Seems inevitable at this point that it's going to be swept under the rug. EFL will probably justify it as something like a goodwill gesture to get the new owners in and keep the club going. Even though FV are coming in well aware that Bolton are highly likely to be relegated again anyway.

Yep, after Kean Venky's have repeatedly gone for the cheap, easy option and it has cost us. In fact I'd wager we've lost more financially than we would have if we'd hired a decent, proven manager, especially considering our relegation to League 1 in 16/17. Lambert is the exception to the rule but he wasn't around for very long. I get the feeling it might have been the same with Warnock tbh, but I doubt we would have been relegated if he had been at the helm during the 16/17 season.

Bury are claiming they have funds in place and technically they seem to have more senior players available than Bolton, so I wonder what the sticking point is there?

ROH are in a dire state at the moment. It's pretty sad to see. They banked their future on the Elite/NJPW connection, and now obviously the Elite have started AEW and brought in a ton of indy talent to fill their roster, whilst NJPW are realising they can book and promote their own events in the States without ROH and still make the same if not more money. It seriously wouldn't surprise me to see ROH out of business in a couple of years, especially considering competition from the likes of AEW, MLW, NJPW's american expansion and obviously WWE's regular sweeps of independent talent to compete in NXT. It's going to be a tough time coming up for them.

I can forgive a penalty when it's saved, generally, but there's no excuse for a striker to miss the target from 12 yards imo. Especially one on the type of wage Assombalonga is on!

Cracking opening fixture, highly entertaining although neither defence covered themselves in glory. Luton will be chuffed with that result regardless, showed that they are no pushovers and well up for the challenge. Assambalonga's penalty miss undoubtedly the turning point, it would surely have been over if he'd converted that.

Terrible pen from Assombalonga!

Luton showing there why having a poor defence and a dodgy keeper is so costly!

Unfortunately our default position in the first half of games seems to be contain and keep it tight. Which would be fine if we didn't concede so many second half goals, particularly away from home. The tactic Mowbray has seems to work quite well at Ewood - although the amount of HT 0-0's at home last season was a little bit ridiculous - but it clearly doesn't work away from home so we need to work out a better away to collect points on our travels.

I'm curious as to how their first match at home is going to go. I get the feeling if tomorrow's match was at the Breezeblock it wouldn't be on - safety standards, etc. They're somewhat fortunate that they're away from home and don't have to worry about any of that stuff yet.

Completely agree. We need to come out all guns blazing, get in their faces and make them sweat. I'm skeptical as to whether this will actually happen though as it is not the Mowbray way. I mean, we should have been ready to come out and hammer Southend in our first game of 17-18 - much stronger squad, some feelings of injustice over being relegated with 51 points, bought the best player in the division in Dack, etc. Didn't happen though. I'm not sure I ever remember us coming out against any team and going for the jugular under Mowbray. Possibly against Rotherham at Ewood in 17-18 when we won 2-0? I remember being very impressed with our first half performance in that one. Then there was Bury at home in February where we came out looking like we'd been on the piss the night before and got booed off at half time. Much better second half though!

This part is the most ridiculous: Do you need a bit of help from the owner? Do you need more funds to have a real crack at this season? PL: Of course we do. We've brought in two free transfers and one loan. Maybe one short-term (Wilson). You don't need to be Einstein to see that. Is that enough to get out of the division? PL: No, it's not. Absolutely not. --- Nice. Am sure the Ipswich players appreciate hearing that! Also... --- Are you feeling the pressure of getting Ipswich up? Be that from Marcus or the supporters. PL: You've got to be kidding me on? Pressure? I played for massive clubs and managed massive clubs. That's been my life. That just comes across as an insanely arrogant response.

No sympathy from me. Knew exactly what he was getting into when he pitched up there. He might as well have quit at the start of the summer if this was going to be his attitude tbh.

