What on earth even is this? So do 'these people', by which I assume you mean yourself, have no interest in: Raducanu winning US Open as a complete unknown Jess Ennis winning Gold just 1 year after giving birth Ledecky winning Gold aged just 15 in one of the toughest swimming heats Simone Biles inventing god knows how many gymnastic moves now named after her Lionesses back-to-back Euros Women's first every Hockey Gold medal The year Fallon Sherrock chinned a few at Ally Pally Katie Taylor chinning plenty over the last 10 years If you like Sport, but have no interest in any of the above, well that tells me something about you for sure.

I'd imagine it'll be Travis, Trondstad, Tavares as the first 3 choices then we become reliant on Forshaw / Montgomery / Garrett / Buckley / maybe a loan. Travis and Tronstad made 38 appearances each out of 46 games - I can't be bothered looking but i'd imagine it's very rare that we'd be without BOTH of them. I think 3 with a good 4th option (Baker-esque) is where we realistically should be. We have the 3, it's whether the 4th choice of Forshaw / Montgomery is good enough (IMO probably not so would like to see someone come in perm or loan, and we ship out Buckley and Garrett).

I think this highlights just how few good options we have at the top end of the pitch. Any creativity is from De Neve downwards, and there is very little there. 7 players across 4 positions (assuming 4-2-3-1 formation), and that includes Leonard and assumes all are fit.

Question for those saying CB - are we not done there after signing the Hull lad? That will be 4 with him + Hyam, Carter, Wharton (yes fitness concerns for the latter two). But realistically signing a 5th will just stunt the development of the others - 5th choice CB should really be someone in the youth set-up. Also surely we'll have to dive into the loan bucket soon. I know it's marmite for people, but it's a crucial way to improve the starting 11 and teams with success in the league are often loaded with good loans (usually paying good wage for it though i'd add). We need more Beck, Elliott, Van Hecke, Baker types though and less Dennis, Woodrow, Mola. We should be realistically picking up 2 loans from higher divisions, who should be good enough to be in the starting 11 for a mid-table Championship side. For me, the essentials are the need for starting RW and ST. This is the bare minimum we should be expecting from ownership.

Updated the above to show the current contracted squad for the 2026 season. That is just 15 players in contract past this season, and we know the likelihood is zero to no chance that anyone worth their salt signs up in that time (see Dolan, Brereton, Lenihan etc. etc.) Only De Neve, Tavares, Alebiosu are in contract for the 2027 season (we have just 3 players contracted after 2 seasons away!) - extra year option for Pickering, Gueye, Ohashi and McLoughlin but it's rinse and repeat if we get to that stage. This is a very worrying time to be a Rovers fan.

1st bold: Yes, and I also said we'd be on a par if we replace them - yet you were going off asking me to tell you where we are weaker. 2nd bold: I just did that. You've got yourself in a bit of a hoop mate and firing replies off before properly reading. I literally said if we replace Dolan/Weimann up top we'll be on a par, which is exactly what you've said here so you could have saved a load of replies. The reality is we need to replace 14 goals there, and we only scored 53 all season. That's over a quarter of our league goals last season gone in 2 players, replaced by only De Neve. Besides, the point I was making with my original post was that Hyam, Travis, Trondstad and Brittain are all out of contract in less than 12 months - how can anyone think we're looking strong!

We're weaker in attack - lost Dolan and Weimann (14 goals and 8 assists in the league between the two of them - do you think we've replaced that?) We're weaker at CB - we lost our best one from last season, we have a replacement granted, but it will be a huge ask to replicate Batth's presence for us. We've lost JRC - perhaps not a first-teamer, but regardless he is a utility player who can fit in RB, CM, RW - crucial in the Championship as we see every year with our relentless injuries Besides, I said at a stretch we could say we're on a par. Try and tell me where we're stronger than last season, CM perhaps is the only answer. Again, we've lost 20+ goal/assists from last season, and not even had a sniff at replacing them.

