A keeper From Boro Reserves who doesn’t like crosses ... Europe Recruitment Department doesn’t stand a chance against TM and his love for anything from North East .... Can see this happening.. TM & Pears Senior know each other .... He was a goalkeeper too ... what a shambles ....Recruitment Department don’t stand a chance ....

From the article: It is understood Warnock wants to bring in a new battle-hardened first choice keeper and that could push the rookie down the pecking order. And therein lies our problem. Warnock knows what the feck he's doing in stark contrast, IMO, to the hapless, bumbling Mowbray. You get more depressed, Rovers wise, by the day. At least Mowbray's band of happy clappers will remain happy.

15 million on 3 forwards in 2 summers, million pound loan fees last season, Downing about a million for one season - all to finish midtable ! Need a keeper, a poxy million quid, nah we'll stick a plaster on that one again. I don't know why some fans choose to ignore this when they are hailing the midtable messiah.

This is the football journey. Players come, players go. All part of the proverbial rich tapestry. The danger is when sentiment trumps logic and players stay longer than they should. The club suffers and the player suffers. A great servant during his short time at the club and his contribution in L1 should not be underestimated. We needed him and he needed us. However, he should have gone last season when we may have received a fee from a L1 side. Instead, his ‘loyalty contract’ will have made him unaffordable, even subsidised. Too many players leave this club at the end of their contracts or are even paid to go. Clubs who are scrimping and saving need to be more savvy in the transfer market. Signing a Dack or selling an Armstrong papers over the cracks of waste.

A lower league Scottish manager (Jim Lambie I think) had a reputation for quick wit. One of his players had gone down with a head injury and was brought off for treatment near the technical area. The manager asked the physio how he was and was told he didn't really know who he was. Quick as a flash he shouted "tell him he's Pele then and throw him back on".

We have 3 backups at the club already. Hilton Fisher and Eastham. Why blow a wage on another with barely more experience than those. Unless we are planning on binning some of them off.

Keeper isn't a spot you piss around with trying to get cheapies in and grow a players to sell. Yet that's been the mantra since Robinson was costing too much. It needs solid investment then it can be left alone for a few years. We still bare the hallmarks of being a vehicle for agents. I fear we could end up getting really desperate for a keeper given the current climate.

We got shut of Raya to go signing reserves from Brighton and Middlesbrough? Good grief.

Strachan again re Wayne Rooney's England call up at 17 "it's an incredible rise to stardom, at 17 your more likely to get a call from Michael Jackson than Sven Goran Eriksson"

If venkys had only turned up last summer, and that last summer was an unusual odd one out in our recruitment policy (making a mess of the GK situation plus no permanent defenders) I think everyone would agree with those comments. We're nearly 10 years into there ownership now though, we know which way this is going.

Keegan 'I'd love to be a mole on the wall of that dressing room' And did anyone hear Bumble during the first test say 'the umpire has got his ring piece out' when checking the roundness of the ball?

Burnley fans circa 1995: "If we were in the top flight they would have to terrace Pendle Hill"

We could if we hadn't spunked £20million+ (inc wages) up the wall on Brereton and Gallagher or acted as a philanthropic organisation for the likes of Smallwood, Gladwin and Hart! IMO, absolutely appalling management.

League 1 in which we should never have been. Mowbray brought in to save us. He had 15 games and failed, on goal difference to Forest. This season Forest missed out on the play offs on goal difference. Now that's progress, though Forest won't have regarded it as such, since they'd been in the playoff positions fora lot of the season.We're supposed to tout 11th, having been 10th as the season was halted. Mowbray decided to play a whole new scheme after the restart.He threw away a great chance to get us into the playoffs, something he'd declared to be the minimum requirement at the beginning of the season. Judging Mowbray is something you resolutely do not do.

If only we could sign Copenhagens goalkeeper!

We've been linked with Trevor Cherry and Mickey Mellon.

I'll bet a pound to every penny you want to wager that Warnock ends up with a keeper that 95% of this MB would approve of versus whoever Mowbray brings in.

