League 2 Predictions

[Richinns]

I admire your optimism folks,

I've entered my final league table on various forums and have you finishing 20th.

You have lost your better players and replaced them with worse players....I can honestly only see that having one result.

Crewe will be the darkhorses in this league.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Gashead1979]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Honest assessment, if you'd replaced the players you lost with better or the same then surely you'd be expecting to be on par with the gas?? Plus Ling is your boss....

[Regiment]

EDIT : Removed my own content. there's enough topics on the banter board to discuss how great rovers are etc etc, let's keep this one for League 2 Predictions before it gets relocated.

[Gashead1979]

Edit: Ok i'll remove my reply then

[Richinns]

Honest assessment, if you'd replaced the players you lost with better or the same then surely you'd be expecting to be on par with the gas?? Plus Ling is your boss....

And we are supposed take your judgement on whether our replacements are worse than what was here previously are we?

You are here only to try and provoke a reaction - its very sad. How are the school holidays by the way??

[taunton_gull]

Gashead - either that's a poor attempt at trolling or you're not very well informed. I assume you aren't referring to our keeper as I think it would be widely accepted that our new no.1 is a class apart from Scott Bevan who will be turning out for you next season! We've lost Guy Branston but have a more than adequate replacement in Brian Saah and from what I've seen so far in pre-season I can't see why Rene Howe won't be as successful as Chris Zebroski. From reports your end it doesn't exactly sound as though Zebs has been pulling up trees anyway.

The fact is we had the nucleus of a good team when Buckle left and Martin Ling has just carried on the good work on the recruitment front. In Eunan O'Kane we have one of, if not the most gifted midfielder in league 2 and even PB seems to accept he is way out of your price range. I admit I would have liked to see Craig Stanley in a yellow shirt this season but given that our new manager actually wants to play players in their correct positions we won't miss him as Lee Mansell can do exactly the same job. I certainly don't see us being anywhere near you this season but looking at the resources at both clubs there's no reason we should be. However to predict us as finishing 20th is quite simply laughable.

[royalgull]

I admire your optimism folks,

I've entered my final league table on various forums and have you finishing 20th.

You have lost your better players and replaced them with worse players....I can honestly only see that having one result.

Crewe will be the darkhorses in this league.

That's an opinion not fact.

i think we have a midtable side as we stand right now. As you say in your recent post yes we will see once the real games start but the performances of the new boys has been positive thus far. We've lost a few key players but they've been replaced as best as possible, in my table giving us a demotion of 4 places which I feel about right.

I've got Rovers to go well because the spine of your team looks good on paper, however I do think your forwards aren't that brilliant. Especially Harrold, you've spent money on someone that's never got 10 goals in a single season. Woeful return. McGleish is 37, was last season his last hurrah? who knows.

Teams have looked good on paper and failed to deliver countless times and what I or anybody else think in predictions are all meaningless. Looking at Northampton's squad I would never ever have picked them to be in the bottom 5 or 6 last season, but they were. Buckle will be under pressure to deliver promotion next season and with the amount of player changes you've had it's not beyond the realms of possibility that you start slowly.

[Dave]

I admire your optimism folks,

I've entered my final league table on various forums and have you finishing 20th.

You have lost your better players and replaced them with worse players....I can honestly only see that having one result.

Crewe will be the darkhorses in this league.

The thing 1979,you did not see us last season,and you have not see us in pre-season,everything you have written about us is just assumption's.

We saw Bevan for 3 season's,he probaly is the tallest keeper in the football league,so why is it that the much smaller olejnik has more confidence and abilty coming out and claming crosses,and has proven to us already has far greater abilty at dealing with back passes and kicking,so there is a huge positive,as trust me Olejnik is a better keeper than Bevan.

Branston was key at the back for us last season,we now have Saah,who is equal to Branno as a defender,however is a lot younger and is quicker,and has one thing that Branno does not have,the ability to pass the ball out from the back,so a slight plus there.

As zebroski played out wide i see Morris as his replacment rather than Howe,Morris has had several season's as a first team Championship player,it show's he has better first touch than zeb's,and every bit as skillfull,he will bring every bit as much if not more to our wide play ,so i would say equal to Zeb's.

I see Howe as more as a replacement for Tomlin,Howe can hold the ball every bit as good as Tomlin,link's up the same as Tomlin,and when his weight is under control and it will be,i think he will prove to be as good if not better finisher as Tomlin.

I think these are some pretty good reason's why most of us gulls are optimistic about this season,i think there is no doubt our starting 11 is as good if not better,the only concern i have is our squad lacks depth,and this is the only reason why i do not expect us to mount a promotion challenge.

If you or any other club's fan's want to underestimate us,fine no problem with that,we actually have a decent team,capable of giving any team in this league a good game on it's day.

[Gashead1979]

The thing 1979,you did not see us last season,and you have not see us in pre-season,everything you have written about us is just assumption's.

We saw Bevan for 3 season's,he probaly is the tallest keeper in the football league,so why is it that the much smaller olejnik has more confidence and abilty coming out and claming crosses,and has proven to us already has far greater abilty at dealing with back passes and kicking,so there is a huge positive,as trust me Olejnik is a better keeper than Bevan.

