Great news. He's surprised me since January. The shirt is his to lose at the moment. He's definitely progressed to be a solid championship centre back. Hopefully he can continue to develop from here. Playing regularly next to such a good defender in Hyam is only going to help his game.

Personally I'm of the opinion that in normal circumstances we should have sold him in the summer. But it wasn't a normal summer. The entire structure at the club changed and we weren't in a position to make choices backed up by data and a strong business case. Any replacement is a gamble, but any replacement we chose, without the time to due our due dilligence would have seen the risk increase. Hindsight is a wondrous thing though. Part of my thinking was that I didn't expect Rovers to be challenging for promotion. The more time that passes, the better the decision to keep him is looking. If we do manage to win promotion, it will have been an inspired choice.

That theory only makes sense in a closed market. At the end of the day Nice, Fulham, Celta Vigo, the Italian team I can't remember. None of them are getting Brereton for free if he's chosen to go to Villareal. Even if a players contract only has 12 months to run, unless you have a bombproof gentleman's agreement that your club is the only club he wants to go to, you have to pay money to reach the top of the pecking order. As much as I have my doubts around his ability to make the step up, £8million for Brereton in todays market is still a steal, regardless of the amount of time left on his contract. Should we have sold him in the summer. Maybe. But then it brings me out in a cold sweat that we would have had cash in the bank and maybe splashed up to £5million on George Hirst rather than bringing him in on loan.

I'd be offering him a new contract. It's good to have two quality goalkeepers. With a year left on his contract I think the most we could expect is £1 million and maybe a 20% sell on fee. Unless one of the youth keepers steps up then we'd have to reinvest a significant portion of that for another backup keeper. They are hard to come by considering any replacement would probably also need to be accepting that they're a number 2 to Kaminski. We'd probably only see a maximum of 500k left over and for that amount of money I'd far rather have two keepers of similar ability pushing each other for a first team spot.

He is. I'm glad he has signed but I do feel his form this year has been questionable. He's begun making rash decisions, over committing to win the ball and getting caught out of position. He's also one of the main culprits in us getting caught out when playing out from the back. To me he looks like he's really trying to embody JDTs philosophy, but as a result let's it affect his decision making. When a progressive pass isn't on he seems to try and find it anyway, loses it and we're under pressure. It's been a big change in playing styles though and these things can be ironed out. At his core he's a good defender.

Or Carter. I've a feeling it will be Carter. JRC's last contract took forever to negotiate. I think they will both sign extensions but see one reaching its conclusion far quicker than the other.

A couple come to mind. Sheffield Uniteds second goal. Readings equaliser. Neither could be considered big errors, but also ones where he didn't pull off a big save. He still deserves his place, but those are examples of Kaminski waiting in the wings possibly helping him pull out that extra 10% which can be decisive.

In principle they are good things to include. Adding flexibility, protection and I believe it makes the clubs accounting easier to ensure we comply with FFP. We've just been burnt by them as the previous regime often didn't engage in negotiations with players until after the extra year was triggered, leaving us in vulnerable situations and players constantly leaving on frees.

I think he could stay if we are promoted. If we are not the chances or him staying are very low. I've put elsewhere in this thread that I think Rovers is actually the beat place for his career right now. But I'm thinking purely from a footballing perspective and not financial. I simply don't think he's ready to take the step up. He's had huge portions of this season where he's been average or below average. The Brereton hype is built upon a 6 month flash of form. Which brings us full circle back to what is best for his career. If that does turn out to be one purple patch in his career, even though footballing wise a move would be poor, he'll likely never see another contract like this again.

Not disputing it. It looks like the most likely outcome by far. But I'm waiting for it to come from a far more reputable source before considering it signed and sealed. Pretty much all that article is information that was pretty common knowledge. It goes further by saying the contract has recently been signed and he's looking for a house, but without any official quotes or confirmations the validity of the article can still be questioned.

I don't think Kaminski should come straight back in. Pears was brilliant when he stepped up in January. Since then he hasn't made any 'big' errors but he's also not pulled off any massive saves in the past few games. If anything Kaminski sitting on the bench will act as extra motivation for Pears which will hopefully see him find another 10%. That could be the difference when fighting for promotion. It's also a positive that Kaminski is given time to get back up to speed and that's not to mention the negative effect it could have on the squads mentality if they see an inform player harshly dropped for somebody who is a bigger name. I say let them battle it out. Kaminski needs to win the gloves back and he has the talent to do so. Competition is good.

I'm not the best to comment as my memory is pretty vague, but my memory when he broke onto the scene was that he was raw, fearless and powerful. At that age he was so strong and so fast. The speed faded as he got older. But the other thing which faded for me was his style of finishing. He just put his foot through the ball and leathered it. As well as his power, that's where the Shearer comparison comes from.

I can't believe so many people have got MGP's name wrong. And what's he got to do with getting to Birmingham and back.

