And individually, too.

Then there's the less tangible question of whether we would have made the playoffs without being featured on Sky so much, due to our awful record when we're on it...but I don't know how much of that is coincidence, and how much is players bottling it in front of the cameras (or being less gee'd up due to smaller crowds).

My previous post explained why we would potentially be worse off financially for it. Depends how it was calculated - if Venkys simply sent us 1.5 mill less in losses due to it (ie all the extra Sky money), we lost money from reduced ticket sales from being on Sky.

No, just discussing the CEO basically admitting it in the press and most of the fanbase (including those who are somehow thankful for Venkys) not really noticing it.

Some of them are poor but I tell you what, for the most part I don't think it mattered. Look at how early he goes and how far across he is even by the time the shot is struck. Even hard shots directly into the bottom corner would have been saved on most of those. To beat him would have required sending him the wrong way or putting it in the top corner area. It amazed me that he committed to diving so early on most of those except the Barry one...which was pretty much straight down the middle and he stayed on his feet for it. How often do you see that? Keepers are always diving early, and he was doing too. If they save one straight down the middle it's usually with a trailing leg. Brad must have either really done his research on these takers or had terrific instincts, or both. Legend. That stat at the end of pretty much a clean sheet every 3 games is something else too.

If he becomes a really important member of the side, he'll be a good signing and one I'll be happy we've made. What I'm saying though is I have some faith in JDT and his team to manage the player's fitness better, and hopefully that will be enough. If he kept getting lots of niggly injuries at Plymouth, but still played a lot of games, yet wasn't staying fit enough to complete many of them, it suggests to me that something is wrong on their training pitch, or that he was being rushed in when he wasn't ready.

That would be one good use of it. One which might even have seen the money recouped through extra sales. Another option would have been to spend it on a decent player that could strengthen the team then either turn us a profit, or help get us to the Prem, potentially repaying the money many times over. More to the point though is just how it contradicts the claim we keep hearing, that Venkys will spend everything they can to help us go up. It's clear to me from that statement (amongst other things) that their commitment isn't at that level and they want to lose less than they are. Without seemingly realising the only two ways to do that are to sell players at good values (repeatedly vetoed) or get promotion (without investing enough unless we get lucky hiring the right manager who can do it with an arm behind their back).

I'd have been more concerned about that under Mowbray than I am under JDT. Seems more likely to only put players on the pitch when they're genuinely ready. Seen the benefits with JRC.

Indeed. But if this Sky money just meant they injected equity to cover 11.5 million of losses, we'd have been financially better off not being on Sky, and they're not doing their best to help with FFP

Waggott saying the 1.5 mill from being shown so much by Sky will be offset by losses made by the club and covered by the owners. Which is it, do they spend all they can within FFP or not? Bollocks. Also, the club lost gate money from so many Sky games, so that better have been calculated in before figuring out how much less the owners need to give us, or else the Sky games actually cost the club money.

Netflix?

Fergus Suter only played one game for us in the Football League. Because it only formed about a year before he retired. But he played for us for 9 years, including playing in 4 FA Cup finals. It was all about the FA Cup back then, even for a little while after the league started.

Did you honestly just put Raya in ahead of Friedel even though you've seen Friedel? Admittedly I suppose Raya suits the current style more a la the original question, as Friedel's kicking was the only poor element of his game, but still...

Shearer hurt like hell, but he went to his boyhood club who had just challenged for the title. There was no reason to think he would pick us in that scenario on the basis of loyalty. I honestly thought Friedel loved it here so much was going nowhere unless forced out. I'll never be that naive again.

Seaman was 'the' England keeper. Flowers won 11 caps.

He could have chosen to invest a more sensible amount that he was willing and able to lose. Didn't he have a degree from an Ivy League uni in finance or something? Always surprised me he managed to balls that up. When Friedel left it was the last straw for me in terms of never letting myself get too emotionally attached to a player again, or assuming their loyalty and love would keep them at the club. That one hurt, I was so sure he was going nowhere, and then it was only to Villa.

Has he actually publicly used the low uptake on that game as an excuse for not reducing season tickets? If so, it's well worth pointing out that's precisely what several on here predicted he would do when the Reading pricing was announced.

I'm not a fan of one or two of the data points used, we need to remember it's just stats based off comfortably the best season of his career (could be a purple patch) and it's only League One....but, I feel a bit more confident about Ennis after watching that. To regularly rank in the top 10 (sometimes top 3) for his position in his league on a range of important metrics is encouraging. On a free, presumably fairly low wages (this would be the kicker for me, if he's on 10k p/w or something like that then it's a big risk) and on a 4 year deal with a 1 year option, still quite young at 24 but has some experience...you can't really argue with that business. Sealed nice and early to give him time to adjust to the playing style, manager and his teammates. I'm not going to say I'm expecting immediate fireworks, and I can't say I want to risk him being our main man up top out the gate, we still need someone who has shown they can smash them in at this sort of level. But on the face of it, he seems a decent squad addition to compete for a regular goalscoring role. The proof, as always, will be in the pudding. With him still having room for growth and perhaps needing time to adapt to the level, as well as with it being expensive to permanently buy established Championship strikers, I'd think a loan is our best bet of reliable goals in the middle. Cannon or Archer are the two firepower options (see what I did there?) I'd prefer in this regard, then we get a season to see if Ennis can deliver for us.

Them too, but I was mostly referring to fans of other clubs. I used to hang with a few Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs fans at uni, and I remember trying to tell them just how good Brad Friedel was. They actually laughed when I told them he was a better keeper than Jens Lehman, but it was me who should have been laughing. As far as they were concerned though, nobody could be considered world class playing outside of the top 4/5 teams in England. I don't feel like Brad got his full dues until he'd played at Villa and moreover Spurs, and even then he doesn't get as much credit as he should from many. Far as I'm concerned, the top three keepers in Prem history are him, Schmeichel and peak Cech. Whatever order people want to put them is subjective, but those have to be the top three for me. On ability, not shit like trophies (which really depends a lot on the other ten players around you). I'm quite sure many football fans from the general public would replace Friedel with Van der Saar (who isn't far off tbf), and for me that's purely because he played for Manure. Incidentally, Friedel was also under consideration by Manure at the time, and the main reason they went for Edwin instead was reported to be because we would have wanted a lot more money than Fulham. There have been plenty of other terrific keepers who aren't too far off the reckoning (Jaaskelain was another underrated due to who he played for), but I reject any notion of that not being the top three. Still personal opinion of course, but I'm not for budging. Brad was superhuman, and so consistent. A human wall. But many couldn't see it until he was at higher profile clubs. Another bone of contention for me in this regard is how many players haven't been called up to England (or not often enough) due to playing for us and other 'unfashionable' clubs. Even in favour of 'big club' bench warmers at times. But that's a whole other rant.

Who else has ever scored only 13 goals (all competitions) for a club, and yet 10 of them are of that standard? Truly didn't score tap ins. Unless my memory is bad, it didn't seem like he shot from distance very often, but when he did it was usually a quality effort. Not sure why he didn't take more pops, other than that maybe he was smart enough to know and feel in his bones when it was likely to work and when it wasn't.

I'm not on about our fans.

Not that anyone was willing to admit it until they left us.

I feel like every day should be that time of year. I love how he clearly shouts 'Fuck off!' after scoring that Fulham goal at the end.

As a Rovers fan, surely you've been disappointed plenty this last decade?

I mean, it wasn't for me, but I don't find it helpful to call people morons for having different taste in what media they enjoy.