My two penniths worth. Alot of positives to take from the game. What can I say about dack that hasn't already been said he's just a joy to watch and seems to get better by the day. After the second goal went in he was screaming at his team and geeing them up to go again. Fantastic attitude and was simply brilliant all night. The suggestion to play him deeper imo is ludicrous. Rothwell however looked comfortable playing that position and could be the answer. He worked hard , put tackles in and the drove forward or played accurate long balls to our front men always looking for the attacking option which was a breath of fresh air. Bell was a menace down the left turning their right back inside out and deserves a run in the team. Raya made a couple of wonderful saves but still has that ability of shattering my confidence in him with moments of madness. Nyambe Charlie and darragh also played very well. Armstrong proved he his a striker through the middle and was superb. Negatives Samuel is awful. His didn't control a thing all night. Nuttall just doesn't get in the right positions and isn't creative enough to make intelligent runs. Sadly Conway is past it at championship level but put a good shift in last night and finally (Tin hat on) . I do not rate Kasey Palmer one bit. Goal aside without the ball he is beyond niave and his positional awareness is appalling. He looks every bit the u23 player ,albeit with potential. His decision making is poor and whilst he's quick he's a yard slower than everyone on the pitch in his head. I would not be starting him against hull. For the odd moment of skill or the odd goal he pops up with he will cost us two. Maybe harsh after three games but tony has alot of work to do with him to get him up to speed. Overall though a wonderful night I thouroughly enjoyed. Their goal was sublime and was applauded by the traveling faithful and dacks second was recipricated by there fans. The highlight was outside the ground before kick off when an elderly couple in their early seventies wandered over to a statue of a Carlisle player. The lady bent down to read the plaque and smashed her head on the players iron boot. Slumped and in pain her husband , with his hand behind his back never flinched, paused, and looked at me to say that's a free kick. I couldn't help but laugh. She was ok and started what turned out to be a wonderful night of football.

Ya, no point loaning a 19 year old because we loaned an 18 year old before and it didn't work out. They are both English too, so that is also a concern. Also both men. Alarm bells.

You’ve got to be keen to do this for a 0-0 draw! But I got some good feedback last time, so here goes. There are lies, damn lies and statistics as Disraeli may have said. I was thinking about this after reading the fans comments on the post-match comments for the Ipswich game. I compared the fans’ opinions to the ratings on the whoscored.com website. Apparently Williams was our best player (7.62) and Nyambe the worst (5.82). There wasn’t much correlation! Anyway, here’s my effort for the Millwall game: Each player was judged on the following criteria: Instance of excellent play * Instance of decent/good play * Instance of disappointing/poor play * Instance of terrible play * E&OE Ratings Raya ** ** Nyambe ***** *** * Lenihan ************ ****** * Mulgrew ******* ***** * Bell ****** **** Smallwood(66) **** * Evans * ********* ** Bennett(80) * ********** Dack(82) ** ********* *** Graham ** ****** * * Palmer(63) **** ** Rothwell(63) * ** * Armstrong(66) **** Travis(80) *** * Highlights and Lowlights (A justification for the main ratings above) 6. Lenihan plays his second “too short” pass in a minute putting pressure on his team mates. This one almost allows the Millwall man a clear run on goal - fortunately Mulgrew just gets a touch. 9. Evans and Smallwood don’t do enough to prevent Millwall working the ball right across the edge of the box. Saville hits the post. 11. A nice ball from Bennett to Graham in the box. Graham heads down to Dack but he can’t quite get there. 26. Lenihan manages to get his head on a long ball but it doesn’t go far and comes straight back. Mulgrew sells himself in a poor challenge and Lenihan is too slow to stop Morrison taking a clear run on goal. He hits the post. 37. Terrible throw-in from Nyambe allows the Millwall man a run towards goal. Lenihan is too easily brushed aside. Fortunately the shot is blocked. 44. An excellent low free kick to the bottom corner by Dack. Good save. 45. Good cross from Dack is met by Lenihan. His header lands on the top of the bar. 50. Graham bursts through on to a long low ball, fighting off the defender superbly. He gets his shot in but the goalie saves with his legs. Having set it up so well, Graham should have scored. 59. A wonderful through ball by Dack. This time Graham has a clearer run on goal. He holds off the defender well but his shot hits the goalies legs again. Sorry Danny but this time it’s got to be “red”. 69. Graham chests down a long ball into the path of Rothwell who takes it on at speed and releases a fine shot from 25 metres. Another good save. 89. Evans drives forward brilliantly from the edge of his own box, holding off two Millwall men. Sadly his cross was a stinker!

