Vale is 22, he's not that young. In his time in our first team he has demonstrably offered less than Gallagher. It's a fair comparison. Campbell was better, with his 0 goals in 17 games for us? How can you not agree about Brereton's first two seasons when he was utterly useless and scored 1 goal a season? Obviously since then he has stepped it up a lot. You might not class Butterworth as an out and out striker, but that isn't where Gallagher normally plays either. And your initial point was 'players' not strikers, so I don't think it's relevant unless you want to downgrade your assertion to that of roverandout's. I didn't even have to think for long to come up with worse strikers in the Venkys era. If we stretch it to our entire nearly 150 year history and include players in other positions (Lowe, Murphy, Etuhu, Williamson, ewww) then 'one of the worst' is still an exaggeration unless you consider a large list to fit that definition. Just for the sake of anyone popping into this late, I'm not saying Gallagher is a good player. He does have his uses though at times. Highly frustrating player who we need to upgrade on as a starter if we are ever going up.

You're shifting the goalposts, repeatedly. The initial point I was responding to was about worst 'players'. Then you moved it to strikers, and now it's out and out number 9s over a length of time. By the time we are done it will be 6 ft 3 number 9s who have been here at least 4 seasons and can't jump effectively for headers who are called Sam. We have barely had any 'out and out number 9s' in recent years, and Gallagher himself hasn't been played as one for the vast majority of his time here. I believe someone said he has 38 goals for us.

I didn't say a team of worse Rovers strikers, I said a worse team. Worse strikers though off my head include Vale, Brown, DJ Campbell, Brereton's first two seasons, and Butterworth.

When statements like 'one of the worst players to ever pull on a Rovers shirt' come up, it really, really is. There are worse players in this current squad. Morton for one. Vale for another. I know people are fond of a bit of hyperbole, but sensible people normally accept that's what they were doing when called on it instead of doubling down.

Classic game. One of what should have been several wins over them in those days if the refs weren't crooked as fuck. Anybody know if this Rovers shirt replica (well, or the one from the next, title-winning season) can still be bought from the club? Mine from back then is long gone if it's not hidden somewhere at my mum's. Watching the video has given me nostalgic hankerings.

I could name a full team of players worse than him just in the Venkys era. He isn't really good enough for our ambitions, but his crapness is hugely exaggerated.

Their owners are already billionaires. So are ours. It's not about the money, it's how you use it. Whatever the case, I hope their new owners are crap.

No, what I'm saying is the quality of the squad as it stands is not much different to the quality of the squad as it was. Which appeared to be the contested point between you and RF99. How Mowbray spent money is fairly immaterial to that. After business was done, we weren't really any weaker. Those players not being in the picture last year is why they should be considered now in any list.

It's a bit disingenuous though to list who left, not list replacements and other factors, then deem the result a shambles of a squad. Defence: Lenihan replaced by Hyam. Nyambe replaced by Brittain. Van Hecke (quality but no longer play 3 at the back), Giles (barely placed in defence, criminally misused as a right-sided forward, not an effective contributor as a result), Zeefuik (barely played, injured a lot, not very good...usefulness of Carter and JRC as RBs now more than compensate for him) Midfield: Davenport (barely played, Garrett coming through), Johnson (wasn't good enough IMO, emergence of Wharton preferable, who the manager really should play more), Clarkson (useless, replaced by Morton who isn't much better). Rothwell left. (This one hasn't been replaced. We did bring in Szmodics, but he plays further forward.) Attack: Poveda (useless, didn't need replacing, we have plenty of players who can fill that role and I'd rather see Dolan there). Khadra (not really replaced, Hedges didn't look like a footballer last season but looks useful now...doesn't have that pace though, but probably isn't much less useful overall as Khadra was pretty hit and miss). All in all, we're only really down Rothwell and the mercurial element of Khadra. A few signings, some of the players you mentioned being as useful as a thumb on a foot, and the emergence or re-emergence of some players already here has made the squad strength roughly equivalent to last season's. Some replacements are a bit stronger, some are a bit weaker. There's also our access to a fully fit Dack now I didn't mention.

