bluebruce

Haha nice. Until we see him in a Rovers shirt, he both is and isn't a Rovers player. Even Schrodinger would have struggled to explain the third option of 'even then he might not be'.

NEC really impressed me tbf. I expected them to be about as good as a bottom half Championship side, but they moved the ball really really well. I have a bit more respect for the Eredivisie outside of your PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord types now.

I'm getting confused about Miller. I keep hearing and seeing different things. The only highlights reel I saw showed him to be pretty handy going forward, especially dribbling, but didn't really show defensive stuff. Then all the noise from the Hibs side was that he wasn't a very good RB as he wasn't good going forward, but was ace when moved into CB. Now what you're saying more lines up with my initial impressions. The only consistency seems to be he is big, strong and athletic.

I actually have more reservations about him having crohn's than I did about Baradji's alleged foot fracture. It's not something that is likely to go away, whereas I don't know a lot of players with repeatedly recurring fractures. I also think I preferred Baradji's reel, though that's obviously not the be all and end all. RF99 raises a very good point, with all these tall lads we need some set piece delivery quality. Miller sorts out long throws but we don't have much in the way of corner or free kick delivery going on. Though tbh we have signed numerous players over the years who were meant to be good at set pieces and didn't put much quality in. I seem to remember Pickering being touted as one. Wasn't Cantwell meant to be? Maybe we were all just spoilt by Mulgrew in our expectations.

He was dubbed a 10 million player by Mani (or at least, whoever Mani says told him at the club). To my knowledge, Mowbray never said anything publicly about his value. There's no way in hell he's on 15k, he wasn't close to established enough or promising enough at the time he signed his last deal. It's very unlikely he is on 12k. We don't pay our academy graduates well. He's likely on less than 10k, I'd guess in the region of 8 or 9k. Which is still enough to get shut.

Ah that's that then.

I don't think that's certain at all, especially in Buckley's case. I'd be stunned if he's one of our top 10 earners, and if he is we should try to find a suitor.

I just did, see above.

Well they're clearly wrong about the hip injury. If he's not the hair transplant problem guy after wearing a cap all summer, I'll show my arse in the mall. You've got more chance of persuading me Trump isn't on the Epstein list. The manager talking like that about his future is interesting though. Doesn't necessarily mean he is third choice though, could just be unhappy being second choice after being number one for most of the last two seasons. I'd be very surprised if a kid with minimal experience is suddenly ahead of him. I certainly won't be sad if we can get a reasonable price and a better replacement though. Wouldn't be happy going into the season with Michalski as the cover yet. Toth needs proper competition.

I'd be amazed if Pears is behind Michalski in the pecking order. It will just be because of his hair transplant gone wrong. It's kept him out of games and behind in his fitness and preparation. I'm sure once he's up to speed he will be back on the bench. Not sure if Buckley will leave yet, but I agree with the rest. It's a friendly. People have been getting too excited by the 100% start before it, and too worried by this game too. Although that sort of thing always happens after a win or defeat.

There is sound on the stream on the Blackburn Rovers youtube channel.

Sorry if I've missed it, but why on earth are Rovers fans not allowed to attend? Do NEC have thug fans that can't be trusted to behave if we are there? Edit - Nevermind, I had only read the first page, now I see they do indeed have thuggish fans.

I wish them the best of luck in their careers.

If a new RW is playing on the LW, that means Hedges is starting at RW. A sobering thought.

I'm worried about us losing Brittain's crosses, giving Gueye in particular no supply, but perhaps Miller's long throws will compensate.

And we could bring Tyjon through only for him to fuck off for well under value at the end of the season. Until he signs that contract I have absolutely zero interest in potentially sacrificing our season to develop him.

Fair enough, I was oblivious to this. Although I'm not sure the u21s could be expected to provide one. It's a bit hard to say it's a senior league when it's not even senior football.

I was really hoping today's thread would be a battle over whether or not someone got the exciting scoop on a preseason friendly the other week.

Is this a thing? Exchanging pennants at kickoff in friendlies?

And I do like the idea of an athletic, quick team that can harass the opposition and break with pace. But I also worry about how many soft tissue injuries we will pick up. Given we already get quite a few with our not particularly fast team, I think this approach may necessitate more depth than we will accrue.

It feels a bit like we could be swapping having one excellent FB on each flank before Jan last season (Beck and Brittain) for having two dependable FBs on each flank (Ribeiro and Pickering, albeit the latter was already here, and Miller and Alebiosu). Of course, the fullness of time will bear out whether that's an accurate assessment, but I wonder how to feel about that if it is. Ideally you'd have quality and depth like we did at LB all season really. At RB though we got a little lucky that Brittain stayed fitter than the season before, as none of the backup options was particularly palatable. And maybe one of the new lads will prove to be quality, but it's hard to see either being immediately as good as Brittain was. The video I found of a younger Miller suggests he moves a bit like Brittain, but I didn't see much evidence of the high quality delivery Callum has. But if he has learnt since then and can defend better than CB there might not be much in it.

That seems strange, as going off the video I posted (admittedly 3 years old) he is quick with good feet, and can even shift direction quickly for a big lad. Perhaps he has other attributes but it feels like playing him at RCB wastes some of his best attributes.

I've been wondering if the holdup on further activity was the Brittain sale and seeing if we could get Baradji for a sufficiently low guaranteed fee. But then I keep remembering that outgoing transfers have no impact on our budget according to Gestede (a stance I find hard to believe, as surely without all these sales we would be spending even less).

Lewis Miller...24 year old (25 before end of August) 6 ft 2 inches right back with 14 caps for Australia, as well as 2 international goals. They're not what they used to be the Socceroos, but we don't have a lot of internationals. Spent 3 seasons at Hibs, out of contract next season. Played in the A-League in Australia before that. Wiki has him down as 144 career club appearances and 6 goals (5 of them at Hibs in his 85 games for them, all in the last 2 seasons and 3 of them in the league). Struggling to find much in the way of highlights reels, none from his time at Hibs, this one being the most ecent... And that's SMI, not to be confused with SEM of SEM and Kentaro infamy, in case anybody else made the same mistake as I did for a moment.

That would be the best exit of all.