Andy

Agreed - did a transatlantic with them for work last year (via Copenhagen) and they were spot on.

I'm jumping onto this thread late, but some incredible (and heartbreaking) stories and experiences. For me personally, it's the apathy that concerns me the most. I grew up a couple of lengthy stone throws from the stadium, in the Dalglish era - I could see the floodlights and hear the crowds from my bedroom window long before I even went to my first match and fell in love with football. I remember being a football-obsessed teenager whereby my entire mood was dictated by how Rovers did. England losing to Germany on penalties in the semi final of Euro '96 and Rovers being relegated under Kidd absolutely devastated me. Now, we lose most games at home and, whilst I watch every game on telly out of sheer habit / a false sense of loyalty, a conceded goal barely registers any emotion. What once was a punch to the gut is now...pretty much nothing. Just apathy.

So apparently we have a budget. If that is the case, it won't just be a black & white '£x for transfers / £x for salaries'. It's a bit more flexible than that - they can spend a bit more on wages when needed, but it lowers the amount in the overall pot (including for fees). Signing Dennis and Wickham on loan last season was an example of this - both on (relatively) large wages, but very little paid in loan fee, as opposed to spending more on the transfer fee but being restricted by lower weekly wages.

Not the first time I've said this, but a half of poor quality from both sides. It was akin to watching two alcoholics throwing punches at each other outside of The Sun, on a Saturday afternoon. The slight positives being that we were the slightly better of the two drunks. Toth in for Calamity is always a positive, making a save at the death that Pears gets beaten at his near post for. Thought Cashin looked decent, as did the defence in general. Montgomery pleasantly surprised me, slight glimpses of quality to go with the industry. Better than TGH for sure. Nothing going forward, but happy to give them some slack considering Dlamini and Powell make up most of that forward line. Probably better than I expected at HT, but it was still shit.

Another indicator of AI-generated content is the use of the word 'and' after a comma. I know some people do this in error, but AI always does it. Absolute shocker that a 2nd tier professional club is using AI to write something like this. But then again, for current day Rovers, it feels par for the course.

I've only seen that one released image, but it looks like only half a dozen people turned up. For things like this (such as the evening with Chris Samba a bit ago), they usually show a couple of images of the room - to demonstrate how many turned up.

Yeah, agree with this. A couple of years ago, I was getting some really solid, geniune info from a very good source. Even shared what the pink kit design a couple of months before the first image of it, as a specific example. But whenever I shared the info I got, I just got this exact attitude, to the point where I just stopped sharing it. I do appreciate that some attention seeking whoppers spoil it for everyone, but some people do have legitimate inside info.

Always thought he had plenty of talent, but it isn't much use if you're in the injury room for most of the time.

It's quickly become my favourite Rovers pod - I think they both come across well and talk sense most of the time. And agreed on VI. But, as I mentioned the other day, my confidence in the current regime picking up / convincing an even half-decent manager to replace him is non-existent.

I feel that Cantwell is an easy target for some. Maybe it's unconscious bias or something. But he has the quality that most of the squad doesn't have and works harder than most of them as well. Yes, he's shit sometimes, but in terms of pointing fingers at players this season, he wouldn't be near to the front of the line for me.

Unlike when we got JDT and JE, any replacement would be chosen by the megaminds of Pasha, Owen and Gestede. Take a look at which managers/coaches are aligned to a particular agency and you've whittled your shortlist down to a few. I think VI needs to go now. But what worries me even more is who these jokers would replace him with.

It has been one level of failing to replace proven Championship-level performers (Hyam, Travis, etc) with younger, cheaper lads from foreign leagues. But the (many) rumblings we've heard about players being shipped out due to non-footballing reasons, on top of allegations such as Gestede bullying administrative staff, or removing all non-Halal food at the training ground, concerns me just as much. He/they are forcing themselves and their personal preferences onto the club at all costs. And if you don't agree, you're out of the door.

The only way we're not going down is if another 2 teams are somehow worse than we are, between now and May. Sheffield are down, so it's a 'shittest' shootout that we are absolutely involved in. You're not in a false position in January. It's one thing if you're playing well / unlucky / etc. But we have no style, no strategy, no plan (or backup plan). It's pretty dire.

Genuinely didn't look it - maybe he was standing next to a couple of giants when I saw him on the pitch.

A striker that's scored 2 goals in 17 prior to today gets 2 in the first 35 against us. Absolutely embarrassing. Sack the lot of them.

Yeah, my earlier weather forecast needs revising. Its coming down and the floor is covered already.

Pears starting is a surprise, unless Toth isn't ready yet. Good to see Tyjon on the bench, at least he's an actual forward instead of a midfielder cosplaying as a striker.

I've been watching this - not been impressed, if I'm honest. And he looks very small for a CB. Unless the boys next to him are particularly tall, he looks to be around 5'9".

There's no risk - I live up the road from Ewood and apart from cars being frozen over this morning, it's fine. Currently blue skies and no sign of snow.

Not sure if this is the right thread for it, but I saw that Paul Gallagher was appointed the new Barrow manager. Has coached at PNE, but first managerial position for him. Good luck to him, hope he succeeds.

I do think we should include either/both. The recent performances of both O'Hashi and Henriksson...I genuinely can't believe that the young lads would be doing any worse.

Purely based on the fact that he knows how to run a training session in even a semi-professional manner puts him above Coyle in the competency league. Coyle was a Sunday League level coach, let's not forget that. Not old enough to have experienced anything pre-Dalglish, but Kean is (bald) head and slippery shoulders above anything in our history, for both footballing and non-footballing reasons. Ismael's home record is astoundingly poor, but he doesn't come close to either of the above 2 clowns, in my opinion.

Yeah, this. You can see the intent / frustration; he's trying to make things happen, but he's trying too hard. If he had a little sprinkle of quality around / in front of him, it's a different result. He was our outstanding player pre-injury and we shouldn't forget that, though he was also dog shit today.

That was dreadful. Wrexham have not been good, all they have done is press well and fire long balls at our defence. But we have been that poor, it's been so easy for them. Nobody wants the ball, or is brave enough to empose themselves. Zero presence up front, we genuinely wouldn't be any worse off having Boggan and Joseph up there.

Shocking to be beaten from there, at his near post. Pears was always going to do a Pears, just surprising how long it took.