Gallagher has scored 18 goals in his entire career, so nobody should be expecting 20 goals out of him. If he matches the 11 he managed in his first spell here then that will be good going in all honesty. Most of those goals were scored in Coyle's 'what's a defence?' system, not Mowbray's 'what's a defence?' system so it remains to be seen if he can reproduce that form. Particularly if he's playing right wing.

I wouldn't be against bringing Martin Olsson back as we are desperately short of quality at LB.

Well, we did need a back up for Graham so in a sense we have something we needed... I just don't think many of us would have wanted to pay £5m for that. Makes last season's Brereton signing even more confusing to me. He's now assumedly 3rd choice striker at the very least, and he's not likely to be first choice on the right side of midfield either.

Not enough defenders to apply it to yet unfortunately. I think we'll still need Mulgrew and Bell as backups even if we do get in a CB & LB, which right now I only see us getting one of. You get the feeling full backs are way down the priority list, even though I would say we arguably need to be looking at LB as much as CB. I think Bell is as much of a liability as Mulgrew, and if he gets roasted this season it will pull our CB's out of position no matter how good they are.

Unfortunately there's no room for sentiment at this level of the game. There's no way Samuel is going to get ahead of the likes of Graham, Armstrong, Rothwell, Gallagher or Bennett - whether he is looking at playing striker or right wing. He needs to move on for the sake of his own career to a club better suited to his level of ability.

You could ask the same of us with midfielders to be fair.

Add Nuttall & Samuel and it makes six... although even if you assume those two won't play a part this season, I'd still say 4 strikers is definitely overkill if we only play with one striker up front. At most we really need three. Honestly I'd be tempted to throw Brereton out on loan for a season to build up his confidence in preparation for the 20/21 season when Graham is likely not going to be here and our £7m man will really be expected to make an impact. Unlikely this will happen though.

Very unlikely IMV, but who knows. I wouldn't totally rule it out, but if we did get Tuanzebe in then I'd be the first to congratulate Mowbray on an excellent signing. Still can't help but think United will want him playing at a higher level this season though. I think he's good enough to be playing at PL level and you have to imagine there are some clubs there who would have an interest. Throw in a left back to push Bell to back up and I would agree. As it stands I think we're very short at left back with Williams being a much better CB and Bell being a work-in-progress at best. The right side concerns me as well but not as much as the left.

Then I imagine he'll end up at a lower PL club or a top Championship club. I'd be stunned if he turned up here to be honest.

Yeah, I imagine he'll end up back at Villa. Possibly a loan to buy deal depending on whether they survive this season or not. Might be out of our league in terms of loan fee/wage as well to be honest.

I'm fine with Gallagher if the reported £5m in fee is inclusive of add-ons (don't think we should be paying any more than £3m base) and it has no impact on signing goalkeeping and defensive reinforcements. Although granted the second part may be true simply because Venky's aren't willing to put any significant money into those positions anyway. One has to assume Gallagher will come in as one of our higher earners. One has to assume he'll be a starter but at the same time you also have to assume Graham will be first choice unless injured or rested, which probably makes Gallagher's position right wing. Gallagher - Dack - Rothwell across the middle potentially? Although with that said I'd be surprised if Downing came here to be a bench player, and you've also got Armstrong who Mowbray seems to like a lot.

In fairness before we launch into the usual hyperbole there's only been one person talking about Dack handing in a transfer request and I've maybe seen 2 or 3 posters max seriously talking about relegation at this point. I don't see meltdowns, only concern that attention isn't seemingly being focused on the areas we need to focus on the most (GK & defence). We have to hope the club is just keeping its cards close to its chest and we already have deals in the works for these positions. Mowbray's comments on the defence are alarming but it wouldn't be the first time a manager says one thing whilst doing another. I don't see the window as a disaster yet, just underwhelming which is fairly standard in the past 9 seasons or so. If we sign a solid keeper, a good centre back and a useful full back (on either side) then I think that would be a decent window. GK/CB only would be adequete but I think our full backs would become a massive achilles heel for us over the season. No CB would be poor, no new GK would undoubtedly be a disaster but there's no way we're going into the season with Leutwiler and Fisher as no1/no2. That would be incompetence beyond any previous levels imo.

