bluebruce

Looks like Lewis Hardcastle will be off to a conference team. Any thoughts on that, from those who have seen him far more than I have? I remember him being highly rated once.

I didn't see anything in January to suggest we were going for him, beyond fan speculation. In fact TM pretty much came out at the end of the window saying we weren't looking for any defenders as we were just hunky dory there. I forget how he phrased it exactly but that was certainly how it read.

So nice to feel relaxed at this stage of the game. Only happened a handful of times all season.

We must be watching different Nuttalls. I think he's doing alright and has shown more in his all round game in his last two cameos. The touch he ran out was poor but otherwise he's done fine. Is he as good at holding the ball up as Graham? No but not many are. Pretty sure Graham wasn't at Joe's age. Think he's getting better and may develop into a decent player at this level. Just before I posted this he did a very tame shot from a good opportunity lol. That's not usual for him though to be fair.

Would be a bit odd to expect a 23-year old striker to jump up three leagues and do the business. We have Armstrong, Nuttall and Brereton all as 'prospects' for up top. If we sign him, he'd better be bloody promising.

I thought that was the most interesting thing about it too. I wouldn't interpret it how you have though. I think they essentially formed or were advised of a policy to shut their fool mouths up about us. Initially they were blabbing all the time and causing embarassment on this side of the world. Now they only release carefully worded, heavily vetted statements when talking about us. You said it yourself, mercifully silent. We can't have it both ways! It's clearly a general policy and doesn't mean they do or don't care about us. In this case the press worthy part of the story is over in India really. The PR impact here is negligible. He will also have been interviewed or giving a statement in his first language to his own press and felt more comfortable. We had this happen before once didn't we? A young Indian player coming for training? I know cricket is their national sport but I've always been amazed they've never churned out a good player, one you could name, given their huge population. You can say similar for China, although I think of them as a bit better. China is pretty football mad though now so that may come in time. Between the two you're talking what, a third of the world's population maybe? Nearby nations like Japan and South Korea have done fine.

Don't talk fucking soft. If you would you're the only one.

I bet he couldn't do a job in defence. Not that type of player.

On the face of it we appear to be the same team, conceding shortly after scoring and losing to piss poor opposition.

If he blames our crap defence and expresses his intention to extensively strengthen there, I can live with that.

We're the only team I know who can't defend a kick off!

Where is Rothwell playing?

Let's be fair...that's three players leaving him criminally free in the air, not four, as Rodwell is marking a different player.

Just being honest based on how the report sounded. He seemed to make a real nuisance of himself and bagged two goals, so primarily good news. All players miss chances.

So was the name Brereton. Sounded like he created and had a lot of chances.

LT seemed to suggest at the start that he played behind Nuttall, like a Dack role. From the updates it sounded like he was everywhere. His name popped up a lot, creating chances, missing them, scoring them. It did sound like he should probably have bagged a hat trick, so maybe the confidence issues aren't fully ironed out but it must have done him a world of good. Not sure why both he and Nuttall were taken off near the end, both on hat tricks. Brereton in particular could have done with a hat trick and a full 90 minutes under his belt.

Aye, signing before you're born or we existed and being at the club for over two millennia is some commitment.

He doesn't seem to have fully broken into the u-23s yet from what I gather? So that seems unlikely.

If that's the case, it's very odd that Mowbray said we don't have a scout who covers Europe. I dunno, maybe he means we don't have a dedicated European scout and instead we sometimes have some of our domestic scouts keep an eye on a couple of leagues or so.

Highlights from the u-18s 2-2 draw if you can stand to give Manure any web traffic: https://www.manutd.com/en/videos/detail/under-18s-highlights-blackburn-rovers-2-man-united-2-23-february-2019

Oh right, do you know where the article is about that? I saw this article recently: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17437465.mowbray-plans-to-bring-in-european-scouting-network-at-rovers/ And it worried me to see that he said we don't have a scout who covers Europe (not sure how we can look seriously at Bundesliga 2 without one?), as I assumed that would have been part of the scout system restructuring process we undertook last year. I'm astonished it wasn't. In fact I had assumed that was the whole point, as surely we already scout the UK plenty.

You heard something, or inferring?

To be fair, we seem to do it whether we shut up shop or not.

I think I missed something, how do we know that?

The LT were saying Buckley is contracted til summer 2020 (well, they say 18 months) and is in contract talks. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17447564.rovers-keen-to-secure-long-term-futures-of-their-prospects/