14 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Burnley still have a good core of players that will either be really good at this level or be sold for big money. Pope, Weghorst and Cornet surely will leave but the likes of Collins, Taylor, Brownhill, Rodriguez, Vydra, Roberts, Lowton, Gudmundson etc are a good core. @chaddyrovers you question Kompanys knowledge of the league, im guessing that Tomasson has the same question marks.

 

Big challenge for a decent number in Burnley's squad will be whether they can stay fit and hungry in a Championship season. Quite a few in their 30s now and have struggled to play much more than 20 games a season, despite only playing once a week and never doing anything in the cups.

If they crack that side of things then they could obviously do well and bounce straight back, but I get the feeling the relegation has come at a bad time in a lot of their careers.

What an absolutely ridiculous final session. Amazing hitting. 

3 minutes ago, neophox said:

Hugo Vetlesen is a young midfelder at Bodö/Glimt worth a watch..... scored the winner against Roma in an 2-1 win in april.

Not sure how the rules work, but he's yet to make his international debut if you don't count the U21s. Might make a work permit tricky. 

On 29/05/2022 at 09:40, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I’d like to see that last try again. It looked like the scorer may have been off side to me. Great pass to the kicker though to open the field up.

The angle from this shows it pretty well. Onside. 

Great pass from Leuluai to set it up, like you say. 

21 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Wasn't David Bentley the first English man to score at the new Wembley - playing for England U21's?

He was indeed - it was a banger too

Derbyshire scored in the same game

Nobody expects a full day's entertainment to be £20/£30, but the price of test match cricket is a complete scandal.

I understand there's always going to be an element of cashing in on those events which can bring in the most cash, but that sort of cost is going to prohibit a huge percentage of existing cricket fans from going, let alone the sort of casual fans you need to convert if you're serious about growing the game. 

They'll probably just blame the empty seats on the Jubilee and the side's poor form though. 

14 minutes ago, Gav said:

I don't think Farke record is an improvement on Mowbrays to be honest, but he is a better option than most of the dross being touted around.

Appointing Carvalhal would have shown a club with serious intent, Farke shows a club with everything crossed he can pull rabbits out of hats and he's the cheaper option, should he sign. 

Same old sh1t, different managerial appointment, but I hope I'm wrong of course...

 

As someone who sees Mowbray's virtues more than most, that is top trolling. 

10 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Interesting we are now getting people saying that Carvalhal wasn't the right man for us because he's seemingly taking a well paid job in the UAE. Talk about him being a mercenary only motivated by money.

Farke was the manager of Krasnodar in Russia earlier this year....is that much different?

A good point - I'd say there's a potential difference in that Carvahal had options (including staying in Portugal). 

Perhaps Farke just hated the idea of being out of work, even if his reputation could've got him a better job. Certainly might explain why he's interested in the Rovers job!

1 minute ago, TimmyJimmy said:

@glen9mullan, @Tricky, the answer is standards. Fairness and a level playing field for all has to be the basis of any sporting competition otherwise what's the point.

Just imagine for a moment that Wagner was in bed with some heavyweight gambling syndicate and received mega bucks to get Rovers relegated, would that be acceptable behaviour?  Could you distinguish between those two outcomes, no so they amount to the same thing in my book.

The authorities should have been all over it to ensure fairness in every game but as usual, like the Venky's buy out, they did diddly squat.

I love Rovers for many reasons but one of the most important is that I believe we are an honest and fair Lancastrian family oriented  club who've played with a straight bat since we created the football league. Until Venky's took over I've known most of the people who've owned the club and they've all been decent and would never countenance such behaviour, whatever the circumstances or cost.

Many will feel I'm a dinosaur whose day is past but that's how I feel, win fairly or what's the point. Wagner should be nowhere near our club.

You can distinguish between them though. One involves still wanting (albeit at a much lower priority) to win the game using players that were signed because they thought they could do well for the club. The other scenario is deliberately losing to undermine the fairness of the competition. 

Teams get relegated all the time because their competitors are playing teams that are already on the beach. 

3 minutes ago, tomphil said:

We nearly had that last season and it was entertaining in a dramatic all hands to the pump kind of way.

