Well he does play for Boro

France Brazil a much better advert for the women’s game. Completely different level to us.

Dunno that ankle breaker on Houghton at the end could still come back to haunt us. Disgraceful conduct from Cameroon all game. I’ll give our girls the benefit of the doubt having to play in such difficult and weird circumstances - because on that showing we desperately need to get better at the back or will be home by the end of the week. Fantastic here from PNev though. What is it about those magic waistcoats that they can even make Phil Neville likeable?

Yeah I think Norway will have a field day next round.

Proud day for the academy. RyNy starting in a back 3 I think?

Didn’t he get the face on because we wouldn’t let him go on loan? I might be making that up.

Allow me some complete speculation but I just get the impression that we were paying the likes of Feeney, Stokes, Lowe, Akpan, Guthrie, Steele etc FAR FAR more than we should’ve been before our relegation. 20-40k saved a week in wages there has added 2m per year net to the kitty. At the very least we were offering a whack more than we would now. Probably 10-15k a week plus per player I have listed for absolutely shite all return. We came back up with lads like Smallwood/Downing/Antonsson on probably 2-5k at best, a few relegation clauses here and there and a bit of a hard reset with Dack becoming one of the top earners on less than 15k. Remember when the best Bowyer could do with 10k a week was Sacha Bloody Petshi? No wonder we were attractive to the Cairneys and Marshall’s of the world back then. But we were selling everybody worth a tenner too. This “investment” has NEVER been there and TM hasn’t benefited from it - It’s just a deck chair rearrangement. We expect more now because we’ve got a decent foundation and TM has allocated a wedge of his refreshed budget and savings to the marquee Big Ben and got hopes up. This might be the singular mistake that has him finished with many fans. Its just that dreaded flex. Flex it how you want - But for me TM seems to be operating within a budget that has barely moved beyond zilch for years and years. If we spend over 3m net on fees this window and I’ll gladly eat my hat with salad and garlic sauce.

@roversfan99 I’d like to see how those budgets have spread out since he’s come in re: wages and transfers. I have an inkling that “he’s spent 10m” is nowhere near true.

Commence Venky rant - I’m talking more about the issue of the playing squad/personnel and the disinvestment there. Running costs exist in any business, and in this industry these costs those can only realistically be recouped by the success of the team. Serves them the fuck right. For context - We are net minus say 40m from the day we were a PL team in transfer fees alone (assuming a good manager that could have kept us there). A decade of inflation/market forces from then could put that at what 100m? 200m? More? Every transfer window for 10 years has been shit. A club still on relative life support with some weird (at best formerly criminal) owners thousands of miles away. We get a manager who rebuilds a relegated team on a current transfer fee budget of circa £3m per window (excluding wage variations, which I think may account for a lot of that) and he has us looking up. He has us forgetting the owners and those problems. For the first time in years, ”Mowbray is bad in the transfer market” whilst he has signed our two best players in Dack and Rothwell for nowt. Got us thinking about the playoffs again. Working with nothing but very near to status quo investment. I’ve seen people genuinely say “Tony - play offs are the MINIMUM EXPECTATION” Christ alive what do you think has changed and do you love being disappointed??? Tony isn’t a problem here, if anything he’s a victim of his own success that people think he is.

I really hope that isn’t the case, and Chapman’s social media already shows he, at least, is appreciative of Downing’s presence. Weirdly, even a signing like Fode Fucking Koita was more inspiring on here at the time... At least Downing isn’t a never done nowt, never do owt shitter from the “10k a week is impossibly tight” days. Downing could be a complete waste of time and money. But he could be the steady, calm, experienced winner’s head that we’ve been missing and completely worth his place in a match day squad or 11. Fingers crossed anyway. CHRIST at least we’ve got someone new! He’s played with Suarez, Coutinho, Gerrard at the highest level! Fode Koita/Liam Feeney/Anthony Stokes didn’t!

He was 30. He was our player of the season last year at roughly the same age as Whitts was when he signed. Last year’s DG would have destroyed League One in any team. Whitts didn’t. Horses for courses. Hopefully age is but a number when giving someone a one-year deal chance to chip in.

For every Whittingham there’s a Tugay, and every Murphy a Hughes. Cant wait to find out.

