West Ham, his dad & family are Liverpool. Seems Sammie changed allegiance as a teenager, but definitely West Ham now

He said he goes to West Ham games against Liverpool

https://www.westhamzone.com/news/sammie-szmodics-makes-west-ham-united-admission-amid-blackburn-transfer-speculation/ West Ham, transcript is there “It’s hard being a footballer and supporting a team, but obviously West Ham is the closest team to us and I started following West Ham at 14 or 15 and it took off from there. “We played them in the cup last year and It was mixed emotions because we beat them on penalties and it was like I didn’t want to knock West Ham out because we were never going to win the Carabao Cup. West Ham maybe weren’t either but they had a better chance. “I’ve played there, I scored my penalty there so it was mixed emotions. I try to get to all the games, when I was at Peterborough two years ago I used to go to every game and I go to the away games when they’re up here against Manchester United, City, and Liverpool, I go to all of them.

€2M apparently, so somewhere between £1,7M and £1.8M https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jeffrey-de-lange/profil/spieler/315253

Some non league games that may be of interest Gamble is on the bench for Fylde Atcheson starts for Marine, not sure where Montgomery is Michalski starts for Bamber Bridge As an aside, Goddard has been first choice at Dundalk since he signed on loan for them, they drew 1-1 last night. Dan Pike is also there these days too

Not that it matters at this stage, but its nice anyway. Rovers in top spot https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cn9ldl2q3dxt#Tables

Wonder if Eustace could be tempted to start Ohashi over Gueye against Norwich? Would maybe give extra in the press alongside Dolan, especially if Norwich will continue to pass it out via Hanley & Duffy Gueye and Szmodics (if he is still here next weekend) off the bench Edit - think we may have seen Hanley's last game for Norwich

Apparently both the U21s and U18s played Everton away this morning Our social media people got as far as posting the U18s lineup, but then seem to have given up and gone home Does anyone know how our teams got on?

Oxford offering a good press but little quality, Norwich team look like they met each other for the first time this afternoon

Even if Gueye doesn't score all season, he still looks worth his weight in gold. Great hold up play and a threat that the opposing defence has to be aware of at all times And he cost about a quarter of a Gally!

Me 😉

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/august/09/watch-rovers-against-the-rams-live-/ Italy is lovely at this time of year

Sammie is there - end of video Would still be amazed if he is named in the squad, even on the bench. But for me, it is the right call to at least have him on the bench

In theory, absolutely I seem to recall a couple of players threatening to strike unless they were allowed their moves, which then left their clubs deciding whether they should sell or keep a player who was threatening to go awol (which if it happened would negatively impact his future transfer value)

Would be difficult to implement, as not all Leagues have the same on/off season. the Irish League, and at least a few Scandinavian & Eastern European leagues play more so during summer, whilst it is a winter sport for most

Yes Not sure if this game (due to the Sky thing) will be available in all the usual territories, although if you can make it to Italy, then that seems to work well

They tired that a couple of years ago. Didn't work as leagues that had a window that closed later started poaching players and teams couldn't replace them The only way it would even remotely work is if every league in Europe was open and closed at the same time. But that wouldn't stop Saudi teams etc poaching players

Not sure if anyone has noticed, but if you try to buy a shirt and the click "add personalisation" there is a list of squad numbers which appears to have been updated for this season https://www.roverstore.co.uk/kit/2425-home-kit/adults/3595_blackburn-rovers-macron-home-shirt-202425-mens.html Fadz 4, Weimann 14, Batth, 15, Gueye 9, no Ohashi though RE Keepers, especially with both Waggott and Gestede saying 2/3 more signings, I did notice Pears is 1 Hilton is 13 Barrett is 34 (which I think was Hiltons number last season) Can we read anything into that?

All of those 4 will be on £5K/week or less, so would anticipate if Rovers do have to get wages off the books in order to bring more players in, then if those are the 4 out, then it will probably be 2 in

He has played at League 1 level before, albeit when he was 18 years old and in a Crewe side that was getting beat every week and was ultimately relegated https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/connor-oriordan/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/929715/plus/0?saison=&verein=&liga=3&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id= Agree that a loan at a League 1 club who are not whipping boys would do him good

Apparently Gallagher will be missing for Stoke for a "few weeks" with a stiff calf https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bae-junho-injury-update-stoke-9469884

Or just say "gay" with a fake French accent 😉 Gets you close enough

Gay

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/august/08/steve-waggott-speaks-ahead-of-2024-25/

Apparently he is an injury doubt https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/24505446.derby-two-fitness-doubts-boss-gives-blackburn-verdict/