Leicester should go up, although they rode their luck at times at Huddersfield. Leeds might need a year in transition, Southampton at times looked excellent at Sheffield Wednesday but seem to have a soft underbelly. Extremely lucky to get a draw vs Norwich - that 2nd penalty was never a foul in a million years imo. Norwich look pretty strong though as well, can see them going well. As for other promotion contenders - Sunderland seem to be going backwards, and West Brom look similar to last year. The jury's still out on Watford, whilst Ipswich have started strongly. I didn't catch all the Coventry game, but they were apparently brilliant first half. Second half they barely attacked but got 2 goals on the break - that new winger looks a good un. Stoke already looking inconsistent, Birmingham potential dark horses and Millwall followed up an impressive away win with an equally tepid home defeat. Boro look powderpuff in front of goal but could easily spend the Akpom money on someone to solve that problem. To summarise - not a bloody clue! It seems to be as wide open as ever. No reason we can't break in with a few signings, which I appreciate is a big ask atm.

A huge issue, that got considerably worse over the last year. Think we equalised twice in the entirety of last season.

I fully agree with it. Huddersfield last year was a joke, the ball was barely in play in the 2nd half and they did everything they could to kill our momentum. Seem to remember that despite this, only 4 minutes were added on. It should have been 10! I genuinely think if the referee did his job properly we win that game 3-2. There will be some silly amounts of added on time, but hopefully that will just serve to clamp down on the time wasting us fans are subjected to. No doubt it will get a lot of airtime and quietly be reneged upon by Christmas. Reminds me of some of the other rules that were quietly dropped - does anyone remember when dissent (I think?) would result in the free kick moving forward another 10 yards? Not always helpful but that seemed to disappear overnight.

I loved his reply to JDT after the game 'I should have scored 3'. Just what we need - a striker who craves goals. He should have got a couple more, but it's night and day when comparing to Gally who never seemed to find himself in those positions.

Absolutely fantastic. No matter how successful a football player is, they're real people - despite often being reduced to mere pawns in the world of football. He comes across fantastically.

It is incredibly optimistic but I enjoy the breakdown in each position and hard to disagree with a lot of it. I think we are about on par with last year, maybe slightly behind. We potentially overperformed last year - I'm torn whether some of our 'luckier' wins will revert to draws or whether our increased integration with JDT's way of playing will make us even better. Last season was a funnier one - we played some of our better stuff in the latter part of the season when results turned against us! Lots of ifs regarding new strikers etc, but a big one for me is JDT - even if he stays, is he as hungry? Will the players detect a drop in intensity from him?

I was absolutely gutted when he left, but I do understand it: At his wages, you have to be one of the main man. He sadly isn't that man anymore. There is a clear difference of opinion between him and JDT. People have mentioned Dack's attitude during JDT's first training session (anyone got the video? Couldn't find it) and the posts above confirm it. Ultimately, it isn't in JDT's interests to have a high earning, influential player sat on the bench most weeks, likely very unhappy he's not playing. There were times last year we were crying out for Dack, but think some of the furore dissipated somewhat as Szmodics really asserted himself in the team. Sammie is much more of a JDT player, a system in which the front 3 or 4 need to apply incessant pressure and run themselves into the ground. Sadly, Dack isn't able to do that. Wish him all the best.

Makes sense - love the work you've put in and it's nigh on impossible to get it 100% spot on. I'm one of the non-renewers. I barely make any games from Cardiff and I didn't see much benefit last year with regards to priority for away games. My brother (who shares it with me) has also moved to Manchester, so might not make all the midweek games. I also thought there may be an uplift, but the confusing messaging regarding early bird deadlines was a bit messy and can't have helped.

The estimates suggested that, but if the club say 8,000 then it's probably that (unless it's a typo or copy and paste from an old article)

I'm not sure I agree that we could be in a dogfight. The only weakening of our squad is the exit of Brereton, which may be offset (at least to an extent) by Sigurdsson and Ennis. Let's not forget how ineffectual Brereton was for the second half of last season. Our midfield remains the exact same minus the much maligned Morton and with the new lad Tronstad in. it would take a colossal fall off for us to fall from 7th to anything approaching a dogfight, and as of yet I don't think we are sufficiently weakened to be suitably concerned. At worst I think we bobble around in mid table.

This feels accurate. We started to pass it better, but more crucially we also found a more pragmatic approach. We did start to pass it forward more often rather than panicking across our back line. That Burnley game still gives me the fear - we were shown the benchmark by Sheffield United the week before and totally ignored it.

You can always take a game in isolation and say 'this cost us the play offs'. Obviously we were shite in those games, but doesn't mean I don't think the style of play (particularly as it has bedded in) is a bad thing. We just executed it appallingly at times in the first half of the season.

Imagine you'd told fans in 1995 as we celebrated the title that our next goal at Anfield would be a cup game as we struggle in mid-table the league below?

Does anyone else think those comments are a not too subtle nudge to the board? It might have just been a genuine answer to a question, but feels very much like a nice little reminder to back him accordingly. Either way, it's a good sign and it's been a long time since one of our managers was sought after.