I’ve played more football since and my last action was pulling my hamstring two-footing a lass in a burka in the euphoric aftermath of the England Panama game. edit - she was taking the piss with rainbow flicks and crap

Treat yourself and spend some time looking at tranfermarkt.co.uk and go through the transfer windows since Venky’s arrived. Those signings and no outgoings would be an unequivocal success. I genuinely think we’ve added better players than we’ve lost under Mowbray - that is an incredibly rare thing to say since Big Sam... all for around net £3.5m a year and (I presume) a reduced wage bill. So they’ve probably spent nowt. Mowbray isn’t the problem when it comes to transfers. I’m sick of the narrative that Venkys are funding us generously when they’ve taken something like £40m+ out of the squad in less than ten years and the wage structure is exponentially lower. Another Dack, Rothwell, Armstrong or Chapman would be nice right now. Maybe it’s the Aussie this time. I really want him now!

He looks like Joe Ledley about as much as me and he’s the same race. But I wouldn’t mind international defenders having trials with us... Is this just a guess? Or a source? The lad on Twitter should just ask him his bloody name if it’s true.

I think what I meant rather than “brave” was that he likes a “worth a punt” signing where others necessarily wouldn’t. If it doesn’t work out you get vilified. Whittingham - Rodwell - Downing Good players down on their luck or at the end of their careers but with track records. Imagine if Rodwell contributed even less than he did last year! Mowbray would look a right turkey. FWIW I don’t think he was really worth the risk at all. Surely Downing can play a bigger role than that. The Whittingham signing would be like Ipswich going for Craig Conway right now - but shitter. He was never anywhere near Downings level. Third time’s the charm I hope. I’d have a 34 year old CR7 or Ryan Giggs... All depends about what happens on the pitch and in the rest of the window.

Crazily Whittingham is younger. Cant believe he was only 32 when we signed him. Really don’t think he gave a shit at all.

Yeah brave is maybe the wrong word. Theres just absolutely upside to be had if this one doesn’t come off with some positive effect, surely he knows that and trusts his own judgement. Some would say foolhardy, I suppose.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been underwhelmed at best by this signing - but searching YouTube for some justification has given me a completely new appreciation for the player that he was in the Villa/Liverpool/West Ham days. I suppose we had a completely different frame of reference back then, because I didn’t really rate him. But he’s had an unbelievable and proven career, played with some of the world’s absolute best, has hundreds of top flight appearances under his belt and has never looked out of place - in fact, he was often highly sought after. Proper quality. In his day. Hopefully therefore it’s a different proposition to Whitts and Murphy entirely. He’s been playing regularly in our current division for a start. Jury is firmly still out of course, but he’s in a Rovers shirt now so he’s got my 1000% backing. He needs to still have something to contribute that justifies whatever wage it is, and show enough heart and desire to make me forget my sentimental attachment to Craig Conway. Its either going to be a shrewd and clever signing or an unbelievably crap one. Can’t say Mowbray isn’t brave.

Look I don’t think it’s a great signing either but I believe we are still allowed to bring more in. Any more news on that Aussie lad? I like the look of him. Hanley? Was that just paper talk?

He didn’t rely on him enough last season in my opinion. Had a couple of good starts vs Wednesday and Boro and then never played again. Good header of the ball, and TM (and fans) didn’t realise how useful he was to the squad until we let him go.

Dunno mate I just like to base my opinions and make my arguments based on facts. Each to their own I suppose. Sharpe’s articles completely lacked any substance or journalism at all, and are refuted by first hand reports from people on here who had conversations with the manager. Mowbray has been asked. Let’s say we just don’t know? That’s a generous rebuttal to needless spin like yours. “OuR MaIn TaRgEt FeLl ThRoUgH” is bedwetting of the highest degree, and you know it.

Paul Downing now a Pompey player. Good luck to him. I think he was criminally underrated by many (including TM!). He was a great contributor to our promotion campaign and I wouldn’t bet against him being a Championship player again in 12 months time.

Has it? If you have any info please share with the rest of us? Do agree with most other points though, just tired of the post-truth world we seem to be creating on here.

My snooping suggests that they've just come on holiday/sightseeing... prior to... ? His missus is from Rotherham originally so that's why they were there. Quick stop off to see the family in Dublin before on to... ? Could just be a good wind up, but we were linked before... Forest and others have been rumoured too.