Tranmere Rovers Thread

Chris Davies

Chris Davies

Chief PESsimist
Staff
14 May 2003
UK
Tranmere Rovers
Forgive me - this is just a little celebration thread for the fact that my beloved Tranmere Rovers have reached the Conference play-off final (to be played at Wembley this Sunday - I'll be there), and if they win, they'll be a "football league" team again.

The biggest benefit of this, obviously, is that they'd be back in FIFA as of September, if they win, and I can finally play as them in a football game again. (If only PES had more leagues...)

I kid, of course.

It's not the best Tranmere team I've ever seen but it's one of the most cohesive, and after the bitter disappointment of losing in the semi-final of the FA Trophy (a non-league cup competition) - which would have also meant a trip to Wembley - this is a chance to finish on a high, and achieve the first upward-motion on the graph of our last 10 years (which has been relegation after relegation after relegation - from one league below the top-flight, to the heartbreak of becoming non-league).

Wish us luck, please... (Unless you're a Forest Green fan, of course.)

EMP-350315.jpg
 
Great post, Chris...that is the real football.
Was just on Facebook and it appears that it's Dennis Bergkamp's birthday, our friend bobbybox had liked a pĂ´st about his birthday with a compilation of his best goals. Lots of them at Highbury, that was a real football stadium, not like the Emirates...

I'm convinced that the real football with the real spirit is exclusively present at these smaller clubs...hope Tranmere can reach the league again...good luck and enjoy Wembley (fantastic idea to let those clubs play at Wembley).
 
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gerd said:
Was just on Facebook and it appears that it's Dennis Bergkamp's birthday, our friend bobbybox had liked a pĂ´st about his birthday with a compilation of his best goals. Lots of them at Highbury, that was a real football stadium, not like the Emirates...
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I agree, and I wish this was being held at the "old" Wembley - though Tranmere did play there in the league cup final against Leicester in 2000, and I was there for that too (the photo above is from that day), so at least I got to experience that in my lifetime (my team, in a cup final, at the old Wembley - pretty lucky).

One of the best days of my life - up until the first Leicester goal, obviously... I'm hoping it's different this time... But the stadium, steeped in history as it was, made it much more special than it would have been otherwise.

gerd said:
I'm convinced that the real football with the real spirit is exclusively present at these smaller clubs...
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You say that, but a lot of it is route-one football and players kicking lumps out of each other - very traditional, yes, but I wouldn't say it was perfect... :LOL:

gerd said:
hope Tranmere can reach the league again...good luck and enjoy Wembley (fantastic idea to let those clubs play at Wembley).
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Thanks Gerd, I appreciate it!
 
My favourite club were Belgian Champions in 1975 (i was 13 at the time) and a couple of years later they even played the semi-finals in the UEFA Cup. They lost to Athletic de Bilbao, who lost the final against Juventus.

And then the rot set in. They were a Brussels club (i'm from Brussels, from hellhole Molenbeek and the club was from Molenbeek: RWDM which stands for Racing White Daring Molenbeek) and it seems that there is only place for one club in Brussels (Anderlecht) so when the results became less spectacular there was less money and the good players left...a couple of seasons later they were relegated and became a club that constantly went from first to second division and back. That was ok with me, but then they started to fraud and they didn't pay social security for their employees...they didn't do that for years.

My wife works for the service that collects social security contributions from the employers. One day she came home and she said: "today i broke your heart at work". Every Belgian club in the 2 top divisions has to have a license in order to play there. My wife had just signed the paperwork to retrieve my favourite football club's license. They were relegated from the first division to the lowest tier on the Belgian football pyramid (9 divisions lower). I was gutted, but i was allright with the decision, because football clubs aren't above the law. Since then RWDM have climbed 5 divisions and go to matches fairly regularly. Two weeks ago they won the decisive match to become champions before an audience of 8.000 people...

If they would ever reach the first division again, that would mean the world to me...it would be as if Spurs (my other favourite team) would win the Champions League (and that will never happen). Sorry for this long off-topic post. I simply had to tell this story in this thread.

