How do we know there is no urgency? 3 years ago.. Back 4 v Southend 2017 Nyambe, Lenihan, Mulgrew (c), Williams, All 4 players still at the club and 3 nailed on to start against Bournemouth. 18 months ago. "defenders are coming." It's a piss take to be honest.

Half the problem here is that Mowbray appears to be very relaxed about the situation as he has been since promotion. If we get who we want great but if not then oh well better luck next time. Does not give the impression of a man under any pressure or expectation, nor a man desperate to drag the club kicking into the promotion picture. Frustrating to say the least.

Mate, your Rovers can do no wrong mantra has led to you tying yourself in knots with all sorts of contradictions. 1) We want a player who can play straight away and have trained with the team (hence why not going for a player who would quarentine.) Aside from the reasons it's daft as @roverclitheroe points out this directly contradicts your point about waiting to the end of the transfer window to buy players. They have just the same problems of not training with the team and being there immediately. Can you not see how daft you sound? They need to train with the team and we buy them the last day of the transfer window - your negatives for one are the same for the reason you champion. 2) You give evidence for why quarentine is a problem and stopping people buying players abroad (which am not convinced on saying the number of signings from a full window to a partial window is misleading as is the financial restrictions in general, but hey ho lies and damn statistics eh?). But at the same time you are saying how do you know we are not using the European scouting network. In the same post you are saying we can't get players from.abroad AND defending our recruitment by saying we are looking abroad! There's a whole host of other issues with this post too. Won't get a player like Tosin - not permanently but we may on loan but that wouldn't be a favourable comparison for Rovers so ignored. So what about the 2 games missed with a loan signing but you are bothered by quarentine (another contradiction). You even champion Linsey on loan which seems daft - loans should be left for quality otherwise unobtainable so that's an odd one to suggest. Apart from the fact you think that's what the club will do, rather than what is right so that's why you champion it. A bit like the anti Nayambe bias it's not what is best that you like but what you think we will do. That said such a policy with Rovers is fairly harmless, irritating but allowable. But it still annoys me as you watch loads of footy, you have your finger on the pulse of a lot of teams and post a load of updates on what happens - all of which I appreciate. And all of which should enable you to have your own views rather than be a yes man for Rovers. So c'mon stop defending our poor transfers and championing TMs intentions (which I sadly think you are spot on about) where you end up contradicting yourself, and use that interest and passion to have some cracking ideas of your own!

Nailed on from the get go that one I reckon.

So Bristol have basically filled all the positions that we'd like to....and all before the season starts. Clearly some sort of witchcraft or sorcery involved.

It isnt even the lack of rumours for me, as no journalists really seem on the ball. Can only judge the manager on what he does get over the line. At the moment, even compared to last seasons mid table squad, we are short. Even though Rich Sharpe has said that it is very quiet, even then, he for example was nowhere near the Kaminski deal. Although his comments are a little alarming. Ultimately for me it is the fact that it happens every year really. We first have the needless delays that come from having this constant handicap of negligent owners. Last year, defensive reinforcements took an age to get over the line, we lost our first 2 games with our defenders, both on loan, done very late on in the window. I am also unconvinced that Mowbray has either the capability to navigate the window in terms of getting the players we need, we have signed some good players under him but our squad is so imbalanced considering the time and money he has had. And also the ability to get signings over the line. Last summer, the window was half about the players we didnt get, we missed out on Bauer, he bemoaned the loss of 2 mystery foreign keepers and loaned in a clown to replace the cheaply sold Raya, and there was also Maher. It was a summer of missed opportunities and temporary stop gaps, and I am getting a sense of de ja vu. For example, Kipre was unfortunate, but we arent only in need of a centre back, in which case there may be a little more patience. Even if he had to move on to option B as his main CB, he needs 2 CB's, a left back, another keeper, etc, surely he hasnt just missed out on his main target in all of them areas, and if he has, then there is something wrong. It seems to be one at a time.

You don't need to be a agent or football expert all you need to have is an ounce of commons sense. If a side are singing a player who could improve their team over the next 3,4,5 years do you really think they would turn him down because he has to quarantine for 14 days?

I don't think you guys get the defend the club at all costs and ignore logic and evidence idea. Mind you I wish our defence defended Rovers with the passion and determination of Chaddy. We might conceed a few less goals.

I'd be surprised if that 900k is really there.

