On Friday night, along with PNE, my boys, the mighty Rovers, kick off the Championship season with home games against Sheffield Utd and Derby County.
I dont know what to expect from Rovers this season. So far we've kept the squad together, we were a better team than our final league position showed but got dragged into a downward spiral that's so hard to climb out of.
It's rumoured Szmodics will go to Ipswich. Without his goals we would have been relegated. Ipswich have yet to match the price tag. That isn't surprising. Sammie is 28 (29 in September) and scored 65 league goals in the first ten years of his career. Last season he got 27. Rovers are the highest placed club he's played for, the rest of his career was mainly at Colchester and Peterborough. I think it's pretty clear why Ipswich haven't matched Rovers asking price. He's under contract till August 2026.
We've signed 5-6 players. I've heard of two of them but beyond that it's wait and see.
For many of us the jury is out on John Eustace as manager. He was brought in to "save" the club from relegation, yes we were in free fall. We stayed up, taking 18 points from Eustace's 17 games in charge. We won 3 of those. That's an average of a point a game, which would have seen us relegated over a season.
There's no discernible pattern to Eustace's style of play. Will he deliver? Can he deliver? I have absolutely no idea what to expect.
The only certainty is my lad and I will be there for every game!