Oh and just a postscript. My wife told me afterwards that some big clubs (Anderlecht, Standard de Liège and Club Brugge) also were fraudulent concerning their contribution, but all was settled. They payed a fine and they never lost their license...that is justice in Belgium.
 
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gerd said:
Sorry for this long off-topic post. I simply had to tell this story in this thread.
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It was a fascinating read Gerd, I didn't know any of this. Maybe I should rename this thread to the "lower league football thread" or the "local team thread". I found your post (which read like an article) more interesting than a 1,000th newspaper article about what Manchester United are "doing wrong" or what Arsene Wenger "needs" to do...

gerd said:
My favourite club were Belgian Champions in 1975 (i was 13 at the time) and a couple of years later they even played the semi-finals in the UEFA Cup. They lost to Athletic de Bilbao, who lost the final against Juventus.
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I can't imagine that my team will ever play in a European competition... I imagine that's a very special feeling.

I was lucky enough to be given tickets to Liverpool v FC Basel once - when Gerard Houllier was manager (September 2002, so I was 18). It was a terrible game - Liverpool passed the ball very delicately from defence to attack and then back again, over and over and over, seemingly scared to make any attacking move and lose possession. It finished 1-1 and that was more than Liverpool deserved, but I remember seeing how every pass (no matter how loose) was controlled and brought down to the ground as if by magic, and thinking it was like watching PlayStation football.

My dad and I were laughing on the way home, because we spotted weeks before that Gerard Houllier used to say "we have turned a corner" after every game that Liverpool didn't lose, and I said "if he turns one more then technically, he's done a full circle" - and of course, during a local radio interview after the game, he said they'd turned a corner...

gerd said:
(RWDM which stands for Racing White Daring Molenbeek)
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Interestingly, one of Tranmere's nicknames (and chants) is "Super White Army" - perhaps our clubs should twin up...!

gerd said:
I was gutted, but i was allright with the decision, because football clubs aren't above the law. Since then RWDM have climbed 5 divisions and go to matches fairly regularly. Two weeks ago they won the decisive match to become champions before an audience of 8.000 people...
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8,000 is more than Tranmere have managed all season (except for the play-off semi final which was 10,000), that's pretty amazing! Tranmere's is a strange stadium though - it's a relic of where the club was 20 years ago.

It's a 16,000-seater stadium, and the average attendance is less than 6,000 - so there's a strange atmosphere to every game (and Tranmere fans are silent for the majority of every match, there's a constant expectation mixed with nervousness).

They've sold 12,000 tickets for the final at Wembley - pales in comparison to the Worthington Cup final in 2000, where 36,000 turned up, but... Still heartwarming...

gerd said:
Oh and just a postscript. My wife told me afterwards that some big clubs (Anderlecht, Standard de Liège and Club Brugge) also were fraudulent concerning their contribution, but all was settled. They payed a fine and they never lost their license...that is justice in Belgium.
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That is justice everywhere, I think. Look at UEFA trying to change the rules so that "little clubs" like Leicester can't qualify for European competition no matter if they win the league because "nobody wants to watch Leicester"... Look at big clubs poaching players from smaller clubs, with tribunals settling the matter by making the bigger club pay a transfer fee of buttons...

In-fact, look at this news story, where a lower-league chairman states that the money being absorbed by the Premier League is killing all football beneath it, only for the Premier League to respond by threatening him. "We will be writing to Mr Holt to ask him if he wishes the Premier League to continue the support we currently provide for his and other clubs in the EFL." In other words, "you peasants are lucky that we feel sorry for you".

Justice isn't real, I feel...
 
Chris Davies said:
In-fact, look at this news story, where a lower-league chairman states that the money being absorbed by the Premier League is killing all football beneath it, only for the Premier League to respond by threatening him. "We will be writing to Mr Holt to ask him if he wishes the Premier League to continue the support we currently provide for his and other clubs in the EFL." In other words, "you peasants are lucky that we feel sorry for you".

Justice isn't real, I feel...
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That article is an illustration of much that is totally wrong with football.
Some year ago i read a book by David Conn of the Guardian about things that are wrong with football.
In Belgium we see that more and more clubs from the first and second division have foreign owners (Monaco owns a second dividion club, for example).

