John Eustace - our head coach

[simongarnerisgod]

unless they reduce season tickets prices to £200 (highly unlikely!!)i won`t be at ewood again till the filth that preside over the club have gone,i`ll take in some away games and generally look in from the outside,iv`e seen enough of eustace to realise he is`nt up to the job,i think the players sense it as well,though there is no excuse for not putting the effort in like yesterday

[Rogerb]

  On 22/04/2024 at 16:55, vyeo said:

Hahaha, yea I should have written abject, dark, Kean days. 

The sad thing is how after the promise of last season, and the first third of this season, it has all unravelled so badly, so quickly.

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Yep fully agree with your main post.

[AllRoverAsia]

  On 22/04/2024 at 12:59, Groundhog said:

I was furious on Sunday. One of the worst days for a long while, I wanted the ground to swallow me up in that 2nd half, and the feeling of deflation across the entire ground was heartbreaking. But it may be an unpopular opinion, but I'm directing all my ire toward the players and the club hierarchy, not the manager. Forget the manager, whoever we have in charge, it won't make a difference.

The one common factor over the time of TM, JDT and now JE is:
1) the board, lack of ambition from the top down, cost cutting in all areas
2) the slow dumbing down of the playing squad, death by 1000 cuts, poor recruitment (1 player from the last 2 transfer windows in the starting XI)

I'm not sure even Warnock or Allardyce would get a tune out of this lot. 

I totally get the frustration of playing 5 at the back at home, just because it worked at Leeds doesn't mean we should have carried it into a must-win home game, totally different scenarios. The Millwall and Plymouth games were tedious dross too. 

But I'd love to hear what people would do to get this lot taking the initiative at Ewood, to put teams who are sitting back to the sword - what could we do differently with this set of players? The only thing I can think of is getting the squad to get back to basics when under pressure, get Gallagher running the channels, spread their back 4 wide, stop trying fancy flicks, keep the ball, play it simple for periods just to regain control - I just don't know what the game plan was.

Against Stoke at home, they were poor, and trying to attack, leaving space, plus we never went behind.

As someone said:

1) we're neither a technical, pacey free flowing side built to play JDT's football, City on the cheap doesn't work - fed up of club's trying to emulate it

2) we're not physical or have the nous to play long ball and have a striker who can hold the ball up - imagine if we had a Kiefer Moore, or prime Danny Graham?

We're stuck in between two schools, with League One players, no subs to change it either. It's an impossible job - the Sheff Wed players harried and closed down, they weren't easy on the eye or technically any better but they were physical - where do you get lads like this? Why is our recruitment limited to players like Clinton Mola? That for me is the real issue. 

It was probably a "sensible" approach (don't shoot me down for saying that) to keep it tight against Wednesday, don't over-commit, remain calm, and pick them off as they get desperate, trying to bring them onto us. We went out all guns blazing against Sunderland and we still lost 3-1 - but both approaches have the same issue: no plan B, and players who can't handle the pressure as it slowly ramps up when we go behind. Is that on the manager or the lack of options from a poor squad?

Whatever is it, I'm sure when JE is falling asleep at night, he's thinking to himself "why is someone who's built like Gallagher no able to become a decent striker at this level" just like we all are, he just can't say it. If JE was at another club, and allowed to spend and build a side, do you think he'd be able to pick a player? So many unknowns.

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Good post.

On the highlighted text we won possession, touches and passes whilst also playing more long ball than SW.

I can't locate touches within the opposition area but recall a ridiculously low number for Rovers being mentioned in commentary.

Just to add, and not in reference to the above quoted post, I am not putting any faith into there being any form of reset at the club over the summer. This attitude avoids disappointment and invites delight if I'm wrong, but 13 years of shite teaches something.

 

Edited April 22, 2024 by AllRoverAsia

[wilsdenrover]

  On 22/04/2024 at 16:58, AllRoverAsia said:

Good post.

On the highlighted text we won possession, touches and passes whilst also playing more long ball than SW.

I can't locate touches within the opposition area but recall a ridiculously low number for Rovers being mentioned in commentary.

