Admiral Nelsen

Probably isn't the right thread to be returning to this, but I couldn't disagree more with that! Look at what he's done since. Nyambe was a strong one-on-one defender, but beyond that? There's no way that I'd swap him for Brittain (who admittedly has his own problems). Agree that losing Dolan wouldn't be a game changer, but he's an asset and one that I'd rather not be letting go for nowt.

I can definitely see the appeal from his perspective! I just worry slightly about his mental toughness. We've been giving forwards who have fallen from a grace chances for as long as I can remember. The successes like Bellamy, Santa-Cruz, Danny Graham etc. are those that are hungry. I just hope that Cantwell is more in their mold and less like Dwight Yorke's!

Genuinely thought we'd signed Riquelme when I saw those training clips. A more innocent time!

I've always thought that his size will limit what he can achieve. Probably the reason why PNE let him go in the first place. But he has his good points. Covers a few different positions, and he scores and sets up more than he is given credit for. If he goes for a seven figure sum then I'd be happy to shake hands and thank him for his contribution. But losing him for nothing would be a bit of a kick in the teeth. Not quite Brereton levels of annoying, but moreso than Nyambe.

I hope not, ideally I'd like him to sign a new deal. But if he sees himself as a 10 and doesn't think he's getting paid enough, then bringing in a top earner who pushes him down the pecking order isn't likely to persuade him to stay. If it's a choice between selling him and him leaving on a free, then the choice is obvious sadly (assuming there's a buyer!).

If it doesn't go well then we'll do well to recoup a penny - we seem to be getting him on the cheap as it is and that's partially because he's seen as damaged goods. If he does alright then obviously it's a different story, but if he fails then it'll be a case of someone taking his contract on a free at best, I think. That said, I'm definitely coming round to his signing. I didn't realise that he was doing alright at Rangers before throwing his toys out of the pram. I still worry about his attitude, but it's a worthwhile gamble.

Totally agree. I think some of their remaining big hitters who are linked away will probably end up staying too and may well be responsible for them sustaining a promotion push. But it's a big ask to get your head screwed on for this fixture for a Saturday lunchtime when you were hoping to be driving to Manchester Airport on the Friday afternoon. I'm certain that the Burnley starting XI (and at least some of their bench) will on paper be stronger than ours, but they'll have had some serious disruption. Some won't be properly fit, others won't have even trained with the rest of the squad. Others won't want to be there. There's no excuse for it being anything like the last time we played them, especially at their place.

Always a balance with early cup games. We have a small squad and a huge game at the weekend, and some players who will be important for us who didn't get a full pre season. Making lots of changes makes sense but I still expect us to win. Taking these games seriously and making changes are not mutually exclusive, as we showed under JDT.

Like I say, you need to be some player to compensate for being that small! Dolan's biggest problem when he arrived was that for all the tricks and flair you couldn't trust his final ball or decision making. Now I think he's quite a different player, but there are still too many games which almost pass him by because he can't get a kick. I think that's just because he's at a real athletic disadvantage and he often struggles to overcome that.

It's not really the main point of your post, but to be honest I don't think he should have shouldered too much blame for our exiting tournaments. Both Portugal exits were tough fixtures which wouldn't have even gone to penalties if referees didn't disallow perfectly fair goals. I wouldn't put the Rooney red card or the Seaman flap at Ronaldinho's free kick at his door either. I understand that I'm fighting a losing battle with this one, but strip back all the noise from Sven's time in charge and his record was actually very decent with just a bit more of a fair wind (dare I say, the sort that Southgate had) would've probably have been much better.

I think the difference between the two is that Dembele has at least shown it more recently than Cantwell, and has worked with Eustace before. Given the option I'd rather we'd steer clear of them both, but I'm less worried that Dembele would be a total waste of time. Partially - but I still think his main issue by far and away is his lack of size. You need to be a serious player to compensate for being so small in this division. I actually think Dolan has developed pretty well in a lot of ways and his goals/assists when on the pitch come at a pretty decent rate. But there are some games which totally pass him by, and I think in the main that's just a function of him being very small.

Cantwell's ceiling is quite high, but I'd only go near him if the finances are really low risk. It's a sorry state of affairs that I'm saying this but half a million quid from what we will have as a budget isn't worth the gamble for me.

In fairness, that really doesn't seem to be the case from where we are now. Let's see what this week brings, but they seem to be in the middle of losing half a squad and spending a fraction in bringing in replacements.

