TimmyJimmy

Too many injuries, too many weary players playing a very good team away from home and with home supporters acting as the 12th man. I'm not optimistic.

Abject.

Was really impressed with their #6 Mads Anderson, looked really good for a 22 year old. One to watch.

I was too big and a bit too slow for footy but turns out to have been perfect for 2nd row rugby. My kid brother played for Rovers. I tell him I taught him all he knew but he won't have it!

This has relegation season written all over it. Premiership relegation season we had a full team of internationals on the physio's bench. This season is shaping up the same way. Terribly depressed right now. Cannot see us getting anything against 'boro. So depressed.

But once found we have to pay for them. Often there's the rub. Too expensive, too big a sign-on fee, too big a wage demand, too many onerous demands to be written into the contract, too high an agents fee ... so many reasons for the player not to appear in the 'signed' column and be visible to us. The scouts job is to produce candidates, the rest is down to the realities of life. The two players to emerge from the process are good ones and IMO show the network has value and legs. Be patient and let people do their work. Time is nature's way of stopping everything happening in one big crunch ?

Nowt wrong with loans, nowt wrong with depth. If offers are for a Cunningham or a Tosin but only for this season I'd grab that PDQ. If we get promoted there's a good chance they'd convert to permy. If we discover better players once promoted we aren't encumbered with getting rid of baggage (think Mulgrew). Must be some excellent LB's out there available from a 'big' club who'd be an improvement on what we have. If so we have a better chance of going up. So money paid out for that is not lost money. If we don't go up then we wouldn't have gone up anyway with a worse LB so what's the harm in getting another good loan. Over to you Tony get a good one!

Don't forget though, the new system has worked, it has unearthed a number of players. Not the networks fault that they signed elsewhere for more cash (presumably). We have to give new setups like this time to grow into the various leagues (and there's a lot of them to cover). As it matures it will have more and more gems on it's radar. IMO.

Also though, finishing in the basement positions makes it very difficult to sign players going forward. Players want to sign for teams on a trajectory not scrapping for survival each season. It's often about only money but occasionally you get the one who wants to buy in to a project, sacrifice jam today for promotion glory and jam and cream tomorrow. Well occasionally:-)

Agree. A free hit. We always lose the first match so to play a candidate for instant promotion back to the PL and in an away game at their place ... nothing to lose! At least we get it out of the way at no cost to us. Like your team.

Forget Chapman, Dolan is the answer. This guy is going to be massive. We'll look back and think how the Hell did we every have this guy on our books. Preston have dropped a MASSIVE bollock.

Welcome Nobby ...

Watched Dolan tonight and against Fleetwood. IMO he's the real deal. Obviously young and slight but he's oozing talent and desire. I think we may have a player on our hands.

Phili, both you and Blue blood make good points. Lots of good stuff written there. My take is slightly different though. If I had a budget of 12M I could spread it evenly and stock up with journeymen OR I could take a punt and spend it all on two great prospects and cover the holes with good loan players. Walton turned out to be ordinary but Cunningham and Tosin were stand-outs. We couldn't have bought better. So we ended up with a multiplier effect on the transfer budget. There's always the thought in the back of your mind that there'll be more funds available for the next season when we can have a look see at what worked and what didn't. Walton is the one that didn't work. Unfortunately it seems we now have a close to zero transfer budget thus year... who saw that coming? My belief is, for what it's worth, that without the injuries we would have had a fighting chance of going up with that team. If that had happened we would have had to dismantled the team and build again if we had hopes of staying up. So a sensible call not to spend money on players we would jettison in 12 months. Bangs per buck! I think Mowbray did a reasonable job. That said we're in a new world. Gambles backfired and we're in hole, actually several holes. Onwards and upwards eh.

You're assessment of Walton is a 'with the benefit of hindsight' comment, mine was a before the season started assessment. He had a reasonable profile. Fair enough he disappointed in the end but yes when he joined he was a reasonable stopgap (IMO).

