riverholmes

We might miss that transfer fee we may have got for Brereton-Diaz! That is, assuming the funds would have been put to use. I've checked some reports on Buckley and it seems he's done ok as a sub but nothing more than that. Fans seem to view him as a back-up to Barry Bannan and not a starter or as the wide attacker role he's filled in at. To be fair to him, it must be challenging to go into a club at the bottom of the league and in what seems like disarray and try and make an immediate impact. His future looks very uncertain, despite his talents. I would ask, however, whether Rovers have a single reliable central midfielder? We are waiting on Tronstad and Garrett has shown glimpses but not had a run but there's no-one consistent in there. JRC is the latest experiment and we'll have to see.

Hakan Şükür Legendary Turkish forward signed for us for half a season, 2002/03, sustaining a broken leg at the start and then leaving after some sort of dispute or disagreement with the club. He scored two classy goals for us. This was the time Souness signed Hakan Unsal as well, at left back, who also left after a short spell. He was past his best but if he had stayed, it could've been fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWDc2JNv_NQ (low quality video)

I guess Dack, Ayala, Brereton and Kaminski were important and experienced voices in and around the club. I wonder who the organisers and leaders are now. Travis, I guess, and there’ll be others but not sure. A sign of our issues is the developmental wall our young players seem to reach. Dolan, the Whartons, Buckley etc. had a steep rise and still have moments but they seem to stop improving or go backwards. Is this because they were overrated in the first place and had a purple patch? Is it because there is over reliance on them at an early stage in the absence of support and guidance from experienced pros and the pressure and demands are too much? The more hopeful thought, is that if these youngsters could get back to improving, they could be really good players and lift the team.

I think this is fair. It’s very early but it must be concerning that Wharton might, like Buckley, not fulfil the potential he has as a highly technically gifted player. Not sure how to get it out of him but having good defensive support might help. Lacking pace at the back, there’s extra demands on the CMs. I recall the days of Short and Berg at the back with Stig and Lucas Neill, I think, full backs, who did well as a slow back line. But they played very deep and the full backs often sat back. It might be the case of a need to be more conservative given the general lack of pace and physicality in the team.

I do think the official messageboard forum is a miss. Supposedly, superseded by Twitter coverage, it was said, but, obviously, not at all the same service.

I wonder if there are any Saudi football fan purists wishing the exact reverse right now! The cause, of course, is commodification of human beings in a global market system where wealth is heavily concentrated in certain areas and in a system that demands instant results. Edit: About migrating footballers, former Rovers youth footballer, Rostyn Griffiths has had an interesting career, taking him to Uzbekistan, India and China, to name a few. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostyn_Griffiths

Doesn't make sense to me - a midfield of Onana, Gueye, Doucoure, McNeil and Danjuma should be strong.

It looks bad from Kaminski but if I was defending him, he is rooted to near his line when the ball comes into the 6 yard box but a defender throws himself to try to block the cross with his head and there is always a risk with that that it gets a nick and goes flying in by the near post, so, perhaps, understandable that he stands his ground. Then once it gets into the 6 yard box he's got to throw himself at it - or a defender's got to claim the ball and clear. But I'm not a goalie, so might well be well off the mark. Kaminski bought for an undisclosed but suggested £2.5m and Arsenal have a £30m reserve goalie. It says a lot about the glorious Premier League (and, perhaps, wider than that).

Brighton win against Man U with Welbeck leading the line and players I’ve not heard of before like a German international midfielder Dahoud (admittedly, probably as I don’t follow the league too closely) - and Steele in goal. It’s so impressive - albeit, it’s just the start of the season and things can flip very quickly. van Hecke seems to have broken into the first team and it’ll be interesting and somewhat galling to see how far he goes. Had we made some money on some of the players we’ve let go for free, could we have tempted Brighton into a sale when the player didn’t seem high in the pecking order? I guess unlikely but you never know.

Ben White will be a big miss if he doesn't go to the Euros because of the fall-out or disagreement with England management. International football has become homogenised in style, in that all or most teams play possession football. For England, this has been beneficial because there is no longer the gulf in styles when playing other sides. If a match wasn't played at high speed and with aggression, England were exposed. And, so often, England simply could not impose that direct game and were made to look like boys - even some of the star studded teams of the recent past. It wasn't that Lampard, Gerrard and Beckham were technically far behind the best but they were not drilled from a young age at their clubs in 'tiki taka.' The current crop are and this makes Southgate's job easier. That said, I don't underestimate the team identity and morale he has built in the camp that was seemingly lacking in the past. I recall listening to an interview with Sean Davis of Fulham/Spurs talking about getting an England call-up, entering the team hotel having a look around and walking out, rather than mixing with the squad.

