Have you got tickets for it Gav? I was looking on Stubhub for tickets. Cheapest going is around £140. Can’t justify it Saw two excellent days at Edgbaston - Brook and Smiths centuries and then it was the India show but an excellent watch nonetheless. It has been a great watch throughout

Is Abelousi seemingly incompetent yet?

Tony Mowbray would have loved him 😀 Fair play to the lad. Probably the biggest day of his life so far and wanted to be dressed to the nines. Lovely attitude

Of course you don’t. That’s your vibe. Some are glass half full, you smash the glass on the floor. You can reply back to me to say that criticising you of negativity is stifling debate but I don’t care. Your posts are certainly slanted to the negative - like it or not. It must be your mindset. Some people are like that. I work with blokes who the moment something out of the ordinary happens they panic and they think everything is going to shit. It’s part of life’s rich tapestry. I think both Gueye and Ohashi have improved our squad. The year before we were solely relying on Szmodics. This year the goals spread. It would be wonderful if we found another Sammie but they are few and far between for the money we spend. In general, the proof is in the pudding. Consistently we have been in the bottom 6 for spending but we are challenging for the top 6. That has to be down to the recruitment. You don’t need to understand it because as you say, it is personal opinion. You were talking very positively about other teams’ business this season. Apart from Birmingham City this season - I don’t understand it. It seems, the players we miss are good ens, the players we get, we have “rightful doubts” I have never said we have to be grateful. It is just a forewarning to those that big up others’ business - spending money doesn’t equate to success

I was reading about Hulls financial penalties the other day. It reminded me of the few posters on here who waxed lyrical about their excellent business a few years ago It’s very easy to look further afield and think it is all sunshine and rainbows. Just because they have spent money, does not mean they are doing it correctly Whilst we have the worst possible owners, we do have a shrewd and massively undervalued recruitment team. I will continue to trust them - that isn’t based on being a happy clapper or “supporting the club no matter what” (whatever that means - being a fan?) - but is based on recent history. A minuscule budget, but regular play off challengers. I’m prepared to wait and see what squad they put together this year before exclaiming others are doing better business than us

This is the mindset we have at the moment. It may also be the reason why we still make a draw here I was there on day 3. Some beautiful batting by Brook and Smith but you could tell there was nothing in it. 6 ducks in an innings is unforgivable on that pitch India knew that as well. They would know that for all his bluster, Crawley has it in him to take the game away early when him and Duckett are purring Hence they batted too long to make it impossible to win. Now they may draw the game. Bazball could win once more

“Hard to know much about Kargbo” >proceeds to post everything bad Kargbo has done You don’t think this poster trolls? In the same amount of time Kargbo has also beat two men and drove the ball into the box - three silly errors, three good pieces of play. Which do you focus on? Looks a decent player to me. Another decent spot for our recruitment team, who again play this game with their hands tied behind their backs

Not every signing is a success Yet, despite all of that, we consider anything less than play offs a disappointment whilst also operating with a budget that is within the bottom 5. That is down to our good recruitment, even despite some not working out Out of that list, I’d say Dennis and O’Riordan are the two which deserve to be there. Both poor signings and O’Riordan only so because it was with a fee at a time we needed bodies elsewhere Wahlstedt we moved on; Hirst was not good enough for us but no harm lost; Ennis we got a fee for; Forshaw came ok at the end and is an experienced player and Woodrow was a stop gap for depth and not the worst player I’ve seen either. Again, we have a tiny budget but have become accustomed to top half finishes. That’s down to recruitment. Mixed in there we have had: Dack, Szmodics, Tronstad, Brittain, Pickering, Hyam, Armstrong, BBD, Kaminski, van Hecke, Ayala, Rothwell, Tosin, We have had some players who didn’t turn out the best for us but went on to do well elsewhere - Ayari, Amarii Bell spring to mind immediately. Walton now Ipswich keeper. Overall our recruitment team gets it right more than they get it wrong and with such constraints they deserve a lot of praise for that

As critical as I am of the Club and its senior management this just appears to be critique for the sake of it Our recruitment team has continued to mould a squad that is far better than the pot of money they are given to work with. With a budget that is way down in the bottom 5, we have challenged for play offs more often than not We do not have the wage or transfer budgets to gazump other teams in our league. Teams in the league below us could offer higher wages - Wrexham and Blues. That is not the fault of the scouting team, data analysts or other members of the recruitment department, it is the fault of Venkys. Our recruitment team has to be one of the best in the league

So do you want us to store 4 players of the same quality as Travis and Tronstad?

