The New Rovers?

[Tom Fleuriot]

I can't find the thread about us being the new Rovers, but I think the difference is that Rovers' big players were all transferred into the Gas rather than raised through the academy.

Us selling our big players isn't the same because we have got a conveyor belt going on. Off the top of my head I can think of;

4 Prem players (Golbourne, Lita, Rosenior, Cotterill)

4 Champ players (Hill, Coles, Doherty, Anyinsaah)

4 first-team squad City players (Woodman, Carey, Williams, Skuse)

4 other League One players (Burnell, Odejayi, Scott Brown, Amankwaah).

All of whom came out of the academy (and I'm not counting people like Gillespie or Andy Cole, who went straight into our reserves as a young player).

Let's give Rovers Nigel Martyn, Jason Roberts, Ellington, Zamora, Hayles. All of these guys were purchases.

We won't collapse like because we're not reliant on luck with scouts, but instead have a conveyor belt of talent that renews itself. The Gas may get lucky with Ollie Barnes or the Rotherham chap, but we've got Artus, Benyon, Klein-Davis, Williams, Wilson all waiting in the wings.

So anyone who's bemoaning our lack of ambition, the academy IS a sign of our ambition, it's just long-term. We'll be grand.