Last Order is also worth a watch if you haven't seen it before:

I was incredibly hyped for Advent Children when it first came out. I actually pre-ordered the Japanese first-print edition so that I could watch it ASAP. It didn't come with English subtitles so I had to print off a fan translation from some forum I used to be on and literally read the translation off paper as I watched the movie. Hilarious to think about, considering nowadays fansubs of popular Japanese media are released days if not hours after it airs. I watched Steins;Gate 0 concurrent with its Japanese broadcast airing last year and subtitled episodes were up 2-3 hours after the episode had aired in Japan. 2005 was very different! If I hadn't ordered a Japanese version of the film then I would have had to wait seven months for the English one to drop, which is also ridiculous considering nowadays stuff like this pretty much comes out in multiple languages or with subtitles from day one. AC released in Japan in September 2005 but didn't come out officially in English until April 2006! Anyway, those memories aside I've always thought AC was a good film. I really enjoyed it when it came out and still like watching it now. Admittedly there are some things I'm not a huge fan of, and I don't think the plot is anything special, but as far as being largely non-offensive fan service it does a fine job.

As long as they get games, for sure. You just wonder who in the first team would be dropping below them in the pecking order. If Buckley is being seen as a CM option then he has Travis, Johnson, Evans, Smallwood and even potentially Bennett to contend with. If it's AMC then he's got Dack and Rothwell to get past. I'm not sure what position we're thinking about for JRC, he's just classed as a "midfielder" on the website so assumedly facing similar obstacles?

Yeah, that Shawcross injury was terrible. At his age that's potentially a career ender.

If Buckley is going to be in and around the first team then surely at least one of Evans or Smallwood needs to go? Some serious waste of resources going on if we have Travis, Johnson, Evans, Smallwood and Buckley all competing for, at most, two spots in the team.

I don't take much from pre-season games but it is good to see Brereton finding the net regularly. Hopefully he keeps that form going into the proper season.

Norwich hit the jackpot by signing Pukki on a free, it isn't common to get that lucky on a relatively unknown player. They also brought in a very reputable goalkeeper in Krul, and numerous players like Buendia, Leitner and Heise from Europe. I think we're way behind Norwich in terms of recruitment. Probably better off comparing to Sheff Utd, who also had a largely domensic transfer policy (although they still brought in players from France and Germany).

Fits in well with the rest of our players at least! Trying to think of a player we have that is a good crosser of the ball... Downing, hopefully?

Unfortunately clubs in the PL are so minted nowadays that they can afford to tell clubs lower down in the pyramid how they want their players to be used. If not, no loan and the ridiculous PL TV money means it's no sweat to keep a reserve player in the u23's.

It's pretty weird that it was supposed to be all but done at the start of the week, yet it's now Friday and still absolutely nothing. If we can't even get a loan for a youngster done then I give up. Better wrap Lenihan and Mulgrew in cotton wool.

I'll leave this post here for now on the basis it may receive some constructive replies, but if it turns into bickering I'll have to hide this post and the replies. Let's try and keep it civil lads. I'm not so much panicking as just resigned to the fact that we either can't or won't reinforce the defence properly again. If it isn't going to happen now after what went on at the end of last season, particularly with the manager's comments, then I'm not sure it's ever going to happen.

Probably has enough in his bank account to just retire tbh. Maybe he has.

I wouldn't necessarily have called Rhodes a problem as he did what he was there to do - score goals. The problem is we became very one-dimensional and ended up relying on him (and briefly Gestede) to score as nobody else in the team was contributing. King was completely wasted whilst he was here, although in GB's defence he did have a number of injury problems during his spell here and his attitude on the pitch was at times questionable. People point to him being used on the wing rather than as an out-and-out forward, but Bournemouth have played him there plenty of times as well and he looked far more up for it there then he ever did when he was here. I don't read too much into the cup games as they were much easier to be motivated for than the grind of the average Championship fixture. Bowyer just didn't know how to use pacy, flair players. He kept playing Cairney on the wing, brought in Mo Barrow for a cup of tea before he went back to Swansea due to lack of game time, gave us the slowest, most boring centre-midfield in existence and in general made us a very sludgy, attritional team with Jason Lowe at the heart of it. I try not to knock GB as I still think he did well considering his lack of experience as a first team manager (none), but under a better manager I genuinely think we would have made the playoffs in 13-14 and maybe 14-15 as well. Two big opportunities missed solely because Venky's always go cheap on the managerial position.

We had quite a few of them last season as well! Bristol City 4-1 Rovers Stoke 2-3 Rovers Preston 4-1 Rovers Wigan 3-1 Rovers Rovers 4-2 Sheff Weds Leeds 3-2 Rovers Brentford 5-2 Rovers Rotherham 3-2 Rovers Sheff Weds 4-2 Rovers Not to mention all the 2-2's - Ipswich, Reading, Forest, Birmingham (x2), Swansea...