You appeared to be trying to defend the position of not being willing to pay 1m ish for this lad because he is down to the last 12 months of his contract. Unless you think we can afford to wait 12 months and will still be in pole position to secure him at that point I can't see the argument. If he's the man you really want, pay the money. If he isn't then you shouldn't really be in for him in the first place and should look elsewhere. Of course, I and a few others don't think we have 1m to spend without sales. On the other hand there are claims the new budget is reasonable so we'll have to wait and see. The overall point remains that regardless of budget there must surely be better options in the wide world of football than falling back on Mowbray's default option of returning to Boro (and possibly HSH) .

Big Ron again - It's not my policy to comment on referees and I'm not making an exception for this idiot.

Why react to a link as though we have signed him, even if true everyone knows we need 2 goalies, could be for back up, let’s wait and see who we sign before beating up everyone at the club.

Why has he signed ?

Big Ron again - He dribbles a lot and the opposition don’t like it. You can see it all over their faces.

Another Boro rookie now Nice lad, fit straight in, friendly agents etc etc wow what an ambitious forward thinking set of guys we have in charge. Warnock hunts for a proper keeper meanwhile.....

Our structure is like something from the 1960's or 70's. The manager runs the club, handles all football activity including organising fixtures, scouting, transfers, media and then coaching and matchday. As you say it is decades behind what other clubs have put into place. Football has moved on and you need a structure and backroom team in place that continues alongside and independently of the manager.

If we do end up loaning in another young keeper then it makes the decision to sell Raya a very odd one and I say that as someone who thought selling Raya was a good decision. When Raya was sold I assumed that we were going to be signing an experienced keeper on a permanent deal, Infact David Marshall on a free was the name I suggested. It makes no sense to get rid of a young keeper who made mistakes but who had years ahead of him to improve and replace him with other clubs young keepers of a similar standard. Instead of developing our own keeper for our club we are developing other clubs for them.

So league one he got us promoted, his second season we survived and then his 3rd season top half finish. Is that not progress?

Vauxhall Conference Pears?

Another Strachan one: Reporter: “Where do you think you lost that game today Gordon?” Strachan: “See that big green rectangular thing out there?”.....

Can you please stop with this shite everytime I post an opinion on a link. Obviously my opinions and comments assume that he is signing, as is the point of discussing transfer targets. Do I think he, Iversen, Muric, Phillips, Marshall, any of them are likely to sign? Poissibly not, I know that being linked with a player rarely leads to a signing so at this stage it is hypothetical. I commented on Mowbrays scouting network and how signing the son of a former teammate of Mowbray, an opinion you clearly agree with having liked Paul Mani's status saying as such. I said that I think it could be a good move if he was underneath a more experienced keeper, a point again you agree with having liked Paul Mani's status saying as such. I mentioned Marshall specifically. I also shared some opinions from Middlesbrough fans because obviously with such few appearances, knowledge on him will be minimal on him. You are constantly vocal on not caring what other fans think, fair enough, scroll past it because I do and I would suspect that other fans would be interested in what fans at his current club think of him should there be anything to the rumour as its good to know what we are getting. Their opinion was again mixed, but suggests what you would expect from a 22 year old, that he is probably not ready made to be a number 1 for a team chasing promotion. I shared a statistic which was somewhat favourable in regards to his shot stopping, so again thats not "judgemental," just adding some meat to the bones in terms of our limited knowledge on him. If I had said that I am outraged that we are even linked with him, or if I said that if we sign him I wont go and watch us etc then you may have had a point. In general, my opinions on the 5 goalkeepers that I have seen us linked with have been very varied, 2 (Phillips and Marshall) I have said that I am happy with, 2 loans that I have dismissed (mainly on the principle that I do not want a kid on loan which is a consistent opinion I have held) and on Pears, mixed, very skeptical if he comes as number 1, which I suspect he would (would we pay a fee for a sub keeper?) but I much prefer that if the goalkeeper is young, that he is ours. I dont think that I am being judgemental by having these opinions, nor negative. (or positive, there is a mix of opinions) If you are genuine in your first sentence, surely you wont bother reading this thread until the end of the window? The pestering journalists and debating and suggesting potential signings will stop and you will wait and only comment once all of our business is done?