Agreed - we usually looked totally lost when we went behind too. Hopefully the games you mention suggest we've got a bit more about us now, although I do worry the Millwall game was more of a free hit, combined with a nervy home side. We were very unlucky not to come from behind to beat Luton as well, so perhaps the penny has dropped.

I disagree. At the end of the season I felt we played a much improved style of play - less of the aimless, hospital passes in our own third. To me, it felt like as the season progressed we improved considerably, perhaps as the players acclimatised to what they were being asked. I don't think playing passing football is 'bullshit', as much as I thought some of the passing in the first half of the season was terrible. From February (ish) onwards, we seemed to be a lot more pragmatic. We pissed away games at the end of the season due to a combination of luck and individual errors. Coventry - so unlucky. Preston - Hedges and Hyam both cocked up. I was as critical as anyone at times last season, but I saw reasons to be optimistic and hope we continue trying to play passing football - but less predictably and slowly than in the first half of the season.

To be fair, didn't Diaz get 16? We need to replace his goals and add more on top. Hopefully Sigurdsson/Ennis do some of that, but definitely lacking firepower. I'm quietly optimistic at the moment. Ironically, the fall off in results at the end of the season coincided with us looking like a really decent outfit at times. Thought we played really well in the Burnley/Preston games, for example, albeit without that cutting edge up top. I am confident those away day no shows are finally behind us, and it was ultimately those performances that torpedoed our top 6 hopes. We also have Wharton ready to make that central midfield berth his own, and JRC for a full season. Given both of them only played for half of last season, there's a clear improvement already. Will it be a strong league? Perhaps, but we always say that. Leicester could be anything, and gut feeling says they have a transition year. Leeds likewise. Southampton feel like they could go back up, players like Arma and Adams have done very well in this division before. Big question marks whether Norwich and Watford bounce back after difficult years. I'd wager Coventry aren't as strong as last year as I'm not sure Simms is as good as Gykores, but they do have a healthy budget to spend still. Boro should go well but have lost Archer's goals and Giles' creativity. And then there are the unknowns. Will Swansea and Stoke finally get their act together? Fancy the latter to improve but I say that every year. West Brom seem to have financial issues (I'm judging this very broadly on my mate's Tweets so wouldn't take it as gospel!). People seem to fancy Ipswich to take to this league well. On paper, it's going to be tough, but when isn't it in this league?

Clickbait nonsense that has predictably been deleted. The collar will divide opinion, but to suggest it's anything approaching the worst kit of all time is absolute drivel.

Perfect! No sign of them online and haven't been into the store for ages. Might be a bit far to travel from Cardiff for it so I'll have a word with my brother and see if he will do me a favour. Cheers

Please let me know if you find out! Been on the hunt for a Rovers bucket hat for ages.

Cash doesn't solve everything. Plenty of footballers before him have struggled to settle in certain areas. Obviously money and all that brings (nice house etc) helps, but there are fine margins at the top level and if he's even slightly unsettled it could affect his game.

Rovers Twitter just said that online sales paused due to demand and will be back shortly. Probably ballsed up again on stock.

Aren't these ties seeded? Pretty sure we couldn't draw a side in our league anyway. Nevertheless, an alright draw. Chance to give some fringe players a go. EDIT: Seeing QPR v Norwich suggests it might have changed this year! Double checked and yes, it has gone - although I'm 4 years out of date! - 2023-2024 EFL Cup / Carabao Cup (League Cup) Stadiums, Statistics, Fixtures and Format | Football-Stadiums.co.uk

Tough game to start, can't see them starting as sluggish this season. Seeing the fixtures gets me excited!

I wouldn't care that much if it did happen really. Chelsea now appear to have PIF business connections and are suddenly offloading their players for vastly inflated fees to Saudi Arabia. Someone with more knowledge than me might elaborate, but looks pretty dodgy to me. Then there are numerous other clubs owned by nation states; that alone isn't the issue, but when they're involved in extra-judicial murder and have appalling human rights abuse and a lack of free press on their watch then it really feels grubby that they've got their mitts all over the top level of our game. My attitude is indifference really as to whether these clubs decide to sod off, I certainly wouldn't miss a lot of them. One thing is for sure - a lot of the powers-that-be clamouring for the Super League don't care one iota about the fans. Yes, the fan backlash a year or so ago helped, but I feel they'd push for it if they thought it could be a financial success. They will probably keep manipulating the Champions League so it becomes a de-facto Super League anyway. Fully agree with you on the O'Neill decision - he did great last year against the odds. There must be something behind the scenes, whether it's the link shared above or some disagreement with the board. They potted Parker pretty abruptly and didn't appreciate his public displeasure over transfers, so certainly seems they aren't averse to getting rid. Edit - seems they sacked him as they wanted this bloke more. Bournemouth: Cherries sack Gary O'Neil and appoint Andoni Iraola as new head coach on two-year deal - BBC Sport