Ticketing details have been announced for our first away match at Swansea on August 6th. Adult prices are £32.50 and travelling on the Rovers official coaches will cost another £39.50. So that's £72 before anything to eat or drink is factored in. I assume this will be available on iPlayer for £10 and who can blame anybody for taking this option. Interestingly Rovers have announced four qualifying phases for ticket sales for a game which we won't come anywhere near to selling out.

NFT's? No Fucking Transfers?

Here's a thought for today. During Waggott's tenure to date he has probably earned more than lots of Rovers do in a lifetime of work.

That's what I don't understand. When anybody meets with Swag there should be no censorship of what is said as nothing confidential should be discussed. If anything of that nature is said then Swag should be hauled over the coals. Otherwise what's the point of meeting and then keeping it to yourself?

On the night when we were promoted at Bury in 1980 we were in red. Down the years red has featured in lots of our change strips.

Correct. The dearth of affordable overseas players because of Brexit has pushed the price and possibly wages up of equivalent standard domestic players.

We have to make assumptions John because we don't know the full facts apart from Rothwell on which I agree with you entirely. Sheer madness but not surprising at all. What we do know is that it will cost money to replace them either in wages, fees or both, money we don't appear to have or if we do could have gone towards strengthening other areas. By all accounts Lenihan and Nyambe wanted to stay according to reports on here which they said came from the mouth of Swag himself. In negotiations when one of the parties wants something it gives a slight advantage to the other party. When I read that they were keen to stay I thought it was job done but for whatever reason that didn't happen. The notion of expecting kids to step up is fanciful in my view. We could perhaps carry one with some astute nurturing but to put more than one in is folly for me.

And how much has Swag paid for his season ticket? We will have supporters who don't earn much paying a lot for theirs but our man Swag gets free admission. He was picking up his complimentary ticket at Celtic on Saturday. And he's only on £300k.

My understanding from the time was £15m with a percentage to Newcastle. But my wider point was that we got a fee for him. The Waggott Three walked away for nothing.

And that's the reality for me. The wave of optimism around his appointment has dissipated a little as frustration kicks in and his comment about asking Broughton about transfers indicates to me that he is feeling that way too. This isn't 'happy to be here' Mowbray who put up with this nonsense. It's a young manager who has given us cause to be optimistic about the immediate future, an oasis in the Rao Desert. Once again I'll say it - the fucking elephant is still in the room.

But we got £15m for Armstrong John, none of which was reinvested in players. We let three players with an estimated value of £8-10m walk for nothing and we are likely to spend money replacing them. Factor in their wages and it makes no sense whatsoever.

Throw in Hart, Smallwood, Gladwin, Pears and Hedges. The last two with strong Mowbray connections.

It sounds to me that he's happy here so why haven't the club capitalised on this?

We were led to believe that Phillips would sign the professional deal he was offered as we were led to believe that Lenihan and Nyambe would also sign new deals (as told by Swag to posters on here in the lounges pre match). And still the Waggettes offer some defence of him blaming the players, agents etc. Waggotts words mean nothing to me and his word has been broken too often for him to retain any credibility.

But to chase somebody we can't afford is unrealistic and a waste of time surely. We all want the best but with, for example Davies on a reputed £32k weekly at Liverpool then he is out of our reach. I would imagine we will be looking towards players from a league or two below us a PL kids on loan who their parent clubs just want them to gain experience at our expense. The standard has been lowered organically with this wage structure that they now hide behind.

Gallagher coming inside to the middle from where he scored and missed two chances and pressing from a central position. Clearly Tomasson wants to see Carter at right back where he played a few games last season and did well. I saw more fluidity in the system yesterday the I have seen for some time.

Under Tomasson we are.

I know it's early days and we haven't played a competitive game get but watching them so far it is clear to me what system we are playing. There doesn't seem to be anything complicated about how Tomasson wants to play and we are seeing square pegs in square holes. Compare this to the over complicated nonsense we have had to put up with under Mowbray which had most of us scratching our heads.

I really struggle to understand how you purport to be a coach with a ridiculous statement like that. AC Milan players and Champions League winners have to be pretty decent don't you think?

Today was probably one of the most entertaining per season games I have seen. Over the piece we were second best but there were spells were we were on top and creating good chances. There were some positive signs to me that Tomasson is stamping his mark with a decent press and some good, fast one or two touch play. It's pretty apparent to most people were our weaknesses are and hopefully we are looking to plug them holes with some new, quality signings. The emergence of several youngsters is great but in reality we could only blood one of two and even then they need to be managed correctly.

It's free admission to Celtic season ticket holders too so I expect there could be 40000 plus.

I was/am

So instead of recruiting players our Director of Football is recruiting a Head of Recruitment. We are two weeks away from the start of the season and presumably have to go through an interview process which, if it's anything like the recent processes will take a few weeks. Sometimes I despair at what they are doing to our club.

I wonder if Fielder did some kind of presentation about these in his interview and it helped him get the job.

If that's true we are selling him why risk him in a friendly yesterday? Particularly after Dack was allegedly going to West Brom and got injured against Wigan. I agree we need to sell him but if that is the plan then playing him yesterday was bordering on lunacy.