Walton Nyambe Lenihan Tosin Downing Travis Evans Holtby Brereton Graham Armstrong

Think some are underestimating just how quick Downing can be. One of my earliest memories of him this season that really stood out was him beating the likes of Nyambe and a few others when sprinting back towards goal. Forgot which match it was though. Downing has a football brain which is why he can easily adapt to so many positions. For me it is a no-brainer that he goes to LB on previous showings considering our depth in midfield to replace him and the lack of the same in that position. Bennett already gets targetted when playing on his favoured side and on his weaker side he will get rinsed. A young player making his debut will also struggle in a game we need to win against one of their best players who are fighting to stay up. Downing all day, every day for me.

You are either being disingenuous or you are ridiculously naive You honestly think that TM, who lives in the north east and is a football obsessive hadn’t even heard of Sunderland’s Scotland international and number 1 keeper until last week?!

Wow, Rovers behaving like every other business in the world! Bravo Chaddy for your insight!

I think we're seeing yet more evidence of the 'two clubs' system that our esteemed owners have put in place. On the one hand we've the club down at Ewood, which includes staff, facilities and essentially has to wash its own face on the income the club can generate. Waggott is tasked with scrimping and saving, minimising overheads where possible. End result is desperation levels of fundraising and penny pinching, evident lack of investment into the ground, ever increasing ticket prices to cover it and Waggott's shameful act of denying supporters the option of refunds or compensation for missed matches. On the other hand we've Tony and the boys, who never struggle to find wriggle room on the pay-roll for contract extensions and the go ahead for all that seems to come directly from India and the owners funds. End result is we can afford another month of paying squad fillers never good enough for this division goodness knows how many more thousands of pounds yet your minimum wage or recently made redundant supporters can forget about it. Doesn't make sense but then again we are the club that finds millions under the mattress to splurge on a 19 year old from Forest yet operates on ever decreasing lines and competency due to endless cutbacks. Disappointed in Mowbray not realising how grotesque his comments are in light of Waggott's statement last week (though admittedly Mowbray won't have had any input into the season ticket fiasco.

A marque would probably be more affective. Definitely win more headers.

Amari'i Bell is probably on less than £5k a week and puts effort in on and off the pitch by all accounts. Even if we buy a left back I wouldn't mind if he was in the squad; if we get promoted and buy two left backs he'll be a back up player on less than 12 months remaining for the contract. It's a no-brainer really. Realistically, if we aren't going up, we will probably look at buying a left back and then Bell will remain as cover. That's decent business in my eyes. After those 12 months he either massively improves or he's off for free and we replace him. Despite the fact you are the most critical supporter I have ever seen sometimes you need to look at the bigger picture. Williams has a year left and will most likely go, Hart has a year left now (bemusing one though) and aside from that we have no alternative left back. Williams sees himself as a centre half (better there than left back) and Hart will no doubt go out on loan again. If we didn't extend Bell's contract we'd be heading into the window without a left back in the squad at all. Although I'm certain you'll label him "incompetent at best" or "savagely shite" or some other remark I actually think Bell's curve since becoming a Rovers player has always been on the up. He's been playing a lot better recently than when he first came into the Championship. With any luck he might continue that improvement.

I thought you said we couldn’t target players - even a keeper (!) - until we knew what division we would be in?

Save a few quid ! End of the day he will have a nice nest built whilst Rovers struggle ... These people are in it for themselves and Venkys are to blame for giving them a free pass to do what they like ... 1.3 in agent fee for a lot of dross.. and now these extensions .. All these quids add up Mr Know it all ...

I don’t see anyway that you don’t start Armstrong

Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough

My main point is not even about his ability or lack of. Its of this nonsensical stance whereby our manager has yet to gain any clue as to his budget based on the off chance that we get promoted, presumably out of restraint that we dont want a couple of players pre agreed to sign on the prudent assumption that we remain in the Championship and they become far less important if promotion was achieved. Yet the approach to prematurely extend Bell's contract goes against that theory, in your scenario he is 3rd choice left back if we go up, which is unnecessary expenditure that the club seem desperate to avoid by "waiting." Wheres the consistency? Ultimately the reason that the manager is waiting to find out his budget is not because of the pandemic, the extended season or the off chance of promotion. Its because our owners do this every year, they need to summon the manager out and we are always slow off the mark and that will never change under Venkys. Youve made a speculative and guess at his wage but we are in a financial position if the club is to be believed where we are really struggling following the pandemic. And how can we justify expenditure on players we havent used all season? (one of whoms eligibility is even in question) I dont think my opinion on him being not good enough is me being "the most critical supporter youve seen" as its a fairly commonly held opinion and our results have been statistically better this season when we have had someone better (Cunningham and Downing) at left back. Theres absolutely no need to second guess made up phrases that I might use to describe Bell either as if being overdramatic to imply that he is a weak point in our team. Why will Williams almost certainly go, who is going to buy him?

