Admiral Nelsen

Unless he signs a new deal, which I genuinely hope he does! I'm sure Nyambe is very diligent and is working hard every day to try and improve that side of his game. Sometimes, though, there are certain aspects of the game which some players will struggle to get better at. I hope this isn't the case with Nyambe, but on this season's evidence you can't really say there's been any development at all in his attacking quality.

Don't like his goal record one bit, but then again that includes spells at being played out wide and even as a wing back. We need numbers across the park, so i) if he's completely injury free, and ii) asking for sensible wages then I wouldn't be against taking him as a squaddie. Under no circumstances can we be signing him with expectations of him being a key goal threat.

Possibly, but it could also be that Nyambe doesn't have it in him to improve that side of his game. Every player has their ceiling. It's not as though Mowbray hasn't been banging on about improving that side of his game for years either.

I don't disagree with some of those examples, but to be fair almost all managers expect full backs to have at least some attacking threat as a minimum these days. Playing like Alexander-Arnold is obviously never going to be him, so I agree there's an element of not asking him to go too far away from his natural game, but at the same time I'd expect our next manager to treat improving that side of his game as a priority. That's if he stays, of course!

Liverpool fans I believe.

I might be splitting hairs a bit, but calculating greed is probably a bit strong. Looking after number 1, certainly. Agree with your assessment of him as a player though. Seemed to have a bit of bad luck at first when it came to hitting the post and narrowly missing chances, but the numbers don't lie over his time here - for a supposedly attacking player with his talent he just hasn't been anywhere near productive enough. One thing that we'll miss though is his ability to get us up the park quickly. He definitely is premier league quality when it comes to breaking with the ball at pace, and we've relied on him doing that from deep quite a lot this year. His overall contribution won't be missed that much for me, but there are aspects to his game that will need replacing.

Agree that the midfield is lacking power if Buckley comes straight in. Trav is an excellent player at this level but he can't be the legs for the whole midfield. What we wouldn't give for a pre-injury Steven Reid now! It's a pretty daunting shopping list. Hopefully good news on the Lenihan and Nyambe contracts will take a little bit of the pressure off. At the same time, whilst we'll need numbers all over the park, I think the one thing which is really essential is that we bring in enough goal threat to replace Brereton, assuming he gets sold. Other positions depend more on what system the new manager will want to play - i.e. if we play with a back four we probably won't need two new centre halves with Carter coming back - but the one thing which really worries me about next year is that we won't have enough quality up front.

I agree that it's a big risk. Equally, I don't know what else he could have possibly done at a club of that size to show that he deserves a shot at something bigger and better.

I liked the way that he started the move almost as much as the goal itself. Receiving the ball facing his own goal under pressure. Four seconds later he's turned, beat a defender like he wasn't there and pinged a 40 yard pass to a man in space. Lovely. He still has games where he goes missing, but his development in the last twelve months has been wonderful. If he carries on as he is then he'll be some player.

If we're talking about the games at the start of 18/19, he wasn't. He was injured for the Fulham game and didn't make the bench - even though we had some kids there to make up the numbers. Not sure if he was back straight away after that one, but I'm pretty sure I remember Mowbray talking about not risking his hamstrings too soon. Obviously that doesn't account for the full run, but fitness was an issue.

Nyambe was injured for some of those games too.

To be fair, Dyche was relegated first time round. Farke probably would've got Norwich relegated this season, but wasn't given the opportunity. Their records at getting teams promoted, our immediate concern, are very similar so it definitely wouldn't be a no brainer. Agree that his Burnley connections are irrelevant though. If anything the fact that it'd wind them up just adds to the appeal.

I've already said that I think he's the most replaceable of the three OOC, but him staying will still be a big boost. I'm convinced that he'll never be the ideal wingback if that's what the new manager opts for, but if we play him just as a normal right back then he's as good as most in this league.

I'm not against the logic of targeting a manager with a track record of working with and improving young players. But surely if that's a thing which we're really prioritising, that's all the more reason to throw everything we can at getting Farke in. So much of Norwich's success has been working with & improving youngsters, whilst at the same time racking up the wins. Someone should dig out the stories linking Max Aarons with a £50 million move to Barcelona a few years ago and show Venkys. That should do the trick.

He certainly improved over his time here. Defensively he grew to be fairly reliable by the end, which he certainly wasn't to begin with, but his final ball was still appalling. He'll get much more protection the way that Luton way I suppose, so that might have something to do with it.

He was very good indeed against Sheffield United, but other than that I agree. Plus there's the fact that he's recovering from a serious injury to consider. I wouldn't be dead against it if he came here for buttons as a squaddie on loan - there is some ability there - but I'd hope there would be much better options for us out there.

A bit unlucky that he got Rangers in the second tier at the same time as very decent Hearts and Hibs teams. Anything less than marching through the leagues was obviously going to be unacceptable for a club as big as Rangers, but they were still slightly unfair expectations given the scale of the rebuild that needed to be done there.

I think it's more a case of most managerial appointments eventually end in failure anyway. It's just that we remember them more when there's the story of them being a club legend. Add in the fact that the appointment is more likely to be an emotional one rather than being hard headed in appointing the most impressive candidate, it's not surprising that most end up finishing in tears. Having said that I think Ainsworth's record is seriously impressive for a club so small, so deserves a chance at a bigger one. I'd see it as too big a risk personally, but there's a logic to it which wouldn't be there for 95% of other candidates who happen to have a Rovers connection.

Everyone's rightly talking about how Everton could possibly end up going down after spending hundreds upon hundreds of millions on their squad. We'd be giving them a good run for their money in the late 90s. Irony is we get associated with being money-bags Rovers because of our success until '95 - but actually we we were pretty sensible next to our reputation. Blow outs on Shearer and Sutton, but most of the title winning side cost a few hundred grand or less. It was the late 90s - after Jack initially tried to rein in the spending - when we really started throwing the cash at everyone.

Eye watering. Didn't help that Kidd was almost as profligate with some of his signings, although as an exception Jansen obviously ended being amazing after Souness got hold of him. I could be wrong, but I think we paid more for Dailly than Chelsea did for Desailly around the same time! Criminally wasteful.

Must admit I didn't realise that his spell at PSV was as successful as it was. Sadly, his spell at Derby is far more likely to be an indicator of what can expect if he gets the Rovers job. Also whilst he didn't have a decent budget at Derby, he still massively underperformed with a better group of players than Rooney has worked with. Possibly better than Coyle, but still completely senseless if the likes of Farke are genuinely interested.

That's a fair point. I don't think he's looked too different when played in a four this season either, which he was for the first months of the season and from time-to-time since, but I accept that's a pretty small sample.

I think that's right, but it's much less a feature of his game than it used to be. He seems much more disciplined in his decision making now than he was even 1-2 years ago. I think the penny might've dropped a little earlier had he been paired with a wiser head in defence earlier in his career. I know Mulgrew was experienced but he was never really a defensive leader in that sense.

I still occasionally get angry about that deal, up there with the worst in our history. Arguably the worst. £7.5 million was a lot of money for a player in 1998. How much in today's world? Around £50 million perhaps? To not only pay that sort of money, but to also throw in a future England international & Rovers fan into the bargain in exchange for Kevin bloody Davies. Dreadful.

Agree with this. He seems to be sensing danger and reading the game much better this season - I always thought he was one of those defenders who look the part when going in for challenges, but they often only need to do that to make up for lapses in concentration. Nyambe and Rothwell both have important aspects to their game which will be hard to replace, but Lenihan is the best player of the three by a decent margin for me.