Just to add, and not in reference to the above quoted post, I am not putting any faith into there being any form of reset at the club over the summer. This attitude avoids disappointment and invites delight if I'm wrong, but 13 years of shite teaches something.

 

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15 touches in total (you needed to scroll down a bit further…)

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

You better have this lot in tip top shape and fired up for Coventry Eustace...'no excuses'.

😠

[Rogerb]

Someone has taken note of how the youngsters performed particularly in the league cup against lower league opposition and think mistakenly they can produce those results on a weekly basis.

[AllRoverAsia]

  On 22/04/2024 at 17:10, wilsdenrover said:

15 touches in total (you needed to scroll down a bit further…)

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Thank you! Still getting used to navigating that site.

It confirms that Dolan and Gallagher didn't manage a single one between them.

Markanday put himself about a bit in his cameo.

[London blue]

  On 22/04/2024 at 08:41, ABBEY said:

a few times yesterday when we ballsed something up he clapped  like we  had done something to be proud of when a roasting should of be handed out. (yes before chaddy starts i know its to keep heads up, but home truths need to slapped on there precious modern whipped generation of soft asres)

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Can we leave out the generalisations? Many teams in this league have young, hungry squads, a few of those have ripped us apart. The problem with rovers isn't the age of the players, it's the quality.

[rock steady]

Finally watched the post-match interview.

Said almost nothing of any substance, which is fairly standard for manager interviews, but the multiple mentions of bouncing back were particularly cringeworthy.

Partridge-esque.

[chaddyrovers]

  On 22/04/2024 at 16:16, roversfan99 said:

Dismissing any thoughts of reinvesting as fantasy land stuff. We can get worse, simply because of the cuts. Telalovic, Ennis and Hirst have all been worse in the last 2 years. Thats the standard we are working with.

I have always said that Gallagher simply is not very good at anticipating chances. Thats the main reason why his goal tally is never going to be near the top of the league, he doesnt have that instinct and never will be. Offers other things but is simply not a natural goalscorer.

That being said, under Eustace he like every other attacker is hindered more than ever. There is absolutely no sign of an attacking game plan. He often spends much of the game wide and the tactic of centre backs whacking it aimlessly in the channels just has him running after the ball with the defender naturally ahead of him. He wins throw ins and the odd corner which is all he can really do in that situation but its just not going to lead to him doing anything constructive.

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yet Ipswich wanted Gallagher in January and they already Hirst who proved his worth to them in the first half of the season. Hirst just didn't work out here sadly but he has been a big role in Ipswich success since joining them

[Andy]

  On 22/04/2024 at 16:26, JHRover said:

Pretty much agree with the lot of it. What a post.

JDT by no means perfect but he had valuable assets. Ambition, drive, personality, a vision. I think back to last season, particularly August to February, and the first half of this season, and this was a guy capable of dragging this club out of the stinking cesspit that it has been dragged and into a potentially bright future.

Alas as we saw with the Allardyce fiasco, as we saw with the Bowyer/Lambert fiasco, these owners and their minions will always find a way to derail and destroy any positive momentum or progress and set the club back years. I should have known better but I admit I believed. I genuinely thought that with the Director of Football approach and JDT leading it and after the season we had, going so close in league and cup, that the ingredients were there to take the next step and crack the play-offs.

More fool me. I can't describe the disappointment I feel about the way in which once again these people have destroyed something that should have been good and positive and that fell into our lap almost by accident after Mowbray finally left.

Yes it was clear that JDT was burned by the O'Brien fiasco, yet he stuck at it and we still went close last season. It was clear he was unimpressed by the summer's shenanigans yet he stuck at it, moved his family over, accepted the constraints and we, somehow managed to get ourselves sat just outside the top 6 in December with this squad.

Then a third transfer window of nonsense, culminating in Adam Wharton being sold, the McGuire disgrace (what sort of club treats other clubs and players in such a disgusting and humiliating fashion?) and no reinvestment was the straw that broke the camel's back. Totally understandable for anyone with any self-respect to draw a line at being undermined by your colleagues.

Of course ownership and a board with any finger on the pulse would have sacked JDT once it became clear that the damage was irreparable and the direction things were going. I agree that he was essentially saying 'f... you' to them and going gung ho wanting to be fired.

