Pears JRC. Carter. Hyam Pickering Travis. Buckley Thomas. Dack. Hedges Dolan Subs: Hilton, Wharton, Brittain, Morton, Szmodics, Brereton, Vale Or Pears Carter. Hyam. Wharton Jrc. Travis. Buckley. Brittain Dack Dolan. Brereton

As long as Gally doesn't start I'm happy

What are your thoughts on Leonard. Ready for 1st team involvement?

Lot of debate whether Vale can ever make the grade here and that's a fair conversation. However what isn't in debate is he isn't good enough for what we need right now. Neither is Gally. For me the one option we haven't tried is Brereton-Diaz through the middle. He does it for Chile at times, he's got a lot of the attributes to do it, he's leaving anyway so doesn't particularly matter if he'd rather play on the left, allows us to get Thomas into the team. That's what I'd do anyway

On a contract until the end of the season I think it could be worth a go. He can hold the ball up at least. If not then surely we have to try Diaz through the middle

Keep an eye out for players having there contracts terminated. They can still sign for other clubs

Still not a striker but... To fill that centre mid slot that's about as good as we can hope for.

I'd have him. I think he would work quite well in our team.

Broughton talks a good game and has a good record before arriving working with developing younger talent. He's broadly done a good job with us having a clear link between under 21 and first team. He's also been pro active renewing contracts and reorganising the backroom. Problem is the main part of his job is player trading and he hasn't got any experience in pre rovers. He must be realising now how difficult this actually is and really what will inevitably define his time here. We haven't got any money (clearly as all our offers are nominal or loans) so we can't strike early and have to wait till prices drop. Also means we are limited in what we can get in and a couple of mil max doesn't get you a lot. We also aren't that competitive on wages so players mess us around until something better comes along. Also we are again limited in who we can get, pretty much rules out prem strikers on loan. He had a tough situation in the summer and the results were a mixed bag (the biggest flops have been loans to buys which somewhat help his case), so I was withholding judgement until this window. And if the window closes tomorrow with no striker then its been an abject failure. It's all well and good talking about pathways for young players and all that but if we can't get players in, unpolished gems or just players who can just do the job, then we will start moving backwards not forwards.

Great lower league striker, if we were in league 1 it would be worth a go. No way we should be considering it.

Could be worth a try. Gallagher certainly not cutting it and Vale just doesn't seem to have enough at this level albeit he seems fairly well rounded.

I agree. There were positives today. I'm not as down on us as others seem to be. Plenty of negatives too though.

I actually thought we played well today. We moved the ball well (especially when we moved it quickly) and created more than enough chances to win the game comfortably. I thought the balls over the top to gally and Diaz really helped stretch the pitch and allowed us to play a bit more, which stopped us getting stuck playing it around the back all the time. Buckley is the one who can pick those passes though. We are organised and i see the basis of a good side, we just really really lack a striker and we are a good one away from being a good team (and a cm too but i think next season that is wharton). We should've been out of site at 2 - 1 up but we didn't kill them off. Brereton Diaz is playing like just Brereton. Gally is terrible. His touch and decision making is so poor. He wasted so many opening today. Glad we are seeing dack back at a good level. Morton has some ability but I certainly wouldn't be giving him this much playing time. At fault for a goal again today. Wharton has become a bit unreliable, makes a mistake every game post his injury. I like Carter and thought he was the better of the two today. JRC very good as other side. Buckley shows promise being the link out of defence but made a couple of mistakes, I'd like to see him with someone of a bit more presence next to him but we'd have to go buy one first! We aren't a million miles away but I don't think we have the money or nous to get the 3 players we need to kick us onto the next level.

On current form should be 3rd choice.i like him. Wharton has been a bit of a liability recently, not sure what's happened to him.

Came here just to comment on how bad gally is. Terrible

Where's the link?

Burnley have just spent 8 million on a striker with 8 goals in the Belgium top division. Its not going to be easy to find this striker with our budget

I'm hoping this is just part of the life after Brereton plan. Get Thomas in now and make it a loan to not draw away from the striker funds. Get a striker this window (permanent or loan to buy) then use summer funds to hopefully sign thomas on a permanent.

Wondering why on loan?

I rate Sorba Thomas. I think we need a winger too. Would be very happy with this if the price is right.

So he flew out to Spain whilst on paternity leave?

Get the pre contract signed and then see if we can offload edun and if there's money in the bank at the end of the window offer them a low fee to move the transfer forward and see what happens.

We are too slow transitioning largely because 1) we don't have a natural out ball, like a winger or a Rothwell type cm who can carry it 30 yards upfield or a decent target man who we clip it into and play off. 2) we play very narrow which means when we get the ball back we don't have as many natural options to move it quickly and we revert to slow passing at the back to allow players to get in attacking positions. The narrowness is helping us be harder to play through which I think we are but we need to adapt as at the moment we aren't creating enough chances and are too easy to defend against.

Undav is the only one of those that really needs to happen. We can live with it if the other 2 fall through.

Start of the 21/22 season? See other comments but that's a complete load of rubbish. Before the start of 20/21 maybe yeah. But 21/22? No way, I think if we were to look back through this board from the start of that season you'll likely see a lot of comments about hoping Brereton could step up after the loss of Armstrongs goals.