Johnson seems like a good signing, if he's to replace where Reed would have been alongside Travis. I think it's more like to be Johnson/Evans personally, which wouldn't be so good, but we will see. Evans will still be one of the highest earners at the club and only got given a new contract a few months ago so I don't see him being used as a bench option. It seems clear that Mowbray doesn't rate Raya. He made some very harsh comments at the end of last season and benched Raya for the final few games. Can't imagine that did much to help when it came to trying to negotiate a fee mind. I have a feeling based on last season he doesn't rate Nyambe too highly either, although I don't anticipate him leaving the club this summer. Either way if Raya goes it will add to a growing list of desperately needed defensive reinforcements. Hopefully we're ahead of the game on that one as we certainly don't want to be starting next season with Leuts in nets.

Even if he did, who's buying? Nobody wanted Evans even when we were relegated. Then we go and give him a new contract.

Our only successful summer window was one where we did business unusually early. Granted we were the big fish in a lower division, but even so, to spend £750k on Dack in mid-June means we had a budget and plans in place well ahead of time. Seems it's now all back to normal, making no significant signings until the window is practically shut. The obvious drawback to waiting late and hoping for "better market value" (how's that working out with BB by the way?) is that the player will not have a pre-season with his team mates and be expected to hit the ground running. Should they fail to do so they get stuck behind the favourites until we hit a particularly bad run of form and get thrown in out of desperation. That's basically how Rothwell got his shot last season despite calls for him to play much, much earlier.

If it is true than Mowbray and the owners are on different wavelengths regarding transfers than it is just proof that our operating model is dangerously out of sync and needs adjustment. In my view the manager should have no say in the budget he receives - he certainly shouldn't be advising the owners to spend more or less. That conversation should go on between the owners and the board. Consulting the manager on expectations is fine but that's as far as it should go. The board should then tell the manager what his budget is and what the targets are based on that budget. This should all happen very shortly after the season ends - although in truth if the club isn't in danger of relegation or in contention for promotion it could easily be done before the season is over. It isn't that difficult. At this point depending on the model employed you either have a DoF or equivilent working with the manager on transfers, or the manager and his staff create targets and work with the club to make the deals happen. Why is it after 9 years we still appear to be operating under such an incomplete model which requires the owner to go out to India post-season and have a chinwag with the owners about issues that shouldn't even be a part of his job specification?

He's at Boro tbf, which does seem to be a major part of our scouting network.

Just watched through Fyter Fest - overall really enjoyable. Didn't watch the Buy In, just went straight to the main show. Daniels Vs Cima - decent enough opening match. Sakazaki Vs Riho Vs Rose - another good women's match, the women's division is shaping up to be really solid in AEW. Page Vs Jungle Boy Vs Havok Vs MJF - another solid match. MJF is a really good heel - not playing for cheers, just a straight up heel. Cody Rhodes Vs Darby Allin - I had no idea who Allin was before this match, but I really enjoyed this one... until the match ended. The post-match chairshot to the head was total bullshit. I don't believe for a second that the chair was gimmicked. They did this on purpose to create buzz and put eyes on the product. I guess it worked in the sense that everybody was talking about it afterwards, but this left a really sour taste in my mouth. I won't support a company that does shit like this, and it had better be a one off. Omega & The Jacksons Vs Fenix/Pentagon/Kid - a great match, as expected. Everybody got time to shine and the finish made sense. Moxley Vs Janela - OK, first thing's first, the whole idea of "unsanctioned" matches is really dumb to me. So it's "unsanctioned", but you're showing it on your PPV, letting the wrestlers use your referees and having your announcers call the match. Exactly what part of that is "unsanctioned" ? That nonsense aside, this was just a brutal, ECW style death match. Both of these guys took some severe punishment. Moxley's back was a mess after being slammed into the barbed wire chair/tables and Janela walking on the thumb tacks in bare feet made me cringe. Insane stuff. The Omega attack at the end set up the match between him and Moxley at All Out nicely. So overall it was a solid event and a good watch, but I really do take issue with that chairshot to the head. Really disgusting stuff and if they continue on that path I'm definitely "all out". Other than that the match quality across the show was very good and the crowd was totally into it. Production looks good, commentary was spot on (good call on removing Marvez) and there wasn't any part of the show that dragged. A good effort tainted by the unnecessary chairshot.

People talk about Samuel like he's some kind of youngster - he's 25! He's scored 20 goals in his entire career and next season he's going to bag 10-12? Come on now. There's optimism and then there's madness. If Samuel plays a significant part next season then we will have failed in our recruitment.

I agree there is no point in panicking now, but I can't blame people for being pessimistic either. Based on past history (including our two most recent transfer windows) it's logical to assume we are going to be underwhelmed by the time the window shuts. If not then it'll be a pleasant surprise.

Maybe so, but you can't expect people to be placated by the old "judge at the end of the window" mantra. Fool me once shame on you, fool me sixteen or so times shame on me.

Not a dig at you Kamy but we've heard this almost every window for the past eight years and almost every single one has ended in disappointment. In fact the only time I can remember this line not being repeated over the course of the window was summer 2017 and that's because we did a lot of good business before or at the start of July. What a concept.

I've been testing my new laptop with the Oculus Rift and watched the new FFVII remake trailer in the virtual cinema. It was even more amazing. Can't wait for this.

Our scouting seems to be the equivilent of going into your transfer history on football manager and cycling back through seasons to see if any previous loans or sold players are now available.

