[Archived] Season 2015/16 Discussion

[Butty]

I had already booked my train for this game and QPR and had to cancel them and book them again. I lost over £50 having to do this. Once again poor from Sky with a silly kick off time too.

Discount coach and ticket prices to get a half decent following there, save us the embarrassment and of course give the lads a bit of an atmosphere, been to Craven cottage for a Sunday game a few years back, not that we can talk but the home atmosphere was shocking.

[G Somerset Rover]

So unless I am missing anyone, this is our first-team squad as it stands:

GK's:

Steele

Eastwood

Raya - Not established

Kean

RB's:

Henley

Nyambe - Not established

LB's:

Olsson

Spurr

CB's:

Hanley

Kilgallon

Duffy

Wingers:

Marshall

Taylor

Conway

O'Sullivan - Not established

CM:

Lowe

Williamson

Evans

Lenihan - Not established

CF:

Rhodes

Gestede

Brown

So that's 18 established players; one of which (Kean) will likely move on soon leaving us with 7 spaces in the squad for free transfers or loans.

Defence: Despite our terrible defensive record you would guess that unless a good RB becomes available then this is what we'll go with.

CM: Needs strengthening. Williamson should not be a regular starter, while there's a concern that Lowe could break down again following last season. Desperately need a box-to-box midfielder who is a leader. Unlikely to get this from a loan, so may need to be a free transfer.

Wide: PACE. GB, belatedly, said this was the number one target along with experience. This is where we must take advantage of the loan system. The likes of Derby and Brentford brought in youngsters with pace to burn last season and they were their stand-out performers. Would help out our CM's no end.

CF: Gestede must surely be 95% certain to leave. Again, we need to be looking at the loan system rather than to just sign some washed up journeyman for the sake of it, unless a good'un becomes available. Can personally see us holding onto Rhodes as I cannot see anyone meeting his asking price.

Fortunately we have a few players (Taylor, Marshall, Lowe) who can play a few different positions, but as we've seen down the years, a settled side is the key to a successful Championship season. In summary, quite a bit of work to do!

[thenodrog]

So Fulham away is selected for live tv by Sky, 12pm K.O That's going to be a seriously tiny away following, more ammunition for the Dingles

High time for PR purposes that we shut the Riverside and put the telly camera's on the roof over there.

[frosty]

CM:

Lowe

Williamson

Evans

Lenihan - Not established

That's pretty frightening!

[the original david brent]

I had already booked my train for this game and QPR and had to cancel them and book them again. I lost over £50 having to do this. Once again poor from Sky with a silly kick off time too.

Ditto.

I was part of a group of 21 who booked the train for Fulham on the Saturday a few days ago. 21 of us all paid up looking forward to a good day. We deliberately waited to the original sky fixtures had been released before booking it. Gutted when found out yesterday it has been moved to a Sunday. Thanks Sky tv. There was no suggestion from them that other fixtures would be broadcast live after the initial live schedule was announced.

It now costs £30 each to move the train journey to the Sunday including admin fees. Given the inconvenience of an early kick off on a Sunday and the extra cost, its looking like we wont be going. And a good few quid wasted!

[Gav]

Just to make you feel a bit better we booked to go to Sofia on the day of the draw when we played CSKA, only for the fixture to be reversed the next day so we'd be in Sofia for the home leg!

I can't remember if we lost out financially, but talk about gutted

What a fantastic trip by the way, they can't take away our memories

[the original david brent]

Fair play gav.

I also did the same for Vetra Vilnius away in the intertoto cup! Booked in advance to Warsaw - who would have thought Vetra would go 2 nil up against Legia, causing the Legia fans to riot, match abandoned and ultimately thrown out!

I was on the infamous 12 hour bus from Warsaw to Vilnius with 50 others who made the same mistake. That bus journey was an experience - 1 or 2 refused to travel back on it for reasons I won't go into!

As you say fantastic memories that they will never take away.

[Gav]

Someone mentioned a few weeks back about getting a European trip organised even though we're not in Europe.

Just go to a game in Germany or Spain and on the lash for 4 days.

I thought it was great idea

[tomphil]

High time for PR purposes that we shut the Riverside and put the telly camera's on the roof over there.

In terms of cost that wouldn't be worth it but maybe they could close the JW upper and leave it as it is. Looking out from the BBE there's usually less scattered about up there than in the Riverside

[roverandout]

I have been to one ground abroad, the mestaila (or however you spell it) Valencia's ground, it was empty but I had a look around, wooden benches for seats, huge though, this was about 20 years ago

[thenodrog]

In terms of cost that wouldn't be worth it but maybe they could close the JW upper and leave it as it is. Looking out from the BBE there's usually less scattered about up there than in the Riverside

The riverside is a shed and the people leaving early can be seen traipsing off every match. The PR is awful.

[Waggy76]

I'm going to cancell my Sky Sports after the Ashes. I don't see why I should have to pay to help Leeds out of their financial predicament.

Ì agree but with England in South Africa over xmas and New Year could leave it til Feb 2016...Cancel for a month go back on less money as a new customer !

