roversfan99

Because foraging in the German lower leagues worked so well last time.

I think that Armstrong was the worst striker (beside Telalovic) that I saw at Ewood all season.

I don't rate Sigurdsson and I also don't agree with letting players run their deals down but if he does stay, perhaps he can be back up to Szmodics. So one less. JRC was really good at right back under Tomasson, not sure a couple of friendlies means he will play as a winger nor how he would adapt. The academy should be used to supplement the first team, not under pressure to fill numerous spaces a year in the absence of new players. Travis, Rankin Costello and Carter are important first team players, Scott Wharton would be, Adam Wharton has just brought in a big fee, Buckley can be part of the squad too unless it is felt he is better moving on. And its a long season, if any of the others break through then great, although there is no evidence that they are ready to immediately, nor should there be pressure to. Two have ongoing injury issues, Garrett needs a loan and the others can benefit from a mixture of loans or being around the squad and should they impress then they can still have a chance without an unhealthy expectation that they have to be ready now. Im not saying never play them, I am saying we shouldnt assume that they will come through together and all be up to it, we need a bigger squad. But because we are skint thats unfortunately what will be expected.

I think we are short of double that. Our squad is miniscule. Basically a new team. Goalkeeper is obvious. Centre back, ideally 2. Left back, right back unless we consider JRC a full time RB where he played his best football, but we dont. A midfielder who can pass a ball. 2 quick wingers. Back up for Szmodics. And obviously a striker. Then you have Szmodics, Dolan and Gallagher. If the former goes, a costly replacement. The other 2 should go unless they sign new deals, not that Gallagher should get one unless its on massively reduced wages which he wouldnt expect. We will just get a bit of cheap padding.

No idea what that even means. Either we are stupidly wasting time scouting targets that we cant afford or we werent interested in the likes of Dykes and Paik in the first place. And it is more Nixon rubbish. How can you "not be at the spending stage" with 4 weeks until the season start, as if we will be at some stage.

Just to clarify. You seem to think that if we don't sign a right back, its because Eustace doesnt want one. Eustace wont get exactly what he wants. I imagine if he did, we would be spending money this summer. What he wants and what he will get wont be the same.

Anyone who suggested Rio Ferdinand as next England manager is an idiot. You are again trying to justify your desire not to have a non English manager (which is fair enough I guess) by highlighting 2 individuals who failed as some warped proof that a foreigner cant be the answer. There are more holes in your argument than a cheese grater. Carsley can be considered despite declaring for the Irish national team because he was born in England, thus is English. So presumably you'd drop Guehi, born in the Ivory Coast? Southgate is great at man managing it seems but tactically isnt up to it. This depressing list of potential realistic English managers is why people are keen to widen the net.

We dont control the draw, thats what makes it luck. Variables outside of our control falling in our favour. Ferdinand is even more a hilarious suggestion than Lampard 😂 the BBC guys seemingly have each others back. Why not Shearer? If these are the candidates then lets not even enter such would be the embarassment.

Its more of a case that we cant assume that any novice IS ready, especially more than 1 at once before they have played a first team game as more often than not they wont be with the Wharton example being a rare exception. If you take the Wharton example, he proved that even though we did sign a player, a graduate can and will break through regardless if he is good enough. In fact he did pretty early into the season and had been sold to the Premier League within 18 months. On the flip side and a more common eventuality, Batty wasn't "blocked" and he wasnt ready and it left us short. Our squads are always too small, if we sign a right back then it covers us whether Duru for example is ready or not. It also reduces the pressure on him. You cant possibly know if he is or isnt ready. Thats the issue, no one can.

He was the best manager in our history yesterday.

He wasnt just a flat track bully for City. The sides we have faced in the tournament arent superior to what he faces week in week out. As I said though, the answer is certainly not shoehorning players in due to status. If he cant get him playing in a way that he replicates his club form, then dont start him.

Both he and Bellingham had spells in the tournament from the left hand side. If Foden is not perfoming anywhere near the levels for his country that he manages for his club, a lot of responsibility lies on the manager. Either he plays in a way that allows him to replicate that form or he stops trying to cram too many big names in and drops him to give us better balance.

If you genuinely don't think that budgetary issues have not impacted on repeated years of having squads that have been thin and have tailed off towards the end of every season then you havent being paying attention. If we assume that Duru is ready to be back up with no evidence of mens football to back that, then if he isnt, we have the same issue that we had at left back last season. Batty was assumed to be ready, most likely as a necessity because we were limited in how many players we could afford to bring in, hence us being unable to bring in a right winger on deadline day despite a medical too, and he wasnt ready. We then had half a season of Brittain out of position whenever Pickering couldnt play and we then had to correct the mistake by signing Chrisene.

