Do u21 games count as competitive? I mean by definition, I'm not dismissing the standard or disagreeing with your point. Although if there's no u21 games playing they can't play them. Might struggle to arrange a friendly against worthwhile opposition.

Odd, it gives me full confidence we will lose. And it will be your fault, for having made this record known. We are the enders of streaks, whether good or bad ones, especially when they're spoken of.

I'm not sure they need it if you've posted them on a publicly accessible forum.

Hmm, just watched the replays of the goals. The first goal, I find it really hard to tell if it should have been a Sunderland penalty. My instinct at the time was he got the ball, though I was worried the ref would give it. I watched the replay back and said definitely a penalty. I watched it a bit more closely and (from the one angle I have, which is probably the best one they have but could do to be slowed down a bit) I'm finding it almost impossible to tell if we got the ball before, or simultaneously to the Sunderland player, or if his cut back was momentarily before the boot hit him. Whatever the truth, it was really close. The ball moves in a way that logically could have been from contact with either player. The second goal, Wharton is 100% offside. I would point out that he can actually be seen trying to get back onside, but is pushed back into place by the Sunderland defender. Not sure what the letter of the law says about that, since the push probably wasn't enough to warrant a penalty, but it did impede his getting back onside. I imagine that technically it should have been disallowed.

Well you dropped the ball with this one. 'That guy' has come forward and announced himself as Chaddy - the most fanatically positive poster on Rovers issues I think I've ever seen, who defends virtually every decision the club makes. If even he thought the money could be spent better, it only confirms that it was highly reasonable at the time to think Brereton wasn't going to make it here. All the hindsight in the world doesn't change that it was a sensible position to adopt at the time. It's extremely obvious now that Brereton was performing far, far below his capabilities. That's his fault, not the fault of Rovers posters who were only going off what they had seen with their own two eyes. Well done to Ben for finding himself again and becoming an essential part of our team. Lots of players just flounder in the abyss for the rest of their careers when things go as badly for them as they did for BBD. It takes character to come out of that kind of slump.

Thought he was just struggling to make the squad due to the involvement of almost-first-teamers like Markanday, Vale etc and the form of Leonard.

It also falls on Buckley to get the best out of himself.

The main problem is he hasn't played like he is talented this season.

I wouldn't consider it a hoodoo. Over a season that comes to 69 points, which is sometimes enough for the playoffs. I'd probably take that right now (all innuendos about 69 aside).

He isn't close to that good. I frankly wouldn't want him at 5 million.

In fairness, that whole thing with Travis and Dolan took up about a minute.

Think he made some good stops today. Sloppy in possession though.

It would be remiss of me not to mention that was a fine strike from Gally. For all his shortcomings he can hit a ball.

Did the commentator just say there are Boro fans leaving the stadium already? That's truly pathetic if so. Should be 3 now.

People seem to be conveniently ignoring that Dack also missed a sitter there.

Has he? He rarely makes the full 5 subs.

According to the stats on livescore, we had 3 shots, with 0 on target. So, no.

Fair enough. It's a fair trip from Spain just to watch matches though, I imagine in this day and age a club like Sevilla has a UK-based scout and/or makes use of footage. They've certainly been linked hard and long enough to him for me to think there either is, or was something in it. That they don't seem to have made a bid and have been reported to want to take him on a free suggests to me they don't rate him highly enough for a big money move but do still want him. Personally if I were Ben I'd be really wary of any club who wants him on a free and wasn't willing to come in with decent money (upwards of 10 mill) this summer. Which seems to be all of them. It's a recipe for sitting on someone's bench and watching his career fade away.

You can't see the point? Where else are they all going to play whilst they develop? They can't all get loans to Championship sides at 18.

If the rumours are true, their scouts don't agree.

That's all an immense exaggeration. He started out with half an hour cameos for a while. That first season he only came on for 5 minutes or less on 4 occasions in his 28 appearances. He got half an hour or more on 10 occasions. He played 832 minutes total, equivalent to just over 9 full matches. The next season he came on for 5 minutes or less on 3 occasions, and 30+ minutes on 12 occasions (8 of which were 60+ minutes). Almost nobody seems to be able to confirm he was widely booed against Birmingham. I thought that had been thoroughly debunked on here by now. If this is the mini documentary that was out last year I'm pretty sure that's just some judicious editing, a spurious claim, and nothing to back it up if I recall rightly. Twitter is just a general cess pool where people troll for fun. He got no 'backlash' and certainly wasn't bullied. I think he is on record thanking the fans for standing by him when he wasn't playing well, but I'd have to dig around to back that up.

He has his own sky documentary? Don't see any reason for anyone to change their username or feel embarrassed. He was poor for 2 seasons, it would have been bizarre beyond belief if nobody had given that opinion in that period. The only reason anybody might want to feel a bit squeamish is if they predicted he was absolutely never gonna make it. But even then, after two whole seasons of being poor, that wouldn't have been an entirely unreasonable conclusion to have come to.

It isn't the data that's the problem there anyway. It's the use of it. Work rate and athleticism are important, but nobody should be picked on that basis alone. Sounds like Jason Lowe would have got in the Manure team before Mourinho came along! Since Mourinho was the one picking, it seems slightly odd that he got rid of it for that reason. Maybe he thought it was affecting advice from his staff too much.

Starts just after 2:35. The ball didn't even look like it could have crossed the line, even the commentator immediately says blocked on the line by Tevez. Tevez being on the line was obviously offside when it was hit at him. Think you could also argue Tevez collided enough with Friedel for a foul. And the replay doesn't show it well but whilst it wasn't a punch, I'm sure the multi angle replays at the time revealed a potential handball contact, I think it's from after Tevez goes for the ball the first time and it flicks up at another West Ham player. And of course, Tevez shouldn't have been playing. I consider it the most illegal goal I've ever seen and I still talk about it. I was telling a Newcastle fan about it just yesterday. As the highlights show, Bentley then later got sent off for a second yellow because Lucash pushed him on the fringe of the penalty area and it caused his arm to come up and connect with the ball. West Ham put that video up 2 years ago, and I think they've got some bloody cheek doing so! I'd expect them to hide footage of that game forevermore.

Lovely assist and a goal today. That's more the contributions we want. I missed most of the game through work today, how'd he do outside of the goal moments?