8 hours ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Liverpool have some wonderful players who are easily good enough to start on our team . Curtis Jones stood out and rhian Brewster has already proved what he can do at this level. Top signing and pushed the into the playoffs .

suerly we can attract some REAL quality like Brewster from some of the big 6, 8 or whatever it is these days. 
menrioned Paris maghoma after seeing 90 minutes of him and he has class, now gone to brentford, another I raved about after one appearance at leyland, Hudson odio, he’s not doing badly in the first team and Ethan ampadu is on loan and will soon be a first team player at Chelsea. Another two players who stuck out after 90 minutes at leyland

where are all our scouts and contacts. I could tell after 45 minutes these lads where good enough and I have a lazy eye ?
 

 

Joking aside, I'm sure our scouts know about these 16+ y.o. players who've been trained at elite Academies since they were 6. 

It's convincing Liverpool, Chelsea et al to loan them to you for a year. 

Our best Academy players are rejects from their Academies. The stranglehold they have on the game is insane.

55 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

I rate Costello too, but if you're looking for explanations, it's probably a lot to do with we haven't seen Wharton for more than a couple of seasons, only heard he is doing well. Meanwhile we have seen JRC, recently, and for some (not me) he hasn't impressed. Basically Wharton represents the slightly unknown youth player who has played well at the level he has been sent to (it's a low level but that's the level hes been sent to) and JRC represents the 'known' quantity youth player.

You can rest assured that if he was a bit naff in his first couple of games for us, the same people would stop pushing for Wharton's involvement.

Absolutely - as one of the people who has been pushing for Wharton to be involved with the first team next season, I'm all for him being moved on in January if he's clearly not up to snuff.

It's a meritocracy after all, I just don't understand why he wouldn't be given a go considering his decent CV - it's a cloggers league, a young player who has done well in League Two should be viewed with a mild sense of excitement. 

7 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Firstly, its my opinion on what we need. I went into detail as to how I feel that Mowbrays use of wide players throughout his time here.

But even if they arent out and out wingers brought in, we dont have players who can be effective from wide roles.

We have Armstrong as a very effective striker and Gallagher should only be played there and not wide.

If he persists with one upfront it's got to be Armstrong, with Gallagher and Brereton fighting for the role off the bench.

That said, if he's going to persist with one upfront he can't shoehorn Gallagher and Brereton to RW as neither can play it effectively. 

1 hour ago, Atko's Engine said:

Dack - if he goes, point accepted, but then we can look to replace. But he is our most creative player, and we missed him for what, 25 games?

Rothwell - agreed he needs to find more consistency, but he has a style that frightens opponents. He's still worth sticking with imo, though I have wavered in that opinion over his time here.

Holtby - think that's a massive exaggeration; he's a player without natural pace but has natural flair. Similar to Tugay in the respect, albeit a few rungs lower down the ladder.

Buckley & BB - I think both of these showed more in the last 9 games than they did previously. They both have attributes to frighten defenders. Encouraging signs from both to build upon next season.

But I get the apprehension. I'm not saying it's the bee's knees, just less of a problem than is often made out.

Holtby isn't fit to lace Tugay's boots. 

As for Rothwell - he frightens teams when he runs past players from central positions. I don't think he has the pace (or the crossing ability) to consistently hurt teams when played out wide. Hence why he's inconsistent. If we're keeping him, it needs to be as part of the midfield three with Travis (and I guess Dack in the more advanced position, although I think Rothwell could play there too). Otherwise he's just a talented player shoehorned out wide. 

I keep on hearing about Buckley's talent, but all I see is a frail man that Championship defenders bully. He's going to have to speed up his processes to overcome that, because I doubt he's got the frame to bulk up without losing pace. 

42 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Duffy is almost in Orr territory for me i'd rather stick pins in my head than have him back here. Not that's it's remotely likely anyway.

We should have buried him in the reserves until his contract ran out.

If you deem it fit to intentionally lose games for my team, I deem it fit to waste the prime years of your career.

