A good player when HSV were in the Bundesliga the season before last. Lost form last season. Has trained with Rot Weiss Essen recently. HSV are a basket case of a club who are only now looking capable. They are a bit of a joke in Germany so there could be a million reasons why it didn't work out for him. Likes making forward runs. Not a defensive midfielder. On his day, much better than any player we have now. Deep lying pass-picker, technically gifted. Could be coup. Let's hope it's another triumph for our under the radar scouting network.

He's just started following Rovers on Twitter.

You mean like this? I really can't imagine this happening between, for example, Manchester United and Liverpool. But that is the German equivalent... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/02/bayern-munich-dortmund-champions-league

She was selling match day tickets from the kiosk at Gigg Lane when we played them in League One 2017/18.

I agree. DG was ineffectual a lot of the time. Gallagher was excellent. He wasn't played as a winger. He was a wide target-man. And a runner in the channels. Graham looked lethargic in comparison.

Maybe not on his A list for reasons other than his footballing ability. TM's crafted this squad carefully in his own image in terms of players' attitude as much as anything. Hence the apparent dithering imo.

Sorry. Just had a text from our kid who's spent a year over there and follows German football. In the Hamburg newspaper apparently. Also, Dusseldorf have just signed a CB.

David Bates, the Ginger Ramos, has been released by Hamburg on a free (along with several other HSV players.) Just announced if you're reading, Tony. ? They are also letting the German U21 goalie go for free. Firesale by a basket-case of a club.

Got back from Norwich at 4 am this morning proud to be a Rover. It's plain now the direction that TM is wanting to take the team. Younger players, fleet of foot and capable of controlling the ball in tight spaces. A work in progress. Phasing out those better suited to another style of play. Proud of how the team played once we learned to close down the spaces and moved the ball to the other end much more quickly than we have been used to doing over the last couple of seasons since his appointment. Norwich's Finnish striker was annointed player of the year. They showed a video of all his goals on the big screen. Almost all of them were in the six yard box barring a couple of worldies. That's how they have got to where they have. Close control in the box by players who can move and create space. Two wing backs hugging the touchline so much that there was no room for error with their first touch. I have a feeling this is how TM is working longer term - though not too much longer now. Special mention for Derrick Williams above many very good performers. He was like a new signing at CB. Proof you don't need to make the tackle, just close down the space and options for the opposition. This tactic was why they didn't score more than two. Not because they took the foot off the gas, but because we played well as a team. We earned our luck. Proud also to be one of the travelling hordes. 700 is a fantastic effort at that time of day on a Saturday, that distance and at £35 a ticket. Big credit to the club for recognising that and providing free coach travel. And lastly, The atmosphere at Carrow Road was unreal. After we scored, the crowd were virtually silent. That's not an exaggeration. 'Is this a library?' sang the Rovers fans. They could have been right. The sight of their player Aarons gesturing to their fans, in the supposed singing end, with twenty minutes to go before being promoted to the Premier League, to get behind the team was bizarre. Imagine Rovers within twenty minutes to go last game next season and Danny Graham walking towards the crowd telling them to get behind the team. Unbelievable. And made me realise that, for all our differences over the last few years, especially in comparison to some clubs, some things haven't been lost. They must have been celebrating at some point. Though rumours that Sainsbury's had run out of fruit teas in Norwich were apparently wide of the mark. ?

Just reading Souness's autobiography. He said that the Liverpool team who won the League and the European Cup on several occasions drank as much as the other English teams and a lot more than the European opponents - to their astonishment. But Liverpool would often win matches in the last ten minutes with energy to spare. Many were moved to ask how they did it. Souness's answer was simple: keep the ball, make the opposition run around and by 70 minutes you've won the game. The opposition run out of energy. You don't need amazing skill. Plus, secondly, Bob Paisley said, when you've got your foot on their throat, finish them off. If you're winning 3-0, go for 4-0. Show no mercy. Obviously, there must be more to it than. But it makes you think. Football doesn't have to be that complicated.

When did Evans last score anyway?

A nineteen year old doesn't count as a Rovers youngster? ?? i know, Stuart. Point taken. ?

Try Ghostery browser.

Got a feelIng Brereton will make a January breakthrough, Stu. ?

The last two trains from Newcastle to Carlisle are a party trains. They are policed and I've been told alcohol on the last one is banned - such is the reputation. That said, we had an absolute riot after the last Rovers/Newcastle game. A great laugh. Felt like we'd been in the carriage for like a whole day. All good humoured but loads happening. Worth it for a day out on it's own.

Yes. It was Evans who squeezed it in from a corner, I think. I was in the Riverside that day. Oh, the heartache.

I'd forgotten that those games were during Howard Kendall's time, GAV. I remember Rovers beating First division Coventry making the national TV news bulletins. That was remarkable back then. And the last minute equaliser at home to Villa that took the match to a reply. Brilliant atmosphere at Ewood that day. Almost 30,000 on the ground and nearly another scalp for Howard's collection. Didn't we take about 8-10,000 to Villa for the reply a few dahs later or is my mind playing tricks? Didn't we also play Forest in the League Cup during Kendall's time? Lost by the odd goal though they were reigning European Champions? It's a long time ago and my facts might be a bit awry but I do remember Kendall's Rovers were a decent cup team as well as solid in the league for those two years.

Great days, my friend. Great days.

Dilbert says...

Anybody out there remember Chris Finnigan, ex-Palace?

I'll cheer you up...Norman Bell.

Maybe, but Best didn't seem to ...

People who are complaining about his lifestyle and lamenting how good he could have been are just, lets be honest, feeling sorry for themselves not Best. They are just ###### off that they couldn't see more of his dribbling, shooting etc. and have even more stories to tell their mates and grandchildren. They feel cheated and deprived. If he was supposedly ###### up every Wednesday night in the pub, so what? Obviously, the game was not as important to him as everyone wanted it to be. And everyone cries foul. Tough. On the subject of the liver transplant, what do you expect of an alcoholic? He couldn't stop boozing. Giving him a new liver isn't going to stop him. I take it he didn't perform the operation himself. Can't blame him for that decision then. He made a choice about how to live his life, just like everyone reading this does. People shouldn't blame him for his choices and say he has no right to make them, just because he chooses his lifestyle amidst a media frenzy and some don't happen to agree with his choice. In the end, he chose to die.