Me tomorrow morning

Me before this window vs me just after it

They also then immediately deleted the tweet.. As for the shirt, love the old school collar.

Defensively I’d say Nyambe is excellent, his physical skills are as good as anyone in the club. His game reading, and the way he is exposed because we play inside or wide forwards makes a few of Bennett’s more “forward” based benefits stand out above Ryan for me. Its not perfect - I’m not in anyway “happy” about it - but a priority for defending id have would be organisation not personnel.

In my op’ Arb, it’s not unfathomable - it’s a difficult choice. Nyambe isn’t natural at right back either, he does the defensive stuff well at times but switches off, gets caught out and struggles overlapping.

I would say he is far less of a problem than Bell this season. I like Nyambe too - I just don’t think it’s as obvious, for instance I think Nyambe will end up converting to a wide centre back.

I don’t think EB at RB is a massive issue, and I’m sure Mulgrew is behind Tosin, Lenihan, Williams for 4th CB. Hence why he started with Del and Tosin not ready yet. My priority is a new left sided FB but I’m not convinced hell will swallow us whole, as predicted if we get nobody.

Welcome to your opinion but I’m not sure how you get to this personally. Firstly, I don’t think it’s difficult to argue Bell, Mulgrew and then the substitutions did badly. I wouldn’t blame any individual in that scenario personally but all played worse individually than Bennett. Im not convinced you could call RB a priority when Williams is our only other LB option (besides Hart) in that role. If we could only get one through the door today, for me it would be a left back. Also to add to what I alex said, the fact probably most of the 92 clubs are still looking for additions says a lot about the competition and difficulty in market.

That Pram is gonna burst into flames.

Wasn’t that after Downing, before Johnson, Walton, Tosin and Gallagher? Personally not a big fan of suicide humour in relation to football anymore but each to their own. Edit - Oh BTW old habits die hard because I forgot I wasn’t Biz anymore

Play fair! Rather dismissive to start a post with a suggestion its merely PR for the club. I only post my opinion. Last line is particularly a sore one - Jack O'Connell. Cant remember the exact timing of his departure, but surely he would've been the perfect person to replace either Duffy or Hanley. Low and behold, we end up with Greer and Brown. That to me is a mistake caused by a lack of direction and continuity - similarly, Wharton is now seen as someone yet to develop, but we gave him a contract and thus leaves for league 2 opportunities. Constant upheaval of staff, a stream of decisions made by people who would leave within months. Much of that is why I find that pre-mowbray stuff is largely irrelevant when assessing his decisions. The key stuff for me is what he inherited, what he has spent, and what he has now. On that basis alone, it is impossible to ignore the weight of funding has gone into attacking positions. I see this as a flaw in recruitment - but perhaps give the him more benefit of the doubt in some respects. Just to quickly summarise a few previously mentioned; 1. More options initially (squad he inherited) defensively than offensively, in the squad and on the cusp via the academy, 2. A difficult market (which has doubled in value since 2014) to attract players (wages, 2 windows in league one etc) - Even our recent "splurge" is dwarfed by the standard wage spend of recently relegated clubs 3. A need for a complete upheaval of any analysis or proper European scouting, because the previous decline to TM had seen this completely neglected. These factors in no way exclude blame or are attempts to "defend" Mowbray either. They don't hide potential mistakes like for the inability to get a striker to compete with Graham last year and settling for a 19 year old, or the renewals of some players unlikely to feature, or this summer to sell Raya before making sure we have a better replacement lined up. Mistakes have compounded our difficulties in competing with better budgets or better run clubs, and the next one will be failing to stop us making stupid defensive mistakes - regardless of personnel. The mistakes individually are subjective too - I am sure there are many who will say turning down 15m of Dack is/was a huge mistake, but I would've been scathing of the club if that had/has happens at any time soon. Id rather judge them both by their actions and outcomes. If they are telling us they have relative free reign within budgets, they pump the expectations up. My own included. In terms of how easy is it to believe "Venkys" are meddling in transfer business in relation to investment in defenders, to get to that view I would have to ignore that the club has made more selling money selling defenders in their time than any other position, namely our record sale Phil Jones. Surely that would be motivation for any "model" hinged on buying low and selling high, to go out and spend 5 million on a young centre back who might be worth 30m in 2 seasons?

I actually think Drinkwater and Dann, on top of what they’ve kept should stay up under Dyche. Seen their fans moaning, even one about Derby having a better wage bill - but for all Dyche’s domestic and players he knows bias, I’d bet 2 chateau neuf du pape’s on him achieving their targets again!