Come on Tyrone, I normally love reading your contributions but isn't this a little extreme? Reading the guy's comments there's stuff like: ... there are no easy games in football ... they'll come with a game-plan, they have good individuals and we'll have to take our chances against them ... it's preparation for this season ... seeing it is as an opportunity to blood some young players There's nothing defeatist there just respect between managers. If the game is tough for us then it's likely to be because we're taking a look at several kids before the season starts to see if they've got what it takes. Also how many recent losses are down to us not converting our chances? Lots. He's not saying anything we wouldn't. I'm getting a bit tetchy with the constant Mowbray out stuff. What's he supposed to say that will get a favourable response other than I'm leaving. The team has holes in it I contend this is not his fault. He saw the chance to onboard some great young prospects for a lot of money knowing we already have the likes of Dack Cunningham and Tosin in the team. Not his fault two were then crocked for most of the season. Tosin is a great player that we couldn't afford but Mowbray somehow landed him on loan. I don't see he did a lot wrong. Raya was constantly being pilloried for his errors/distribution. Walton was a reasonable stopgap until this years transfer funds came around to buy a proper keeper. The world falls off a cliff. The transfer budget disappears. If clubs won't sell we can't buy! IMO he's making the best of a bad job. Just because he's a decent guy who says respectful things about the opposition doesn't mean he's a surrender monkey.

That's not how it works though is it. You don't go to D2 to learn silky skills. He's got the skills already else we wouldn't persist in giving him contracts. You put him into D2 because it's full of big strong evil bastards who will kick you, stand on you, jump into you, elbow you ... Learn how to cope with that and you come back a more complete player.

Thanks. I can see the purchase recorded, so all good there. How do I actually switch it on? Where's the GO button or PLAY button or JFDI button. Aaargh! Who wrote the software it's awful.

I've not got a season ticket this year, I buy tickets for most matches individually. I'm also a tech dinosaur so am quite lost with this streaming stuff. Help! I think I've done stuff the wrong way round. I went to iFollow and bought a ticket. It then said I needed to get the Rovers app in order to watch the match. I installed the app and it then made me set up a MyRovers account, which I did. I now have an app, an iFollow account, a MyRovers account and a match day subscription. HOW DO I ACTUALLY WATCH THE MATCH?? When I say dinosaur I mean Dinosaur! Can someone please tell me (as if I was a 5 year old) what the hell I do next to see the match.

Always thought that was a mistranslation, to my mind it should be "By Skill And Endeavour".

Tricky one this. Being exposed to counter-attack is something to be wary of. Plugging positional gaps across the mid-field is key for me. Graham to hold it up and attacking midfielders to bomb on when they can. I'd go with : Raya Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Williams Bennett Reed Evans Dack Rothwell Graham

I'm out of the country for a bit so can't get to the next few games. Could somebody make up a big placard please and carry it to the games in my stead - Words to read ... "Am I the only one not getting this!?" Thanks.

We've had a few great players at Ewood over the years but in my eyes the top two are Ronnie and Dougie. Ronnie was what it was all about to be a Rover he embodied all that was good about our great club. The spirit and tradition that we stand for grew out of his talent, loyalty and good character. A lovely guy, you'll be sorely missed Ronnie. Condolences to his family and friends.

This is why Sam's so good, often though we don't get to see what happens behind the scenes to give credit where it's due. We struck lucky then on a number of counts : - Benni's place in our team was taken by someone more fit and therefore more effective, just when we needed it - we lost his huge wages - we got paid a fee - Sam demo'd his authority by showing the dressing roonm that he will get rid of anyone who crosses him Thinking about Maradona and what caused his weight gain - perhaps it's not beyond the bounds of reason that Benni has a 'medical' reason for his weight gain caused by who knows what (one can speculate of course). Surely lack of games through injury isn't enough to make you blow up like that, neither is it credible that he really does go out and gorge on junk food. He wouldn't he be that stupid surely, especially with his swan song World Cup coming up. Whatever the scenario, Sam done good :-)

John was a good friend of members of my family. They're gutted, I'm gutted. Such a tragedy. Respects to all his family and friends. He was a good lad. RIP mate.