I refereed him whilst he was at Sheffield United Andy and struck up a relationship with him after I told him my dad was from Offaly. I could smell the alcohol on him but he was like a Rolls Royce amongst Renaults. Another time I was in the players bar at Villa after a game and Nigel Kennedy was there. As Paul McGrath walked in Kennedy was shouting across the room to him and all heads turned towards McGrath. He left immediately just not wanting any attention whatsoever.

I'd expect the manager of a team in desperate need of a new goalkeeper to be aware of the names of the most likely prospects as a minimum. In an ideal world he'd know everything about the likes of McLauglin etc. He's either lying to save face or he really is a muppet.

The by now infamous 'lists'... A list - Cream of the crop that everybody else is after but there's no chance we'll pay for. B list - A few curved balls we'll be monitoring then get told at a later date we apparently we just missed out on. C list - The standard go to list or aka Tony's address book and friendly agents clients lists. Either on a free or overpaid for, list A in other words !

I would have expected nothing less - all other clubs do exactly the same thing. Not sure why you are acting like you called this as if it is something unheard of? We would all expect that they have drawn up lists - heck during lockdown, as a manager, I would have been using a lot of my time enquiring, researching and the like about possible targets.

If Brereton performs like he did last week, every week, then he still wouldn’t be worth £7m. He did the basics well in the first half. I’d certainly expect for the money that when he rounded the keeper he would have sorted out his feet to roll the ball into an empty net. If he had come through the ranks and performed like he has he would get nothing like the patience. I agree with Tyrone and K-Hod. Anything he does reasonably well at it suddenly ‘proof’ that he was a good buy, largely because people are desperate for the £7m to be money well spent. Right now it isn’t. We certainly wouldn’t be getting our money back after 2 full seasons, let alone making a decent profit, nor has he delivered on the pitch. So far he has cost £3.5m per goal and one of those was in the EFL cup. Even Corrado Grabbi was better value than that.

Good post. I think folk just desperately want the lad to be a £7 million striker, I know I do, because that would be a huge benefit to BRFC.

I don’t hate him, but I do resent the fact that we are stuck with him until he decides he’s had enough - no matter how badly we do. It would be nice to be in the top 6 for five minutes, just once, but is suppose its better for that to happen after the last game of the season. Good to have you back @S8 & Blue

Rather Brentford go up as it's one less long away trip next season. With Norwich, Bournemouth, Watford and West Ham looking like coming down it's going to be full of Southern clubs. Then again would like to go to their new ground if possible. Top 4 won't be caught now. 5th and 6th are the aim.

If Bennett plays left back, we concede penalties.

Now that is very funny... One of my wife's elderly aunties referred to Philip Schofield, as "coming out of the press!"

If Evans is injured then that’s a big loss.

I'll focus on a few points here You talk of a lack of money following the pandemic, and then you advocate walking into next season without a full time senior left back on the books. If we don't have money to pay Bell's wages (signed on L1 wages from Fleetwood) then how are we to afford another 2 senior players with added on signing fees, agents, bonuses and all that comes with it? I'm not even debating the Hart issue here, solely Bell, to which you seem to think is a poor decision. Regardless of all the claptrap about not signing players until we know what league we are in (mere speculation), if any manager went into a summer window without a registered player in a certain position he's made a balls-up. It could happen to us with a goalkeeper, unbelievably. Your opinion on every player is hyper-criticial. You couldn't even squeeze in your point not being about his ability without adding in the "lack of" caveat. Tedious stuff. Williams will almost certainly leave if we follow our upward trajectory. We are buying better players in every position and Williams is currently one of our weaker centre halves. Providing we continue to improve, don't lose players, you'd have to assume Williams will be gone next season. Aside from that, which is completely besides the point, Williams isn't a natural left back and if we didn't sign Bell he'd be the only senior player left in the 2021 season who could play there, without sacrificing Downing. Clearly that isn't a situation we want to be faced with. I don't disagree with any of what you said about our owners being at fault. I just don't see the furore about a one-year extension for a player that has both improved since his arrival and is a natural in a position we are paper thin in, especially given the current financial situation of all football clubs. As an aside, it would be nice if we got some posts from you - not just you - which didn't 99.99% of the time have some sort of ridiculous downplay of our players. I'm sick to the back teeth of reading "incompetent at best" or similar. Your criticism is overdramatic. That's all I will say on that matter because I've had this discussion with you before. Quite frankly I think it's disrespectful - your 'criticism' goes above and beyond the normal level, to a point of melodrama and often blatant untruths.

Walton Tosin Lenihan Mulgrew Nyambe Travis Evans Downing Holtby Arma Brereton

In my first job in Glasgow we had a tenant called 'Mrs Cubbard'. My Maintenance Manager always called her 'Mrs Press' and after about three weeks of this I had to ask him wtf he was talking about!?

