Nah, he was at his best in the summer of 69.

Cheers; if ever there was a player who achieved unexpected success through sheer dedication & steely determination over skill and finesse, it was Super Atko. He had limited ability as a Premier League midfielder but boy did he make up for it in graft & commitment, fully deserving of his place in history. If only we had a couple like him now in CM... he'd be right up TM's street that's for sure!

Fair point, maybe I wasn't as clear as I could've been in that first post about what was riling me, and should've expanded more like I went on to later in response to you. I don't have much time to contribute on here so sometimes don't manage to get my full point across as I'd like. I still believe TM gets too much of a hard time from many on here, which spills over into being disrespectful to him which he doesn't deserve. There's constructive criticism, then there's conspiracy theories... On Bauer, I'm not too fussed we've missed out on him, albeit it doesn't look great to have courted him for so long only to then miss out on him to PNE. I would've questioned the wisdom of signing him in order to be 1st choice as he has no real pedigree at this level to justify that billing and if he did not like the idea of fighting for his place amongst equals then I'm not sure he was what we need anyway. TM did say in the forum that defenders (plural) are coming; he would no doubt have said the same to Bauer which might've made him think it would be too much competition, whereas PNE might not be looking for anyone else in his position. It's speculative I guess, who knows. On Hanley, I'd be happy with that as a loan or permanent, I think he was vastly underrated by many at Rovers and thought in that last season he was a class act for this level. If he and Leni could strike up a partnership I reckon that alone could save us 15-20 goals, which would be enough to push us into top 6 territory even if we don't improve up front (which I think we will, be it thru new blood or existing younger players improving (i.e. the U23s and BB, Rothwell, Davenport, Armstrong, Dack, Travis). Ever the optimist eh?! ?

There's nothing wrong with fair and constructive critique Matty, but when it creeps over into suggesting that he's manipulating the club / owners / fans for his own ends so he can get his kids through private school (for example) or that he's only interested in getting jobs for the boys (as another example), it goes too far and is disrespectful, which he doesn't deserve. I'm sure he's thick skinned enough not to be too bothered, and is maybe less bothered than I am! But I think he ought to get more appreciation from many fans on here given the dire situation we were in when he arrived.

From my perspective, Downing is an unexpected start to summer's dealings but surely not the last arrival. He's certainly got great experience to bring to a young team as Chapman openly stated, so he should be viewed as just 1 piece of the overall jigsaw. On a separate note, whilst I'm all for people discussing opinions and speculating on transfers, budgets, fees paid, missed opportunities on new players etc. which is all part & parcel of being a fan, IMO some on here go too far in their criticism of TM. No he's not ruthless, he's not Mr Motivator, but he's clearly got integrity & decency as a human being and the respect of many stalwarts within the game because of it. I believe he is trying to do right by the club and us fans, not feather his own nest as many on here would have us believe. He can't please everyone, who can? He's made mistakes and will make more. But he's helped bring a sense of normality to a crazy club, under crazy owners, which we could have only dreamed of 2 years ago. So please can folk on here not use any signing another club makes, any quote another manager makes about their vision for their club, any & every inconsistent comment TM might make from time to time, or even the order in which players sign for the club (!!) as a stick to beat him with? He should only be judged on this summer's dealings in August, not before.

You could say the same about many club legends for us, Garner & Tugay being the obvious ones. Don't get me wrong, I hope he gets better for the greater benefit of the club (whether that's achieving success here or a bringing in a massive transfer fee) and himself, but if Garner/Tugay status is all he ends up achieving at the end of his career I'll take that as a Rovers fan, even if it could be legitimately argued by then that he didn't make the most of his natural talent from this point onwards.

Or, there could be a positive slant to this as in maybe the budget agreed in Pune is bigger than was expected and allows us to spend more on experienced Championship players than was previously anticipated? Just saying...

What was it they paid for Will Grigg? £4m?? Sheesh.

Wow. Harsh. He's obviously not been a world beater & I hope his place in the squad is taken by a better option, but if any player (or employee in any walk of life) gives good, loyal, professional service across a quarter of their whole career as he has done, the very least he'd deserve would be some proper appreciation and best wishes for the future, rather than a dismissive "Next".

Sad to see him leave but time catches up with us all in the end. He was a crucial part of that nearly team under Bowyer, and did as much as the more vaunted Rhodes & Gestede to get us back up, without getting the plaudits externally that most of us fans recognised he deserved. Latterly he was obviously a true pro, giving his all on the occasions called upon and still showing glimpses of his outstanding crossing ability (albeit not consistently), whilst when not involved showed his maturity & strength as a team player to the younger ones, who surely could not have had a better role model to look up to within the squad. Would be nice if he was kept on in some form of coaching role, though I feel he'll fancy a last season or 2 playing in Scotland before he hangs up his boots. Whatever comes next for him, I wish him the absolute best & thank him for giving loyal service to us throughout a turbulent time in our history. Good luck Bull (if I may)!!