Yet they couldn't even manage his departure correctly. It came far too late, even in the week it happened they took days on end to announce it.

They're just a disgrace. There's no coming back from this in my book. It's happened too many times and I won't fall for it again.

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This, this and this again ^

[Ghost7]

  On 22/04/2024 at 16:26, JHRover said:

Pretty much agree with the lot of it. What a post.

JDT by no means perfect but he had valuable assets. Ambition, drive, personality, a vision. I think back to last season, particularly August to February, and the first half of this season, and this was a guy capable of dragging this club out of the stinking cesspit that it has been dragged and into a potentially bright future.

Alas as we saw with the Allardyce fiasco, as we saw with the Bowyer/Lambert fiasco, these owners and their minions will always find a way to derail and destroy any positive momentum or progress and set the club back years. I should have known better but I admit I believed. I genuinely thought that with the Director of Football approach and JDT leading it and after the season we had, going so close in league and cup, that the ingredients were there to take the next step and crack the play-offs.

More fool me. I can't describe the disappointment I feel about the way in which once again these people have destroyed something that should have been good and positive and that fell into our lap almost by accident after Mowbray finally left.

Yes it was clear that JDT was burned by the O'Brien fiasco, yet he stuck at it and we still went close last season. It was clear he was unimpressed by the summer's shenanigans yet he stuck at it, moved his family over, accepted the constraints and we, somehow managed to get ourselves sat just outside the top 6 in December with this squad.

Then a third transfer window of nonsense, culminating in Adam Wharton being sold, the McGuire disgrace (what sort of club treats other clubs and players in such a disgusting and humiliating fashion?) and no reinvestment was the straw that broke the camel's back. Totally understandable for anyone with any self-respect to draw a line at being undermined by your colleagues.

Of course ownership and a board with any finger on the pulse would have sacked JDT once it became clear that the damage was irreparable and the direction things were going. I agree that he was essentially saying 'f... you' to them and going gung ho wanting to be fired.

Yet they couldn't even manage his departure correctly. It came far too late, even in the week it happened they took days on end to announce it.

They're just a disgrace. There's no coming back from this in my book. It's happened too many times and I won't fall for it again.

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This post should also be framed and put in the boardroom. My thoughts exactly.

If only anyone at the club with influence truly cared like the fans do.

The board will be happy life has got easier because standards were being driven, often through the media by Tomasson - a man with intelligence, charm and charisma; traits you could say the club and certainly the CEO lacks.

He wasn't perfect but we hadn't seen expectations like it at Rovers in over a decade and JDT brought them back for a season and a half... but with the people above him and the owners it was never going to last. I called it the moment he joined but it was "Brilliant" off the pitch, while it lasted.

[lraC]

I quite often come on here to get a crumb of comfort, reading what other fans have to say and knowing that we go though things as a collective, rather than wallowing in some of the crazy decisions being made at the club.

The two posts on the previous page made by Vyeo and JH Rover are both absolutely brilliant and sum up an awful lot of what I also feel.

Despite things looking very grim right now and our immediate future being perilous, having people on here sharing the pain and caring so much about the club, does still give me hope.

As individual fans, we are pretty powerless, but I do firmly believe that eventually the incompetents in place (including the current manager) especially the owners and current CEO will be gone and we will all still be around to see the club ride again. 

[Exiled_Rover]

  On 22/04/2024 at 17:18, Rogerb said:

Someone has taken note of how the youngsters performed particularly in the league cup against lower league opposition and think mistakenly they can produce those results on a weekly basis.

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It's not that complicated - the owners have simply turned off the taps. 

They did it to Lambert, they did it to Mowbray at the end of his tenure and they've done it to JDT. 

The squad cost two buttons and a piece of string to put together and it's showing. 

[Exiled_Rover]

  On 22/04/2024 at 16:16, roversfan99 said:

Dismissing any thoughts of reinvesting as fantasy land stuff. We can get worse, simply because of the cuts. Telalovic, Ennis and Hirst have all been worse in the last 2 years. Thats the standard we are working with.

