The way forward

In this instance I applaud SOD for his honesty, don't think JR will be too pleased though

If SOD had come on here anonymously as midlandrover and posted some of his comments from the article such as “Last season I said that the squad was not strong enough and we are not as strong as we were last season" he would be shouted down,maybe even called a scaremonger.
Always with the negative waves Moriarty,always with the negative waves.

I'm actually puzzled by this. Why are we weaker than this time last year? The only way you could rationalise this is by reference to injuries. O'Connor, Stock, Martis and Woods all figured in the first game last season, but Dumbaya and Gary Woods then both on the bench, were lacking in experience yet have both come on impressively, Friend was still finding his feet and and Gillett was in a similar stage of development.

This time we also start with Mason, Bennett, Spurr, Brown, Naylor and Keegan in the squad and possibly Bouhenna, Barnes and Vine to step in too.

Chambers was out then as now and we won't be seeing Keegan for the time being either, but the question is whether Stock etc performed significantly better last year than the new signings are likely to fare this time. The fact is that in many ways, most of the injured brigade, with the exception of O'Connor had rather disappointing years. In contrast, in the more recent arrivals, Mustapha, Friend, Gillett, Keegan and Mason who have all progressed in the last year, we have much more potential strength than a year ago.

What is certain is that once the injured players are fit there is no way that we can possibly be weaker than last year. I just cannot believe that SOD thinks Fairhurst, Webster, Brooker and Thomas are better than the players he has acquired..

So I think SOD is trying to lure our rivals into thinking that we are weaker than we really are, so they will underestimate us; the bookmakers have certainly taken the bait

Donaldo, I agree we are strong at the start of this season and with the injuries we already have it makes us an even stronger team for the season. It looks as if the days of a first team player being injured is a disaster are gone. The strength of the squad has improve enormously over this summer break and we have replacements in all positions that are pretty equal to the first eleven. I am having difficulty trying to work out who the best eleven are, I'm glad I'm not SOD. I would say the whole management team have done well for us during this break and we are going into this season with the strongest squad yet in the championship. We can't compete with the top 2 or 3 clubs but I believe we will be able to compete with the rest in this league and have a good chance of attaining a play off position as long as we don't have the same problems as last year.

Come on you Rovers we can give it a good try this year.

"We can't compete with the top 2 or 3 clubs" - - - - - - - the top two or three clubs are trying to buy success, but spending a small fortune on a few, supposedly, gifted players does not always bring success. The manager needs to gel those players into a team and that doesnt always happen as Mr Erikson proved at Manchester City and to a certain degree Paul Jewel did similar at Derby. Its managers like S'OD at Rovers and McDermott at Reading who get groups of pretty average players playing as a team and they are the "achievers" who get results, not the ones whose chairman has the fattest wallet.

SOD is right it is going to be our hardest season yet. Re the squad- it's probably not significantly better or worse than last year at this time. I saw a prediction in a National newspaper saying we could finish anywhere from 14th to 24th depending on what miracles SOD can work again, and they are probably right. Where we end up will probably be determined by our luck, or lack of it, with injuries again. The good news is the average of bookmakers relegation odds has us moving above Coventry and Barnsley into 22nd!

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Donaldo you should take over from Steve Claridge. Excellent analysis.

Yeah, it's a journalist's thing about the championship being stronger and as you say Donaldo, virtually impossible to prove.

The only point for me is that the relegated teams seem to be in a better financial state than last season, so I think West Ham, Birmingham and Blackoool will be a lot more prominent this season than Portsmouth, Hull and Burnley were last season.

But as you point out, none of the promoted sides will do a Norwich. I can see Southampton being the best of them. They may finish in the top half.

Does that make for a stronger division? I certainly wouldn't bet on it.

Just listened to 5 Live's "special" on the NpC. There was Gus Poyet being realistic about Brighton consolidating, Sven talking comfortably about spending Leicester's money and West Ham equally confidently tipped for success.

Big-investing Ipswich and Bristol City were not even mentioned so I'd be a bit upset if I was one of their fans and only Blackpool, Southampton and Cardiff considered as competent promotion material.

Derby, Forest, Leeds, Birmingham were not written off, but were more the subject of neutral comment than anything more optimistic.

DRFC were not mentioned till near the end despite sizeable publicity that BBC 5 live's football programme is from the the Amex on Saturday - will SOD speak or invoke the 5th Amendment as is customary? Even Poyet avoided any reference to us despite references to "the first game less than 3 days away". However it will be challenging for the BBC to ignore us completely. I wonder whcih team they will want to win?

So when did we get a mention? Relegation? Well not quite. Who did the pundits see going down? One vote went to Coventry and our friend Claridge was very reluctant to name names and then made a spread bet. Barnsley, Peterborough and (here it comes I thought) PALACE!!! But then the sting in the tail... "but perhaps Doncaster might get drawn into it."

So there you are; we just escape again.