And then there is Roland Duchatelet. People in England know him because he owns Charlton Athletic. He also used to own Standard de Liège while "his wife" owned a second first division club (Sint-Truiden). After he sold Standard, he took over Sint-Truiden from his wife...He also owns clubs in Hungary and Germany...this is not ethic imo.

And then there are the agents. I wonder if agents aren't already influencing some results in football. Hull's new manager is doing a splendid job (even if they would relegate) and that is also because he has done some very good transfers in january. Turns out that almost all these players are with the same agent as Silva himself...

FIFA and UEFA should protect the litle clubs, but we all know better...

I love football, but money is much too important (Redknapp got a quarter million pound for saving Birmingham, he oversaw maximum 5 matches as caretaker manager, this is crazy money).
 
Chris Davies said:
The biggest benefit of this, obviously, is that they'd be back in FIFA as of September, if they win, and I can finally play as them in a football game again. (If only PES had more leagues...)

I kid, of course.
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Here you go Chris.


http://www.mediafire.com/file/5dfivvu6g84y475/KONAMI-WIN32PES6OPT_English_Leagues_V1-1


This is an option file I made last season, all present and correct as at start of 15/16 season apart from some non league clubs that I never got around to finishing. Tranmere were done though. In honour of your imminent Wembley appearance and hopeful return to the football league I've just had a look at your current squad and moved all the players that are in the game onto the Tranmere squad, there's only a couple in your squad that weren't in the game so other than that it's spot on.



Forest Green are in there too (last years squad though) so you could give them a few warm up beatings!
 
gerd said:
I love football, but money is much too important (Redknapp got a quarter million pound for saving Birmingham, he oversaw maximum 5 matches as caretaker manager, this is crazy money).
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Yes and they finished 1 point closer to relegation than when he arrived! Not to mention Sam Allardyce's imminent 4 million pound bonus for keeping up a club (isn't that his job anyway??) who weren't in the bottom three when he arrived! I have nothing against Palace, but I'd love to see Hull beat them this weekend and with a Swansea win as well, then who knows what might happen on the last day.


Did you see this at all? A parody, but sadly so very true and just about sums it all up.

 
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mattmid said:
Here you go Chris.


http://www.mediafire.com/file/5dfivvu6g84y475/KONAMI-WIN32PES6OPT_English_Leagues_V1-1


This is an option file I made last season, all present and correct as at start of 15/16 season apart from some non league clubs that I never got around to finishing. Tranmere were done though. In honour of your imminent Wembley appearance and hopeful return to the football league I've just had a look at your current squad and moved all the players that are in the game onto the Tranmere squad, there's only a couple in your squad that weren't in the game so other than that it's spot on.



Forest Green are in there too (last years squad though) so you could give them a few warm up beatings!
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Ha! I absolutely love this, thank you so much! :D

I'll set this up tonight - it'll take me back to the days of the WE-UK patches and all that, from when Fernando used to provide the translations. Still got all the burned PS2 discs knocking about...
 
Good job you sent me that, Matt (thanks again).

No Tranmere in FIFA this year... 3-1 to FGR.

Such a disappointing day, and even more disappointing refereeing. I've never seen anything like it - twice the referee overruled the linesman in instances where the linesman was within 6ft of the ball and the referee was about 80ft away... Three times their players rugby-tackled our wingers to the floor and the free kick was given the other way (which makes even less sense)...

46 games of blood, sweat and tears - to be ruined by a 26 year old referee who acted like he'd been paid off (interesting note - the owner of the other team is worth ÂŁ100m, the team has ÂŁ12m of debt and they paid ÂŁ200k in agents fees, which is astonishing for a non-league team)...

The plan wasn't good enough on the day, don't get me wrong - and nor were the players who missed a couple of golden opportunities to take the lead at 1-1. But I can't help but feel we'd have got a goal in the second half if the referee hadn't been so awful.

I've never seen anything like it - and to pay ÂŁ100 for tickets, ÂŁ100 for the hotel, ÂŁ80 in petrol and about ÂŁ50 on food and memorabilia, to see it dismantled by an official...