I have always said that Gallagher simply is not very good at anticipating chances. Thats the main reason why his goal tally is never going to be near the top of the league, he doesnt have that instinct and never will be. Offers other things but is simply not a natural goalscorer.

That being said, under Eustace he like every other attacker is hindered more than ever. There is absolutely no sign of an attacking game plan. He often spends much of the game wide and the tactic of centre backs whacking it aimlessly in the channels just has him running after the ball with the defender naturally ahead of him. He wins throw ins and the odd corner which is all he can really do in that situation but its just not going to lead to him doing anything constructive.

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What does Gallagher offer that a L2 clogger couldn't?

His anticipation and movement is terrible. His second touch is a tackle. 

[roversfan99]

  On 23/04/2024 at 08:57, Exiled_Rover said:

What does Gallagher offer that a L2 clogger couldn't?

His anticipation and movement is terrible. His second touch is a tackle. 

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He usually gets 8 or 9 goals a season at this level, that obviously isnt the case the season not helped by missing so many games injured, but put him in League 2 and safe to say he would likely stand out.

He is much more effective than the likes of Telalovic, Ennis and Hirst were with us having no money.

Hes bang average and he will never be a natural goalscorer but he has proven over a number of years at this level that he is a bang average striker in the Championship.

[Groundhog]

  On 23/04/2024 at 05:32, lraC said:

I quite often come on here to get a crumb of comfort, reading what other fans have to say and knowing that we go though things as a collective, rather than wallowing in some of the crazy decisions being made at the club.

The two posts on the previous page made by Vyeo and JH Rover are both absolutely brilliant and sum up an awful lot of what I also feel.

Despite things looking very grim right now and our immediate future being perilous, having people on here sharing the pain and caring so much about the club, does still give me hope.

As individual fans, we are pretty powerless, but I do firmly believe that eventually the incompetents in place (including the current manager) especially the owners and current CEO will be gone and we will all still be around to see the club ride again. 

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Great post - but I just worry, and sorry to be so pessimistic and potentially piss on any optimism you may have, that I feel this is a step too far for most. It's all about hope, and lack of it.

When we went down under Mowbray, there was a core of players you could get behind, and Mowbray seemed a steady hand and offered a glimmer of normality, both on and off the pitch. We signed Dack, and the team regained an identity. The League One season was fantastic for many people under 30 who missed the glory days in the 90s - and it did what most relegations do, the cliche of galvanising a club. There were still issues but it felt like a small reset and things could start to improve, especially the relationship between board and fans, not just the usual case of success sweeping issues under the carpet, but a real chance to rebuild.

When we went down under Brian Kidd there was trust in the board and the owners that they'd guide us through it and make sensible footballing decisions, which they did. I actual miss the days, when for example, we were losing at home to Stockport in the league cup in 1996, stood in the BBE chanting "we want Harford out" that the board would go away and listen to the fans and do the right thing, that fans and board were on the same level. This is what is getting to supporters at the minute - that whatever they do, it doesn't matter, there's not that connection any more.

The only way to move onwards, and to be honest a total pipe dream, is for the Venkys to leave, magically write the debt off, and we get new, sensible owners who are sympathetic to the area, and who can put a pro-active board in place, whatever division we are in. It pains me that the Wanderers are doing an amazing job, and getting 15,000 season tickets, it's madness. Of course I don't want administration, I don't want job losses, and the more we struggle the harder and harder it will get, but even in League Two with a small fanbase, with the right owners and some clear messaging and direction, you'd get that siege mentality that would make matchdays a passionate affair again.

I get we need to reduce expenditure, and I get we need to become a selling club to survive in the current climate - but it seems whatever new model or scenario we set ourselves up for, there's issues, and it just wears away at us fans, wherever we turn we just can't seem to make anything work:

- we try and be proactive, hire a DoF, sign an ambitious coach and start to develop a model (JDT, Lambert) - but the owners turn the taps off and there's a clear divide behind the scenes. Fans see an identity and a plan and get behind it, but there's that nagging feeling it'll be short-lived, so what's the point?

