Ben Brereton Diaz

[Giant]

I can’t believe anyone could possibly think that BBD is anywhere near as good a footballer as Damian Duff. Dear oh dear!

Edited May 11, 2023 by Giant
Grammar

[simongarnerisgod]

bloody hell,comparing diaz to duffer is akin to comparing pig iron and platinum☺️

whats next ,jansen vs gallagher🤣

[philipl]

Villareal are a very shrewd club.

I think it is more likely Ben will be a success there than a failure.

I do expect we will see his playing style to evolve though.

One word of caution, Ben is clearly much more of a confidence player than the vast majority of pros. 

I would worry for him if he gets off to a disappointing start.

Those two goals against Millwall are probably worth their weight in gold down in Valencia Province.

[SBlue]

13 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

We got all this with Danny Graham too, thought they were going to retire his shirt number at one point - now I liked DG, but ‘club legend’, he ain’t.

Suppose it shows how far we’ve fallen this past decade… 

There'll be lads and lasses in their teens and 20s that follow Rovers where Graham and Diaz are amongst the best players they've ever seen represent us. Give them their moment, it's all good "engagement".

Wish Ben all the best & hope he does well in Spain, it's a cracking story and on his day he was great for us.

[Mattyblue]

Of course, all relative, heroes are heroes for each generation- but like I said shows how far the club has declined.
 

[Dreams of 1995]

Players like Damien Duff made me fall in love with football and, more importantly, Rovers

Players like Brereton showed me the importance of patience. I don't think I'd have had the same resolve back in 1997

When we speak of heroes of past generations, you can't go much wrong than the players we had for us in the 20 years preceding Venkys. The fact we are this far forward and giving limitless praise to a player who cost a relative fortune, had one good purple patch and then refused to sign a new contract shows us that the operation has sunk and it is like those 20 years did not exist

I liked Brereton's character. To come back from the seasons he had shows it is there and by all accounts a good man in the dressing room. I don't think he deserves much more then a passing goodbye though. He hasn't achieved anything of record at Rovers and in 10 years will be faded memory. At least Danny Graham won us a promotion.

Edited May 12, 2023 by Dreams of 1995

[lraC]

49 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

Players like Damien Duff made me fall in love with football and, more importantly, Rovers

Players like Brereton showed me the importance of patience. I don't think I'd have had the same resolve back in 1997

When we speak of heroes of past generations, you can't go much wrong than the players we had for us in the 20 years preceding Venkys. The fact we are this far forward and giving limitless praise to a player who cost a relative fortune, had one good purple patch and then refused to sign a new contract shows us that the operation has sunk and it is like those 20 years did not exist

I liked Brereton's character. To come back from the seasons he had shows it is there and by all accounts a good man in the dressing room. I don't think he deserves much more then a passing goodbye though. He hasn't achieved anything of record at Rovers and in 10 years will be faded memory. At least Danny Graham won us a promotion.

The big thing to remember here, is that he knows how much Rovers shelled out on him and how much we persevered, but he still chose to wind his contract down and move on for free. That has obviously led to him lining his own pocket.

Not only is he nowhere near the likes of Duff, when it comes to ability, Duff also, acknowledged what Rovers had done for him and signed a new contract. That in turn ended up meaning a minimum fee of £17m had to be tabled, before he could speak to another club.

The rest is history of course and his hand written letter published in the LT will never be removed form my memory and is what Duffer is a Rovers legend in my eyes, in every sense of the word.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

My view hasn’t really changed. Shelling out that sort of dosh on “ one for the future “ when we desperately needed championship standard players to go straight into the team was a mistake.

Edited May 12, 2023 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Andy]

2 hours ago, lraC said:

The big thing to remember here, is that he knows how much Rovers shelled out on him and how much we persevered, but he still chose to wind his contract down and move on for free. That has obviously led to him lining his own pocket.

Not only is he nowhere near the likes of Duff, when it comes to ability, Duff also, acknowledged what Rovers had done for him and signed a new contract. That in turn ended up meaning a minimum fee of £17m had to be tabled, before he could speak to another club.

The rest is history of course and his hand written letter published in the LT will never be removed form my memory and is what Duffer is a Rovers legend in my eyes, in every sense of the word.

I don't disagree with any of that - absolutely loved Duffer when he was with us (and also with Ireland at the World Cup, even as an England fan).

But one thing that stuck in the throat was when he scored a goal or two against us for Fulham, then starting kissing the Fulham badge and giving it the big one to the Rovers supporters. Felt a really weird thing for him to do, all things considered.

[Oldgregg86]

After shearer, tugay and friedel, duff is the best player to wear the shirt. 
 

I wish Ben all the best, he made me smile over the last couple of seasons and will get the ovation he deserves when he returns in whatever shirt but comparing him to duff is like comparing rovers to Sunderland, one’s a small car, the other a juggernaut 

[DeeCee]

8 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

After shearer, tugay and friedel, duff is the best player to wear the shirt. 
 

