Fair enough point on Duru, I thought twice about including him, but did since he is 19 and only ever played once as a sub in the league. Re not developing players if they do not look like they will make it here, one of the major draws/selling points that Rovers have for youngsters is that they seem to have a "duty of care" if they will not make it at our level (or higher), Rovers ensure that players have the best chance possible to make it elsewhere. And the loans will help with this. To neglect that would mean that over time, we would be less of an attraction to prospective youngsters There were 14 first year scholars that I listed there, which also includes Tyjon, so not that many out of close to 50 that I listed, and certainly not a disproportionate amount. The U18s will always be made up of mainly scholars because anyone who isn't a scholar is either over 18, or if they have signed a pro deal early then they will already have progressed beyond U18s (eg Atcheson who even last year was a regular for the U21s signed a pro deal within a few days of turning 17 at the start of last season)

This is the current squad (1st year scholars or higher, and not including the Gilsenans, Leonards etc who will have to feature to get back to fitness) that is not currently out on loan. I would say that is more than enough to cover U18s & U21s until January when most of those loans end K - Barrett, Kahn, Honor, Wolsoncroft, Thompson CB - Litherland, R.Doherty, Olsen, Davies, Pratt, Decandia, Kelly-Quinn LB - Powell, Leeming, Pates RB - Duru, Murphy-Worrell, Houghton, Mansbridge, Ramwell CM - J.Edmondson, O'Grady-Macken, Caddick, Whitehall, Farkas, Shorrocks, Willis, Dunn, Vare, Potter, AM/W - Bloxham, Biniek, A.Doherty, Strich, Bell, Taylor, S.Edmondson, Dlamini, Sargent, Leatherbarrow, Shaw S - Tyjon, Mafoumbi, Boggan, Joseph, Baker The loans out for the likes of Batty are for me as much about allowing the likes of Powell to step up a level in the underage groups as they are allowing the Battys to get first team exposure

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/september/11/rovers-to-compete-in-central-league-cup/

Re the bold point, maybe this is why he has been loaned out? He has always looked very good technically, but the loan, even at the 7th tier, where results matter and in front of opposing fans, hopefully gets him to come out of his shell

Michalski's Bamber Bridge win 4-2 Eastham's Ashton lose 1-0 Honor's Clitheroe lose 3-2 Atcheson remained on the bench as Northern Ireland U21s lost 2-1 to Ukraine

Starts tonight for Eastham, Honor & Michalski

Hopefully that is the end of my recurring nightmare that he re signs for Rovers and gets injured after another 10 minute cameo appearance

Yes, Rafeal is Lennis brother Edit - and have just discovered that the Montserrat national team have been managed by Lee Bowyer for the past 12 months

The only thing that makes any sense is that when he was offered the deal there was a very real chance that due to financial restrictions, he may have been considered as being possibly a cheap squad filler, and since that time, fears over finances have calmed somewhat following sales of Gally and Sammie. But obviously we have owners that do not seem to operate on any sort of logic which we can fathom, so who knows?

Rovers finally confirm that Jalil Saadi has extended his contract as he gets a lovely Cypriot holiday for the rest of the season. This one may be a little more difficult to track as they do not seem to have any social media in English that I can find https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/september/10/saadi-secures-cyprus-switch/

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/september/09/loan-rovers--a-scoring-saturday-for-markanday-and-wood-/

But he did get Sorba Thomas on loan, a man guaranteed to propel us to promotion 😉

Hyam would also be up there alongside the three you named, & apparently Lewis Baker was on over £15K/week at Stoke, so I cant imagine they would loan him to a rival without a very large chunk of it being paid.

Like the contract extensions for Alex Baker and Jalil Saadi (which have both obviously happened as they get mentions on the club site re U21 fixtures) The club do have previous for not announcing things/terrible communication

One to keep an eye out for in a few years Fahuz Amusat U15s striker

Barrow also picked up Tom White after Rovers released him a few years ago https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2019/november/white-makes-barrow-switch/ Seems to be working for them, most successful period in their history isn't it? No clue how much Barrow use data in recruitment, but to be honest, it seems a very sensible strategy for localish lower league teams to pick up our cast offs, just as Rovers pick up academy cast offs from Man Utd, Everton,, Man City, Liverpool etc. I would have thought Accrington should have been at it for years (including being after loans from Rovers too)

Tyjon came off the bench as England U17 drew 0-0 with Israel

Garrett played 90 mins for Bristol Rovers as they lost 2-1 to Barnsley Markanday scored in a 2-1 win for Chesterfield v Grimsby Batty was taken off 10 mins from time with Accrington 2-0 down to Notts County Gamble came off the bench with the game at 2-2, as Fylde lost 4-3 to Yeovil Montgomery played the 90 mins for Marine as they drew 0-0 with Darlington Wood scored the 3rd as Annan hammered Stranraer 5-1 Eastham conceded a last minute goal as Ashton Utd lost 1-0 Michalski was in goal for Bamber Bridge who lost 5-1

Own goal? Wasn't it McGoldricks?

Starts today for Garrett, Markanday, Batty, Montgomery, Wood, Michalski, & Eastham (who is now on loan in the mouthful that is the Northern Premier League Premier Division until January) Gamble is on the bench for Fylde Wood and Markanday have both scored in the first half

Charlie Weston, who was released this summer, has signed for Barrow, joining Connor Mahoney & Sam Barnes https://www.barrowafc.com/news/2024/september/02/b-team-signing--charlie-weston/

Atcheson on the bench for Northern Ireland U21 v England U21 (who have Morton on the bench) Not an outgoing loan, but Beck on the bench for Wales v Turkey Pretty sure both games are on BBC Iplayer, but cant find the link for the U21 game yet Edit - Spoiler - neither of them got off the bench

He likes to play from the right, but he can play on the left. As I said previously, he is more than capable of playing from the left if required. I did not state that he preferred to play on the left. Rankin-Costello has said numerous times that he prefers to play further forward rather than as a right back, but you have no problem stating that you would prefer to see him as a right back (I am not having a go, but players can & should l do what is required of them) Given how Eustace likes to set up, I can see Cozier-Duberry playing more often on the right when Beck starts at left back, and on the left when Pickering starts at left back In an ideal world *, another wide player would also have been signed (Godo would seem to be the one that got away) * In a truly ideal world Rovers would have bought 2 wide players but hey ho