I don't think I'd go if we got to the playoffs again next year. Too heartbreaking.

Anyway. Here's hoping they can keep the core of the team together by the time the next season starts. The chairman (who is well loved) has promised a budget that should "encourage a top third finish". Either we'll fight harder, or we'll fall to bits.

(The history of Tranmere tells me it'll be the latter, but under the new ownership and the new manager, I hope we can stay strong.)
 
Is it with hindsight (i.e. the result) that you didn't enjoy your day, Chris?
I understand that disappointment has taken over right now, but perhaps in a couple of weeks you will look back at it as a great day...
I do appreciate the fact that Tranmere Rovers are a big name for a non league club, but still it is wonderfull for a non league club to be able to play at Wembley (ask Spurs, that is a sour joke as a Spurs fan, i'm sorry).

Really hope Tranmere can go up next season!
 
gerd said:
Is it with hindsight (i.e. the result) that you didn't enjoy your day, Chris?
I understand that disappointment has taken over right now, but perhaps in a couple of weeks you will look back at it as a great day...
I do appreciate the fact that Tranmere Rovers are a big name for a non league club, but still it is wonderfull for a non league club to be able to play at Wembley (ask Spurs, that is a sour joke as a Spurs fan, i'm sorry).

Really hope Tranmere can go up next season!
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I enjoyed the experience, don't get me wrong - and I'm really glad I went. It's just that, in hindsight (not of the result, but of the referee totally spoiling the game - paying a lot of money to watch a lot of hard work get trashed by a kid of a referee), I don't want to watch that happen again. Not next year, anyway.

I just hope more than anything we can achieve the top spot next season (and that the FA see sense and change how many automatic promotion places there are).
 
Sorry it didn't work out well Chris, I really thought they'd win that. I didn't catch the game as I was out at the time but I was surprised to see the result. It's a shame Ben Tollit got injured for you a little while ago, he was tearing the league up wasn't he? I'm a Portsmouth fan and I was really surprised we let him go, I thought we'd have let him stay on loan instead. He didn't get a lot of opportunities with us but looked really promising from the little I saw of him. I did read that he was a bit homesick so maybe that played a part in why we let him go as well.


As to the playoffs, I think they need to be changed to favour the teams who finish higher. To get 90 odds points and not go up is just not right. I'm not sure what league it was now but I remember seeing one where the 5th team played at home to 6th, the winner of that played away to 4th and the winner of that played away to 3rd. That seemed much fairer to me. Finish third and you have to win one home game to go up. If the team in 6th beats the other three all away from home then fair play.

The bitterness of that play off loss won't go away. We had a similar thing in the 93/94 play odds. We missed out on goals scored to West Ham for 2nd in the championship. We finished about 20pts above Swindon in sixth who went up! To make matters worse we lost out to Leicester in the Semi final 2nd leg to an offside goal. Ian Ormondroyd was standing behind our keeper so only one player was between him and the goal when he knocked in a loose ball. No, I won't let it go haha!




How did you get on with the file? Exacted revenge on Forest Green yet!?
 
mattmid said:
It's a shame Ben Tollit got injured for you a little while ago, he was tearing the league up wasn't he?
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He was, he was absolutely brilliant for us. We had seven injuries going into the play-off final, including one leg-break that I was at Prenton Park to see. The snap was like a gunshot. A promising player too - but we have quite a history with promising players getting crocked...

Andy Parkinson was in Michael Owen's year at Lilleshall, and was honestly the best player I've ever seen in the flesh outside of the Premier League. Then, he got smashed in a tackle, his ankle was nearly broken, and was out for about three months. When he came back, you could see how scared he was to take players on - he started bracing himself and running straight into players instead of trying to dribble around them, and all his promise had been scared out of him.

mattmid said:
As to the playoffs, I think they need to be changed to favour the teams who finish higher. To get 90 odds points and not go up is just not right.
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I don't see how it's right that, in League Two, four go up (and four come down from the league above) - yet in the Conference (the league below), TWO go up. ONE automatic place.

It's almost a disadvantage to finish second. Finish 5th-6th and rest your best players a little more often...

