I take the view that compared to every other club bar Bournemouth, we seem to have had a reasonable window, in that no-one key left and we've made some shrewd acquisitions. Shame about Markanday obviously, but the others seem to have something to offer that we didn't previously have.

Another striker would've been nice, and / or a CM, but I think we're OK. Up front we have BBD, Gally, Khadra, Hedges, Zeefuijk to fight for 2/3 spots, Dack to return, plus Buckley as a false 9 & JRC.

In CM we have Travis, Rothwell (assuming his head's right), Buckley, Davenport, Johnson, possibly also JRC, Edun & Garrett. Even Lenihan could cover there in a real emergency.

There's plenty of options there if we have a worsening personnel crisis.

Bournemouth will either walk away with top 2, or fall further away. I don't think they got rid of anyone yesterday so to add SIX players in 1 day must be a desperate move on their part.  Why are they so desperate? Because this Rovers squad (and perhaps QPR) have scared the bejesus out of them with our spirit, desire, fortitude & no shortage of ability. If we can keep that, and stay no worse off with injuries etc., I'd rather be TM than Scott Parker right now having to find an identity in such a large group in such a short space of time and all the pressure that he'llbe under given the cash splashed.

COYB!!

I've realised that I now hold an intense dislike for every club that Eddie Howe has been employed by.

If he ever gets appointed at Rovers, I'll be in a dilemma.

I'm not getting much work done this morning...😲

30 minutes ago, superniko said:

It was amateur hour during the stoppage in play against Boro. 
They were all stood around for 20 minutes kicking a ball about like under 12s, then play resumed, one sprint and he was holding his hamstring. 

Whilst Boro had the trainer on doing warm ups. 

But then again, we scored afterwards & Boro didn't!!

Zeefuijk in for Khadra then? Upsets the system the least

With reference to Ivan Toney, the naivety shown by some footballers is truly staggering. 

For those that haven't seen it, here's a still off the BBC website. THB is a very lucky boy, Koroma will surely receive a retrospective ban as Gavin Ward didn't even give a free kick.

29 minutes ago, superniko said:

Doesn’t sit right with me that South America only gets 4 automatic slots at a Word Cup. 
It’s not balanced enough with too many European countries qualifying. 

Are we talking about football, or Scrabble?!

😁

Assuming it's football, I get what you're saying to a point but there's only 10 countries in the whole confederation, 4 of which definitely qualify, & quite probably a 5th, which is half the continent!!

15 hours ago, Upside Down said:

What the fuck is a vertical pass? Does that mean he boots it to the moon? What a load of bollocks.

I'm guessing that, in the context of a low block meaning defending deep, then a vertical pass is a forwards one into midfield or the forwards, with progressor meaning carrying the ball forwards.

Maybe.

36 minutes ago, danger19_80 said:

That Sheff Utd side Wilder brought to Ewood in their promotion year still sticks in my mind as one of the best away performances in recent years. A top manager at this level. People are right to be wary.

That was 3 or 4 years ago, after Wilder had been at Sheff Utd for 2 or 3 seasons & made them into a well oiled machine. The circumstances are barely comparable to tomorrow.

Boro are on a decent run, have a decent manager & some good players at this level. They'll be tough opponents, but they're not all that imo, we should be confident of a win if we approach it right.

3 hours ago, yellowsubmarine said:

v Rotterdam (115th equaliser) - FA Cup

I didn't know the FA Cup had gone European.  Anotther nail in the coffin of the oldest cup competition in the world. Bloody UEFA.

On the plus side, I heard WBA's Dike went off with a hammy injury after an hour today. I would guess that if he's out for any length of time, that'll be more damaging to them than the loss of Markanday is to us.

36 minutes ago, J*B said:

It’s not often I’m positive, but let’s be clear here…

1) Rovers would have absolutely battered this lot on Boxing Day. 

2) The postponement has favoured Hull in every aspect

3) We should have had a penalty

4) They should have had a red

5) The player that should have been sent off cleared one off the line 

6) The second goal was a clear intentional block on Kaminski 

7) We can’t win every game

8)) I’m going to give benefit of the doubt that we’ve only played this insane 3-4-3 formation due to player injuries, suspensions and COVID cases. 

100%.

I will admit that we were far from at our best again & started slowly, but all teams MUST be able to rely on officials being competent. 

Every key decision went against us; the none penalty & red card (which totally changes the game after what, 25 mins?), shortly followed by the clearance by their last man who shouldn't have been on the pitch.  Then their 2nd goal where TK was clearly fouled. There was another time too, the corner when they hit the post, that Eaves shoved Wharton (or Van Hecke) into Kaminski, putting them both out of the game for the corner, not seen or given.

I'm fuming, absolutely fuming.

2 hours ago, davulsukur said:

Forget the possession based stuff and build from the back. Get a solid defensive base and the rest will follow", that was the cry from most of us.

It's fair comment that the "possession game" is less important than it was made out to be last season, but the "build from the back" aspect still applies.

For example yesterday, the goal came from a couple of passes at the back & between DL & JR before DL played a Tosin-like sliderule pass up to Khadra who laid it off for the onrushing Rothwell. Against Brum, TK threw out to Dl, who brought it out of defence then played in Khadra to round the keeper & finish.

Building from the back is good, so long as it us done sensibly & is one tactic amongst many.

This is all sounding very positive.

