100% Give Carter a shot.

I wouldn't say that he owes us nothing - but obviously that comes nowhere near as a priority compared to what he can do for his family and career. I'm splitting hairs a bit though, I completely agree that wishing him ill in these circumstances is uncalled for. It's a kick in the teeth though, to be sure.

Not sure, in the Sheffield United game at Ewood, Poveda was streets ahead. Khadra got his deflected goal and caused issues with his pace - but was forever giving the ball away. Shame that Poveda got injured so soon afterwards, it would've been nice to see how he performed over a longer period.

Simply not enough. At least five million short.

That's pretty much how I see it. They have a handful of experienced pros who - whilst I wouldn't have them at Rovers - have decent ability and if their tails are up after the weekend could cause us some problems. But if we're being honest, we should be looking at their injury list and performance vs Rotherham and be licking our lips. Huge opportunity for four wins out of four.

Without wanting to derail the thread, does this mean that the data which goes into xG is entirely made up from the shots a team takes, and not other things (e.g. attacks which don't end up in a shot on goal)? I'm thinking of Wharton taking the ball of Obafemi's toe vs Swansea for what would be a near certain tap in. I'm not suggesting that this makes xG any less valid! But for an individual game it would be useful to have a similar model which takes chances without shots into consideration - not sure if they exist or not.

So they are - hadn't realised they were promoted last season!

Naby Sarr appears to have missed the deadline to be able to sign in time for tomorrows game. He's not exactly Franco Baresi, but he definitely would've improved their defence.

Partially because we've also conceded the lowest xG! I half agree - I think over the course of a few months or a full season it can be quite informative. At this stage when you've got such a small number of cases it's ridiculous to draw any proper conclusions from it.

On course to rocket up that xG table! First goal could be even more important than usual in this, I think. They'll be desperate to right some wrongs, but they will be fragile with their personnel missing and after such a poor defeat.

Won't pretend to know anything about him, but I wonder why he has been released? Especially with Schalke still being in the second division.

I'm guessing, but it wouldn't shock me if some of Spurs' U23s are on similar money to the likes of Wharton or Pickering.

I don't know, but I think he would arguably be a better signing for a lower league Prem club than a Championship club, strangely. Playing once a week for a team who defends deep will be less likely to see him pick up injuries and play to his strengths compared to the relentlessness of the Championship.

Yeah, we've got to be going for three points against a team that got spanked 4-0 by Rotherham. Sometimes you'll get away games where you respect the value of a point a little more, but this isn't one of them.

Yes - but never really seemed as invested as other Rovers fans who played for the club if I'm being truthful. He talked quite a lot about going to the Worthington Cup final in fairness.

It's blatantly not going to happen, but equally Jones is going to be taking a pretty massive pay cut irrespective of where his next destination is.

I'm hoping that any delay in signing a new deal is down to that - that the pro-deal which might've been something like £2-3k per week (?) now needs doubling or trebling. Not an unreasonable negotiation given how everyone's bigging him up for twelve months, and now that he's actually started a league game. Hoping is the operative word though.

Lot of sense in this post, sadly. The only other counter argument could be that the stability of staying with a single club for a couple of years could be better for his development than a series of loans until his early-mid 20s. If I were JDT, I'd be on at him constantly about the path that Jude Bellingham took at Birmingham. Could've gone into a CL club's academy before he takes his GCSEs, but instead does another two years playing every week in the Championship, has his pick of clubs to join after and goes into Dortmund's team being able to command a starting position.

Expectation would be too far for me. I wouldn't call it a free hit either, but they have some very good players at this level, and a deeper squad than us after for what will be our third game in six days. If we won vs Reading and got a draw from Brammall Lane I'll be doing cartwheels.

Agree that Dack is the obvious one to bring in. He didn't look particularly off the pace yesterday, albeit as a sub. He should get some opportunities to show what he can do against a lesser side. I'd definitely keep the defence the same, fitness permitting, and cross everything that Ayala can get through unscathed. Other changes would depend on how well we can recover between now & Wednesday, but I definitely wouldn't be averse to putting Dolan in. He's done well off the bench so far. Win on Wednesday and that'll already be 9 points from games that we didn't get any from last season. Not the most reliable measure of progress, but nice all the same.

Really annoying that this game comes so soon after such a big physical effort yesterday. Had we had a full week to recover, I'd be very confident that we'd get the three points. They'll be determined to put in a better showing than their embarrassment against Rotherham too. On the flip side, they're not very good at the best of times and they have an absolutely horrific set of injuries at present. Missing Joao, Meite, Ejaria, Dann, Hutchinson, Moore and others. All key players when fit, and there are doubts over Tom Ince and Hendrick. Really bare bones stuff, so if we can get anywhere near our level, this is a team we should be beating. Going for another clean sheet and a 0-2 Rovers win.

I think we have to be realistic in that any offer we make him needs to give him parity of esteem with other first team players. I really hate giving young players big contracts too early, but we need to signal to Phillips that we recognise his value and we can't do that by offering him a contract which doesn't put him alongside other established players. BUT I don't think throwing all the money we can at him is i) a good idea and ii) likely to work anyway. The biggest thing we can offer him by far is the stage to showcase his talent, so that when he does get his likely move to a top Prem club, he'll be in a much stronger position to go as a player who will compete for games rather than get farmed out on loan. That may not be enough, but if he's smart then an extra £10k a week will be the secondary concern to game time.

Not sure if you ever listen to Quickly Kevin, but there's some doubt that he actually wrote them. Some whispers that the just put his name to them to get more publicity. I choose to believe the legend though. On a similar vein, was there any talk at the time that Matt Jansen laid down a couple of tracks on an album in 2002, alongside Ron Atkinson, Ally McCoist and Frank Sinclair, amongst others. Strange days.

I thought similar - but to be fair they've not dominated possession in either of the games they've had so far (admittedly against good teams). I think we'll have more of the ball than we did against Swansea, especially being at home.

That stood out to me too, could call it the Welsh disease after last weekend! Interesting to see that he was still studying maths at 18 too - can't imagine that would be true of many footballers.