I've read some of the opinions on here regarding the signing of 35 year old Stewart Downing, shocked to be honest that very few Rovers fans don't see this as an excellent signing for you. Arguably our greatest ever academy player he is not the flying winger he once was, you won't see him bombing past a player and whipping it into the box. You will see him keep the ball move possession on and shift the ball, whip balls into Danny Graham who I think will be buzzing someone of Downing's quality has signed. I and many other Boro fans would of liked to see Downing stay until he retired. He came back to his home town team from West Ham to get us back into the premier league - he succeeded. Always given a hard time by sections of the Boro support his very close and personal relationship with Woodgate and the fans opinions on that said relationship may have swayed Woodgate to let him move on. Boro's loss is Rovers gain - He will bring experience, calmness in possession and importantly a strong voice in the dressing room - he will help players like Chapman, Armstrong and even Dack. Good luck Stewwy - he will get a cracking reception from the Boro fans in August. As will Mogga, Smallwood and Graham. Good luck for the season chaps hope you are in and about the top 6 this season or even better runners up behind the Boro.

So we still haven’t found what we’re looking for...

We have enough options on the right wing

He would of played 46 games for us last season had the contract situation not arose, was arguably one of our better players in a team that finished 7th on the final day - would of been higher if not for Pulis' negativity. He's achieved miles more than the other two in his career IMO and is a class above those in terms of ability. You're not getting a player who cant put himself about the pitch or put a shift in - he's as fit as a butchers dog.

I'm not convinced by the Downing signing, and I certainly haven't been by the Brereton signing either. But I must say, this logic that a few people have put out, of it mattering what our 'first' signing is...I find it strange. Sure, if you got to pick which order things will land, you wouldn't ideally make the 35-year old winger your opening gambit, due to temporarily affecting fan morale. I do get that. But why should we gear our transfer policy around selling season tickets? If you don't want to make Downing your first signing, but you do intend to sign Downing, what do you do? Tell Stewart "Sorry mate, we're going to sign you but we can't have you be the first one, it'll be a bit embarrassing and stop us selling season tickets"? He sure as hell won't sign then (possibly a good thing in this case, but management obviously don't think so). Or do you suddenly throw more money at one of your other targets to get him over the line first? That could easily cost more than the small increase in season tickets will recoup. You have to sign players in the order you finalise the deals. It's the only practical thing to do. On top of which...let's just assume (I'll exaggerate to make the point clearer) that our business this summer was to be Downing, Assombalonga, Stones and Cristiano Ronaldo. If you sign them in that order, or you start with the big names, is it going to really make any difference to how many we sell? I doubt it would do much more than dictate the times at which the tickets were sold. Nobody is going to reach the end of the window, contemplating whether to buy a season ticket, then when the big names rocked up in the last week go "Actually nah I'm good, they signed Downing at the start of the window and now my soul is dead to football". The season ticket sales which are dependent on names signing will make the same decision regardless of when the names are signed (not accounting for chaos theory of course). Some clarification since people on here like to take things out of context to fabricate an argument: I know our big names won't be as grandiose as that, and possibly won't come at all. I know we need defenders and I only listed one. It was just for illustrative purposes. I also know how it looks when we badly need defenders and the first name in is another aged winger. I'm not inspired either. But the point is, as long as the right players get in during the window, that's all that really matters. The only reason to hold off on one deal for longer is if the resources for it might affect another target, and frankly we'll never know the ins and outs of that dance (unless a Brereton-level fee is used up early, which would obviously impact other signings). And another clarification - yes I know getting players in earlier means they get more time to bed in, but I doubt that tends to be worth the extra money. I'm also not expressly talking about you, Fraser, just this particular notion I've seen a few times. Agree with you on your other points, including that maybe it will transpire our budget is limited.

Can you not? I’m sensitive about my steroid use.

I like Nyambe and I think there's definitely a player in there. Just to prove that I'm not negative about everything at Rovers. However I don't think the coaching at Rovers is all it should be, if it was he'd be putting right the weaknesses in his game by now.

Why the hell do you run around day after day digging out peoples posts trying to twist then to your perceived negativity then telling everyone you've better things to do ? It doesn't seem like you do as you are the one starting the arguments. Just accept a lot don't share your candyfloss covered views on everything, that candyfloss was seriously missing when you were wanting Mowbray out and were a merchant of doom yourself not long ago ! Get a grip pal lets get the season started we'll all have plenty to fall out over then in the meantime chill and dig out some Downing posters ready to tell us you told us so when the Teeside Messi does his stuff ?

Ya, except Lowe put a lot of the recycling into the regular bin. No, for sure, we need someone in the middle with creativity. The Evans/Smallwood axis served it's purpose in league 1 and was given too much time last season. Travis should be a starter, so I wonder could Downing be a good partner for him? A modern day Tugay/Savage partnership would be great.

