Colkett

Another poor DC signing then. He has really lost the plot in that area since we got promoted.

If we are going to throw money at the infrastructure and not the team I would want to see it spent on scouting- early days but Widdrington does not seem to be helping much.

He was a bit lightweight IMO

McBurnie was better and he's kicked on

What does it say?
McBurnie here for promotion push. You rather he played and we did not go up?

do you really delight in other peoples failure? how sad

I'd have to disagree.

Colkett was very capable, as evidenced by his goals at Bradford, Northampton and Oldham. The back-heel that set up one of the goals at MK Dons showed an awareness that was way above League One standard.

I remember Boateng's debut (at home to Rochdale) where he looked strong and skilful and tore through the opposition midfield. There were similar displays away at Sheffield United, amongst others.

However, neither player (at that stage in their careers) had the single most-prized attribute: reliability. Darrell famously subbed both players early, away at Shrewsbury in the 2-0 defeat, because they weren't at the races. 

I guess Gaffney (currently playing in the Conference) could have been sacrificed for Mcburnie, who went on to make 12 appearences in the premiersh*t.

www.theguardian.com/football/2018/oct/04/swansea-oli-mcburnie-scotland-socks-shin-pads-interview


Oli McBurnie has only heard the words “your style of play” at the beginning of the question and he is already roaring with laughter. “I can’t wait to hear what you’re going to say,” the Swansea striker adds as he stretches out that lean 6ft 3in frame with a big grin on his face.

As it happens, McBurnie needs no prompting. “Everyone says I’m a throwback. The Steve Claridge shout – I get that one a lot. Obviously the way I look is not the way that everybody else looks on the pitch. Even the way I play – people say I look clumsy, leggy, all that sort of thing. I’m guess I’m unorthodox. But it just works to my advantage because I get underestimated all the time.”

For those unfamiliar with McBurnie, the Scotland international is a fascinating character. He plays with his shirt out and his socks rolled down by his ankles, and wears shin pads that serve no purpose other than to comply with the rules. “They’re toddlers’ ones,” McBurnie says, when asked about the size of his pads. “They’re the smallest I can find. We never wear shin pads in training, and then you go into a game and wear them, so that feels alien to me.”

McBurnie is not finished there. “I wear these socks on a matchday,” he adds, pointing to the white ankle socks he has on. “I know this might sound very pedantic to other people, but the long football socks feel different and are a lot baggier in your boot, so I cut the foot bit off them, so the rest covers up my ankles, and then roll it over. But effectively I’m just wearing these [ankle] socks with shin pads. I’m quite meticulous in terms of the things that I do.”

The rather unusual dress code, McBurnie explains, is partly down to comfort but also a superstition that started with a loan at Chester, where the kit was so old that the elastic had gone in the socks. “I kept pulling them up and was getting sick of it,” McBurnie says. “I think it was the third game I played, Welling away, the pitch was horrific, they were kicking lumps out of us, and I thought: ‘I’m just going to see if it’s comfy with the socks down.’ I scored my first professional goal that day, so I’ve stuck with it ever since.”

That was in January 2015, when McBurnie was on loan from Bradford. He joined Swansea that summer and it has been a long and winding road to get to the stage where he is wearing the No 9 shirt for his club and a mandatory pick for the Scotland squad. Swansea’s relegation helped his prospects at club level, for sure, but the real game-changer was last season’s loan at Barnsley. McBurnie scored nine times in 17 Championship appearances and won their player-of-the-year award despite being at Oakwell for only three months.

“I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for Barnsley,” he says. “Before Barnsley, it had been stop-start at Swansea. I was involved; I was back down with the under-23s; I was on the bench. I never really got going. I’m starting a game at Anfield [on Boxing Day last year] and then the next week I’m in the squad for the under-23s – it’s hard to adjust. But Barnsley gave me the platform to be playing first-team football and I’ll always be grateful to them. And because of that, Swansea then trusted me to be the No 1 striker, because they’d seen me do it in a team that was struggling in the Championship.”

McBurnie should have joined Barnsley five months earlier but “one missing signature – not mine” meant that the EFL rejected the transfer a week after it had been announced. “I was actually at a house viewing up there, for a place that I ended up buying – I’ve moved my mum in there now – and I got a call to say my loan hadn’t gone through. I thought it was a wind-up,” says McBurnie.

When McBurnie returned from Oakwell for a second time, in the summer, he had a big decision to make. He had only 12 months left on his contract and was not short of offers elsewhere, but one conversation with Graham Potter, Swansea’s manager, was all it needed. “We must have spoken for an hour in his office,” McBurnie says. “That was the first day of pre-season and he was taking the time out to speak to me, saying he wanted me to be here, that he wanted me to be his No 9 and that he thought he could make me into a better player, and that he thought I could help us become a better team. I got out of that meeting, rang my agent and said: ‘I want to sign the deal.’”

Potter’s arrival, McBurnie says, has reinvigorated the squad. “It’s just a good place to come into work every day,” he says. “And it’s such a good dressing room now, in terms of players wanting to learn, wanting to fight for each other, and for the manager. And I think you can see that when you look at some of the games.”

In a season when he has played wide left and in the No 10 role as well as through the middle up front, McBurnie has two assists and four goals, including a superb double against Leeds that was especially enjoyable given he was playing against his hometown club. Not only that but a club who released him for – and it is hard not to smile at how ridiculous this now sounds – “being too small”.

While a growth spurt in his mid-teens dramatically altered his appearance, nothing was going to change his international allegiances. Born in Leeds to an English mother and Scottish father, McBurnie could, in theory, have represented either country. The reality was rather different.

Asked what say his mum had in his choice, McBurnie replies: “Zero. She tried her best but had no influence whatsoever. The second me and my brother were old enough, we were wearing a Scotland or a Rangers shirt. Looking back on it now, I can see why other people would think it was weird. Me and my brother, with broad Yorkshire accents, going into school on non-uniform days in Scotland shirts with our face painted in Scotland colours. I don’t know if people have had the experience of a dad who wants you to do something ... you don’t have much say in it.”

McBurnie’s laughter as he makes that last comment captures his mood these days. Swansea are not so much in transition as starting over again, yet McBurnie gives the impression that being a professional footballer has never been so much fun. “At Sheffield United [on the opening day], we were looking around at each other during the game and we were smiling and enjoying playing,” he says. “It’s not been like that at this club for a long time and it’s such a refreshing attitude to have.”

No, I was just stating a fact, because I am interested in all of Rovers teams. I'm sad because you are obviously a knob head, and that is sad

Its good that you wanted mcburnie to play more at the time as it proves you were not saying it after the fact.
But we got promoted with the decisions on team selection the manager made.
Stevek192 and his ratings are subjective and although i quite like his reports i often disagree with him as im sure others do.