You've triggered one of my earlier memories watching Rovers. Seeing him flying at us like a 100 meter Olympic sprinter. We couldn't handle him that day.

I can understand if the games are for qualifying. But it is extremely frustrating seeing friendlies scheduled, especially at this time of the year. The LT says he came off with a knock. Hopefully it was him being smart after receiving a kick, rather than a muscle injury. I can't imagine that sitting motionless on a plane followed by high intensity exercise is good for anyone's body. A recipe for increasing the possibility of injuries.

You had me worried for a moment there but I think it's a typo. The squad i can see on the BBC website has been updated to show Che Adams has dropped out so it is the most recent update. But the still have Jack Hendry in there and he's the player Hyam was called up to replace. Panic over. (Unless you've seen something else that I've not)

He's also been my man of the match in a good few games this season. At times he has looked like he needs 5 minutes to get up to speed when coming off the bench but at the same time he was a big part in us getting back into the game and nearly snatching a point off Stoke.

God I hate international breaks. I'm so bored of waiting for the real football to come back again.

Feel like with all the young players who've stepped into the first team setup we're really struggling at u21 level. Which is no bad thing as the primary goal is player development. Regardless of performance its good to see us picking up a point which could be essential to our survival. That needs to be the only goal between now and the end of the season.

The longer it goes on the more I think he's best suited to staying at Rovers or possibly being at another championship club with parachute payments. Technically he's still quite clumsy. He's a decent finisher though. If he were to play at a higher level I think he'd need to adapt his game to being a number 9 who runs the channels. You can get away with being a nuisance whilst being less technically gifted as a striker. His touch is too loose playing wide and he makes up for that by being brave and direct. Against better defenders he'd have very little success. He is a good, promotion pushing championship player. The buzz around him is fading. Money wise. He's going to want to see a big increase in his next contract. I think he's worth pushing the boat out to say 30k p/w. Then it's up to him. I can see his offers not being of the calibre he may have been expecting and I think he will be in the championship next year (unless we are promoted), I'm just not sure whether it will be with us or another team who offers more money.

At the time it was clearly a very bad career move for Nyambe to move to Wigan. Looking at it now I'm not sure I can think of any move that has been just that bad. Refuses to resign with Rovers on an increased salary as he thought he was worth more. No offers come in. Rovers withdraw the offer. He moves to Wigan on roughly the same amount of money for only one year. Struggles to get in their team. Club are rock bottom and the players aren't even getting paid. Meanwhile Rovers are genuine playoff contenders, possibly reaching the Prem. Even players who make bad career moves are usually getting a decent increase in salary. He needs to sack his agent.

This part to me is what doesn't make sense. We'd be awash with money if we were promoted, coupled with fans being excited at the prospect of Premier League football. That in itself is a golden opportunity to actually slash ticket prices and rebuild our fanbase. Think long term strategy rather than squeezing a few extra £££, especially when those £££ are a drop in the ocean compared to other revenue streams.

There is a trend in international football where you'll be successful if you are cautious and make yourselves hard to beat. To be fair, the evidence points to this being true. The issue will only get worse with Fifa/Uefa expanding competitions whereby the best third place teams can qualify. Do not lose and you can progress. That then sets the tone for the knockout stages. I might be incorrect in saying this but I think Portugal won the Euros without winning a single one of their group games. It amazes me how the powers that be do not consider the impact their decisions has on the quality of their product. Its simply, bigger/more is better.

In terms of the quality Italy possess, individually they're like Italian teams of old with a lot of good defensive players, although past Italian teams had elite defensive players. Going forwards they look woeful. No creativity, or flair players. It says a lot that they had a 23 year old Argentinian leading the line. Would he really have pledged his allegiance to Italy if he thought he had a chance of playing for Argentina... I don't think they're completely crap but they are a very poor side compared with Italian sides of old. It reminds me of England's so called 'golden' generation. Lots of players who can mix it up but completely imbalanced. Those players only looked good at their clubs when surrounded by foreign imports into the Premier League who were far more technically gifted. Mancini literally said this before the match. That kids don't play street football anymore and as a result they are technically inferior.

I think I was watching a different game to most people. I thought the whole thing was poor. First half we only crafted one chance from open play, only for Grealish to slice it a mile wide. Outside of that we got a scrappy goal from a corner after terrible Italian marking and a gift wrapped penalty, again from a corner. I totally disagree with all the superlatives about the first half. In my eyes we simply passed it around with zero intensity and never created any sustained pressure. Italy however were far worse. Second half they upped the intensity and we couldn't keep hold of the ball. Which is no surprise, because as talented as some of our players are, non them bar the front 3 are agile, technical players capable of dropping a shoulder. Trying to tap it around our defense and a midfield of Rice, Phillips and Bellingham (who is phenomenal but still not of that ilk) was always going to result in us losing possession, as soon as Italy pressed us. We got the job done though. As poor as Italy were, it's still not an easy place to go. I just don't think that any aspect of the performance, even the first half was particularly good.