@blueboy3333 surely “catastrophic mistake” is worse than “fraud”...!

We have 18 professional footballers in a squad yet Ben is his “biggest challenge”? I could understand Rothwell being a preference today in hindsight.

Fee to wage flex.. see page 75 or whatever!

JW upper - serious stick for Ben, average stick (bar from me) for Palmer... sat next to @K-Hod

Nuttall deserves more of a chance but that can only come at the sub for Graham, whereas Ben is more “wide attacking” (although today was poor!) I genuinely feel a change of formation coming but it’s hard to see Dack dropped! 3 at the back could bring another forward in...

No spin. We are in transition from relegated- promoted- championship and 19 year olds are expected to come on and change games single handed.

One should be further on in their development, and it might be a bit of a rare perspective but I’d personally give our own players more time.

Complete over reaction in my opinion. Patience is a virtue.

Poor when he arrived today. No final ball, no quality at all. Looked out of position and lacking presence. I’d love to see us change formation to 2 up front now and then to better accommodate AA and Ben. One thing about the massive criticisms though; I noticed a very different expectation. KP came on, gave the ball away, failed to track, had no final ball and seemed to get progressively worse, yet the people around and behind me made no comment. BB’s first touch, second touch and further had comments - many “he’s shit”, “why have we spent 7.5m”, “he’s not even a footballer”... Now I don’t really think Ben looks a wide attacker yet, like Armstrong is developing into, he’s 19 and still raw... why is the expectation so high? Reason is price. I personally don’t think it should be like that, but I felt it today - the people around me genuinely vociferously more critical purely based on the contract scenario of both subs! The irony of it all.. one lad behind me said “he looks so short of confidence”.... no fucking wonder!

Obviously it’s much deeper than that, but Graham and Dacks form in that system plays a part in B.B. (and Armstrong, Rothwell, Palmer and others) having less chance to be involved from the start. People are critical of using two more defensive central players, but unless we start to struggle, Dack/Graham get injured/leave, I can’t see us changing the system. The time for me to judge the lad and his ability will come with a run of starts. I think it is a lot more difficult for a striker to come into a team and hit the ground running, than say a a full back. As for Nuttall, many would’ve been up in arms if we’d merely stuck with him as backup to Armstrong/Graham - it’s good to see him getting the goals in U23s though, I can’t see the extra pressure/competition for places being a bad thing!

How many championship teams have we played on the run Norwich are on?

l can’t help but think what kind of stick @chaddyrovers would get for betting against Rovers! On to the game; one of the first real tests tomorrow. A point will be well received without hindsight but I can’t help but think we might catch Norwich cold after going unbeaten for so long.

Let’s not get into a tit for tat argument. You know as well as I do, the “veil” is to hide predetermined opinions, decisions, beliefs and bias. You seemingly will go to any length to justify the long standing view that our manager ain’t good enough. From my perspective, slating ambition when then manager is looking sensibly up, or slating transfers when the mainstay of decisions are common sense - just looks and sounds like hyperbolic criticism or overreaction. If you cannot accept that without taking swipes at my intelligence, I’d suggest asking for “thicker skin” for Christmas,

I feel your “veil slips” whenever you start trying to justify the overreactive criticism and irrational response to articles like the previous one. If you can’t take the opinion on your own views, don’t post them.

I did debate your content, another (from my perspective) set of reactive over the top criticisms and paranoia. If you’ve no reply, no worries.

Hyperbolic criticisms and unnecessary and unrelated swipes from my perspective; 1. Ambition to target top half “and beyond that” is worthy of a sarcastic palpable and Heart comment? I’d assume that was a realistic ambition of most fans. 2. He said no major overhaul but right men to improve “fine lines”. Thats exactly what we need. 3. That was LT mention of Dack, no reference, no talk of sales, nothing from TM 4. The veil slips.. 5. Firstly, it’s been said that those who got us up will get their chances, Secondly; I’m not sure the opportunity to bring in potential in a position we are short of can be described as a “syndicate” signing. It’s highly paranoid imo, especially when main director at Ewood said they could flex between wages and fees. 6. You know as well as I do, anything to celebrate and people will give up their regular seat and cheap pint at the Crown ground once more. How you managed to stuff this bitterness into a response to a short interview on transfers is beyond me. You know, higher revenue, higher spend... right? Or if you prefer in future I can simply respond with the laughter emoji?

True, only league position and opponent.

It’s actually 4 quid for all u18s so I’d hope that a few pick that up. They are the demographic we need to target

As I said previously - the quote from Waggott about “flexing” budget between fee/wage explains spending more on a fee for a younger less established player. I don’t think wages are too much to worry about either, in terms of room to manoeuvre in January or next summer, but I do think the gap is widening between the top few and the rest.

You think those lads + Nuno Gomes cost less than 7m total? Think again. Comparing to those deals is basically saying it’s crooked. All because he isn’t better than Danny Graham yet... Just read the thread. 78 pages.

Have to disagree. Even if you could get all three for half the 7m, that’s three sets of wages to fit into our wage budget all with necessary taxes! Would agree 1 less expensive/risky lower division addition to play a similar part from the bench would be more frugal - however I would suggest the fee gives more chance of reaching that potential. I am personally mystified by the readiness to suggest this lads a fraud by quite a few posters. We’re all welcome to our own view about him and mine will not be formed before he’s even made a start in the league.

You’re talking about a 19 year old lad who has been valued, sought after and represented his country at youth levels. There is no guarantee that he will fulfill that potential mind, but to be so critical after less than half a season - you must have ridiculous expectation levels. Comparing his signing to a load of unknown free Portuguese players through one agent is a bit of a tangent too. Now, you said there are plenty of options for this level at that rate - now you’re moving goal posts to further debt and FFP...

That’s the going wage for a top championship player, keep up. Without even mentioning Tax/Ni. Who are these strikers that fit into that profile then Blueboy?

You’re talking about their overall impact of their deals, the 8/10 comment is taken out of context, a summary of one transfer window being excellent, exceptional or any adjective meaning “good” or better than anticipated. Do I think they’ll all turn out exceptional signings? No. For instance Davenport has had poor luck with injuries and those are the kind of barriers for ANY signing, young or old. Thats not to say I’m writing him off either! Hopefully the new year will see him get involved, Armstrong to score a few more and Ben to be more involved!

You’re talking about 1 sentence of my views, based on reaction to a thread titled “Transfer window; Success or Failure”. Even still, to add such potential and highly rated/sought after players into the club is quality transfer business - even if they are yet to displace those who (as we’ve been told) earned a crack/shift at this division last year.