..in contrast to ..Walton and Leutweiller..

Can you give me a long list of new additions in the championship, not sure you can, let’s wait until everyone starts signing a few before we start the usual club calling.

19 days since last season ended. 33 days before the new season begins. I think the silence from Ewood about football matters is deafening. It should be the duty of Rovers' employees to promote and develop the club, creating a culture, a brand and an identity. Sadly, I see and hear nothing. IMO, it's a shambles with the fans being treated like muppets.

One of my all time favourites from Bill Shankly: “Of course I didn’t take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present. It was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves.”

Aynsley Pears. A 22 yo who nearly went to Maccs on loan last season. Sounds like low hanging fruit...

John Lambie. An absolute legend at Patrick Thistle

Wasn't the owners fault Mowbray fell out with and scapegoated Raya, sold him for peanuts, wasted the proceeds on an abysmal forward, then found securing a permanent replacement was going to be a lot more difficult than he had anticipated!

Steve mclaren with the English language/Dutch accent and joey Barton thensame but french ?

Strachan was a real sharp wit as you say Andy. I was fourth official at Birmingham when he was at Southampton and he kept referring to the referee as 'jellyfish'. I was bemused by this and at the end of the game I asked him why and without breaking stride he said "because he has no f***ing backbone" That made me laugh.

No surprise there. Think it tells you all you need to know about the state of Rovers and our manager. A PERMANENT number one goalkeeper with some experience and proven ability should be our number one priority. Instead, it seems we are p1ssing about with novices from PL clubs with neither experience nor proven ability at league level. IMO, absolutely diabolical - full stop.

Said it before two untested and inexperienced loan keepers is a recipe for disaster. We’ve had 12 months to plan for this and our much vaunted European scouting next work, comes up with two inexperienced kids. It’s almost like we’ve learnt nothing in 12 months it’s inexcusably bad if either sign as first choice

Not sure Brighton is the right place to be doing that

Crap... then decent... then pandemic... then really crap.

This isnt specifically anything to do with Mowbray but it is never too early to get promoted to the benefit of the club. And the quality towards the bottom of the Premier League means that with some calculated and wise spending, its not unfathomable to be competitive. Also, the notion of it being 2 or 3 more seasons before we are challenging is totally flawed because it implies that the side sticks together and gradually improves. For various reasons that wont be possible and indeed it would be likely that the core of Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis, Dack and Armstrong will all be elsewhere in 3 seasons.

Seems premature to be saying this before we’ve even signed a single player though.

Its a non starter because we haven't paid a fee for a goalkeeper in a very long time. Pretty sure even Steele was a freebie as Boro were desperate to get shut. I would be very, very surprised if we paid a fee for a keeper this summer. We are back in Bauer territory. Remember when he was supposedly demanding £40k a week to join. That was a load of baloney as is the suggestion now that Charlton want more than £1 million for this Phillips lad. They're in League One, skint and potentially won't even be allowed to start the season unless they find a new owner. The player himself has just had one failed Championship season and only has 12 months to run. They are in no position to make excessive demands and that deal is there to be done for a club in urgent need for a new number 1. Just like Marshall at Wigan. Vast experience, Wigan need rid, lives down the road, ticks pretty much every box needed, deal there to be done. But it won't because we want projects. Its all window dressing. Like Karl Darlow and Joe Hart were last year. This Middlesbrough lad is exactly the sort of signing we will make, presumably because he will be free and his wages will be low and can be absorbed by the savings made on Smallwood etc. without the need for Indian approval.

I must say that Pears from Boro on the face of it is worrying in terms of whether there’s a point at all in our national or European network... Having said that, reading the gazette article it does seem that this lad is a bit more than most at his age...20 odd first team appearances and kept out the new (7 figure) signing after Randolph left. Please god let it be our no.2 if there’s any truth.

He definitely isn't the bad guy, he didn't draw up his own contract. It's what he represents that is the issue - a game completely out of touch with reality.... and it's fanbase.

IF, and I think it's a big IF, Mowbray is so restricted then, IMO, any manager with integrity and a degree of self respect would walk instead of continuing to take the dollar and, perhaps, mislead the fans.