New ideas of innovations should only be done when there is a tangible benefit. I don't see any upside at all in this. Your view is your choice but for the majority of football supporters it's unnecessary and gimmicky.

It wasn't the football authorities in England who wanted VAR. The clubs wanted it and fund it. Had it not been for Covid it would have been in the Championship a few seasons ago. It has it's bad points but has also righted many wrongs which is the main purpose of it. Reading through these posts it appears that you are the only one who likes the idea of pitch side interviews and dressing room cameras. I think that ratio would be reflected throughout football as I believe the vast majority will see it for what it is - an unnecessary, superfluous sales gimmick.

How on earth will it develop and grow the game? If might well a few more Sky subscriptions in Philadelphia but it adds absolutely nothing to the game. I want to watch a game of football not feel closer to the players. It achieves nothing in my view. VAR gets a lot right too but I agree with your wider point.

O'Riordan showed some good form in the latter part of the season for Crewe and chipped in with a few goals. The odd thing about the loan to Doncaster is that Ismael hasn't seen him play in any game for Rovers so what is the thinking behind loaning him out less than a week into pre season. If it's paving the way for a new arrival then surely it would make sense to let him go once another player has actually signed. Still at least our Head of Loan Players will have something to do. Strange.

Of course it's pandering. I honestly don't care whether or not it is used in other sports so that to me is irrelevant. It doesn't matter who they are speaking to it's the traditions and values which should be protected. You intensely dislike VAR but you are happy to accept something like this. It adds absolutely no value to the game.

So you are happy to be pandering to an overseas audience by using a gimmick to reach out to them? For me it's just razzmatazz and has no place in our game.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c1k84zyml2no I guess it's another case of He Who Pays The Piper but for me it's just another America like gimmick. The Sky generation will probably lap it up but for me as a traditionalist it's awful.

I think that's a really good idea Carl. There will be quite a lot of media attention (national and hopefully global) and a vocal and visual protest could not be ignored. The theme could be along the lines of the 135/15 year comparison which I believe would capture the imagination and hit home as to what a shambles the last decade and a half have.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2025/june/26/ball-number-confirmed-for-today-s-carabao-cup-draw/ The First Round draw is at 4.30 today live on Sky Sports. Rovers are ball number 4 in the Northern Group.

Relegated from the Premier League.

I saw a still of him in the gym.

Paradoxically we didn't lose against and of the three relegated teams away from home last season. Could anything be more Rovers than that? 😂

First game of last season was against newly promoted Derby 😉. It doesn't really matter who it is but from a personal preference it would be one of the longer distance away games.

I honestly prefer it to be quiet until we actually sign players when their merits can be discussed. I really don't like transfer windows purely because of the oneupmanship and bickering even the most tenuous link can bring. Roll on the end of August.

https://rovers.co.uk/news/2025/june/25/ticket-news--rovers-v-everton/ Rovers have announced ticket prices for the pre season match with Everton. Under 12 non season ticket holders are being charged £8 which I think is ridiculous. A nominal £1 or even free would surely be the way forward to potentially attract the next generation. Extremely poor but unsurprising for a hugely out of touch regime.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cy7ng4vj8leo The French football authorities don't mess about after they relegated Lyon over the state of their finances. Meanwhile Man City are spending hundreds of millions bringing in new players despite having 113 charges against them.

It would seem from this report that the Leicester City's owners business is heading for major financial problems. With a potential points deduction and as yet no manager could they be another Luton? https://foxesofleicester.com/breaking-leicester-news-king-power-owners-at-risk-of-bankruptcy

The only exception to that ruling would be if the club had fewer than 23 players in their senior playing squad, in which case they would be allowed to bring in a free transfer or free loan without breaking the embargo.

As it states 'fee restriction' I took that to mean they can sign players but maybe only free or low value signings. I recall something similar with us when we were under an embargo and I think there was also a limit we could pay new signings.

https://news.bet365.com/en-gb/article/premier-league-boxing-day-new-years-day-fixtures/2025061808503860465 They are subject to change but why didn't they just arrange the programme for Boxing Day and then give the 'subject to change' line (which all fixtures are anyway).

Looking at their games it appears that there are no Boxing Day or NYD fixtures in the Premier League.

Burnley are at Spurs in their first match so we will be away in our first match the week before.

I didn't buy one for myself but my granddaughter got the same size as last season. She actually had last season's with her and it was exactly the same.

It was really simple to buy them actually. I queued outside for twenty minutes for the 5 o'clock slot and once inside it was explained that there is a rack for trying shirts on but otherwise it was a short wait to buy them from the four staff manning the tills. As I went out at 5.15 there was quite a bottleneck so I don't know how that will effect later slots. If each time slot is as busy they will shift a lot today.

Quite a few games are on Channel 5.