Is he coming home?

It's just a rumour for now, but if it's true his signing would be welcome. He seems to be over his injury woes.

I can’t see it happening, when we first switched to a back 3 we started to struggle to find a place in the side for him. We basically built the side around Ruben and he got shifted all over the place. He did play in the attacking midfield role but that was in the National League, League 1 is another level, and he's definitely more suited to playing as a winger.

I like Cal but if it’s true, I’d start to question Richard Montague's obsession is with signing wingers when we play a formation without wingers.

If we were still L2 it'd make perfect sense. @menzinho you make good points about the formation.

If it was announced I'd be happy, but fear it was a mistake...

To replace Maz? Re the question of wingers, Jodi is a winger , not a wing back! Roberts / Bennetts as reserve wide players for next season?

It's semantics really. We have promotion seasons now with Nemane and JJ playing key roles. They're wingers - but remember Nemane's block v Boreham Wood? And JJ does his best to get back and defend under orders from MP. Another example was Calvin Miller, who was on fire for us as winger/wing-back for a short time.

Fans can label them what they want. The important thing IMO is that there's cover behind them. The LCB and the whole team is designed to slide over to cover attacks on that side. But if that wing-back/winger doesn't attack down that side? There's nobody to 'cover' that. That's why LW had to transform Chicksen and he got 11 goals in that promotion season.

If you look at the video of Cal's best goals for Scunthorpe they mainly seem to come from the No.10 position. In Scunny's system he was r-side attack in a 4-3-3.

If he comes back there's no way in the world he'd play left-winger or LWB unless we're chasing games at home. JJ can just about manage the defensive duties but Cal showed us that he really can't. In our system he'd be right side No.10 I think, but that'd mean we need a Iorpenda-type player (with more goals) on the other side. And Cal returning would probably mean we're not keeping Tangan?

It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few days.

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by theAnticlough

I'd suspect it'll be a League 2 team, offering him a starting position at somewhere like Crewe/Grimsby/Chesterfield. I don't think he perfectly maps into our gameplan, and as much as I thought I wouldn't say this, but given that he's gonna be a squad/bench player, I'd much see that given to Grant, given what he offers in pressing/gameplans.

I'm a bit in two minds about this. At the time, Roberts felt like a ridiculous player to have in the National League, he's far too good for that level. However, his best days were as part of a 4-2-3-1 formation, where he still had defensive duties but not to the same extent as a wing back. I'd expect him to fill one of the number 10 positions.

Another question is how well suited he would be to MP's system in which attacking midfielders are expected to act as a first line of defence. And of course how he'd handle the step up to League One, although the Cal Roberts we'd be signing now is older and hopefully wiser. There are many question marks, but the idea of having him back and firing on all cylinders is exciting.

There's something akin to a mass outpouring of grief on Scunny's social media. The club has put out a statement confirming he's leaving, including the following (slightly garbled) lines. Doesn't sound like he's heading to Rochdale to me.

"With the club tabling an offer for Callum in a bid for him to remain for a fourth season, the Iron understand Roberts turned down a number of offers for his services following the end of the season, despite a number of which being much more lucrative than we could offer, however this latest offer was one too good of an opportunity for the outgoing attacker to turn down, and he departs with our well wishes, an abundance of memories and a fantastic legacy in claret and blue."

As much as I love Cal Roberts, we need to find players who are as good as him but who are not injury prone. There's a lot of interest around him which various places are picking up on. I heard before the season ended that he was attracting interest from a League One club that we might not be happy if he signed for.

Rumours are nothing until the manager, or club acknowledges them.

My personal stance is I wouldn't be against him coming back, but he needs to fit our system and we need to have depth for injuries. Him and Jodi in League One could have a hard time staying fit if teams decide to target them.

Is this confirmation?

I think so, ignore my "I can't see it happening comment" my track record with signing predictions is shocking 😅

On the Magpie Circle Paul practically confirmed it, he'll look daft if it doesn't happen now.

I can only see Cal playing as No.10 for us, unless we are changing formation slightly? We are in new league now, who knows? I'm just not sure if we are going to totally be playing to his strengths. We tried to play JJ as No.10 early this season and it never clicked. This is my fear with Cal. I hope he proves me wrong though.

Good catch @Fan of Big Tone, this is what you might call a badly kept secret 😂

I can only imagine the club are holding off announcing it because they want to do the retained list first? This is a very intriguing signing and maybe an exciting one too.

Listened to the Magpie Circle tonight with Paul and Stall, & Paul reckons via reliable sauces that it's a done deal. We are just waiting for official confirmation.