smiller14

I disagree. At the end of the season I felt we played a much improved style of play - less of the aimless, hospital passes in our own third. To me, it felt like as the season progressed we improved considerably, perhaps as the players acclimatised to what they were being asked. I don't think playing passing football is 'bullshit', as much as I thought some of the passing in the first half of the season was terrible. From February (ish) onwards, we seemed to be a lot more pragmatic. We pissed away games at the end of the season due to a combination of luck and individual errors. Coventry - so unlucky. Preston - Hedges and Hyam both cocked up. I was as critical as anyone at times last season, but I saw reasons to be optimistic and hope we continue trying to play passing football - but less predictably and slowly than in the first half of the season.

To be fair, didn't Diaz get 16? We need to replace his goals and add more on top. Hopefully Sigurdsson/Ennis do some of that, but definitely lacking firepower. I'm quietly optimistic at the moment. Ironically, the fall off in results at the end of the season coincided with us looking like a really decent outfit at times. Thought we played really well in the Burnley/Preston games, for example, albeit without that cutting edge up top. I am confident those away day no shows are finally behind us, and it was ultimately those performances that torpedoed our top 6 hopes. We also have Wharton ready to make that central midfield berth his own, and JRC for a full season. Given both of them only played for half of last season, there's a clear improvement already. Will it be a strong league? Perhaps, but we always say that. Leicester could be anything, and gut feeling says they have a transition year. Leeds likewise. Southampton feel like they could go back up, players like Arma and Adams have done very well in this division before. Big question marks whether Norwich and Watford bounce back after difficult years. I'd wager Coventry aren't as strong as last year as I'm not sure Simms is as good as Gykores, but they do have a healthy budget to spend still. Boro should go well but have lost Archer's goals and Giles' creativity. And then there are the unknowns. Will Swansea and Stoke finally get their act together? Fancy the latter to improve but I say that every year. West Brom seem to have financial issues (I'm judging this very broadly on my mate's Tweets so wouldn't take it as gospel!). People seem to fancy Ipswich to take to this league well. On paper, it's going to be tough, but when isn't it in this league?

Clickbait nonsense that has predictably been deleted. The collar will divide opinion, but to suggest it's anything approaching the worst kit of all time is absolute drivel.

Perfect! No sign of them online and haven't been into the store for ages. Might be a bit far to travel from Cardiff for it so I'll have a word with my brother and see if he will do me a favour. Cheers

Please let me know if you find out! Been on the hunt for a Rovers bucket hat for ages.

Cash doesn't solve everything. Plenty of footballers before him have struggled to settle in certain areas. Obviously money and all that brings (nice house etc) helps, but there are fine margins at the top level and if he's even slightly unsettled it could affect his game.

Rovers Twitter just said that online sales paused due to demand and will be back shortly. Probably ballsed up again on stock.

Aren't these ties seeded? Pretty sure we couldn't draw a side in our league anyway. Nevertheless, an alright draw. Chance to give some fringe players a go. EDIT: Seeing QPR v Norwich suggests it might have changed this year! Double checked and yes, it has gone - although I'm 4 years out of date! - 2023-2024 EFL Cup / Carabao Cup (League Cup) Stadiums, Statistics, Fixtures and Format | Football-Stadiums.co.uk

Tough game to start, can't see them starting as sluggish this season. Seeing the fixtures gets me excited!

I wouldn't care that much if it did happen really. Chelsea now appear to have PIF business connections and are suddenly offloading their players for vastly inflated fees to Saudi Arabia. Someone with more knowledge than me might elaborate, but looks pretty dodgy to me. Then there are numerous other clubs owned by nation states; that alone isn't the issue, but when they're involved in extra-judicial murder and have appalling human rights abuse and a lack of free press on their watch then it really feels grubby that they've got their mitts all over the top level of our game. My attitude is indifference really as to whether these clubs decide to sod off, I certainly wouldn't miss a lot of them. One thing is for sure - a lot of the powers-that-be clamouring for the Super League don't care one iota about the fans. Yes, the fan backlash a year or so ago helped, but I feel they'd push for it if they thought it could be a financial success. They will probably keep manipulating the Champions League so it becomes a de-facto Super League anyway. Fully agree with you on the O'Neill decision - he did great last year against the odds. There must be something behind the scenes, whether it's the link shared above or some disagreement with the board. They potted Parker pretty abruptly and didn't appreciate his public displeasure over transfers, so certainly seems they aren't averse to getting rid. Edit - seems they sacked him as they wanted this bloke more. Bournemouth: Cherries sack Gary O'Neil and appoint Andoni Iraola as new head coach on two-year deal - BBC Sport

