Quote: SirStan "Of the 3 departing players you mention, only Taylor made any contribution to 2012. Watts did nothing in a Rovers shirt last season, so Tuimarve (sp?) doesn't have to do more than make 1 tackle on his debut to be an improvement. Green played 9 games, and looked unfit in all 9. Burns might miss a few games at the start of the season, but again, doesn't have to do much to be an upgrade on 2012 Blake Green.
Of the 3 you mention coming in, Brown won't be an automatic 1st choice, but a solid squad winger is something we had to rely on Latus for (who you have personally chuckled at, so even you will agree that Brown is an upgrade). Gleeson will replace sickbed Webster, and Paterson in for Galea. Now, this is the only replacement who has to step up to be an upgrade on the player leaving. That said, BG missed 10 games last year, so hardly value for 100K pa.'"
Watts was a penalty machine for us last season before he spat his dummy out at not getting picked and put in a transfer request. He went well at FC for the remainder of the season but the real test will come when the novelty wears off - Matterson and Sandercock got rid for a reason so it remains to be seen he he will go once he's got his feet under the table at FC. Tiumavava played 20 games in 2011 and not many last year but as long as he puts in an honest shift it will be more than we got from Watts.
Green's blood clot kept him out for most the season and he only managed 9 games before he got hamstring trouble
as so often happens after periods out. But even in those 9 games he just didn't look like the same player so the club did well to sell him to Wigan and replace him with a superior player in Burns who is still the right side of 30.
Brown has all the physical attributes needed and comes with good comments from Kear so he's worth a punt - Caro probably sounds more promising though; fastest player in the league and showing a commitment to move away from the big smoke indicates he's coming for the right reasons.
Webster was continually injured and in and out the team all the time so had to go. Gleeson is still only 24 and showed some good form for Salford and I certainly expect him to play more games which should help our defensive problems out wide.
Galea is my favourite Rovers player of the SL era but I think we've kept him a season too long already. I think the knee injury he sustained back in 2008 is catching up with him and the last time it reoccured in the pre-season derby when he went off in the early stages instigated a search for a new second-rower which led to Cory Paterson. When Galea returned it took him a long time to regain any real fitness obviously because of his age and he again ran into trouble with hamstring trouble IIRC. He played 17 games last season and most of them he was nowhere near full fitness IMO so I'm happy we've signed Paterson who looks to have all the attributes to be a big hit in SL providing he can regain the form he had as a few years ago whilst under Sandercock at Newcastle.
Unlike the vast majority of Rovers fans, I actually rate McDonnell and would have liked to keep him but the Chairman is right not be held to ransom for 130k.
Losing Taylor is a big blow but if he doesn't want to be here long term, then there's no point in him staying next year. I've big hopes for James Green and hopefully Beaumont can make his mark if he gets a bit of luck with injuries.