Hopefully, that'll open the door to a big, preferably ugly, experienced centre-half - not bothered if he's Croatian, German or whatever nationality - who will be ready-made to replace Mulgrew in the back four.

That could be scarily prescient.? I think he'd more likely end up with something on the lines of "... across the line in time. We had offers for Dack and Lenihan which were too good to turn down and will allow us to push on in January towards promotion."

He was always a real tryer; 100% effort. Doesn't it speak volumes about his impact over only 4 seasons - I'd have thought his career with us was longer - that he's being remembered with such affection? RIP, Kevin.

... when it was the Northern Daily Telegraph, if memory serves!

But, if I remember rightly, wasn't Hanley 'club captain' of Norwich City last season, despite not playing too often for them in the Championship? What's to stop Mulgrew being our Club captain with this feller being our team captain? Sorry to be a bit brutal but I like the sound of him & Linehan being the first choice centre-half pairing.

And on a different topic than my last post I'd like to share the following thought. Forthe first couple of seconds after Lenihan was injured yesterday afternoon, it looked really serious. He looked to be in the sort of agony that makes that leads you - me! - to think, "He's going to be out for AGES."? Fortunately, of course, it wasn't that serious, but I'd have given more than a penny for Mowbray's thoughts if Lenihan had had to be stretchered off. I have to say I'm beginning to lose a bit of faith in the manager. But, had Lenihan also been out for, say, 6 weeks +, and I were the club's manager, I'd have been as worried as many on this Board are about the back four for the first couple of weeks of the coming season.

But is that the way that our owners do business? Or indeed any owners? They hold the purse strings; it's surely their right to approve how their money is spent. It might have been easier for John Williams to get a decision from the Trust - partly because his time as Chief Exec covered both Uncle Jack's and the Trust's ownership - and modern communication methods should, in theory, make it easier than it seems to be to us impatient-for-success fans. But we are presently stuck with the systems that our owners feel most comfortable with.

You can't call him 'Ada'!!? ? ? I agree with the last part of your final sentence, though. Hope it's etched on every wall of TM's office.

You - I! - learn something every day. I never knew Dunnie had been with That Lot.

Cue, "He's one of our own!"? Does that make him the first since Dunnie?

Kenny's first signing, if memory serves; along with another young - back then! -midfielder whose name escaped me. Until flicking through these threads: Wayne Burnett! After retiring, Makel went into coaching & currently, according to Wikipedia, is an Academy coach at Hibernians.

One of my old schoolpals from the days when we used to play Blackpool in the old Division One is a Blackpool season ticket-holder who became a part of the NAPM - Not A Penny More - protest against the activities of the Oystons. I remember discussing with him the impact of his not going to games at Bloomfield Road on his grandchildren who were - probably still are - to go to a game on their own. Fortunately, for him and perhaps especially the grandchildren, the Oystons no longer own Blackpool FC. He can resume watching games at Bloomfield Road and I look forward to discussing Saturday's game over a drink on the Fylde coast that evening. One of the good things for Blackpool is that they didn't have a 12-point penalty imposed by the League. Bolton and Bury, on the other hand, must start this season as joint-favourites for relegation to League Two and who knows where in the season after that? Worrying times.

Seconded!? Honestly, gunnerrover, is this the first Message Board you've ever joined?? If so, I'd like to suggest that you'll be more use to it if you spend some time - days or, preferably, weeks - just reading the existing threads and getting used to, for want of a more appropriate word, the 'culture' of the Board. And you'll see that, as bluebruce effectively pointed out, we don't take kindly to threads like this one which take a scattergun approach with lists of names and spurious valuations, most, if not all, of which would be irrelevant at the moment to This Great Club Of Ours. I'm not normally a suspicious person; but - and this is a rhetorical question, you understand - if you've just broken up for the summer holidays, wouldn't a better use of your time be looking at books your teachers will be taking you through in the next school year?

Sorry, S G 194, I'm with 1864roverite on this one. I had only seen close-up photos of the new design which filled me with trepidation. Watching the game on Sunday, however, we were too far away from the players to see the, erm, 'niceties' of the design. All we could see were a team wearing what looked like a plain grey shirt and shorts.

Yes; he's Man. City's "loanee player liaison agent" these days.

Yes; Kudos to everyone involved in making the Board so user-friendly. I had a lo-o-ng time away from here because of rancourous attitudes on the Board 3 or 4 years ago. It certainly feels less aggressive a place these days, doubtless due to proactive moderation. And no, this is not an application to join the team of moderators; at 73, I've different and less thankless things I want to do; including spending - too much of! - my time on the players' archive. I applaud the thinking about the sanctions moderators can/should impose and was wryly amused by the part of the last sentence of the third from last paragraph of J*B's post, which I've highlighted. That's because, during Sunday's game I had little option than to overhear some, erm, "full and frank discussions"? among fellow-Rovers' fans. At one stage, I was tempted to ask the protagonists what their nicknames on here are, but thought better of it!

You mean the 'Hotbed of Soccer™' as they'd have you believe?!????#Shakesheadsadly

I quite like this idea but am not volunteering to get involved! I bought my one and only replica shirt - call me a tightwad if you must! I can't get my head round why people apparently feel they have to buy a new one every season - at the start of the season when our owners sycophantically(?) tied up with the Prince of Wales' Trust but before they had permission to put the Trust's logo on the shirt. As an old fogey, I'm proud to wear a modern Rovers shirt which looks back to the advert-free days when my Dad first brought me to Ewood in the 1950s. That'll do for me.

HEAVY rain, CD!?

Heads-up for those going to Ibrox on Sunday: don't forget your rain jackets! I've just seen the weather forecast & it looks like incessant rain for the west of Scotland on Sunday!?

I, too, was impressed by his performance in that Swansea game & hoped that display represented him turning a corner in his career. Let's hope things aren't as serious as they appeared yesterday afternoon. After last season, would only be natural for the lad - he's still not yet 21 - to fear the worst.

So would I; it'd feel like genuine competition between the 2 keepers.

I know what you mean, S8 &; but it's a wicked way of expressing your sympathy for the poor lad!?? At least you didn't compare him with Darren Anderson!

Or should that read, "The team really ought, imo, to be built around these 2."? I'm asking because I simply don't know. I'm trying not to be provocative. I'm as far from being ITK as it's possible to be and I get bemused by so many people on here making what looks like a factual statement, but is really their opinion. Isn't that how we get 'fake news'??

Bringing in a new, reliable, keeper's a bit more than fine tuning, imo. The word 'crucial' springs to mind.