What's telling to me is that all 3 signings (assuming Markanday is confirmed) are all off-the-wall in different ways, and generally kept under wraps until more or less done. No mean feat these days, and shows some creative thinking with an eye to the future, whether promoted or not.

Let's hope the likes of Elliot, Kaminski, Pickering, Van Hecke & Khadra are good indicators of the type of match-ready player we're signing, as they've all worked pretty well for us from varied sources.

3-0, Wood again on 46 mins.

Maybe we could sell him to Newcastle for £25m?

U18s currently 2 up in youth Cup match, & well deserved according to the Stoke Sentinel's correspondent whose feed I'm following! Harrison Wood & Harry Leonard the scorers.

2 minutes ago, Atko's Engine said:

Debbie

Of course, I meant Dembele!! 🤣

I've just had a quick squint at transfermarkt; I think it's quite accurate re player contract expiries, even if other aspects are off the mark (eg it gives BBD'S market value as £9m).

Anyway, it says there are 212 championship players whose contracts expire this summer. Across 24 clubs, that's nearly 9 players per club. Included amongst those for Rovers are BBD & TK (both of whom appear to have 12 month options in the club's favour), plus some of our U23s (McGloire etc). And there are some decent names on that list too (David Brookes, Nick Powell, Jonathan Swift, Debbie etc.).

So are we unusual in having so many players with contracts expiring this summer? The stats suggest not; it seems to be across the whole league, and to be fair if one assumes the average contract is 3 years long (?) then that's potentially 27 players OOC every 3 year cycle. I suspect / speculate this year's divisional figure is higher than in previous years due to covid, with club finances being unforeseeably stretched as a result, leading to a mismatch between player expectations & club resources (assuming we did start negotiations with them 18 months ago, as stated).

Where we are unlucky / stand out from the rest, is that 3 of our "rebels" are all very suddenly considered very important due to this successful 5-3-2 formation that they all fit right into, whereas 5 months ago a significant cross section of fans (me included) wouldn't have been too despondent to see any one of them leave. That puts the club in an unforeseen difficult situation that I'd think would be hard to navigate currently.

FWIW, I think we should push the boat out (without rocking it too much!) to keep Lenihan as he's been huge recently; and likewise Rothwell, who has some rather unique ability that I think is irreplaceable, and who's also now found some consistency to go with it.

Re Nyambe, I'm really torn; he's obviously a good egg, an academy product & in a 4 he's absolutely solid; but in a 5 he lacks ability offensively & just hasn't developed as far as I'd hoped he would; plus he does have injury issues. Of the 3, imo he's been the least influential & most replaceable overall. That doesn't mean I want to see him leave, and he certainly deserves an improved deal, but clearly the club don't value him as much as he / his advisors do. If the difference is down to the funding of his academy (as SW has seemingly suggested; sorry if I've got that wrong), why should the club pay him more just so that he can continue to fund it, without a say in its operation at least? It's up to him how he spends his money (and I applaud his intentions wholeheartedly), but is that Rovers' responsibility, without benefit? Absolutely not.

None of us have any idea how far apart each offer is from the players' bottom line. Traditionally, forwards get paid more than defenders, signings from other clubs get paid more than Academy graduates (at least in their younger years); I'm not sure there's much different to that pattern here?

Ideally all 3 renew, perhaps with bonus & further improved standard terms if promoted. If not, then we just have to take the risk of them leaving for a small amount this month (but absolutely not to a promotion rival) or for free in summer.

Tbf to all of them & much to their credit, whatever their reasons for not re-signing, none of them have letvthe uncertainty affect their performances, or indeed look like they're hankering after a move. Hopefully that continues if they're still here on Feb 3rd.

It's only sensible to make a prediction once we've seen the teams, otherwise it's a total lottery!

6 hours ago, bluebruce said:

The worry for me is if we lose this one I fear it could hamper the momentum, especially on the back of the Hudds draw. The side will inevitably feature some first teamers, perhaps quite a few, and their confidence could take a knock if they bow out to a lower league side. Hopefully they're mentally stronger than that, but a lot of it can be subconscious.

I doubt there's nothing that hits the spirits of a team more than going down 0-7 at home in the league, then 1 nil down in the first two minutes of the next game 3 days later!. They dealt with that OK, so a defeat for a team containing a few fringe players at a top L1 team ought to be water off a duck's back in comparison...

2 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

I am reading a lot about players needing rest as a justification to play a weakened side.

We played FOUR games in December and 5 full days since we played Huddersfield.

I don't have to say any more.

I agree that use of fringe players is the way to go at Wigan, to give them game time & most first teamers a rest. Yes we had less games in December than expected, but 2 of those were leggy affairs on a sodden pitch, & all the prep (training, travel etc) was done for the Hull game, which is now an extra game in January that we will have to deal with.

Cup is great, & let's not throw it away, but the league MUST be prioritised. 

2 hours ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

We are not punching above our weight!

To be fair to jny, whilst as fans we are rightly proud of our rich & silvery history, in current terms we are very much punching above our weight currently. 

We're currently 2nd with a decent gap to 7th, in a season when even the most optimistic of us would've been happy with just a top half finish in August having lost Arma and signed no replacement + a few loans none of us knew anything of! 

In that context, in the here & now, our squad is punching above its weight.

13 hours ago, Upside Down said:

99 - 09? They were well and truly under the boot during that period.

Good spot; now corrected!