My mate used to teach Dolan when he was at the Man City academy. Said he was a good lad but a bit of a tearaway, seemed like the sort who would not knuckle down and make the most of his talent. But he really has. Mowbray gets a lot grief, but I do think the way he handled Dolan was excellent.

Could be a really top player I think.... his goals/assists per minute played is really decent and quite consistent. Scores some crackers, scares defenders, always fun to watch. As Brereton is going I would like to see Dolan get a solid run at left forward as it is his best position (as someone said on the match thread).

Yes his left foot would be invaluable here, especially with a right footer at right back. Similarly Adam Wharton in midfield would help a lot with a left foot. Because everyones right footed we end up playing quite a narrow range of passing forward. Anyway Blackpool might be the worst team we have seen at Ewood this season so it doesn't look a massive issue for us. Forwards have been good. Those saying Gallgher should come off - he's god awful on the ball but off it he gives the defenders something to think about. Bring Vale on and watch us suddenly struggle as the CBs will just step up and squeeze the space for our forwards. I could maybe go for Hedges having a crack at CF if we did bring Gally on.

Definitely struggling to pass the ball out with Ayala and Hyam in there. Both so slow... Why is Carter not starting?

With both Dack and BBD out I think Leonard has a good chance of being on the bench just to fill it out. As we play four forwards we will probably only have one first team forward left over, so Vale and Leonard could get onto the bench to make up the numbers. I would really like to see him for 20-30mins.

I agree, should be moved onto a decent pay as you play deal with minimal basic. I think given his injury record that will be how every club approaches him now so it won't be anything uncompetitive. We've looked after him really well over his two ACLs, time to protect the club and make room for other signings on the wage bill.

I suppose it's possible, hard to think that he won't get £30k from somewhere in Prem. That's nothing these days.

Good illustration of why Chat GPT is impressive yet unimpressive at the same time. Can turn a single line prompt into grammatically correct flowing sentences in a particular style, and make them relatively aligned to the topic at hand, but they still come across as a general summary without insight. I do wonder whether calling tools like this "Artificial Intelligence" is right? It's really more of a collation and filtering and structuring of a vast pool of information, rather than actually providing a new intelligent insight or initiative. What you get out will be limited to what is in the information pool it is drawing on.

Yeah... but equally the run of games where Dack and Brereton have played since the world cup break we have scored very few goals anyway. BBD has managed one, and Dack three... It's not like we are missing players who have been banging them in week after week. Hopefully the change will unlock something and other players can score. Maybe a forlorn hope!

I think I would just about have Gallagher ahead of Szmodics and Vale. And Leonard I have never seen play.

Ben and his advisors are not daft.... what does he get out of that? He will get a better signing on fee and wage if he is a free agent. Why sign on for us to only then be sold? The only reason would be some sort of loyalty to the club that developed him, but if that was a motivating factor surely he would already be tied up to something.

I am not that convinced Dack and Brereton being out is such a big problem tbh. Brereton has been rubbish for ages now, and while Dack has been largely very good we actually played better in the second half on Saturday either side of him being on the pitch... He's a quality player but can be a real passenger if the game is not flowing in a way that best uses him. It's may well be that we, counter-intuitively, actually play better without them. I guess we will find out. Team for me... Pears JRC Carter Hyam Pickering Travis Buckley Thomas Dolan Hedges Gallagher Subs : Youth goalie, Ayala, Morton, A Wharton (hopefully back), Szmodics, Vale, Leonard

I salute you're bravery in facing the luddites! Stakeholder is a totally normal everyday word that's used all the time by lots and lots of people. Any organisation will have stakeholders. I think probably if we pull up the BRFCS terms of reference or whatever the foundational documents are the term "stakeholder" will feature somewhere.

I don't want him to stay personally, I think we are better moving on, which tells its own story.

I would say he should be just as worried that at a higher level with better players he is going to get found out. He's had a decent amount of chances over the last 12 odd games and hasn't been able to finish. I don't think that would be tolerated in the Prem (as Armstrong has found out), and I imagine it is similar in La Liga. That he hasn't signed a pre-contract with anyone yet suggests to me the offers have not been as good as expected, and he's having a real slump in form at the wrong time for him.

Yeah I suspect thats it. His wife may not fancy moving so soon after having the baby, or maybe even moving to Spain at all. I get it could be convenient for him, but it isn't convenient for us I think - 30k a week is around £1.5M a year. If he was guaranteed goals then great, but he isnt exactly that. Its a lot of money for a player who blows hot and cold who will be worth nothing at the end of the contract.

Dont think so, their TV contract is a lot worse as they all need to negotiate separately so Real amd Barca hoover it up but everyone else struggles. I wouldn't be surprised if our offer is better. What I dont get is why offer a one year deal? How does that help us? Very odd. Surely just letting him go and spending the money on a proper replacement makes more sense?

Um, Morton? I mean I know Morton has not been great recently but for a while he was really decent. A lot better than Davenport ever managed. I doubt Morton will ever be released by Lincoln..

Hes a great defender and not too bad on the ball, bur we definitely were poorer getting it forward when he came on.

Yeah... if we had a decent central striker I think a lot of the flack that the midfielders get would melt away. They look poor because they have very little to pass too. Up front Dolan put a really good shift in, scared their defenders a bit which is always good to see, but isn't someone who lives to get on a cross or a through ball and score.

I wonder if having Carter and Wharton at the back has helped a lot. Both of them can move the ball forward better than Hyam and way way way better than Ayala. Makes it easier to transition forward. Also I wouldn't really say we missed Ayala that much defensively which is a bit of a surprise. Carter particularly is very cultured with ball for a centreback.

Team for me : Pears Brittain Hyam Carter Pickering JRC Buckley THomas Dack Hedges Dolan

Yeah and the ones that have had parachute money.... Im not actually that sure he wants to football it out. Hes not going for possession football I think, we end up having a lot of possession not through design but rather we just run out of ideas. Instead he wants to play it forward accurately and quickly which we should be able to do really. Dont need to be barcelona.

I'd say it makes perfect sense what he said - it was factual. If I was in his shoes I'd do much the same - call out I thought we had a good case, but also that no one has succeeded in an appeal before. Both relevant information. I don't think just because no one has won a case before it is not worth appealing. Indeed if we didn't appeal and came out and said "we thought we had a good case, but as no one has won before we decided not to appeal" then I think the torches and pitchforks would be coming out.

Business to Business and Court of Arbitration for Sport