Even better, Voodoo Ray on now. What a tune

I thought we were poor in the last match until changes were made in the second half. Baker was completely ineffective so I’d like to see Gueye, Ohashi and Dolan as the front three. Love to see cozier duberry get on as well as I think he potentially offers some pace and directness which we are sorely missing. We look solid and capable at the back now but slow and unimaginative with the ball, it’s like there is no outlet. Hopefully as the lads gel we will see more direct balls to gueye, more for ohashi to run on to and another dynamic performance from Travis who has been a revelation this season. Also looking for another good performance from Pears, though I’ll be biting my nails when he is tested and his distribution needs to improve. I’m constantly expecting our good start to evaporate but a few more games undefeated and committed performances and I’ll start to relax! Come on Rovers! 🔵⚪️

Only about 10 players worldwide have been as good as Gheorghe since he retired.

Thank goodness we’ve signed a Baker. And he didn’t want a lot of dough to come here.

Has anybody here got an idea about how good these lads are? Currently playing in a youth tournament in Northern Ireland. I’m hoping to catch at least one of the games and it would be good to know who to keep my eye on.

Don’t worry, it won’t last. He loses again and everyone hates him again.

It’s a disaster. I actually live in Northern Ireland and we can’t even get a stadium built so we can host matches at the next Euros. And I said the exact same thing after Germany stuffed Scotland - thank god neither NI not the Republic made it to the finals as we’d have been the worst team at it. Sad times. Fair point, they didn’t come through at club level here and they really aren’t Irish. I’m not complaining and I understand why they chose to play for England. But…. I’m sure a lot of work went into their development at youth level and they both had caps for the full squad I believe. Bit gutting that two top midfielders decided to ditch the national squad, especially when we’re in dire need of quality players. I’d say this will happen again - it’s not unheard of for Irish people to have British grandparents and vice versa, my point was that the next big thing coming through for Ireland could also decide to play for England. I actually think Harry Kane and Wayne Rooney could’ve qualified for Ireland!

I have a Croatian colleague and I asked him the same question. He says football is massive in Croatia so everyone plays it with no other team sport anywhere near as popular. The big clubs have an excellent scouting network and as soon as a youngster shows any talent then Zagreb or Hajduk snap them up and get them into a proper training setup. He said the youth system at those two clubs is excellent and there is a good pathway to the first team as the league is of a low standard. Added to that all the big European clubs have scouts in Croatia, so any good league players are quickly signed up for one of the top leagues where they continue their development at the highest level. Comparing this to Scotland I can’t see why they don’t produce players of a similar quality. I suppose rugby is popular in Scotland so good youngsters could end up playing it rather than football. I’m guessing the youth system at rangers and Celtic isn’t particularly good as they seem to sign a lot of foreign players and we don’t much hear about the next big thing coming through in Scotland. Ireland is a special case imo as there’s so much more competition here between sports - Gaelic, hurling, football and rugby are all very popular, and I’d say football is possibly the poorest supported. The youth system here is atrocious and chronically underfunded. Add to that any talented kid coming through might find himself playing for England if he’s particularly good a la grealish and Rice. edit: for me the real gold standard is Uruguay. Similarly tiny population but incredibly successful at international level. There always seems to be at least one world class Uruguayan player somewhere in the world.

Fair point. We were definitely in free fall under JDT, results and performances were grim. I’ve not been impressed with the football under JE, but he was dealt a poor hand and he still achieved what we all hoped for. We were relegated in similar circumstances under Mowbray and with time he made us into a competitive side, so I’ll give Eustace a chance for next season. Fingers crossed he’s backed in the same way Mowbray was and he can get us further up the league next year.

Seconded. I’m really going to miss him. Great professional and a very good player at this level. Saving us from League 1 isn’t the most exciting achievement but in effect it’s like winning a cup final imo.

I think we need a replacement for Hyam plus a squad CB. Hyam has been absolutely awful this season, he has single-handedly lost us about 3 games off the top of my head and possibly more. IMO we also need a better GK, and a good striker as well. I don’t think we can rely on Hedges, Dolan, or Gallagher to keep us above mid table next season and they need to be replaced if we have any thoughts of improving our lot. I always thought Dolan and Gallagher would be good players for us but neither of them have the footballing intelligence to succeed at the level we should be aiming at. Really we should be spending far more than £10m after selling the Crown Jewels and spending nothing last season, and I would be excited if I didn’t know the script for next season already (I wonder which Brighton youth prospect will we get this time). I don’t know whether I’m optimistic or naive but I agree with you that £10m+ should be spent which means there is a lot of work ahead for the transfer team. If we mess up this season and don’t splash the cash then we might as well all give up.

Good point, forgot about him. Is he injured?

Szmodics will not be here at the start of next season and JRC is a crock! But I’d add Pickering and Wharton to the list of decent championship players. Other than that we are not up to it at this level. The Raos have allowed our squad to become weaker in every transfer window and now there is practically nothing left. I’m with you - there are very bad times ahead.

I think it’s more that nobody at the time would’ve thought it was a good idea to extend his contract. Nobody cares what supporters think but neither supporters nor management could’ve predicted that BBD would become such a good player. Hence “the vast majority of posters here would have been up in arms if we’d offered Brereton a new contract” Or to put it another way, the vast majority of people would have thought it was a bad idea to offer BBD a new contract, ie hindsight is a wonderful thing and accurate foresight is extremely rare.

Came on to say this! Thought the days of tippy happy at the back were over, not a fan of it at all.