DE.

Think on the Football League show they said Cowley went from something like £100k p/a to £1m+ p/a, so yeah... would be hard to turn that down. Although with that said I'd be kind of surprised if Hudds were paying that much, even if they do have the parachute payments.

Don't we already have Dack and Rothwell who can play the Cairney AMC role though?

I don't want to derail the thread with this so I'll send you a PM to discuss further.

No problem with you expressing your opinion but it's getting a little too confrontational and nasty. Stop the insults and sweeping generalisations.

Once Mulgrew left and Tosin got injured were there literally any other choices except Williams, Grayson and Platt though? It essentially was by default.

Some managers have a fantastic impact. Sam Allardyce is a prime example. Further up the pyramid you can use the likes of Pep and Mourinho as examples of managers who come in and have a strong impact on the teams they take charge of. Imo Mowbray falls into the bloated category of managers who are generally steady but don't get a team punching above their weight. He keeps them right about where they should be given their overall expenditure. If we're happy floating around mid-table for the next couple of seasons (assuming the owners don't pull the plug) then Mowbray's your man. If we want to seriously challenge for promotion I think we'll need someone a lot more innovative and tactically savvy. Those managers are hard to find though, and usually cost more than Venky's are willing to spend on the position.

Well, we have other options. Buckley, Bennett and Tosin are all able to play in that position. If TM chose Evans then that would be on him rather than because of a lack of squad depth. Holtby would seem like a real waste of a wage when we have other positions that need addressing beforehand.

Could also push Travis down the pecking order.

LB is the position now that we need to be looking at. Cunningham is a great player but not ours, and if he got injured then we're back to Bell/Williams as our LB choices which we already know are nowhere near good enough. RB is also a concern but with Nyambe and JRC as competition for Bennett (sigh) I would say that area is better stocked for now.

I see no evidence of the second part being true, so yes, I'd say a lot of our positives are stumbled upon rather than well thought out plans. I've outright stated it many times, I don't need to insinuate. If you think differently then OK, coincidence is a genuine concept too so it's feasible.

I can't remember a single thing Williams did that season without googling first so can't say that award means a great deal to me. I remember Marcus Olsson winning it one year and his highlight package was hilariously underwhelming. Imagine it was similar in 16/17. Not sure what the second point is referencing as I haven't brought it up.

Derrick never evolved into a good left back, if anything he got worse over time. Thank goodness for injuries as otherwise we may never have seen what he really has in his locker.

It's a bit confusing having two threads with the same theme and name running concurrently, so I'm going to lock this one. The other attendences thread can be found here:

Unfortunately for us. Although in this instance Bristol City are to blame as they were the ones who started the experiment - we just took the ball and ran/stumbled with it.

Williams was actually a centre back converted to left back. He's now back in his natural position.

I would say their chances of survival are so remote it isn't really worth debating. The team they have now isn't going to hit playoff form. They'll do well to surpass relegation form. They should however continue with the great escape mentality. It's not like they can really do anything else.

Remember when Jason Lowe was 'the scapegoat'? Now he can't even get into Bolton's starting eleven. When players are regularly criticised it's usually because they are continually failing to contribute. Armstrong's stats prove this so the idea that he's a scapegoat is laughable. He's just not performing and it's rightly being pointed out, particularly because we have other options that aren't being used to try and address that issue. Worth noting that it isn't necessarily Armstrong's fault. It might just be that he can't play effectively in the poisition/role the manager has assigned him. Look at Williams. Poor at LB for most of his tenure here, but suddenly looks like a totally different player at CB in a role he's clearly much more comfortable in. My feeling is that Armstrong would be most effective playing with a target man with two up top, but I can't see that happening in the near future so it's fair to question whether he should be in the starting eleven with our current system.

Was Lowe actually dropped in favour of these free transfer plodders they've brought in?

Stoke lose again. Granted having somebody sent off after 12 minutes doesn't help matters.

Tony and his bants. What a card.

Maybe Williams is our answer to DG? Top goalscorer now isn't he?

Last few times we've played 3 at the back it's failed miserably and disappeared for months. Will be interesting to see if the new personnel make things any better.

Wtf.

But we started the season with Gallagher up top and Armstrong/Rothwell on the right, so if that is his answer then he seems to have come up with it ad hoc.

We aren't really playing a new system though. Not yet, anyway. The only difference is more passing along the backline and occasionally a hoof to the right as opposed to solely down the centre. Still a long way to go before we're playing a style that doesn't suit a DG type target man, imo.