Head of Marketing after a year's experience is almost unheard of, especially in a company with multi-million pound turnover. There doesn't seem to be much imagination, mind. A minor price decrease at gunpoint with the deadline bafflingly a few hours after the season finale. So the season we finally released them a bit early had a ridiculous deadline before reverting to last year's extortionate prices. And to add insult to injury, at the end of May there's actually a price rise. Did they hope we'd make the Prem and they could justify it? Living in Cardiff, I am still umming and ahhing. My brother (who I share the ST with) is moving to Manchester, so might miss some of the ludicrously timed games (Sky's fault on that count), reducing justification for a ticket. There's also no Burnley game to worry about getting priority for. The prospect of further price rises isn't exactly swaying me, especially given the very disappointing end to the season and a general bit of 'football fatigue'. By the time I'm excited again I'll be paying a considerable amount more than if I renewed in April. To cap it off, it appears from online posts that V12 (who I've had no issues with previously) are being extra stringent this time, so I might not even be eligible for finance if my experience is similar to others. With an upcoming wedding, forking out over north of £400 in one fell swoop just doesn't appeal. As we've all said, Bolton and Preston have shown the way. Even Burnley were considerably cheaper last year (and presumably this year). You can add Bradford and Huddersfield as other towns with similar demographics that have priced sensibly and reaped the rewards. Fat chance of that here - they'd rather keep reducing the numbers if it means minor increases in revenue, which is an absolutely woeful long-term strategy that will just lead to a bottoming out in renewal numbers, a worse atmosphere and less people engaging with the club. As fans drift off, they often don't come back! It is beyond frustrating. Remember the days of John Williams? Taking back Ewood? Now we prioritise very marginal 'revenue targets' over atmosphere, the overall matchday experience and general enjoyment of going. I'd be much more likely to renew in a lively, sizeably crowded Ewood rather the half empty rafts of empty seats we see now. I'm fully aware I'm ranting now, but how many young fans are going to catch the bug going to Ewood at the moment? There is no long-term thinking at the club at all. I remember as a teenager being stood in the Darwen End, enjoying the atmosphere and having a laugh - there were heaps of young fans there who inevitably caught the bug.

7,000 sold so far according to the official Twitter

It was very strange he came out. He barely even kicked a ball for us

It’s a sore one today. I thought we played well, we just missed that guile in the final third and the lack of striker in January again came back to bite us. Wharton was out of this world. If we win that game we are talking about his performance for years. The team should be built around him next year. A final word for the support. It’s easy in games like this to decry the opposition support but we really did put them to shame. A wall of support, even as the result ebbed away. The inability to hear their lot slightly softened the blow of them celebrating the title.

Whilst I see what you've done there, having claret and blue wine sounds very......Dingley! I'd much rather be at the game supporting the lads.

Sold out a few days ago - my brother left it too late and had to sit in the Riverside.

The whole thing is just nonsense, as Longsiders said above it's just clickbait from Nixon. The squad looked pretty strong to me, and Huddersfield have some gall complaining given their surrender a few years ago which contributed to our relegation. By all accounts, Burnley should have won the game judging from the stats. After Huddersfield's time-wasting and general play-acting vs us, I'd shed no tears if they went down. They've also benefited from points deductions to Wigan and Reading, so they've hardly had it too bad!

Morton out for the season - a shame as he's looked alright in a midfield 3. Stretches our already stretched squad a bit further.

I think he's likely on the wind up - if not, then unbelievably stupid from both him and whoever gave him the ticket.

My main gripe is his decision making. The amount of stupid fouls he gives away that derails our momentum, as well as stupid offsides. He seems to care and run around a lot, but something is totally missing.

Very cheeky of him 😀 I actually like Dolan - sometimes he flatters to deceive, but his energy suits our high press perfectly. Decision making is his only question mark - sometimes his feet are brilliant and think him and Szmodics always work well together.

The second paragraph is about Diaz - the quote has taken two parts and out of context looks totally different to what I said!

I was talking about Diaz's recent form?

Eh? If you mean quarter final, then it's because our front 3 played well, and the last 20 minutes was us trying to shore the game up unsuccessfully. Incidentally, Dolan was absolutely superb in the previous round against Leicester, played well against Sheffield United in the league and was one of our brighter players vs Hull (shocking miss aside). I'm a bit unsure on Dolan generally and his role in the team, but not sure saying he didn't play in a particular game (which we lost) really backs up your point. He's definitely not your man as a number 9 when you've reverted to long, direct football. Against PNE, I'd probably go for 3 of Dolan/Leonard/Thomas/Szmodics. Diaz is clearly lacking something, although JDT might argue he just needs a goal. My concern is his decision making - constant stupid fouls, lazy offsides, lack of composure. He just looks lost. My team: Kaminski, JRC, Hyam, Carter, Pickering, Travis, Wharton, Morton, 3 of the 4 above. Edit - forgot Hedges. Wouldn't be sad to see him play, but feel we need a bit of pace in the front 3.

I've just done some pessimistic predictions and got the following: Team Pts 5 Millwall 70 6 Albion 69 7 Coventry 68 8 Rovers 67 9 Sunderland 67 10 PNE 64 11 Watford 64 12 Swansea 64 13 Norwich 63 This is based on us drawing 3 and losing 1, so it's quite clear that turning one of those into a win puts us bang in the frame. Surely we can't go another 4 without winning? A lot hinges on Milwall's next 2. They play Blackpool and Millwall away, neither of whom are doing a Wigan job of fighting for their lives (bar the odd result). Likewise Coventry - they play Reading and Birmingham at home. If they win both, that puts them on 69, which I have as the magic number (oi oi) for top 6. If we win 2, I think we do it. Although perversely it might depend which 2! Edit - we would drop to 9th on GD based on the above.