I think part of it comes from his admission that he essentially lets the dressing room police itself. I'm guessing the likes of Mulgrew and Bennett are a big part of that, hence the lack of directly calling them out in public, whereas younger players like Raya and Travis aren't in that bracket, and so are more open to be criticised. Personally I don't agree with singling out players in public interviews at all, as I think it's completely counterproductive, but it makes sense based on what Mowbray has said previously.

Unfortunately mate we've been here before. Under Bowyer we had Rhodes and Gestede firing in 20+ goals a season, supplied by the likes of Conway, Marshall and King. We even had Hanley and Duffy at CB which most would see as a decent enough Championship pairing. Unfortunately in Bowyer's case his blind spot was CM, where we had the likes of Evans, Lowe, Williamson, etc slowing us down, and RB where it was Lowe, Kane, Henley, and so on. Not to mention GK as if Robbo wasn't available we were playing the likes of Jake Kean and Simon Eastwood. It seems like we always have a part of the team hugely unbalanced, undoing the good work done by the rest of the team. It's very frustrating. I agree that we really aren't that far away. I still think we need a LB alongside a CB, but it looks like we'll get neither and once again a lack of balance is likely to hinder our efforts in the coming season.

Six weeks or so I believe, so it'll almost certainly be Mulgrew/Lenihan starting against Charlton. I think almost everybody on here at the end of last season agreed there was no way Mulgrew should be starting at CB come the first game of this season, so it would have to be classed as a massive disappointment should that happen... and it seems inevitable at this point.

He also said similar about the defence at that fans meeting towards the end of the season, so I don't think it was just a one off angry comment. At one point I'm sure he did think the defence did need an overhaul. It's possible our decent end to the season changed his mind (we only conceded seven goals in our final seven games, compared to conceding ten in our previous seven) but if so then I fear he has made a grave error of judgement based on a set of matches that were mostly played with teams that had little if anything to play for. If Lenihan gets injured again it currently leaves us with Mulgrew, Williams and Nyambe as CB options... and if Tony isn't scared of that possibility he certainly should be. As with any manager I'll ultimately only judge Mowbray on results. Maybe he will find a way to get a tune out of our current defence plus the City kid, assuming he arrives. I find it unlikely but stranger things have happened. We undeniably have a tough start to the season though, and he could find himself under some serious early pressure if we struggle to pick up points in the first month and a bit of the season and are still leaking goals. We've seen last season that we have a tendency to go on very poor runs of form, but our good start last season combined with some truly terrible teams below us meant we were never really close to the relegation zone even when we were losing regularly. It could be very different this season and I have to admit I'm not convinced Mowbray could turn it around if we find ourselves at the bottom end of the table in October.

I agree that I don't think Mowbray is intentionally trying to prolong his tenure by not spending money and therefore not raising expectation - would be a stupid thing to do considering Bowyer was sacked when we were in mid table - but I do think something has changed between the end of last season and the present day that we aren't privy to. Mowbray inferred more than once last season that defence would be a key focus during this window and... here we are. Suddenly he's saying a CB pool of Nyambe, Mulgrew, Lenihan and Williams is "alright". I mean... it just isn't, is it? Lenihan is the only proven decent CB out of the lot and he's injury prone. Mulgrew is both injury prone and a very poor CB. Nyambe is untested in that position long-term, and Williams, whilst a better CB than LB, isn't close to a top six CB. I've mentioned before that I think Mowbray talks too much. Sometimes it's better to say less, especially if you're prone to giving contradictory opinions across months if not weeks. Despite what some say he does not HAVE to reveal anything if a microphone is in his face. He can choose to say little or nothing if he wants to. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have a manager willing to communicate, but not when he sends mixed and contradictory messages as he has been with our defence. To me that is just concerning and suggests there is some frustration behind the scenes not allowing the manager to do what he wants to do.

Yeah, as stated above transfer discussion should go in the transfer thread, so I am going to lock this one.

It is annoying when Morgana stops you from going out - gets much better when you can go out in the evenings and after Mementos though. The Bank palace was really cool... you've still got the most irritating/difficult one coming up though

I just can't see us cracking top 6 with a defence of Bennett - Lenihan - Mulgrew - Bell. Even swapping Nyambe for Bennett or the City lad for Mulgrew I just don't think it's strong enough.

I think Palmer is a decent Championship level player tbf, but he needs to be in a specific role - AMC - which we already had Dack in last season anyway. Palmer wasn't a loan we really needed, and we probably would have been better off loaning a proper wide player rather than trying to shoehorn Palmer into that position.

And the most important fact - we were bloody rubbish under him, and on our way to the Championship!

Next N. Ireland match is 05/09 I think, so we can expect a spell of fitness and a couple of good performances around that time.