My bad. Am sure you mentioned him a fair whack - possibly negatively instead. or to get the best out of what he has? There'll be some decent players in that squad. No doubt will want to bring his own players in too but no club can afford to completely start again. A good manager can turn some players form around and get them working well in a system.

My mistake. Am sure he mentioned him a fair amount though. Perhaps it was all negative then...

As explained above this is a tad misleading. A huge number of our shorter passes are dithering along the back line.

This first 11. It's pretty stronf. Guarenteed it won't happen though.

The problem with statistics is they don't tell the full picture. Namely we shunt it about the back 4, and defensive mid occasionally, for half a dozen passes before seeing no openings and wellying it forward. Now the stats will say only one of those passes is long, which is technically true, but stylistically it's utterly long ball as the other 5-6 passes do nothing.

Fairly confident Chaddy was championing Hurst. Still remember when I saw us Vs Hudds in the last days of Bowyer. We both sacked our manager around the same time. Under Wagner Hudds rocketed up the table getting promoted the year after whilst we plodded around before crashing to relegation under Coyle. Given we were at the same situation back then it shows what a huge difference the right manager can make - hence why I bring it up. Huddersfield and Norwich's continental appointments has really benefitted them, Sheff Utd imo would be nowhere near the Prem if not for their canny manager and look at the difference for Villa that Smith made. Whether or not Cowley is right a bold managerial appointment can bring a club on leaps and bounds and we probably shouldn't be sneering at a club for trying to exploit this.

Yes this has surprised me that a fair number haven't stepped up. I can't recall it being this way years ago. Big Sam being one example. Perhaps it's just my assumptions but I thought a fair number of managers used to progress up the ranks. What makes it surprising is that big championship club or struggling championship club, regardless of the situation they seem to be struggling. The championship can't be that different can it?

Not seen any AEW but the UK Takeover was very good. The triple threat tag match - a difficult match to pull off - was exceptional, and all the others (bar the Women's match) we're all good to very good. An excellent show imo. On a couple of wrestling sites and by Jim Ross himself, it's been commented that the AEW younger stars are more concerned with getting all their moves in rather than selling and telling a good match. Hard to comment given not seen much of it but the length of matches from reviews I have read suggest there may be some milage in this.

That is another interesting aspect to the whole thing. If Raya was treated a bit harshly and his talent debated as not good enough how on earth did Leutwiler get retained? Appreciate he is cheap and an understudy but if it were a case of improving standards motivating Ray's sale (regardless of the outcome) then no way Leut should've stayed.

As was his potential. He may well have not reach that potential (and may still fade away) but it was pretty criminal not to invest and investigate further. With Walton it's a bit of a no win situation. If he shows promise and does better than Raya he won't be here next season / would cost more than Raya did to buy - ie we couldn't afford him. Or he does worse and we have a weaker keeper and that's assuming he stays.

I think you are confusing him with Steele...

Whilst it was a disappointment to see Raya go I'm surprised how quickly he is settling there. I'm especially surprised about the comments of commanding the area, which seemed a weakness, but if true really highlights how poor our keeper coaching and development and the defensive set up is. As for which keeper would be good for us in our system - system specific (as opposed to Brad because he's the best keeper we've ever had) I'd say Robinson. His long kicks really were accurate and would give Gally and Graham some good balls to do something with.

Probably it was because it was a stunt to show how advertising is taking ove the game. They most likely didn't like the spotlight shone on their gravy train.

We still need a striker to replace Graham long term. £15 mill spend and we've still not managed it. An experienced keeper who is ours At least 1 centre back and a RB if Nayambe is exiled A right winger None of these will happen. Our glut of mistakes up front need to be shoehorned in on the right wing, whilst Bennett will be shoehorned in to the RB position come what may. TM simply cannot buy another striker as even Venkys would ask questions so can't see that happening and we haven't signed a proper hard as nails centre back yet despite a shortage for years. (Although we're happy to convert people to play there.) As for a keeper of we didn't get one when Raya had gone, there's no way we'll get one whilst Walton is in the building.

Does Parker have the nous to get them promoted? Not sure on that one. It really is an open league this year - hard to see who will go up.

