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

I have to agree that with Rothwell, Chapman, Armstrong the one area you wouldn't think we were desperate was out wide. If we're investing in experienced quality I would say CB, GK, CM, FB need it a lot more.

A club like Villa will want to splash big money on big names to show intent. I can't really see them going for Dack. Sheffield Utd or Norwich I could see as being potentially interested, or Bournemouth. But anyone looking at Dack would wonder if he is worth £15-£20M, and will he succeed in the Prem.

If we manage to sign 7 players, let alone 7 good ones, I will be amazed. I anticipate about 3/4 decent players is about where we'll end up, similar to previous windows.

I forgot him yes! He would go in ahead of Brereton - you're right.

For what it's worth if we didn't sign anyone I think we would line up something like this. Maybe Bennett ahead of Davenport. -------------------------Raya Nyambe----Lenihan----Williams----Bell -----------------Travis------Davenport ----Brereton---------Dack------------Rothwell ---------------------Graham Subs : Leut, Mulgrew, youth centre back, Evans, Bennett, Chapman, Nuttall I can't really see Mowbray moving away from 4231. If he was going to do it he would have done by now. On signings he seems to be looking for upgrades at GK, CB, CM, ST. He doesn't seem to be focusing at full back which is weird as we are absolutely terrible there.

Mulgrew in midfield would be terrible for me. Way too slow and lacks intensity. Plus while he can strike a dead ball very well he is not that great at passing. If Mowbray thought he was decent in midfield he would have played him there, instead he left him on the bench towards the end of the season. Tells you everything. Mulgrew is finished I think.

With Norwich going up and that Hanley has played few games this season (9 matches) suggests to me this could happen if we were interested. Likely to be on big wages though as Norwich will probably have matched what he got at Newcastle. Plus it would bring him a lot closer to home/

Its balls. There's no way we could afford his wages. He'll be on 50k a week.

I don't think this really stacks up. Weve bought Rothwell and Dack who both look like great young prospects. They didn't cost £7m each. What you seem to be arguing is that to get good young talent you need to spend £7m but we know that isn't the case from players who are in the squad today. Want him to do well, but he's got major work to do.

Part of the reason Hughes left was that he couldn't get the financial backing to secure players like DIarra, Kompany and Zabaleta. With investment (£20m ish) we could have made the Champion League I think under Mark Hughes. But without the cash Hughes, quite understandably, thought he had done everything he could and moved on. I can't really blame John Williams as he didn't have the cash to fund those sorts of signings, and he was trying to keep the club sustainable. For Hughes I think he genuinely thought it was only a matter of time before he managed the likes of United or Chelsea. Didn't really work out like that though, the top clubs were only going for very well established talent who won trophies. Hughes walking out on Fulham was real hubris.

He signed decent players at City (Kompany, Zabaleta), and he got Shakiri to sign for stoke which was something close to incredible. He signed Arnautovich there as well. To be honest he had a great time at rovers, a decent but unspectacular one at City, did well at Fulham and Stoke (until his last season). He had 2 disasters - QPR and Southampton. He'll come good for someone I'm sure, should his heart still be in it. One thing he does have is a massive ego so whether he wants to step down a division to get a job is the question. After Southampton I can't see a prem side going for him.

Harsh I think Dier is very good. Agree Delph offers little. Lacks technical quality and physicality. I've been a bit confused why Delph has played so much. Midfield three of Dier, Henderson, Barkley is our best setup. Alli, Lingard roam around too much to play that deep, Delph lacks the right quality. Im open to winks getting a shot.

Surely they have to put a time limit on the check. It's stupid how long it takes. 30 seconds should be enough. Sometimes their taking 2 or 3 minutes.

I thought Lingard was pretty good to be honest. Seems to get a lot of unfair stick. Speculative, but I would say if Henderson and Dier had started ahead of Rice and Delph I think we would have won that game. Weve got a really good squad generally but we could do with one real deep playing playmaker coming through to tie things together. A Tugay, Xavi, Carrick type. Winks is probably closest to that but I'm not sure he has the quality.

I agree that walker limits us, Trent Alexander Arnold or Trippier are better players. On the technically gifted side I think we have very good technical players indeed at nearly every position. I don't really see that as a major problem for us. More of an issue is the soft defence I think. We just need to keep chipping away.

This hits the nail on the head really. When we beat Spain using the same formation we had winks and dier in midfield alongside Barkley. Winks particularly is good on the turn with the ball. Dier is decent. Tonight Rice particularly struggled, and Delph was mediocre.

Our poor passing was due to an excellent Netherlands press, and our total avoidance of playing ball long as we were terrified of van dyke and de ligt in the air. Switzerland will be much more our cup of tea to play against. Overall we've played very well over the last 18 months, we're not as good as the best teams but we're decent and should be marginal favourites against Switzerland. Edit - one thing I would do is drop Rice. We need players who can play on the turn and he cant at the moment. Henderson or Dier would be much more effective in his role.

Nah, I think England should do well against them. Much mode porous side. Netherlands did us through being very defensively solid and marking well in midfield. We couldn't find any passes out of the back.

Wow, that was amazingly bad. Two goals like in the same match is pretty incredible.

Decent game. Pleased Southgate changed the formation. He's really good at figuring out how to change to the system. Could go either way. Id think about bringing Alli on for Rice who has struggled in my opinion. Have to say I really like Barkley. Think he could become a really top player.

Spurs have won one FA cup and two league cups in the last 35 years. They've only ever won the league twice in history. The possibility that they could win the CL tonight is absolutely mental. Seeing Arsenal battered by Chelsea in a major European final, followed by winning the biggest prize in club football after decades of mediocrity. If they manage it that will be one hell of a week for Spurs fans. I live next to Tottenham and it will be absolutely unbearable.

There's quite a few more decent ones than the 4 you mentioned, including a few who were absolutely key players. Kazim-Richards, Gestede, Tommy Hoban, Baptiste, Tunnicliffe, Jordi Gomez, Danny Graham, Tom Lawrence, Emnes, Harry Chapman, Adam Armstrong, Jack Payne. I wouldn't say loans have hurt as at all. Our hit/miss ratio for loans is about the same as buys I would say. What's hurt us most is bringing in over the hill rubbish like Murphy, Etuhu and Best on massive contracts. We would have been better off with bringing in loans in those cases. About half of any years recruitment will be loans, and the teams that go up usually have made a number of great loans. We have to emulate that.

I don't think getting in the top six next season is unrealistic, and should be the target, and I am sure it will be. I guess the key question is what is the minimum acceptable position where heads will roll if not achieved. I would say that's 9th-10th. Based on the other teams in the league and the inherent highly unpredictable nature of the Championship I think the above is reasonable.

Not sure about that. He was unbelievably bad in the second half of the season, and not much better in the first half. I would say when he starts he is our number one weakness. We can't afford to rely on him.