- we, as supporters, get our heads round that our youth is our "identity", and except that the team might struggle but we'll be watching our "own" play week in and week out, and we can get behind that and support them, but we then sell them off before we have a chance to actually watch them grow in our side, the money goes into general admin, we don't see it reinvested. I get it - but it's still sad to see, it's something else you can't get excited about.

- we hire a steady hand in Mowbray, but let a number of transfer windows come to nothing even when the team are riding high, and let a bad situation drag on and fester for too long causing the club to stagnate.

- we go from a "solid" if old-fashioned recruitment setup under TM, a network of mates basically, but it worked, seemingly using his connections to sign great loans and gems from the lower leagues, giving the fans trust and excitement in any new signings, to now seemingly scraping the barrel of Europe. And if we do get the basics done, the i's dotted, and get the forms sent off in time, if we do actually sign players, they are literally the bottom of the list - whilst other teams seem to steadily strengthen and sign lads who can out-fight us and who are better at a rough and tumble scrap in the Championship. So now the fans immediately doubt any new signings. When was the last time we got excited about a sub coming on and changing the game? When was the last time you saw a new signing on the bench and couldn't wait to see him get a run out, that roar from the BBE when he comes on the pitch? I've totally forgotten that feeling. 

The way the ground fell silent and emptied after the Pears calamity on Sunday, that's the feeling I get - it's total apathy, because we just can't see a way out, or a way to turn. There was time in the game to lift the team and a "normal" scenario would see team and fans as one trying to claw back some respect, but because of this gradual dumbing down of the squad, you know what's coming - we don't have the players to perform under pressure. Couple with everything off the pitch, it's like we've been neutered as a fan base. We never come from behind, we never score late goals, this stuff is so telling, it really means something - there's a reason why Utd in the 90s kept scoring late goals, the whole "Fergie time" aspect, the whole place had belief.

As someone else put it better than I could, we've got billionaire owners yet need to sell the crown jewels to keep the lights on. We're at a point of complete stagnation.

So what's the model under Eustace, I presume treading water from one season to the next? Bringing on youth and selling for a profit I presume, while the mysterious 20m leaves each year. Normally I would give him the benefit of the doubt, based on a normal scenario of him being allowed to sign his own players, just to see if he can pick a player and build a team - but who knows what our transfer policy is now, it's all up in the air.

Apologies for the long winded rant. 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2024 by Groundhog

[DaveyB]

  On 22/04/2024 at 12:59, Groundhog said:

I was furious on Sunday. One of the worst days for a long while, I wanted the ground to swallow me up in that 2nd half, and the feeling of deflation across the entire ground was heartbreaking. But it may be an unpopular opinion, but I'm directing all my ire toward the players and the club hierarchy, not the manager. Forget the manager, whoever we have in charge, it won't make a difference.

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Yes the players aren't great, and the mistake from Pears is almost laughable - there's keepers in Sunday pub leagues who would be embarrassed by that - but I disagree that a different manager wouldn't make a difference.

Wednesday's players aren't particularly good either, but the difference between them and us on Sunday was they were well drilled - they had a set way of playing and they each knew their jobs and did them to the best of their ability. In comparison, our lads look like they've been sent out on to the pitch with no instructions whatsoever - players are coming short and looking for the ball to feet and seeing the ball kicked over their heads and then, when they do make runs in behind, the defenders are looking to play into the midfield - we look disjointed, the players aren't in the right positions to help their teammates, because no one seems to know what they are supposed to be doing or where they are supposed to be. It's abject and dire, and it's on the manager who either hasn't given them a game-plan, or hasn't been able to get it over to them

[Norbert Rassragr]

No manager will succeed until the club is sold. Eustace hasn't been impressive since coming though. 

[Groundhog]

  On 23/04/2024 at 13:32, DaveyB said:

Yes the players aren't great, and the mistake from Pears is almost laughable - there's keepers in Sunday pub leagues who would be embarrassed by that - but I disagree that a different manager wouldn't make a difference.