Just spotted that former Rovers midfielder, Brad Lyons, is on the bench for Northern Ireland today, against Kazakhstan. He was a curious signing as he was brought in, I think, in his early 20s, so not exactly a youth player but didn't make it into the first team but was still given a contract extension, had some loan spells, and then left for Kilmarnock when it expired.

The real test is the tournament and it looks like the FA have given Southgate one more shot. Should Maguire start or Colwill, Henderson or Ward-Prowse... to me it doesn't matter greatly. What really matters is how England create a creative fulcrum that will be able to open up defences. Foden or Maddison, with their ability to shoot, pass and dribble, need to be placed at the heart of the England team and pull the strings. I don't hold up much hope, not because of Southgate necessarily, but I have never seen any England manager, in my lifetime, consistently succeed in harnessing attacking talent. Moreover, in club football, increasingly, these type of players are shunted out wide, as a mechanical game is favoured.

My feeling is that we should get our own house in order before attacking other leagues, even if they make us nervous by taking some of Europe's best players. Incidentally, I wonder if Henderson's detractors like to discuss the UK's connection with Saudi Arabia. A Guardian article from this year stated that over a third of clubs from Europe's biggest leagues are invested in by private equity firms - which exist to ruthlessly profit. When the Russian oligarchs were pumping money into the Premier League, it didn't cause too much of a stir. Now, we have the UAE and Saudi Arabia investing heavily and, again, aside from a few grumblings, there is not much protest. I read that City Football Group (majority owned by Abu Dhabi private equity, with investments from US and China), have bought Bahia football club in Brazil, this year, to add to their growing roster. Our football is being destroyed as we speak and there is near silence. I had thought that the rise of Youtube fan channels would enable debate on the fundamentals of our game but, from what I can tell, it hasn't. The climate of fear and censorship imposed by media companies like Google/Youtube, mean that these issues aren't discussed.

He's quite often described as tired on here and some hints at an attitude. I have no idea if either of these things are true or, if so, just features of being a very young player. I would, however, suggest that the trajectory of John Buckley should be a bit of a warning - not just for the player but the management too. You can have all the talent in the world but performing consistently in games takes mentality and, also, guidance from colleagues. Unfortunately, for our young players, there's not many experienced pros shouldering responsibility week in week out.

I find the Jack Vale loan to Lincoln surprising considering that he's currently injured. Rovers U23s were thrashed by Spurs today, according to their website. It's going to be another hard slog for the team this year, it seems.

Burns' former forward partners in the Rovers U23 team have also been on the move. Connor McBride, has signed for Gateshead, after a bit of a struggle to make an impression in the Scottish second tier and Sam Durrant moved to Dundalk in Ireland after being released by Sheffield Wednesday. From that U23 side that finished, I think 5th in the league, only Garrett and Batty have made an impact on the first team squad, I think. Isaac Whitehall and Lenni Cirino are, I think, still with the club and also from that era, but as far as I can tell, they are still out with long-term injuries and it looks like they're running out of time to earn new contracts.

I suspect Villarreal made the signing on the basis that if they can get a bit out of him, they have a fair chance of profiting by selling him to an English club. He could possibly hit it off in La Liga as a centre forward, with an objective to finish moves, but it’ll take a lot for him to succeed as a winger/midfielder in Spain where the demands are different. It could be a bit like Adam Armstrong in the Premier League. Albeit, Brereton-Diaz’s Chilean experience and the quality of the squad should help him. That said, he has a habit of surprising people, so who knows. He will need time to try and adapt.

To state the obvious, our squad level is low compared to previous years. The reliance on very inexperienced youngsters as starters and on the bench without senior players setting standards and taking responsibility is very risky. It does seem that survival might become the main aim this season and, perhaps, longer-term. The days of Mowbray leaving Harvey Elliot on the bench and struggling to get Armstrong, Brereton, Rothwell, Harwood-Bellis and co. to function as a team will be long behind us.

I have questions about this and whether other factors are at play. I'm guessing but I suspect that the club have at times blocked loan move opportunities due to indecision or worries about the strength of the first team squad. Cases in point would be Conor McBride and Sam Burns who had stellar periods in the U23s and, in the case of McBride, had made a first team pre-season appearance and scored for the firsts. However, the club proceeded to keep hold of them in the U23s. Of course, I don't know if they had interested clubs but my guess would be they would have had at that time. If Tyler Magloire who had a difficult loan in Scotland, albeit, he played a lot, and was unimpressive in his appearances for Rovers found a loan move, you would think that some others would too. I have no experience in this area and am speculating but I think the club could, potentially, do more to release players for loan moves at the start of campaigns, when EFL clubs are planning their squads and their budgets. For example, the club should be, in my opinion, offering Jack Vale a loan move, unless, of course, they see him as integral to the first team this coming campaign. Edit: One thing I hope we see less of is the 1 month/very short non-league loan moves for key U23 players. Burns and Pike have gone on them and I can't see what point there is. If it's a 17 year old gaining some work experience or someone who's going to be let go and is not worth having around, that's a different matter. Also, a longer-term loan move in non-league, like Raya had, might have some benefit, but the very short-term bitty and low quality loans don't seem to serve much of a purpose.

