London blue

I wouldn't touch him with yours.

There's no use in us arguing semantics, I don't think saying Hull were dreadful is downplaying a result, you do. Fine. That's why I said a real start. Of course the points count, let's not be silly. Two wins in a row and I would consider our season truly underway.

Contextualising a result isn't downplaying it. They were horrible and apparently had a virus running through their team that week. Beating Norwich would be a real start.

This is where we disagree. Yeah he's not achieved anything but neither have any of the squad. If all the EFL moved on players who didn't contribute to milestones or trophy wins you'd have full squad turnover year on year. He was one of our best players, well loved and was a great captain. If you disagree with that fair enough but I absolutely think he was worth retaining.

I couldn't say what they're paying him, but 30k I would agree is too much. They could have tied him down for an extra 5-10k though 18 months ago, I'm sure of that.

Please, be serious. @Neal I don't necessarily disagree with your rant/post and I'm not overly upset about Travis feeling hurt. What I am angry about is that we clearly wanted to keep our captain, but we can't/won't offer him the same wages as Derby fucking County. It's absolutely beyond the pale.

This is an impressive display of willful ignorance, I'm sorry.

So the ref gave a yellow because he didn't think Gordon was that type of player?

I didn't see that coming! More than happy to hold my hands up, we played really well. Hull were dross, though. Poor across the park.

3-1 Hull. We're the team to play right now. Starting midfield is OK but with no Trav and a crocked star signing there's not much else in the tank.

Coked up meatheads looking for a scrap =/= organised protest against ownership you wally.

Tronstad will be gone by the end of the year, McLouglin is just through the door. Cantwell is the only viable option, the other have been sold or released.

It says more about our dearth of options than any insight from Chadster.

To your first point - I'm of the opinion it's weakened our position considerably. To your second, absolutely.

Seems like being "open and honest" at all times, without a lick of guile or tact isn't quite the positive plenty thought it would be. As @JHRover says, this is a situation entirely of our own doing, and I'm pretty confident it's by design. One thing you can say about the scum who own us is they're masters of spinning narrative and getting a lot of our fans eating out of their hands. I've seen people deride Travis for being leggy, having a low xG and not having an engine. Thick as mince, the lot of them.

3 losses this season - one to Bradford - have elicited 0 emotion from me.

I can't believe there are people out there happy to defend the contract strategy that has led to the current situation. Do you honestly believe it's the right thing to do, or are you just willing to back whatever the club does? On the second point, as always, no-one is allowed to form opinion until such time you deem it sensible. His record, to me, isn't good enough and this season so far (and I'm going to count the loss to Bradford, thanks VI) is very bad.

You'd want to make a couple of changes heading into this, I think. But who? Pickering? Maybe but doesn't offer much difference to Ribeiro. Miller? Not over Alebiosu going on last game. Foreshaw, Buckley? Absolutely not. Montgomery? I'd rather play Foreshaw. Axel? Nope, not yet. Gueye? Not if we fancy scoring. No real injuries of note and we're already scraping the barrel. When we've got 2 games a week and a few injuries the dearth of talent available is going to be really apparent. Can't see past a Hull (transfer embargo, remember) win.

If the choice was to sign a decent striker and not register Buckley for the upcoming season, or just register Buckley and go without, what option would you go for? Also, I don't want to seem callous but Buckley having a decent career from here on is of little concern to me. He owes Rovers for the past 15 years, not the other way round.

Read the post you quoted again.

Based on what I've seen so far, this is what I think we would need to maintain 7th spot from last year. Backup GK, assuming Pears goes Starting CB Replacement for Trav. 2nd string CM Starting RW Striker (and not some £200k pickup) If we actually fancied improving the squad, you can add a LW and another striker to that. We're led to believe the club expects one (1) more new recruit, and to replace Trav. What should happen and what will happen are so far apart, that I question the judgement of anyone who tries to assert we're anywhere near the strength of last season. Unless the above signings are completed I'm pretty confident we'll be battling Wednesday for bottom of the pack.

Well, now even if we're winning going into the final 5 mins teams will believe there's a way back, and we'll be fearful of losing. This is going to be a fucker of a season.

The party line for any manager in that situation is "things happen quickly in football, he's out player right now" or something to that effect. There was no need to state Trav wants to leave or Derby are offering to double his money... unless you've been asked to.

Fair enough fella, a point we don't agree on.

Fair, and I'm not going to suggest that individualism and selfishness isn't more prevalent in football. I don't think it's the main factor at play here, though.