Leutwiler being given a contract extension was ridiculous. Nowhere near Championship standard and he's all we have to rely on if Walton gets injured or suspended. I'd rather have one of our youngsters on standby in all honesty.

Not sure why people think Mowbray would make a good Director of Football. Poor transfer record, comes out with all sorts of nonsense quotes, playing style is horrendous... not sure exactly what he would be directing on. Club Ambassador would be a better role for him, if anything. Chances are when he leaves he'll just be gone though.

Hyperbole on Twitter? Say it ain't so.

I've just moved the Breregate posts to the Ben Brereton thread - please continue that discussion there!

I can tell you one position he isn't, and that's a wide forward/winger, so putting him out there repeatedly is ridiculous. I hear he had some good performances as a wide forward for Forest but he's never had a decent game for us playing there and if Mowbray hasn't figured that out by now then that's very worrying.

Part of the problem is that putting in a shift is the bare minimum. Old Browny used to put in a shift but he was utterly useless. Compare to players like Paul Dickov and Robbie Savage who didn't have the natural talent of a lot of their colleagues but found ways to impact the game through their sheer tenacity and desire. If Gallagher can't find a way to turn his hard work into goals then we have wasted another decent chunk of money.

Not going to happen for the lad here is it? I've said it before but he desperately needs a loan move away from the club as it seems to be dragging him down personally as well as professionally at this point.

The death spiral continues. Classic Mowbray.

This week AEW scored 967k whilst NXT got 548k. Decent results for both. NXT was just an awards/clip show essentially so their rating was always going to be low. AEW's stiffest competition was college football but they posted a much improved audience share despite that, so good going. I actually thought Dynamite this week was a significant improvement on the shows that ended 2019. The set looked different due to the arena which was cool, and the show overall felt fresher and more interesting than we've been seeing recently. Having the focus on the Elite in the opening package and the ending segment (and having them go over) was a smart move and a step in the right direction, as was leaving the Dark Order off the show completely.

Ah back to the Rothwell bashing, yet no mention of captain fantastic who has been even worse. Also love this quote about Chapman. That's some motivation. Play well and maybe you'll get to sit on the bench.

I always found the criticism of Dack and willingness to see him sold baffling, and I think it's going to become really obvious over the next few months how critical he is to us.

No Tony, you don't, but it would certainly gain you some good will if you did, rather than take the high and mighty route of "I know more than you so shut up". Even if it's true that's a pretty shitty way to deal with fan concern IMO. Perhaps if we didn't sign so many f'ing crocks we wouldn't be in the position of having half of them in the treatment room. Just a thought.

Honestly magic beans would be more useful than what we've gotten out of the dynamic duo at this point in time.

Haven't read it but does he explain why in September he was confident of getting funding from India, and now suddenly there's nothing? I'm not having FFP as his excuse as he would have known about that at the end of September if it was a genuine barrier to investment.

Unfortunately we're incredibly short on intelligent footballers so I think we're probably going to have to accept 1/2 and hope that's enough.

We're entering 'conspiracy' territory here which the more 'negative' posters often get criticised for, so in the interests of fairness we can really only go off what the manager has said. He has taken responsiblity for the Brereton signing and said it was his decision, so he's either a liar or he's at fault for the transfer. Not a great look either way. I don't see how Raya's relatively tiny £3m fee goes much towards helping with FFP, and again there's never been any public suggestion that this was the case. Everything points to Mowbray simply not rating Raya and wanting to move him on - I believe he did speak about using the Raya funds to improve the squad elsewhere, but there was never any suggestion it was forced upon him and as it turned out those Raya funds were not used in any obvious way unless they went towards Tosin's loan fee/wages, but to swap out a goalkeeper for a defender and then not bring in a suitable replacement goalkeeper would be nonsense anyway.

I don't think there's ever been any suggestion Mowbray was forced to sell Raya to be fair. It was pretty obvious from his public comments at the end of last season that he was frustrated and unhappy with Raya's performances, as evidenced by him being dropped towards the end, and I think Mowbray simply felt he could do better. Obviously his plans for various other keepers fell through and we ended up with Walton on loan. Much like Brereton it's a mistake he simply has to hold his hands up for and admit he got it wrong.

Possibly but honestly I'd rather not go with any other 'what if' scenarios right now. We already have Rothwell and Holtby who we know can play in that position, so they should really be first choice and if neither are available then look at alternatives. Technically we have a number of players who could play in that role, but it's supposed to be Rothwell's natural position so why not put him there and see how it goes? If it doesn't work out then okay, but at least it's putting a round peg in a round hole.

Mowbray is often too candid for his own good. Frankly he should already have prepared for the possibility of Dack being unavailable for a while - especially if it's true that we were planning to sell him in January anyway. When a player is that important you have to consider backup plans if they suddenly get injured or are sold. I mean theoretically I suppose Mowbray could have had a target in mind to bring in when Dack was moved on, but I'm sceptical considering our haphazard approach to Raya and Mulgrew's departures in the summer. Plus any new arrival would probably spend weeks "getting used to the way we play" before being introduced anyway, so what would we have been doing in the meantime?

The link-up he had with Dack was crucial to his and our overall game. Without that he's nowhere near as effective unfortunately. I think Holtby's the best chance we have of bringing in somebody on a similar wavelength, but good luck keeping him fit for longer than 65 minutes.

Holtby has looked decent at times but I think like many others in the team he's confused about what the manager really wants him to do. Plus his natural fitness appears to be pretty poor so relying on Holtby is asking for trouble. I had high hopes for Rothwell but frankly he's disappointed for the most part since being given his chance. Brereton is useless at present. I completely agree that it doesn't need to be so complicated. Go back to what we were doing during the winning run - we obviously can't replicate that team man for man due to injuries etc, but get as close to it as possible. Walton - Nyambe/Lenihan/Tosin/Downing - Rothwell/Evans/Travis/Armstrong - Holtby (or Buckley, or Rothwell with somebody else out right) - Graham. Same formation, same tactics, same overall preparation. Give these lads some consistency in approach and pray that results come. The mad scientist approach Mowbray is taking right now is the exact opposite of what we need. It worked once against Bristol City but I think it's becoming clear that it was much more because they had an off day than because we were just too good for them.

It really is. Dack has dug Mowbray out of the shit so many times in the past, now he's relying on the likes of Holtby or Rothwell to do the same and I just don't think it's going to happen. Not with anywhere near the same level of consistency anyway. We could be in for a really bad spell over the next few months.

Yep, although in Forest's case Brereton was a free transfer after Stoke released him, so it's not like they even paid anything for him initially. Pure profit. I bet they couldn't believe their luck.

To be honest I think the logic kind of falls apart when you're talking £7m. That's a big risk on a young player who may or may not make it. It's a great strategy if you're spending smaller amounts, Dack as an example at just £750k. At this level Brereton's fee should be reserved for the type of player who can come in and make an instant impact, not a future prospect. Certainly made logical sense from Forest's perspective though. They're laughing all the way to the bank.

Just shows how shit our transfer business has been when we're talking about bringing Mulgrew back to play in defence!