The Conference bods have obviously heard the discontent, and their solution is... A six-team play-off (that sounds similar to the system you mentioned). To me, that's even WORSE!

SOURCE: BBC Sport

I see what they're going for, but it's madness. You're telling me it's fair for the team in 2nd to stay put, and the team in 7th (which is a 20pts difference this year) to go up? Even if it's a one-off game for the team in 2nd place?

It's a lottery no matter what, and to turn 46 games of blood sweat and tears into a lottery when you've been 2nd all season, is utter horseshit, as far as I'm concerned.

mattmid said:
The bitterness of that play off loss won't go away. We had a similar thing in the 93/94 play odds. We missed out on goals scored to West Ham for 2nd in the championship. We finished about 20pts above Swindon in sixth who went up! To make matters worse we lost out to Leicester in the Semi final 2nd leg to an offside goal. Ian Ormondroyd was standing behind our keeper so only one player was between him and the goal when he knocked in a loose ball. No, I won't let it go haha!
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Don't talk to me about not letting go - in the league cup final in 2000, I'll never forget the Leicester goal going in off the back of the goalkeeper's big fat fucking head (nor the incorrect offside decision that almost definitely cost us a goal).

mattmid said:
How did you get on with the file? Exacted revenge on Forest Green yet!?
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Not yet - I need to get the game set up on my little Surface tablet, but I will when I can bear to see that fucking FGR badge again...
 
I agree that's another poor format, why include 6th and 7th, why not let the whole league come into the play offs? Oh wait, that's what the season's for! It should be at least two up automatically in the National League now, bloody hell, half the teams came out of League 2 now anyway, it's not like it was years ago when most were semi pro at best and it was a big step for clubs coming up. It looks to be a nightmare of a league to get out of as it stands.

The thing is we all know why there are play offs and a Wembley final - money. Yes to one extent it does keep teams seasons alive later and serves up a fair share of drama but who'd want to on the receiving end of it? Your experience at the weekend, then last night you have Carlisle and Luton going out in the last minute, Luton to an own goal, can it get more sickening than for your entire season to come down to that?

Football is seriously broken. Couldn't help but laugh at Liverpool fans celebrating beating West Ham because they'd nearly guaranteed finishing fourth and getting a champions league spot as if it's some holy grail. Mourinho whinging about his players tired from playing so many games while he's trying to qualify for the champions league so they can play the same amount of games next season FFS! Never mind the fact all the other leagues play 8 games more and have already finished them two or three weeks ago!
 
mattmid said:
ootball is seriously broken. Couldn't help but laugh at Liverpool fans celebrating beating West Ham because they'd nearly guaranteed finishing fourth and getting a champions league spot as if it's some holy grail.
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There was a brilliant Roy Keane interview recently where he said he was ashamed of modern footballers celebrating finishing 4th. He said "can you imagine that happening 15-20 years ago", and I can't. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't think of a team celebrating not winning the league.

Even Tranmere were gutted to have finished 2nd - and to get there, they played the league games, then had to prove themselves for an additional 3 games - so that's 49 games - bearing in mind we got to the semi-final of the FA Trophy, with a couple of replays in there - 56 games - plus the one FA Cup game (ahem)... 57 games - with a tiny squad, about 10 injuries (which is a minor miracle), one serious...

And it was all for nothing.

So when José moans about United playing too many games, I could throttle him. Try getting a real job (without making a scapegoat of a woman on your staff because you had to have an excuse for losing, rather than blaming the player of yours who was rolling around on the floor at the time).
 
Somebody should tell Roy Keane that he is the biggest asshole ever in football and that he should shut up. But for once i can see his point.

You know what is briljant?

THe competition format here in Belgium.

You get 1 teams who play twice against each other.

After those 00 matches the last one gets relegated.

The first six get their points tally halved and then play eacht other twice to decide who will be champion.

I will not bother you with what the other teams have to do, because that is extremely complicated and it changes every year.

The point is that the play-off system is not fair, but brilliant. Our players have to play more big matches and thus our good teams become better.

