roversfan99

100%. Couldnt say a bad word about Tomasson until he left then regularly laid into him. Now predictably the same with Eustace. Will also only judge on results but still prefers Ismael because specfically he likes what he says in the media.

Hes got that sort of idiotic play in him. Not the brightest bulb. Never understand why when a player does something so stupid, and gets a red, he gets a standing ovation.

Yes, Eustace is better. His results last season were very impressive, Ismael hasnt replicated them. The job he did at Derby to keep them up was very, very impressive. The job he was doing at Birmingham was impressive. You are basically admitting that you are allowing feelings around his departure to cloud your judgement. I have given a firm answer. Eustace 100% I would prefer over Ismael. I am guessing I will not receive the courtesy of a straight answer from you.

I never said that they were all holes that we wouldnt be able to fill. I am saying that we have lost a number of key players that subsequently leave huge holes. We may well fill them holes adequately, we may have done already. Its not the point I am making. Eustace showed that when Rovers manager. He also then went to Derby and kept them up which was a very impressive achievement. Im not really sure that him having 2 less points than us (and a cup win to our loss) after 3 games proves otherwise. The hypocrisy of you saying that after 3 games and in the same post saying to judge others over a season sums up the mental gymnastics you use to justify things. I am guessing that you would prefer Ismael to Eustace now the former is in charge and not the latter.

So you dont agree that Ismael is a downgrade on Eustace? Same question to you @chaddyrovers who has liked it. You wanted Ismael gone after 7 or 8 games and wouldnt commit to saying that your gut feeling is that Ismael is going to work out the other day. And loved Eustace. So a bit confused.

I get that, and theres obviously a different manager. I suspect a downgrade considering how much Eustace was getting out of the squad he had. But its hard to deny that if you do a direct comparison, the contributions of Travis, Brittain, Dolan, Batth and to a lesser extent Weimann and Beck of last season do leave considerable holes. Some players that we already had may do better (or worse) too. Its not a linear comparison necessarily. But we have lost a lot of important players. Hopefully weve gained a lot of quality too.

Quite excited to see Morishita. Should be at his peak and seems to be coming off a good season. We need attacking threat and hopefully he can give us a new dimension. It is critical that we sign a striker and its never really felt likely. Not convinced by this Soumane link, especially with suggestions that he has his heart set on Widzew Lodz (who?). But I hope we do get someone in.

So the total opposite!

Yes chaddy, in fact we have a number of massive holes based on last season. We dont know how any replacements willl do, but if we compare the team that finished 7th last season to this, some huge holes have been created. Brittain has left a giant hole both in defence and attack. Travis has left a massive hole both in effectiveness and leadership. Dolan leaves a huge hole. Beck leaves a decent sized hole. Batth was outstanding last season. For what its worth, I think McLaughlin is possibly our best signing. I think he will be better than Batth this season, who is aging, but its irrelevant. I dont expect him to be quite as good as Batth was last season in a Rovers shirt, so its probably a small downgrade which is probably the best we can do. Weimann leaves a lesser but still decent sized hole. Again, what these players do this season now they are gone is irrelevant. Some of the above players and their importance has been underplayed because they are no longer Rovers players. We have also lost a manager compared to last season who IMO was clearly better than Ismael, and is better than most in the league. Equally, I think one or two we already had eg Cantwell will do better this season. You seem to view things purely by counting players rather than on quality. You also suggest we havent missed players when we have actually lost 3 of 4 games.

Obviously Ismael will big up a new signing. Not having that those other teams interested including Serie A clubs were serious. Otherwise he wouldnt be here. Not saying he isnt good either, he may well be. But quotes like that are inevitable.

They have 4 really strong players in McTominay and Gilmour at Napoli, McGinn at Villa and Ferguson who has also done really well in Serie A. Unfortunately for them they all are central midfielders.

I think Tronstad deserves a mention as he stood out, just behind Cantwell for man of the match. He was brilliant, snuffed everything out for them and was really composed on the ball setting up attacks. I certainly am not seeing a better defender in Alebiosu compared to Brittain who really improved his one on one defending. Alebiosu often gets caught out of position although sometimes his recovery pace will help him out there to clean up. I also have never been totally convinced by Ribeiro and personally prefer Pickering but I thought he had a really solid game at left back on Saturday which deserves praise.

Also surely would need the likes of Hyam and Tronstad to be signed up.

We offered the same length of deal that they signed at Derby. The idea that they wanted more than 1 year seemingly was a myth that was created to justify it. The issue is that no one will sign a new deal. Still overshadows any transfer business.

There has been a bit of a change of narrative with Batth and Weimann. It wasnt our choice to let them go. We tried to keep them but as with every other contract, it wasnt good enough. It may turn out for the best as they are getting on, indeed I wouldnt have offered Weimann a deal to begin with. But it wasnt our plan. And if they do struggle this season, it isnt to the clubs credit. They leeft big holes compared to last year regardless of how they do this season.

His accuracy has been off a few times. He said we wanted Gassama about 2 days before he went to Rangers. Also said that Pye was our alternative to Kapuadi. Not convinced we were serious about Miyoshi either.

I dont get the suggestion that a midfielder is a priority whereas a striker is just a bonus. We need another striker far more than a midfielder, although I think we need both. If Pears goes, we need another keeper.

I dont think anyone has said that Dolan is likely to do well in Spain. Or certainly didnt when he joined. But he certainly has already proven wrong anybnaysayers who had him down for a Nyambe esque League 1 spell and felt like he had allowed his and his agents egos to get in the way of the correct career move. Its a fantastic move for him.

Brittain £3m. Travis £3m. Buckley and JRC an extra £1m each.

Dolan had at least proven himself to be a good Championship player. Buckley hasnt done that. The type of player whose style makes him look graceful and elegant, but when you watch him for a bit, you realise hes not very good.

We were always supposed to be getting a right winger anyway. Anything beyond that is just speculation at this stage. But sales of Brittain, Travis and Buckley will cover the purchases. As much as they claim it makes no difference.

To be fair, I dont think anyone expected him to do well in La Liga. Its more that some were trying to suggest that he had ideas beyond his station and should have accepted our poor offer, especially as he didnt accept something straight away.

I get that he is a bit of a cock. But did Martin do something or say something about/ahead of a game against us? Seems to have a very specific dislike on here!

Doing that last week certainly didnt see out a win!

It was a Polish journalist who had reported that he has said goodbye to his team mates and is over here finalising the move.