To be honest both Norwich and Villa conceded what I would consider above average in terms of goals last season whilst getting promoted. Norwich conceded 57 and Villa 61, whereas Stoke way down in 16th only conceded 52. Obviously scoring 93 (Norwich) and 81 (Villa) helped them overcome their defensive issues, but in comparison Wolves only conceded 39 goals when they came top in 17-18, whilst Cardiff and Fulham conceded 39 and 46 respectively. Teams in general seemed to concede a hell of a lot more goals last season. No team in the top 8 conceded above 48 goals in the 17-18 season, whilst only Sheff Utd and Middlesbrough from the top 8 managed to concede less than 50 last season.

FB is definitely our weak point, and I think that's what teams will try to exploit. It wouldn't surprise me to see Downing playing often at LB, but that doesn't really fill me with confidence either. Our full backs are going to need cover from the players ahead of them, and I'm not convinced we have the personnel for that as Rothwell, Armstrong and Gallagher are not defensively-minded players. Travis and Johnson can do their best to help out in that regard but then our CB's will be left exposed, so, it's risky.

Based on our collapses last season whenever we got within sniffing distance of the playoffs I'm not especially confident. I think with another decent CB addition we have the ability to challenge top six, but the mentality of both the manager and the team needs to change significantly. More courage and belief required. We need to play teams like we believe we're a top six team, rather than going into every match like we're the underdog.

Brereton's strong pre-season just re-affirms my thoughts that we really didn't need Gallagher. We're in a situation where you could argue none of our strikers (Graham, Brereton, Gallagher) deserve to be third choice and would be an absolute waste of resources that far down the pecking order. I really wish that £5m + wages had gone towards the defence and we'd brought in a Rothwell/Davenport type either from our u23's or elsewhere to challenge across the midfield/striking position.

If Gallagher is starting on the bench I will be pretty flabbergasted that we spent £5m on another player to sit and watch. We can argue Brereton is young, needs time to develop, flex, whatever else. Gallagher is a 23 year old we bought from a Premier League club who has plenty of experience in this league. I can't imagine many other clubs in our position spending £5m on a player and then putting him on the bench and then using him as a rotation option.

I would be surprised be Bennett and Gallagher are on the bench. I expect Bennett to start ahead of Nyambe and one of Armstrong or Rothwell to make way for Gallagher, but otherwise that seems like the most likely line up.

Yep, a good defender who wanted out of Ipswich after the way the fans treated Mick - and he wasn't the only one.

It's basically just a retelling of a small part of the FFVII story. Mostly faithful to the original with a couple of minor changes which imo are an improvement. No idea if Last Order is canon, but it was released as part of the japanese Advent Children DVD set so I guess so?

In fairness you have to think about the quality of facilities, etc, when loaning out a player as well. Not going to be much good loaning them out to a team in dissaray, losing often, with a training ground that may or may not be open, a disenfranchised squad and of course Jason Lowe. I imagine there are a lot of teams waiting for the takeover to happen and ready to make deals if/when Bolton look like they are back on a sound footing.

Strange as he was originally due to sign for Millwall back in June, but it was called off - "medical complications": https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48761770 Millwall got a new doctor or something else going on? I suppose Ipswich may have agreed to lower the price as from what I hear they want their new keeper as no1 and Bialkowski will be on a crazy wage for a League 1 second choice keeper.

Trust me, it was more of a lament than a brag.

Considering my location I have probably seen and heard more about him than anybody on here tbf.

Ipswich fans aren't bothered about losing him, which should tell you enough. He might have been a good keeper in the past (although still made plenty of mistakes) but he isn't now. If he was that good he'd have much more interest. Ipswich aren't asking much for him - they've already brought in a keeper to replace him. They just want him gone. For me he wouldn't be a capable no2 as I wouldn't be confident with him between the sticks. But you are right in that I doubt he'd want to come here as a backup keeper, and he wouldn't be asking for the type of wage a backup keeper would be making anyway. Probably why it's definitely a no go.

Not for us, Bialkowski is a very poor keeper - hence Milwall being the only team interested.

We've been hearing that for the last week tbf.

Because he's not very good, is injury prone and his wages could be put to better use elsewhere. Simple as that, no overthinking involved. You obviously rate him a lot higher than I do, so our perspectives will differ, but for me we would lose absolutely nothing if Evans was moved on.

Yeah that was pretty disappointing in retrospect. We didn't even play well in that match, from recollection Ipswich at least matched us. The next week we drew 0-0 at home to Millwall which was another poor result, before we beat Hull & Brentford 1-0 in the coming weeks, with a draw against Reading sandwiched in between. So in truth we actually didn't exactly start the season on fire, but we were gaining points, even if a lot of the matches were draws. Our first loss was against Bristol City on Sep 2nd when they thumped us 4-1. Last season's draw against Ipswich on the opening day is perhaps a reminder that you can never take a win for granted. We didn't know it at the time but they were the worst team in the division by some distance - even worse than Bolton, who at times couldn't even pay their squad.

The problem with Evans as back up, as others have mentioned, is that he isn't being paid a back up player's wage. Why hand him a new contract last season on what was probably the same level of wage just to sit on the bench? I doubt he would be happy with that and other players being paid less but starting ahead of him would be perfectly entitled to ask the manager to raise their salaries accordingly. It's best for all parties if Evans moves on imo, but I get the feeling Mowbray does not see him as a backup option and we'll be seeing more of Evans than people are assuming.

It would be typical of Rovers to lose against Charlton and then beat one of the bigger teams, so I know what you mean. Looking at it from a purely logical perspective though I think 3 points on the opening day would help boost our confidence going into what should be some tougher fixtures. Last season's poor runs of form do concern me - our good start to the season ensured we never really got involved in the relegation scrap at any point. It would be great if we could get a head of steam going early doors in case we fall into another rut.

I agree that you can't describe the first match as a must win, but looking at the fixtures we have coming up after Charlton we could really do with three points to get ourselves going.

https://lionofviennasuite.sbnation.com/2019/7/28/8934142/bolton-wanderers-what-have-we-become An interesting and fairly lengthily write-up here on Bolton's plight.

How long does this drag on before the EFL have no choice but to step in? They surely have to do something before the season starts?

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?