That 12million, the shambles in selling our keeper and ending up with Walton, and the inability to bring in a decent centre half in 6 transfer windows are the big failings. The latter was plugged by loaning Tosin, but the £12 mill will really be the defining factor. In an effort to try and make it not look like the disaster it is, the two players in question have been shoehorned into the side out wide, whilst superior players have been dropped. The first mistake was spending the money on duds, the second was constantly weakening the side to play them. We got told last summer to give Mowbray another year and next season will be better for Brereton. The same suspects will now give the same spiel once again.

True, but when i posted that he was fairly central. As he is apparently the quickest player in the team, he could have knocked it outside and run rather than turn inside and into a second defender. He's certainly a player who lacks in nouse.

Rothwell, just for once go outside your man instead of inside him every time.

It is. And Hughes / Souness etc would be letting the ref know he's made an almighty cock up which has cost us. I know people don't like managers moaning, but it's very rare Mowbray speaks up on things like that. It's an easy decision for the ref, but he's tried to be 'brave' and instead has just been shit.

As much as I expected us to cave in, that's a free kick all day long.

How do you know? From the 15 minutes he gets every fortnight when we are either in trouble or shutting up shop? He had a run in the side before Christmas (around the time of the win over Brentford) and it coincided with one of our good runs. It still looked like last years plan A, that Mowbray was desperate to move away from, was still our best style of play.

But the fact is the chances were not converted by a group of strikers that he has either brought or kept at the club at a significant cost. As much as I thought that Samuel might have more to his game (probably cos he is actually quite quick and mobile) he has always flattered to deceive. Gallagher we had already seen and knew what we were buying. To be fair he probably would have bagged a few more had he played up top, but he has been ruined by playing out wide. Brereton was a stupid amount of money for a nobody outside of Nottingham and that one Arsenal game. There's nothing in the lad that makes me think he will be a goalscorer. Mowbray was obviously unlucky with losing the goals that Dack provides, but we had the chance to address that in January and once again didn't act. Therefore the lack of goals in games which we created chances and had most of the possession isn't down to bad luck. Its down to bad recruitment. And that's been a problem all season. The keeper situation has swung a bit but ultimately has also been costly. It looked a disaster waiting to happen when we didn't replace Raya with anything other than a 3rd choice Prem keeper who Wigan fans were not sorry to see not return. He has had some decent spells but has been at fault (either by mistakes or by just not being good enough) for too many goals. I think we would have coped with the defence and midfield that we have been playing had we sorted the goalkeeper and striker situation out, but that is where we have failed.

In a parallel dimension in 1992:- "Sorry Alan. I know you're a good player and all, but the boys are really fond of David and, as we just got promoted, we want to keep the team morale intact"

Exactly. Someone said on the match day thread he is starting to look 'value' at £7 million. To look even close to being worth that amount he needs to perform like he did last week (which was very good) more often than not. To be 'value' then he needs to be performing and scoring. At the moment you can't even say he needs to show more consistency, because hasn't shown enough good form to even suggest he is inconsistent. However, as JoeH points out, you have to also judge each performance on its own merits and he was very good on Saturday. Hopefully he takes that on to the next game.

At least Boro have replaced their failing manager before they drop back into the relegation zone just like we d ..... Oh.

"Server not available. Please try again later" Thats from iOS app

Just a heads up that anyone that paused Sky Sports will start to be charged again from June 19th. https://www.sky.com/help/articles/pause-sky-sports

I've not been paying much attention since March. Did we extend Tosin's loan until the end of the season?

At least if you are a family of 4 then you can watch the empty beach on 4 different devices.

Let the carnage commence......

They were asked to vote on either throwing money they don't have down a pit in order to finish the season, or to end it now. Its blindingly obvious what the majority would vote for. They were not asked to vote whether relegation or promotion was fair in this scenario (ending the season), which it isn't. The EFL took that decision out of their hands. Therefore Tranmere have been relegated unfairly by the EFL, not by a majority decision by the clubs.

That's the problem. The EFL have decided promotion and relegation should happen regardless. That should have been left to the clubs. The options to the clubs vote on should have been - Void the season with no promotion or relegation - Void the season and promote / relegate on a PPG basis. - Finish the season I imagine that would have been a better indicator of what the lower league clubs thought was fair, and wouldn't have been a landslide.

To be fair to Bowyer, the two interviews I read / heard he wasn't complaining about playing the season out. He just said it would make his job more difficult in this situation but he understands the players reasoning. Personally, I don't. I just wouldn't pay the players involved. And if any of them are hard faced enough to say its because they don't want to jeopardise their dream move, rather than for health and safety fears reading the virus, I'd fine them each week they don't play as well.

Do you really want it to spill onto this board now? ?

Tranmere have won their last 3 games, and are now only 3 points from safety with a game in hand. Nothing about them being relegated on a PPG basis would be fair, just because Accy Stanley and a lot of other clubs with nothing to play for want to save money. The should have asked the league one and league two clubs to vote on should the season continue, or should it end and be void now. Most clubs would have chosen to void, so that would also have been the majority of the clubs wishes. That would have allowed the clubs to save money and no-one would have been penalised. @roversfan99 is right that the only way you should have promotion and relegation is when the season is finished. Therefore if PL and Championship play it out then you can have promotion / relegation between those leagues, but no-one goes down from the Championship.

Correct. It is sending out the wrong message that a hairdresser or barber cannot open their shop to work and have apppintments with 1 person inside at once. And somehow 21 men can congregate and share a football pitch. Once we have some normality like sensible family gatherings and being able to socially distance in a barbers then football should initiate project restart. However, if the footballers are working then they can get tested. Testing people who work in a warehouse packing non-essential luxury items isnt a priority but it's being done.

I currently see stock as being ample enough that currently anyone that works in an office, warehouse or a factory can go and get tested. It was previously just NHS and care workers but this has now been expanded. You see stocks as still being in short supply for NHS and care workers. Now I may be wrong and it may be difficult to actually get tested if you just work in an office. But as I said previously, I now know people who have gone and got tested just for the sake of it.

Fulham may believe they have an outside chance of finishing top 2 so could vote against it but the rest of the top 6 would vote for. That's 5 votes. Positions 17 to 21 would avoid relegation so that's another 5 votes. You would therefore need 4 of the teams positioned between 7 to 16 to vote to end the season which is surely very likely. Grossly unfair scenario tbh to be relegating teams in the situation, especially Charlton who only sat in the bottom 3 for the first time all season after the last round of fixtures. I'd also argue it you can't play the rest of the competition, don't play the play offs and just let Fulham go up. But that might be a slightly anti-PNE !

I said that I (personally) have no interest in it returning in the immediate future as a non-spectactor sport. You may find that by August, once the picture for the country and the world is clearer, then my interest may return. That is completely separate as to whether they should return now, in August or in 2 years time, for which I can see both sides of the argument. I am morally uncomfortable with the fact I cannot see two family members in a local park, but 21 men can congregate in a penalty box grappling each other. Removing the financial issue, the common sense approach would be to bring football back when you can also have a proper kick around with your mates in a field. I'm not bothered whether this season finishes or not. The game itself is much bigger than the 2019/2020 Premier League season.