superniko

😂😂😂 you never know! In fairness, De Ligt probably the only one who was playing top level at that very time. Stones at Barnsley wasn’t guaranteed to be World Class

De Ligt was playing in a Europa League final at 17 and regular for Ajax at 16 and regular for Holland at 17 Tomori was on loan in the Championship at 18 I think Stones was starting for Barnsley aged 17 Reese James was at Wigan on loan for a year (yes Right Back and may actually have been 18) There will be more if I spent more than 2 minutes looking - there would 100% be L1 clubs lining up to get Phillips on loan.

Completely agree. I’d say the only benefit of a successful player is that a bigger name might have a bigger pull on loans/youngsters which is beneficial to our current level in the Championship. They could still be poor managers of course. i.e a Rooney type would attract better players than a Grayson / Atkins type

It actually looks like it’s all in reference to Sparks saying Brian Kidd won trophies as a player in response to a comment about JDT winning the Champions League as a player. So my first post was exactly on point actually. The comments were nothing to do with us hiring a rookie and nothing to do with Ferguson or Carrick…they were around whether a player winning trophies will make him a good manager….which is completely moot, some have, some haven’t. Every example is independent.

Who is the ex-player who we’re allegedly giving their first job to then? Apologies if I’ve missed the name given the pages are flying through! (Ferguson maybe?)

Aren’t the majority of managers ex-players so it kind of makes the point of whether players are successful managers moot? i.e for every Ince/Berg we’ve had a a Hughes/Alladyce (all 4 played top level football) Likewise assistants (to a lesser extent maybe) -Kidd was a failure as a manager but the likes of Mourinho even Paisley were assistants at the start of their careers.

As a neutral on this side of the pond….I absolutely love Tony Romo on comms. Calls most of the plays before the snap. Regards Mercers comment….imagine the uproar (rightly so) here if we’d appointed Rosenior as Mowbrays replacement.

I think he was paid by the sponsor or something 32Red. Something dodgy like that anyway. So might be a case of having to stay with the contract.

The main benefit to Rooney in my eyes is we’d likely get a load of good loanees - which is what this division is built on (see Lampard with Mount, Tomori, Wilson). Have a feeling that’s what we will live or die on this season…especially given we will potentially only have 1 ‘experienced’ CB.

This was the tweet I was referencing…From when he actually left - 12th April. Personally, I think the fans replies read pretty badly on him (apart from Tony Bellew who put something positive and got slated 😂)

I was surprised when Everton tweeted about Unsworth leaving the club just how happy the fans were about it. Given how long he was there (over 20 years as player or coach), he must have been completely useless as a coach, or just they were desperate for a full clean out. Also regarding the Bet365 thing above - he’s talking about this site and little pop up adverts not Rovers shirt sponsorships. Why on earth would the Coates’ do that when they own another club in the same league 😂

Ainsworth took a poor team from L2 to the Championship and then back to the playoff final again in L1. Regardless of whether it’s Rovers or not he clearly deserves a Championship job now - to say otherwise would be completely blinkered. Rovers are a mid-table Championship side and therefore it would hardly be a crazy decision either way, and he would be rumoured/considered regardless of his Rovers connections.

Cardiff’s family season tickets here. And to think certain people were saying “try to be positive” to us about how pathetic the club is being run. Pleasing to see the social media posts taking a hammering for being out of touch - it’s not just BRFCS who can see how incompetent the current crop running the show are, just a few individuals burying their heads. Also - now they’ve released the price of an international flexi-ticket - when you click on more details it just gives you information on ‘baby Rovers’. We’re just a complete mess behind the scenes.

I can't think of one positive about how the season ticket news has started: - The pricing (5th most expensive in the league and our cheapest of £399 compared to £280 for PNE) - The marketing (barely anything from what i've seen and others have fed in) - The timings (Hadn't Bolton already sold 10k or so before we even released ours?) - The competence (We're going to release X, Y and Z - more details to follow....But still no details e.g. International Flex Ticket) - The 'Waggot Tax' - extra £30 charge if you don't renew by a certain date or if you're new....what a brilliant way to put off new fans or on the fence fans I hope you don't work in marketing or make significant decisions for a business of any nature if you think they way the club has gone about this has been in any way positive.

Interested in some news on this too. I suspect we'll be waiting for the fixture list first as I imagine it will exclude certain fixtures knowing Waggott (Boxing Day, New Year, Bank Holidays if they're at home and Burnley)

Myers (not Mike) I imagine given the links

Didn’t we bring in Harvey Elliott when he was 17? Granted it’s midfield playmaker vs central defender so age/physicality is different. But if he’s good enough, he’s old enough

Tuchel is the manager that led Chelsea to a 2 cup finals this season and failed both times….no thanks

Whilst that’s obviously true, these specific markets are run as (very small) loss leaders. They don’t make any profit on manager or transfer specials. Hence why they’re so aggressive at changes prices. There is always someone out there who will know before the bookmaker knows and it’s just how quick they can react. However, they do get customers in the door, get people talking about their odds and get social media exposure of their brand/odds though, so it’s essentially used as an acquisition / retention / marketing tool, something to set them apart from competitor bookies

The Open (Golf) is on in St Andrews that weekend too. Obviously it's a bit away from Glasgow but given there will be thousands travelling for that, some might be choosing the big cities to stay in. Feels a long time since we had a trip abroad for pre-season (Scotland doesn't count!) - I was hoping even for one to Ireland.

18/19 to 19/20 we spent £15m on players and we were absolutely dire to watch over that period. What do you want him to do, turn down the money? His signings were actually quite similar to Mowbray over those seasons. He spent £7m on a youngster from a youth team (only he played for Barcelona not Forest), ours took over 3 seasons to reap his value so we'll see.

Had a pretty good 2 years at Braga, winning a cup and getting to the final of the other. Prior to that he took a relatively unknown Portuguese team to the Europa League with their best ever points total. He bounced around a lot early doors but for perspective 5 clubs in the last 10 years is hardly crazy in the current climate, and that's with no time off between really. 3 seasons with Istanbul, 2.5 with Wednesday, 0.5 with Swansea (his shortest spell given their PL relegation), 1 at Rio Ave, which was a success and subsequently has led to the last 2 seasons at Braga. For comparison Rovers have gone through 8 managers in that space of time (including Mowbray for 5 of the 10 years!) He wouldn't be my first choice, but 2 playoff finishes with Wednesday (yes after spending a lot), as well as a successful 3 years in Portugal since, you can't say he he hasn't done anything to justify being a candidate for a mid-table Championship team.

Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this. I know most will say take no notice, but for it to get to that stage they will have taken plenty of bets. Makes me feel a bit reassured that maybe they're more of a basket-case than we are again?

4 weeks 🤣 What a shambles we are.