58 minutes ago, Richard Oakley said:

I think @neophox was just giving his reasons for not wanting Duffy back here.He is said to be unsettled at Brighton. 

I wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire.

37 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I think that the wide areas have been ineffective across the whole of Mowbrays reign. A bad achilles heel. He has been overly reliant on goals from central positons the Dack and Graham partnership and of course with one injured and the other on the wane and now gone, Armstrong started scoring centrally. The quotes from the article post January transfer window basically admitted an attempt was made to sign Atsu, who individually is shit, but it gave me a bit of hope that he would at least consider actual wide players. Not asking for old school crossers into the box everytime as that wouldnt suit but players who can play the position ans contribute in an attacking sense. You look around the league, Benrahma, Harrison, Mbuemo, Diangana, Phillips, Grosicki, Costa, Lolley, Jed Wallace, Mendez Laing, Hoilett, Murphy x2 even the likes of Sammy Ameobi, Barkhuizen, Sinclair, Jamal Lowe, Kadeem Harris, Eliasson, Bela, Osayi Samuel, McLean, Ince etc. All far more effective and proving that wingers do have value, often in teams who do NOT possess an Armstrong AND a Dack.

The only exceptions where an Armstrong hot spell in League 1, but he is better central, and Antonsson had a bit of a goal rush. Weve had "defensive wingers" such as Bennett, an ageing Conway and a horribly wasted Reed contributing precious little in attack. Weve had naturally central players like Holtby, Buckley, Rothwell, Payne, Palmer who to varying degrees arent totally comfortable or at least effective there. And weve had strikers, Brereton, Samuel and Gallagher who again have all failed to impress. 

I know it might seem fanciful to expect effective players in wide areas but until it is addressed I feel we will struggle to push on. It is almost like Mowbray views the wide positions (including full backs) as not important and places where he can stick central players and crack on as normal.

As I've said multiple times - Mowbray's brand of football requires absolute worldies at FB. We don't have them and haven't ever had them under Mowbray. 

59 minutes ago, Richard Oakley said:

I think the club shares your desire for attacking defenders. That's the contributing factor to our defense leaking 60+ goals a season. Mowbray did bring in Chapman to play out wide.Injury and a bust up got in the way of that. Jordan Jones was one of a number of players we were linked with last January and we were among the clubs said to want to sign him. Rangers are looking to sell him,not send him out on loan.

I am sure it's mere coincidence that Mowbray is on holiday the week Bristol City are holding second interviews and looking to finalise their new managerial appointment.

The only time we've been that lucky is when Newcastle hired Souness.

Lightning doesn't strike twice. 

1 hour ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Team is too lightweight/ small for me 

Too slow for me.

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Sounds like Rangers might get that done 

That'd be a backwards step for him.

30 minutes ago, RoverKyle said:

That's been the talk coming out of the club (Mowbray) for a while, but countless times last season we resorted to Lenihan or Walton lumping it up to the likes of Armstrong. There's little evidence that the transition in style has worked. We relied almost solely on Tosin passing it out from the back to get us up the pitch with the ball on the floor and he's gone back to City. If we don't sign a defender who has a similar passing range to Tosin, we're going to see more of Lenihan lumping it forward and that's just a fact.

I wasn't actually saying I would buy those suggestions by the way. Merely just agreeing with the sentiments that Chris Martin could do a job for us and offered up Steven Fletcher as someone who would be of a similar vein. It would make sense to have a variety of options up front though. All I've seen of Vale is from his cameo appearance at the end of the season and although he looked bright, I can't comment on whether he's a viable option for a Championship front line at the moment as I don't know enough about him. Happy to hear your views on him and his playing style if you've watched a number of U23 games he's featured in.

Revolutionary, I know, but I'd sign a midfielder that can pass.

We've not had one for years.

The reason Tosin was the playmaker last year, and Mulgrew the years before, is because our CMs go hiding rather than coming short to get the ball and dictate play.

