Not only that ARA, bottom of the article - The FA confirmed a probe into the allegations, and a spokesman said: 'We will be looking into the material and the issues that may be raised by the content provided by The Sun.' I highly doubt any action was taken on this - Gav might be able to provide something more? In the case of England - his crimes were stupidity, pig-headedness, taking advantage of his position and embarrassing the FA. The very serious allegations of third party ownership were clearly a nonsense, resulting in The Telegraph providing absolutely zero evidence. So, whilst his position was probably untenable, a lifetime ban would have been really strange. Allardyce is not a particularly likeable person, but he's a far better manager than this stupid reputation of an old-fashioned hit and hope merchant. Huge pioneer for sports science, an excellent man manager and a decent tactician. Everything in your post is based on character defamation, various 'forced' media stories and seemingly an old fishwives tale from Bromley. It's only natural it would be your go-to defence, seeing as you can't possibly have an argument for his value and performance as a football manager. As for not one fan playing a part in his sacking... where in my post did I suggest they did? I simply implied that you were all as thick as pig-shit for not seeing the writing on the wall. 12 years later, you're sat on here telling all and sundry how great a second tier manager like Tony Mowbray was and that nothing will change until the Rao's have sold up.... there must be a tinge of embarrassment somewhere...

I don't remember his football being particularly awful to be honest - maybe because I understood where the club was. Quick reminder that we brought in Benjani on a free and Mame Diouf on loan that summer. If we spent £0.00 now there'd be absolute uproar, never mind when we were trying to stay in the toughest league in the world! His football was effective, and judging by the players reactions at the time they were obviously not the least bit interested in how they got results. This is Ryan Nelsen the day he was sacked; "I am devastated for Sam. He had a fantastic relationship with all of the players. Everybody respected him. Sam took the club out of the doldrums. We were in massive trouble and with no money he has solidified us and got us into the top ten on a shoestring budget. We could and should have beat Bolton and we would have been seventh. This has come out of the blue. Both Sam and Neil McDonald have handled themselves incredibly well in difficult circumstances. The owners can do what they want, it's their club, it's their business. But in the real world we work in Sam has done an incredible job. The club had stalled for the past few seasons. The Walker Trust wanted and needed to sell. The club was a bit dead in the water. That's why Sam did an incredible job to keep us from relegation." Some Rovers fans would have been best advised to 'read the room' instead of nailing their colours firmly to the Venky mast and tittering excitedly about Ian Holloway and Owen Coyle (another lesson learnt) 🤢.

Jesus, this age old classic. It's a pathetic cop out for all Rovers fans that can't admit they were wrong. Allardyce was the safest pair of hands in English football at the time, and the perfect manager for a small club entering a transitional period in its history, at a time when it was absolutely essential we kept our hand in the PL honey pot. To sack him wasn't a ludicrous decision because it was part of a wider ploy by dark forces that had infiltrated the club. The ludicrous part in actual fact was clowns like you, Gav and others who celebrated it. We're now 12 years and probably 12 managers down the line and still haven't had one that's even remotely in Allardyce's league, quite literally.

That's him. Same fella who kept us in the Prem after the Ince fiasco, guided us to a top 10 finish the season later, before being sacked with the club comfortably sat 13th in the league with ZERO transfer budget. When was the last time we were that high up the footballing pyramid? Stepping stone... You're absolutely bloody right we were! There's no loyalty in football and he earnt every penny we paid him.

Ah, fair enough.

Which ones? I've bolded 6 there (generous with Phillips, A. Wharton and Garrett as they've not REALLY played enough to be included). Can't make much of a case for the rest... Perhaps another way to analyse would be, who's gone backwards? Thomas Kaminski Aynsley Pears Ashley Phillips Dominic Hyam - has he improved in a Rovers shirt.... probably not really. Daniel Ayala Scott Wharton Hayden Carter Harry Pickering Tayo Edun Callum Brittain Joe Rankin-Costello Lewis Travis Clinton Mola Jake Garrett Tyler Morton Adam Wharton John Buckley Bradley Dack Sammie Szmodics Tyrhys Dolan Ryan Hedges Dilan Markanday Ben Brereton Díaz Sam Gallagher Jack Vale

Josh Bowler Reda Khadra Malcolm Ebiowei Aaron Connolly Cameron Archer Jamal Lowe 6 decent players there - people were in hysterics 5 months ago when Bowler was linked. Now gone back to Blackpool on loan. Khadra whilst not everyone's cup of tea would add some pace, flair and unpredictability that our lot haven't an ounce of. Rest of them are all decent attacking options in the Championship. Can only assume we would be able to compete for at least 3 of them, assuming we'd have probably been outbid by Boro for Archer. None of those take your fancy? Another week to go - maybe we re-visit this list then and see if we've done better or worse.

I thought the pass to Hyam was poor. He was stretching to clear. Anyone know who played it?

Not really surprised. I don't JDT will be too disappointed, we could be 2 or 3 - 1 up. 10 more mins, see how we do then look at Dolan and Markanday. Hope someone has given Gallagher a bollocking. Wake him up a bit

The ONLY time we'd miss Gallagher is if Rotherham get a corner. I can't remember ever seeing a player who boils my blood as much as him. Fantastic pass by Dack and he made a complete mess of it. A lot of angry posters on here, but I think we've actually played OKAY. Dack is our best player by a country mile. Those fans that wrote him off and wanted him sold should hang their heads in shame. Rotherham are a team of workhorses, but they're pretty poor. If we can't equalise here it's a real wake up call for the powers that be during this window. Vale and Gally as our strikers is nauseating.

