Really pleased to see Vale on the scoresheet again - lad looks handy and could play a decent part this season (hopefully).

Completely agree. No logic in jumping up and down right now, when the work is ongoing. As much as we like to believe we understand what’s going on, the truth is it’s 99% guesswork. Let’s see how the squad looks once the window closes; that’s the time to judge.

Couldn’t disagree more. Revisit this in May and see how daft it looked.

We can't just whitewash history and completely disregard the work TM did during that initial period. Firstly, we were doomed and we all knew it - the Coyle disaster was heading in no other direction. We had an ageing (shit) squad, amateur coaching sessions all season and we were a shambles backstage (no scouting team, etc, etc). TM's immediate impact was almost keeping us up. We were much better from the point of him arriving. And then he played a massive part in turning the nosediving plane of a club in the other direction. Put staff into key positions, gave us some semblance of a 'normal' club and then, of course, replacing that shitshow of a squad with a much, much younger exciting squad with resale value. Yes, he had many failings and - yes, he should have been potted on a few occasions. But let's not start pretending the good things that he was undoubtedly central to didn't happen.

He's bang on the money as well. That piece of shit agent was the central catalyst for everything bad that followed him filling his pockets.

+1,000

Gallagher has never played ‘on the wing’, he’s been deployed as a wide striker and it was part of his development plan, as it had (successfully) been for Armstrong and Brereton. All different players, but the end game was to have a nuisance of a forward cutting in and being dangerous from out wide, with a false 9 linking the forward play from the middle. Not Gallagher’s strength, in my opinion - I’d have him central and fire balls into him. However the last couple of seasons as a wide forward will have made him more of a rounded player and if JDT can use his knowledge and experience to get more out of SG, I honestly think he’ll have an excellent season this year. The interesting bit is that Vale may well be the ‘false 9’ in the middle, based on how well he’s done in pre season.

Not a disaster to draw with an SPL team and a good workout. Highlighted some urgent areas for improvement, but also some positives from today, for sure 👍🏻

I don’t know, they look a bit more organised than I expected and managed to come back from our early goal. Would probably challenge for the top 6 in the Chanpionship. For us, aside from the fullback areas being awful, there have been patches of good pressing and we’ve created a few decent chances. Pleased to see Vale doing well, looks a very decent prospect.

If you’re reviewing TM’s transfer business and choosing to ignore the likes of Dack and Kaminski (small fees / big performers), it’s not particularly fair. Even in the loan market, he had the trust of Klopp (Elliott being the best) and Guardiola (Tosin). His overall record was mixed at best, but it was still a light year ahead of any other manager post Big Sam.

JRC was always an attacking midfielder by trade, CAM I'm sure (maybe left wing). Ended up at RB due to his versatility, but it's really not his best position, to put it politely.

I've been hoping that Wharton and Garrett would fill spots in the first team squad this season, both absolutely good enough to replace the likes of Johnson and Davenport, with lots of room to grow and develop

Here's Shane Long's stats. There's no doubt he runs a lot and is probably a nice lad, but in terms of scoring goals, he's always been absolutely horrific. Most defenders score more. We'd not just be scraping the barrel if we'd signed him, we might as well re-sign Simon Garner and play him up top instead - £10 bet on him scoring more over the season than Long.

Just caught up on the last few pages and, out of everything, I genuinely can’t my head around someone describing Shane Long as a 15+ goal striker. 😬

Agreed - if we’re talking 2-3 times the salary, it’s a no brainer. But if it’s marginal salary gains and you are settled, have a good team and general conditions where you are, I’d suggest that you’d be inclined to stay where you are. Certainly been the case for me in recent years, when the agencies and head hunters start throwing things at you.

I don't think it was a black Merc, sure it was silver (couldn't tell make from my rear view mirror). Was mostly tongue-in-cheek, but it did turn left into the STC just behind me on Sat morning, whoever it was!

Ben Davies would be an interesting one. Probably the biggest stretch ever in terms of a rumour, but we were driving by Brockhall yesterday morning (around 10.30am) and a flash car was behind us - couldn't tell you what make, I'm not a car person. But I got my kids to turn and look for the reg plate, to see if I could work it out - it ended in 'BD'. And, for some odd reason, the first player I thought of was Ben Davies. About a 0.5% chance it was him, but to be fair, as a rumour it probably has more basis than most of the stuff you read from the likes of Nixon.

In fairness, this has been what TM has been saying for ages ('I don't really care about formations, it's how the players adapt and perform').

We may have several players on the verge of signing for us, but as we seem to be doing our business in private this summer, the reality is that none of us know. Lets see how the situation pans out in its entirely before we start prematurely talking about being relegation candidates (which, it must be said, some on here were adamant we would be before a ball was kicked last season…)

Older player wants guarantee of first team football - I can't imagine he'd be good enough to warrant that at Rovers, even with the thin squad we currently have. Bit part player at most, in my opinion. No great loss to us, unlike Anel (who would have been better than Lenihan).

+1,000

Not quite, I'd suggested that Garrett was a good replacement for Johnson or Davenport - bit part players who fill in for injuries/etc. I wouldn't shove any of the kids straight into the team at this stage; that would be daft. But, as my point on the last page was, we should be using a handful of them as squad players and to compliment the players we'll be bringing in. The other side of my previous post was suggesting that the likes of Markanday, Hedges and Carter should hopefully be in a position to make an impact this season, all being a step or three ahead of the Academy kids.

Agreed. I have a lot of faith in some of the young lads. As you say, Garrett would offer nothing less than the likes of Johnson. I think Batty would be at least equal to Pickering at LB and we have players Pike, Phillips and Adam Wharton who would more than hold their own in the Championship, in my opinion. Markanday will have a breakout season and Hedges' last couple of games last season offered a lot of promise. And signings will come. It is not all doom and gloom, even at this stage.

Nah, not even close, in my opinion. We'd struggle to break out of the mid table monotony, but considering we were allegedly willing to splurge c£3m on a bit of Anel, I'm confident we'll see some incomings at some point...

Hughes was the perfect example of having the right scouting and coaching staff around him - and look how it paid off. Be interesting to see who the new Chief Scout will be, and what his background is.