Possibly. We know it annoyed Mowbray.

I think that's probably the best team we can hope for. Which is why I doubt we'll see it. I'd be stunned if Bennett was dropped and can't see Mowbray throwing Cunningham into the team so quickly, so I'd say it's highly likely the defence will be Bell - Tosin - Lenihan - Bennett.

Indeed. Wigan makes sense if he did have a falling out with TM, because it's local and Mulgrew has said before that his wife and kids are settled in the area. If he goes to Wigan then there's no need for the family to move.

I actually think there's a possiblity that there is a recall option for January. Mulgrew doesn't appear to be going to Wigan as a first teamer, and they probably aren't paying all of his wages, so in a lot of ways it would make sense for us to have a clause there to recall Mulgrew in January if he's needed. I suppose it also depends on whether he was bundled out of the club under a cloud or not. If he did have a falling out with TM then it's less likely the club put any recall clauses in the contract.

If he was concerned about game time here it makes little sense for him to go to Wigan where he's arguably even less likely to play.

I think it's impossible for anybody on here to state whether Walton is good or bad, unless there are people on here who regularly watched Wigan last year. You can only go by stats and the opinions of the Wigan fans, who actually did watch him. They conceded 64 goals last year, only 5 less than us, and concensus from the Wigan fans seems to be good at shot stopping, not so good as commanding his box. So basically the same strengths and weaknesses as Raya. Regardless we won't know for sure until we've seen him get a run of games and can judge for ourselves. As for Mulgrew's transfer being a long-term thing, absolute nonsense. Nothing to suggest that was the case. I imagine we would have heard something before 4.45pm if he was being offered out or had interest from other clubs - there was literally nothing, not even links from dodgy twitter accounts or HITC. I also seriously doubt he would have been starting as captain on Saturday. It seems obvious it was a sudden decision likely prompted by something happening either on deadline day or just before it.

To be fair I wavered between 'neither good or bad' and 'bad' before deciding to go with bad. I can understand people considering it average on the basis we haven't really signed any 'bad' players and we've kept all of our better players whilst adding some firepower in Gallagher and a solid CM to replace Evans in Johnson. Whether it falls down to bad I think depends on how highly you rate the defenders we have. I'm of the opinion we're one or two injuries away from having a shocking defence, which is what tipped it to bad for me. I also think the goalkeeper situation was dealt with really poorly. We're no stronger in that position (imo) and our replacement for Raya isn't even ours, he's just a loan. If he gets injured we'll have Leutwiler between the sticks, so, that ain't good either. I think we needed much better at the back and have given ourselves a much more difficult job in January & next summer to really improve this team. The current window has left us largely standing still at best, when it was supposed to be a window that helped us push on and do better than last season. For that reason alone I have to consider it a failure.

I'd believe that if anything had come out to suggest Mulgrew was being shopped around, but there was literally no suggestion from anywhere that Mulgrew was leaving until 4.45pm when the news broke, so I'm pretty sure it was a last minute decision.

As you say, unless Tosin is an absolute beast in training and Mowbray has been bowing at his feet and promising him first team action every week, I can't see how Mulgrew would have come to the conclusion he won't be a first teamer this season unless the manager has said something. I could understand if we'd brought in another CB alongside Tosin, but we didn't, so... very odd.

Perhaps, but IF it was Mulgrew pushing for the move because he wasn't going to be first choice, why did Mowbray wait until deadline day to tell him? Does that really make sense? We're essentially saying one game at the start of the season totally changed Mowbray's mind from having Charlie as a first teamer to dropping him to the bench permanently. Doesn't add up to me I'm afraid.

I just don't buy that it was in any way amicable, and the idea they decided to have this chat on the day the transfer window closes is preposterous. "By the way Charlie, you do know I'm not planning to play you much this season?" "Wait, what? No, I thought I was in the first team?" "Oh right, should have said sooner... no, you're not. I know I made you our club captain, charity ambassador, and so on... but was thinking of playing that Tosin fella instead of you." "Bit of a problem that boss, I'd like first team football and now I've only got a few hours to find a new club." "Fancy Wigan?" "Do I!" Not convinced.

Can't really trust what he says is the truth at this point. If this was really the case it begs the question of why they decided to have this conversation on the day the transfer window was closing.

Mulgrew's best performances for us were in League 1. He was paid far more than the average League 1 player's salary. He's done just fine out of Rovers so I don't think we need to feel too sorry for him. With that said, if you'd told me at the end of May we'd be starting this season with Lenihan, Tosin and Williams as primary CBs for the 19/20 season, with Nyambe being used as CB & RB backup, I would not have been happy, to say the least.

Mowbray says he doesn't have to answer questions regarding anything he does with the players, so it seems unlikely we'll hear any official reason.

Pretty brief and blasé statement considering it's our club captain, who was also in the first team on Saturday.

As it stands I think we're a couple of decent defenders away from being a side capable of genuinely pushing for the playoffs. IMV we'd need a manager with an exceptional ability to get the best out of limited players to get the current squad into the top six - we're talking an Allardyce or a Warnock, and as we know Venky's aren't interested in hiring proven, successful managers. They literally had Warnock ready to go and opted for Coyle instead. Total buffoons.

With the window shut and at best a freebie or two arriving in the next few weeks, I anticipate anywhere between 13th to 22nd. I think we will be in serious trouble if we pick up a few defensive injuries, but if we have good luck on the injury front we should probably be okay to finish mid-table again. We will be absolutely nowhere near the top six.

Mowbray already told us it's apparently Venus.

Scary stuff if true, and it wouldn't surprise me if it was. Much like last summer it seems like it was panic stations on the final day of the window, hoping to get a super cheap deal as we appear to have either blown our entire budget on Gallagher or just never had a budget for defensive players. Either way this window combined with our dire first result and potential squad unrest could land us in big trouble this season. The squad isn't necessarily weaker than last season, but if the players are unhappy will we be able to pull ourselves out of tailspins like we did last season, or we continue plummeting to the ground until the pilot is ejected?

It either goes that way, or the players collectively think Mowbray is more of a problem than they are, and are pissed off that when a team leader voiced the concensus he was shipped out. Player power is a very real thing nowadays, rightly or wrongly, and this could as easily mark the end for Mowbray as anything else.

Rodwell is a crap CB and we're already overstocked in CM, why would we bring him back exactly?

Something like this has been coming with the way Mowbray has been going on in the press. Players like Travis, Nyambe, etc will keep their heads down because they know they aren't in a position to kick up a fuss, but when the senior players start getting annoyed then it only goes one way. This is really concerning imo.

Had to vote bad due to our meagre strength of depth across the defence. Midfield & Attack are strengthened, but they weren't exactly our weak points last year. Johnson is a decent signing to come in ahead of Evans, no qualms with that. Gallagher may come good as well but I think we overpaid for him and it also pushes Brereton down the pecking order which surely isn't going to help his development. Good signings - Johnson, Cunningham Unproven/unnecessary/questionable signings - Gallagher (mainly the fee), Downing, Walton, Tosin - these could all come good but it's a wait and see scenario. No 'bad' signings as such, but lack of defensive quality as a whole is a huge concern for me.

If we had gotten another CB in I would have said the window was OK. Not really good enough, but not bad either. As it stands we're a couple of defensive injuries away from disaster imo.

If we're talking net then it is one, as we let Raya & Mulgrew (assuming he leaves) go and brought in Tosin, Cunningham & Walton.