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Post by Gastafari on Feb 22, 2024 10:57:16 GMT
We've got eight contracted players for next season. I think three of those might be bombed out. Taylor will need help with the recruitment and those plans should have started months ago. Unless something extraordinary happens I think we're looking at best at something similar to Ollie's first season in 1996/97. I think we've got a decent spine to start from. I've been very impressed with Jed Ward I'd be happy if he was trusted to be our Number 1. Connor Taylor Conteh, Grant Ward and Anthony Evans And Chris Martin for another year possibly. That's a good nucleus to build a team around. It all depends on what backing Matt Taylor will get in the summer I suppose.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 22, 2024 10:42:07 GMT
Unfortunately that happens from time to time. All clubs are guilty of it. For us, surely the biggest mistake we've ever made with a youth/young player was letting Bobby Zamora leave. I remember talking to Broomy at the time. He was a victim of our success, we were always a league ahead of the league he needed at that time. A wonderful bloke and I'm glad he's had a successful career. I think that was pretty much the same as Bobby Zamora as well. He was a young kid the same time as Roberts, Cureton and Ellington. We were a league ahead of what he needed at the time. Hindsights a wonderful thing, but I don't think anybody thought Zamora would go on to have a better career than all of them.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 18, 2024 14:35:08 GMT
Gerry for me too, DC firmly in 2nd. Although he was only manager for just over a year Denis Rofe had us playing the best Football and probably the best Rovers team I've seen. If he was appointed before the season instead of Martin Dobson we could very well of got promoted into the new Premier League. He maybe in my top 3. Great shout on Dennis Rofe, had some unbelievable results under him. Turning over a 3-1 first leg deficit against City at Ashton. Beating a Kenny Dalglish managed Blackburn, draws against Liverpool and Man City, away days at both plus Forest. I also think that the Trollope and Lawrence partnership is massively underrated by our fan base. Millennium Stadium and Wembley in the space of two months, beating City to get to the former, plus the cup run the following season, only time since the 50s to get to the FA Cup quarters. Agree with Dr F, the best pure footballing team I’ve seen was David Williams, if play offs existed we’d have made them in both seasons he was in charge. For sheer will to win it would be Gerry Francis and for man management DC. We played some great stuff under Rofe. The games you mentioned, plus 5-0 against Plymouth in the FA Cup which set up the games v Liverpool, 4-1 wins against Southend and Brighton. We were superb at home, scoring lots of goals. Think we finished 12 points off the Play Offs, after a disastrous few months under Martin Dobson.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 18, 2024 12:29:53 GMT
Was it the post about ladyboys and black players? If so,I'm not sure I understand what it meant and why everyone is going mad about it. It was a post that literally made no sense to me. 🤣 🤣 Same here. I asked the question yesterday I had no idea what he meant. Absolute Gobbledegook.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 18, 2024 9:51:20 GMT
Footballers live in a different world than the rest of us, although we don't have to worry every summer, or at least every other summer, if we still going to have a job. It's really down to the manager to get them to play for him, MT seems to have lost the ability to do it, baffling why as you assume most would appreciate somebody rational in charge than seemingly loose cannon JB. It seems only fans are using the excuse we had a weakened side MT said it was down to our inability to compete. THEY ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH and JB was sacked because he picked them all. Grant, Gordon, Brown…..Francis, Trollope, Clarke, none of them could have won us the game yesterday with those 3 playing and I haven’t even mentioned Crama and Wilson together! People say, strange subs, or he got the side wrong at the start at Stevenage so yesterday we carried on where we left Tuesday night with four at the back. Yesterday was the same as Tuesday night, he shuffles the pack again and we come back into it and at 2–1, we look like we can get an equaliser, and guess what happens again, we switch off and let in a third goal. The squad JB took us down with, loads of them went Div2 and non league, this lot will be the same, it’s full of mediocre crap ans only a mad man would say it’s the best squad ever! A lot of this squad are good enough imo. It's not just about being good enough, a lot of it is to do with character, attitude, application and also team spirit and commaradary all of those are majorly important. Matt Cox is an England U21 Goalkeeper, Harvey Vale has won tournaments at youth level. They're clearly talented players. last season we had Lewis Gibson, Bobby Thomas and Jarrel Quansah. Quansah is in Liverpools 1st team, and the other 2 are playing well in The Championship. Again clearly good enough but even they looked out of their depth at times playing for us. The likes of Josh Grant, Lewis Gordon, Crama as well as Cox and Vale are all from Premier League academy's who have been very highly thought of at a young age. For whatever reason as a collective they look like a bunch of no hopers when they put on a Rovers shirt.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 18, 2024 0:16:59 GMT
Much as I liked Gerry F mark 1 and Don Megson, and indeed others, the DC promotion back into the League gets him my all-time favourite vote. We might still be in that league, playing Oxford City (no disrespect to them) but for DC. Rovers 3 City 0 , then Blackpool away. The best times as a Gashead EVER . Nobody can argue with this. Think we only lost once after January to Tranmere if my memory's correct.
