2 minutes ago, Ricceh said:

Because its a pre season friendly and its probably being used to integrate new players into the way we play.

It’s the game before the season opener, so I’d have assumed this is the starting lineup to expect on Saturday.

Even still, do we reckon De Neve will integrate with the way we play soon?

How does De Neve get a start ahead of Kargbo? 

Scores don’t matter in pre-season, but looking abject does. We’ve a weak team if two absent starters drop us this far below the standard.

Pasha no doubt chuckling his way to a second Aston Martin as a thank you bonus for saving the Raos more money, the scoundrel.

1 minute ago, KentExile said:

What about this one?

 

23 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

A couple of players out and we don't look too hot. 

Really need some additions.

I like Tyjon and I hope he comes to great success for us and wherever he moves to next. He is not a viable replacement for Cantwell. We have looked much the poorer side so far. Nobody to knit play together in the middle.

I happened to think De Neve isn’t much of a player, but I stand to be corrected and have never wanted to see anyone in blue and white do poorly. But I have the same kind of feeling about him as I did Telalovic. Seen little in the pre-season to convince otherwise.

I think we’re three or four quality additions short of a mid-table squad.

You can see what everyone likes about Tyjon. Confident and intelligent. Young and a bit raw, but the talent is there. Wouldn’t mind him as backup for the 10 role at all.

Montgomery doesn’t look like a kid anymore and Atcheson and Litherland look to have something about them as well.

I will say - I’m glad de Neve’s got a goal here as he’s otherwise looked like he has a lot of homework to do to get up to speed. Could be confidence or comfort, so the more it clicks for him the better.

Would like to be seeing Kargbo second half as De Neve’s been out of position for tracking back successfully and doesn’t look like he fancies the press so much.

We look fit but as everyone’s been saying, the extent of the press looks unsustainable.

17 minutes ago, windymiller7 said:

Found a dodgy stream of the game on something called 'Sport TV 5'. Great, I thought, the coverage has just started & the commentary is in Russian or something! 🤣. 

Edit: just googled it & it's a Portuguese channel, so I was well off! 😅

I’ve always thought Portuguese sounds like a Spanish person speaking Russian, so you’re not alone.

6 hours ago, JHRover said:

"We want you to be our new CEO, but you won't be able to speak to the owners, the only person who can is the COO who should be subordinate to you yet actually runs the club"

Only the daft, desperate or grateful for a job would take that, not a CEO worth the name.

Our previous head of consumer came into the club, initially as head of marketing. At 24.

He had been a marketing manager at Bournemouth before that, having worked his way up from intern in 4 years. Immediately before his internship, he was working hospitality at a golf club.

There will be hordes of applicants for the job. I’m genuinely considering applying myself (I’m not qualified) to see how stringent the process is.

Like everyone, I’m concerned/mortified thinking where the squad might be on 2nd September.

But just like a car crash, the overwhelming feeling I’ve got is morbid curiosity.

We have virtually no prize assets that can bring in significant cash, we very likely are living hand to mouth and we have a manager that stated he wanted most of the transfer business done by the first day of preseason.

We have possibly the least-experienced staff (all the way through the club) we’ve ever had, to make it happen.

Whatever we think is going to happen, I reckon what actually happens will be orders of magnitude more batshit.

7 hours ago, funny-old-game said:

She wrote the article for athletic and New York times re Rovers womens football team being shit on. 

Any publicity highlighting our dysfunctional owners and useless gravy train cohorts running the club into the ground is worth its weight as far as I'm concerned 

Agreed, journalists finding a thread and pulling at it is exactly what we’ve needed.

2 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

think you are being very kind to him,for me,he did`nt to anything to suggest he could play at this level let alone the top league,he looks a mirror image of adam moran,lightweight,unwilling to his body into tackles   and a typical academy product,i suspect premier league full backs would have an easy afternoon with him

ayari always looked a decent player,he never got an extented run  to show himself here,was a bit of pointless loan imo,we certainly never got the best out of him

I think physical toughness is a much more important attribute down here (general weakness in our squad for a long time now, as it happens) and there’s more emphasis on “protecting the players” in the top division. It basically nullifies his main weakness and turns it into a potentially exploitable benefit (being physically overwhelmed while shielding the ball to win free kicks in wide positions).

He’s got a lot to learn and his pace without the ball is questionable but I can absolutely see him becoming a Premier League player.

A lot of people wrote Ayari off here and he’s made 32 appearances in the league this season Brighton.

I think ACD has a lot of qualities that will serve him well at Premier League level, he’ll win a lot more fouls up there than he did with us and not be burdened with defensive work as much.

1 minute ago, USABlue said:

Thought we played OK.  Pears, whise gaffs have cost us okayiffs is unlikely to olay for us.  Toth has looked so much netter.now.he has a few games under his belt. I think we lose that about 3 or 4  one with Pears playing today.

I thiught we gave it "a reet good go".  I am a lot lot less worried about next season.  Some if our forty tiday was quite good, oleasing on the eye.  I thiught Toth was a bit unfortunate.with the goal, was there really no foul or offside in that melee.  Ref was good 1st half, minus penalty.shouts.  Seems like someone had a word cos he was a bit a homer 2nd half.  Did he not understand obstruction 2.clesr.fouls he let go.  Anyway wasnt to be but proud if the lads today and I would not have put Dennis on, he.don't.give a shit and it is clear to see.  COYB

Join the watchalong shortly!