It doesn’t have to be ear marked for attackers, for us not to spend money on defenders. To me this is a huge side effect of decline, change, upheaval and no squad building continuity. There is also the weighting between attacking / defensive graduates. We’ve had, have far more defenders than attackers, No8s, 9s, 10s and 11s! Complex business is developing a squad to challenge without simply spending lots of money and buying it ready made.

Gets away with it because the attacking at times has been arguably good. A noticeable pattern in his career. For me sacking managers is down to targets though. Nobody can argue he hasn’t had enough time to “make his bed” but I think he’s achieved basic targets up to this point, and thus if this year is top 6, and he is looking like failing that spectacular or worse, it would be perfect timing. He will have left us in a much better position than he took over!

It isn’t going to simply happen buying better players in one or two positions either. You say it yourself, you doubt Walton or Tosin will make a difference - both key players in (statistically by GC ratio) better defences last season. Both new additions for this season, albeit loans. As you say, we’ve seldom defended well in the two full seasons, and we’ve many of the same players featuring since before that, there is no magic wand for problems with philosophy. I get stick for saying it’s not simple but I am only saying what I think - I’m not convinced that team is as far away as many think, yet I’m also concerned the rationale behind our defensive woes fall deeper than playing staff. Hence I hope TM can prove many people wrong and hit the sort of run that will achieve what we need but I’m not convinced that solely stands on signing this new CB you speak of.

I’m more bothered about results than detailed explanations. Not a good start but after one game, and without seeing more - I’d be inclined to wait to see results before getting upset. Equally - I’d sooner see Tosins and Walton’s impact, or the most important thing in my view, the actual way we defend. Aka as in better organisation, more communication, better closing down, etc etc from some players we already have. We could have spent all the money in the world on defenders, but if the teams not setup correctly or motivated to actually want to defend - you’ll concede daft goals all day. That for me will be TMs undoing before long.

I think Nyambe has stalled in the previous two seasons to some extent in key areas, namely failed to cut individual errors out of his game and not build on technical skills like crossing and overlapping. I agree, Bennett has similar percentage of mistakes per appearances but I think its not as simple as a choice because they both have pro’s/con’s for that position. I think Nyambe is now seen more as a wide central option because he has the more defensive fundamentals and physical stuff. I know none of this stacks up with the simple “plays his favourites” stuff, but I only go off what I see or have seen. For example, I agree on Bell - he’s always looked to be seconds off the play, even if he has decent technical ability. My priority after replacing Raya and bringing in Tosin, would also be a new FB.

I think Tosin and Lenihan could be a real dominating force at the back personally.

I personally, once again, think it’s not quite that simple. Transfers come down to more than just cost and a team willing to pay, as you say the competition is so fierce for talent - intermediaries are paid huge sums to broker deals. I can’t recall a manager we’ve had not buying players he knows through working with or knowing, a few of Hughes old Wales pals, or Souness’s ex Liverpool signings didn’t hurt. I agree we’ve missed out on, or there’s plenty of opportunities if you’ve the right timing/conversation/funds. I just don’t think it’s as bad as you and others are making out.

I don’t think you’d need international scouting to see Sheffield Wednesdays bench. Equally, I’m not sure how you feel, but I don’t think you’d find many Rovers fans too enamoured with him either, especially after his spell here. If it’s anywhere near the 7m quoted leeds interest, I would’ve been annoyed had that been us. Finally - three Portuguese speaking players, from clubs recently at Forest, Wednesday... not exactly known for their shopping outside of agencies involved in their ownership... Reminds me of you being envious of Wigan earlier in the window.

Isn’t he 6 foot 9 or something too? I think Adarabioyo will turn out a decent acquisition over the season, the point with Bielek was showing how much some of the available players are, even without recent international or championship experience.

In terms of “installing Venus as chief scout”; https://uk.linkedin.com/in/stuart-harvey-a1021a93 The head of recruitment has been at Ewood longer than both.

I’m more used to debates when something more than a simple question comes back. It wasn’t just down to Farke either, let’s not forget Norwich at the time; a well supported, recently relegated and expensive squad. More to invest, more continuity in design, owners likely using a far better model. I feel like I’m always repeating myself, but it’s never simple or easy. We’ve a long way to claw back. There’s plenty of crossover TM out stuff, you must’ve ignored the thread JHR - admiring you on that! The “mental archaic all powerful manager system” is a way of putting it - I agree, I’d love a top class system above him, between the owners (or just new owners entirely). However I do think we’ve made massive strides in lots of ways since he rocked up. The overall recruitment and squad shaping, for me hasn’t been far off. Its not wrong to expect more though; @JHRover a CB that cost Derby (let’s say one of our main teams to usurp) nearly 10m? Hardly ever played championship football? Extremely competitive business is football.