[McClarky]

Ì agree but with England in South Africa over xmas and New Year could leave it til Feb 2016...Cancel for a month go back on less money as a new customer !

Good call, might do that. Certainly won't miss the football.

[rhodie]

Ì agree but with England in South Africa over xmas and New Year could leave it til Feb 2016...Cancel for a month go back on less money as a new customer !

Or get an Android box

[tomphil]

The riverside is a shed and the people leaving early can be seen traipsing off every match. The PR is awful.

They should put a barrier halfway on that motorway in front of it and tell people from over halfway to exit via the darwen end side. Rather than hundreds of them trapesing all the way along the front from 85 mins onwards !

[K-Hod]

People in other stands also leave early....

I watch injury time from pitch level with JBIZZLE, so it may look like I'm leaving early to the untrained eye....

[Stuart]

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11696/9909055/derby-county-recipients-of-163250000-from-sky-bet-transfer-fund

How does this fit with FFP? Forest helped out last year, Derby helped out this year.

Utterly disgusting. More salt rubbed in our wounds.

[Gav]

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11696/9909055/derby-county-recipients-of-163250000-from-sky-bet-transfer-fund

How does this fit with FFP? Forest helped out last year, Derby helped out this year.

Utterly disgusting. More salt rubbed in our wounds.

I saw this yesterday, very strange indeed Stuart regardless who wins it.

People in other stands also leave early....

I watch injury time from pitch level with JBIZZLE, so it may look like I'm leaving early to the untrained eye....

So thats why he thinks we've had 30 good performances at home over the past 2 seasons, you can see nowt at pitch level

[Amo]

I'm sorry, all I see is Natalie Sawyer.

[K-Hod]

I saw this yesterday, very strange indeed Stuart regardless who wins it.

So thats why he thinks we've had 30 good performances at home over the past 2 seasons, you can see nowt at pitch level

Bloody hell Gav, we get 5 minutes tops before we stomp back off up Livesey Branch Road or along Bolton Road! ;-)

[Gav]

Bloody hell Gav, we get 5 minutes tops before we stomp back off up Livesey Branch Road or along Bolton Road! ;-)

Its clearly enough for jbizzle!

You can see we're awful most weeks K-Hod, you share the views of the vast majority, jbizzle thinks we're good most weeks, somethings a miss

[blueboy3333]

Its clearly enough for jbizzle!

You can see we're awful most weeks K-Hod, you share the views of the vast majority, jbizzle thinks we're good most weeks, somethings a miss

In fairness to JBizzle and others that have supported Bowyer (including me) you supported him too until the end of last season. Bizarrely it was the Liverpool game at home iirc that changed your opinion. You'll be loving him again soon (Bowyer not JBIzzle, although i'm sure JBiz is very lovable)

[Gav]

In fairness to JBizzle and others that have supported Bowyer (including me) you supported him too until the end of last season. Bizarrely it was the Liverpool game at home iirc that changed your opinion. You'll be loving him again soon (Bowyer not JBIzzle, although i'm sure JBiz is very lovable)

I wasn't really loving him blueboy, I said right from day one he wasn't the man to take us up, but he's better than previous appointments, better than many options out there at the moment and more importantly wants to succeed for Blackburn Rovers.

BUT

His tactics against Liverpool at home, a side lacking confidence and there for the taking, was to hit high balls to Rhodes, a tactic thats been adopted for the past 2 seasons that has never worked. Now I’m sure you’ll point to Rhodes goal scoring record, which is good, but he rarely scores from a big punt that hits him around the shoulder area, or in most cases doesn’t go anywhere near him.

He lost my support that night, tactically inept, naive, poor, rubbish in fact.

[DE.]

I think quite a few of us supported Bowyer initially, and there was reason to. He was a man who genuinely cared for the club (unlike the previous appointments, Berg aside), originally got some good results, helped us gain some positive momentum and seemed to stabilise (I know, dreaded word) the club at a time when we were in total disarray.

But time does not stand still, and although many of us had hopes for Bowyer, it became clear last season that he was not learning from his mistakes and was not the man to get us out of this division. Knowing our financial situation and the likelihood of an upcoming embargo, quite a few people including myself called for change on the basis last season was probably going to be our last shot at getting back into the PL.

That change did not happen, and now we're looking at a much weakened team and a total inability to replace outgoing players with personnel of remotely similar quality. The call for change is not now on the basis of wanting promotion, but simply staying in the division next season. If Bowyer could not get us into the top six last season, and did not learn from his mistakes tactically, it seems incredibly optimistic to assume we'll do anything other than regress massively this campaign under his stewardship.

I'm sure most Rovers fans would love for Gary to success - he's not odious like Kean and is a club man - but common sense suggests this won't be the case, and if we want to move forward sentimentality can't cloud judgement when it comes to Bowyer's abilities. I would like for him to stay at the club in some capacity, I just don't want him in the position of manager as I don't have faith in his ability to bring us success.

[K-Hod]

Its clearly enough for jbizzle!

You can see we're awful most weeks K-Hod, you share the views of the vast majority, jbizzle thinks we're good most weeks, somethings a miss

Me and JBIZZLE have many disagreements about Rovers at the match you'll be unsurprised to know!!