Jimmy612

Striker and CM for me. With Morishita, Hedges, Karbo, De Neve and Alebiosu (surely capable of playing higher), think Rovers will probably be satisfied with that. Hendriksen or whatever he's called could also probably do a job there. CM we've got Tron, Tav, Mont, Forshaw and Baradji (not a clue when he's even going to be fit). Even one injury (particularly Tronstad) in there is a frightening thought. Need an experienced tough tackling CM for me.

It’s quite evident to see two conflicting opinions forming across the fanbase, totally normal I would say after a defeat. Ripping up an experienced squad and replacing it almost entirely with a huge lack of Championship experience is a major risk. Of the players that have been brought in, probably Alebiosu has been the most consistent. Tavares worries me, because not only does he look off the pace, he’s also never consistently played a full season. Even 24/25 he featured in 29 league games, but averaged 44 mins a game, so presumably lots of sub appearances there. Baradji, no one has a clue on his injury or when he’ll be available. De Neve looks to have been sidelined for now and I don’t really see where he fits. Ryoyo looks like he’s got a bit, lovely touch and cross yesterday, so fingers crossed he comes in and makes an impression. I think it’s either insanity or wilful ignorance to not be at least slightly concerned at this stage. Bemoaning bad luck, new players needing more time, feeling sorry for ourselves, blaming refs. 3 points from 12, and 1 win in 5 that’s what matters, and the league table is all that will matter in 9 months time. With apologies to anyone eating their breakfast, I would expect we’ll start to see the following soundbites in the next week or so. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/14856899

Not to mention Callum Best’s outstanding football career

Probably needs an operation

I used to work a lot in Iceland, and surnames are always 'Father's first name... sson'. If you look at the Icelandic squad listing, vast majority are 'sson' at the end, i.e. Arnor Sigurdsson. Not sure the reason for Gudjohnsen, but it isn't normal - unless the name isn't Icelandic (perhaps previous generations weren't from Iceland). A bit of additional trivia for you all. Women surnames are all 'Father's first name... dottir.' EDIT: Bit of research shows he is actually called Eidur Arnorsson. Gudjohnsen is just family tradition.

Won’t happen in a million years. Would love to be proven wrong though.

This is great stuff

Hmmm, he literally said, 'I'm very conscious, I don't want to take too much credit for Wharton because he was a young boy who was just coming through" and alluded to him being 15/16. It was actually the host who said that, part of her question was "You gave Adam Wharton his debut". Mowbray only spoke about him moving up to train with the seniors when there were odd numbers. Anyway, I was very grateful to Mowbray for that first 2 -3 years. Incredibly (and this gets forgotten about), he only lost 3 in 15 of that relegation season, winning 5 and drawing 7. Extrapolate that over a season and it's 67 points, one more than we got last season. Obviously the damage was badly done by the insane appointment of Coyle. Immediate bounce promotion was great (okay, we could and should have won the league maybe, whatever), and then we never really looked like being relegated under him. Sad fact is, he just couldn't kick us on to the next level, and in the end, his time was probably up. Amazing to hear his version of events that he was left completely alone in terms of transfers. Huge departure to where we are now, and seemingly have been since he left. Ultimately, he made great signings (Dack, Arma), bad signings (Gally), and probably plenty of mediocre ones. I'm probably in the middle with this. Huge appreciation for his ability to steady what was a really rocky ship, and an acknowledgement of the frustration that he couldn't just get us over the line.

"We want some power up front to challenge the two strikers we have, we will do some business." Rudy Gestede, 2nd April 2025

Funny player Hedges. He’s always quite neat and tidy, has ability, works hard, but for some reason has never been able to kick on with consistent quality. He’s also had a lot of injury issues which never helps. Really hopeful this is the start of a big season for him, as that would be an unexpected plus. Regardless, we have to get another winger in the building. Hedges and Kargbo both seem to struggle with muscular issues, and we can’t even begin to consider them both being available for 46 games. A striker for me also a massive priority. We need some pace in the final third. Think we’ll struggle to limp on solely with Ohashi and Gueye.

Great performance, and actually should have scored more. Hull were very poor, but our pressing and intensity was really impressive. Cantwell is just a cut above when he’s on his game. Making him captain might have been an absolute masterstroke by VI. He looks focussed, and set the tone of his performance with a really tough challenge after a minute or so. After that, he ran the game and Hull couldn’t deal with him. That bellend Palmer but in a really nasty, pure frustration challenge on him just before he got subbed. Yellow card all day, but ref appeared to ignore it, like most obvious cards through the game! Alebiosu has some great attributes but is very raw. He got lucky with our third goal after an awful touch and a fairly poor cross. He also got caught badly out of position after about 65mins, only for their player to take an awful touch and squander the chance. Was surprised VI didn’t put Miller on, just to have a bit more defensive focus to see it out. Gueye is rubbish, and no one can convince me otherwise. We need a striker, ideally someone with real pace who can stretch defences. I’d be amazed if they don’t bring someone in over the next week or so. Overall, a great result and hopefully something to build on. Hope those clowns in the boardroom don’t see this as an excuse not to add to the squad. There’s work to be done, and it’s a very long season!

So hang on.... If I'm reading this right. They've offered one of our senior players exactly the same money, for what is essentially an extra 12-months on his current deal. I bet him and his agent were flabbergasted. Who in their right mind would sign that, when in 12 months time he'll very comfortably get a move to another championship club, probably on improved terms as there would be no transfer fee. That's not a contract offer, that's just idiocy, and an insult.