Judging from the season ticket thread it seems that we have become the first club in history where the club is boycotting season tickets !

Mid table , within touching distance of the plays offs and then

Careful..Brace yourself lol!

Tbf, had West Brom got their man, we would've had Kipre. I think it's genuinely as simple as that, and we got unlucky. Unfortunately I also think we threw most of our eggs in that particular basket.

And any signings made on deadline day would presumably be unavailable for the Forest game the next day, ie our 5th League game of the season. Certainly bizarre to advocate waiting as long as is necessary to sign players yet dismiss foreign players due to a potential 2 week quarantine, especially when our only signing thus far has been required to quarantine, which is not ideal but still leaves him training today and ready for the first game. Its just further excuses. There was and still is nothing stopping us from signing playing in Europe, as we have already done with Kaminski, and had we got it done early enough as we did with Kaminski, it wouldnt have been anything other than a minor inconvenience. As it is, even if he missed 2 games, not great but will a domestic player be here any quicker?! Probably not. I dont care where we sign players from as long as they are good enough, but there seems to be neither any urgency nor any ability to work on more than one deal!

900k not spent of Kipre is around £18k/week now freed up for a free signing. At least one centre back, no excuse.

Will have to agree to disagreeing. He was clearly sceptical of Venkys and made sure they couldn’t shaft him. The failure to give him any of the Rhodes money was a big moment. I think that terminated the relationship and it was about getting to the end of the season. Lambert had a better pedigree than any Venkys manager before and after - and he protected himself. Tells you something.

Playing devil's advocate, maybe the owners are attempting to give Mowbray a bit more leeway by attempting to consider deals on an individual basis rather than rule them out by stipulating an overall blanket budget which might not be enough. We do manage to make a relatively simple thing sound incredibly difficult. Surely Mowbray, Venus or whoever is in charge of recruitment could ascertain the potential cost of a deal with one call to a players agent and relay it to the owners with a recommendation of how badly the manager thinks we could do with the player. It's all a lot of smoke and mirrors and an excuse for incompetence for those on the ground at Ewood imo. Window after window nothing happens, we miss out on all our main targets and end up turning in desperation to the z list at the 24 th hour. Stop making excuses and giving us hard luck stories and just get the bloody deals done!

Alphonse Areola? And I thought Walton could make a tit of himself.

At least we haven't been blown out in favour of Preston this time !

Bristol City have recruited well this week! They have added experience and quality to a young squad. They were in and around us last season, they are the kind of team we are competing with but financially we can’t touch them! Heres to hoping TM pulls something out of the bag because at present our squad looks very fragile with a long, tough season ahead.

This is concerning now, there doesn’t seem to be any obvious momentum or rush to get anyone in and Tony more often than not is cautious with new signings so we are going to be short on quality in certain areas. poor show really we’ve long known the focus areas and not doing a good job addressing them

What is also a major issue apart from the glaring holes in the defence are the contracts that run out in 2021: Dack Rothwell Johnson Holtby Nyambe Evans JRC + a few I couldn't give a toss about, these will leave further massive holes in a squad that desperately needs bolstering. These lads don't need quarantining, analysing they need to be sat down and sold a future that they buy into so we actually have a team next year that doesn't mainly consist of U18s

And ultimately, the manager should be judged on players that he is able to get signed, not the ones he missed out on.

Ditto Harrison Reed. Hung about all summer hoping to get him back again on loan with the parent Club subsidising a large part of his wages only to be gazumped by Fulham who offered what the selling Club wanted I.e. loan with a view to a permanent move on full wages. Very slapdash to attempt to do business like that and it makes you think we never really wanted him in the first place.

Standard procedure akin to everything else Blackburn Rovers 2010-present

He might just like other players speaking highly of Rovers. Maybe, just maybe, Benno has loved him time at Rovers just as much.

The frustrating part about all of this is that we're only a centre back and left away from a pretty competitive squad for this division. Looking unlikely however that we'll have them for the first day of the season!

I’m looking forward to seeing all our new signings in action ...

You’re against loan deals but praising Bristol City who have just loaned 2 players.

