[Archived] Rovers - 3 Years From Now

[The Prof.]

After Saturday I thought Rovers had some lessons to learn generally from Villa.

In 3 years their key squad players will be reaching their prime (GULP!).

With the current rovers squad devoid of starlets now Derbyshire has gone and looking at the key squad members ages I wondered if anyone could see us being better off than we were under the last days of Souness. Here's how I see it.

On the Downside:

- An aging squad

- little residual value.

- few/no academy replacements on the horizon

- no succession plan

On the upside

- Samba if he stays (could build a team around him)

- Some TV revenue giving us potential to buy (if we stay up)

- errrr. A few Sam sourced bargains - although none seem to add value to his squads

It's a bit gloomy and I can't see where our next win in this division will come from.

Division 1? Can anyone lighten me up or is it really that bad?

[Cocker]

On the upside

- Samba if he stays (could build a team around him)

Thanks for the laugh there. I have never heard of any team building their team around a defender. Pure madness.

[Mc Love]

Division 1? Can anyone lighten me up or is it really that bad?

Thats really bad, but its a good way away yet! Have to get relegated from the Championship, which cant see happening

[Mr. E]

Hard to see what we can do about it to be honest. If we ha somehow made the champions league things might have changed, but when they steal out best players every season that's quite impossible.

[Beta Ray Bill]

Tugay will still be our best central midfielder, but has had to have special dispensation from UEFA to use his zimmer frame on the pitch.

[Balwer]

Tugay will still be our best central midfielder, but has had to have special dispensation from UEFA to use his zimmer frame on the pitch.

Nice.

And Brad will still be a top 5 keeper in the league, probably taking over at Liverpool or Chelsea (yes, Van Der Saar will be playing also, just to see if he can extend his own record to an entire season of clean sheets).

[broadsword]

Keith andrews will be there, leading our charge out of the Blue square North.

[joey_big_nose]

Keith andrews will be there, leading our charge out of the Blue square North.

An impressive achievement to fall five leagues in three seasons!

If we get relegated we will have a reasonable chance of holding onto Roberts, Nelsen, Dunn (as I doubt anyone will pick him up due to his injury record), Mokoena, Zurab, Andrews and, um, thats about it. All the fringe players like Bunn and Treacy will stay.

It will be a firesale for most as we won't be able to sustain the wages.

However we should still stay up if Sam keeps his improvement going. We need to find a system that makes the most of our four strikers which is our main strength without losing the organisational element of the side. That is the key.

[dr_awol]

Squad members will be replaced with squad members, we will get the odd good player which will stay with us for a season, finish between 9 - 16th every season. Best route into Europe is not to tackle anyone, thereby receiving minimal yellow cards, intertoto cup

But we could win the fa cup this year, win the uefa cup next seaon and then champion league the season after

[Ronin]

Best route into Europe is not to tackle anyone, thereby receiving minimal yellow cards, intertoto cup

But we could win the fa cup this year, win the uefa cup next seaon and then champion league the season after

Just a shame that they've stopped the Intertoto Cup now though.