If I have to see one more person talking about trusting Mowbray I may just top myself. I have not seen one Rovers fan say they don't trust Mowbray, he's our most liked manager in years. I was going to say since Big Sam but I'd say he's more liked than Sam was when he was here at the time, so he's our most liked manager since Sparky!! Anyway, my point is every decision every transfer, everything a player or manager does is open to debate, question and scrutiny it's why we have a forum, potentially spending 6 million pounds on an unproven player is a risky buy. It's not a case of not trusting TM's judgment it's just a fact! I hope we sign him and I hope he turns out too be the next Shearer but until then instead of saying "trust Mowbray" let fans say their bit and give their opinion, it's why I come on here. I like seeing and reading what other people have too say... Unless all they have too say is "Trust Mowbray FFS!!"

I hate comments like this because if we are just blindly trusting his judgement without being able to cast opinion beforehand, whats the point of a messageboard? It implies that people have no trust in faith in Mowbray at all, which is totally unfair. The vast majority if not everyone does. People are having hypothetical conversations about a potential signing, the kind of deal he may join on, the fee and whether its a wise investment or if alternatives should be considered, and the role he will play if he signs, both positionally and in terms of game time. And what he would add, and what he wouldnt add. Feels like theres been more meaningless platitudes thrown at people this summer than ever, such as "trust his judgement" "have faith" and "stop being negative" and all it does is shuts down any healthy debate. Football is about opinions, not every thing will be a positive, and people shouldnt be castigated with worthless cliches just for raising what they consider to be constructive points.

Peak of his powers indeed! When you look at his highlight reel there was something about the way they he ran in the early days. Explosive power. i lost track of the number of games I used to think to myself. “It’s ok we’ll get something from this. Shearer will score.” He was a delight. Best two players I’ve ever seen at Ewood are Shearer and Tugay (and lots of other great ones). My son asked me once, “who is you favourite Rovers player ever?” I instinctively and interestingly replied Tugay. But it’s not true. How can it be? Tugay was a thing of beauty and had a greater love for the club. But deep down of course it’s Shearer. He was just incredible as a no. 9 and was so fresh as a player when we had him. So mature for his years at the time too. A genuine leader, a warrior and brilliant at what he did. The fun thing is we got to win a title whilst watching him grow on the world stage too. It was a privilege to be there and thanks again Alan!

The more I hear of him the more I like what I hear. Very solid football man and has all the right values. A gem.

To be fair to Jon Stead he cost us 1 million pounds, scored a number of important goals in his first season helping to stave off relegation and was sold on to Sunderland for 1.8 million, so hardly a disaster really.

I read about him in Revelations.

I first heard about him when his dad first eyed up his mum.

2 defeats in our last 38 competitive fixtures. 6 defeats in our last 49. 9 defeats in 64 since he became manager in February 2017. Long may that continue.

That for me is one that if its with an obligation to buy, so its in essence a permanent signing, id be excited. If it was just a loan id be very dissappointed.

He does strike me as a really honest and as open as he can be guy. He is definitely the right manager for our club, a really calming influence.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I think last night proved that we can play Armstrong up front on his own and don't necessarily need a 'Graham' type target man to get the best out of the team. Playing a smaller front man allows for a more fluid attacking style and relys on Armstrongs movement. I know it was only Carlisle but it did prove we have other options. Having said that, would still like to see a target man arrive!

behave, Bamford has scored 50 odd goals in his career.

Players get pilloried on here for poor scoring records when we look at signing them so because this one is a lot of money and now someone we've all decided is a world beater we cant then disregard the wisdom that's gone before. He's here to score goals and for 5, 6 or 7 million quid he'd have to score bucketfuls of them. Grabban cost Forest 6 million quid, this lad can't get in their side whichever way we dress it up and it going to cost us more. Doesn't stack up in my opinion. Don't get me wrong if he comes I will wholeheartedly support the lad and hope he becomes an all time great, but the fee in comparison to long time established goalscorers and young players with more pedigree seems very high.