Tired of saying it but these who crave great football need to step up and show us a non Prem/Parachute influenced squad who've 'footballed' their way out of this league.

Styles make fights as they say in boxing, in football we need a style that fits the squad, division, club image and ultimate objective. We had it for half of last season, you can stick possession and fancy interchanges where the sun don't shine.

 

The last ones that comes to mind were Blackpool/Swansea and latterly Huddersfield, but all of these were via the play offs, which proves your point really.

4 minutes ago, TimmyJimmy said:

Re Wagner ...

This is the barsteward who fielded a team of youth team kids against Birmingham in the 2017 season in order to strengthen Huddersfield's play off chances.

They were so BAD that despite going down to 10 men Birmingham still won!

For those with short memories Birmingham under Rednapp were relegation candidates along with us and they finished 2 points clear of us because of that match. We go down on goal difference despite tubbing Brentford away.

Scandalous for Wagner to do that on the penultimate game of the season and he deserved shooting for that. The authorities let him get away with it of course.

If his lousy cheating body ever gets within 100 miles of the managers desk at Rovers I'll be blazing.

Mowbray had his own issues which prevented this from happening, but if we had a top-six place wrapped up going into the last day of the season I'd have no issue whatsoever with us doing the same. 

I think managers have to make calls like that entirely with the fortunes of their own club in mind. We had 46 games of our own to make sure that we didn't find ourselves at the mercy of another team doing us a favour. I'm not sure if we have the squad for a Wagner type manager, but his ability to do well with us in the future would be the sole consideration for me. 

13 minutes ago, Gav said:

Posters need to keep in mind its essential the club bring someone in who can get this club promoted to Premiership. I believe that pool of managers, available to us, is extremely small and the vast majority of candidates I'm reading about on here don't fit that bill.

The only person that fits the bill in my opinion is Sean Dyche - We can't afford him and I doubt he'd come here.

Farke and Carvalhal maybe?

Tough call.

I don't think it's that small necessarily - it's just that we're dealing with uncertainty. Wagner, Dyche, Farke, none of these had particularly high stock before taking over their clubs, but then they showed their quality. 

Not saying that I would advocate bringing in Ferguson either by the way! But sometimes managers just need the opportunity. There are always good options out there for a club with the right imagination. 

1 minute ago, arbitro said:

I absolutely refuse to even get remotely excited by the stories which have recently emerged about Carvahal. Having seen the decline over the last twelve years and being let down innumerable times I'll hold back on the champagne until there is a press conference with him on the top table.

To be honest, whilst I'd be very pleased with Carvahal, I'd still be concerned until I see what the rest of our summer business looks like.

I was so encouraged when Lambert took over, especially with Irvine and Rob Kelly coming with him. We all know what followed though, so until we know that whoever gets the gig is going to be backed, I'm going to be a bit worried. 

2 minutes ago, goozburger said:

Kompany might be a bit of an unknown quantity as a manager, but I bet it's quite a pull for potential signings. He's a winner, and one of the best defenders the Premier League has seen. Hughes wanted him at some point, didn't he?

I believe one of the reasons that he went to City was our inability to push the boat out to get a couple of players. Kompany, Zabaleta & Lassana Diarra all come to mind, but others might know more about that. 

10 hours ago, roverandout said:

We have a few very good centrebacks. Gomez tomori ghuei stones white maguire mings. None are world class but rice and Phillips do a really good job protecting them. Though I would like to see a Bellingham rice partnership as that would be a dynamic technical midfield 

Not seen enough of Tomori and Gheui to really have a proper sense of how good they are, but off reputation it's good that our pool is looking a bit deeper than last summer. Mings is a perfectly decent player, but I didn't like the fact that as soon as Stones or Maguire were unavailable, he was the obvious pick as a replacement. 

Still a long way from having being potentially to draw upon Ferdinand, Terry, Campbell, Carragher, King or Woodgate at any one time! But certainly an improvement on what has been a pretty noticeable weak spot for a few years. 

