playing a talented player (Palmer for example) who could get in his way, then so be it. There is summer, more qualifying games, and a long domestic season to go before the World Cup starts. Tuchel was hired to win. His ego is/was big enough for him to take the job. Roll on to September.

Piling into a random pub that was packed to the rafters with people who would usually never set foot in there to watch Rovers play on a dodgy feed. Those were the days.

I'll start worrying if England begin to lose qualifying games. Until then it's the old cliché of 3 points, job done, on to the next game. I'm not defending a moribund performance by England yet playing Andorra in no way resembles preparation for France or Spain. Andorra know what they can and can't do. They have only conceded 5 goals in 3 games. Terrible teams are able to better frustrate superior opposition in today's game due to them receiving more money witch leads to better coaching and organisation. Other results over the weekend had Bosnia beating San Marino 1-0 and Wales beating Lichtenstein 3-0, at home. England fans spent years and years deriding Southgate for his supposed lack of tactical acumen. Nobody is doubting Tuchel's talent (yet) so let's hope that in the next 12 months he gets England qualified easily and is able to form the players available to him into a unit capable of winning the World Cup.

I didn't know where to put this but it made me laugh. Woman complains about Corfu hotel with no English food available There are some classic lines. At first I thought it was written on 1st April.

To call the ref "as incompetent as our owners" and that "he should never be allowed to ref again" are orders of magnitude greater than the error. We all know that Venkys (our owners) are much much worse than a bad decision during a Premier league game with implications for 4th or 5th place. To say that an official should not referee a game again is yet another hyperbolic statement that I'd expect only a Villa fan to make. Referee's make mistakes weekly, why is the one he made deserving of him giving up his profession? There is still nothing on Martinez's idiocy, or Villa's 12 points from 33 to end 2024. Let's blame the referee instead. It's easy to do.

Rather harsh on both counts. He made a split-second decision and from where he was stood it looked like a foul. VAR rules prevented a review. Referees are easy targets. I've not seen one comment on the stupid decision Martinez made to get himself sent off. Hojlund wasn't going to score, he never does. Playing more than a half with 10 men cost them more than a refereeing error. In the wider picture Villa won a league game on October 19th. They then won 3 out of their next 11. Blame that drop in form, possibly because their squad was tired from weekly European games, for not qualifying for the Champs League, not a referee.

Amorim has been awful, so I hope Ratcliffe and his cronies do what they did with ten Hag and give him an extension. Not only are the players at his disposal not up to it he won't shift from playing an unworkable 3-4-3. Look what Moyes has done at Everton, or Pereira at Wolves. Adaptation is one key to being a good coach. His overall record is; P-40, W-15, D-10, L-15, giving him a 37.5% win rate. However, that is skewed by the Europa League. His Prem record is P-26, W-6, D-6, L-14, 23.08% win rate. Steve Kean's Rovers Premier League record; Overall; P-67, W-17, D-14, L-36, win rate 25.37%. 2010-11; P-29, W-9, D-7, L-13, win rate 31.03%. 2011-12; P-38, W-8, D-7, L-23, win rate 21.05%. I'd be worried if I was a Man U fan, but I'm not so I'll watch and laugh.

My guess is that Spurs fans won't care. They won a European trophy and have Wednesday night Champs League games to look forward to next year. As to the game, like most I wanted both teams to lose but I'll take Man U losing over Spurs. It wasn't a classic by any means but Spurs decided to park the bus which was a rare day for them. Man U needed 1 goal so took of 1 abysmal striker in Hojlund and replaced with with one just as ineffective in Zirkzee. Next up was a change at wing back. Man U have some massive problems. If their aim is the top 4 they need to replace the whole squad which will cost an utter fortune, which apparently they don't have.

It has been a drab season. There have been very few good games too. Spurs 3-6 Liverpool was good entertainment. I can't think of more at the moment though. Lots of breaks punctured any momentum, the main culprit being too many international breaks, especially early in the season. Oppositely, if top spot and the bottom 3 are ignored it's been a very competitive season.

Stranger things have happened but I agree. Neither of them should pose Sheffield Utd any problems. The game was summed up by 2 missed gilt edged chances late in normal time. Sunderland's midfielder cocked up a golden chance to win it by deciding to shin it sideways from the penalty spot, then Coventry's striker performed a similar trick with his head from 4 yards out in injury time.