Agreed, I don't think Mulgrew is the type of partner Lenihan needs at the back. In fact I'd go as far as to say Mulgrew has never been a particularly good CB for us. Even in L1 he was exposed fairly often, but it didn't matter so much as teams either didn't have the quality to take their chances or conceded more than they scored. Mulgrew's popularity largely stems from his direct set piece prowess. When a player scores often it generally endears them to the fanbase, masking the things they don't do so well. He's also got a decent pass on him and is quite composed. He would have made an excellent DM for us in his younger years, but unfortunately CB seems to be the only spot for him now and he's simply never been that good of a defender for us. He'll still go down as an important player for us over the past few years and rightly so, but I really wish he was moving on as I think his race here has been run.

Absolutely no need to do chairshots to the head in this day and age, gimmicked or not. I can remember TNA doing it a few years ago and getting major flak for it - I hope AEW are held to the same standard.

His demeanour when we concede goals is the opposite of what a captain should be, and 0 assists last season suggests his set piece deliveries aren't great. Direct and on target, sure, he scored 10 - but we barely won any games he scored in so not really worth much in the grand scheme of things. I'd certainly have Mulgrew out the door before Raya if I had the choice.

If we make those signings then signing Gallagher won't be an issue (although like Downing I still question the necessity), but until we do I'll be nervous.

True, although I think we'll potentially be looking at a more competitive Championship this time around. Last season two of the relegation spots were practically filled in December, and there were some incredibly poor teams down there in Rotherham, Millwall, Reading, etc. It's possible it will be similar this season with a few teams already in dissarray - Hull and Birmingham for example - but the other positive we had last season was momentum from our League 1 campaign, which carried us to some excellent early season results. This season could be very different looking at our first few fixtures. Do I think the current team and manager have the stomach for a fight if we do find ourselves scrapping at the bottom early doors? Not sure about that. I don't think we have any real leaders which is a major concern for me. A no-nonsense defender who can crack some skulls together when things aren't going well is what we desperately need. Either that or a proper DM to replace Evans/Smallwood.

Still strange to me that our first major signing, with a fee included, is going to be for a striker when we already have Graham, Brereton, Armstrong, Samuel and Nuttall who can play in that position. Granted of that lot I'd only trust Graham to be any good regularly, and Tony probably sees all except Graham as wingers anyway, but still. I'd be much happier if we were talking about getting a goalkeeper or defender. Instead our first two signings are going to be attacking players, even though our problem last season was not scoring goals, but rather leaking them at the other end.

I don't disagree with much of what you say, I've said before I think Dack's inconsistency is more down to Tony's tactics and team selection than the player himself. If we improve on both next season there's no reason Dack can't be effective throughout, but even with periods of inconsistency this season he hit very respectable figures in goals and assists. We really would be half the team without him. Once players get to Graham's age the decline can come fast. Look at Mulgrew, there weren't really any warning signs there, he just seemed to suddenly become much worse over the space of a few weeks. Entirely possible DG will have another solid season in 19/20 and I hope he does, but we really need to be looking beyond him if we want to push forward. We can definitely do better than Raya, but to be blunt we have been shit at bringing in goalkeepers since Robbo left. I'm pretty worried about this position if Raya goes. IMO Travis had a mixed season, some good and some bad, although he wasn't helped by being partnered by either Evans or Smallwood most of the time. I think he would have looked much more impressive if he'd been beside Reed more often, but I guess we'll never know. As of yet no signs of reinforcements in this area so unfortunately it looks like it'll be Evans beside him again. Sigh. Rothwell had some excellent games towards the end of the season, but I'm not convinced that Tony will keep starting him. He only did so at the end of the season because he had nothing to lose. I can see the manager reverting to type, being overcautious and leaving Rothwell out again - at which point you wouldn't begrudge him looking for a move elsewhere. I hope he is a regular next season though as he has shown he can be the difference in the same way Dack often is. Not pinning any hopes on Davenport or Chapman. The former because he'll have to "earn his spot" and will be lucky to make the bench imo, and the latter because his injury record suggests he won't be able to contribute regularly. Also question marks over whether Mowbray will start him - he wasn't willing to do so in L1 so will he do so in the Championship? Defensive reinforces are an absolute must if we are realistically going to progress rather than regress. If we start in August with Nyambe/Bennett - Lenihan - Mulgrew/Williams - Bell then I foresee another season of goals being conceded on a regular basis.

I am assuming Downing is being brought in for a more central role. It seriously wouldn't surprise me if Gallagher came in to play on the wing with Brereton as his backup, despite neither actually being wide players.

Gallagher might end up on the wing as well tbf.

I'm not so sure to be honest. We went through long periods of relegation form last year and one of our best players in Reed is yet to be replaced, whilst we may soon be selling our No1 keeper. Graham is another year older, Mulgrew looks finished, Lenihan is injury prone and Dack's form is inconsistent. We will need the likes of Travis, Brereton, Nyambe, Bell, Chapman and Rothwell to step up which is far from guaranteed. We can't even be sure how many games Chapman can realistically manage before breaking down. Granted this is a bit of a pessimistic perspective but I don't think we're anywhere close to being too good to go down.

We have a tough start to the season and we saw last season that we struggle to get out of ruts, so I fear if we start badly we could be looking at a very difficult season. If we get through that first month with a decent points haul then I think lower mid-table is most likely - assuming we have no significant squad improvements. Obviously if we make some great signings then that may change things.

So basically if you have black hair and a beard you stay, everyone else out.

If that's their plan they may want to have a rethink as we don't exactly have form for allowing young loan players to flourish. Hendrie, Byrne and Samuelsen barely got a look in during our relegation season. Harper and Payne didn't do a whole lot during our L1 campaign and Palmer was wasted last season and left after six months to go elsewhere.