Only when on holiday in Offaly ??.

I got it from somebody who knew last weeks team on the Friday.

I do like the look of this team. However, I would also like to see Johnson kick seven shades of sh1t out of Morsy if I'm being totally honest.

If we started with that side I would be happy.

I'm not completely unsympathetic to that - I rate Downing above Holtby as a creator of chances - but it is a way of getting both Holtby in a position where he might be more effective than last week and get Armstrong in the team too.

you know the penalty for standing still in football with the same players every year,it`s called mid table obscurity at best and relegation soon after,if mowbray does`nt get a penny from venkys,he should still be looking for players on the free transfer list,we`ve also got the horrid scenario of dack,lenihan,travis and maybe nyambe attracting attention from others

Radiohead - Just

Got a hell of a brain on him though. Not saying that Lowe wouldn't give him a hard time, but he's coped excellently with coming up against wingers plenty quicker than him so far. Maybe by having Downing making overlapping runs Lowe will be spending more time thinking about his defensive duties and less time running at the full back.

Very damming of Nixon, you could say...

The fact that we have £12 million of strikers who have half a dozen good games between them and as many goals suggests our recruitment policy hasn't been up to scratch. Don't think either one is good enough to be a key striker next year. If Dack or Armstrong goes I think we will look very vulnerable in terms of scoring next year.

When we played Burnley in the league cup a couple of years ago he said he didn't know Rovers and Burnley were rivals. For a supposed football man I thought that was staggering.

Especially since he spends "a lot of time with the head of recruitment as you live or die by recruitment". Quite clear we need a goalie or two, so he would definitely have been discussed and been on the 'freebie' list. Might be wrong but it is easier to say 'never heard of him' than admit that another long term target did not get over the line.

Well we can start having some fun now lenclume northcote blackswan cortage Inthe woods all booked . I’m really looking forward to it . just get these air bridges confirmed and I’ll have a week or two in Greece I think

Just a load of waffle that article is to make it look like things are happening.

This imo sums up in a nutshell why we will never ever do a thing under Mowbray even if he weret to stay until he pops his clogs. It's obvious from that article if the budget for next season is the same Mowbray's ideal scenario would be to give everyone contract extensions and keep the squad the same. Everyone else would be thinking "Thank god for that" set a match to the squad and rebuild around Lenihan, Nyambe, Travis, Armstrong and Dack.

Iv'e said this a dozen times but Tony Mowbray has one of the best jobs in football and he knows it. If you know how to play these owners you're secure never mind all this basket case behind the scenes rollox. They want the least fuss possible and this regime provides it in spades just wait till the sales start they'll be building a statue of him at Pune towers ?

After reading that guff how can he not offer Smallwood a new contract. When Mowbray says good in the dressing room I can only think he means Brockhall because both Smallwood and Hart haven't been in the match day squad for the months. Poor from Mowbray in my view.

It shows his class. I don't believe the club should spend actual money for him to show his class. I don't buy the morale angle when it comes to peripheral man Sam Hart, who has mostly been loaned out in his time here. TM's brief is to look after the team, sure, but Waggott should be putting the brakes on pointless deals as his brief is to look after the club itself. We all know why he won't.

Brereton is a weird one, as on the whole he has been below the required standard (let’s say, to be diplomatic), whenever he does anything above that, it seems to be amplified 10x. Don’t get me wrong, I think he played much better on Saturday, but, it’s a platform for him to build on. That’s the standard, match it on a regular basis and start adding goals. (I don’t necessarily blame him for the slip either, a few players seemed to come a cropper with our pitch on Saturday).

End of the day we are a professional club who exist to put a first team on a pitch to win football matches. If the situation around eligibility is true, surely giving a contract to an employee that legally/per regulations is not allowed to perform his duties for the duration of said contract is a rather odd turn of events?

That's what I originally thought too, and ordinarily I would have said fair enough, but when the club releases a statement a week or so prior guilt tripping fans into not asking for a refund because it would "threaten the existence" of the club, I can see why some are annoyed at the thought of paying Smallwood & Hart an extra months wages to do nothing, can you?

I think I read somewhere that he just wanted to keep the group together. I don’t think he kept them around to play. I know some of you will hate that and I understand why. However, I think it shows the class of the man to want to keep the squad together until the end of the season. I could imagine if some players had left before the conclusion of the season, it could adversely affect squad morale. Better to keep the group together and then say farewell properly. That’s my understanding of the situation.

Waltons had his blunders but thats a case of being a young goalie but also hes been on top form in some games saving us. Also a lot of clean sheets.

Apologies if this was a tongue-in-cheek comment, but otherwise that's an absolutely outrageous statement! Our form after he joined in February came in was just short of play off standard and it's not as though we had anyone to replace him with anyway!