Cunningham is a great signing assuming he arrives, but letting Mulgrew go is a pretty big risk. I guess we're looking at Lenihan, Tosin, Nyambe and Williams as our 4 CB options. Better pray they all stay fit or we're thin on the ground to say the least. Nyambe - Lenihan - Tosin - Cunningham is an adequete defence and certainly better than Bennett - Lenihan - Mulgrew - Bell, at least, but I'm still not convinced Bennett is going to be dropped.

#versatility

Mulgrew is a liability who costs us points every time he's on the pitch, and the stats from last season overwhelmingly back that up, but it would be the most Mowbray thing ever to let him go with no replacement. Evans or Smallwood will probably end up at CB.

?

Either way it would be ridiculous to bring him in with Travis, Buckley, Evans, Smallwood, Johnson, Dack, Rothwell, Bennett and Downing all able to play either DMC or AMC. Would be a pointless and unnecessary transfer unless at least two of those were leaving.

Bell would probably get by in the SPL, but can you imagine him in the Champions League? I actually want this transfer to happen just so I can see this.

Technically as many as we like, but we can only name five in the matchday squad.

Could literally splice Mulgrew's name in there and it would be just as accurate! But of course those players never get named. Only the youngsters.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17727308.mowbray-on-the-likelihood-of-loan-signings-at-rovers/ TM didn't seem particularly keen on bringing in first team loans back in June, but if we brought in a CB and LB on loan we'd potentially be looking at 3 of our back 4 as loan deals... obviously not good for long term progression but would give TM some breathing room for a few months at least.

No sign of Tony's coaching having improved any of our players in over two years, and certainly not the defence, so not sure why he thinks that would reassure anybody.

It's an infantile comment from the manager and imo shows how little he respects the supporters. "How dare you be mad at me for not delivering on a promise I made!" - desperate and ridiculous.

You are the one that said "defenders are coming" Tony, so you can't now sit there and cry that people are being unfair and/or mean to you. You made a rod for your own back and should be mature and experienced enough to accept that you deserve criticism for making a public statement and failing to back it up.

True, but if the LT was following the club's lead you would expect their statements to be in harmony. Instead you've got Sharpe saying "nothing happening" and Mowbray saying "irons in the fire, trying to improve the team, potentially hectic afternoon". Either the LT is totally out of the loop or TM is lying. Either is possible. Actually both are possible. We'll know soon enough.

Interesting as that is the total opposite of what Sharpe has been saying. Only a few hours ago he reported that there wasn't likely to be any business done today. So much for the LT being the club's spokespeople! Seems they're as much in the dark as anyone else.

And until Smallwood got suspended the plan was to loan him out, so that was more good fortune than good judgement.

Yeah, but unlike us Spurs don't need an entirely new defence.

Was just about to write the same thing. Definitely possible that TM has one eye on the future, under the impression that Dack and Graham will be gone by the time next season begins. Dangerous to look that far ahead when there is still plenty to do in the present, though. Don't look so far forward that you trip over what's right in front of you.

I wasn't particularly excited about Hanley when he was initially linked, but right now it'd be like signing Virgil Van Dijk.

Anybody who bought the club would have to continue paying the debts, yes, but there's a lot of ways they could run the club differently. Hire an experienced, ambitious manager. Upgrade the coaching staff. Implement a solid boardroom and a structure above the manager which focuses on player recruitment and scouting, allowing the manager to focus on managing the team rather than doing everything else. They could have budgets set up well in advance, not requiring the manager and the CEO to fly over for face-to-face talks to beg for money every few months. The past is the past and continues to have a negative impact on our present, so no, we shouldn't just forget about it and move on. There's nothing to suggest Venky's have learned from their mistakes, they've just stumbled upon a vaguely competent manager who is willing to try and work in their dysfunctional structure and has been successful in returning us to the mid-table Championship purgatory we've been trapped in for six of the last nine seasons. If and when Mowbray departs we will be right back to the chaotic mess that's currently being hidden beneath the facade of stability that exists at present. We heard exactly the same nonsense during the Bowyer era. Stability. They've learned from their mistakes. We're on the up. Before long we had hired Owen Coyle and were nosediving into League 1. Another Coyle is just around the corner with this lot, which is why as much as I feel like Mowbray is not the man to move us forward, I genuinely fear what comes next.

TM seems to be betting on Gallagher being the man to replace Graham. Theoretically he could be moving towards a system where we play Gallagher and Brereton up front, but there's no evidence of that at present. If he's planning to transition into that next season he may find himself out of a job before he gets the chance to implement it.

I was going to say Jordan Rhodes in 12-13 but he was actually signed a couple of days before the window closed. So, probably Scott Dann back in summer 2011?

It's definitely one of the biggest problems. Nyambe - Lenihan - Tosin - Bell isn't a back line that fills me with any confidence but at the moment it's probably the best we can do. I see little option, barring a miracle in the next 24 hours, other than sticking with that and hoping Nyambe and Tosin in particular come good. I don't see how we can avoid damage on the left side as we have no remotely good options to play there. Just have to hope Bell's decision making improves if he's given a solid run of games. I'm not optimistic but what else can we do at this point? I fully expect to see Williams back at LB when he returns to full fitness, which isn't much better but probably slightly more reliable than Bell.

Nah, just the usual rage and despondancy. Should be fun.

Oh it's far more than that. £174m to achieve two relegations, seven managers in eight years, lining the pockets of multiple agents, employees and players who didn't give one useful contribution to this football club, turning the club and themselves into a laughing stock, decimating the fanbase and leaving the club in such a sorry state that it is now literally impossible to sell without wiping out the entire debt. Bravo.

Makes Mowbray's suggestion that he was just "emotional" with the "defenders are coming" remark look to be nothing but an excuse - which we all know it is, because he said we needed and would be getting defenders multiple times in various settings towards the end of last season. Does he think we're idiots with goldfish memory spans? It's really simple, if you don't want to be held to your word then don't commit publicly to anything you may not be able to deliver. And if you DO commit to something and fail to deliver, have the common courtesy and decency to be honest and explain why, rather than backtracking with excuses and nonsense like "I was emotional" and "defensively we're alright". I don't think anyone wants to hammer TM, but if the deadline passes and Tosin is the only defender we've brought in he has shown a huge lack of respect to the fans, and I don't see how anybody can trust a word that comes out of his mouth going forward. I certainly won't - and it really sucks for that to be the case, because I wanted to believe that Mowbray was different. It's increasingly looking like he's just like all of the others, just with a League 1 promotion to his name.