I can't remember exactly how many points they were in front, but City were way clear of us at one point.
Great times indeed.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 17, 2024 22:14:25 GMT
Me too. Again. My favourite ever Rovers manager by far. 💙🏴☠️ Gerry first time for me still. Gerry for me too, DC firmly in 2nd. Although he was only manager for just over a year Denis Rofe had us playing the best Football and probably the best Rovers team I've seen. If he was appointed before the season instead of Martin Dobson we could very well of got promoted into the new Premier League. He maybe in my top 3.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 17, 2024 21:58:15 GMT
I am still none the wiser as to what he was waffling on about? Ladyboys who are more interested in protecting what matters to them?
Anybody?
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 17, 2024 21:52:23 GMT
DC deserves a crack at a higher level.
5 promotions on his CV with Salisbury, us and Port Vale.
Now he's turned up at Cheltenham who had 0 points and no goals scored after 10 or so games, and now they're only a point away from getting out of the relegation zone with 2 games in hand on Charlton.
He's still relatively young in managerial terms as well, only just turned 46.
What a guy.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 15, 2024 8:07:08 GMT
Sometimes I think about where we might have been without Wael and without Lee Mansell being ice-cool. Mid table in league one is about as good as it gets for Bristol Rovers in my 30 years of watching BRFC. I still sometimes think about where we might have been if the 3 shots that hit the woodwork against Huddersfield at Wembley were an inch lower, or had Gareth Taylor not missed an open goal, or we didn't concede right at the end against Northampton, or we didn't capitulate so pathetically back in 2000 when automatic promotion looked a certainty. Who would of thought we wouldn't even make the 3rd tier Play Offs again? Then relegated to the 4th tier for the 1st time ever and spend 10 years in it? let alone becoming a Non League club? Who would of thought moving back to Bristol would coincide with the worst period in our clubs history, and that it would take 28 years to finally get a new stand?
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 15, 2024 4:08:27 GMT
"Liam has been training with us for a while, he has already fitted in well with the group and he brings with him a good amount of experience and an excellent pedigree," said manager Jon Brady. "We are in a busy schedule at the moment and we wanted to make a defensive addition to the squad. He has played a lot of football in the Premier League or the Championship and we are pleased to welcome him to the club. "He is an aggressive defender but he is also comfortable on the ball. We wish Liam every success for his time with us and I know he is raring to go." Good experienced player. George Friend and Jack Hunt have played more games than him though over the last few years and certain fans have criticised our recruitment in regards to signing 'Crocks'. Be interesting to see how many games he plays and misses for Northampton.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 14, 2024 19:26:57 GMT
I don't think Walsaw have been in the championship. They have been in the second tier more recently than us. 03/04 season. They've had 2 spells in the 2nd tier since we were last there. They also went up in 98/99, finished runners up to Fulham, and above Man City.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 14, 2024 10:15:43 GMT
Conteh for me was man of the match again last night. He was absolutely everywhere and started the movement for the equaliser. Hes such an intelligent player, is strong, tackles well, passes the ball simply and effectively. His second yellow was an absolute joke. Shoulder to shoulder and the Steveage bloke fell over. He does look a real coup that's for sure. If he keeps these level of performances up, he won't be here long.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 13, 2024 21:51:04 GMT
Great win.
