I'm still hoping that due to Chelsea having circa 15 GK's that they decide Gabriel Slonina is dispensable and he ends up here in either loan or permanent capacity.

I compared them to Wes Brown and Gordon Greer a few pages back. Wes Brown (36) at least had the massive Man Utd (200+ apps) and England pedigree (23 caps), plus had only ever played in the Premier League. Flop. And hell, even Gordon Greer (35) was just coming off being a relative (until final season) key player for Championship contending Brighton for half a decade - and got almost a dozen Scotland caps. Flop. McFadzean (37) has spent around 60% of his career in lower leagues (including a long spell below the National League), Finally Batth (33), who to be fair, is just probably a year or 2 past it compared to what we need at this level. All in all, Relegation fodder signings.

I'll bite just to add some names and see how far they go. One of the many Polish CBs playing in Italy: Sebastian Walukiewicz, Mateusz Wieteska or Pawel Dawidowicz perhaps?

Gordon Greer in, Wes Brown having a medical. I'm only remotely happy with the McFadzean signing if he's ridiculously cheap, and the plan is for him to get nowhere near the every week XI. Hayden Carter is CB1, and until otherwise sold, Hyam is his partner, Batth should also slot in ahead. Leadership, Role Model, Organisation, Wisdom etc - all fine... but the man is relegation fodder CB material as a starter vs any team we're hoping to beat. His performances at Leeds and Leicester away we're excellent, (and Coventry at home I'll admit!) but that is the exception to what we face every week. Unless the plan is to get 46 (literal) points next season. O'Riordan?

But wait, have we confirmed Waggott hit "send"?

What was the biggest offer we turned down for him? Was it something like £12m from Everton? Probably could have got £3m ish for Lenihan and Rothwell at peak, and certainly a lot more than £0m for Nyambe. Dack is a different case due to his injuries, but that was a potential 8 figure sum at one point. It's quite scandalous the ineptitude of Steve Waggott and Co.

Totally agree. If I could wish for one rule change, it would be that any loans going further down the pyramid, the cost would be fully covered by the parent club. Wage 100% and £0 loan fee. Same division loans, or loans to a higher division (which do happen), are fair game. Such a simple change would fix so much that is wrong with the structure of English football. I then wonder how quick/rash clubs would be to sign the likes of Rory Finneran, Ash Phillips, and Connor Mahoney to £15,000-£20,000 a week contracts. Of course, clubs would perhaps just loan their young players to Belgium, Scotland, and France (etc) instead.

His Wikipedia says he's 1.81m, so that's certainly not 6ft5". More like 5ft10" when he wakes up.

Which is likely why this will very likely be our last year in the Championship for the foreseeable.

Poor I missed that one, will update.

Looking at some of the"Free" agent signings in the EFL Championship this summer; Vaclav Hladky, Callum Chambers, Chris Willock, Ben Osborn, Cody Drameh, Japhet Tanganga, Louie Sibley, Josh Murphy, Callum O'Hare, Jamie Shackleton, Max Lowe, Jamal Lowe, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ben Hamer, Ben Gibson, and even Ian Poveda. Rovers annually sleepwalk through this part of the summer transfer window. In fact, looking back over the past dozen years, are Rovers perhaps the worst club when it comes to "Free" signings. Danny Graham and Charlie Mulgrew stand out, but the best I could research beyond that are Lewis Holtby, Daniel Ayala, Stewart Downing, Bradley Johnson, Richie Smallwood and Tommy Spurr... Maybe Sondre Tronstad and Arnor Sigurdsson (continue to) become class as successes. But that is still only 10 players in 12 years. Must wake up and do better. Every year we end up annoyed and disappointed.

Now that's just depressing... Back when we were up for sale, I always hoped for an American owner... One of the Billionaire NFL owners ideally. Unfortunately the Brown family can barely afford to run the Cincinnati Bengals, let alone an English Football Club. Or the dream that renowned Rovers fan Shawn Michaels could have a word with HHH and get the WWE involved. Imagine. 🤣 Didn't Matt Smith (of Dr Who and Game of Thrones fame) come out recently saying he wanted to create a consortium to purchase? Get Lee Mack, Stephen Hendry, Carl Fogerty, Jack Straw, Tim Farron (👀), Wayne Hemmingway and Liam Livingston all involved.

Son and Lewandowski formed quite the front pair in a 2009-2011 parallel universe. (Spoiler) We still end up here...