Luke Freeman close to a £3m move to Sheffield United from QPR. Didnt we have double that rejected 10 months ago? There seems to be a worrying disparity between the quality of players we get signed and ones (in some cases we enter talks with) that choose not to join. McGinn, Freeman, Bauer and Assombalonga compared to Smallwood, S. Downing, P. Downing and Brereton. Mowbray talks a good game yet keeps ending up with the classic "10 to 2 bird" in the kebab house.

We better not have signed Downing to play him in Centre mid. Why can't we just sign players who play in the correct position?

? Landfill Lowe

I think the problem with our view of this signing is that its the first one after lots of ''gonna do this , gonna do that'' rhetoric form the management at Ewood. If he was the last signing rather than the first and we could see that he was a final piece in the jigsaw then fair enough. The worry is that this is the start of more haphazard transfer dealings without any real plan or structure .Undeniably our primary requirement is for a couple of stalwart defenders but the first thing that happens is an ageing player in apposition where we are quite well covered and that makes us all wonder what budget we have and where he might fit into FFP concerns which have also been put forward by the Club. I doubt he's here for £2k a week. Like I said in another post, hardly singing from the rooftops but we should really wait until the window closes and see where we end up then. The major concern is that history is not on the side of Venkys or Mowbray on that particular score.

The sentiment of a Downing/Travis being Tugay/Savage is a good one and would imo if it worked be something this team has lacked at times a proper engine room rather than just stoppers. Downfall of it would be the tinkerman though who wouldn't leave it alone given the options he now has and the people he has to keep happy. I actually like Smallwood as a squad man he gets far too much stick he is what he is but can we be carrying so many centre mids ?

I don't really follow this, loads of our youth players have had a chance over the last 5-10 years. I'd say more than the average for a championship club. It's not really a stick you can beat the club with. Current side has 4 regular starters from the youth squad (Raya, Lenihan, Nyambe, Travis). Only youth player who got bounced by Rovers and went on to have a better career in recent years was O'Connell I think. Mahoney went to Bournemouth but it hasn't worked out. Fascinating web page here, though some data looks incomplete : https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/blackburn-rovers/jugendarbeit/verein/164

Fergie ruined him, he signed a very promising young CB and played him at RB, DMC for ages. Signing for united was a mistake, he should have gone elsewhere.

Agree with all of this. The worry is that Whittingham didn't work out but TM knows Downing so hopefully less of a risk. I think the answers to your questions/worries imo are yes he will tinker rendering it less effective and no we can't afford that many centre mids - although Evans would be the one to go in my book. Feel similar to you that Smallwood is a good reserve to have in the squad as a backup player. Evans on the other hand offers little

Arctic Monkeys - Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - By The Way

Never believe anything you read on here is the first rule of this message board.

Ben Gladwin? "He's like a new signing"......................................................... Get ya hard hats

Brererton pushing for a move? We know how TM feels about ripped jeans

To be honest I don't think the club wanted to sell Chapman - My understanding is he wanted to leave and join Blackburn last summer - He was out of contract this summer. You'll see Boro giving lots of young lads debuts this season.

Harper played like he didn't want to be at Rovers, I would have thought that was obvious. Mowbray must have thought the same thing because he sent him back in mid season. Maybe the lad thought he'd dropped a clanger coming and he was really unhappy, that can happen, but he showed nothing in his short stay that led me to think he was good enough for this level of football never mind the big time.

That's a fair enough comment. Something to be said for both of those being pencilled in as our main men meant that they were bigger let downs though. Another way of looking at it, a 35 year old David Dunn still had loads to offer at this level, albeit very injury prone. I think Dunny always had more natural quality than Downing, but equally Downing has an abundance at this level. He might be another Murphy/Whittingham, but just because we've had our hands burned with players in their 30s doesn't mean we always will.

I think he's still liked as a character, and is popular for his approach to the game. Hugely influential in getting promoted the season before last. Even the most critical of fans couldn't knock his effort, desire and importance in getting the club back in the Championship. It became obvious last season that our squad needed a couple more players of more quality if we want to be talking about promotion. We have plenty of good characters who are decent players, who will probably see us lower-mid table easily enough but not much beyond that. Smallwood's become a bit of poster boy for that dilemma, a bit unfairly in my view when there are several others in the same category. I think defensive-minded midfielders generally get a bit more stick than is warranted unless they really stand out, and that's at all clubs. I think a fair summary will be that Smallwood is still valued as a member of the squad by plenty (admittedly not all) of fans, just that if he's starting most games next season, that we can't really expect to progress that far in my view. Then again it's more than feasible that we'll be going into next season with him as our 4th choice centre midfielder, and I bet there aren't that many of those in the division that I'd swap Richie for.