I feared the absolute worst after about 25 minutes, thought it could be an absolute drubbing.
Well done Matt Taylor for changing it straight after Stevenage made it 2-0.
I've criticised his decisions recently, but deserves full praise for his game management for the final 65-70 minutes tonight which completely turned the result around.
Get in Gas!
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 13, 2024 21:12:40 GMT
Get in!!
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 13, 2024 21:10:03 GMT
Fair play to Matt Taylor for changing it early.
We've been the better team since the changes.
Let's go and win it now!
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 13, 2024 20:16:29 GMT
Absolutely f*cking embarrassing yet again!
You can make excuses for them not being his players all you want but this is f*cking worse than Garner/Tisdale/Barton when we went down.
Edit: Great goal from Thomas.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 13, 2024 10:58:23 GMT
So you’d actively want us to lose matches in the championship? Rubbish I’m not sure why he supports us or a football team either. Imagine being a Cherries fan seeing Solanke tear apart top sides. Luton Town fans are loving it as well, I was in the away end at Brentford when we won 6-2 as well under Holloway. I bet Luton fans are loving it as well. They've done it without spending copious amounts of money and in a ground with barely a 12k capacity, where you still have to walk through peoples back gardens to get into the away end. As you mentioned " 3 years to the Championship tells me we are not spending big and quick to get up there, it also tells me last season top 8 budget is being reduced. Its clear to me this is now a process of getting costs down, like Wenger at Arsenal paying off the Emirates, our money is going on the Mem and they have a manager who accepts a low budget like at Exeter. If you wanted Championship football asap, you’d be bank rolling a top 6 budget, minimum play off push" That's pretty much how Luton have done it.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 11, 2024 14:19:25 GMT
How motivated would you be at work if the boss kept repeating you were useless? I don't believe they are mentally weak, they just can't cope with the physical nature of the game, which is hardly their fault. To be fair to Taylor, he didn’t say they were useless, or that it was the players’ fault. He just pointed out that they are collectively not able to cope with the more physical teams in this league, which we can all see with our own eyes. Yes, we do have individual players like C Taylor, Finley, Conteh, Martin, etc who are up to it and up for it, but that’s not enough, which is why we keep losing to the teams below us. The fact is that most of the players we currently have were brought in to play tippy-tappy, out from the back, possession-based football; it’s not their fault that half the teams in this league will knock you all over the park while you’re trying to do that. Fair point. Why is it that Portsmouth, Bolton, Derby, Peterborough, Barnsley etc are able to do it? You could argue they've got better players, but then we've took 4 points of Portsmouth, beaten Bolton away, we're the better team at Derby imo, we should of put 4 or 5 past Barnsley back in August. They seem to be able to mix it up, yet they don't really look anything special up against us? Also if the players we have our more suited to 'tippy tappy' possession based Football, surely the manager would recognise this and play to their strengths, until you've had the chance to mould the team into your style. Not the other way round of getting players suited to a certain style to play route one, long ball, kick and rush. No wonder it ain't working. That's what Garner did, but the opposite way round with Coughlans players.
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Post by Gastafari on Feb 11, 2024 11:57:19 GMT
This squad is far better than the one Garner, Tisdale, Widdrington and then Barton couldn't get a tune out of. That team was a disgrace This one although disjointed, isn't, there is quality within it. However the last 2 home performances are as bad as anything the Garner/Tisdale/Widdrington/Barton team put out imo I'm not convinced the squad is that much better than Garners. 6 or 7 of them perhaps, many of which are currently injured. How many of that squad that got relegated would get into this one? I suppose we already have 2 players still in this one, Luke McCormick & Josh Grant. So we'll discount those. Imo Luke Leahy definitely, I think Brandon Hanlan would do alright in this team, possibly Sammy Nicholson and Annsi Jaakola. The rest of this current squad is far superior imo, of course most of them being out injured doesn't help, agreed.
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