Experience and know how. Could do a lot worse Looked more like the Forshaw we knew about towards the end of the season. Usual crew in hysterics - in effect, it’s another part of what was a good squad staying. Can’t complain

Domestic competitions are much different. Each round is a lottery. In international football, you can form your own destiny with your qualifying and seeding. Naturally, it is an easier route the better you are seeded and if you win the group I think where me and you differ is where we draw the line on the concept of “luck”. Softer ties - yes. For me, not luck. We could have came second in our group and been drawn against the harder sides; we could have been second seed and been drawn against a top seed side within our group stage The expanded tournaments will bring about a lot of runs like we had. I think Switzerland and Holland was a tough run in really. The Slovakia game needs disregarding as a lot of fixtures were “winnable” - but I’d have played Germany and Turkey over Switzerland so it was kind of middle of the road. Would agree out of Holland, France or Spain I would have took Holland. But again we put ourselves there by winning our group. That’s the way the cookie crumbles in international football and every team plays by the same rules

In the 5 world cups that Croatia have been a part of they have come third twice and runners up once. That was not an easy draw. Drawing Italy wasn't easy either. They were a good side and proved it too. And the same for Holland. Switzerland are a team nobody really wants to face as France found out and Spain almost found out too, only scraping by on penalties. It is not touching a nerve, it is addressing a point you make. Each and every faint praise you give Southgate is caveated with how lucky you think the draw was and that he never beat an "elite" team. Who decides who the 'elite' are? You haven't answered that one yet. None of those runs were out of the ordinary for a typical route to an international final. I don't understand why you keep repeating them - almost all international tournament winners would have faced similar teams in their route to the semi or final. What's your point? That they were seen as favourable? Maybe, but none of that diminishes in any way the achievement of Southgate, but you mention it every single time you bring up Southgate's tournament record. For me it doesn't matter one iota. I couldn't care less if we played Papa New Guinea, Fiji and Wales on the way to the Final. In all of the years before Southgate came, getting to the quarters became a success... Now we are looking at anything other than winning a tournament being a failure. That is all on Gareth Southgate. So lucky, blessed by the Gods, a tactical genius - whatever the Council of BRFC decides - he was a resounding success for the national team and the country as a whole

It is the same with every international manager because they all play by the same rules (we will ignore seeding and group rankings as it doesn’t suit the narrative). So by this token unless that nation has beat sides that roversfan99 consider elite their manager has been lucky Took a while to get there I suppose

In the FA Cup each round is reverted into a lottery. In your example, if Milwall were a country, they’d have faced an Arsenal or a Man Utd in the group stage. As it is, the lottery took that fate away from them Within international football, you balance the odds in your favour by making yourself a top seeded nation. Once you are put into your groups everything else is then decided by the merit of your performances. Had England not won their group, we’d have been more likely to face sides who came first in their respective group, therefore more in form. Most things in international football are by merit - you come Top Seed by merit, you win your group by merit and from there on the route is planned out. If we had come 2nd we’d have played Germany and then Spain. It was the merit of our group stage performances which meant we didn’t. By far the luckiest thing in international football is the country you qualify for. From then on in, merit of your performances are king. And in Euro 24 pots 3 and 4 included Croatia, Italy, Holland and Switzerland who are no mugs. Switzerland especially was a banana skin - as Italy found out in the knock outs, Germany in the groups and France in the tournament before. I was fearful for that game for sure

There are also ebbs and flows in international footy more so than domestic, where large clubs now rule the roost For example we could have played Germany, Brazil, Holland and Spain in recent years and that be seen as favourable as they are going through somewhat of a transition Conversely, Croatia had been there or thereabouts for tournaments leading up to our loss and teams like Switzerland have been outperforming their historic places by knocking out teams like France, and only losing by penalties to Spain let’s not forget This is a bit different from a comparison to domestic league positions