23 minutes ago, Tom said:

I’ve voted yes, no doubt about it.

However I don’t like the colloquial name ‘The Coalition’ sounds like a 90’s wrestling stable that would have had Eric Bischoff involved 

“Coalition” was a placeholder in the initial statement but it stuck and it’s probably the closest thing to a proper description of what this is and the intent behind it.

I think you’re thinking of “The Corporation” from wrestling. I’d see The Coalition as more of a D-Generation X-style arrangement.

Always pleasing to see us score four in a home win. Credit to the players for finally turning up, after a torrid couple of months.

For what it’s worth - I don’t think it was as comprehensive as the scoreline would suggest. They had two or three “good” chances in the first half that they should have taken one or two of. Complexion of the game is very different if so.

What we look like is a team that is solely confidence-based. There’re maybe three players I’d rely on in the squad to drive a performance on out of adversity - Batth, Travis and Tronstad. The latter two can get caught up in it and lose their heads a bit, leaving Batth as the only reliable leadership voice in the pitch and he’s out of contract and - respectfully - getting on a bit, for a footballer.

I suspect we’ll find some more luck in the final few and wouldn’t be too surprised to see Chris Wilder blowing his top on the final day, telling us we’re shit fans as he’s being heckled from the away end for bottling the automatics.

We barely have a squad for next season. Tackling that conundrum we have: an over-promoted orange juice salesman as the principal decision maker at the football club; a head of football operations that downed tools at two separate clubs, including our own; and Steve Waggott, a man whose name elicits a knowing, wry smile and chuckle from anyone who has worked with him and who Andy Cole suggested swindled him in his Newcastle Utd move.

Take the joy from watching the blue and white halves batter a bunch of racist fans’ play-off hopes (I’m qualified to say that, I’ve lived in Bermondsey) but don’t lose sight of the reality - the clubs being run into the ground and a stopped clock is still right twice a day.

1 hour ago, Tugayslongwalkoff said:

Absolute joke. So that guy can get caught masturbating at Turf Moor and be told politely to stop but we can’t speak out against our awful owners? 
 

Jesus wept. 

Again with the “one letter off nominative determinism” thing… you’ve a way with words.

10 minutes ago, Blue n White Rover said:

He has now admitted to the meeting. My question still stands, as to why it was kept a secret, when we the fans have been crying out engagement.

I am not pro-regime nor anti-regime. I am a fan of the club and have been all my life. I hate seeing Ewood the way it was last night. It wasn’t nice for me and my family attending, it can’t have been nice for the players or anyone involved. 
 

I want the best for us, be that with Venky’s or Joe Bloggs, I really do not care. Football is an escape for many of us and at the moment, it is nothing but a chore. 
 

What irks me is, this hostile atmosphere created, mainly due to lack of communication, yet certain individuals have the ear of the execs, but choose to keep it private, when it suits. 
 

I have read Glen’s tweets for a number of years and respect a lot of the work he has done. However, when we find out of these private meetings, it will antagonise any fan, especially, when we have all been wanting that very voice to communicate with us. 

Your question was answered. It was to do with comments made by Waggott in his club interview. Not recent actions.

If you want engagement with the club, the only route that’s currently viable is by agitating. The Trust has been a “critical friend” and received nothing but occasional head pats and “jam tomorrow” excuses. Glen had a meeting and Waggott prioritised that meeting. It’s not incumbent upon someone to itemise their life to you because you want to know everything that’s going on, but can’t seem to decide whether the owners or are a good thing or not.

Your right to attend Rovers games is being eroded by the very people you’re sitting on the fence about. It won’t feel like it right now, but in the current direction of travel under the owners and the people they appoint to run the club in their absence, the club’s likelihood of surviving diminishes.

I’m of the view that match-going fans have a right to express their dismay. Consensus is building that this situation is untenable and the dismay is justified. You may disagree. See how far you get with that.

If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll see that you want your cake and to eat it. You want the best for the club and to watch a game in peace (which every fan does) but don’t want to confront the reality that the best thing for the club and to watch a game in peace is to get rid of these owners. If the action required to initiate that upsets you, that’s unfortunate, but it doesn’t make it any less necessary.

20 minutes ago, Riverside pessimist said:

I am too at the point of walking away after 30 years of support. I am willing to get behind any form of protest. However, I believe only way now and the most hard hitting form in terms of media coverage and financial burden for Venky’s is fans on the pitch and stop the games, Friday night is the perfect opportunity. If Reading can muster a few hundred fans on the pitch why the fuck can’t we, Venky’s have been here over a decade. Surely there are 200-300 anti-Venky fans who would be prepared to go through with this. Meet up before the game, decide what minute and on. Protesting in the stands doesn’t work, outside the ground doesn’t work, so what else is left? Open letter from fans / local MP’s requesting the sale of the club. 

It’s been a form of protest in the past but fans should be mindful that entering the pitch without permission can result in a criminal record and a lifetime ban. I would encourage anyone considering it to remember who the hierarchy at the club are and whether they’d seize on the opportunity to permanently remove fans they deem to be “undesirables” or “troublemakers.”

Just now, roverblue said:

The Ismael contract is ridiculous. They will have to sell a player just to pay him off the way it’s going

They’ve only got 12 to choose from.

Extremely straightforward day at the office for Portsmouth. Not many of them broke a sweat.

If 149 candidates were worse than this, I’ll be staggered.

There’s no belief