Here are all teams promoted from the Championship in the last 10 years; 2014-15: Bournemouth, Watford, Norwich City 2015-16: Burnley, Middlesbrough, Hull City 2016-17: Newcastle United, Brighton and Hove Albion, Huddersfield Town 2017-18: Wolverhampton Wanderers, Cardiff City, Fulham 2018-19: Norwich City, Sheffield United, Aston Villa 2019-20: Leeds United, West Bromwich Albion, Fulham 2020-21: Norwich City, Watford, Brentford 2021-22: Fulham, Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest 2022-23: Sheffield United, Burnley, Luton Town 2023-24: Leicester City, Ipswich Town, Southampton 2024-25: Leeds United, Burnley, ???? Newcastle, Wolves, Brighton, Brentford, Villa, and so far Forest, came up and stayed up. Bournemouth, Burnley, Fulham, Sheffield Utd, Watford, Norwich, and now Leeds have yoyo'd with varying degrees of success. Boro, Huddersfield, West Brom, Hull, Luton, and Cardiff all went down never to be seen again. 3 of them will be playing League 1 football next season. What will happen to this season's 3? I think a big part of staying up is having a solid set up behind the scenes. You can spend millions on players, but without a cohesive plan and a clear direction teams will struggle. Luton have found that out very abruptly. They were lucky to get promoted. Didn't really know what to do. Went down, and now down again.

There were a few other fan reactions that made me laugh this weekend. Southampton fans celebrating like they'd won the league after securing a lucky 0-0 draw against City. Followed by Leicester fans taunting Forest after the match finished 2-2 and put a serious dent in Forest's Champs League chances. Both teams got relegated. Shouldn't they keep quiet?

90% of Accy don't care about Accrington Stanley. How they rose up from semi pro to League One was remarkable, yet they need significant outside investment to subsidise club revenue. Without it they'll slide back into non-league. It employed a few bar staff, hardly Apple levels of job creation. You forgot to mention that it was built without planning permission, not soundproofed properly, and therefore subjected local residents to late night noise every weekend.

Donnarumma made some outstanding saves last night. He tends to do that against English opposition. Once Ruiz scored it was over. Arsenal weren't scoring 3 goals. Although if Saka's second chance went in the Parisians would have got very nervous. Arsenal were hurt by injuries. Gabriel was a big miss at both ends of the pitch. Kiwior is a big drop in talent. Havertz, although not an out and out striker, gives the team a focal point. For all the guile that Odegaard and Saka have Arteta has spent the season relying on free kicks, corners, and last night long throws to score. I read a few comments on the BBC match report (I know it's not high brow), but many were scathing of Arteta's tactics, and his managerial skills.

I agree with you. Dolan is playing at his level. That level is 1 or more above Markanday.

@Norbert Rassragr, you may be right. According to the commentator I had on on yesterday's CL game, Yamal has played over 100 games for Barcelona and almost 20 for Spain (including a full Euros). He turns 18 in July. Rooney was cooked in his early 30's but he had the body of a grown man at 16. I think Owen was slightly different. He tore his hamstring early on and it screwed his body up. He never fully recovered. Back to Yamal, he is some talent. I'm sure most on here didn't watch but he was unplayable at times against Inter. Both games were brilliant too. Denzel Dumfries is some player as well.

Mine was an FA Cup tie against Aston Villa. 1990, I think. It finished 2-2. I think my first match at Ewood was a midweek England youth international a year or so before.

Ismael inherited a squad in turmoil and proceeded to not have a clue what to do with the players. He looked lost and his ideas weren't working. Somehow, whether it was players returning from injury, a lack of pressure, or him figuring it out, he finished the season unbeaten in 6 and had Rovers in the playoffs for about 5 minutes. He will be Rovers manager next season barring he himself deciding to leave. Dropping Pears was a good decision so I hope that is an insight into his m.o. and he is able to kick on. However, with Venkys owning the club new signings are likely to be has-beens, gambles, and Prem loanees without any pedigree so he's on a hiding to nothing.

Indeed. It's all down to Venkys. Anything after them is all secondary. January's lack of proper investment in the transfer window cost Rovers a decent manager and a shot at the playoffs. Forshaw, Woodrow, Sanderson, Dennis, and Kargbo were brought in and contributed very little. Trying to defend those signings as positive is shameful. Tronstad's injury didn't help. What about results that contributed? Losing to a 97th minute goal away to Rooney's Plymouth. 1 point from 6 from 2 home games over Christmas. 2-2 v. Sunderland followed by a loss to Hull 3 days later. 4 losses and a draw in March against the dross of the division. The awful and frankly bewildering fact that Rovers have lost 12 straight matches away at promoted teams. Also, the similarly puzzling years long low win rate in midweek away games.

Being chased by a pack of fat blokes would stick in my memory too. Here's the interview; YouTube: Shawn Michaels BRFC