So many of those games are typical "bannana skin" matches that it wouldn't surprise me if we got a pretty average points haul. It'll be interesting to see how we approach Bristol, Preston and Wigan at home, as all three embarrassed us at their grounds. Still can't believe we let Wigan beat us like that. Really poor considering their form ever since. Worth noting that of the teams in that fixture list we've only beaten Brentford this season so far. We got draws against Reading, Boro, Birmingham and Rotherham (at home!) whilst as aforementioned we got smashed by Bristol City, Preston and Wigan. I don't think we should be going into that set of fixtures expecting too much.

Cole was certainly up for Yorke coming to join him here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/b/blackburn_rovers/1966835.stm At the time bringing in Yorke was considered a bit of a bargain: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2002/jul/26/newsstory.blackburn Interesting that Fergie actually wanted to shift Yorke before Cole, but was "forced" by the United board to sell Cole instead: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/blackburn-rovers/3019509/Blackburn-sign-Cole-for-8m.html Tottenham 0-4 Blackburn Rovers - Yorke and Cole send Rovers into Europe: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/yorke-and-cole-send-blackburn-into-europe-590420.html Good times.

And yet they let him go for £7m, which is a fairly low amount for a young English striker with so much supposed potential - and some of that may not even be guaranteed to them, if it's in instalments or based on certain achievements. Something doesn't quite add up there for me. It's not like Forest are strapped for cash and desperately needed the extra money. That said it's still a lot to spend on a player who can't have an immediate impact. I think that's the only real point that is being made by people disappointed in Brereton's signing. Even if you only spent £2-3m on a player, at this level you expect them to come in and at least have some kind of impact. Cairney and Evans both cost less than £1m. Dack was £750k. Graham and Bennett either free or nominal fees. Mulgrew was free. AA was £1.75m. Brereton's contribution hasn't been anywhere near good enough considering the fee we paid/will pay for him - although I put the blame on whoever signed him for that, not the player himself. I would say that if Graham gets injured maybe it would force Brereton to start matches and he'd acclimitise that way, but Mowbray has already made it clear in previous matches that he'd rather put an attacking midfielder into that CF role before putting Brereton there - despite his reportedly legendary finishing in training. Again, something doesn't quite add up there but no journalist seems willing to ask the question. I'm still of the mind that this season might be our best crack at slipping into the top six. A combination of a settled team, momentum from L1 promotion, our quality players still going strong and mostly staying injury/suspension free (Dack, Graham, Mulgrew), not to mention the emergence of Travis and having an excellent versatile player on loan in Reed. How much of that will be true next season? The momentum from promotion will obviously be gone. Graham and Mulgrew will be a year older. Dack will likely have some significant interest from various clubs. Reed wants to establish himself at Southampton so that one is very much up in the air as far as a permanent signing is concerned. I don't know. I can see this being similar to Bowyer's tenure, where we slowly start regressing after a promising start, ending with us drifting in mid to lower-mid table for a while. If Coyle hadn't been appointed I don't think we would have even been relegated in 16/17, and would have continued on the trajectory of Championship non-entities. Maybe that is our ceiling under the current owners, and if so then we'd just have to hope for a miracle Blackpool style season where it all suddenly clicks and we sneak ourselves into the PL. Not something that happens too often these days though!

Unfortunately such logic is generally beyond our esteemed owners. When big money appears it tends to come out of nowhere being spent on a player that's completely out of left field. We needed a back up striker for Graham at the very least in this window. Even if it wasn't big money. Nuttall has had a few good games but overall limited ability, Brereton is clearly not ready and Tony doesn't even seem to see him as a striker, Dack's impact is quite obviously blunted when playing CF. Despite scoring a few goals recently Mowbray seems to see AA as a left winger/inside forward. Very disappointing to have not strengthened in this area. Samuel will be back soon but he really isn't that good either, and he's still going to need time to get back to match fitness. I doubt we'll see much of him this season at all. Otherwise I think we're OK to finish mid-table this season. A top six push was feasible but only with a couple of ambitious additions to the squad, which we seem unwilling to do at the present time. I'd say with the current squad (and barring a serious injury to Graham or Dack) we're good for a finish between 8th - 15th. We've been on a good run as of late but I think it's unrealistic to expect this team to finish top six.