Not to be disrespectful to Wharton or Magloire but if we're seriously expecting either or both of them to step up in place of buying defenders then we are in big trouble. Wharton was playing for Lincoln and Bury last season whilst Magloire doesn't even appear to have been out on loan anywhere despite being 20, which seems weird to me as he's never been near the first team squad until recently? We're falling into the same trap we've seen multiple times over the years under Venky's. Rush kids into the first team without adequate preparation, let the fans witness them making all the mistakes they should have made out on loan elsewhere, leading to an erosion of confidence and the player never fulfilling their potential. At 20 and 21 Magloire and Wharton aren't exactly kids anymore, but one has been playing at League 2 level and the other at u23 level with, as far as I can see, no real experience of proper first team football save for a couple of cameos last season for us. Extremely risky to expect either player to be a significant part of our defence next season imo.

I just can't see Mowbray playing without two midfielders in the centre. Two DM's has been a constant throughout his tenure, along with strikers on the wings. I'd be surprised to see either change at this point.

It all makes sense now.

£1.75m up to potentially £3m with add ons wasn't it? Pretty reasonable.

I posted a list a few pages back, every 20+ goal scorer last season cost significantly less than £5m, except Rodriguez who was bought for £12m when WBA were in the Premier League. It was all simply good scouting from the lower and european leagues, with a home grown prospect or two thrown in. Granted many of these were bought a few seasons back, but it just shows the value of looking ahead (and I don't mean by spending £7m on a youngster). If Gallagher scored 8-10 goals then I'd consider that reasonable considering he'd probably be spending most of his game time on the right wing. But it would only be reasonable if he was on loan or bought for significantly less than £5m.

The issue isn't necessarily Gallagher's quality (I think he'd be a competent Championship striker), more the reportedly large fee (compared to pretty much every 20+ goal scorer last season) and the fact we have other positions that desperately need strengthening. Plus Mowbray would probably play him on the wing.

Think Brentford are still well within net profit on transfers even if they spent £5m on Gallagher. Let them have him. We have enough strikers already. Unfortunately none of them are a Graham type, but it would be pretty irresponsible to spend £5m on another one when we critically need a goalkeeper and a centre back.

I like your optimism.

Unfortunately he was given a 3 year deal so he won't be out of contract until 2021. I can only imagine how much he will have deteriorated by then.

Sorry, not meant as a dig at you, just pointing out that opinion was far from universally negative when Evans signed his contract. Even I said "fine" even though I should have been enraged. Must have been having a good day.

Smallwood's suspension at the turn of the year was the only reason Travis got a look in for the second half of the season. People forget that TM was publicly talking about Travis going out on loan in January, but admitted that Travis' performances made it impossible for him to do so without looking stupid.

TOTAL COMMITMENT.... for 6 months, then we won't want him anymore.

It's just my pessimistic prediction based on what I perceive as Mowbray's preferences. I hope I'm wrong. I don't think people should read too much into the last month and a half of the season. That was not 'normal' Tony Mowbray, it was desperate Tony Mowbray trying to arrest a terminal slide, followed by a more relaxed TM who knew we were basically safe and was therefore willing to experiment. Look at Aug-Mar to see our manager's normal state of mind. Now granted Travis was pretty much a regular after Christmas in place of Smallwood, but Evans played a lot too. Reed didn't take his position - only once, really, against Derby in April. After that it was Evans/Travis. Who's to say Johnson won't come in to replace Travis? Keep in mind Evans started 33 matches last season, and Travis only started 19. Obviously Mowbray could start Evans/Travis, but I doubt we've brought Johnson in to sit on the bench. As fans I think 99% of us would see more positives in Travis than Evans, but from Mowbray's perspective I would guess he'd see more positives in Evans than Travis. People should not be surprised or horrified if Evans is starting alongside Johnson against Charlton. Anyone who would be genuinely stunned by this hasn't been paying attention to our manager.