Why? On past performance isn’t it the truth?

Roy and Bairstow have done well again but failures for Stokes, Buttler and Livingstone and England heading for a likely defeat unless Root pulls something out of the bag. . I don't get Livingstone - send him back to Lancy

Nope. Blind fantasy yes.

Are optimism pills available on the NHS or do you have to go private? Either way, you've overdosed

What signings? There aren't any. Letting Nyambe go without a replacement lined up doesn't make sense

He was a good player for Rovers, a championship quality right back. We now do not have one - nor are likely to before the season starts, and possibly beyond. How can that be a good thing?

Poor move for Ryan but a good signing for Wigan if it happens. Wigan start the season with one clear advantage over us - their right back is better than ours

They were fine in Glasgow and I had a very enjoyable night in the pub after the game but there were some truly horrible types that came down for the return match at Ewood, hanging off lampposts and on walls outside Ewood shouting pro-Irish, anti-English slogans. If I'd had a gun......

Dipping in this thread at the end of each day hoping for some good news and then being disappointed every time is getting depressing Something's not right here - we've a new manager who presumably was told he'd be given some money to spend, There's not many managers who'd take a job without such an assurance - unless they were desperate So what's going on?

You fell for that one. I know what “bad” means in modern parlance - I don’t like it though and will always take the rise out of youths when I see or hear it. There’s nothing “silly” in pointing out footballers are driven by money and very little else. Yes they’ll come out with some tripe about “the project” or similar but it’s all meaningless PR twaddle

I didn't say you were bad (I'm sure you're a very pleasant person), just mistaken

Wrong again I'm afraid

They might say the right things in public but a player moves for money - as much of it as possible

Nothing to do with me - or you Just telling you how the average footballer thinks Not a single new signing (if we actually get one) will be joining Rovers because of the credentials (good or bad) of the new boss

Players are only interested in how much money they're going to get..... the coach comes a long way down the list Does this really need explaining?

Davies is just the type of player we should be after but money/wages will talk Khadra is alot of trouble by all accounts. Pass and move on to the bottom of the barrel

I've been watching Bairstow for many years; have you? To me, he's a flat track bully; give him a docile pitch, a soft ball and a run chase, and he'll score runs, another Graeme Hick. Boycott was the Test match player par excellence; most modern players can't play that way because they don't have the patience or the ability to defend. Cook, Trott, Strauss and Bell could do it too, but we don't have many like them now

Not really. He's been in one-day mode in the past few weeks. Bazball and run chases clearly suit him. He's only got one way of playing - which is to attack. I'd like to see him get his head down and grind out a century in difficult conditions to show he's a true Test match player. He's proved nothing to me. Cricket not your strong point.

Doesn't bode well though, does it? You'd have expected the new manager to have a mind some players he'd like, and that one of two might be on their way by now.

Bairstow was lucky, should have been out a couple of times. Anything could have happened if he had gone and the odds were heavily in India's favour at the start of the innings That's why the win was unexpected.

Chasing around 380 to win batting 4th ....... it had only happened 8 times in more than 140 years of Test cricket "Expecting" England to do it was unrealistic (putting it politely), even in the new Bazball era

The 9th highest chased-down score in Test match history ....... only a one-eyed England superfan would have expected us to do that

Stunning win and totally unexpected. Root and Bairstow made it look easy.,

This should read It was made clear to Broughton and Tomasson that they would have to look internally, first and foremost, when they were hired.

I only look on this thread occasionally but the lack of news and transfer activity makes it painfully obvious there is very little new money available to spend. New manager and his high hopes and all that but the signs are it's going to be a very difficult season. As it stands the squad is much weaker than the one that finished last season