I think at a stretch we could say the squad is on a par with last season, IF we replace Dolan (7 goals and 6 assists last season, impressive for non-set piece taker), AND we keep Brittain (unlikely) BUT, we are then just 1 year away from Travis, Hyam, Brittain and Tronstad (lets add Hedges too given he starts more than he doesn't) all leaving on a free transfer - and if that doesn't change soon, then you can bet your bottom dollar the first 4 will all be off next summer - and by god that squad will look like League 1 standard then.

Not sure how anyone can blame Eustace. The issue he will have, is making sure he only picks up the winners, and not the Rovers rubber dinghy boys. Can you bet on Derby to finish exactly 7th anywhere? 😁

That is one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen….although I appreciate everyone has different tastes.

His latest trial was with Sligo Rovers - mix up with the Rovers' maybe? Way below our first team squad anyway.

These things are very rarely officially released but I remember seeing a few comments about it at the end of the season. He was on £15k at Argyl, so wouldn’t be too surprising given he only signed for 6 months with us - he wouldn’t take too much of a pay cut

Does this feel like good use of £10k a week for a team that hasn’t got a pot to piss in / hasn’t got owners who want to piss in the pot???

I think it was also widely reported Foreshaw was on £10k a week last season!!! Theres an extra £5k per week that could have given to 2 of Brittain / Travis / Tronstad. Baffling logic going on at this club

You’re about as pathetic as the lads running our club. Give your head a shake

This is the crux of it. If someone offered us £10m for Pickering I’d almost wonder what’s the point as we would only replace with £500k if we were lucky

He doesn’t have the physical attributes for the prem, nor the defensive abilities (in my opinion). Some of those wingers would eat him alive. The gulf is huge these days. He is a solid Championship full back who is good overlapping and getting forward, a player I’d love us to keep. I’d imagine Boro would offer him at least double what we would, and they’re not a basket case club. He’d be mad not to be interested

Speaking of PNE - christ I hadn't realised just how grim they've had it for so long... They've been to just 1 cup (FA or League) QF since England won the World Cup, and that was last season! Under Venkys alone we've been to 4 QFs Hadn't averaged 15k+ attendance since 1972 until they reduced ticket prices (cough wake up Rovers cough) Haven't played in the top tier since 1961. They're on a 60+ year decline, it's only the grandparents who go who have seen any sort of good football. https://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/league/pne.htm

I can somewhat accept having a 'prem team' if you support / season ticket at Chorley or Darwen, but PNE, they've spent the majority of their history a league or two behind the likes of Liverpool / United, so bizarre. I remember when Swansea got promoted to the big leagues and 90% of their fans supported Liverpool / United as their 'prem team'

Clearly not even close to anybody new, otherwise we’d have lined it up to the kit announcement.

The relation is “it’s green”. Had the opportunity to do so much more. It’s a smart shirt but absolutely nothing unique to our 150th anniversary. It’s just a green away kit - oh with a white badge too. - unique badge, unique sponsor, gold trim, something unique to the Blackburn area in the background, legend player names in the background, trophy cabinet / success years in the background All simple things that would elevate a 150th kit to be different to the usual 2nd/3rd strip and it looks like none were done

I should kept my mouth shut, absolutely nothing unique about that shirt at all - it’s just another usual away/3rd kit. Do we have anybody in a position who actually knows what they’re doing at this club?

I actually think this could be a beauty - I hope they don’t mess it up. The bee crest with gold trim on the kit. I still would have preferred our season home kit to be the anniversary kit - but I guess it’s all about making money now and selling multiple kits

Brentford and Matthew Benham don’t often get things wrong but this certainly feels like a strange one. I’d be surprised if they don’t regress now.

It's a fair argument....February is short, seems to go quickly (albeit depressing as it's when we usually have a death spiral), January perhaps, but there's all that 'new year new me' optimism, everyone's in the same boat. November is just crap though, clocks have changed, it's starting to get dark, it rains every day, the dread of months of cold, wet, dark days ahead. It has a rubbish International break in the middle of it too.