When you only get two players out of it when there were so many other positions that also needed upgrading then it isn't exactly a fast build tbf.

Hah, we'll be lucky to get £2m for the lad at this rate let alone £20m. Big season for Brereton next season, he really needs to show what he can do, and Mowbray needs to give him the opportunity to do so. If we get another season like this season where Mowbray shunts him out wide for 15 minute cameos every so often then I think the fans have every right to be heavily critical of the money wasted on that transfer.

I watched FFVII: Advent Children for the first time in a while yesterday. It gets a lot of criticism but I really like it. I love how the characters are rendered and I dig the story. Granted if you watched it without knowing anything about the game you wouldn't have a clue what was happening, but why would you even watch it to begin with if you hadn't played the game? As far as I can tell it was made specifically for fans of the game, so I don't consider that a negative. It's nice that the movie just gets right into it, rather than trying to explain everything in case the person watching never played the game. For what it's worth the "complete" version, which was the one I watched, is definitely superior to the original cut and fleshes out the story nicely. The end battle between Cloud and Sephiroth still looks great. The graphics look a little dated by modern standards, but considering the movie is 15 years old it still holds up remarkably well in my opinion. It's a huge upgrade on The Spirits Within, which was only released 4 years before Advent Children.

If Mowbray's plan hasn't come to fruition by the end of next season I can see Nyambe, Travis, Lenihan and Dack being shifted to get back any money spent over the last two windows, leaving us with the likes of Mulgrew, Bennett, Downing, Johnson, Graham, Smallwood, Evans and assorted other players who aren't good enough or too old to make a difference. Right back to where we were in 16/17.

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/135724/Show/Harrison-Reed He only played 8 times in CM tbf, and it looks like he did alright. Granted I have no idea how those ratings are calculated, but our best performance of the season, the 2-0 win against Derby, came with Reed and Travis in the centre. Evans and Smallwood's "discipline" did nothing for us imo. We would have been better off with Reed there even if he wasn't as robotic and boring as Mowbray would prefer.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17563991.why-rovers-boss-has-gone-with-smallwoodevans-over-loanee/

He ain't coming back here to train under the guidance of Evans and Smallwood. Nor should he. Stupid and insulting comments from Mowbray.

Relegation.

If that's the case then I can't see us offering the type of wage that would interest him, especially if there's a £5m fee included.

I think we'd struggle with 4-4-2 as we don't have the wide players to provide defensive cover for the flanks, and Nyambe and Bell would need protection. Theoretically you could put Bennett on the right wing and he would cover defensively, but he wouldn't provide enough assists to make it worthwhile.

My guess is that we'll start off trying to play wing backs, it won't work because we don't really have the personnel for it, and we'll hastily revert to the sludgy 4-2-3-1 we used most of last season.

In fairness there was no reason to suggest Bauer wouldn't be starting. Who's he fighting with, Mulgrew and Williams? If Mowbray doesn't think he's necessarily better than those two then we shouldn't have been chasing him in the first place. We need people to come into the starting XI, not squad members to provide competition. It surely goes without saying that if Bauer failed to be up to the required standard he could find his position under threat.

B is definitely the most likely scenario imo!

Honestly I won't be too disappointed if he ends up at Wigan, especially if the fee is £5m!

And yet she is with Bubba Ray, so... I watched a random episode of Nitro from 1997 at the weekend. It still holds up today. Main event was Luger Vs Hogan for the title, which Luger won (think Hogan had held onto the belt for nearly a year by that point): That crowd reaction at 02:57! You don't get many reactions like that in modern day wrestling. Also Tony Schiavone is at his best here. He gets shit on a lot these days but when Schiavone was on his game and invested in what he was watching he was one of the best imo. I can't imagine Michael Cole or Tom Phillips being able to produce that kind of performance in a big match. Obviously Hogan won the title back 6 days later at the PPV which kind of sours this win a bit, but still, very cool at the time. I remember being shocked.

Nothing wrong with bringing in experience (although we arguably already have plenty of that with Graham, Evans, Bennett, Mulgrew, Williams) but I am against bringing in players on their last legs looking for one last payday. I'd certainly put Adam and Downing in that category. Not sure yet about Johnson. Pontus Jansson for £5.5m at 28 years old would be a great example of an experienced player at this level who hates to lose and still has years left in him. Adam and Downing not so much.

It's even more hilarious watching this considering recently Bubba Ray Dudley of all people had a fan brought backstage and had a go at him because he was heckling a group of heels (that just happened to include his girlfriend). ROH is in bad enough condition as it is without driving away fans who are just being fans.

Decent defenders would help too.

To be honest I wouldn't be averse to keeping Williams as a 3rd/4th choice CB. He looked OK there at the tail end of last season - just don't play him at left back. Unfortunately that leaves Bell as our only left back and he can't defend, so, arguably we need two left backs as I wouldn't even want Bell as back up for that position. Goes without saying we will be lucky to get one LB, let alone two, so sadly I think we'll be seeing Bell/Williams as our LB options again next season which will be where any smart team will focus their efforts.

No. Full back positions not addressed and I wouldn't want Dann back anyway. We'd probably be slightly stronger as a team but I think our defence would continue to be a massive achilles heel, especially if Lenihan gets injured again. Also the average age of the team will have gone up considerably with Johnson, Adam, Downing, Dann and Ruddy all being well over 30 and Butterfield soon to be out of his 20's as well. Not exactly building for the future.

Sounds like him and Dack would get on well.

If so then don't sell, simple. It's not like he's going to be worth less in a year's time.

The problem is he would need to be in somebody else's plans.

I can't see Evans leaving. He only signed a new contract last season and I doubt he took a wage cut. Remembering the era he was bought in, he's probably on around £15k p/w. The teams in this division able to pay his wage along with some kind of transfer fee are probably going to be looking at better players than an injury-prone crab who rarely if ever contributes to goals, assists or anything else particularly useful. I would love to see Evans go but I just don't see it happening unfortunately.

Unfortunately his valuation is roughly £5.5m higher than we're willing to pay for a defender.