Remember when Rovers had Heung-min Son on trial (I realise he is not Japanese). Makes you wonder how many elite prospects must have fallen through over the years...

Oh, to be a club with even a minor semblance of ambition. You could (if you squint) build a borderline championship calibre team on remaining British (barring GK) free agents. There are so many options to improve this squad - which won't happen. This list ignoring Dele Alli, Ryan Sessegnon, Scott McKenna, John Egan, and Ollie McBurnie as too unrealistic... though some will no doubt end up in this league. GK: Marek Rodak RB: Cody Drameh CB: Nathan Ferguson CB: Paddy McNair LB: Brandon Williams CM: Andre Dozzell CM: Ben Woodburn RW: Sheyi Ojo LW: Ojie Ejaria CAM: Shola Shoretire CF: Tyrese Campbell How many of them would get into our starting XI? Four at least?

Can't wait for this season.

Pears kicking looks to have improved... only two woomped out of play in the first 7 mins. Even saw him control a backpass. What a hit for their goal BTW.

The trust used to have full access to the 2nd Floor of the Darwen End, but they have had to give it back as they can't/refuse to pay the £100,000+ annual rent for 3 classrooms and 1 office. A Football Clubs own Charity being made to pay nearly £400,000 a year in (basically) rent is a complete crime.

I can tell you from first hand experience this is accurate. Also applies down at the Academy. Could share plenty of stories. This is a Football Club that takes light bulbs out of high traffic corridors at Ewood Park to save literal pennies on electricity. Also one of the few Football Clubs in the country that charges (preposterous) rent to their Community Trust - In our case just to use the run down Darwen End and the BRIC (which they had to pay/source funding themselves to renovate).

So, Leo departs and creates with it a void at GK. Current FA goalkeepers with PL or CH experience/potential. Marek Rodak (27) - ex Fulham, liked with Leeds *if* Meslier leaves. Loris Karius (31) - just left Newcastle. Unrealistic perhaps. Vaclav Hladky (33) - Ever present for Ipswich last season. Bartosz Bialkowski (36) - left Millwall, older but CH proven. Joe Wildsmith (27) - decided to leave Derby after being their #1. 20 clean sheets in 40apps. Kelle Roos (32) - Ex Derby who has been #1 at Aberdeen for 2 years. There are of course, backup options in the Premier League... Some (or at least one) could/will be available. Gabriel Slonina (Chelsea), Sam Johnstone (Palace), Joe Lumley (Saints), Dan Bentley (Wolves), Mark Travers (Bournemouth), Matt Turner (Forest) and Thomas Strakosha (Brentford) all profile as #2 or #3 options. Regardless of the realism of the above names, Goalkeeper is one position on a team where there is minimal excuse to be as poor as we were last season.

So wait, we can (and expect/demand the media/world to) slag Rovers off for utter incompetence, unprofessionalism and embarrassment, yet when the person who it most impacted says something slightly negative about it - we don't understand/like his attitude? Duncan Maguire should drag Steve Waggot and Venky's through the mud. I think he's been pretty reserved.

You have to go back 82 days to Feb 24th (14 games) to find a match where Rovers scored, but Sammie didn't. In fact, over the final 13 games - Rovers scoring in 8 of them - only Sunderland away features a Rovers goalscorer not named Szmodics (and even then Sammie scored 2 - should have been 3 of the 5). Szmodics was our only goalscorer in 7 of the last 13 games. I (personally) like Sigurdsson, and think he's a player who (with a healthy and thorough pre-season) could push 10+ goals. Gallagher is usually around the 9 goal mark (this being his worst season), Dolan and Hedges can't/won't hit 10 between them. JRC could maybe have a shot at a half dozen. The defense/Sondre might add 5. Give Leonard 5. That's an ambitious 45 goals. Rovers - with Szmodics - scored 60 this year (or 33 total from everyone else) Cash in on Szmodics - without mass recruitment, and absolute best case scenario (even conveniently ignored the loss of him as a creative player), the best this team could realistically score is around the 1 goal a game mark. Only Rotherham, Sheff Wed and Millwall scored less than that this season. Eustess and his "style", with Hedges, Dolan, Gallagher, Leonard and Sigurdsson as his main men, will not score enough. (Huge) work needed.

That 5-0 disgrace at Bristol City always felt more important than a simple loss. Is the "Ghost of Goal Difference" ready to surface and save the Cockroach that is Big Club once again - just as in 2017?