philipl

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...

Looked up Elche on Transfermarkt seeing as I know nothing about them and found their squad is valued at 5m less than Rovers! Only an Austrian central defender, Affengrauber, valued above 3m being at 5m. For keeper they select between a 21 year old Spaniard and a 38 year old Uruguayan.

I think I am already at the stage that I would be less concerned seeing Montgomery coming on as a sub than I would be about John Buckley trotting on.

Kargbo getting kicked

40 minutes each way?

Pasha out very visible.

Still no sound here despite a reboot

Rovers without a pendant to give them - how cheap! Anyone got sound or is that extra?