Colombia are a very handy side, but I think you'd still have to make England favourites on paper (I know that's been said before about 100 times!). Route to the quarters looks very manageable. After that...

Hope it works out that way, always prefer the away xmas game to fall on boxing day than New Years.

Agree when he's on MotD, but I think he's much better on the radio. Think there are a few on the Beeb like that actually. Get them 5 minutes to summarise games then they're dull as dishwater. Get them talking about the game more generally and they're not as bad. An exception of course is Danny Murphy, who is equally excruciating on whatever format.

Or Nicky Butt get almost 40!

Football about opinions etc. but if his form dropped that massively then it was completely lost on me. His distribution was very hit and miss, but I remember him doing his job as a centre half to a pretty good standard until Lenihan came back. I agree that he's not likely to shift Lenihan & Mulgrew, who are much more well rounded players, but I think that was equally true when Downing first came in the team.

Thought Watt was very decent in his time here, and didn't get any sniff of an attitude problem. To be fair that might just have been because he was on loan and trying to earn a contract, but take as you find, I'd definitely have him back.

It's amazing how Bolton manage to take such a simple design as a plain white shirt, and every year find a way of making it look disgusting.

Fair, and I susppose Hoillett at his best had games where you were just certain he was going to get past players and keep the ball. Even so, there were times when King looked imperius at this level. Underplaying him was a massive own goal.

A few years ago now, but for me King's real value shone in that last few months in the season we almost got into the play offs under Bowyer. Rhodes & Rudy up front, with King & Conway on the wings. There were certain times when teams just didn't know who to mark or double up on. In that run we played Brum away and King scored a hattrick in about 20 first half minutes from midfield if I remember correctly. Absolutely unplayable. All in hindsight now of course, but looking back on it it definitely was a mistake not to get him in the side somehow, either as a partner for one of our goalscorers or in place of Marshall (or Conway). Horribly frustrating player, but I've not seen any Rovers player terrorise defenders like that in years.

No doubt we're still short of pace. Stil think Pilkington would be a top signing though, has the sort of quality out wide that we simply don't have at present.

That;s the main reason I brought it up to be honest! I was thinking as a number 10, or depending on the system deeper in midfield like he did at Ewood a couple of years back. Agree that his days as an out and out striker are well behind him, but could still do a job out wide if needed, right or left. I'm not saying we should go out and break the bank for him or make him integral to the side, but he'd still be a useful and pretty versatile squad player imo.

Something quite 90s which I like about the Umbro badge trim on the sleeve. Wouldn't mid that at all

Whilst we're speculating on the prospect of Rovers fans signing, would anybody take Jem Karacan? Been released by Horwich, apparently doesn't really fit in with Parkinson's style of play. Not seen much of him recently, but a talented player and one that would suit Tony's style a bit more, perhaps?

I think Gallagher as part of the squad would make sense, if only because he play in a number of different positions to a high standard and should fit in with Tony's style of play. That said, we still need more pace, badly, so he'd need to be an 'extra' one assuming we have the budget for it.

Little surprised that Bristol City are interested in him after his season tailed off so badly at Shrewsbury. Might be worth it if it was a permanent deal but not a 12 month loan

Never heard of him, but had a quick scout on twitter, some posts raving about his debut in February. Left pegger, technical midfielder, scorer of good free kicks.

If that's true it's amazing that hey haven't developed a superstition about blue and white!

Some good names there. Don't think we've got a cat in hells chance of signing Grabban though. Noises that Tony's been making about not signing players on massive wages, I expect that he'd be one. Paddy McNair would be decent but not sure what sort of money he'd be on. Right age, and not easy to look good in a team that is absolutely tanking.

Good indeed. I'm not writing Samuel off just yet. I doubt that he'll leave just 12 months into his contract and with so few other attacking options. If he can just get a bit mentally tougher then there's a useful squad player in there imo.

Will have been playing in the same team as Jack Doyle, so will be known by the club I suppose. Goes without saying, but I don't know the first thing about him

Think the frustration with Evans comes from how we know he has the ability to be more influential. On the face of it can run all day, defend and is decent enough going forward, and yet you never come away from the game thinking he really left his mark on the game. You could well be right about the level of criticism though, even though I'm probably as guilty as anyone. I think there's something similar with Williams too. In any case, two in midfield sounds about right, assuming our budget stretches. If not, then pace and numbers up front & out wide has to be the priority for me.

You're not the only one that thinks so

So long as it is on loan, that makes a lot of sense

We definitely could lose to them! Both have got a sprinkling of star quality and any team that loses to Iceland can easily lose to a team with Lewandowski or James Rodriguez in them. I know we can't have delusions about this being a particularly good England squad or amongst the world's best either. Even so, I'm not having for a second that getting eliminated by sides like those mentioned can be considered a par result, even for this England squad. We've still have enough quality, experience and depth to expect to beat them imo, even if we have earned the right to be pessimistic over the last few decades!

Anything less than a quarter final appearance has to be regarded as a fairly abject failure IMO. We only need to finish in the top 2 in a group containing Tunisia & Panama, and then we'll be playing a team from a group containing Poland, Japan, Colombia & Senegal in the last 16. Obviously that's not to say that we'll actually do it, but I'm not having that even this England team shouldn't see that as a minimum expectation before playing the big guns.