It's crazy he was on trial here loitering for a month or so waiting for a deal. Club's would be falling over themselves to sign him were he available now.

I agree wholeheartedly with biz here, HC has shown great attacking intent and against a tiring team or when you're chasing an equaliser his style of play is great. That said he offers no protection to his fullback and a generally pedestrian backline, we saw the issues we had against Doncaster when our shape got dragged apart and I fear HC starting could expose the same weaknesses. Last night was the most fluid we have looked and everyone worked hard from the front, the press was high intensity and worked really well. The issue is that the minute someone drops the press or the oppo play through it due to poor positioning we are in trouble, especially considering the lack of pace within our backline.

Kinder basically binned the two intakes of scholars before Wharton et al, on his return he felt both the standards of coaching and player had slipped since he left and set about working on a clean slate from that group of Scholars. You can tell they've played together for a number of years and are comfortable in the way they play. Whether that makes them good enough to play in the first team remains to be seen. There is a huge difference in the physicality and competitiveness of the U23 league and professional football. As for Nyambe being able to defend, it raises the question of what is a good defender in the modern game. There is a really interesting article by Jonathon Wilson on the evolution of defending. In the modern game being able to use the ball and act as an additional ball player is held in higher regard than someone who is purely a stopper. Also full back in the prem made 123 crosses in the opening weekend in comparison to 82 tackles. Shows just how the modern defender is used today.

At least we are defending like the first team!

There is a strong spine there through Fisher, Platt, Tomlinson and now Nuttall. Especially considering Wharton isn't involved and Magloire is on the bench, surprised he hasn't made the step up yet as pre-season 2016 he looked the strongest out of him, Platt and Wharton.

Nutall has all the attributes to succeed in league 1 & 2, his finishing is raw but having pace, power and aggression goes a long way at the level we're currently playing. I thought he took a lot of unwarranted stick in pre-season, his finishing against Morecambe was wayward but he was a constant threat to the centre halves. He looked to roll them when possible and was happy to get into a physical battle, he looked to run the centre halves and drag them out of position and his running with the ball was direct. He's the sort of player that causes real problems for defenders and would create a space and opportunity for other players due to his directness. Not saying he was the answer but a player in his style was exactly what was needed against Doncaster, someone willing to force defenders to play and put doubt in their minds.

I really don't want to have to go to this game. The thought of getting turned over by them is deeply upsetting. It's bad enough being 2 leagues below them however I avoid areas of the internet where there fans gloat however having to listen to a couple of thousand of them lording it over them really upsets me.

Good, little toad. Hopefully they strip the titles from Rangers too, cheating gets.

I expect Lowe to sign for someone later in the summer in order to take his two months severance (July, Aug) at Rovers, which will be no doubt at a higher wage than he will draw at wherever he ends up.

Agreed, Mulgrew certainly seems a decent bloke.

Yeah, keeping hold of wantaway Ben Marshall really worked in our favour, was great to see him knuckle down and apply himself pre-Christmas........... oh, wait on

Exactly, whilst Mulgrew is a cracking footballer he is potentially an expensive punt that most lower end championship clubs cant afford and is a 31 year old, injury prone centre half who will cost a fee and a substantial wage what the upper reaches of the championship are looking for? I think Lenihan is by far the more attractive proposition of the 2 on an investment basis.

Mowbray is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't on the players leaving front. If he comes out in the LET talking about those players potentially leaving he will be piloried for being seen to be alerting clubs to their availability, if he says nothing he is accused of not preparing should they leave? I would imagine Mowbray would like both to stay but ultimately it all depends on whether any clubs are interested in them.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Ward as captain next year (if Mulgrew leaves)

To be fair to him a lot of Boro fans hold a long held resentment of Rovers over their game with us when half their team went down ill. I think they went down that season and its one of the excuses they bring up.

There was definitely higher percentage players who made a career from football, and by career I mean league appearances not financial gain. The figures are skewed though as there were a lot fewer players taken on then. There was also less competition then in terms of first team players from abroad, etc. So clubs were effectively picking from a much smaller pool of players.

They do but then have all been in and out of the prem over the last few years, you're always going to get yoyo clubs which is why the old premier reserve league gave you 2 years grace before booting you out should you not gain promotion. We've not yo yo'd anywhere, we're just sliding toward oblivion.