I wish Ben all the best, he made me smile over the last couple of seasons and will get the ovation he deserves when he returns in whatever shirt but comparing him to duff is like comparing rovers to Sunderland, one’s a small car, the other a juggernaut 

In the last 30 years.

[ben_the_beast]

I think the original Duff comparison was tongue in cheek when a poster pointed out it was unfair to compare Brereton to other strikers, considering he plays wide left. 

My thoughts on Ben are the highs were as high as the lows were low. I'll remember him very fondly mainly from 'that' 6 months. It was magic and had me rubbing my eyes in disbelief. The journey to Chile International was quite unbelievable and I wish him the best in his future career. I'll always keep an eye out. 

I've been of the opinion for a while the step up will be too much for him, however he's made me look stupid before, as I was one of those wondering how he was a professional footballer when he first joined. He's a determined lad, and I hope he takes the Spanish bull by the horns and keeps writing his own peculiar story.

[Mike E]

35 minutes ago, ben_the_beast said:

I think the original Duff comparison was tongue in cheek when a poster pointed out it was unfair to compare Brereton to other strikers, considering he plays wide left. 

My thoughts on Ben are the highs were as high as the lows were low. I'll remember him very fondly mainly from 'that' 6 months. It was magic and had me rubbing my eyes in disbelief. The journey to Chile International was quite unbelievable and I wish him the best in his future career. I'll always keep an eye out. 

I've been of the opinion for a while the step up will be too much for him, however he's made me look stupid before, as I was one of those wondering how he was a professional footballer when he first joined. He's a determined lad, and I hope he takes the Spanish bull by the horns and keeps writing his own peculiar story.

Anyone able to link to this open letter? Struggling on Google 

[Silas]

1 hour ago, Mike E said:

Anyone able to link to this open letter? Struggling on Google 

 

 

[toogs]

15 minutes ago, Silas said:

 

 

Would have been nice to acknowledge the fans. 
 

Scored some good goals for us but imo by far the best was the header vs PNE at home. 
 

Absolute class, although I’m not 100% he meant it. Sums up the player. A bit of an enigma. He will become an even better player or totally bomb wherever he ends up. I really have no idea. 

[roversfan99]

7 hours ago, lraC said:

The big thing to remember here, is that he knows how much Rovers shelled out on him and how much we persevered, but he still chose to wind his contract down and move on for free. That has obviously led to him lining his own pocket.

Not only is he nowhere near the likes of Duff, when it comes to ability, Duff also, acknowledged what Rovers had done for him and signed a new contract. That in turn ended up meaning a minimum fee of £17m had to be tabled, before he could speak to another club.

The rest is history of course and his hand written letter published in the LT will never be removed form my memory and is what Duffer is a Rovers legend in my eyes, in every sense of the word.

I dont agree with that, any player would do what is best for them rather than stunt their career ane a huge move to a big club on big money out of loyalty.

Difference was that we had to sell Duff, we wouldnt have allowed his deal to run down. We are shoddily run now and had chances to sell Brereton and decided not to.

 

[philipl]

The difference is Duff's transfer clause was triggered by a big enough bid and Brereton Diaz wasn't.

We didn't hand Duff over to Chelsea for less than he cost us.

[roversfan99]

£8.5m is definitely a big enough bid for Brereton for a single season.

[Silas]

2 hours ago, toogs said:

Would have been nice to acknowledge the fans. 

I hadn't really looked at it that way, but now you point it out......he does mention everything Rovers except the fans. 

Hopefully just an oversight. 

If he really does have any issue with the fans here, wait till he has a bad spell in Spain. 

[Polky]

Just now, Silas said:

I hadn't really looked at it that way, but now you point it out......he does mention everything Rovers except the fans. 

Hopefully just an oversight. 

If he really does have any issue with the fans here, wait till he has a bad spell in Spain. 

If you watch the interview on Rovers TV he does mention the fans and appreciated there support over the years 😀

[wilsdenrover]

4 minutes ago, Silas said:

I hadn't really looked at it that way, but now you point it out......he does mention everything Rovers except the fans. 

Hopefully just an oversight. 

If he really does have any issue with the fans here, wait till he has a bad spell in Spain. 

From his Twitter:

 

 

 

[R0verb0y]

16 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

From his Twitter:

 

 

 

Ah; okay. That's better, Ben.

As they (we?) used - probably wrongly, even then ‐ to say back in the day, "We're the ones as pays his wages."

[Silas]

16 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

From his Twitter:

 

 

 

Ah, good stuff then, nice to see.

I've jumped the gun on half a statement. 

Such a shame this squad is kind of breaking up. Does seem there's been a good atmosphere in the team. 

Pity the recruitment at the top has hampered that spirit amounting to anything tangible. 

It can often take you places. 

[DE.]

Even if we had ultimately missed out on the playoffs, I wouldn't mind all of this so much if we'd got a fee of some kind for BBD or he'd actually showed up for the second half of the season. As neither of those things happened though it's all just a bit irritating to me. 

[roverandout]

Be hilarious if after all the tributes etc he has to stay because no one wants him