roversfan99

You asked me a question neither of us could possibly answer either way. We clearly arent offering competitive Championship wages for this to be a continued running theme. But the main issue is the lack of proactivity. Why are we still to offer actual contracts for players with such little time remaining on their deals? Why has there been an 18 month lull? Occasionally some players will outgrow us, but in that case ie Brereton and Rothwell, you have to sell and reinvest. Dolan, I think he would have signed had we been proactive. Now, not gonna happen especially as his stock has grown and his deal has been allowed to expire.

Some of them might not, I am not saying they all would. But the club isnt proactive even in offering contracts. Dolan got offered one in the Broughton days, not even been offered a proper one since. Travis and Tronstad, even now, just talks with their representatives. I suspect you are only defending the club on this to go against the grain.

As we all expected, probably after realising that actual quality costs money, we give Forshaw another year. A player we released but all predicted would return. Not good enough. I did enjoy this line, playing us for fools: He becomes Rovers’ second signing of the summer, following the arrival of Belgian winger Dion De Neve earlier this month.

Roy Keane had it right. They are overrated.

Clearly we tried with a poor offer not up to scratch otherwise he would have signed. It should never have to this. But now it has. Even if he has said he wants to look around. A club with a shred of ambition wouldnt respond with the attitude of "ok we will leave you to it." They would say heres an improved concrete offer before you go, we are desperate for you to stay. Stop swallowing every bit of shite that comes out of the club.

Irrelevant to us as he wont be signing here. Only relevance is how much compensation goes into the owners pockets. They are feeding out shite about not offering him a new deal yet to respect his right to a holiday. Some people will follow that shit, but many will see through that and ask why a proper contract hasnt gone in front of him and the others long before now. Seems we put one in front of him ages ago which was clearly not satisfactory and have just not bothered to offer something proper. Now its too late.

In less than 2 weeks so we better get our skates on if we are to get key players tied down and sign 90% of our squad by then!

It isnt interesting that he hasnt been offered a contract here. Like with numerous other players here, its infuriating. Hes not staying.

One line that people might say is that Dolan was offered a deal was it 18 months-2 years ago. Yes, he may have been. But not a serious one that he has accepted and hes had 2 more seasons since so his justified demands can go up so why havent we bothered to offer him anything since.

Yes he has made mistakes like anyone. No one is saying he shouldnt make mistakes. The issue is how many mistakes he makes.

All keepers make mistakes, all players make mistakes, its always been the quantity with Pears thats been the issue. The last sentence is the sort of lazy shite youd expect Gestede to come out with.

I still think that we can't be sure that Toth is the answer for a similar reason. We had 2 spells, the biggest one under Eustace but also one under Ismael where our defence was so strong that the goalkeeper at the time barely had anything to do.

You put yourself into a position for an easier tie in the last 16 by winning the group, or at least to expect an easier tie. But beyond that you dont.

So why is a player who has just got into the team of the season in the Dutch League and has European football to look forward to, being "offered" to us? Bollocks.

Based on my eyes. I dont think he is a more than decent keeper for a mid table club bringing in above £1m personally. Although theres been a massive overreaction to a kit launch (1 of 3) that had was it 5 or 6 of the squad in it. Means nothing.

We still havent offered him a contract? Wow.

Im sure theres a player who has just been relegated somewhere in Europe that Rudy can snap up on half the wages.

I would actively prefer to have a run as easy as is possible, as you said. Obviously how good any team is, thats totally subjective. In my opinion, the majority of the games we have faced have been favourable, certainly to relative to the stage of the tournament. Compare to the quarter finals we faced under Sven. Southgate regularly showed he could beat teams I personally would consider not to be top level teams. Those teams were the underdogs against us but not without some good players between them, to regularly be able to beat them earns him great credit nonetheless. When we did face a better team, we tended to fall short.

The 2018 team was certainly well below the quality in the squad of the following 3 tournaments. It was arguably Southgate's most impressive work as the first tournament after the disaster at Euro 2016 and it felt like a team playing at greater than the sum of its parts, with the main threat coming from set pieces. But the last 3 tournaments have been built on a base of proven defensive players. Walker and Stones won endless trophies and played huge roles in that, now Walker has lost the pace that was his strength and Stones has had a couple of years of constant injuries and is unlikely to play much next season. Shaw was another important player who is now finished at the highest level. You go from a solid, proven top level defence to a bunch of players who you might say "hes ok" or "he could be really good in x a couple of years" and its a huge drop off. We have lots of really good attackers but they pretty much exclusively want to play in the same position. Bellingham, Palmer, Eze, Gibbs-White, Foden etc. If you squeeze more than 1 in youve got square pegs in round holes. Kane also is clearly physically declining, also wants to come deep and often hindered us at the last Euros. He will still score but as time goes on and he becomes less physically capable, he might become an undroppable burden like Ronaldo is for Portugal at times.

Theyve numerous kits to promote. The likes of Tronstad, Hyam, Carter, Cantwell etc are also missing. Maybe theyll promoted the away kit. Also, no way is anyone paying that for him even if he does go.

Doesnt mean that the decision was correct. I mentioned before about a growing trend of data nerds overruling managers who actually know what intangibles are requires to build successful teams. Xg and the rest of it wont factor that in. I know you will say "but thats how football is now" but I am questioning whether its always a good thing. Wilder is a bell end. I dont get why you are so personally invested in Cleverley to the point where you angrily wish teams that sack him to be relegated and hope he does well at his new club rather than share the ambivalence that everyone else will have.

He was nowhere near the standard, that was evident when he did play. (To all but rigger who will be expecting Dolan to be playing in the Conference next season)

Im talking about from the quarters onwards. Before that, winning your group is a big factor that is in your control. A quarter final against Sweden and a semi final against Croatia. A quarter final of Ukraine, a semi final against Denmark and a final against Italy. A quarter final against Switzerland and a semi final against Holland. The exception was a quarter final against France. Overall, they are runs to the final through no control of our own that we would have absolutely taken before the draw was made. One thing I keep saying is you can be fortunate with the uncontrollables ie the fixtures but also still consider it an achievement. I said that Southgate did well and has a good tournament record, consistently beating decent/good but not great teams in knockout football is still impressive. But as soon as you mention the word luck, it seems to touch a nerve and people see it as an attempt to totally discredit anything that Southgate has done. The whole point stems from comparing different managers. Sven underachieved, Southgate didnt, but you arent comparing like for like when we had quarter finals against Brazil and Portugal x 2 under him.

Merely surprised that a manager who got 92 points in 46 games has been sacked but disgusted and wishing relegation upon a team that sacked a manager who oversaw the worst second half of a season in the whole division.

So we went for a player who isnt interested in a move to the Championship and bid 40% of his asking price? Yep, sounds about right.