Branston was key at the back for us last season,we now have Saah,who is equal to Branno as a defender,however is a lot younger and is quicker,and has one thing that Branno does not have,the ability to pass the ball out from the back,so a slight plus there.

As zebroski played out wide i see Morris as his replacment rather than Howe,Morris has had several season's as a first team Championship player,it show's he has better first touch than zeb's,and every bit as skillfull,he will bring every bit as much if not more to our wide play ,so i would say equal to Zeb's.

I see Howe as more as a replacement for Tomlin,Howe can hold the ball every bit as good as Tomlin,link's up the same as Tomlin,and when his weight is under control and it will be,i think he will prove to be as good if not better finisher as Tomlin.

I think these are some pretty good reason's why most of us gulls are optimistic about this season,i think there is no doubt our starting 11 is as good if not better,the only concern i have is our squad lacks depth,and this is the only reason why i do not expect us to mount a promotion challenge.

If you or any other club's fan's want to underestimate us,fine no problem with that,we actually have a decent team,capable of giving any team in this league a good game on it's day.

I'm not underestimating anyone, I just predicted you will finish 20th because I don't think you are a better team than last season purely based on players that have come and gone, same as I judged my own team so far........thats just my opinion.

Don't read too much into friendlies, big boy matches start on Sat and thats where we'll start seperating the men from the boys.

Bit early to say Saah is better than Branston or your new keeper is better than Bevan after a handful of friendliles!!?.

[JamieE]

I admire your optimism folks,

I've entered my final league table on various forums and have you finishing 20th.

You have lost your better players and replaced them with worse players....I can honestly only see that having one result.

Crewe will be the darkhorses in this league.

You say we will finish 20th because we have not replaced our players.

You say Crewe will be darkhorses.

Tell me, who have Crewe replaced 28 goal man Clayton Donaldson with?

[Regiment]

you're entitled to your opinion 1979, but i totally agree with forevertufc.

we are more than happy with what Ling has done to date, and we look well prepared for the season ahead.

you will see as the season unfolds, that there are far worse teams in this division - i say that from what i saw last season, and none of those teams has strengthened sufficiently to suggest they will be any better this year. yes, there appears to be, on paper, some very strong sides in Div2 this year, yourselves included, but we won't be far away. i think you'll be surprised by what some Div2 teams have to offer, and whilst buckle has bought quantity, most of what he's brought in are Div2 players, so while you should be at the right end of the table, you won't be head and shoulders above everyone else, that's for sure.

[royalgull]

Definitely. in the same way it's too early to say the new players are worse than the old ones.

if the new keeper is solid enough and can kick the ball he'll be better than Bevan, I have never seen a professional goalkeeper as clueless with the ball at his feet than Scott Bevan, absolute ticking timebomb. Buckle dropped him for 10 games last season when the wind kicked up because Bevan couldn't reach the half way line. I am looking forward to see Saah because Branston was massive for us. How he does will have a huge bearing on the season.

also very interested to see how Morris and Howe go. I wasn't bothered about Zebroski going, i've never been a big fan of his and would rather watch a footballer than a workhorse with zero football brain. He'll run around a lot, score a few goals for you, he is effective at this level but for me I really don't think we'll miss him too much. I don't think Morris will get near 15 goals but I really hope he can contribute more in the creating part of the game, he's a better footballer with a much better pedigree and should give us a natural balance we've never really had. Hopefully Howe and Kee can put the chances away along with Saah, those 2 are the other big 2 for us next season. How they go will decide how we as a team do.

[Gashead1979]

you're entitled to your opinion 1979, but i totally agree with forevertufc.

we are more than happy with what Ling has done to date, and we look well prepared for the season ahead.

you will see as the season unfolds, that there are far worse teams in this division - i say that from what i saw last season, and none of those teams has strengthened sufficiently to suggest they will be any better this year. yes, there appears to be, on paper, some very strong sides in Div2 this year, yourselves included, but we won't be far away. i think you'll be surprised by what some Div2 teams have to offer, and whilst buckle has bought quantity, most of what he's brought in are Div2 players, so while you should be at the right end of the table, you won't be head and shoulders above everyone else, that's for sure.

You may know different having watched PSF's, for what they are worth, but most teams will be looking at Torquays comings and going and think you will have a poorer team.

Howe is a journeyman nobody wanted, wont score any more that 6-7 if he stays fit
Saah followed Ling around after failing a few trials with L2 clubs
Your keeper came from Scottish footy, nuff said, we've had a few at Rovers who were world beaters up there but then.....
Morris - Another guy who spent half his career on loan, wasn't impressed with him at Scunthorpe or carlisle.
Atieno - Blimey another young journeyman, should have taken up Basketball in the states like his brother.

Of course im open to be proved wrong, but dont think I will, and in any case we have bigger fish to fry.

[Southampton Gull]

Bigger fish to fry? We play the same teams in the league as you do this season my old mucker. You really aren't that bright are you?

[Scott Brehaut]

If you have bigger fish to fry why do you continue to come onto our site?