1 hour ago, Paul Mani said:

Yup, we’re very ‘busy’ in the market! Not sure who we’ll end up with tbh...but it won’t be for the lack of trying!

Any news on outgoings? This squad needs trimming. 

1 hour ago, Ewood Ace said:

He's a class above Travis in all aspects of his game at the moment. Travis is a good solid Championship midfielder. As for Reed there aren't many better midfielders in this division than him maybe only Phillips at Leeds. I think Reed will almost certainly be playing Premiership football next season and he won't look out of place. Mowbray's use of Reed was criminal. 

Agree to disagree. 

Travis is a better athlete, has a better engine and is a better tackler. 

Just now, tomphil said:

Reed getting big plaudits as a defensive mid in Fulhams good season.

That kind of thing sums up our current set up, pecking order and favs come first yet he's good enough to go in there and do that for Fulham.

Why ? because he's a damn good player, better individually than anyone we have but no chance he'd displace anyone here.  

This is why we'll never move on in big enough strides.

I genuinely don't think he's better than Travis, but yes how Mowbray misused him last season was criminal.

20 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Tin-hat time. Paul Cook for Rovers anyone? 

 

He's better than what we've got, but Mowbray is part of the furniture.

Just now, JHRover said:

The reason we might not give him a chance is because the manager might not think he is good enough.

I dont know because I haven't seen enough of him the last couple of seasons.

It is a big step from League Two to the Championship.

What I do know is that it is make or break time. Either he is good enough, in which case he contributes here, or not, in which case he needs a move.

But what we don't do is just chuck him in for the sake of it and hope it works out just because he's already on the books and it is cheaper/easier than bringing someone else in or because we are making some sort of point about giving academy lads a chance. Now that would be daft and dangerous.

The manager didn't think Travis was good enough until he was forced to play him. He also seems to think Bennett is comparable to Nyambe.

There's nothing daft and dangerous about having him as the 3rd / 4th option at CB (who, with the nature of the Championship, will be given plenty of time to prove himself). We still ABSOLUTELY need a quality CB partner for Lenihan. 

2 minutes ago, OssyLad said:

Shocking keeper that Raya ?

Let it go.

28 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Well he has said he wants to break through at Rovers this coming season. the article was from this week. 

What's he meant to say to the in-house media team?

14 minutes ago, tomphil said:

The raping of the club in all its gory detail.

I'd have forensic accountants and the FBI going through that lot if i could.

Unfortunately there's no point. The Rao family could finish us as a club if they woke up on the wrong side of the bed. 

7 hours ago, rigger said:

I think with the amount of subs he still merits a place On our bench. I can see him working his way down the leagues, where industry not flair is needed.

I wouldn't mind if he was industrious - someone with energy you can bring on with 15 minutes to go in midfield who shuts things down.

He can't even do that these days. He's playing at least a level too high. 

On 26/07/2020 at 09:19, Prelude said:

Travis for Captain for me, Lenihan as vice captain.

I think Travis is a bit too emotional to be captain right now. 

8 minutes ago, McClarky said:

Total crook, no reputable club would touch him with a barge pole. Hence the obscure places he’s worked despite the amount of media people bigging him up.

It's not even that he's a crook. He's just a shit manager with no connections. 

37 minutes ago, darrenrover said:

I agree, I was talking in terms of his career progression more than anything. 

Moreover, if post the Covid break, we had no intentions of going for a play off place, we had a dozen games to see what our youngsters (21 plus year olds) were capable of or not without fear of relegation. Come the close season, we would know who may be up to it or not and that should have driven our recruitment policy and who we release.

I said at the time - as soon as we fluffed it against Wigan and Barnsley, the team should have been packed with Academy prospects / young players who will be here next year to see what they're made of.

Instead we trundled out the usual suspects. Rank bad management. 

18 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Gallagher won't be at Swansea next year. He's the only one that's turned up tonight for them.

He literally won't be at Swansea - didn't realise he was a Chelsea player.

What a stranglehold the PL has on English football. "Oh that talented youngster you saw play for a Football League Club? Yeah, they're on loan".