philipl

Not Dack when you listen to his vowels...

We know now that Rovers weren't one or two players short of a play-off place last January, we were half a squad short. Mowbray and Waggott always talked about a four window player acquisition strategy. What happened last January picking up Chapman as an injury wreck punt fits into that view and probably the Raos really respect the care which is at long long last being taken with their money. Suppose we had blown £10m on the Boro forward- was that enough to get to the play-offs? No; we needed at least three at the back as well. So let's say £20m later and we fluked it to 6th. Odds on winning the play-offs??? We are building steadily but very clearly advancing. Let's see if the current defence and game management buy us a bunch of wins now- we might be ahead of schedule BUT Is this squad going to stay in the Premier League if we get there? Clubs have tried buying a Premier League outfit in the summer transfer market and have found themselves back in the Championship having blown a pretty unrecoverable £50-100m in transfer fees and got themselves a £60m pa wage bill to boot. Perhaps two or maybe four current players are Premier League standard. That needs to be more like eight or nine ahead of Promotion to even have a prayer of finishing 17th first season back.

Meanwhilst I am looking forwards to Holtby's home debut. Give him a big cheer!

Hello, Suppose he says promotion and we miss out - he has the fans hollering for his sacking. Top Ten tells me he is pretty darned confident 10th is the very worst we will finish.

Reading it says Rothwell over tummy bug but now coughing like an old man

Forgotten the IRA?

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/bury-efl-football-league-place-proposal-rejected-a9121616.html Bury will not be readmitted to League 2 next season

Fosun somehow have been able to hang onto Wolves when pretty well all other Chinese owners of international sports clubs have been forced to divest by the Chinese Government. Even before the collapse they were looking to sell 20% of Wolves for £70m.

That third by Samuel was some strike!

Again excellent read , especially reviving fond memories of the Manageress which was I believe sort of inspired by Karen Brady as CEO at Brum.

Exceptional thread for a game several days ago. Mowbray back in the good books but not securely so as far as I am concerned. Delighted that with the alarming exception of goal keeper every place in the first eleven is under severe pressure from at least one player who is at least as good as they are. Let's see where it is going to take us.

Let's not pre-judge matters but that is a significant chunk of derby's promotion push potentially facing jail time.

Great set of posts dreams of 1995.

I wouldn't trade a run of 1-0 wins now for any sort of spectacular scoreline on Saturday but.. Luton conceded 2 very late goals on Saturday and another late one in their 4-0 home defeat last night. I hope Mowbray has alerted our lot and is thinking about appropriate subs as Luton seem to tire and there could be a cheap goal or two to add to our goal difference late on on Saturday.

Glad to see Charlie doing well at Wigan.

Looks like there is going to be an official enquiry into what has gone on here. I suspect a bunch of city whizzes have set up insurance backed derivatives which made crashing Thomas Cook financially far more attractive than the hard work of turning round an ailing group. The sort of vulture capitalists who lost a fortune betting against the Supreme Court outcome this morning but who are shorting all over the place in the hope of making derivative based profits from abject misery of No Deal.

Condor is fundamentally profitable as are the operations in Belgium and Scandanavia. The British parent is the debt burdened cash burning dog. Note the bridging loan is entirely legitimate under EU rules. The lack of State aid for Thomas Cook in the UK is entirely a Tory political ideological position.

I was in the Nuttall Street and I couldn't see anyway Lill could have lived through that. Got a great view of Brotherston's lob though.

Yes it is too early but if the corpses aren't moving four games from now when a quarter of a season has passed, they are going to need 50 points from 30 games to be certain of survival which is getting close to play off form. Very tough division to maintain that sort of form in.

Fucillo landed neck first from 6 feet on the frozen pitch in that Keely tackle. Terrifying.

From the Times this morning:

I know Armstrong gets the plaudits for a lovely strike from outside the area but Dack's goal was control guts and determination. If he were just a fancy soft touch, no way would he have ever scored that.

That 4-0 FA Cup win was Chris Samba's debut game.

And you come home when the rescue flight tells you to come home , not when you are booked to. For people due to come home today, they get a freebie extension because the rescue operation is not in full swing yet (assuming the hotel is being generous) but basically it is a matter of filling the rescue shuttle flights as they happen so if you get told your flight is at 3am tomorrow morning your choice is staying somewhere which may or may not be getting paid to host you and buying your own way home at the end of your holiday or getting on that 3am flight. In Malta I helped shift the island away from inclusive tourism over a decade ago so unlike Greece, Cyprus and Turkey the damage is minimal. Thomas Cook tours and Airline accounted for 0.03% of the travel industry. The two rescue flights are going at the time the Thomas Cook departures were planned for this week. Cook were not a year round operator in Malta so just five weeks of business is being lost and only one hotel is being hit hard.

Ok I would overload the left and use Rothwell with Dack and DG central. I don't think Luton would cope on their right flank with that and Rothwell cutting in with Downing over lapping outside could cut them to ribbons.