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Post by Gastafari on Aug 14, 2022 20:39:22 GMT
I don't think the era's are comparable tbf.
Back when Gerry Francis was manager and we were at Twerton, Oxford were getting to the top flight and winning a League Cup, Wimbledon were finishing in the top 6 of the top flight and winning an FA Cup, around that time Cambridge also got to the old Division 2 Play Offs the season before the Premier League was formed.
They were all former non league clubs in grounds not to dissimilar to Twerton.
Stuff like that doesn't happen anymore.
We've had the likes of Wigan, Reading, Swansea, Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford etc have success recently bu they've all had major investment or new stadiums.
If Joey Barton gets us promoted again he has to be right up there in achievements.
The advent of the Premier league and the aftermath of the Bosman ruling means that, IMO, the 'glass ceiling' has come down 6-10 places. For me, promotion to the Championship with maybe at least one season staying up would be comparable to Gerry's achievements. Also the fact that we haven't even been at 2nd tier level for 30 years. If he does get us promoted while in our current ground, he has to be right up there.
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 14, 2022 19:07:37 GMT
Every managers success or failure is always relative to the situation the club was in at the time. Fans might always have unrealistic measures of what should be achieved. There have been many great things done over the years at Rovers . I still think the greatest all time achievement was Gerry Francis winning league one and then achieving midtable championship finishes for a couple of seasons. When you consider the situation the club was in it shouldnt of happened. We should have been relegated and gone bust by all sensible reasoning. For JB to become our greatest manager he needs to reach the championship playoffs....either several times...or to win promotion. He is currently sat amongst the good company of managers who have done well at Rovers. I don't think the era's are comparable tbf.
Back when Gerry Francis was manager and we were at Twerton, Oxford were getting to the top flight and winning a League Cup, Wimbledon were finishing in the top 6 of the top flight and winning an FA Cup, around that time Cambridge also got to the old Division 2 Play Offs the season before the Premier League was formed.
They were all former non league clubs in grounds not to dissimilar to Twerton.
Stuff like that doesn't happen anymore.
We've had the likes of Wigan, Reading, Swansea, Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford etc have success recently but they've all had major investment or new stadiums.
If Joey Barton gets us promoted again he has to be right up there in achievements.
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 13, 2022 12:10:10 GMT
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 15:09:22 GMT
What is the point of them? Spend loads of money to get out of League 1, just to come back down again every 9 months. Pointless. In the business of speculating on up and coming players like JCH. It was tongue in cheek. You have to admire the money they recoup for their players. I think they should be progressing better though. They've spent more money than the likes of Bournemouth and Brentford, yet instead of establishing themselves in The Championship or better like those 2 clubs, they always end up back in League 1 every year.
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 14:55:32 GMT
Bollox to Posh. L1 Flat Track Bullies What is the point of them? Spend loads of money to get out of League 1, just to come back down again every 9 months. Pointless.
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 14:52:01 GMT
27 Harvey Greenslade Forward DATE OF BIRTH 01/01/1901 SIGNED 15/11/2021 COUNTRY England Is this the oldest professional footballer ever to play for the GAS ? At 121 still more agile than Brett Pitman 🙂
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 14:24:06 GMT
His name’s not Wallace though. However, If you mean Mel Gibson, well he absolutely hates the British and is a huge anti-Semite and swivel-eyed loon to boot. I’d rather he took after Guy Gibson, leader of 617 Squadron (Dambusters) . . . Aye, let’s jes not mention his Labrador eh 👍🏼 🤣
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 13:18:19 GMT
Oh no !! Am already confused with Gibbons and Gibson? They both can't be Gibbo....? 🤷 Judging by his Twitter page we can call him Gippa. Problem solved🙂
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 10:52:37 GMT
Bit odd that Everton have given him a new deal but only for 1 year, just to loan him out to us for it. From our point of view would have been nice to have got this as a permanent! Win, win for them isn't it? If he's brilliant for us then they may want him back, or they can command a higher fee from us if we want him back, i.e James Connolly.
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 10:48:21 GMT
That is the figure being shared on social media. I have a question. What is the highest fee ever paid for a player before joining Rovers ?. I assume it would be a player in the last 10 years . Is someone like Whelen up there ? . Answer's please !. ( p.s not what we paid cause that's Tilson but another club before joining us ). I think Gibson at £6m would be highest if it is true. The highest fee paid for Whelan according to Wikipedia (yes, I know...) was £1m when he went from Stoke to Villa. Players like Riordan, Lawrence and Leon Clarke all moved around for 6 figure fees before joining us but I can't think of any others who had previously gone for over £1m. Definitely the highest. Mark Walters is the only one I can think of that was probably around the £3M mark if that. The closest would be Joey himself when he left Man City for Newcastle I think that was about £6M
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 9:57:56 GMT
Assuming he starts tomorrow, along with Connoly, Gordon and Hoole, the average age of the back 4 will be just over 20 That must be close to the youngest Defence Rovers have ever fielded I'd imagine What was the age of the defence when we played Man City at Maine Road in the Ollie era? Trought etc. That was one of the youngest teams we ever fielded if I remember correctly. Got a creditable 0-0 draw too. Just checked and our back 4 that day was Stephane Leoni(22) Steve Foster(23) Mike Trought(18) and Trevor Challis(23) So Mike Trought brought the average down to just over 21. So assuming that will be the back 4 tomorrow it will be younger. The rest of the outfield team that day was Lee Zabek(20),Jamie Shore(21),Rob Trees(21), Guy Ipoua(22),Jamie Cureton(23) and Jason Roberts(20) So the average age of that team away at Man City was just over 20. So, yeah that has to be the youngest team we've ever put out, surely?