To some degree, yes, but there were many teams above us last season who weren't any better than us quality wise (imo anyway). We showed on occasions that we could mix it up and give a game to the best teams in the division. Conversely we would then go to poorer teams and struggle. Think it's a symptom of always being set up as the underdog, something we've had instilled in us since the GB days. I genuinely think bit of extra belief from the management and subsequently the players could get us 6 or 7 more points. Now granted last season that still wouldn't have been anywhere near enough to get into the top six, so yeah, there is an issue with quality as well - but we'll have to see whether the additions of Walton, Gallagher, Johnson, Downing and Tosin are enough to bridge that gap. Personally I don't think so, but who knows?

Just a mentality thing I think. Failure to cope under pressure. Also the reason we concede so many late goals imo. Getting into the top six this season will depend on this mentality being changed at both management and playing level. Hopefully if the manager shows a bit more courage that will translate to the team as well.

As mentioned above, it's people who voted on Sky's website, not Sky themselves. Really it's just showing how many fans from each club view the Sky Sports website regularly.

I tend to agree. I think it's one of those situations where when a player leaves a club he suddenly gets viewed by their fans as much worse than he actually was, just because he's playing elsewhere. Yep. I think a few people even commented that we were doomed right after he tweeted it!

We'll also hopefully get a proper full season out of him this year. He missed a significant portion of the 17/18 season through injury and a couple of months last season as well. Would be good for him to get through this campaign without any lengthily spell on the sidelines.

I think Mowbray will see Bennett as a decent enough first choice right back (unfortunately) with Nyambe and Travis available as backup. Am I right in thinking JRC has been played on that side during pre-season as well?

As far as regular posters are concerned warnings and bans are only given out for repeated instances of trying to wind others up and contributing nothing to the debate, or personal insults/attacks on other members. Cut that out and you generally don't need to worry. We hide far more posts than give out warnings, and any suggestion we favour one side over the other is simply paranoia. I appreciate it's easy to find yourself provoked on here at times, but if you can't debate a person's post without insulting them you are better off hitting the report button and letting us deal with it, rather than dragging yourself into the pit. Hopefully K-Hod will return soon as he was very even-handed and conscientious of his actions. The board is worse off without him around.

I'm too young to have ever really seen any of Harley's work, I remember him mainly as a manager in WCW in the early 90s. Undoubtedly a legend though.

Or 3) you need to stop protesting outside his house,

Nutall is 22 and has at least three players ahead of him in the pecking order, justifiably so. He can't just sit around waiting for the odd cameo and playing for the u23's, he can only progress by going out and making a name for himself elsewhere. It's the right time for him and us to move on. Good luck to him, I think he'll turn out similar to Josh Morris and become a decent L1 player. As for Mulgrew, I don't think it's disrespectful to be worried about his inclusion in the starting eleven. His contributions to our promotion campaign were widely acknowledged, he has a thread on here titled 'the godlike genius of Charlie Mulgrew' for goodness sake, but there's nothing wrong with rightly pointing out that he was at fault numerous times last season and was eventually dropped for Derrick Williams, whereby our form completely turned around. Not all down to Mulgrew being dropped but it likely played a part in it. He obviously has respect for his help during the L1 campaign, as do the likes of Smallwood and Nuttall, but at the top level you need to be ruthless and know when it's the right time for a player to move on. This summer was that time for Mulgrew, imo, and it will be a huge shame if he's culpable for more mistakes this season. Criticism should be levelled at the manager rather than the player IF this happens though, as Mowbray is ultimately the one making these calls. Obviously if the opposite happens and Mulgrew has a revitalised season then fair enough, credit to Mowbray for having faith. Based on last season's evidence, and our relegation season, you can't blame fans for being concerned by the thought of Mulgrew as a defensive mainstay for another season though.

No chance of him starting at RB imo. Mowbray has Bennett and Nyambe who can play there, so no reason to rush Ada into that position. CB is the only position I could see him potentially starting in, but that would entirely depend on whether Mowbray is still unsure about Mulgrew. My guess is that Lenihan/Mulgrew still start at CB.

Also, again, it's about setting a precedent. If Bolton go unpunished for failing to fulfil one of their fixtures then the EFL are opening the door for others clubs to do the same and expect no repurcussions.