I held back getting my Rovers TV season ticket expecting to buy the Nejmegen coverage at the same time... Fans are banned and still no sign of the match deal. Of course I could be naughty and post this https://tickets.nec-nijmegen.nl/dashboard but I am far too well behaved to even consider doing so. "Ik kom niet uit Blackburn" Probably the stiffest test as NEC kick off the same time as we are at West Brom so a solid mid table Eredevise side with no excuse for having extra weeks at the beach when/if we beat them unlike Everton and Elche. I no doubt will be corrected and am almost certainly hexing us but I cannot recall a 100% pre-season win record before. We came preciously close to a 100% loss record not too long ago. And facing three teams from top leagues is also almost unheard of pre-season these days. So somebody can do a back flip to show off his naff back tattoo. NEC have two Japanese centre forwards and their keeper and right winger are rated. Should be a very decent test for VI's boys with the starting XI at the Hawthorns likely to be on display... If Rovers TV ever wake up!

WOW! Payment went through first time after the dozen+attempts to subscribe for the Spanish double.

Agreed- I thought Cirino looked a great prospect from the limited coverage I saw of him. Gareth Ainsworth is the Gills boss now. He could have two far above L2 gems if he they can keep injury free.

The frustration isn't a pissing contest about stronger/weaker than last season- it's a toss up with weeks to go to the failure to file on time... The frustration is we came 7th, have a boss who clearly knows what he is doing, we are gazillions under the FFP limits and we are so lacking in ambition to press on for a promotion that would be reasonably attainable this season, fans are debating our relegation risk. Pasha hang your head in shame.

Game totally boycotted by the holidaying Spaniards here in Malta- only English were watching. Usually the Spaniards are the loudest when Real or Barca are in action.

Hedges and/or Cantwell is/are the new Dolan

Forgotten his name, but back in the late 60s or early 70s we blew our entire transfer budget on a player who retired from football without kicking a ball for us. I believe that resulted in the introduction of transfer medicals in the English game.

Perhaps they are playing in the Championship in 25/26 season and this is the Championship 25/26 Season thread. Just a guess...

This is serious pre-season nothing to talk about fan madness. The West Brom game will come round soon enough... then we will wish all we had to talk about were phantom autographs....

Newcastle are bang up against their Fair Play ceiling but haven't learned City accounting yet...

But Michalski, Montgomery, Tyjon and Leonard are home grown youngsters so don't count towards the 25. Add Buckley Back to transfers, any truth that Brittain left Spain a day ahead of the other players?

Cantwell was undoubtedly the most gifted player on either side in the Elche game

Espanyol pay the lowest wages in La Liga but their highest paid players are above our 10k maximum: Player Weekly Wage Annual Salary Contract Until Edu Expósito €23,080 €1,200,000 2027 Leandro Cabrera €20,000 €1,040,000 2026 Javi Puado €18,080 €940,000 2030 Carlos Romero €18,080 €940,000 2026 Jofre Carreras €13,850 €720,000 2029 Álvaro Tejero €11,920 €620,000 2026 Pol Lozano €11,920 €620,000 2027 I would imagine Dolan has more than doubled his expired Rovers contract but odds on a significant chunk of the 1m difference between compensation Espanyol will have to pay Rovers and the compensation an English club would have paid has landed as an (untaxed?) signing on bonus for Ty and his agent...

In the Championship, the opposition isn't obligingly going to bring a bunch of 17 year olds in the 75th minute but if anything we have prospered better subs v subs in this pre-season than playing first team v first team. Am I not convinced we need a far bigger squad than we have now. If a decent net three additions come in which is what Val wants, competition for starting places is going to be extremely intense because I'd rate Montgomery and Tyjon as worth a place on the bench even if we get the injuries back without new unavailabilities.

Keeping him fit is going to be both crucial and a challenge. He terrorised Elche at least as much as Gueye did and was that a penalty Kargbo won and wasn't given in the 88th minute?

Gueye bulldozer 1-0

Elche making 9 outfield subs just now

This is our 4th pre-season game and Travis has been booked in every one of them. Do these bookings count in the real season? - I believe they do unless corrected.

Yes 0-0 I am watching a completely different game from some folks. Been a frustrating performance so far but only in the sense we look good enough to beat Elche if we weren't fluffing it in the final third.

Judging by the number of folks walking back from the Elche bench at half time, I am sure somebody has been doing detailed video analysis on the Rovers.

We are not getting the footballing lesson Girona gave us when they came to Ewood before winning (or almost winning) La Liga. We did really well only to lose 2-3 that day but I would say we are shading this contest against Spanish top flight opponents.

Zero sound again

Elche kick off home to Real Betis on Monday 18 August so are behind us in preparation.

Same mistake as the site made for the Qatar match too. Time zones confuse Rovers- particularly the one between Preston and Blackburn on transfer deadline day...