Where does it say £30k??? Have I missed something in Jackson's article?

I keep seeing people say 'doubled his wages' or '£30k'.... as far as I can see the only thing Jackson has mentioned is 'life-changing'. Depends what Trav is on now (let's say £15k P/W, which I highly doubt tbh), you'd only have to increase that by 5-10k and I'd say that is pretty life-changing. Potentially an extra £2m - £2.5m over 5 years. Once again, one of our key players is leaving for a derisory figure because we just cannot tie down anyone of any use to a contract. Comin up for 2 years (November 2023) since Wharton signed a proper contract extension, and even that was when the club was comfortable in the knowledge that they were going to flog him at the earliest opportunity. Another gut punch for the fanbase.

Not to mention very popular around the dressing room. It's easy for us as fans to only worry about what happens on the pitch, but in him and Brittain in particular, we've lost both leaders and popular figures.

Can't be arsed going in to the nitty gritty of every performer, but on the new lads and new first teamers; Tavares - Stood out and was our best player (not difficult). Mobile, strong, always wants the ball and keeps it moving well. Worth remembering that almost a year to the day John Buckley absolutely waltzed around Stockport, who funnily enough had just been promoted to L1. It's a long old season, and Tavares hasn't played many minutes through his career - already had one injury, so whilst promising, those more or less implying we don't need Travis anymore are getting ahead of themselves. De Neve - looks a really basic footballer to me. Missed a hell of a chance 5 mins before a well taken goal. Every pass is safe, ran down blind alleys on a number of occasions, and didn't stand out at all. Don't know what he brings apart from effort and some pace. Miller - Should be okay. I liked his profile when we signed him, obviously very committed and we scored from his long throw. Be a couple of months before we truly see whether his level is Championship, but looks okay. Axel - Crikey, thought he had his boot laces tied together for the first 15mins. It looks to me like when he has time to think, he makes a mess of it. His best attribute from what I could see was nice little first time passes round the corner. Not even close to the finished article, and could take a good while to get anywhere close to champ standard. Alebiosu - Bit of an enigma, no grace whatsoever and don't think he has much quality or guile. Pace will probably get him out of a lot of holes. Not sure on this one. Kargbo - Weird player. Pace, power and does scare defenders. But his decision making and execution of basic skills is a bit alarming. Montgomery - Dreadful. Not a right back in a million years. Got caught dawdling on the ball 3 or 4 times, sloppy passes, terrible first touches. He looked totally overwhelmed by the end of it. Knew he'd had a nightmare. If he's championship quality I can't see it yet. Michalski - I think we probably need an experienced number 2. Tyjon - I actually think he struggled a bit. Showed some glimpses, and Bradford got stuck in to him. Can't think of any chance(s) that he had, and he looks very slow indeed to me.

If true, absolutely atrocious. You can't just shoehorn kids in for what essentially boils down to personal gain. A key performance indicator is defined as "a quantifiable measure used to evaluate the success of an organisation, employee, etc. in meeting objectives for performance." Academy's don't necessarily produce first-team ready players every season, there are duff years. During the first 3 or 4 Championship seasons who actually played from our academy? Lowe, Henley, Kean. Hanley did but he was already established, an earlier batch really. It wasn't until Lenihan, Nyambe, Raya, Mahoney came through in 16/17 that we started seeing real Championship quality come through, and even then, a lot of them weren't ready for the cut and thrust of the Championship straight away. Players should only play first team football if they are good enough, not because of some fanciful KPI. There's a reason Eustace went for experience and didn't opt for many academy lads last season. Quite simply, because we didn't have any that are ready. Not to mention that any that are considered decent appear to get hoovered up by PL clubs. Finneran, Phillips etc.

Where have you read that? LET says right winger.

When Travis inevitably leaves, that'll be 1,442 Championship appearances out of the door this summer (not including last seasons loans). Last season alone, 211 Champ appearances. So far that has been replaced by 117 Championship appearances (all McLoughlin). You can't lose that vast level of experience and expect to have even a half-decent season. Alarm bells are ringing, and Saturday already feels like a big moment in the season really.

Hope you had a tub full of that delicious tamarind sauce. Always a pleasure to go to WBA away, just for that place

Do we need a striker, Chaddy? You’re 0 for 1 on the predictions front as well. Plenty of time, BUT, might be time to evaluate the ‘never bet against Rovers’ approach.

No point taking Neil Yardley too seriously, he’s in-house media. Asking him to critically analyse a match or ask probing questions is akin to asking Russian State Media to pull up Putin on invading Ukraine.

I probably see Miller as the most sensible signing of the summer, along with probably McLoughlin which seems a bit of a no brainer given his Champ experience. Okay, SPL isn’t the pinnacle of global football, but Hibs have progressed well in recent years. He’s a good age and it seems a good price given his contract situation. He obviously offers versatility given his ability to play two positions, BUT I do sometimes wonder whether that can become a bit of a Jack of all trades situation. Other than Berg, how many players have we had over the years that have really excelled at CB and FB? Maybe Mulgrew, but I didn’t have him down as a good LB really. He came in to his own when he moved to CB. On paper, I think this is a decent signing. But like always, that opinion could change dramatically in the next 10 months. He’s also replacing one of our standout players from last season, which is another matter entirely.

That’s not gonna happen with Miller signing.