Angry_Pirate

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?

That's the beauty with a vote... you can vote for someone else, and still have the other option win.

There's a Eustace hill just off to the side of McFadzeans. We're still talking about Ryan Hardie, a career L1 striker, abusing a Blackburn Rovers CB. I honestly haven't seen a defender with his pants that lodged around his ankles, since a teenage Martin Olsson away to Spus / prime Aaron Lennon. (Which also ended with a red card, incidently) I genuinely believe that McFadzean chose to take the red card vs conceding the goal (1v1) because he simply was so utterly dominated (and was somehow still on the pitch) that he was waving a white flag to it. Once he's served his ban, he can stay on the bench.

I'm at peace dying on this specific hill. Did you see the first 55 minutes last week? What Ryan Hardy did to him in that hour was bordering on actual abuse.

I'll say this now before the inevitable disappointment follows and we end up slagging 5 of these guys off in the next 3 hours, but... That's it. That's the XI, thats the formation!! If those eleven players stay fit and start the next 9 games, Rovers will stay up.

Gordon Greer > Kyle McFadzean

Been feeling like a 1 man outcast for all my McFadzean slander this past month... "thumbs down" everytime i comment what is blatantly obvious. The guy is not up to this league. Finally i come back today to see my "McFadzean is actually shit" club is getting quite popular. Hopefully that's him done as a lumbering plodder in this ineffective back 5. He has been nothing but a liability since day 1 - he has! The POTM was a joke, his involvement hasn't worked, and has been more detrimental than helpful. Today was the icing on his woeful cake, and the fact is we actually played better without him/10 men tells you it all. The guy is washed, and between him and Eustless, will be two huge and fundamental causes as why Rovers go down... which they likely do. This made my blood boil! A relegation 6 pointer and the biggest (and slowest) liability in our team gets a standing ovation from half our fans for literally striking a monumental nail into the relegation coffin. I wish it was a 9 game suspension. Eustless out.

Can you boo a team off at half time when you're winning? Genuine question?

I'm sorry but this manager is a coward who is petrified to lose, absolute 2017 Tony Mowbray/2012 Steve Ke*n vibes (Spurs away 2012 / Wolves away 2017 ring any bells?) Cardiff (a) and Millwall (h) were 6pts for the taking which he was terrified to take his 3rd CB off the pitch and try to win. 4 combined shots on target in those games! 3CBs for the whole game AT HOME to (fucking) Millwall - who haven't tried to win an away game in about 6 years - is pathetic. Millwall still fucking scored with their only attack. So, whats the point here?! A team that is scared to commit to attack, scared to shoot and has a fear of failure, not only deserves failure.... will get failure. 1 clean sheet in 8 with this "Mcfadzean back 5", still averaging over 1 goal a game conceded, and a 0.66xg average over that same 8 games. Not only is this not working, there is no fight, and no ambition to win. I genuinely believe that anything less than 3pts on Saturday is nailed on RELEGATION. Rant.

I've held my tongue on McFadzien since his debut... but im sorry, he's not very good, hasn't been very good, and the fact he won POTM is laughable and pure fabrication. Slow, liability as a "footballer", not even that "hard" of a hardman, forces us to play a back 5 as he cannot play in a 2, pulls the team too far back towards our own goal as he gets exploited for pace. He's a leader, vocal, experienced... sure... but so are a hundred other shit footballers in L1, L2, etc.