13 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Just goes to show that even well run teams are only one or two bad decisions away from a disaster. In our case two I suppose. Selling out to the Chicken Chokers and firing Big Sam. In Burnley’s case selling out to the Yanks and maybe firing Dyche in the manner they did. IE with no real replacement. At least their guy did better than Kean.

Putting the rivalry to one side what happened at Burnley is a disgrace from a financial point of view. I know they thought it was hilarious when the Chokers trashed one of the most well run clubs in the Prem. It’s their turn now. Maybe they’ll be more sympathetic in future ? Neither club should have been put in this predicament.

Being slightly flippant, even K**n started off with a couple of decent results before it became obvious that he was about 1,000 leagues of his depth. 

I won't pretend that there's not a lot of schadenfreude with their current situation, but you're 100% right that it's a scandal. The worst thing about their (relative) success was that you had to grudgingly tip your hat off to how they were going about their business. Massively upsetting the odds, whilst investing in the club's infrastructure and future-proofing their finances for when they would eventually get relegated. That seems to have gone up in a puff of smoke now, and whilst I'm certainly not going to be crying about it, it's so worrying that years of progress can be so precarious. Not that we need telling that, I suppose. 

Turns 23 in September too. I'm not totally against extending his deal for a year because he does definitely have talent, but he's really got to take his chance if it comes his way. Potentially a career defining season for him.

13 minutes ago, JHRover said:

The way I see it is that there are two frontrunners by a country mile - Farke and Carvalhal - for slightly different reasons although both boast impressive records at this level which would see them in the running for most decent jobs going.

I think Carvalhal would give us the best shot at things in the immediate future - next season or the one after. He's the sort of manager who will be able to come in and improve on what we've had immediately and give him some solid backing he'd have us in contention for the play-offs, I'd be pretty confident of that. Of course it might not last long - he's not the sort who will stick around for 3-5 years happy to be mid-table but I don't see anything wrong with that as long as you are aware of it and have a plan for what happens afterwards.

He's unlikely to be a long term manager but what is one of those? Another Mowbray or Bowyer where we bottle it every time the play-offs get within reach whilst losing millions every year?

Farke I think would edge it if we had the luxury of picking between them - because I think Farke would be more patient and has a proven record of developing a side over time at this level.

BUT I am conscious that Farke had a lot in his favour at Norwich - the right structure behind the scenes with good owners, good board, stable club and clued up sporting director - and he wouldn't get any of those things here. Whilst he didn't spend heavily at Norwich they weren't struggling financially by any stretch and were getting parachute income during his time there. So I would have concerns as to whether he could replicate his Norwich performance here, but hell, he'd be worth a try.

Moving down the list from those two and the picture looks quite bleak to me. Abysmal actually. Ranging from people I don't want but could understand / tolerate to names that are either laughable or completely unacceptable suggestions.

There's the usual ex-player from a big club wanting to make the grade as a manager - Ferguson, Carrick - sick and tired of this club being seen as a nursery for the 'big boys' to send people and see how it goes.

So based on those names it is feast or famine. Would be very pleased with either of Farke or Carvalhal but the rest of the names - no thanks.

 

Agree with almost all of this - I do think you're being a little harsh on some of the other contenders though. Chris Hughton's record is very very good at this level with the exception of the last months at Forest. It lowers his stock, but still an intriguing prospect for me. Ainsworth too would be a very big risk, but has done a stunning job at a club like Wycombe. I really think a lot of fans (generally, not just Rovers) don't properly appreciate how small they are, so what he's done there is beyond impressive.

Some of the other names though are really not good, so I accept the broader point.

12 minutes ago, longsiders1882 said:

If we can keep hold of the back four (minus Tarkowski obv) then that is very solid and better than most in the Championship. Despite being old Cork is still playing well alongside Brownhill so again, if he signed an extension that gives us a good engine plus Westwood is better than you are giving him credit there IMO.

Cornet will go, McNeill, not sure but if we can keep him that is one side sorted. We’d still need another winger plus a back up. Up front if Weghorst stays then we’d need another striker. Rodriguez is staying and we’ve apparently made contact with Vydra about staying after his injury. Think Vydra and Weghorst could cause problems in the Championship but I think they will both go so we’d need 2 strikers. It’s definitely a challenge - and always was regardless of which league we were in. Money will be tight but with luck and following wind we might be able to get a competitive side out.