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 9:36:22 GMT
Assuming he starts tomorrow, along with Connoly, Gordon and Hoole, the average age of the back 4 will be just over 20
That must be close to the youngest Defence Rovers have ever fielded I'd imagine
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 9:27:45 GMT
Last 2 loans have been in The Championship.
Was part of the England U17 Squad that won the World Cup with Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho and Callum Hudson-Odoi.
Another gem from Joey hopefully.
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 9:05:37 GMT
That was the first spark ⚡️ of last season , belshaw running the length of the pitch to celebrate, lovely stuff. Saturday is gonna be fantastic! Dare to dream we might go blooming top! I'd forgotten Grant' s cutback for the winner. Fair to say he started it all off for us ? This game didn't change our fortunes straight away. The game straight after this we threw away a 2-0 lead at home to Tranmere. Then we travelled to Salford and ended up throwing away a 1-0 lead against 9 men. Then we got absolutely outplayed by Forest Green and lost 2-0 We beat Sutton in the cup Then we lost 2-1 at home to Port Vale. So as amazing as that comeback was, looking back it didn't rejuvenate our form in the league as we threw away two leads and lost the other two in our next 4 games. Edit:If we would of held on to that 2-0 lead against Tranmere and 9 man Salford, we would of been Champions 🙂
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 12, 2022 0:51:08 GMT
Starting to think that cup competitions are now history as far as most L1 teams are concerned, JB making it clear last night in his post match presser the league is far more important. If that's the case, can you explain to me why 15 league one teams progressed to the second round this week? I think it's more a case of the Championship teams not bothering with it. Out of the all the Championship clubs only 5 went through to the 2nd round, and even then 4 out of those 5 were playing against a fellow Championship team. Blackburn were the only ones who beat a team from a lower Division.
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 11, 2022 22:57:10 GMT
Steven Gerrard played wide Right for Liverpools youth teams and often in his first couple of years in Liverpools 1st team as well. Like I said he reminds me a lot of Steven Gerrard. Eddie Howe has been playing Elliot Anderson in Midfield in the pre season games. I think Elliot will be a Central Midfielder, very much in the mould of a Gerrard or Lampard. Could well develop there the more he matures and gains experience at that level. With his qualities he's capable of playing in multiple positions. I think Eddie Howe is the right coach for him as well. For me he's a superb coach. You just have to look at what he has done to Joelinton. An absolute flop of a striker, Newcastle fans were putting him up there with their worst ever players. Howe put him in Midfield now he's arguably one of the best Midfielders in the Premier League over the last 6 months and Newcastle fans adore him now. Won their Player Of The Year last season. Also taking Bournemouth from bottom of League 2 to the Premier League with the majority of the team actually signed from the lower leagues like Simon Francis, Steve Cook, Marc Pugh, Charlie Daniels and Callum Wilson etc By all the articles I've seen and the amount of minutes he got in pre season,Eddie Howe rates him very highly. I think we'll see a fair bit of Elliott in the Newcastle team this season.
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 11, 2022 22:23:10 GMT
Don't think they are. Think we played him wide out on the Left just to get him in the team and to provide more creativity at the top end of the pitch. He reminded me a lot of Steven Gerrard actually with a lot of similar attributes Played wide left or as a no 10 in the youths/u23s. Steven Gerrard played wide Right for Liverpools youth teams and often in his first couple of years in Liverpools 1st team as well. Like I said he reminds me a lot of Steven Gerrard. Eddie Howe has been playing Elliot Anderson in Midfield in the pre season games. I think Elliot will be a Central Midfielder, very much in the mould of a Gerrard or Lampard.
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 11, 2022 22:00:02 GMT
Shelvey injured and apparently out until the new year. Not that he was ever coming back here but he’s definitely staying up there now. Hope to see him in the PL soon. It’s nice to have a reason to be interested in the PL, looking forward to seeing how he does ! Can't see Shelvey having an impact on EA. Different positions. Don't think they are. Think we played him wide out on the Left just to get him in the team and to provide more creativity at the top end of the pitch. He reminded me a lot of Steven Gerrard actually with a lot of similar attributes
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 11, 2022 21:27:19 GMT
Alfie Mawson to Wycombe as well.
Still only 28, played near on 100 games in the Premier League for Swansea & Fulham as recently as 2019.
Don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing though, to drop a couple of Divisions when you're supposedly in your prime.
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Post by Gastafari on Aug 11, 2022 21:20:17 GMT
Jordon Garrick [Swansea - Lincoln] Loan Ellis Harrison [Fleetwood - Port Vale] Undisclosed Kyle Joseph [Swansea - Oxford United] Loan Alfie Mawson [Fulham - Wycombe] Free Jesurun Rak-Sakyi [Crystal Palace - Charlton] Loan Jack Stevens [Oxford United - Port Vale] Loan Nathan Tella [Southampton - Burnley] Loan Surprised Jack Stevens has signed on loan for Vale. He's been Oxfords Number 1 the last 2 seasons. Only just signed a 3 year deal as well.
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