If we seriously splashed out £1 million to land Tosin last summer then more fool us. I don't think I've said we haven't spent money since promotion. My gripe is and has been that it isn't invested into the right areas - the defensive situation is verging on a disgrace and the fact that this manager looks set to turn up at Bournemouth on Saturday starting yet another season having failed to address it is a massive problem. As of now we are well into another transfer window having failed to recruit the PERMANENT defensive acquisitions that we need. I've put it on here many a time that a suspicion of mine has long been that the owners will not authorise permanent deals for defenders except in very rare circumstances. FACT is that we've spent less than £500k on defensive signings of our own in more than 4 years now. It has never been an issue heaping wages onto the payroll as they did with Downing and Johnson. Quite the opposite it seems to be 'easy come, easy go' on the wages front with Mowbray and co. dishing out extensions galore to Gladwin, Hart, Smallwood for no purpose. Why am I against loan deals? Because relying on loans has got us into this state where we've no defenders and keepers because we've avoided addressing those positions with permanent signings, going into the summer in the unprecedented situation of having 1 established CB and no goalkeepers. If we had then we could relax a little more this summer. I think it is now inevitable that the only defensive additions we will get will be a loan or two from generous lending clubs which is a shambles. I agree with your point about Bristol City - done some impressive business this week - Mawson, Sessegnon, Martin - no transfer fees paid but top quality players in BEFORE the season starts, no messing or dilly dallying. Why can't we do similar? I don't really care if we paid £5 million for Tosin. The more we paid the more foolish it seems for an arrangement never likely to last more than 1 year. I thought we were meant to be building a squad to grow and develop not chucking big money at loans and short term contracts to patch up for 12 months? Anyhow, these discussions whilst enjoyable and we can go back and forth about whether I am right or you are right are ultimately achieving nothing. One fact that everyone recognises even if they want to try and hide it is that yet again the season is kicking off and we are short.

I think we still use the yellow pages when completing transfers!

I never thought I’d say this but we are missing a director of football. Someone who can be the go between between the manager and the scouting network! TM is so indecisive, every transfer window I’d the same story! Our needs have been blatant for a couple seasons now, yet it’s always done in the last minute or not at all!

I'm inclined to agree. The sad thing is such a conspiracy actually makes more sense than us offering Wigan nearly a million quid for a centre half, which simply doesn't happen at Venky Rovers. Deliberate leak to Sharpe told he can run with it on his back page. He wouldn't have done that without Rovers approval. And it has worked because for nothing most of the fanbase have spent weeks believing that we are after good players armed with a proper budget. Nothing to show for it though.

The Kipre link was cleverly orchestrated to give the impression to supporters that we were being ambitious and serious about buying players. Hence the leak to Sharpe. It’s nonsense. Same old boring, no ambition and incompetence every transfer window. And then Newcastle fans moan about Ashley. They’ve just snapped up two of Bournemouth’s best players. Great signings. They don’t know they’re born.

4 million for Tosin would be a bargain. End of. Only going to get better aswell. Still feel like there’s a chance of him ending up on loan here towards the end of the window if he hasn’t ended up somewhere else.

Money for old rope that ...be worth £20m in 2 years time

Very bizarre indeed. Completely agree on your further points. The silence and lack of rumours is deafening and frightening. Huge chance for us to kick on a potentially push for play offs IF we make the correct signings and soon. I fear Mowbray is far too comfortable to put pressure on himself with ambitious signings.

Well you might want the player to come straight into the 1st team squad and trained with the squad. Chaddy sorry mate you're wrong here. 2 weeks out of 1-5 years is absolutely nothing. It would have zero impact on a signing unless we had some serious injury to kaminski where we were desperate for a new first team keeper asap.

Been linked all summer. What a surprise. Boro, Mowbray allegedly mates with his dad, HSH etc.

There was a time last season when if you could guess just six of the starting line up you were doing really well.

It'll be the same story as last summer hanging round after the season has already kicked off and we're off to a bad start sitting there forlornly with puppy dog eyes hoping that a Premier League Club will do us a massive favour and a few crumbs will fall off the Premier League loan table. Then if we do get reasonably lucky like we did last year with Tosin that will no doubt be paraded as having been the plan A all along.

Or maybe some favoured agents did ?

As much as we crave transfer stories, recent history shows we only find out about a signing 24 hours before it actually happens. I don't think anyone has the inside scoop on what is actually going on.

Steve Gibson was spot on about doing business with Venky Rovers. It all and always has stopped at Venkys door. Arseholes.

Its a horrific thing.

Because most (every?) manager's they've approached has been unemployed. I doubt Coyle, Mogga, Lambert et al gave a shite as long as they were working.

Money

The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

TM