On the midfield, I accept that if they can stay fit and are still hungry then Cork/Westwood still have the talent to be good players at this level. I shouldn't have said dire, because I was more doubting their ability to stay fit and compete for 46 games. It might've been an unlucky season on the injury front, and next might be a lucky one, but as an outsider I'm looking at a decent number of players who are looking less and less able to cope with the physical demands of the game, which isn't a good omen at all going into such a tough league.

I had assumed Vydra would've been on his way given his injury, but he'll cause problems if you can get him up to speed (although another gamble given the age/injury worries you have elsewhere). I think you definitely have some decent assets to work with, especially at the back, but I think the squad is crying out for freshening up in my opinion so some very shrewd recruitment will be needed to bounce straight back, I suspect.

Out of curiosity, what do you make of McNeil? I know it can be hard to shine when the team is struggling, but I was really shocked by his poor numbers. Always struck me as a talented player. 

I'm not sure how catastrophic their financial problems are going to be in terms of their recruitment, but on the face of it they'll still have a strong defence if they can avoid a fire sale. A back five of Hennessey, Roberts, Collins, Mee and Taylor (assuming Pope & Tarkowski go, but they keep the rest) is probably better than anyone else in the Championship. Certainly a step above most.

Elsewhere though, they've got a lot of work to do. Their midfield looks dire, Brownhill aside. McNeil looks the part but he went all of last season with a grand total of 0 goals and 1 assist, despite having played every game. Perhaps he'll kick on if he plays at a lower level, but that's an appalling record. Elsewhere you've got Cornet who obviously good but struggles to stay fit even when he only plays one game a week - and is probably off anyway - and a small group of sicknotes in their 30s. Definitely not enough. Age and fitness would be big worries for their strikers too, although Weghorst could potentially score a bagful if he stays. 

A lot of understandable talk on here about the size of our rebuild this summer, but it looks as though Burnley's looks equally challenging in its own way, potentially even more so if the finances are as bad as some are making out. 

Lancs Telegraph saying that Ainsworth isn't on our shortlist.

9 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

I think you're right. Big Sam's opinion was that midfield was a tougher position so it was probably down to the ever-present Samba & Nelsen as you alluded to. 

 

Loan until January with the possibility to extend. League One should be doable as he's so highly rated.

Hope so. Carter appears to have absolutely smashed it there in both of his spells there so if Phillips is so highly rated. then hopefully he would get a club taking a chance on him too. Then again, I think Carter was also more than three years older than what Phillips is now, and had played a couple of Championship games too. Just a shame that he plays in a position where managers (understandably) tend to be so cautious in playing young players - if he was a winger then we'd have nothing to worry about!

25 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Big Sam played Phil Jones as DMC to take a bit of pressure off him. I haven't watched Ash in action, but to gel him in gently would be to let him come on as DMC or RB towards the end.

He could also benefit hugely playing alongside Ayala in a back three, but in a back four it's easier to get exposed.

Wasn't that more to do with just being able to get him in the team when we also had Samba and Nelsen? His first games against Chelsea & Burnley at Turf Moor were definitely at centre back, I think the midfield thing only came about once it became obvious that he simply had to be in the team.

On Phillips, I will bow to others' views about whether he is at Jones' levels around the same age. All I'd say is that whilst 17 is VERY young for a centre back, if he's the best in the country for his age then there's probably only so much more he can learn playing academy football. If it's too soon for him to get games at Rovers, then let him go on loan to a L2 side and see if he can develop more quickly that way. 

2 hours ago, GHR said:

4,000 Holes listed them all recently. From next season it'll be ourselves, Accy, Colchester, Crawley, Hartlepool, Ipswich and Port Vale (though Vale may get there yet this season). Stockport County I don't think have been there either, plus perhaps whoever wins that play off (it's at West Ham this year).

Only team in the top 44, and one of only two teams with any sort of presence and success in the domestic game is quote some going from Rovers!

All the more annoying seeing that we should've been playing in the bloody curtain raiser!