Admiral Nelsen

Preston don't impress me, but if your team has a soft underbelly they have players to hurt you. Kaminski & Ayala being fit will be massive for us. Got a feeling this will end in a draw, but I'm going for Rovers to edge a tight game 2-1

There probably is a way of replacing Nyambe for roughly that sort of money, but only in the same way we could get a player like Samba for a similar fee. I.e. by spotting a bargain that others don't. I'd be very surprised if there's some right-footed Pickering in L1 waiting for us to pick him up for a knock-down fee.

Fabio Cannavaro was 5ft 8!

Most of my life as a Rovers fan has been spent without really giving them a seconds thought, so I find it hard to get too wound up about them now. But I find it completely amazing how often you get one of their fans piping up with the 'if we were in the Prem we would have had massive crowds' line. Completely oblivious to how not managing a single season in the top flight (and hardly ever getting that close to having one) for more than 60 years is a pretty good indicator of where you sit in football's pecking order!

If he could stay fit I think that Souttar could do a very good job in the Championship, but I agree his injury record is a massive red flag.

Game of opinions, and I'm not under any illusions about Mowbray as a manager, but to be honest I find statements like he's an 'extremely poor manager' hard to take seriously. Somewhere near 50% of managers will never get another post after they lose their first job. Mowbray has managed a career over 15 years, mostly at a good level, and over 700 games. You don't get that sort of longevity without having something to offer, or without at least a half-decent body of work to fall back on. That's also a very one sided view of the rest of his career. Just like at Rovers, his career elsewhere has been mixed, with very decent achievements alongside some very disappointing spells. He won manager of the year with Hibs, where he never finished lower than fourth. The promotion season at West Brom (a season after reaching the play off final) was well funded to a point, but only because they were forced into a fire sale of most of their top earners from the previous year. He rebuilt a squad in 12 months and finished top, which was a long way from being a foregone conclusion. He failed badly at Celtic, and only had a bright start before the wheels fell off at Cov, but had two impressive years at Boro before hitting a bad run, and finished with a strong win %.

That story (obviously assuming it's true) paints him in worse light than anything he's done at Rovers in my view.

There are plenty on here who don't even consider David Dunn (or any post-95 player other than Tugay) to be in the legend category, so putting Mowbray in that group is clearly a bit silly. That said, for his faults, he's never been remotely as bad as some have made out. There are obviously better managers out there, but I look around at the other clubs in the league and think how many of their managers are obvious upgrades on Mowbray? Perhaps a handful at most in my view, arguably fewer. Ironically there would've been a few more a month or so ago, but this seems like the season where the managers with the most impressive Championship CVs all want to blot their copy book at the same time. I think this mainly goes to show that there is no guarantee for success at this level, and so much of it is about getting the right man at the right time. I thought at the back end of last season that Mowbray's time was up, but I'm pleasantly surprised to see how he's building up some more credit in the bank this time out. Still very premature to discuss him staying on after this year, but if he were to leave with us finishing just outside the play offs, I think eventually both Mowbray & his time here would be remembered pretty fondly.

Agree, I wouldn't especially mind Johnson there if we're playing at home or against a team we should dominate - if we're playing three at the back then you need someone there who can play a bit as well as defend. I worry about Steven Fletcher though. With some pace around him too it's definitely a tougher prospect than it was against Peterborough.

As much as he let everyone down vs Fulham, I liked what I saw in Van Hecke until that point, so I'd have him there in front of Johnson. Other than that, that's the team I'd go for with Khadra to come on from the bench.

A player who was inexplicably considered an absolute worldbeater on Championship Manager 01-02 is I remember correctly!

Going off what Mowbray's said in the press about our and the their agents valuations being apart, I'd guess that's the main issue for at least one or two. I'd guess for the likes of Brereton (and by the sounds of things, Lenihan) it may more be about career progression, but then again I suppose pay and playing at a higher level are pretty closely linked.

We have both when it suits us, but as you might have already gathered, we don't show it every week!

Can't remember who it was, but I'm sure somebody on here a while back posted that we as fans never give the ability to be consistent enough credit as a talent in its own right. Definitely applies to conversations about Rothwell.

Neither did I, but I had a quick scan on their forum and they're really struggling in midfield. They have Vrancic and Sawyers, so they have decent quality there, but you wouldn't describe either of them as ball winners. After that it seems as though they have literally nobody. Didn't realise how unpopular Joe Allen is over there, but there are plenty saying that he'll be missed just as someone to fill a shirt. Having said all that they were still bang unlucky not to get something from Bristol City away, so they've obviously still got the players to be dangerous, but if I were Rothwell I'd be licking my lips at this game.

Agree completely that other issues will also be a part of the equation. Having said that I would be absolutely astonished if either of those players leave because they think they've been treated poorly at Rovers. Both start the overwhelming majority of games, and have done for ages. Granted it took Rothwell a bit of time to get to that point, but it would be very strange if he didn't sign a contract for a lack of game time two years ago. Similarly with Nyambe, over the last four years or so the only games that he missed when fit were a handful when Bennett played there a couple of seasons back, and a handful where JRC started when we wanted a more attacking right back. There might be other things behind the scenes of course - but I really don't think either have been treated especially badly.

Yes, I think it's really difficult to say the manger/club should be doing this or that on Player X without knowing more about the player's demands. Maybe Rothwell always planned on doing at Rovers what he did at Oxford and moving on a bosman for better terms? Maybe he'll still end up signing back on? The fact that this has happened to so many players over the last year or two means that it's fair to say the club are doing a poor job of protecting our assets, but it's hard to be more specific than that on individual cases, and to be fair to the club we've got evidence all around us that FFP is regrettably something that we need to be very conscious of.

Ordinarily I'd see an away point here as a very good one, but it seems as though it's a very good time to play the Potters with their absentees. Big opportunity of our midfield three of Travis, Rothwell and Buckley to dominate the game with their lack of a proper holding midfielder. Powell missing is a bonus too. Going for an optimistic 1-3 Rovers.

Went to Sheffield United in the Prem and barely played. Hard to tell if that's his fault or theirs. At Forest this season on loan but I haven't really noticed his form to be honest.

I guess yesterday he could've been in the Buckley position, but I agree that we're asking him to play a different role than the one he previously thrived in. I'm fairly relaxed about him for this season, purely because I think we'll mainly be relying upon him for a goal off the bench to begin with. Beyond that (assuming he can get himself fit and firing) it'll be a bigger question.

Agree that there's not an obvious hole that needs filling. Any decent form from Dack will be a huge bonus though, one which we can't really rely upon. That said, with Poveda's injury I'd say we're arguably an attacking option short, and seeing as we were looking for one on deadline day I'd hope that's a position we're looking at in January.

Given the kicking that he got for his performance vs Bristol, good to see Nyambe looking much better today. I didn't really get the sense that any of the chances we conceded were down to the defence, rather we lost the ball further up the pitch and they broke on us a bit too easily.

I think we were more than slightly fortunate to keep a clean sheet, but we spanked them 4-0 in second gear so it'd be churlish to dwell too much on that. Wharton, Pickering, Lenihan and Rothwell all excellent. Kick on against Stoke at the weekend and we could finish the day in level third!

Will be interesting to see if Pickering looks more dangerous as a wing back than he has done so far with four at the back.

Feel for him too. Hasn't always really taken his chance when in the team, but he was good at Sheffield United.