Compared to where I thought we would be. I expected a Telalovic signing, an aging keeper and a few Morton / Chrisene style loans. The budget is a joke, but if Cantwell does come in then we spend so much time criticising people at Ewood I think it's only fair to say the recruitment team "on paper" look to have done a good job with a hugely limited budget.

No-one is saying gamble. Just for Venky's to put the money in that they used to provide to run the club, and then use the money brought in from transfers to actually buy players in for fees. But they don't. Because they never refuse to sign a cheque, unless it has a matched personal bond associated with it. Wankers Fair play to this recruitment team. Obviously the proof will be in the pudding later in the season, but if Cantwell comes off this is far better than was expected.

It's not the club agreeing terms with the player that worries me. It's Venky's then agreeing to sanction it. Having been unsure on Cantwell, I've now bought into the idea.

Fair play to Cantwell. He's only been in Scotland a season or so and has got under this guys skin so much that he needs to sign up on here and create 2 threads on him.

I dont recall but you are probably right. The only thing I remember is our one foray and shot in the second half was the result of our one and only long ball out of defence. Scott Wharton on the bench. Adam Wharton not even in the squad.

I know. Even Gary Glitter clears all evidence off his PC of ever visiting that site.

No cos he wore 14 all his Norwich career. However I heard this afternoon he is a bit of a cleanliness freak and insists on only wearing a new shirt every match. He’s done it all his career. Apparently we haven’t enough stock of adult shirts for that to happen until October, so the deal is on hold unless we can get a few more sent over.

Bit of Dingle hyperbole from UTC here;-

Seating is available under £100 at other venues. If it was Etihad and seats under a ton I’d have been interested but not standing at Heaton Park at that price.

That last time we played at turf Moor, starting Mola is well documented. But we also had a midfield of Travis, Morton and Garrett. Add in a centre back pairing of Hyam and Ayala and then remember we tried to play tika-taka out of defence all game. Then look at their starting line up. Is it any wonder we didn’t get in their half? When we went a goal down we threw Vale on as first sub.

Current Premier League Number 6's 10 Centre Backs 7 Midfielders 1 Right Back. 2 Not Used. Read it and weep all you modern-day Football Manager aficionados. To be fair since Ryan Nelson we do seem to have switched to having midfielders at 6, although it's not what we used to do and I'm sure it's not how most clubs do it. This is interesting from Transfermarkt.

Come off It people. A 6 is a centre half. Always has been. Always will be. Pep. Total football. Number 6 - Ake.

They've still got the old Italy flag from the Amoruso days. They are just turning it on its side to save money.

He hasn't featured in any Rangers game (friendly or otherwise) since May. Not sure if he's had any reserve games. So at the best he'd be on the bench I suspect.

Wait till you see the Todd Cantwell internal scout reports !!!

Their new keeper has just dropped a Pears-shaped bollock for Wolves goal. Might get Trafford back in goal after all.

What would be a good window depends on the rules of the game. What we are allowed to do. For example, we are told Eustace wants Dembele and Park wants Germaine. We are told Germaine is a cheap deal. In which case we should have done both. With the financial incomings it shouldn't be a problem and in theory it just bolsters the first team and also the quality of the squad, and keeps everyone happy. But clearly we can't do that. So if we are spending as little as possible, what would I class as a good window? Personally I think a Goalkeeper and winger are essential. I'm not overly happy that at the moment Carter is our only 'mobile' centre half. Last night showed that are lacking depth in midfield and I'd like another option to replace Szmodics goals. Therefore a good end to the window to me would be:- GK, CB, CM, RW, AM / ST The goalkeeper clearly needs to be better than Pears. The RW should also be a first team player as we are lacking any real width. The others could be loans to cover those positions, although ideally ones with a decent amount of football league experience. Hill, for example, was decent as a loan but had already played over 50 first team games before he came to Ewood.

He looked too casual to me, even for large spells of the first half. He nearly got caught in possession several times in that half. For their second goal, that's just under 12s level of awareness. To me, his attitude to the game was all wrong. But to your main point, no I wouldn't sell him because we have seen him have stellar performances and help turn games round before. The JRC we have atm is a long way from the one of 12 to 18 months ago. But when you look how long he's been available and in training for, I cant see how he can't be fit unless he's got deep-rooted problems which he is never going to shake off.

I thought the initial problem was mentally we approached that like a friendly. A lot of the first half was going through the motions, but having generally controlled it to then make 5 changes second half was strange. Yes we were under the cosh, but changing so many players was a complete reset which didn’t work. Whereas Blackpool looked like they were playing for Keogh and also to prove a point. They must have sensed we were going through the motions as they came out second half with an extra 10% work rate and everyone 10 yards up the pitch to press us and we couldn’t cope. JRC was that bad I don’t see how he can retain his place Saturday. Decent debut for Duru, and I thought all of the ‘new’ lads were ok if not spectacular.

How’s he not fit? He played the last two months of last season, and all pre-season friendlies. If it’s cos he’s carrying a knock, what’s he doing starting tonight when the other midfielders are all being rested.

Easy to say when you are only 6.8 miles away.

Reminder this is on Sky Sports + Therefore if you have a Sky Q box or Sky Glass you can watch it on TV. If you only have a Sky HD box you will need to watch in on the Sky Sports App on your phone or tablet. (I think)

OK. And Blackpool get drawn away at Man Utd in the next round. They know they will receive 45% of the gate receipts of 60,000 people paying an average £20 which is £540k. Plus another £100k with it being the main Sky TV game. They use that to help fund a new goalkeeper and pay someone to clean the stands. We meanwhile fall a few hundred grand short of affording Drommel, so watch in horror as Pears slices one into his own net at Turf Moor on Saturday. Nice one 👍

Still irks me that Bowyer took Dunn off when we were leading 1-0 and he’d just played Rhodes clean through to hit the post. He was bossing that midfield, went off and 10 minutes later we were behind.

Personally I'm quite happy that Eustace seems to have a vision of how he thinks the team needs to look to take us forward, and that if someone is foistering someone on him that doesnt fit that vision (especially when incomings will be limited) he's standing his ground. If true, he's proving to be not quite the "Yes man" he was portrayed as being last season. Of course, for the good of the club they need to work together, but I'd be more concerned if Eustace was happy to accept who he was given and then was trying to shoehorn them into a starting line up.