Demand silly fees like £30m and 25% of the next fee and don't budge if it comes to it. The premier league is throwing money at everyone else so why not ask for the moon on a stick?

I’ve seen bits and pieces of Bereton and he looks very, very talented. Would be a massive coup if we got him. Skilful and pacy. Not really a Danny Graham type of striker from what I’ve seen. I’m shocked that Forest are willing to let their best young player go, but I think they’re going for quick fixes in the transfer market and hoping for promotion this year, rather than building a team for the future. Is it me or is TM quietly building a very talented young team here? I was underwhelmed by the Rothwell signing but he’s looked very impressive so far, I think he may well be a proper player. Armstrong was a steal at £1.75m too. Daveport and Palmer promising signings too.

He looks so like Paul Heaton of the Housemartins and Beautiful South in that pic.

7 million pounds is an awful lot of money , regardless of who their manager is he is a 19 year old with less than 10 goals in 50 odd games and isn't in the plans of a middling Championship side, now we can spin those facts either way we want, but the fact remains 7 million pounds is an eye watering fee.

7 million is always a figure that makes me uneasy - Kevin Davies & Cicco Grabbi ?

What have they done to deserve Oystons and Coyle. If Blackpool fans ever wondered when they would reach absolute rock bottom, well this is it. Whatever happens to Rovers now I'll be able to console myself that "there is always someone worse off than yourself"!

Here's the story in full below in case you don't want to give clicks the f*kin' S*n: Cluck's in Blackburn make £6million move for Nottingham Forest starlet Ben Brereton as Venkys look to invest Tony Mowbray wants highly-rated England u-20 hitman after Rovers owners make massive profits in their chicken business BLACKBURN have made a remarkable £6million bid for Nottingham Forest striker Ben Brereton. The England u-20 starlet has been left out of Forest’s opening two Championship matches by boss Aitor Karanka. And Rovers chief Tony Mowbray hopes that will be enough to tempt Brereton, 19, to Ewood Park. But Forest are understood to want £12m for the highly-rated hitman, who scored five league goals last season. Mowbray has been given money to spend by owners Venkys, who are willing to make their biggest investment in a player since they bought Jordan Rhodes five years ago. The Indians have produced cash for Brereton, with sources revealing they are finally ready to splash the cash after massive recent profits in their chicken business.

Always annoys me that a lot of Rovers era Shearer is edited out of highlight reels. 'Geordie Hero' etc. WE had the ultimate Shearer, our edition had everything the later version had...plus pace. Injuries robbed him of it, turning him more into the target man that a lot of folk only seem to remember.

If we sign a player for £6 million in our circumstances he would have to be the first name on the team sheet every week and a player who was actually better than Dack, Mulgrew, Armstrong or Lenihan, not potentially better.

Christ, just trawled back 5 pages thinking we'd signed Brereton way folk are going on. ?

So he excites you in other ways? Dack will be devastated!

If Liverpool wanted Brereton he'd already be at Liverpool. I first heard about him when he played for his school team.

Linked means nothing though. It was a story the day after he played very well vs Arsenal, playing vs Mertersacker (one of the slowest players around). It wasn't mentioned again. I'm not knocking the kid, but there's no evidence that Liverpool really where interested. Personally for 6m I think we could look at more proven options.

Find it baffling that people overlook Mulgrews defensive capabilities. To suggest that hes only guaranteed a start due to his set pieces is crazy talk, without even considering who the replacement could be. As much as I rate Lenihan, im not sure how hes become considered as the superior of the 2, doing "most of the good work." Both are very capable Championship centre backs but id suggest that Lenihan makes at least if not more mistakes than Mulgrew. Maybe its because hes more of an orthodox defender and the additional aspects of Mulgrews game, ability on the ball, set pieces etc gloss over his defensive quality. Hes the second name on the team sheet for me.

Think Bell deserves a run of games now and Williams should have to force his way back in.

