cn174

It seems he was well liked at Everton so you think he'll be worth the 'expense' in the Championship? Whilst watching our defence go to pieces every time Wolves attacked today, any help we can get would be appreciated! I'm just quite happy that we are gonna sign anyone for to dispel the myth that we cant sign anyone unless we sell Rhodes.

Just thought I'd pop by (it's been a while!) and say 'come on Everton'. I've only got two hopes left for the season - one that Wigan don't get promoted and two that Man U don't scab into Europe. For what it's worth I think you will win 3-1 I'm not sure about Champs League though, I think Arsenal are going to do just enough to stay there.

Haha, 'poor team' is practically a compliment nowadays!!

Well that was a hard game for you eh?! Think you were looking quite good today actually. Only when we brought on Rochina and some of the other subs did we look half threatening. Our central midfield is like a pub team - can only pass backward if we're lucky! Probably Rhodes' worst game for us today which doesn't help. We don't much look like a team whose season starts next Saturday. Think you'll do alright though. Thought Barkley and Oviedo were your best players. Re the attendance, Rovers have never ever had a big attendance for pre-season, not that I can remember anyway. Anyway, a nice photo of your support. https://twitter.com/Northern_Rover/status/361149985431117824/photo/1 Not sure what else I can offer for us apart from at least we've got an away kit already

Ha, yea I meant normal run of the mill game. Not a team whom you are playing in a 'prestige friendly' I think you will be waiting later rather than sooner! Thing about the Championship is that you don't have to be particularly anything special to be get into the play offs. Contrary to popular belief that the Championship is 'hardest league' or 'best league' it's actually really crap. Everyone is crap, if you're a bit better then that then you'll do alright, maybe even go up. Right now I'd just get a season of being a normal footy team, rather than the circus we've turned into. Still, there's 8 days before the season for Venky's to do somat stupid!

Thanks people!! A very short and quick preview I've done. I think if any of you are coming to Ewood you might be quite shocked at just how quickly the transition from mid table PL team to lower league plodders we have become If that was ever the Venky's intention they've done a bloody good job. I'm not sure who we'll play, it took us about 10 minutes to work out who was who at PNE on Tuesday!! http://www.brfcs.com/mb/index.php/topic/29671-everton-the-prestige-friendly/

Although I see you're playing Juventus then LA Galaxy/Real Madrid next week of course you'll agree your 'prestige' friendly is against us on Saturday!! If you could answer a few questions for my match preview that would be appreciated - Although early for you, how has pre-season gone so far? - Martinez, good match for Everton? (I don't rate him personally) - Hopes and expectations for the new season? - Likely team to start vs Rovers - Without looking can you name 11 Rovers players nowadays?! Extra bit of info for anyone that is visiting Ewood. The Fernhurst, the big pub across the road, is no longer a football pub, so don't bother going.

As an outsider I'm not sure it's a good appointment for you. Martinez seems to have got a reputation as being some genius manager when really he's just managed to scrape Wigan staying in the PL by getting them playing well for 6-7 games at the end of the season. You are his chance for him to see if he's any good with a decent team. I can't help but think the comment about getting into the Champs League is going to come back to haunt him. Whatever you do, don't get relegated! Forget all the rumours you may have heard about the championship being a more exciting, competitive league bla bla - its proper crap!

Rhodes just scores goals, he doesn't have too much of an all round game, although I think he's better at linking up than others give him credit for - just we've got noone else half decent to link up to (whats point in holding ball up only to have just Jason Lowe to pass it to!). But to have scored 27 goals in our utter shite team is no mean feat, quite a few of them he's set up him himself as well. If you create chances for him, he'll put them away. Simple! The only thing is he's on big wages and I would hope we'd want to make some kind of profit on him, especially given that Balaji Rao (the fat one) paid for him out of his personal money. That said they'd probably take £8,000,001 right now and deem it to be a profit, such is their thickness!

Yea. He just scores goals. Give him chances and he'll score, even in our awful, awful team. I dread to think how soon we'd have been relegated without him. Some criticise him for not creating chances for others as much as he should, but imo that's the job for the other players. I think I'd rather have a striker who can score 27 in a season rather than someone who can hold the ball up and score 6/7. He's supposed to be on big wages though, and we've got £8m to make back on him before we make a profit so I think that's what might stop others from coming in for him.

Hope so, Goodwillie would be ace for you!!

As if you're not all mega excited to be playing the mighty Rovers in preseason Wish it was at goodison, miss our trip there

6th or 7th

Good luck from me n all :) You're my premiership team for this year! Be sad not to come to Goodison for the first time in 12 years unless we get you in the cup. I've just done my championship fantasy football team and properly depressed myself!!

