It was the usual Southgate routine, wasn't it?
Play quite well, score and then absolutely panic. Bring on players like Gallagher (formerly Henderson), fingers in the ears and hope for the best.

That second half was crying out for Wharton in the middle and Eze/Gordon down the left.

A win is a win, but we'll need to be better than that.

1 hour ago, KentExile said:

https://www.walmsleywilkinson.com/news-and-insights/inspiring-leaders-interviews/inspiring-leaders-steve-waggott-ceo-blackburn-rovers/

The headline of this story is mental (I just googled Waggott to check his age/time to retirement based on the previous post)

I see that he's 70 this month, so he won't be far off either way.

What was slightly interesting is that he's an active director of another company, run by Waggott and his wife.
Had a quick scoot around, but couldn't find anything about the services or what the company actually does:

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/FKc4o-maeIjThZF3QPcISHHYkS4/appointments

I'd like to see the back of SW as much as anyone, but the idea of dropping a complete novice into the role...?

If that did happen, surely it'd be CEO in title only, with the real power/influence being with others.
That said, that's probably the case now.

Ignore. Need to learn to read.

What was the point in Scotland even coming?

There were a surprising amount (ie more than 1) of people on here who wanted Pears to stay as number 1 when TK was fit again.

They were batshit crazy then as they are now, with all hindsight and whatnot.

Pears is not good enough; we need a proper GK or we might as well write this season off before it starts.

I still think Wahlsted is a better than Pears (with a higher ceiling).

But I'd take c£750k for him, if it's on the table - providing we will actually buy a proper GK to be our number 1 next season.

Simply cannot go on pretending barely competent number 2s are good enough.

9 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Nicko news this morning 

Tyjon has changed agent increasing the likelihood of a move to United

Adam Owen wants to knows his exact role is in the pecking order at Rovers management team

Gestede wants to become Director of Football, he is taking a degree in the field and shadowing execs at Rovers on a placement

John Fleck is training with Rovers in a bid to win a contract 

100% guarantee you that he's wrong on this.
RG has a career aspiration and it isn't as a DoF.
Possible he'll stick around at Rovers, but it won't be in that area ^

Unsure on the rest, could be accurate / could be as made up as the RG bit.

I really feel that the GK situation is the key one for us.

We could have prime Alan Shearer up top, but until we fix the glaring problem between the sticks, we'll continue to concede.
Don't underestimate the effect a poor GK has on the defence in front of him as well.

Madness if we're not prioritising GK this summer (which, apparently, we're not).

2 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Why would you want that cheating scumbag here?

Agreed.

He's a decent GK at this level and considerably better than Pears, but I'm not I could get past the blatant cheating - followed by the gloating afterwards.

Bell end.

22 minutes ago, Ricky said:

I know we probably won’t be going for a keeper but if we were we could do worse than Arthur Okonkwo. Been released by Arsenal but did really well on loan at Wrexham on loan last season. He’s only 22 so would have potential sell on value as well. 

 

I've only seen one game of his - when we beat them at Ewood.

And Okonkwo was that bad, he almost makes Pears look competent in comparison.

I have to give some kind of credit to Southgate for bucking his trend and not taking dollopers like Henderson and Maguire.

Players like Eze, Wharton and Mainoo are not only the next generation, but they're good enough now.

Other than the odd tweak (Dunk <> Branthwaite probably), it's pretty much the squad I'd had picked.

I've still not my head around Waggott acting all surprised and claiming he'd never noticed the huge swathes of green shite covering most of the JW Stand outer.

I live up the road from the stadium and drive past it daily - I can see it from my car, on Bolton Road, without my glasses on.

As far as 'feeding blatant bullshit to supporters' goes, that one was pretty high up on the list.

Really pleased for Adam, lets hope he gets game time this summer and he won't let anyone down.

I think it's important to acknowledge the work that JDT put in last year, to improve Adam's weaker areas.
Meant he had to spend a period of time out of the squad, but look how much he came on.

The boy is a Rolls Royce and there will be a few hundred thousand proud Lancastrians watching on tonight, if he makes his debut.

And if he gets enough time on the pitch, I think he'll show GS why he needs to include him in the Euros squad.

17 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

You know of any Transfer rumours yet Andy from your contacts? 

Not at the moment, sorry pal.

I'll share anything I'm told.

The message seems be: get the backroom team in place first, then look at transfers.
Also transfer windows tend to be slow during international tournament years, so if do actually do anything, it'll be towards the back end of the window.

19 minutes ago, Ricky said:

Gilsenen is an interesting one. Always looks decent and has a very good youth pedigree but doesn’t seem to push on. 

I think he's not really been given a proper chance yet - a few minutes here and there.

Hopefully he gets his chance this season, I think he has a lot of potential.

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Tomasson not getting a tune out of Hirst is becoming a common daily criricism just like Mowbray with Giles, criticisms started once those respective managers left the club. 

In fairness on Hirst - he looked awful for us, when he did get a chance.

Soft, weak, terrible first touch and couldn't even score from the penalty spot.

He's gone on to do a decent job for Ipswich, but he was horrible for us.

It's worrying to see our scouting department decimated again - it was practically non-existent when Mowbray arrived and, in fairness to him, he worked with his team to reestablish it.

Feels like a cost-cutting exercise...

You'd imagine SS' heart is set on a Prem move, particularly at his age now.

It'll be a case of whether a Prem club comes in for him over the summer.
Though with the Euros taking up a good chunk of that period, any move will probably be late in the window.

His agent and the club will almost certainly have agreed a fee and, as much as I rate him higher, I'd imagine it'd be between the £8m-£10m mark.

We'll hope a bid doesn't come, but surely a lower-end club will take a punt, even the newly promoted clubs.

15 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Who manager of? 

Just playing it now. Currently 5th

Mike Sheron is still temporarily in charge, but Benni Mc and Steve Cooper have been linked.

I'm playing as England manager, so it jumps a week or two at a time!

I've loaded up FM for the first time in ages tonight.

We're mid-October, Rovers are 2nd from bottom and Eustace has just been sacked.

His summer transfer dealings were 2 x free transfers (who I've never heard of).

I know FM is known for being extremely realistic, but let's hope it's wrong on this occasion, eh...?

1 hour ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Any update on the scholars? Is Finneran there?

I have a friend who was there (for younger age groups), but not had confirmation either way.

Heard the club made a big fuss about Finneran's scholar group/intake during the evening, but not sure what the outcome was for Finneran.

Condolences to you and your family.

As ever, real life if more important than anything football related.

20 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Anything on transfers or who this new head of recruitment or technical director is?

Heard that an ex-Brighton guys was on the interview list for Technical Director, but not given a name.

And no specifics on transfers - will pass on if I do hear anything (and given the OK to share) 👍