We signed a fair few decent players under Bowyer's tenure, so there must have been some competent scouting in place during that period? Now granted we also ended up with the likes of Koita, Browny, Varny and Delfouneso, but that was towards the end when the tap was turned off. During the time we did have a bit of cash we made some very astute signings - Conway, Duffy, Evans, Cairney, etc.... there must have been something in place? I'd also put into question whether we've 'got it right' regarding our domestic scouting, considering our best players (Dack excluded) were generally signed by other managers. Our most expensive signing since Rhodes meanwhile has been a total flop thus far.

I have no doubt that Mowbray is trying to build for the future and good on him. However, the fact remains that the owners could pull the rug out from under him and all of us at a moment's notice. I'll always feel that we're one step away from disaster with Venky's at the helm, irrespective of the manager. If Mowbray is still here in five years time and noticeable progress has been made across the club then maybe it'll be time to reconsider. In the meantime the 8+ years of mostly misery under Venky's remains at the forefront of my thoughts in relation to all things Rovers - as sad as that is!

It's hard for me to feel confident or positive about the long term with Venky's in charge. I don't think I'll ever be able to trust them. We heard it all before regarding taking small steps and stablising the club - stability was the mind-numbing mantra of the Bowyer era. Ultimately, it ended with all of our best players being sold, the manager unceremoniously dumped, a donut-loving chimp in the dugout and playing in League 1 for the first time in decades. Success is built on long-term strategy, but the only thing Venky's have ever secured for the club long-term is failure and disappointment. Until that trend reverses (and mid-table in the Championship for a single season isn't enough) I'll always be in a state of mind of "the time is now". With this lot in charge I dare not think any further ahead.

Personally at this point in the season I'd prefer to bring in the best possible quality of player to push us towards being realistic top six contenders, rather than signing a player with the thought of them one day becoming great. Things change in this league very quickly. Millwall were sniffing around the playoffs last year, but this year it's been a relegation battle. Ideally we want to keep the momentum of the last month going strong and bringing in top players, even if only on loan for a few months, would be more likely to help us achieve that goal than bringing in prospects who may take time to get up to speed. For the record long term planning should always be at the top of the agenda, but those kinds of signings usually happen in the summer rather than the winter.

He appeared briefly as a sub in an FA Cup game, according to wiki, so it could be from that. To be fair the lad was only 18/19 at the time. Strange that we bought him in then shipped him out so quickly, considering how young he was.

Available on a free atm, put him at the top of a midfield diamond and watch the goals flow

I genuinely have no idea who he is. I don't remember him playing for us, although wiki says he did make ten appearances. Strange as I remember pretty much every other player from around this dismal time for the club, but not this guy.

Indeed. Probably the best piece of transfer business in terms of both performances and value since they arrived.

Impressive if he has that level of support from them, especially considering how poor the Brereton transfer has been for us thus far. Definitely feels like it'll end up being Gallagher, probably loan-to-buy. Not sure that'll be a massive upgrade on what we already have - and he strikes me as another 'nice lad' who just gets along with everybody. Still, Tony's earned the right at this point to choose who he wants to buy without being questioned over it. Can't really argue with our league position no matter how people feel about performances, tactics, etc.

I suppose it's possible Boro will drop their demands once the window starts ticking towards the end and there's still no interest from anybody in covering those wages in full, but at that point you have to imagine there would be a ton of clubs suddenly putting in offers.