Can't rule it out, but he's probably not top of Gibson's list. I think that would be more a "heart over head" decision from their perspective. If they did approach him though I don't think he'd leave unless it was good money & he was given a decent budget as I think he recognises he's onto quite a good thing here to build his own project. Boro is now arguably a less attractive job to TM than Rovers. They'll have to scale back on their costs a lot & sell their better players due to FFP. TM would effectively have to start all over again, with perhaps added greater expectation from the fans of promotion than there are here.

Boaz Myhill been released by W Brom today... could do worse as competition for Raya?

Well done all. I'm quite new on here & am still finding my way around what's available on here outside of the forums (fora? forae?), but it's clearly well produced & well thought of by so many for all its content; so cheers those involved & in the know for taking the time to give the rest of us a platform to show our varied shades of love, support, frustration, annoyance & downright peed-offness with our beloved BRFC.

W Brom 1 up at half time at Aston Villa after a defensive mistake by Villa, Dwight Gayle notching his 24th goal of the season. Villa huffing & puffing but no real threat so far apparently. Looking good for the Baggies so far (and JacknOry)

Oh, and welcome back!! ?

I sit row 12 seat 125, near the top of the "E" on the blue seats. The pillars are on my row, the nearest one being around seat 118. The pillars are about 20 seats apart. Hope this helps.

Ipswich's third goal against Leeds yesterday was a thing of comedy beauty ?

I thought he did well after a slow, unexpected introduction at a time when the tide changed in the game. Once we got our shape back, he was really good. Showed for the ball, showed a good range of passing, showed good ball retention & close ball control in tight spots, and great technique for that half volley. Very promising debut, really pleased for the lad as I bet he's been really frustrated since he signed. Really hope he can kick on now and be a big part of what we aim for next season. Far too early to say if he'll be a good signing but I can certainly understand what qualities TM saw in him.

Joe Hart is a no from from me. As is Leutweiler, but good luck to him. I rate Raya, or at least the pre-West Brom version. Yes he's made basic errors (which experience & better coaching should iron out) and his distribution is erratic, but he's also won us points with some worldie saves that any top flight keeper would be proud of. Our defensive problems & lack of a reliable back 4 will not have helped him and he is well worth persevering with at least for another couple of seasons. I hope he comes back after summer fully refreshed & with his confidence renewed. He needs proper coaching & good competition. I like the Darlow shout but feel it's a long shot. Bialkowski might be more realistic, being proven at this level over a few seasons.

I'm very much in the "very satisfied" camp, if there is one on here! Yes there have been dark times; 2 runs where it seemed hard to see where the next win was coming from; too much loyalty to below-par players; some very inept defending & lack of intensity offensively; a failure to kick on after January. But I'm extremely heartened by the young, creative, pacey forward options we have, and TM's acknowledgement that we need new 1st 11 defenders. We've a number of forward-thinking players who will cause defences huge problems next season, and our style of play is definitely showing signs of evolving into something less direct. What the manager now needs to do is find a proper team identity that is founded on hard work & team spirit but is more than that, which finds the right balance between being solid & competitive whilst also being dynamic & pleasing on the eye. It's not an easy task but were it not for several poor late goals earlier in the season & some eyewatering individual errors scattered across the season, we could quite easily have finished on 70 points. If we can cut half of those out, I don't think it would take as much change / overhaul of what we have as others have suggested to enable us to hit 75 points plus next season. 75 points qualified for the playoffs in all but 2 of the last 10 seasons.

And this messageboard is no place for silly debates is it...?! ?

He's nailed his colours to the mast there; good luck to him, it bodes for an interesting summer!

I tried, but it seems like they had better things to do with their day than try to reason with you... ? https://ibb.co/BC2PKjh

The one transfer of BB distorts everything and becomes (perhaps understandably) a focus for criticism and polarised opinion. I'm quietly confident he'll become far more influential next season and wasn't bought with the intention of firing us up this season. If you're taking that view, Norwich got lucky because as Sky were at pains to point out, Pukki was 3rd on their list of striker targets, so they clearly weren't expecting 30 goals from him. I think also 2 others of their team were youngsters who'd not seen first team football prior to earlier this season either. So it hardly seems like they spent the 17/18 season prepping an assault on the title in 18/19 which is how as it has panned out. Hence the league is unpredictable. I'm not saying we can't learn some things from them, we clearly can. But it's not as black and white as "we spent more money than them so should do better" or "our manager's rubbish, theirs is great". Sorry, got a zoo trip to get ready for now, might be back on later!!

We were outclassed last night no doubt, they ought to have been 4 up after 20 mins & we should've been down to 10 men. But credit where it's due, we got one back quickly and I think that contributed to them reining in their ambition for the remainder of the game. On that performance alone we're miles off Norwich, but one performance doesn't tell the whole story. Half our team was out of sorts yesterday as opposed to the usual 2 or 3, and as someone above pointed out Norwich were no great shakes at Ewood in December. Clearly we need strengthening, with 5 or 6 first team ability players needed this summer. Mowbray seems to acknowledge that so it should be interesting. Norwich & Sheff U are something to aspire to and we absolutely should be aiming for a proper promotion push next season. But at the same time they ought not necessarily to be used as a stick to beat Mowbray with as this league is so unpredictable. I think it's clear that our style of play is evolving into something more dynamic than long balls to DG, so it'll be interesting to see what direction his recruitment takes us the summer.