Interesting. Isn't it against FA, UEFA and FIFA rules to resell footy tickets though? I always thought it was, but maybe that has changed. Although anyone who is able to sell a ticket for Everton vs Southampton (for example) at a profit deserves the extra money they make

You should be all over Hoilett - I'd love him to stop at Rovers but it's not happening and I think he'd be an excellent signing for you with Jelavic up front. He's quick, takes people on, got a decent shot on him too. I would say that without him last season we'd have been dead and buried by about February. It was one of them - if Hoilett played well we had a chance of winning, if he didnt we might as well have just not bothered turning up. Hoilett has actually been at Rovers since he was 14-15. However because he is Canadian (and doesn't want to play for them because he's 'waiting' for an england call up) he couldn't get a work permit here. He spent a few years in Germany at Paderborn and St Pauli (where he won thier player of the year) before coming back to Ewood. It was a long fight to get him another work permit when he signed 2 years ago, and I think that might be the only sticking point for someone in England taking him on. He wont be fully free for Everton, he'd be about £3m from a tribunal because of his age and how long he's been at Rovers. But for us it'd be better than him going to Bayern because then we'd get nowt.

lol can't believe I set myself up for that one I think you're right about 1999, it was a big fall. However there is a major difference this time. In 1999 everyone at the club wanted what was best for Rovers and were pulling out all the stops to get us promoted again - and it still took us two seasons. This time however that couldn't be further from the truth. The Venkys dont give a single crap, Kean (if he's still here when I've clicked post) can't see past the end of his stupid smirk on his face, and there's literally noone left at Ewood to run the place. Our whole management structure which served us brilliantly the past 10 years has been sacked off - we dumped off the one last person who had any remote experience of working in football last week. So it's not looking good. As you say getting promotion from the Championship is hard at the best of times, but with all this as well it makes it even harder. I just don't think Everton are in danger of getting relegated. However bad you think you are, you're not among the worst 5/6/7 teams in the league, even if you sell Fellaini (as said above).

If I was you, I'd be looking at Hoilett. Has bags of pace, can change a game, scores goals. He does have a bit of a chip on his shoulder, but without him and Yak we'd have been dead and buried a long time ago. Oh and you'll get him cheap.

I know it's looking tough for you, but don't be selling out to any cowboys like we did! From mid table plodders to relegation fodder in 18 short months, with money disappearing left right and centre

Please win

Haha brilliant. I particularly like this bit 'I did not watch the game vs Everton because....' I'm like many - at first I wanted City to do well to add a bit of interest, but I've gone off that idea completely! As for the game, I thought you played really well and exactly how you need to play against the likes of City, keep it solid at the back and they struggle sometimes to break you down. Might not be pretty but don't think you should be too bothered. Thought Gibson had a decent game - for £500,000 we could've done with someone like him - and Squatshi up front was good. Like I said in the Rovers thread last week, there's no way you're going to be in a relegation fight come the end of the season, comfortably midtable for you.

It's interesting how everyone seems to think their team is worse than everyone elses. My Bolton mates are convinced they're going to finish bottom, Wigan fans the same. I think the only ones from the list above who will get completely out of it are QPR now they've got Hughes (if you were going to get rid of Moyes and get someone else there was your chance gone!). I just cannot see you getting fully embroiled in it all, when there's us four + WBA hanging around. Everyone is looking at their own fixtures with an equal amount of dread. We cannot keep a clean sheet to save our lives - 26 league games it is now and a shiny record to go with it - but he just ignores that as if it isn't important. I've got a bad feeling about the transfer window - Barclays want the £10m that we owe them, Birmingham want the money for Dann because we've not paid them yet either - so I think we're just going to ship anyone and anybody out. We could probably offer you Jason Roberts for free but I'm not sure he'd help your cause too much

Blinkin eck, we're much closer to that than yous! I don't think you'll come close to going down. Thought it was a pretty even but not great game from both of us. I was quite surprised at how average you were. We're not a hard team to beat, the slightest bit of pressure in midfield and we crumble, but you didn't put us under much pressure at all. Both goals probably should've been chalked off, both handball. Bit nervous right at the end when we cleared it off the line twice but glad we hung on. Thought Saha and Gibson were poor for you - like I said before Saha nearly always scores against us, but just didn't seem up for it. And I've got to admit I've never heard of that lad who come on for you, Squatchisomething, but he didn't do right much. As for us, we've given ourselves a chance. I think it is definitely now 3 from 4 teams to go down, and I think Bolton (Liverpool didn't do us any favours today!) are the most likely to get out of it, but we'll see. Hopefully will get to come to Goodison again next season

Morning! Just about to set off to Liverpool. Despite our win last week, not overly confident about today. We'll miss Yakubu and we don't have a single player in the midfield who can tackle. We're relying on Hoilett having a good game - depends if he can be bothered . No doubt Saha will score his customary goal against us! COYB!

If I may stick up for the chaps on here a little, it is a royal pain in the arse changing the skin on IPB Forums. It's my 'job' over on brfcs, but with every software upgrade they seemingly change the code completely so you have to start all over again pretty much. So after a while you just learn to make friends with the default skin!! Anyway, at least the default skin isn't red