I compare it to Rovers’ Worthy Cup win but the League Cup is an established tournament with all the Prem clubs involved, if not fielding full-strength. Rovers had a relatively charmed run that year with Sheffield Wed in the semis. However, we definitely didn’t have one of the biggest wage bills of all the teams involved as, I suppose, West Ham did. Regardless, it is infuriating how the powers that be are devaluing European football with tournament expansions that largely, I feel benefit the wealthy clubs and leagues.

For England, Rice has had games where he’s run at and beaten players in surging runs. He has the capacity, I think of being a progressive midfielder. I’d like to see how he performs with freedom to get forward in a way he didn’t really when he played deep-lying alongside Phillips. That said, he’s inevitably overrated because he’s English (via Eire) but still an excellent player. One concern I might have is he may, from my limited knowledge, be in with the world of social media personalities which can be a distraction. But helping his team win a tournament is evidence against that. I have been reflecting on West Ham’s win and I do wonder whether it is such an achievement. From my reckoning they have the biggest wage bill of all the teams in the tournament (based on pure guesswork, so could be wrong). Sure, they deserve plaudits and beat some prestigious sides like Fiorentina and Alkmaar, although not sure how strong either are.

That's an interesting debate (and a can of worms!). It's not straightforward to compare as Brereton-Diaz rarely played as a central striker - and the above rarely played as left forwards, apart from, Armstrong, I believe. Though, of course, some of the names are light years ahead. I do feel that playing as a forward is arguably more challenging in the modern game. As a two of strikers, you have a partner to support you with flick-ons and hold up, whilst, I feel, the modern game leaves the forwards quite adrift from each other. For example, how would Matt Jansen fare as a lone forward in a three? I'm sure he'd be decent but I suspect it would be tougher for him (albeit, I do wonder whether the standard in the Champ compares to before).

Was it a major net loss? Yes, just as pretty much every single signing we have made in this league, from Lewis Holtby to Joe Rothwell, whether we paid a fee or not and includes loanees. In the credit column, arguably, are intangibles of providing entertainment and satisfaction to fans, as well as raising the profile of the club. There's no doubt Brereton-Diaz did both at times. However, it is true that throwing huge sums at individual players and neglecting the rest and to consistently let star players leave for free is not sustainable and asking for financial calamity. Here's something to ponder. Tony Mowbray had Brereton-Diaz, Adam Armstrong, Harvey Elliot and Joe Rothwell in his squad and we didn't make it to the play offs. You might add Harwood-Bellis and Lenihan who are regulars in defence at the top of this league. Sure, not all were as experienced and mature as they are now but that must go down as a failure.

Talk of Szmodics and JRC as stalwarts is somewhat ironic considering their injury records. I’m not sure either can be relied on for a full season but I hope I’m wrong. Rankin-Costello seems to have kept healthy for an unprecedented spell, so hoping he’s turned a corner. We have had success with former England youth forwards in Armstrong and Brereton-Diaz, so wonder if keeping an eye there might be worthwhile and their showings for their clubs, of course. Though, we’ve had misses here too. I still have hopes for Markanday but we’ll see. Not looking promising at the moment.

I see your point but, perhaps, the wisdom of signing him can be separated from the wisdom of not investing in a central midfielder or a central forward, I feel - or turning down offers for him when it was clear he was not going to sign a new contract. Had we had a DM and a striker, Brereton-Diaz's goals may have helped to push us into a top six place. Moreover, had the club recognised that promotion chances were slim without aforementioned roles filled and that selling Diaz and reinvesting would sustain us long-term, then there might be less ambivalence about his time here now. It has to go down as a good signing, overall, which was not managed for the best of the club. Likewise, Rothwell, who also struggled for quite a long time, had his golden spell and then tailed off as he was leaving the club on a free. The club should probably have sold him in, at latest, January, albeit, they were banking on play-offs. Overall, I agree, however, that there is absolutely little point in buying big money players whilst neglecting the rest of the squad and then letting them leave on a free. It is a huge net loss.