This is different to what is being suggested here. The notion is that because we played the likes of “Switzerland, Sweden or Ukraine” in the quarters or “Denmark, Croatia or Netherlands” in the Semi we had lucky draws The suggestion is that unless you play France, Spain, Brazil or Argentina you have had a lucky draw But that happens in every World Cup. It happens in every FA Cup too. A premier league club likely spanked a league 2, 1 and a championship club on their way to the FA Cup final. Go back through World Cup winning brackets and you’ll likely see the winners playing a Sweden, South Korea, Switzerland, Australia, Turkey etc. it is rare that you will play all Seed 1 nations - that’s why the seeding system is around. What isn’t being told is that, in order for England to play Switzerland in the quarters, Switzerland had to beat Italy. To play Ukraine in the quarters, we had to beat Germany. Now in your example I don’t know if Walsall or Tranmere beat better quality teams on their way through. Maybe not. Although Tranmere only made a cup final in 2000 so weren’t a terrible side then either. Beside the point - whilst that route was favourable, it was also a stand out in totally avoiding a higher seeded team until the final. Nothing about Englands routes to both finals were extraordinary. It is quite normal to play the nations we played - the route Italy took to the Euro 20 final of Portugal, Spain and France is outside of the norm in modern tournaments.

Hahahaha back to this again. If you play those teams in the finals then you play them because they have won the same amount of games as you. They are as deserving to be there as you, regardless of if you consider them “elite countries” (what?) When Scolari won the World Cup in 2002 he had a team of Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Silva, Cafu and Carlos - they played Belgium, England and Turkey on the way to the final. Arguably an easy route to the final, right? Belgium weren’t the Belgium they are now and Turkey isn’t “elite”, right? The hardest team was England - with Mills at right back and Heskey up top Were Brazil lucky? Nope. They beat teams that others couldn’t. Luck had very little to do with it The quarter finals of that year featured the elite nations of South Korea, Turkey, Senegal, the US and Turkey. It has always been that way. To think you have to beat Germany, Spain, Argentina, Brazil or France on the way to winning a tournament so as not to be ‘lucky’ is delusional In 06 Italy beat Australia, Ukraine, Germany and France. Was that a lucky win? We could go on and on and on. In Germany winning in 2014 is probably the hardest route - they beat Algeria, France, Brazil and Argentina. But even then, France and Brazil had relatively poor teams by historic standards. So were they lucky to come across such poor squads? I just don’t get it. Luck or otherwise, you have to beat them. And for them to get a quarter final of the World Cup - whether they are Spain or Papa New Guinea - they got there by winning the same games in the same groups in the same location. So they are deserving

Should have known he was a mix of crap and unnecessary………………….

Do you think they are bothered by it? I would suggest not

Good riddance As always with Venkys, what is around the corner is over The end of Pax Mowbray brought with it tumultuous times.

How is it tin pot to be celebrating a local lad whose career trajectory is looking like he will go down as one of the great English players? There have been other players who have left us that are doing equally well. David Raya for example. There isn’t the same interest because he isn’t a Blackburner, he doesn’t still come down and watch the Rovers I suppose if you don’t like it, you don’t have to read the thread at all. Nothing tragic about keeping an eye on one of our own

It was great to see Adam Wharton on that stage. Just wish it was in our colours He is a brilliant player and his progressive passing will give defenders nightmares. I agree with a lot of the comments about Pep-ball. It’s becoming easier to defend against it. If the ball is in front of going side to side then you are in for an easy game. When that ball is sent through you or over your head…so much harder to defend against I liked Whartons comment on the news extract someone posted - he could have 100% passing success if he went side to side every time. But he isn’t interested in that. He plays high risk passes and moves the team on. What is good is that in Glasner he has found a coach who encourages that. Losing possession at Palace isn’t the sin it is in a Pep team. That Wharton isn’t discouraged by some of those passes not working out is his biggest strength. He should think carefully about his next move - Grealish is a great example. His charm was his dribbling and City have drummed that out of him

What time is the interview?

Must be in the minority. Think we competed well and looked dangerous down our left Feels like a must win. Few winning or drawing around us and this would put real daylight between us and Norwich We will win this 1-0