Wednesday's players aren't particularly good either, but the difference between them and us on Sunday was they were well drilled - they had a set way of playing and they each knew their jobs and did them to the best of their ability. In comparison, our lads look like they've been sent out on to the pitch with no instructions whatsoever - players are coming short and looking for the ball to feet and seeing the ball kicked over their heads and then, when they do make runs in behind, the defenders are looking to play into the midfield - we look disjointed, the players aren't in the right positions to help their teammates, because no one seems to know what they are supposed to be doing or where they are supposed to be. It's abject and dire, and it's on the manager who either hasn't given them a game-plan, or hasn't been able to get it over to them

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I do agree with you - it's not all on the players, for a start we didn't seem to have a plan B again, we had 30mins as a group to get back into the game. It's all well and good keeping it tight, but when you go behind you need to be able to change it or see what is in front of you. To be fair we don't have a bench at all to change it, and JE clearly doesn't trust any of our other attacking options apart from Markanday. That's on the owners, the board, and lack of investment again - the failed project rearing it's ugly head. 

I think Eustace has tried to calm a very disparate group lacking in confidence and it's backfired. Sheff Wednesday were right up for that, it was a must win for them and they went for it, I get that he's tried an approach to not lose and eventually when they tire to possibly draw them out and pick them off - but we don't have enough on the pitch to change it when the going gets tough, where's the leadership?

I think our lads are the victim of the last three failed regimes, each trying to do different styles, and the modern player is more robotic than we think. We've seen a few approaches and "game plans" and they've struggled each time, the same shit happens and it's due to it being a squad devoid of a clear goal in mind - we are not a team greater than the sum of it's parts, we occasionally surprise but it feels in spite of the manager's plans or tactics.

It's no surprise to anyone watching us, the club is in turmoil and it's reflected on the pitch. Some of the group aren't expected to be here (Gallagher, Dolan), rumours of Hyam being shopped around in January, it's not a happy squad. Look what happened after January window under Mowbray when we completely folded, it's no coincidence. We're shopping in the bargain bin too, Barnsley fans told us Callum wasn't up for a fight, maybe that's why he ended up here...

[chaddyrovers]

one thing that Elliott Jackson mentions in his weekly podcast Arte Le Labore, is he doesn't think Eustace rates his attacking options beyond the main 4 in Hedges, Dolan, Szmodics and Gallagher(Maybe Sigurdsson but with him being injured we don't know) and that why he changes formation when one of those isn't available. I think it was interesting point made and one that @arbitro has made also that our best performance apart from Leeds away and Stoke at home have been 4-2-3-1 formation like Ipswich and Southampton at home, Sunderland and Boro away. 

He has to go 4-2-3-1 formation on Saturday. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

  On 24/04/2024 at 19:52, chaddyrovers said:

one thing that Elliott Jackson mentions in his weekly podcast Arte Le Labore, is he doesn't think Eustace rates his attacking options beyond the main 4 in Hedges, Dolan, Szmodics and Gallagher(Maybe Sigurdsson but with him being injured we don't know) and that why he changes formation when one of those isn't available. I think it was interesting point made and one that @arbitro has made also that our best performance apart from Leeds away and Stoke at home have been 4-2-3-1 formation like Ipswich and Southampton at home, Sunderland and Boro away. 

He has to go 4-2-3-1 formation on Saturday. 

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Yes, I agree with 4-2-3-1 on Saturday.

[wilsdenrover]

  On 24/04/2024 at 21:06, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Yes, I agree with 4-2-3-1 on Saturday.

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I think I’d go:

                             Pears (I’d rather not have to though!)

JRC.          Carter.        O Riordan         Chrisene     
 

                          Tronstad.       Buckley

Markanday                  Sammie.               Dolan

                                     Gallagher 

[chaddyrovers]

  On 24/04/2024 at 21:11, wilsdenrover said:

I think I’d go:

                             Pears (I’d rather not have to though!)

JRC.          Carter.        O Riordan         Chrisene     
 

                          Tronstad.       Buckley

Markanday                  Sammie.               Dolan

                                     Gallagher 

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Why Markanday tho? Offers very little for me

[RTM08]

  On 24/04/2024 at 21:13, chaddyrovers said:

Why Markanday tho? Offers very little for me

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Very few of our players offer more than very little, while there are a few that offer less than even that.