AA Gent did extremely well in the CL last season (considering their budget): they won a group with Valencia, Zenith and Lyon. Thre clubs that have loads of money more than them.

This year Gent elimninated Spurs with a B team (as a Spurs fan, i was outraged, butr as Belgian i was happy).

Both Anderlecht and Genk went to the QF's and narrowly lost to Celta and Manchester United and this with shoestring budgets compared to all those clubs. Very young players like Trossard (Genk) Den Doncker and Thielemans (both Anderlecht) impressed and will go to bigger clubs.
 
So, the crazy play-off system is now officially being implemented in our league.

A six-team play-off system. With 2nd and 3rd automatically going into the final.

Anything that means the team in 7th place might go up is ludicrous, in my opinion. Why stop at six teams? What about eight? Ten? How about THE TOP HALF?

Just give us two fucking automatic positions, don't do this.

What a joke.
 
It must have been the kits you designed for them. Pretty sure about that.
By the way, have the Tranmere Rovers patch finally come out at the end?
 
scottish_carson said:
I see you’re in for Ross Doohan from Celtic. He was at Ayr for two years and was brilliant, would love him back at Somerset!
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It's really odd though, because our captain and club stalwart is our goalkeeper, Scott Davies (and our backup keeper Joe Murphy is a club legend too).

Of all the positions that need investment, I'd put goalies way down the list - but maybe one of their contracts has expired and it's not public yet, who knows.
 
Chris Davies said:
It's really odd though, because our captain and club stalwart is our goalkeeper, Scott Davies (and our backup keeper Joe Murphy is a club legend too).

Of all the positions that need investment, I'd put goalies way down the list - but maybe one of their contracts has expired and it's not public yet, who knows.
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Well Micky Mellon had him on a short loan at Tannadice last year. He's young, but his development stagnated last year (spent the first half of the season on loan bench warming at Ross County). I can't see him breaking into Celtic first team so lower league English leagues or Scottish Championship is probably his next step. I really rate him, though he was part of that 18/19 Ayr team I absolutely love.
 
scottish_carson said:
Well Micky Mellon had him on a short loan at Tannadice last year. He's young, but his development stagnated last year (spent the first half of the season on loan bench warming at Ross County). I can't see him breaking into Celtic first team so lower league English leagues or Scottish Championship is probably his next step. I really rate him, though he was part of that 18/19 Ayr team I absolutely love.
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Must be tough for him at Celtic. There's that culture in football, a reluctance to throw in a young keeper. I understand it to a point, but look at the state of Barkas. Celtic could do worse than sending him back to Tannadice and getting Siegrist the other way. Siegrist will only do his back in on Sunday picking the ball out of the net. 🤗
 
Flipper the Priest said:
Must be tough for him at Celtic. There's that culture in football, a reluctance to throw in a young keeper. I understand it to a point, but look at the state of Barkas. Celtic could do worse than sending him back to Tannadice and getting Siegrist the other way. Siegrist will only do his back in on Sunday picking the ball out of the net. 🤗
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Well I've heard a few rumours that Dundee Utd are looking to cut their wage bill by quite a bit; I know Shankland was getting ÂŁ2k a week in the Champ. Maybe Celtic can do a cash+player offer, though Utd did just sign Trevor Carson as well.
 
Aye their transfer dealings and managerial appointment suggest they're looking to balance the books. I know some of the ex-Aberdeen contingent were stunned at the wages they were offered!

I'm sure Carson was signed with Siegrist's departure in mind, despite what they say. Carson's a good keeper, and I think his health scare is behind him.

Sorry for hijacking the thread @Chris Davies. There aren't many opportunities to talk Scottish football around here!
 
Nice to see we've broken the template:



We have a FIFA 22 goalkeeper saving us:

 
@Chris Davies I’ve always wondered, what is the Tranmere fanbase relationship with Everton and Liverpool like?

Is it a rivalry or a healthy relationship? Or a bit of both?

Eg. QPR fans hate Chelsea. The clubs have no time for each other despite being world’s apart in terms of success and wealth. But then Barnet have a good relationship with Arsenal and they usually arrange a pre-season friendly at Barnet’s stadium every year.
 
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