Get that. In fairness I'm more optimistic about this one than I have in ages so there's definitely something in the mood surrounding both clubs. It's just seems like the panic that has suddenly seemed to have erupted at your end has come from a really predictable set of circumstances, and one that didn't seem to be causing anybody undue stress until very recently. Whereas we've had a decent few results against poor teams, but I don't think anyone is believing that Rovers are going to be contenders at the right end this season. I hope I'm wrong, but from where I'm standing it looks a bit like an overreaction just now.

That's a huge statement. I'm not even saying you're wrong, but the seeming disarray that has come from yesterday's squad and result has be a bit perplexed to be honest. Selling a lot of players was always on the cards with your massive squad from last year and things seemed to be ticking along nicely until yesterday with big profits on the players going out of the door and two big wins alongside them. I take what you say about those scorelines being flattering, but surely it's not enough to make you second favourites against us in a home fixture, given where we've been recently and that Szmodics is now out of the door?

As much as Bennett was never a world beater, if he actually played in that season under Coyle then I don't think we go down. Feeney was so poor and the margin of our relegation was so small. Bennett playing in front of him would have probably been enough for us to stay up. I definitely wouldn't call him anything of the sort, but I don't find it particularly cringeworthy either. Fans of a certain vintage still seem to remember the likes of Sellars or Speedie more fondly than some of our 95 team. Same with Bellamy and MGP for those in their 30s. We all know that we had some absolute whoppers at the club in the years before Bennett, so I get why a player like Bennett struck a cord with some fans, even if he was pretty average.

Pretty much exactly how I see it. Their game yesterday would have well and truly banished any complacency that they would otherwise have, but if their team next week looks like the one that turned out at Sunderland, then there's much less to fear than there was last time around. Whether we'll take advantage or not is another question.

Same team for me. Not usually an advocate for wholesale changes but this is all about getting some players sharper and keeping the first XI fresh for Saturday. And in fairness that's a team that should be good enough to beat a L1 team, albeit there are a massive issues with the defence. I'd only be giving Trav a maximum of 60 minutes too. Same with Weimann and Gueye.

As @KentExile says, he's a centre back. He can play, and so if you play full backs like you did under Pulis he could do a job there. But he's built like a defender, and doesn't have the skill set to do everything you want from a full back in the modern game. Seeing as you're back, I thought I'd add my voice to those a while back saying that Moran has some talent and could be useful for you. When he first arrived he was bright (apart from his first appearance from the bench where he looked totally lost). He didn't really respect possession as much as you need to, but he travelled with the ball very nicely and had a decent touch on him. The trouble was that it was his first proper season of men's football and we had to flog him a bit up until Christmas when we had loads of injuries elsewhere. Either physically or mentally (probably both) he hit a brick wall and his form absolutely nosedived, and didn't recover. If you've brought him in to be a squaddie, he could go well for you.

The lad's only just turned 19 and is a centre half getting games in the Championship. I don't think he realistically expected anything different at this stage football-wise, whether he stayed here or not.

Personally I thought even in that initial spell he was scoring without really doing anything else. Obviously if you score enough then you can make allowances for that, but on last season's evidence I don't think you could say that he was good at anything apart from finishing. He isn't quick or strong enough to be an effective out ball. He doesn't take defenders on with the ball at his feet. He isn't able to cut in from the left and shoot with his right often enough. In one way moving him inside so he gets more shooting opportunities makes sense, but even there he'll get even less space and time on the ball than he does when playing out wide. I hope I'm wrong of course, but judging off last year he lacks either the desire or ability to play out wide, and just goes missing far far too often.

He just can't get in games when he's on the left. He can finish when he gets in a decent position, but he offers nothing else apart from that. I'm happy to give him a chance centrally now Szmodics has gone, but even there I doubt he's got everything you need to do well as a 10.

Years ago when I was young enough to have the time for such frivolities, Rovers on my FM save signed a young Andi Weimann who ended up becoming our all time record scorer. Suffice to say his clever poacher's finish on Friday came as no surprise to me whatsoever.

Agree, and he's not even that limited in terms of ability. He's a classic box to box type whose running game is a big part of what he has to offer, so he was always going to suffer under JDT who wanted something very different from his midfielders. He can definitely play though, as yesterday's performance showed. Suits how we set up yesterday down to a tee.

This is pretty much how I saw it on the night, but I don't think we saw enough from Gueye's build up play to know if it's going to be a big weakness or not. He obviously knows how to use his body better than Gally (not difficult) but he kept it really simple with the ball at his feet. That's not a criticism at all, but it remains to be seen whether he's able to hold the ball up like Graham, who was a master at it. Ohashi impressed me. Clever runs in behind, looks a bit bigger than I was expecting. Still too early to say one way or another but I can see him going well.