And available for around £17m (I'm guessing with Campbell). What would you get for that today? It's not even as though it's not obvious that those three would have hugely strengthened us (even at the time).

Rovers have long been interested in the forward who is on the fringe of England selection. Indeed they tried to sign him when he moved from Blackpool to QPR for £700,000, being persuaded by then-manager Gerry Francis that he would have a better chance of establishing himself at Loftus Road. Sinclair has never expressed a wish to move from QPR. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/6206607.rovers-keep-tabs-sinclair/ That was from 1996.

A quick look at Soccerbase - and this isn't 100% accurate as some of the transfers slip into different windows (ie. Anderson/Dahlin/Henchoz fall into 1996/97 spend, despite being bought in the summer of 97) and there are undisclosed fees. 1995/96 - £2.25m 1996/97 - £8.5m 1997/98 - £14.275m 1998/99 - £29m Can you imagine if we'd have spent more of that money at the end of the 1995 season and strengthened rather than turned the taps off and gone backwards.....and then had to switch the hose on! Not a criticism of Jack at all, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I was always a fan of Overmars. It was reported Arsenal paid somewhere between 5m and 7m for him in 1996. He'd have been a top, top signing and could have played either wing as well. Obviously a miles better player than Ruel Fox, I only went for Fox then I could have Zidane as my continental addition. Overmars or Bergkamp would have been incredible. Can you imagine Bergkamp in behind Shearer?

Definitely a missed opportunity. There was definitely money still available (as Hodgson and Kidd were given a fortune in the late 90s), so it's a shame it wasn't used to consolidate our position at the top of English football. I'm not sure why Slater or Atkins were allowed to go - they were both solid squad players. We definitely had the core of a very good squad there at the right age - it just needed building upon. Would we have kept hold of Shearer for longer if we'd have been fighting for the title every season?

I do remember us being linked heavily with Trevor Sinclair - it was certainly around that time, if not maybe 1996. He would have been a decent signing and I think he could play either flank?

So it’s June 1995 – Kenny Dalglish has lead Rovers to the Premier League title, but then decided to step down as first team manager. Jack Walker has entrusted you with the job and given you £15m to make signings – who are you buying? In real life Rovers added just Adam Reed from Darlington and Matty Holmes from West Ham (with Robbie Slater going in the other direction) before the season started. We were strongly linked with a double move for Alan Stubbs and Jason McAteer from Bolton, but that fell through when McAteer decided he wanted to move to Liverpool. Looking back on it, how much different would history have been had Rovers invested that summer and pushed forward? With the budget of £15m (thanks to hindsight), who should we have bought that would have realistically come to Rovers. As regards to European competitions, it might be worth remembering that you could only have 3 non-English players in your match day squad at that time. I’ve done a list below of some possible targets that moved around the mid-90’s – or potential signings that we could have gone for: Gareth Southgate £2.5m Les Ferdinand £6.0m Marc Overmars £6.0m Paul Ince £7.5m Ruel Fox £4.25m Stan Collymore £8.5m Nick Barmby £5.25m Ruud Gullit Free Denis Bergkamp £7.5m Georgi Kinkladze £2.0m Chris Armstrong £4.5m Zinedine Zidane £1.2m Personally I’d have let some of the fringe players like Talia, Gale, Makel and Harford go. I’d have kept the likes of Slater and Atkins for squad players (ones that we let go at the time). I’d have strengthened at the back with an English centre-half – either Southgate at £2.5m or gone for a 20-year-old Sol Campbell from Spurs. I reckon £7m would have done the trick for Sol. In the end, I went for both as the budget allowed it. I’d have been tempted to go for either Overmars or Bergkamp at the prices above, but the English player rule in the Champions League would put me off them. I always quite liked Ruel Fox as a winger who could provide cover on either flank – so I’d have gone for him at £4.25m. Probably the ultimate hindsight, but we were interested in him in the mid-90’s, but Zidane was reportedly available for £1.2m – so he’s my foreign signing. In (£14.95m) Sol Campbell (20) - £7m Gareth Southgate (24) - £2.5m Ruel Fox (27) - £4.25m Zinedine Zidane (22) - £1.2m Out: Frank Talia Tony Gale Lee Makel Paul Harford

Unfortunately at the moment we aren't conceding many, but aren't scoring any!

British record - not world record.

I'd have certainly taken that swap at the start of the season and I'd probably even take it now (despite the fact Mowbray has definitely done a better job this season). The job he did at Barnsley was incredible. Last 5 permanent managers at Barnsley and their win percentage: Stendel - 47% Struber - 35.9% Ismael - 56.8% Schopp - 6.3% Asbaghi - 8.3%

He did also take us into League One though - I know Coyle was mainly to blame, but he had more than enough time to keep us up (even though Coyle did leave us with a pretty horrible team).

He didn't cost them anywhere near that.

I still play CM01/02 now 😂

Did not know that. When was he offered a trial? Football Manager legend.

You were more upset with Rovers getting relegated than England winning the World Cup? Obviously* 😂 *Unless you're Scottish.

Steve Kean once got some 'monumental' results at Rovers. I remember him using that word to describe us getting 'back to back clean sheets'. Then I wondered when the last time Rovers won 5 games on the bounce without conceding a goal. As far as I can see, it was in 1980!!! Excellent work from the current team.

The rat is at it again.

Awful day 2 by England I feel this could be a recurring theme

Ryan Lowe finished last season in a style Tony Mowbray would have been proud of. Fingers crossed he ends this season in a similar way.

Exactly. https://www.nottinghamforest.news/2021/09/05/president-stunned-as-nottingham-forest-josh-maja-deal-collapses/

What's Gav done to deserve a new contract?

By 'near' 17 - he means 5.

Just on Lenihan - it's also worth noting that we've only won 6 games in the last 3.5 years when he's not started (out of 30 games)

I always find these fascinating - a real good effort. I've not actually seen the game - but I had heard reports that Travis had played well (contrary to the above score). I'd be interested to see what people who did see the game thought about Travis compared to the rating above. As for Lenihan always getting a high score - he's one of those players that is very good 95% of the time, but prone to a major lapse or error. I suggest this scoring system could have getting a high score but still giving away a couple of penalties. Ie. if he gave away two penalties on Saturday, he'd have got -8 on the above system, and still been our second best player, yet people would only remember the fact he gave away two penalties.

When was Bale the worst left back in the country?