Dreams of 1995

Is gagan a new player?

Ash Phillips signed a 3 year deal last summer, which did not come into effect until this year when he turned 17

No clue why you continuously use adjectives like this to describe our players, like competent and incompetent It literally makes no sense Notwithstanding the fact that Dan Pike is an extremely "competent" footballer. He'd run rings around you. But he's a young lad and he's good So is Brown. He looked more than "competent" with a ball at his feet against one of Birmingham City's best players. Was you there or was you pretending he was incompetent on here? Blues fans talked him up after the game as a decent defender Compare and contrast with your views on signings our 6 fingered neighbours make. Some lad you had never heard of but described as interesting, young and fast, after scoring a few goals in the Turkish league and 2 in the Belgian league. Meanwhile our lads aren't competent You are on the bloody wind up, it's the only way to explain it

Where FFP rules have been broken then sanctions have followed. See Derby, Sheff Wed and Reading Steve Gibson is thee single biggest supporter of FFP. In fact, he lobbied the EFL seriously hard over Mel Morris' creative accounting. It is Steve Gibson who argues the FFP rules should be implemented to the fullest and harshest terms. You shouldn't hold him up as an example of how to circumvent rules put in place by the EFL SwissRamble is a very good account to follow to keep yourself informed on financial dealings of football clubs. If you look at where we sit you will notice every club around us in the >100% category are either cutting costs dramatically or have already been sanctioned by FFP rules. You will notice that Gibsons Boro, whilst still high, are nowhere near paying as much per % of turnover in wages as us. Middlesbrough losses of +£30m in 2021 meant they had to drastically reduce wages, and they did https://www.insidermedia.com/news/north-east/middlesbrough-fc-report-losses-as-covid-bites

I think we can I personally think Crawley needs replacing. A decent enough knock in the final innings but has shown time and time again he will give his wicket away. Lees on the other hand can play. He’s had a tough start but two 50s in 5 games is ok. Pope at three looking good. Root is the best player in the world. Stokes and Bairstow are the counter, and the perfect recipe at the middle order. We know Stokes can dig in if he needs to. Personally I don’t want him to that often. Playing to your strengths is as true in cricket as it is football.

Bairstow has had a couple of hard fought hundreds away from home as well 47er Particular stand out being the stand he made in the 1st innings at the Waca back in 2017 which was an incredible knock. We got hammered though Think he got 100 in Australia around Christmas time too But he has spent his career giving his wicket away too easily for my liking. One of the best white ball cricketers out there though. He's got a long way to go but he's in such a flow I wouldn't bet against him scoring 100 anywhere right now

A portion of them are because of the relegation, which I suppose is also the fault of Venkys I think around 5,000 would come back immediately if they sold the club

JH I don’t think anybody doubts that the Venkys are responsible for where we are but why do you keep pretending like FFP is not a big issue We regularly over spend, even after this cost cutting. Other clubs are just better ran economically Say we wanted to increase our wage budget by £10,000 p/wk, already across the first team, that equates to £520,000 per year So for every £10k we need another half a million. That’s not including bonuses and fees that have become part and parcel of the modern football contract So if you think you can increase turnover of a company by half a million in 12 months then I would suggest you are in the wrong job. That’s quite the sum. In the spirit of fairness I will say this is firmly at the doorstep of Venkys. If we say we have lost about 5,000 regular season ticket holders since they have come, at an average of £300 quid a ticket, that’s £1.5m they have lost us in yearly turnover. Or £30k a week. I genuinely do not believe we will get them 5,000 back unless the Venkys sell or we reach the premier league. Regardless of how much marketing or pricing initiatives they will not come back until we reach the dizzying heights of the Prem but I am all ears on how you plan to do it

Why would Macron bother? It was destined to fail before it even came out You’ve whacked a crap logo on top of a kit. Steve Waggott made the commercial decision to put a Red Devil on our front Hes a clown. It’s as simple as that. He may have other things to worry about than our “image” but he’s overseeing some rather calamitous moments. That’s saying something given what we’ve had to go through in the last decade He’s not fit for the role he’s in. It’s becoming more and more clear. If the whole printing of sponsor story after is true then it’s just further proof he’s taking the piss

I believe it is on a rolling basis Rev

Should that happen the pimms will be flowing More than likely out for less than 10, but at least I've got Pope and Root to look forward to Here's to hoping I get to watch Bairstow smash it about at home on Saturday and don't see him Friday...you never know with this lot though

I don't think I've seen an opener edge the ball as much as Crawley. Not up for it I'm afraid Lucky enough to be gifted tickets for the opening day tomorrow, sitting in the Eric Hollies stand. Last time I saw England v India we tore em apart and bowled them for less than 100 at Headingley. Hoping to see us bat this time so I'll let you all know just how bad Crawley is in person 😄

Not if we are near the top of the table Matty £40 will still see a lot of "one timers" come if there's a good chance we'll give em a stuffing Not that I agree btw, actually think the pricing at Rovers borders on criminal

Buckley is a better option than Dack for the famed "high press" Bucko is pretty good at winning the ball back up top. In fact, so was Rothwell. His pace allowed him to sometimes just nick in front of a stray ball. I'd say Buckley is more likely to start the games than Dack but I know nowt. You'd prefer Dack to be strolling around a bit, keeping fresh, for that late lung busting run into the back stick for a tap in. That's how I imagine Dack. I definitely do not want him chasing defenders with his tongue hanging out

I think it comes with a change of regime but we haven't been linked with anyone really aside from the Bosnian fella. Usually we are linked all over the shop. Is that a sign of the season ahead? Top clubs may be unwilling to loan out their best players with the World Cup in the middle of the season. There's every reason to suspect they may come back with a list of injuries after a guelling winter campaign. We might struggle to see the likes of Harvey Elliott or even a Khadra/Van Hecke status of loanee I hope we pull up trees for the Bosnian. Sounds highly rated and at 6 foot 4 is what we need. I'd love if we can tempt van Hecke back, honestly one of my favourite loanees in recent memory. Loved him to bits and if he had scored THAT goal it would have been goal of the season for me even though it was a tap in 😄 I am hoping GB is working behind the scenes and managing to keep things under wraps. Sharpe has never been the type of journo to go for inside scoops so we are lost on that front but since the Bosnian talk there's not been a peep about any player whatsoever. Time is ticking!