Hmm not sure every team is losing 5-6 key players. Admittedly early days but our initial attempts to phase Graham out really haven't worked at all. Bereton was a massive mistake and early signs are neither Gally or Armstrong are up to taking on his mantel even if they are ok players. Given we struggled to get in players this year and are short in places - for example centre back - without having to replace many key players (bar Mulgrew) the idea of doing so amidst so many important players going I don't think is that feasible. Add in TMs sketchy record in the transfer market and having to replace so many players is worrying. If you look at our first 2 seasons under TM in his first he didn't have a transfer window and did a decent job with what he had. In our promotion season 75% of the key players were all here (only Dack Smallwood and arguably Downing contributed considerably during that season.) Now credit must go to TM for utilising what he had well but he's never struck me as a good team builder or spotter of players. So a significant influxnof players in a season is a worry both as it's not TMs strength and the conditions/set up of the club don't help transfers either. As for youngsters coming through I don't think that's a massive strength of TMs either. Of the players you mention only Travis has come through well, 2 promising players you mention in Nayambe and Rothwell aren't getting much game time and have lost their positions to players who aren't primarily players in that position and if anything are regressing. And whilst all youngsters won't make it Raya and Nuttall being shipped out further suggests that bringing young players through is not a forte of the manager. His comments regarding the young players support my suspicions on this. That said at least they are on the bench and getting a bit of game time but it's not enough imo. Completely agree with you about what the target should be however my concern is your last sentence. With so many aging or leaving players we won't be better served to go up next season if we don't go up this one. We'll be left with a few of our older players declining and half a defence to sort out. If anything I feel meet year we will be starting from a much weaker base for the reasons outlined above.

Think Frosty articulates in part what I am getting at much better than I do. All games can seem tough but also there's a lot of strong reasons to be optimistic with each game as well - they are all realistically winnable. The manager makes a huge difference too - for example Brum under Rowett Vs Brum under Zola as one example, or a more recent one Cardiff last promotion under Warnock after looking terrible the season before. So whilst not solely down to manager it is a huge factor influencing how a team will do and the Championship has proved a tough situation for many a rookie manager. Frosty adds in how West Brom have had a few bumps already, Boro had a poor end to last season too (I think) and Hull - meh have not threatened for ages. So all in all think it's fair to say it wasn't that difficult a start.

Agree. In other words it was a good time to play Fulham. And West Brom definitely are weaker than the free scoring side of last year. A team with top 6 ambitions would've been eying up points at Albion.

How are two rookie managers, a bog standard lower championship team, a weakened league 1 team in the first 6 games, coupled with 2 admittedly tougher games, classed as a tough start? A myth defending an average to indifferent start from TM saying it has been a tough run of games.

We're no nearer to gelling than the start of last season! To say we're taking time to find the right combination is an understatement. We either can't score or can't defend, have spent £15 mill on strikers who can't get in the team up front and still are using a midfielder as a stand in right back. Added to which if we don't succeed this season we take a huge step backwards as arguably 6 first team players - Walton, Cunningham, Tosin, Downing, Johnson and Graham - will need replacing. No way that can be considered a slow build. And given TMs indifferent ability in the transfer market the idea of replacing so many players fills me with dread.

I don't buy this tough start at all. Yes today was a difficult game but WBA had lost a couple of players from last season so wasn't insurmountable. The rest of the start saw us Vs rookie managers at Boro and Fulham - would've been worse if played them when the managers are more familiar with the league - Charlton, a team from league 1 who lost a few key players, a big standard lower championship team in Hull and a tough game Vs Cardiff. Not a hard start imo at all. Obviously it's little unpredictable - Charlton are doing better than expected whilst Cardiff worse but I don't think it was a nightmare start. As for today wingers on the wrong side and silly defensive errors sounds vintage Rovers.

Well TM dropped a clanger for me today. He can't legislate for silly defensive errors - although their regularity does bring questions to the coaching - but he can play wingers on the correct side. Every time we've seen Downing and Armstrong on the wrong side we struggle. It isn't rocket science - don't do it. Make the most of Downings crossing and Armstrong being on his favoured foot. TM really isn't helping himself with decisions like that.

My wife isn't at all into football but occasionally asks how the championship is going. I showed her the table at lunch today an her immediate response was Leeds always fall away. Good to know Leeds bottling tendencies are well known. Also I agree with those saying the championship is weaker this year. Teams relegated last year are struggling or have inexpeirienced managers. No squad looks really strong. Charlton starting well is proof that any team can do well. Agree with those saying the championship is there for the taking this year.

2 relegation places sorted early perhaps? Probably too early to tell but early warning signs are there and no chance to bring in new players to rectify things till Jan.

I agree they're probably happy it wasn't mentioned and flagged up, I'm not sure it's great practice to go public with criticism - and if that's the case why do it to the youngsters? The issue is the inequality of it as the youngsters in question have also been shipped out or not playing. So firstly the issue is the doubling down on the youngsters - if Evans etc were treated in line with their performances, the youngsters got that and publically slated. The issue firstly is one of inequality. If I'm honest I also think that the standards used to drop the youngsters by and large were much harsher than the senior pros. Mulgrew, Smallwood and Bennett even now played worse for much longer before being dropped than Nayambe and Rothwell for example. (Raya is arguably the exception although that is partly due to a lack of back up keepers and imo he also showed lots of positives and promise as well as silly errors.) Senior players seem to have a lot more lattitude for errors than the young players. Fortunately there have been changes - positive changes - but they seem very slow in coming and for every positive there seems to be a step back as well. One of which, imo, is TM's handling of young players.