Tyrone Shoelaces

Quality post as usual. Peggy Lee would have been proud of you.

I saw a bit of Sanchez at Rochdale. He's really tall but quite agile for a big guy. He reminded me a bit of Raya in style in that he was capable of clawing one out of the top corner one minute and passing the ball to an opposing forward the next. Like Raya he's still got a bit of learning to do. Going off my brief experience of him if I had to chose between Sanchez and Walton I'd go for Sanchez. Not a great recommendation I know but at least Sanchez will stop a fair amount of shots.

Don't tell 'em Paul !

If you were getting this sort of treatment managing in industry there would come a point were you'd have to say - " Sort this out or I'm off ! "

I'm surprised by that. He didn't look to have that killer burst of speed that he when he joined us after the op. Just my opinion of course.

That injury took half a yard of pace off him though.

We still had the likes of Fergie, Hole, Newton, Rogers, Hunter, Wilson, Metcalfe, The Don Etc to admire at least half of that time. We had a couple of crap seasons then. I'd swap the last ten years for that era tomorrow.

Well he's done it once so maybe you are right.

Yeah, living in Wigan or living in Bristol. How long would you need to think about that for ?

Yes but at the end of the day he wasn't. What did relegation cost us ? Penny wise and pound foolish.

That what I noticed as I reached the wall- my boots seemed to have got heavier and I seemed to be " reaching " for the ball more than I was previously.

Or left back ?

Yes I'd agree with that.

Callum Camps, who Rovers were linked with awhile ago, is set to sign for Fleetwood.

Lots of top players don't have to do that these days. They've made enough money to just retire. When was the last successful player manager ?

Not for me. He's done nothing for ages. I read a while ago he'd had a few injuries since leaving Rovers.

They thought of giving Mowbray £30 million to spend fills me with dread.

They tried for a quality striker but the lad died in that plane crash in the Channel.

They got Mendez-Laing from Rochdale for next to nothing.

And the Sunderland goalkeeper who we'd been looking at for 6 months.

Nobody here is knocking his ability. It's his age that's the issue. He could fall off his perch football wise at any point. Maybe he already has. Can we afford to take the gamble ? Look what happened with Whittingham, one minute apparently a class act, the next minute he couldn't get out of the centre circle. Sometimes it's as rapid as that, you get out on the pitch and the spark has gone. If Downing was 30 or even 32 we wouldn't be having this discussion.

I've mentioned this before but maybe you didn't see it. That striker for the England womens team who scored nearly all our goals in the last womens world cup was interviewed about goalscoring. Previously she'd been running around a lot up front and either not getting the chances or not being sharp enough to take them. Phil Neville told her " Imagine the edges of the penalty area continue down the pitch. I don't want to see you moving out of that area ever again. Try and move around a bit less. It worked for Van Nistleroy, it'll work for you, so try it ". After that she start getting amongst the goals again.

How many of them do you think will be back in this division this time next year ? You're just as bad as Mowbray, over complicating what is essentially a simple game.

Of course you can have both - if you're Barcelona, PSG or Real. We're playing in a league were you don't need to football your way out if you can graft. Just ask Dyche.

West Brom are interested in the left back who nearly joined Milan. I've only seen him once but he looked a top notch fullback. He had all the ingredients.