I thought the one he cracked with Sir Alf Ramsey was funny. Ramsey said to him " Give it all you've got in the the first period Rodney and I'll pull you off at half time " . Marsh replied " Bloody hell Alf, we only get oranges at City ! " I don't think he played much for England after that. We're talking in an era when there were a lot of match winners like him. Stan Bowles, Charlie George, Alan Hudson, Frank Worthington, Tony Currie just name a few. All immensely skilled attacking players, we don't breed them like that any more. Even our own Duncan McKenzie was special in that respect. That's why I like Dack, he plays with a smile on his face and looks like he wants to actually be out there.

Soon to be old red eyes if he doesn't get that wound seen to.

He looks like an 'ard bastard! Seriously though, he looks the same now as he did when he was playing. Has looked 55 all his life

Karanka and the media-fuelled Forest love in has already reached nauseating levels this season and we're only 2 games in. Only Leeds and the Lampard obsession at Derby can compete with it. I wouldn't trust Karanka in the slightest after his conduct during the Rhodes pursuit when he was at Middlesbrough. Whatever dealings we have to have with him I'd sooner were all done and dusted as quickly and smoothly as possible. They seem to think they're something special and no doubt believe that other clubs should gratefully accept their fringe players for a few months of game time but I don't. They are a rival so having to borrow one of their players who isn't in their immediate plans and then see him go back to them in a few months to his and their advantage is not what I want to see.

At 7 million I'd much sooner go and get someone like Gallagher who I'm certain Southampton would let go for less than £5 million plus someone like Maddison for a couple of million.

Yep, the greatest Rover in my time. He made top class opponents look like pub players.

In this crazy, over-inflated market, Dack must be worth £20m plus and Jason Lowe up to two sets of bibs.

Sharpe vs Nixon

Brereton on a permanent deal is the sort of thing we need to be doing as a club - owning assets that will be worth something in the long run, players who will develop alongside the club with the Dacks, Lenihans, Armstrongs. Like how Nixon is still pushing his theory that Venkys have suddenly come into some extra money and have decided to spend it on Rovers. Also can't resist a sly dig in his headline with 'chicken business'. On loan until January with no agreement to buy is not impressive and if that is the case doesn't show any serious investment from the owners, and no doubt Forest would be perfectly happy for him to come here for 6 months and play regularly before returning to them probably increasing in value if he scores a few. Not the answer.

You missed Bryan Douglas I guess? Absolute genius.

The "on our way back" song will need modifying if we sign this kid. "We had no money so we signed some players on loan!" just wouldn't be true anymore. Maybe it would have to be "We're F'ing minted, so we spent 6 mill on an unknown!"

I honestly don’t think there’s a fan base like ours when it comes to wanting old players back. Sentimental swines, us lot!

Got to trust Mowbray on this, if he indeed is being given such a budget then he deserves the chance to spend it. Brereton another one that even for £5-7 million will likely be worth a lot more than that in 2-3 years if does well in the Championship. That's what it is all about with Venkys and no doubt that's how Mowbray is selling things to the owners - back me with some cash and worst case scenario these players will retain their value, more likely increase in value whilst performing for the club. No problem whatsoever with that approach provided the priority is on winning games and collecting points not on individual development and sell-on. Sell for a big profit if a Premier League club comes a knocking yes. Sell to a Championship rival no. I very much doubt we'll be hitting that level. More likely to be a loan and then re-assess down the line or a few million up front with the same again in add-ons over several years.

Difference is Liverpool have no issue in liberally spending 7/10/15 million on unproven teenagers, I would say it's a massive risk for the modern day Blackburn Rovers.

Yeah they look in real trouble this season. Hurst's departure seems to have been the catalyst - if he'd stayed I think they'd have had a season similar to last. Funny to see and hear Ipswich fans turning on each other already. It might be dawning on some of them that Mick wasn't necessarily the problem. Meanwhile Hurst is already berating players in post match interviews, which might have worked at lower league level but may not have the same effect further up the chain. McCarthy very rarely criticised the team even when it was deserved, and truth be told most successful managers choose to keep that kind of thing private.

Well at least he can nip down on to the front for his donuts while it's still summer season.

Sharpe indicating won't be a loan to buy as we won't want to check committ to the fee Forest want. Don't see the point in that case. We need to develop a Graham replacement - not do Forest a favour

I said that when Fred Pickering left us for Everton.