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.

The PFA are basically Bolton's owners at this point. I feel like they're setting a dangerous precedent by repeatedly paying for Bolton's mistakes. If other clubs start to go to the wall in the same way in the next few years, what justification is there now for the PFA not to step in and do the same?

Problem is I'm not sure it's so much desire with Mulgrew as ability. He's never been a convincing CB and with age catching up it will only make things more difficult. I'd prefer him to be brought on as DM in games we're trying to run down in a Tugay-esque role at this point, as he has some excellent passing ability, but it doesn't look like that is on the cards.

Simmer down a little lads. Haven't needed to do much moderation on this thread lately and it would be nice to keep it that way. I wouldn't expect the City lad to start against Charlton considering we've only just brought him in, but this is why I really wanted defensive reinforcements in ASAP. Attackers/midfielders could wait a little longer, as we already have options there, but defence was a major priority and it's a shame any we now bring in aren't going to be integrated until we've played at least two or three matches, if not more. Still, it is what it is and hopefully it won't have too much of an impact on us.

We'll have to wait a few seasons to know for sure, as the past few seasons were very much in line with the average stats for scored/conceded. As it stands last season was an anomoly.

Very briefly checked back over previous seasons and last season was definitely an unusual one in terms of goals conceded at the top end of the table. The majority of seasons the teams at the top end did not usually concede much above 50. Norwich going up as Champions with 57 conceded is the most in Championship history (going back to when D1 was renamed to the Championship), so highly unusual. WBA conceded 55 when they went up as champions but that was way back in the 07-08 season (and guess who was managing them then?). Believe it or not Burnley conceded just 35 goals when they went up in 15/16, whilst Boro in second conceded just 31!

To be honest both Norwich and Villa conceded what I would consider above average in terms of goals last season whilst getting promoted. Norwich conceded 57 and Villa 61, whereas Stoke way down in 16th only conceded 52. Obviously scoring 93 (Norwich) and 81 (Villa) helped them overcome their defensive issues, but in comparison Wolves only conceded 39 goals when they came top in 17-18, whilst Cardiff and Fulham conceded 39 and 46 respectively. Teams in general seemed to concede a hell of a lot more goals last season. No team in the top 8 conceded above 48 goals in the 17-18 season, whilst only Sheff Utd and Middlesbrough from the top 8 managed to concede less than 50 last season.

FB is definitely our weak point, and I think that's what teams will try to exploit. It wouldn't surprise me to see Downing playing often at LB, but that doesn't really fill me with confidence either. Our full backs are going to need cover from the players ahead of them, and I'm not convinced we have the personnel for that as Rothwell, Armstrong and Gallagher are not defensively-minded players. Travis and Johnson can do their best to help out in that regard but then our CB's will be left exposed, so, it's risky.

Based on our collapses last season whenever we got within sniffing distance of the playoffs I'm not especially confident. I think with another decent CB addition we have the ability to challenge top six, but the mentality of both the manager and the team needs to change significantly. More courage and belief required. We need to play teams like we believe we're a top six team, rather than going into every match like we're the underdog.

Brereton's strong pre-season just re-affirms my thoughts that we really didn't need Gallagher. We're in a situation where you could argue none of our strikers (Graham, Brereton, Gallagher) deserve to be third choice and would be an absolute waste of resources that far down the pecking order. I really wish that £5m + wages had gone towards the defence and we'd brought in a Rothwell/Davenport type either from our u23's or elsewhere to challenge across the midfield/striking position.

If Gallagher is starting on the bench I will be pretty flabbergasted that we spent £5m on another player to sit and watch. We can argue Brereton is young, needs time to develop, flex, whatever else. Gallagher is a 23 year old we bought from a Premier League club who has plenty of experience in this league. I can't imagine many other clubs in our position spending £5m on a player and then putting him on the bench and then using him as a rotation option.

I would be surprised be Bennett and Gallagher are on the bench. I expect Bennett to start ahead of Nyambe and one of Armstrong or Rothwell to make way for Gallagher, but otherwise that seems like the most likely line up.

Yep, a good defender who wanted out of Ipswich after the way the fans treated Mick - and he wasn't the only one.

It's basically just a retelling of a small part of the FFVII story. Mostly faithful to the original with a couple of minor changes which imo are an improvement. No idea if Last Order is canon, but it was released as part of the japanese Advent Children DVD set so I guess so?