I would say Nyambe could play in the premier league You look at full backs like Van Aanholt who made a career from being physically better than wingers. Nyambe can be as good as him. Let’s stop throwing shade at Nyambe who has been a great player for us over the years. He’s as good a right back you can get in this league if you ask me. The only thing he lacks is pinpoint crossing but I still think the right coaching can get that out of him let me put it this way, I think Nyambe is a bigger loss than Lenihan

It’s not an angry group, more like one or two It’s a regular comment by the same one or two (“not ready”, “I’ve seen better down Pleasy”) when young lads come in and have an average or poor performance on here. Happened with Buckley - expected to pull up trees from the off. They are usually missing when they come good though. Some of us on here will remember the pelters Lenihan and Nyambe used to get. Now they are saints Mowbray regularly rode rough shot over players, like Nyambe, whilst learning their trade. There was the constant talk of “learning his way” and it was quite regular to hear him comment on young lads in the same way. You can ignore it if you like, but it was discussed at length on here I don’t really wish to go into much with you but remind you that only a couple of days ago you called youth football uncompetitive. You’ve spent weeks rubbishing the prospect of our academy boys being able to step into the first team as unrealistic. The fact remains that if, after Portugal, GB and JDT decide they are ready I’ll trust them over yourself, who uses every opportunity to rubbish academy football Nobodies development has ever been hindered by minutes playing football. If you want absolute rubbish you should reread that sentence until you can’t read it anymore

Exactly Chad We have a lot of posters who expect these academy lads to come in and never make a mistake Even at Sunday league the difference between the late 20s and early 20s lads is striking. The calmness during the game, being self assured and more confident. But those older lads started in the same way You have to be damn lucky some of the posters on here will never step foot near a training ground. It’s Mowbray level of disdain to our youth. Like they have to relearn everything about the sport because it’s first team and not u23 Remember the u23 used to be the reserves. Lads have been cutting their teeth in “seconds” football for over a century And every single footballer has had a debut It is harrowing to hear the lack of confidence they have in our own lads. They are a produce of our academy, some of them local boys who would love nothing more than to wear the shirt. A damn sight better than the waster journeymen we’ve had over the time. If age dictated how good a squad was how do you explain that in the season Barnsley made the play offs, under Valerin Ismael, they were the youngest team in the Championship. They were also the youngest team in the Championship last season and got relegated. It is about the coaching and ability and not the age of the players

You forgetting about Ash Phillips?

Biased? Erm, yes, this is a forum for Rovers supporters after all You may enjoy taking on the contrarian role but most of us relish in the opportunity to give Burnley and their fans a bit of crap So Burnley are doomed. They always have been. And Collins will go for peanuts because the monkeys at Burnley need feeding Good on you Chad, at least you know the side you are on 👍

I think most football clubs have what they call 'desso pitches' now, or hybrid. In that artificial grass is stitched into the actual grass. It is pretty popular across Europe due to the ever changing conditions. I wonder how much it would cost to install? I can't imagine it would cost over £2m. Does Ewood have this system or are we purely grass? If we are grass only then we are about 10 years behind the curve. Which isn't surprising given the utter neglect the Owners and various board members have shown our grounds We should all remember that maintenance and ground repairs fall outside the FFP rules. If Venky's wanted they could put us the best pitch money could buy; if they wanted to they could fix the leaks and renovate the Riverside. They don't want to and that's the problem

Exactly This notion that 'kids' aren't good enough because of their age is just silly A famous crap pundit was made to eat those words with the Class of 92 Who else here remembers Jones' performance vs Drogba? Sensational. Injury blighted career but it was clear to anybody with a brain he was good enough. He had just turned 18 when he made Drogba look a bit of a mug. Absolutely clattered Lampard if I remember correctly. Ewood's roof nearly came off. Phillips has just turned 17 so he may need a year in the gym to replicate that performance but if he is good enough everybody will know. You won't come across as physical a player as Didier Drogba in this league or as good a team as that Chelsea squad

You can't help but be flabbergasted at Waggot's comments there He holds this club in complete disdain. Our crowds haven't been as consistently low as they are now in the time I have been alive. At the same time has made it more and more expensive to purchase a ST. He's completely detached from the town, the club and the fans. Couple this with his attempts to sell Brockhall I think he has shown his colours I will never like or respect Steve Waggott no matter how many meal deals he gives fans on here. He can shake hands and provide guided tours all he wants. For me he's a crook, and another symptom of the Venky ownership. Apathetic owners leads to pathetic management.

To be fair arbitro the actual quote is “probably a further £100k” Depending how you read that it could mean a further 100k on top of usual costs or a further to money already spent

And his pace and physicality made him almost perfect for the defending from attacking corners role He could out pace almost any striker out there Ryan would be a starter for me at RB next season that's for sure. I'd be amazed if he doesn't end at a top table Championship club