If financing these deals with the owners hasn't even been discussed at this point then surely we might as well forget about it? We all know Venky-time tends to stretch to months rather than days. I'm assuming the finances were already in place for a big-ish transfer in the summer long before we tried to panic buy Brereton on the last day of the window. It doesn't sound like any such provisions are in place now though.

According to wiki Gallgher's strike rate is roughly 1 in 6, which isn't great. Assombalonga and Austin obviously find the net much more often, but would likely also cost a lot more money in the short and long-term. Ultimately you tend to get what you pay for, with the odd exception here and there.

I watched their match against Ipswich and yeah, based on that I'd be very surprised if they even get a playoff place, let alone promoted.

He'd have to compensate for that with very quick thinking and excellent positioning. I think he has it in his locker, but it's a question of whether he has the mentality to consistently do it week-in week-out.

Agreed. I think people trot out the 'he's not physical enough' line because at first glance Dack isn't the tallest or most intimidating looking bloke, but he's got a very stocky frame and knows exactly how to use it to shield the ball and hold off opponents. You don't have consistently good seasons in League 1 if you have no physical presence.

I think our 'biggest' deadline day under Venky's was the summer we got Yak and Dann in on the last day. By the next summer our deadline day signings were Nuno Henrique and Diogo Rosado... I'm not sure we had many deadline day signings after that. Mulgrew and Emnes in summer 16/17? They were both signed on 31 August but can't remember if the window extended into September. I think Jordi Gomez was a winter deadline day signing as well.

As far as I'm aware Madon and a Boro ITK who broke the news on Obi Mikel are the main sources for the Assombalonga speculation. Nothing on any official channels as of yet.

If we aren't prepared to break our wage structure every so often for a top player then it's unlikely we'll ever get anywhere. What are we supposed to do, gradually increase every player's wages to absurd amounts before signing somebody on a big wage? If Venky's and Mowbray are serious about promotion then at times the wage structure should be broken to attract a top talent. Obviously big expectations and responsibilities will be placed on that player, but that's why they'd be earning big money. There aren't that many players we have in our team who I'd say could complain if Assombalonga came in on big wages. Most of them are on a very fair wage for their overall talents and/or age. The only player I could think may be justified in asking for parity would be Dack. Possibly Graham and Mulgrew as well but at their ages they won't be here for too much longer anyway. The rest are on wages befitting their talent/ability imo, and if a player like Assombalonga came in and propelled the team to greater heights then chances are anybody playing regularly would benefit from higher wages in future as the team would collectively look better. All this talk about disrupting the harmony of the dressing room comes off to me as people being happy with mediocrity and stumbling around the Championship in mid-table forevermore. There's nothing wrong with ambition and that usually brings change as well. That all said, do I expect Assombalonga to show up? No, not really. Not doubting Madon's information but until it's signed and sealed I won't be holding my breath. That said I never expected us to drop £8m on Rhodes back in 2012, or £7m on Brereton this summer, so it's not like anybody can really predict what our owners will do next.

Tbf other than one person on here pretty much all of us do appreciate how good he is and has been for us.

Yeah I really struggle to get used to this system. Part of the reason I loved Persona 5 was that the combat was turn based. I started playing Final Fantasy Type 0 a while back, the story is supposed to be pretty good but again... real time combat system. It just doesn't work for me. Not how it's done in FF games, anyway.

Smallwood should have been dropped from the first eleven long before he was. I have no problem with him on the bench as backup to harry the opposition for the last twenty minutes, but he's just not a starter in a decent Championship team. His effort can never be faulted, but sometimes you have to look beyond that. Travis has not only the work rate but far superior technical ability and an attacking quality which Smallwood lacks. Injuries and suspensions will I'm sure play their parts going forward as far as CB is concerned, so I expect Mulgrew will feature again sooner rather than later. If we can get by without him long term then great, as his age and wage mean he won't realistically be here for that much longer. A class player though, so just a case of enjoying those moments of class for as long as he's still here.