Turns out the rumours weren't true anyway, but can you itemise the £6.5m? I've got a feeling that figure is about as accurate as Gav's claim that when Gally plays we average over 3 points per game.

I thought the support was very flat tonight, and the reason for that is we had absolutely nothing to get behind. The most rousing moment was BBDs marvellous effort that was so, so close - beyond that I feel like the life was sapped out of the fanbase. We became pedestrian, passive and lethargic just like the players, and no wonder. Truly awful performance - the two strikers were an embarassment, S. Wharton's distribution was terrible, the Travis RWB experiment needs binning and Tomasson needs to make changes earlier. I was watching the bloody clock tick away in horror as we sat through the same methodical, backwards, sideways, slow, nonsense over and over again. The movement off the ball was pathetic and Coventry never looked remotely worried. We had about 2 or 3 mins of urgency after the triple sub... Sadly the red card sapped that sharpish too.

Hmmm, he's averaging about one yellow card every 4.5 games throughout his career, and one red card in his entire career. For a combative midfielder whose job it is to be in the heat of battle, I'd say that's not indicative of someone with poor discipline.

Did you used to think the same about Robbie Savage then? Quite similar players - wind up merchants but in my opinion not whizz tops or players that resort to violence, they're smarter than that and leave it to the people they're winding up. But for poor refereeing, Travis would have had two opposition players sent off in the last 3 games with absolutely no danger of getting sent off himself.

How many red cards has he had in his career?

It's actually a really, really close call. Ayala dropped back just as the first header was flicked on. Incredibly tight - we'll take it.

Less than 48 hours before this post you lambasted me for daring to question why our strikeforce won't tear up the divison... I quote "But hey look you just stick with the negative outlook on this one." Seems a bit hypocritical now doesn't it? In fact, here was your original quote on Thursday.... "The ingredients are there, this division is shite, we really are a left back and a midfield general away from the Premier League imo. Top class keeper, solid centre halves now, talented but young midfield and a front line that can tear up this division." Gone from PL in waiting to absoutely not up to it and substandard in many positions, from Thursday night to Saturday afternoon 😂😂😂😂

Okay, barring one shot which went over (first half I think) and one volley from a corner (not related to Pickering's performance, I can't remember him having any joy whatsoever. He's not my favourite by a mile, I've been extremely critical of him, but if Blackpool's best player has little more than a sniff against him then he's done his job, has he not? Just on the... "he's left footed mate" - he's a Premier League footballer - if he doesn't have the capacity to beat a full back on the outside and cross with his weak foot, he shouldn't be there, frankly - especially when his preferred avenue has clearly been found out by the opposition. Grealish could be a decent comparison - right footed naturally plays on the left, and certainly isn't afraid to go on the outside and keep his opposite number guessing.

I'd have to watch again, but I can't really remember Bowler getting to the byline too many times... I felt like the more obvious threat was coming from their left (our right) in the form of Lavery and their left back (name escapes me).

I thought Pickering did pretty well. His main nemesis is pace, of which Bowler isn't blessed with loads. I was also extremely worried about him vs WBA with Jed Wallace' crossing ability, but he just about managed there as well, barring one or two hairy moments.

City is a remarkable choice for comparison because BBD scored just shy of 40% of our goals last season, KDB scored 15% of City's. So the example you used is exactly the opposite of what you are expecting Rovers to be this season... Heavily reliant on BBD again. What was your point? City are a brilliant example of scoring goals across the team - we are likely to be the absolute opposite. Not withstanding the fact City's new striker has just scored 9 goals in his first 4 games of course.

Only Brereton can be said to have lived up to expectations in the last 3 years. Dolan has 7 in 71 for us, Gally has 23 in 118, Hedges has 0 but scored 11 in 66 in the SPL, Szmodics did well in L1 and Hirst the same - no real Championship track records there. Dack is another question mark, desperate for him to get back to where he was, fingers crossed. Just found it a bit odd given the calibre of Championship attacker we have, for you to suggest we're gonna tear up the division. There's very little evidence for it, particularly considering we've scored a solitary goal in the last 4 games. Regarding the stats - if you don't focus on how many shots we have or how many times we are in the opposition box then that's your prerogative, but I bet managers and coaching teams will. What's the old adage? If you don't shoot....

If at the start of the window anyone had put Travis and Buckley forward as 2nd choice right backs there would have been outrage. Travis is a sticking plaster there. He's not a right back and does tend to drift and get caught out of position. A lot of Blackpool's play went down that side last night, and a few times Lavery wasted good positions with poor or wasteful play. Buckley is exactly the same, a midfielder. I'm really pleased with some of our business and Brittain has started well, but we should all be praying he can get fit quick.

Haha negative outlook. I asked you what brought you to the conclusion we have a strike force that could tear up the division. We've got Brereton who I acknowledged is great and Dack who I love but hasn't played in practically 3 seasons. The rest have a lot to prove and a lot to do. Surely you can understand that without calling someone negative? You ignored my comment about actual stats from our opening 6 games... Why?

One or two big ifs in there. Desperate for Dack to do well... There's very positive signs him and BB have a good understanding AND Dack sees the game unfold ahead of everyone else. How many has Hedges scored so far in a B&W shirt? Looks good, nice touches but we need people to weigh in with goals. Gally won't score more than 10, rest are probably 6 or 7. Let's hope Hirst can weigh in.