Productivity - All a prem academy has to do is offer a young player 1 minute of game time and they have achieved more than we have since relegation in the eyes of EPPP. EPPP was designed to allow the big clubs to take players from lower league clubs, the blow was softened/clubs held to ransom by the increased solidarity payments by the Premier League. My Dad was at the FL conference in Portugal where pretty much all the FL clubs were in agreement they were being shafted by the PL but were powerless to do anything as the threat of having the solidarity payments withdrawn would have bankrupted most league 1 & 2 clubs. League 1 clubs are not wanted under cat 1. That is fact. Unless we make it back to the championship very quickly our academy will suffer irreparable damage.

Just looking at the list of Cat 1 clubs, there are only 4 (excluding ourselves) outside of the prem; Reading, Fulham, Derby and Norwich. In fact if the old rules still applied we would have been kicked out of the old 'Premier Reserve League' as you were only allowed 2 seasons in it post relegation. Cat 2 wise there is Crewe, Colchester, Coventry and Charlton who ply our trade outside of the top 2 divisions. I am very confident in saying that getting relegated to league 1 will have, in the long term a disastrous impact on our academy. When re-assessed you have to satisfy the 5 criteria of productivity, welfare, education, coaching and facilities. Productivity - we will struggle if the highest level we can offer is league 1. Education - most clubs are now funding their scholars through a private education and/or building on site schools, are we? Will Venky's foot the bill for this? Facilities - Other clubs are constantly investing and developing theirs, are we? Coaching and welfare we should be able to satisfy but realistically its the 3 I've mentioned above that carry the greatest weight.

I'm not disagreeing that EPPP (as with academies in their previous incarnations) are chicken farms for league 1 & 2 players, however my point remains that the point of EPPP and the investment is to find that one diamond amongst the many, many young lads who unfortunately don't make it. My point is this, academies take on between 15 and 30 scholars per year, across the cat 1 clubs who have the pick of the bunch that's around 440 kids, of which around 22 will make a career in the top flight. We are going to be picking from the bottom end of what's on offer to cat 1 clubs as they will pick prem clubs over us regardless of our facilities. So if we are picking from the bottom 50 or so players out of a group with a top flight conversion rate of around 5% our chances of picking a winner are very very slim. I am immensely proud of what our academy has churned out over the years however the simple fact is that being in league 1 is going to have a massively detrimental effect on the clubs ability to attract the top young players. The days of Crewe bringing through players successfully are long gone,Christ Crewe barely have an academy these days. On the Crewe front they didn't actually have any better conversion rate of players to many other clubs, they just happened to have a number at the same time who signed for clubs like Liverpool, etc due to geographical proximity. They also benefited a great deal from taking on players released by those big name clubs and giving them a second chance, the number of kids taken on then was much smaller so the chance of making a career was much greater. The numbers of young players effectively warehoused by premier clubs these days is shocking, with very very few playing at the highest level. In fact the drop off rates of players falling out of the game completely post academy release is staggering.

Yes we have competed, however those players were signed well before we were struggling at the foot of the championship. The likes of Wharton, Lenihan, Tomlinson, etc were taken on as scholars whilst we were in the prem or as a championship side spending money and looking to go back up. We are neither of those now, I think we will be able to tell an awful lot by the quality of the scholars we took on at the start of the season just finished and those we sign this coming season. You're also kind of missing the point of EPPP, the most important detail is the E. EPPP was designed to bring players through at Elite level, league 1 is not elite level, premier league academies are churning out league 1 players for fun. The aim of EPPP is to develop players to play at the very highest level, us offering game time in league 1 is not the purpose of cat 1 academies. If we cannot guarantee an opportunity to play at the highest levels i.e. prem or champ we will be downgraded to Cat 2. I know a few people who work at the academy and the work they do there is excellent, that isn't in question. My point is that the academy will not be exempt from the fall out from falling into league 1. In fact I think in time we will see that the academy is hit hardest should my predicition of losing cat 1 status comes home to roost.

Absolutely, I think they're relying on the average fan knowing very little about how the scholar and academy systems work in the EPPP era.

He may say that the first teams league status is irrelevant but he is lying. Yes, we may keep Cat 1 status (in the short term) however look at the number of clubs outside the prem who are cat 1, speaks volumes. You then have to look at the sort of players you will attract to a league 1 club academy, the players we will get will have realistically been knocked back by every other cat 1 prem club and no doubt a number of prem clubs in cat 2. We've been blessed in recent times of being a prem club with a successful/well run academy, we no longer have the benefit of elite level football and will no longer be seen as an attractive proposition IMO.

My wife will murder me if I'm sulking! Happy birthday to your little lass too.

It's my sons second birthday on Saturday, Rovers better not ruin it