True. My point is that it's vanishingly unlikely that he'll be at the level where City will want him back. If he is, then we'll likely as not be back in the top division off the back of it.

Think there was something similar in Rochina's contract from Barcelona. Wouldn't be too concerned about it, if he plays well enough that City want him back then we'll have already have our moneys worth!

Think I've posted something similar before, but the spell when we looked really dangerous under Bowyer is when we had all three of Rhodes, Gestede & King in the side when Ben Marshall (probably considered our best winger at the time) was injured and we were forced to go for it because we needed wins to get in the play offs. So a team of roughly Robinson Henley Hanley Duffy/Kilgallon Spurr King Cairney Lowe/Evans Conway Rhodes Gestede There were several away games when we looked lethal with this sort of line up, and King was unplayable. When Marshall was back the season after, the handbrake was put back on and King was on the bench. Would've been interesting to have seen how things would've panned out if we stuck to that set up imo. At the very least we might've kept King happy.

Think it's comes from what Southgate was saying the other day, a team we've consistently under estimated. We've often seen them as a side we expect to beat, and more often than not it's ended up as a draw. Interesting to see how it pans out now that it's a knockout game and not a group match. I know it's not panned out this way so far, but I think if we get the first goal then I'd back us to win this fairly comfortably. Watched Sweden against the Swiss, and whilst they were clearly very well drilled, there was a serious lack of quality and pace when going forward. I don't think they have the players to really take the game to us if we get in front, just a case of making sure we can crack them first!

That's pretty much exactly how I feel about where we're at. Only thing I'd add is that as much as we've not been tremendously creative until now, I think our players and the way that we set up is better placed to counter attack against better sides, rather than the sorts of teams that we've played so far. The likes of Sterling, Alli, Lingard, Rashford and Vardy are all different players if we can play slightly more direct into space, and whilst this obviously won't be helpful against Sweden, if we can get past them then it might come to the fore if we play Croatia in the semis, or without getting carried away, whoever in the final.

Seem to remember that Sharpe poured cold water on the Edwards rumour when it was first mooted a few weeks back. Suppose things could have moved on since then though.

I'd guess it wouldn't, maybe delay it slightly as they bring someone in first. It's up for debate if Chapman is Tony's sort of winger, so he's definitely not going to be Pulis' cup of tea! If anything, having 20 million burning a hole in their back pocket may make it easier for us when it comes to the finances, but I doubt it'll change anything.

Think that's right, but to be fair almost all of the footballing world has to have that approach, so I wouldn't say you were being overly pessimistic! Still really unsure about how to assess the competitiveness of the squad, but I think looking at the 'potential to get a good fee' isn't a bad indicator of how much better shape we're in than this time last year. When we went down and started thinking about who might have to be sold, I remember thinking how few players we could realistically expect to get cash for. There was Lenihan (and bizarrely as it turned out, Steele) but that aside it seemed like the whole team were the equivilent of toxic investments. Fast-forward 12 months and we have Raya, Lenihan, Dack, Nyambe, Bell, Davenport, Rothwell, Smallwood & Williams who are all to varying levels of the age/contract status to command a reasonable fee if they were available, with a couple of them with the potential to grow their value substantially. Still looks reasonably likely like we'll be able to add at least one of Chapman & possibly Armstrong to that category too by the end of the summer. Obviously we hope they all stay at Rovers & excel, but looking at this way shows just how much healthier we are with Tony than the paper-over-the-cracks approach that Coyle took, which really left us in the lurch when we went down.

Delighted with this. Not sure exactly what I'm basing this on, but I never saw Lenihan as the type to commit to such a long deal, especially after the Sheffield United rumours last year. Maybe having such a good second half of the season after a long term injury has helped him think differently about being here, not sure. Whisper it, but this is starting to look like quite a promising summer. We're still desparately short of help for Graham and pace out wide/up front, but the rest of the side is looking very decent imo.

I reckon so, on paper at least. Expect a tight one tomorrow in any case. A good performance and win tomorrow and any pretence of expectation management will be straight in the bin as the country goes mad! Seems a fair away away from here though.

Incredible game. So nervous about tomorrow after the last few days. We're a better side than Colombia, but not by miles and it doesn't look like anybody's doing it easy.

What's the difference? (not meaning to sound argumentative - genuine question) If the difference is in terms of ability or what they achieved generally as opposed to winning goals against Burnley, then I think I can see where you're coming from in the sense that you'd never put him in the same bracket as Shearer. But even then he still achieved international honours, as well as promotion and a major trophy with us, and even with his injuries played hundreds of games and scored a bagful. You could pick a handful of players in the last couple of decades who were better than him, but I'm struggling to see how he could be classed as a cult hero but not a legend to be honest (unless I'm getting the wrong end of the stick).

To be fair, any kit which is being worn by Roque would instantly look amazing. Such a beautiful man.

Don't think they'll win it, but like Croatia look capable of knocking anyone out on their day.

Potentially looks like he was the player that we wanted before signing Payne as back up. Bet we weren't in Oxford's good books come February 1st. Unlike Payne, he looks capable of competing physically too. Cautiously optimistic about this one.

Not surprising given they have Modric & Rakatic, but Croatia look capable of giving anyone a game. Think the eariest that they can play England is the semis fortunately.

Thinking about it, that spell of City youth players could warrant a thread all by themselves. S. Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland, Michael Johnson & Micah Richards all off the top of my head looked like they were going to be worldies, and all ended up fading away far too soon. Not sure that their fans would be too bothered now, mind.

Will be interesting to see how Portugal deal with having to be the team on the front foot. They were pretty abysmal in the Euros when they couldn't counter attack towards Ronaldo. The other two will be training exercises.

Talking of halved away kits, I still live in hope that we'll end up bringing out a yellow & black halved kit one of these days.

Our third kit the season after was the same design but with a slightly more tasteful Crown Paints sponsor on the front. Annoyingly, Rovers didn't have the foresight to let anyone buy it!

Ironic that he's now most associated with being a clogger because of the fallout of that Eduardo injury. If he was more of a hard case then he could well have been a Rovers starter for the rest of the decade and even picked up a few England caps along the way.

My issue isn't so much the length of the delay, to be fair it seems like it's not hugely disrupting the flow of the game so far. Bigger problem for me is the period of uncertainty of whether a goal is being disallowed or not. Even if it's only 30 seconds, it takes the joy out of that instant when you know that you've just scored.

Couldn't agree more. I know we all love a good moan at refereeing decisions, but in the cold light of day, we all basically accept that refs are fallible and mistakes are part of the game. Obviously the more correct decisions the better, but if the price of getting more correct decisions is making the game more sterile then it's a price not worth paying.

I wonder how this compares to other countries. Apparently the Brazilian, Italian, French and Spanish press & broadcasters can be brutal at times, but I guess that it might be slightly easier to shrug off if you've got a recent history of success.

To be fair, about half of their team are well known to European fans. In any case, we can get a sense of the pedigree of the squad even if we haven't seen all of them play. D. Sanchez is quality for his age, but wouldn't be getting in our squad yet if he was English. C. Sanchez didn’t play every week for Villa when they were awful. Ospina’s a good shot stopper but an accident waiting to happen beyond that. Believe that Falcao has started scoring again now he's back at Monaco, but hardly the most competitive league in the world. Hard worker and a good finisher, not someone to be overly scared of. Rodriguez & Cuadrado are clearly good players, but England have some too (at least of the same level as Cuadrado). England have lost to worse teams! But it's not getting ahead of ourselves to say we should be favourites to get to the quarters if this is the best that we have to play. Watch us lose to Panama now I've said all that