That first weekend of no Championship 3pm games and us on a Friday night is a depressing window into the farce that all these kick off changes will become.

You can get too focused down the rabbit hole of data and numbers when it comes to ticket sales and lose context. The club can massage them to prove a point that is slightly misleading. For example, and im not saying the case, what if weve gone from 8k adult season tickets and 2k kids season tickets to 7k adults and 3.5k kids. Ticket sales have gone up by 500 but revenue is down. You also stop thinking about the indirect consequences if you go along with the club narrative. Drop tickets by a decent chunk, sales go up and revenue might not change too much. But youve then got an increased bank of season ticket holders to grow the club longer term. You have more of a feel good atmosphere. You have more indirect sales of merchandice and food/drink. Are these considered publically by Waggott or ignored? I feel like those closest to the club in terms of communication clearly give so much time and effort that many including myself cant/wont give up themselves so fair play. But naturally conversing with Waggott who for all of his faults must have an ability to charm those who speak to him, you can start to lose any valid constructive criticisms and start to read from his script. People also want to think they are making a difference. Theres more chance that they are than the rest of us, so this isnt a criticism. But im not sure much if any difference is being made personally.

I saw him enough to know that he is nowhere near good enough and has nothing about him that suggests he can ever make it at this level. Maybe his 3 goal Motherwell spell saw him thrive, either way, get shut of him. Throw away comments as in not exactly 4 or 5, just as a figure of speech. Stuff about keeping the squad together, how we have a good squad that just needs tweaking, how he will look at players like Vale. Tomasson said similar, hopefully its just confidence building, saying what people want to hear. He isnt going to say that the squad is shit and needs loads of work. It could well be that he anticipates a low budget so hes having to big up what he has because hes stuck with them. The squad isnt very good, we nearly went down, take Szmodics away and its really poor. Its thin and has lots of deadwood that is not up to standard. Even you know we need more than that. Youve said we need 7 or 8 players, now Eustace said less you are going with 4 or 5. You correctly suggested we need to spend money, now you keep saying how we can do good business without spending much. Invariably, less money makes it harder and we should have money so no excuses. And you wanted players in by now. But seemingly you also understand why that isnt happening. Its just low standards, your initial suggestions of money needing to be spent, a good number of players are needed in and that a bit of proactivity is also needed were all bang on. Those expectations are dropping by the day.

If he has watched Vale and thought we could do with him here then I am concerned about his eyesight. Sounds like lots of cliches but if that 4 or 5 isnt a throw away comment, then thats not enough.

England are boring but the rest of the Euros provide much more entertainment than wannabee ITKs making up rumours.

Its not like hes a young player with loads of potential. Hes never scored at a serious level in his career so unless you mean scoring against kids and in the German pub league, how can you know he has the knack of scoring goals? The Venkys way.

Terrible performance yet again to limp into the knockouts. Absolutely no balance to the side again. The Trent experiment that Southgate stupidly thought best to trial mid tournament didnt work but Gallagher is an even worse option, not only is he not very good but hes not a holding midfielder. Rice has looked poor all tournament, hes not the best on the ball and he slows things down, he no longer plays as a sitting midfielder. We need someone to sit in next to him, Mainoo was an improvement, Wharton is the obvious choice to most albeit I dont think hes quite the missing piece of the jigsaw that others claim just yet. Left back is another big issue, stupidly we havent taken any fit ones but we cant persist with Trippier. In attack he is just trying to cram the best players in but they dont work together, its Lampard and Gerrard all over again. No one runs in behind and they all end up on top of each other. Kane doesnt look fit and Bellingham was an embarassment again. Foden is the one of the 3 that warrants his place the most even sidelined as a winger at the moment. Gordon needs to play and Palmer perhaps too. If Kane isnt fit then play Watkins.

Best squad weve ever had?

So a final is the minimum expectation baring in mind the draw? Thats fine, I was just checking what fucking it up entails. Rice has progressed to be much more of a box to box midfielder. We need someone who can sit in there, take the ball from the defence and help to cover that midfield area in which we often look empty in. The imbalances in the team are not anything to do with the overly simplistic "being negative" narrative. We have plenty of attackers in there. But most of the attackers want to play in the same areas, all of the defence are right footed including the left back and we have had no midfield to speak of with Rice left firefighting on his own and that wont improve with Gallagher against reasonable opposition.

So would fucking it up be anything prior to the final or anything but the trophy?

Gallagher isn't a holding midfielder, he is a runner who often plays for Chelsea as a number 10. Its quite the opposite. We need someone in there to sit in and dictate. A Michael Carrick type player. What does fucking it up entail? Not winning it? Not making the final?

Im not sure I would take a deal of arguably our most important player getting any kind of injury just to see Wharton.

Scotland are bad enough that theyd still manage to struggle to qualify even if all 4 teams went through.

It wouldnt, there are absolutely no goals in the side. The one player missing is the one that kept us up.We have been fortunate with goalscorers but no one left in the building would do likewise, theyve proven over a number of years that they arent goalscorers. Especially not backed up by them. Garrett, nowhere near it at the moment. Gamble, couldnt get a game when we had an injury crisis. Gilsenan, might be a talent but has only ever really played kids football bar 2 games against a League 2 side. Gent at least has some experience but not much. Thankfully its irrelevant because even we arent cheap and naive enough to go into a season with that 11 and the back up you touched on. Pickering had 2 really good seasons where he was a consistent part of a side that finished 7th and 8th. Hyam was player of the season when we finished 7th. Both have weaknesses but are certainly not the absolute liabilities you seem keen to suggest and we need them due to how small our squad is.

That side would end up in League 1. No goals in there plus Pears still in net, JRC as a centre back and Pickering as a wing back?

Amidst your random burst of thoughts. Im pretty sure they were both shown on Rovers twitter. They were there.

Im sure up until today you was very vocal in how you would want a bigger company sponsoring us.

The 3rd place rubbish really dilutes the jeopardy in the group stages. Youve got teams on 3 and even 2 points after 3 games waiting around to see if they can sneak through.

But the point is, all of them have balanced teams where you know pretty much all of the starting 11.

The fact that everyones preferred team has numerous differences highlight why we wont be winning the tournament. You ask a France, Spain, Germany or Portugal fan and im sure each team would be not far off the same. We have a really imbalanced squad/team managed by an idiot. That balance issue will not be helped by keeping Trippier (or even picking any of the right footed centre backs there) and picking Gallagher who not only is poor but is not a natural sitting midfielder.

Id consider basically a new team to be quite major surgery. And needed. Hes not that similar to Tronstad, he could play next to him.

Unfortunately it has been a doom and gloom era ever since Venkys took over.

I said "likely." Although even if we end up with your £7m warchest then the fee for Paik would still be a chunk.

Paik looks a clever player but would it be wise to spend a decent chunk of likely a limited budget on a midfielder?

Was always a player who got better as he continued to be left out of the team. Maybe injuries are a big cause but not overly surprised to see his career nose dive after release.