2-1 flattered us tonight on another night of crushing disappointment, we were comfortably second best sadly. We got back into the game with a great goal before sitting back in and their winner seemed inevitable. Especially with Rodri off at half time, we should have been better at gaining a foothold. International tournaments are a different beast to a league campaign and the best team wont always win it, although this time the best team (not on paper) has won it. They rely on hugely on favourable draws and luck in knockout games that come down to fine margins. Southgate has a record that he can take a lot of pride from even though he has had very good fortunte both in terms of favourable draws and dodgy refereeing decisions (both semi finals went our way massively helped by dodgy penalties) that other England managers would have loved to be fortunate enough to see themselves. Reflecting back on the tournament, being runner up is certainly something to be proud of but equally we again came up short as soon as we met an elite team. Big names like Foden and Bellingham played out of position and performed nothing like club levels, serial loser Kane was clearly not fit and Rice showed that on the ball he has a way to go to be an elite central midfielder.

Exactly. He might be ready now, he might need more time and be ready down the line, or he might never be ready. Such an unknown. Expecting him to be ready as second choice means that if he is ready, great, if he isnt then we are really light. We did the same thing with Batty last year, again forced by budget, he wasnt ready and we were left short and had to loan someone in January.

Not overly no. Whether its the best we can do on this budget is another question. Chrisene was underwhelming, never seen the Hull sub so dunno about him, Cooper I can see sense in to an extent although lack of pace a potential concern. And we need a right back if JRC wont be used there.

It's the Rovers way under Venkys, budget cuts meaning that when we cant sign enough players, we make out as if its part of a tactical plan. Duru is one that is regularly mentioned, hes a young lad with no first team experience and I think not even that much at under 21 level. I don't doubt that he is talented, hopefully he will break through at some point, but we can just automatically assume he is ready now. But we will, as we did with Batty again because we were skint. Gent has only a season on loan in the SPL playing as a wing back, again he will be assumed as a squad member now. Pickering can cover CB, Rankin Costello can cover RB. Although due to the low numbers and the need to play those 2 elsewhere, we may have to clone them. We have technically lost 3 defenders. Wharton is not available this season, we had Hill for half a season then McFadzean so that counts as just one player. And then Chrisene who came in when last seasons spiel about not blocking Batty's pathway proved to be more a case of we can't afford a left back, so we will hope someone with no experience instantly steps up. I expect just one in, two if we are very lucky, some spiel about promising youngsters and us finding ourselves short again.

He has played two games in friendlies (games where the focus is on putting 2 sides out, and we have Hedges and Sigurdsson behind the rest in terms of fitness) so presumably is now a full time winger We don't have wide men who naturally look to cross the ball. Dolan, Hedges, Sigurdsson and Markanday all play on the opposite side to the foot they use, if we want to go down the route of relying on crosses then we will need to have a considerable reschuffle of our wide men beyond what our resources would allow. And even if we did, Dykes is not a natural goalscorer and that wouldnt turn him into one. He is a botton half plodder who scores infrequently.

Because he has proven over a number of years that he is capable of scoring a reasonable number of goals at Championship level. His goal record is worse than Sam Gallagher's. He is just a lump. Even if he does thrive on crosses, none of our wingers (Dolan, Hedges, Markanday, Sigurdsson) are good crossers or even play on their natural side.

Yes, I will back any player. But equally, I will give my opinion on players linked/who sign (the ones that I know) beforehand too. I don't want us to sign Lyndon Dykes because in my opinion, he is not good enough. I dont think he will sign, if he does, I would be disappointed for us to sign what I perceive to be a poor player but still I would support him and hope he could suddenly turn into a good player. You are twisting my argument on penalties. What I am saying that is that including penalties, Dykes' goal return at Championship level is really poor. Take those penalties out and it is even worse.

The reason that invariably most of our supposed targets fall into a category of old and/or shit is not because of a negative attitude. Its because our budget is so low, that we naturally will struggle to bring in any quality if we are having to rely on freebies and borrowing players from Prem clubs. Dykes is one that I think is a load of bollocks anyway as we wont be able to afford him. Even if we sold someone, we know that Venkys dont do reinvesting. You mention great players taking penalties, if you took penalties from their records, their goal record would still be fantastic. Point being, Dykes' goal record is terrible even with penalties, take them out and its even worse. I think I would rather have Gallagher and that is saying something.

So your positives are that youve decided that Eustace likes wingers and crosses even though we dont have quick wingers nor strikers who can thrive off that? And that we will look nice? Im guessing that you would like Dykes and Begovic here? Add them as the 2 additions to the starting team that you want, where does that team finish? Dykes is crap, his goal record enhanced by penalties is worse than Gallagher's. You keep asking for a goalscorer, he is not that We need another striker so if we let Gallagher go to get Dykes then not only have we not improved but we still need a further striker.

Dykes got an injury keeping him out of the Euros.

Can you blame him?

Lyndon Dykes and Asmir Begovic? Deary me. No way will we be able to buy Dykes but hes crap anyway. Begovic, another player far too old who QPR fans were happy to get shut of. Hopefully Nixon is making this up again.