OK, watching the extended highlights has altered my view on a couple of things. Bit harsh to blame Bennett for their first. He was up by their 18-yard line; that shouldn’t result in a goal, but it did because of Downing. Tracked the man with the ball back half the pitch, when the guy stopped and cut inside to pass, Downing also stopped. When the guy then set off into our area, Downing didn’t move or even look at him. Add to that his earlier miss, which at the time I thought he’d had to snatch at, but he didn’t! He was running toward it seeing it the whole way. So he cost us two goals in my book, and it doesn’t matter what else you do, that’s a stinker of a debut.

He’s gonna be sold to balance the books. Stick with Graham and you can’t play Brereton or Gallagher in their main position, plus he has no pace and they both do.

Continuing shaping the team around Dack is becoming a problem IMO. Put a man tight on him and he disappears; without Graham to cushion knockdown headers for him and he never sees the ball. Time to bite the bullet and go with Brereton & Gallagher, Rothwell, Johnson, Travis and one of Downing/Armstrong? There’s no future in either Dack or Graham so time to rebuild for a better future.

While the sentiments have been expressed elsewhere for quite a while, it’s the topic title and date that makes the message board seem a parody of itself. Nobody who decides such things is listening, or probably ever will listen, so it’s just a tantrum room. The defence and Mowbray’s failure to address it is clearly a big issue. More so, in my mind, is that his two signature signings up front need to get 30 goals between them to justify the fees paid and he can’t even manage to get them on the field at the same time. If anything prompts action in Pune sometime it’ll be that, IMO.

When he’s man-marked and without Graham, he definitely can’t do it.

Exactly my thoughts also. The starting 11 would’ve won that game I felt.

Personally I thought Bennett and Mulgrew were a lot worse than Bell, they both made several really bad errors in dangerous positions, we were lucky only one resulted in a goal. Just as worrying for me was how much worse we got after the subs: Gallagher was a lot worse than Armstrong out wide and Graham and Rothwell did absolutely nothing. The last ten minutes they made us look like mugs. And if we’d just bought Dack, I’m not sure how impressed anyone would have been.

Walton not at fault for the goal IMO, he had to stay on his line in case one of Lenihan and the forward got a touch. Bennett and Mulgrew have each contributed two egregious mistakes, Lenihan good, Bell not good enough. Downing has looked OK but bet he’s not used to being paired with someone as bad as Bennett. Travis and Johnson look the best midfield two we’ve had since forever. Johnson reminds me of Ken Knighton, he’s also won every header he’s contested. Armstrong and Dack same as usual, Gallagher has been the disappointing signing for me so far.

I suspect Downing-Gallagher is a training ground plan, let’s see if we score via Downing crossing to Gallagher’s head. Four new signings picked on the first day, so they weren’t really signed just to provide a bit of competition for the regulars then.

We played United in a friendly at Ewood in 1970 I think. I remember Charlton and Best playing, not sure about Law, Stiles and the rest.

Glad to see Nuttall has joined the pantheon of ones-that-got-away top talent, along with “Banksy” Raya and ”Moore-o” Downing, by dint of being let go by Mowbray.

I thought it more than a coincidence that Mulgrew’s crap spells coincided with club vs country spats with the manager, so maybe the issue was at least partly attitudinal. Mowbray’s end of season rants plus signing this City player might have Mulgrew pull his socks up and start stopping a few with his bollocks.

Naive question: if Mowbray is so determined to play his favourites, why does he keep signing new players and giving debuts to U23s? He should just do what Saxton did: hardly sign anyone and pick the same team for ten years.

I thought Waggy was going to get down on all fours and head it in he took that long!

First competitive game against them since our relegation in 1966, 11 years of them lording it over us swept away in the best first 45 mins I ever saw. Followed by a collapse to beat anything we saw last season and the longest five minutes of injury time in history.

He took it with him didn’t he? And all the files, I seem to recall reading

Boooo!

Raya a star, as crucial to us as the players I mentioned? Not in my book Rev. We did better when his #2 was played, not something that ever happened with Waggy or Bellamy. The one consistent trait they have shown is to be hardball negotiators with other clubs. I don’t see why that would change on such a clause. And let’s be clear: it’s the owners that fooked this club, not Mowbray, and I think they are getting off very lightly in this window. Not that we’ll ever know for sure either way of course.

If the blockage is one of our football people, City’s people or the players people, I agree. If the blockage is the ownership, then that’s a different kettle of fish as moving onto the next target could well have exactly the same issue. Plus telling your owners to stuff it because they are taking too long could well introduce new logjams. I would imagine getting Mowbray//Waggot/Venkys aligned on anything isn’t as easy as it’s made out on here.

I’ve seen too many exciting-looking signings flop, and, to be fair, too many players of whom I had low expectations shine, to join the mass hyperventilating until we’ve seen a few games. Couple of issues not getting enough airtime on here (IMO): 1) So far, for the 3rd summer running, we haven’t sold a star player. Compared to the summers where we sold Duff, Shearer, Waggy, Barker, Bellamy etc., I’ll take this one so far. 2) You’d think we had model owners whereas I don’t believe these leopards have fundamentally changed their spots. With this City lad, which is more likely: Waggot, with his 20 years in the game, doesn’t think to ask about loan terms, or Pune baulks late on about the penalty fee if he doesn’t play X% of games? Defence needs sorting though.

Nonsensical theories like Nyambe not having any rest at all over the summer?

Change in the laws: play out from the back rather than the 40:60 generally lose possession long kick. I expect to see it become the norm this season.

Or perhaps he remembered that Rothwell played the full 90 minutes not 72 hours ago...

That arrangement makes complete sense to me given that, to fund an agreed salary budget, Pune will have set up how and when the money gets sent over to be to their best advantage (or least worst disadvantage.) Transfer fees mean they have to find the money and send over at very short notice, which may not suit them even if they are ok with the total fee.

Yes. It was extra to not having it.