The BBC gossip column has us selling Sammie - with other teams it's '(team) will demand at least £Xm for (player)', with us it's 'Blackburn want up to £20m' - its like they know that we'll tentatively ask for it but accept the first bid of £14m and a mediocre 18 year old on loan for a season.

BBC has an article up about Eze and Olise attracting attention from big clubs and having £60m+ price tags slapped on, and about halfway down it there's a paragraph or so about Adam where they seem to be already laying the groundwork for his next move saying he has 'also caught the eye of other teams in the Premier League' [ie. as well as Eze and Olise]

For the love of all that's holy please tell me there's a hefty sell on clause here.

The odd thing is that on the (very) rare occasions we've seen him he doesn't look absolutely hopeless, but he can't even get on the pitch so I guess we have to trust the judgement of the coaches. I guess if he goes out on loan to a non league side next year we'll know.

I remember one or two of the Portuguese lads from way back when actually looking ok when they eventually got on the pitch, was it Bruno? A right back? Still only made about three appearances and then disappeared back into obscurity after a couple of seasons.

4 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

That team would struggle in League 1.

JRC is one of the few players that might be of interest to Championship clubs should we go down, unless they would give him a miss due to his injuries.

I only really included JRC in that 11 as I expect Brittain will want out, I think Carter would probably have clubs sniffing around and I didn't want to put a ? at right back.

I think a better question might be who do we expect to still be here if we go down - I think in spite of how they've looked this year a fair number of our players would attract interest from championship clubs and let be honest Swag isn't exactly going to be turning down bids is he. Teams will look at last season and missing the playoffs on goal difference as much as this season. 

Pears

JRC - Wharton - O'Riordan - Gent

Garret - Buckley

  Hedges - Markanday - Gilsenan

Leonard

Bench of Barnes, Batty, Vale, Telalovic and some children? Something like that?

In the last 10 seasons two teams have been relegated with 49 or more points - Reading had 50 last year, and then us on 51.

That's got to get us over the line, surely

Ah the good old 5-5-0 formation, just what we need

We've only seen him in the odd cameo appearance but Markanday is improving this season. 

He'll presumably come good in the last season of his contract, score a bunch of goals and leave on a free, such is the Rovers way.

It's bloody telling that at 80 minutes at 0:0 we have no attacking players to bring off the bench to try and win this.

Southampton changed their entire front three.

Honestly I fully gave up last week for the first time this season and didn't even check the score until about 6 and that seemed to work ok, so we might not want my engagement here.

On 10/03/2024 at 14:05, Bbrovers2288 said:

Career doesn’t seem to be going to plan, he honestly wasn’t bigger than us other than in his head. Back to champ next season no doubt 

Or he knew he was a limited footballer and recognised that this was possibly his career opportunity to play top division football on top division wages for a couple of seasons. One of the promoted sides might well take a punt on him next season - it wouldn't surprise me to see him warming a premier league bench for a season or two more, probably on three times the wage he'd be getting here.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all happy with the manner in which he left the club but I find it hard put the blame for it squarely on him. Absolute incompetence and poor management behind the scenes.

15 hours ago, JHRover said:

I'm still at a loss as to why they need permission to send funds from India tomorrow when at least a portion of the Adam Wharton cash will have been received in the last few weeks.

Any ideas?

There was a rumour that an amount of the first portion of the Wharton money would have to be given straight to Adam, who had a clause in his contract entitling him to 10% of his sale price (ie. 1.8m up front). The delay in the transfer was, allegedly, that Swag was trying to get out of paying it, or to pay it over the course of the contract (so 10% of each payment received). I don't have any insight as to whether this is accurate or not, but it might explain why the first instalment of the cash is underwhelming.

At least when Mowbray was brought in we fought to stay up, got a high enough points total to stay up most years. We looked better than before he was appointed (not a high bar, and yes I know we still got relegated)

This is dire 

1 minute ago, yankfan said:

We’re lumping it forward against giants and sub off the only man over 5’4” for Markanday. Madness 

Might stop us lumping it forward tbf

You know I was told that Leo was really good by someone who had seen him play a few times in Norway. 

I'm still waiting for it to happen.

This feels like a strangely important game. The players need to show that they can carry the performances shown on Tuesday into a league game, the manager needs to show that the tactics and motivation weren't just for the cameras.

Our squad is thin, so we will inevitably play some of the guys who haven't looked up to it this season, we all know the players I'm talking about - against Newcastle they turned in performances to a man to match a much higher opposition. They need to show that it wasn't a one off.

Feels odd to say but I'd prefer another draw if we look like maintaining that style and quality over a win where we look shaky but manage to make it happen anyway - I think that over the course of the rest of the season we'll get more points that way. Obviously a win in good style is ideal.

A defeat and poor performance could undo all the positivity and be if anything more damaging than usual.

You know what, if he was free and I had any faith in our coaching I might be persuaded to take a chance on Koumetio...

1 minute ago, WacoRover said:

Quit showing the Geordie’s on tv, buncha knuckle-draggers & nose-pickers 

Nah I'm enjoying seeing them sulk

I'll be honest, I almost didn't watch. Thought we'd get minced, and not in a normal fatalistic rovers fan kind of way but in a certain grim almost numb way. I haven't had a great time of it for the last few weeks and thought twice about putting myself through watching it.

So unbelievably proud here. Even our bad players have been good. Even if we lose. On TV, under pressure, heads high. 

Pears is grinning, he looks confident and like he's enjoying himself.

8 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Koumetio seems to have found his legs, no longer absolutely abject.

Settled down a bit, definitely has that clumsy looking long-leggedness but that can be a bit deceptive. 

The new Liverpool defender looks a bit panicked when the ball gets near him. 

Credit where it's due, that was good from Markanday

1. That's close to the best I've seen us play all season

2. Fadz has made a big difference

3. Dolan and Buckley looking really good, Moran not as much but a couple of good passes. 

Gallagher is actually a natural and pretty decent support striker - we used to say he has to play through the middle, but I think the reality is he needs to play through the middle with a strike partner. Sam and Sammie is a very good front line.