Its not like hes a young player with loads of potential. Hes never scored at a serious level in his career so unless you mean scoring against kids and in the German pub league, how can you know he has the knack of scoring goals? The Venkys way.

Terrible performance yet again to limp into the knockouts. Absolutely no balance to the side again. The Trent experiment that Southgate stupidly thought best to trial mid tournament didnt work but Gallagher is an even worse option, not only is he not very good but hes not a holding midfielder. Rice has looked poor all tournament, hes not the best on the ball and he slows things down, he no longer plays as a sitting midfielder. We need someone to sit in next to him, Mainoo was an improvement, Wharton is the obvious choice to most albeit I dont think hes quite the missing piece of the jigsaw that others claim just yet. Left back is another big issue, stupidly we havent taken any fit ones but we cant persist with Trippier. In attack he is just trying to cram the best players in but they dont work together, its Lampard and Gerrard all over again. No one runs in behind and they all end up on top of each other. Kane doesnt look fit and Bellingham was an embarassment again. Foden is the one of the 3 that warrants his place the most even sidelined as a winger at the moment. Gordon needs to play and Palmer perhaps too. If Kane isnt fit then play Watkins.

Best squad weve ever had?

So a final is the minimum expectation baring in mind the draw? Thats fine, I was just checking what fucking it up entails. Rice has progressed to be much more of a box to box midfielder. We need someone who can sit in there, take the ball from the defence and help to cover that midfield area in which we often look empty in. The imbalances in the team are not anything to do with the overly simplistic "being negative" narrative. We have plenty of attackers in there. But most of the attackers want to play in the same areas, all of the defence are right footed including the left back and we have had no midfield to speak of with Rice left firefighting on his own and that wont improve with Gallagher against reasonable opposition.

So would fucking it up be anything prior to the final or anything but the trophy?

Gallagher isn't a holding midfielder, he is a runner who often plays for Chelsea as a number 10. Its quite the opposite. We need someone in there to sit in and dictate. A Michael Carrick type player. What does fucking it up entail? Not winning it? Not making the final?

Im not sure I would take a deal of arguably our most important player getting any kind of injury just to see Wharton.

Scotland are bad enough that theyd still manage to struggle to qualify even if all 4 teams went through.

It wouldnt, there are absolutely no goals in the side. The one player missing is the one that kept us up.We have been fortunate with goalscorers but no one left in the building would do likewise, theyve proven over a number of years that they arent goalscorers. Especially not backed up by them. Garrett, nowhere near it at the moment. Gamble, couldnt get a game when we had an injury crisis. Gilsenan, might be a talent but has only ever really played kids football bar 2 games against a League 2 side. Gent at least has some experience but not much. Thankfully its irrelevant because even we arent cheap and naive enough to go into a season with that 11 and the back up you touched on. Pickering had 2 really good seasons where he was a consistent part of a side that finished 7th and 8th. Hyam was player of the season when we finished 7th. Both have weaknesses but are certainly not the absolute liabilities you seem keen to suggest and we need them due to how small our squad is.

That side would end up in League 1. No goals in there plus Pears still in net, JRC as a centre back and Pickering as a wing back?

Amidst your random burst of thoughts. Im pretty sure they were both shown on Rovers twitter. They were there.

Im sure up until today you was very vocal in how you would want a bigger company sponsoring us.

The 3rd place rubbish really dilutes the jeopardy in the group stages. Youve got teams on 3 and even 2 points after 3 games waiting around to see if they can sneak through.

But the point is, all of them have balanced teams where you know pretty much all of the starting 11.

The fact that everyones preferred team has numerous differences highlight why we wont be winning the tournament. You ask a France, Spain, Germany or Portugal fan and im sure each team would be not far off the same. We have a really imbalanced squad/team managed by an idiot. That balance issue will not be helped by keeping Trippier (or even picking any of the right footed centre backs there) and picking Gallagher who not only is poor but is not a natural sitting midfielder.

Id consider basically a new team to be quite major surgery. And needed. Hes not that similar to Tronstad, he could play next to him.

Unfortunately it has been a doom and gloom era ever since Venkys took over.

I said "likely." Although even if we end up with your £7m warchest then the fee for Paik would still be a chunk.

Paik looks a clever player but would it be wise to spend a decent chunk of likely a limited budget on a midfielder?

Was always a player who got better as he continued to be left out of the team. Maybe injuries are a big cause but not overly surprised to see his career nose dive after release.

If Ruddy was genuinely an actual target, you would think we would have known that he wanted a side closer to home. Probably was never a target. We dont need an old keeper in as cover. We need a first choice.

Yes, Carsley. No senior experience.

Why should we close off loads of potential options out of principle? You are twisting my words by saying that Herdman's spell as a womens manager is an issue. Obviously it isnt. But hes a total randomer who nobody has heard of because his CV is so limited. I dont know who I would appoint, your point wasnt about individuals. I merely said that closing off potential managers who arent English is massively reducing the options available, proven by the sorry list of potential applicants that you mustered up. But someone like Thomas Tuchel for example would be a far better shout than an MLS no mark, a total novice or Gary O'Neil.

Thats fair enough. As long as there is an acceptance that you arent going to necessarily get the best man by refusing to consider most managers.

Certainly not a guarantee, as with any appointment. But much more likely to find someone good if we widen the net and dont rule out anyone foreign.