More likely Berty.

In fairness, I'd expect an Academy goalkeeper's game to improve under him. If he isn't better than JFC 'coaches' it really is a poor do. The lad and his dad likely didn't have much of a frame of reference. Even if he had been at other youth setups (Had he?) he probably wouldn't have had GK coaches who were also deemed good enough for a senior team. I think, anyway, as I assume it's not too common for the senior GK coaches to coach the young kids. Nonetheless, good to hear a positive about him.

Czech footballer Jakub Jankto comes out as gay This one really does strike me as brave. I dunno about the Czech Republic specifically, but Eastern Europe in general has a bit of a reputation for homophobia (and as we've seen from the treatment out there at times towards black players, can let their bigotry show in very nasty fashion). Takes even more guts to come out there I should think. He's a Czech international, and currently playing at Sparta Prague on loan from Getafe. He could have waited til the end of the season when he probably won't be playing in the Czech Republic, but has done it now with months of potential abuse left in the season (I think, anyway, not too familiar with the Czech league!). The club have been supportive of him, which is good. Hopefully he doesn't get too hard a time of it.

Benson may be shite, he may be good. We really don't know, because we don't see him in training and even if we did, we don't know enough about how top level coaching works to judge. Great coaching doesn't always produce great players, and vice versa. But to counter your points anyway 😉 ...sometimes someone just has natural talent. Raya's shot-stopping reflexes have always been his best attribute, and I'm not sure how much that can be coached. Other aspects of his game, the kind that I feel sure can be coached, were weaker. Decision-making, coming for crosses etc. Kaminski was already 27 I think when he got here, most of his coaching had been done. Nonetheless he seems to have regressed recently and isn't as good a keeper as the one that turned up here initially. Presently anyway - form can come and go of course. Raya has improved since going to Brentford, turning from a player we got 3 million for into one quoted as an 8 million, 15 million, and most recently a 40 million player. And lastly, if Ben Benson was such a good goalkeeping coach, and a lot of Raya's success was down to him, how have we managed to retain him when half our staff have buggered off in recent years? Anybody with an ounce of talent in the setup seems to get poached, sometimes by lower league clubs. We even lost somebody to a women's team didn't we? Like I say though, he may be a good coach, who knows. Combining the above with his lack of experience in the game though, I can see why people have a negative impression of his credentials and achievements.

To be fair to him, he has. I fear another clanger could be around the corner, probably a confidence player, but hopefully he at least keeps it up until TK is fit again. If he does back to the Pears of the Wigan game last year with only youth team keepers to cover, it won't be good at all. Great to see him earning his wage though.

It's literally the first time they've succeeded in any sense after going behind in the league, so that seems a very premature statement tbh. Hopefully it means the rot is ended though.

That is the flipside yeh. I'd still rather Buckley though. He's a bit of a liability, but less of one. We also actually own him, so if he does develop any further it will be to our benefit not Liverpool's.

Good thing they've come back now, with Wharton and JRC going off injured!

Nearly every cup game actually, you're right. Bradford, West Ham, Forest, the first Brum game. Every cup game where we have gone behind, we have equalised (though in some we have still gone on to lose). The only times we haven't scored an equaliser at some point in cup games is when we haven't gone behind. Strange that it has taken us until now to do it in the league, especially with so many less cup games and sometimes facing higher league opposition in the cups. The stats this year have been utterly bizarre! From our WLWL streaks (or win 5 then lose 5), to no league draws all season then 4 in a row, and this strange quirk with cup equalisers vs league equalisers.

I mean, just dropping Morton would probably help turn some of them into wins.

I believe so. Certainly the first time we've equalised this season.

I'm wishing he had stuck to playing the safe balls...

He's got some mates (and a brother) at Rovers. Well, you'd hope so...

Well he's off now for Hyam so doesn't matter.

That's an Omen.

Huh, commentators were saying he had a very confident start to the game, sounded like he was playing well. I'm not watching though.