In our current situation it's a player who gets the ball, doesn't know what to do with the ball, so gives it to somebody else 10 or 15 yards away who also probably doesn't know what to do with it. Lowe was a good example of a " Possession Recycler "

So sack a manager who reached our target of mid table over signing an England under 19 international that he has stated needed time to settle in. Mmm ok then. I think the money could have been spent elsewhere, but sacking him over it? Come on

Make no mistake about it, our most important players for next season are already at the club. We have a very limited budget by the sounds of things, I can smell what’s cooking here. You don’t make Stewart Downing at 35 your first signing when your desperately trying to shift season tickets. For the record, we have decent squad with a lot of potential, with even more potential coming through with Butterworth, Buckley and Magloire. I’m fine with being skint next year(use to it) but don’t lie to us, and don’t spend 7m on Brereton when we have no money.

We had a pot to piss in last summer and he pissed it away on Brereton.

Mentally, TM is still in Div 1. I do not believe we will ever be promoted further while he is manager. Hasn't got it.

Mowbray has worked a miracle at Ewood and yet so many judge him in ten negative sense. Where are the young hungry talented managers that can do better? Where are the players that can somehow be bought with the vast amount of cash we find ourselves aflush with? The stock answer is this, TM is the man to carry on the rebuilding work, we have seen nothing but gradual success since he came in to the club. What is the issue with progression? Some fans expect more but we pee with the todger we have got and that means walk before running. I believe with a little bit of tinkering and a better centre half such as Hanley, Rovers can progress to the top 6 quite easily with this squad and the young raw talent we have coming through. Some fans need to believe a bit more, support and get behind the team both on and off the park.

Jones will be a multi-millionaire so whatever the next few years bring he will live the good life in retirement and still in his thirties! When I first saw him I thought he would be England captain with over 100 caps, just about the best young prospect I'd ever seen.

David bates can't even get in the Hamburg team and they are a second tier team in Germany. He looks gash for Scotland too

Stead for half a season was an unreal signing, his goals helped keep us up. Great memory when he scored the winner at home too United. Big step up for him coming from league one but he looked like he was going too be a world beater at first, of course it didn’t work out like that.. But on the original point, I agree, I can’t think of many more that we signed from lower league clubs when we were in the prem, any that made any sort of impact anyway. Just remembered Steven Reid, he wasn’t a bad signing either from Millwall at the time, worth it for that goal at Wigan alone!

That's because they like us being linked with good ones it gives a bit of kudos to the bold talk then they hide behind the couldn't afford line when they already knew that from the off. That has now somewhat been blown out of the water with Bauer ending up at little old PNE and Downing costing a decent wage coming here. There's a lot of talk needs backing up by now.

I hope the 'plumber's mate' was 6'5", built like a brick sh1thouse, barked instructions at the photographer and the shirt he was holding up was numbered 5 or 6. We've no given right to expect millions to be lavished on recruitment. IMV, if we sort ourselves out at the back, we'll not be far short of top 6 with what midfielders and forwards we already have at our disposal.

You know, you could always not be obsessed with hating everyone that's ever been associated with Manchester United?

Fair play to you for stepping up although poor chaddy never threatened to beat anyone with his keyboard or to slap them off tarmac ?

A perfect example of a "possession recycler" was Robbie Savage. Rat away for the ball, give it to Tugay. Although you are all right in what you say - he was just a good footballer and did his job well. No need for a fancy title or anything. Good days.

A coup ? Steady on he may or may not turn out ok but it's not in any way a coup the coup is for him being fortunate enough to have somebody like Mowbray and a club like Rovers ready and waiting with a contract he'd unlikely get anywhere else and the promise of games. He won't even have to move house. I said straight off this would be trumpeted up as a marquee signing and going off the endless columns of him praising TM and TM praising him then posts about the Boro Messi and how grateful we should be kind of points that way. The money for contracts like this needs investing far better IF there isn't much of it and not much else is coming in, if there is well then it doesn't matter but end of the day we've just signed another big wages squaddie with certain things stacked against him like age and one who had he been a Leeds lad at Leeds or Sheff Weds or someone Mowbray probably wouldn't have gone anywhere near him !

Gallagher is another I'd forget. Think it would be a few more £million down the drain. Think he's overrated and has not developed as he should. This 'young' lad of almost 24 years of age has, IMO, stalled badly as just 100 appearances testify. Don't think Mowbray and our recruitment team show any imagination. Just where the feck do they scout!?!?

I watched him and he was worse than useless with an attitude to boot

Amen to that. Did he get selected the game after? Nyambe is 1000 x the player Bennett is. With potential to play the Premier League if he worked on soft skills.

Heard Dave Bassett scouted him. It takes all sor... Ok, I’ll stop now.

No standard scarf for old fart signings...