?

Danny Graham has definitely been our best player this season. He needs to not be next season though, while still playing as well as he has. We need a few more players of Championship quality and experience.

Fleetwood have ensured Sunderland’s Netflix Season 2 finale is a bit more exciting.

Mowbray has done a lot of good in the last few weeks. The question is whether he has truly seen sense or is paying lip service. A lot depends on who he signs, and who goes in the Summer. This is Mowbray’s most important window yet. He has had three very different ends to the last three seasons: relegation, promotion and consolidation. This is the first one where he gets to have a second attempt at the same scenario as the previous season. It needs to be a positive window. Hopefully it will be a successful one. It’d be just like Venkys to change their tune now. I wonder how much the Brereton signing might affect their confidence in spending. Venkys need promotion. Mowbray will want another season building, I expect, and may again try to temper expectations.

Looks like the site has been infiltrated!

It’s a good point. It would be interesting to see Rothwell played as a number 10 and Dack shunted out to a wing and asked to be more defensive minded, and see how they compare then. Dack’s advantage is his low centre of gravity and his ability to keep the ball under pressure and time his passes well. Rothwell is far quicker and has a greater passing range. Where he is played means he is often shooting from further out that Dack but he can hit them. Dack has been given every opportunity by Mowbray and has played based reputation and a knack for getting a goal or assist in every game or two, but does have frustrating, lazy spells, meanwhile Rothwell has had to fight for every minute.

You didn’t read what I posted. I’ve not valued them, I said none of those players have gone for that kind of money. Let’s see if any of them sell for those kinds of figures and who sells for the most. They will certainly need to go to a PL club. Do you think any PL clubs will come in for Dack? I don’t.

Nothing normal about the BB signing but you make a good point. Let’s see who goes for what. Some folk on here wouldn’t even sell Dack for £15m. Mercer is just taking a view from the right end of the telescope. Minus the blue-and-white filter.

People are more than welcome to disagree or certainly not be keen but as always people play the man and not the ball. You may be in the same camp, K, but your tent is very much in its own plot. Wish there were more like you.

Such a shame Mercer isn’t allowed to have an opinion without being jumped on by the usual suspects. I can see where he is coming from. Dack is a superb League One player But is he a superb Championship one, let alone PL standard? Probably not, and he has the kind of social life that would be an instant turn off to most top managers. Joe Lolley hasn’t cost anyone a million yet. 10 goals, 11 assists. (3 and 3 in 16 games last season). Will Vaulkes at Rotherham has 7 goals and 7 assists. £5m? Nope, valued at less than £1m. Alan Browne (11 and 4) £5m? You’d be laughed at. In the PL era, £5m isn’t big bucks but you need a PL club to come in for them. I don’t imagine they are climbing over each other for Dack. Championship clubs aren’t spending big money. There is better value than Dack around if the asking price is north of £5m. On his day, he can be amazing. He’s had about two of his days this season. Aside from that he has been in the right place at the right time on many occasions. Such a frustrating player when you think how good he could be.

#thisisthereasonitwasremoved

Sounds like a brilliant idea. We can change into our third kit at half time. I get accused of being negative but it’d be nice if the people privileged with running our famous club could come up with a good idea once in a while! Effing grey?? Hope you’re wrong Madon but it does seem like you have some insider knowledge.

Ok

So you think prices rises every year, well above inflation, are fair? We even saw a price hike after relegation! Nothing to do with chilling, I’m very calm about it. Waggott is “rewarding” casual fans and increasing prices for loyal ones. If he is hoping to bring in fans for the Swansea game and hoping to convert them into ST holders then he is going the wrong way about it by raising prices. “We’re committed, are you?” rings a bit hollow for me.

Once again: £15 tickets for non-ST holders cannot be a “thank you for fantastic support”. What you have recognised though, in your last para, is that Waggott’s plan appears to be the reverse: increase walk-on prices to the point that you can inflate ST prices and still market them as cheap. This isn’t a reward or something to be happy about, it is a punishment for fans who have stood by the club. People have suggested lists of potential loyalty-based incentives such as extra discounts for long-standing ST holders. These would be “thank you for your fantastic support”. So the offer is disingenuous. Your opening sentence is exactly where I am. It should be about getting a crowd in but not just for one match per season. And you don’t do that by price increases beyond people’s wage rises.

It was more the fact that he feigned like he was going to put it out and then didn’t. He took advantage of the unwritten rule. A poor rule it may be but until referees intervene you are going to see players put under pressure by home crowds and then by opposition players.

Giving them whatever they need to confirm promotion would be a start... Despite winning the league (for a third consecutive season) and the rules changing, meaning they don’t need a play-off, it seems it isn’t yet a done-deal. This from a team that is set to win the treble for a second year in a row and has a GD of plus-85! Does anyone know the truth about why they weren’t successful in their application last season and the Women’s Championship went ahead with 11 teams rather than accept Rovers? Was it a lack of good enough facilities being made available?

Nice one @OnePhilT

That reads like you only read the first line of my post. There are merits in keeping him, for sure. But I think he will let us down and we need to cash in while his stock is still high. It’s funny though, I was saying exactly what you were but about Rhodes, who scored goal after goal for us, and was shot down time and again.

He stuck with it because it worked. We had our highest average gates since 1995/96 season and our highest decade average since the 50s. It was also an extremely successful period as a club. https://ewoodpark.jimdo.com/attendances-average-attendances-1888-2013/

I thought he would he been able to put a tackle in from the position he had got into. Would that have been a clean tackle? As a Rovers fan I’d have to argue yes. It would have been a travesty if Lenihan was sent off there, with Williams getting back. Derrick saved him there.

Leeds were a disgrace to the sport today. 1) Cheat to score 2) Cheat to get an opponent sent off 3) Even when instructed to allow the leveller they still can’t help themselves. Fair play isn’t in their DNA. Dirty Leeds indeed.

But surely this is the reason that the rule is whether there is another player between attacker and goal. Nobody can accurately predict if the forward would definitely got past Williams. He could have made a superbly timed challenge or had a huge burst of pace (“where did that come from?) or the player could have stumbled, or any combination of things. My recollection was that Williams has got far enough back - just - that the striker didn’t only have to get past Lenihan to take a shot.

Doesn’t matter. It meant that Lenihan wasn’t the last man. That would have been the only problem as it wasn’t a red card challenge.

Not being argumentative but I would sell - for upwards of £12m. And it’s not as much about what he does on field - which seems to be moments these days rather than being a star of the show. These moments can be the difference in games though so he is a luxury we have to carry. My bigger concern is what happens off the field and the impact it has on his mindset. If he can’t help to get us promoted then his value will only fall the longer he is here and could even go on a free. He is a potentially great player who I don’t think will ever achieve what he could without his distractions. If Mowbray needs a new spine then which Chapman, Rothwell, even Butterworth in the wings, he may need to cash in to finance his plans for a GK, CB, CM and CF. And I’m not sure who else he could sell?