I honestly just think he's stuck in his ways. I doubt he pays much attention to NXT - but he can even have super-over performers fall into his lap on the main roster and find ways to bury them just because he personally doesn't like something about them. Daniel Bryan was purposefully sabotaged over and over again, and only an absolutely insane crowd reaction to Bryan combined with absolute rejection of the likes of Orton and Batista headlining WM30 got Bryan to where he always should have been. Rusev is another example of somebody who got himself over organically but because it wasn't Vince's idea he just buries Rusev in stupid programs, instead of feeding that organic reaction as he did during the Monday Night Wars. If Stone Cold and the Rock had come through in modern times they would probably have never gotten away from The Ringmaster and "happy guy" Rocky Maivia gimmicks.

As long as Vince continues to run Raw/Smackdown it's hopeless imo. He's so out of touch with the audience that anything he gets right is done purely through chance, and he finds a way to take it downhill very quickly. Triple H in comparison clearly has his finger on the pulse of the modern wrestling fan (non-casual) and has tailored NXT to suit that demographic in every possible way. The more hardcore fans then get the more casual fans excited about the NXT prospects, which ultimately leads to big reactions when they get called up to the main roster. Then they get Vince'd and within six months are getting no reactions and doing stupid comedy mid-card nonsense.

Yeah Ricochet is awesome. His 630 splash is just ridiculous. There's really nothing bad I can say about NXT. The wrestlers are the best of the best from the independents, the music is almost always awesome, the crowd is awesome, the commentary is awesome (Ranello in particular is a thousand times better than Michael Cole), the storylines are simple but done very well, the matches are laid out to showcase the performers strengths as opposed to forcing them into a specific style, the shows are very reasonable in length (an hour for the main show and two and a half hours PPV)... I can't think of a single negative thing about NXT. It's just a shame when wrestlers get called up to the main roster, as you know Vince will ruin them.

6 minutes is about right for a Brock Lesnar match. The guy gets blown up so easily in a competitive match. You could see at the end of his match with AJ Styles a few months ago he was totally out on his feet. Reigns is decent but his booking has been horrific. WWE have made him into the next John Cena, which has its good and its bad points. Fact is WWE doesn't care what the fans want anymore, much like Premier League clubs the TV deal the WWE now has rules over everything else. NXT Takeover was the best show of the weekend by far. Watching the Takeover shows is a real privilege and it's hard to believe it comes under the WWE umbrella at times.

Buy nothing but lower league players and eventually you're going to end up in the lower leagues. It's why I didn't want us raiding League 1 clubs in the summer.

Mowbray himself has said we need players in, so trusting him is surely expecting recruits and being disappointed if we don't get any.

Would be the more realistic of the two scenarios under Venkys to be fair.

Hogan is almost as injury prone as Vince Grella. Avoid.

Have we been linked to anyone other than Trapp though? I can't really remember. It's hard to believe that with our supposed budget we haven't been able to find anyone better than Smallwood.

Considering the era Evans came from he's probably the highest paid player at the club, so we should expect a good run of form every once and a while. If he can sustain his form and stay injury free for most of the season then great. I don't think we're looking to strengthen in that position so whether we like it or not Evans will probably be quite an important player for us this season.

I don't know much about Brereton but in all honesty if we have £8m to spend I'd rather we bring in a couple of players with that money to strengthen the CB/DM/Wing positions than spend it all on one youngster with potential. I appreciate the resale value argument but my main concern as a fan is having the strongest team possible, not looking to sell the player in the future for more money than we bought him for. I'm happy to leave that side of things to the number crunchers at the club. We went down the resale value route before under Bowyer and ultimately we made money on most of Bowyer's signings but also ended up relegated after Venky's pulled the plug on funding the club. There's no guarantee they won't do the same again in the near future so I'd rather have as strong of a team as possible and I still think we're a bit weak in terms of squad depth. That said I'm not going to be complaining if Brereton comes in. I'd just personally prefer the money, if it is there, to be spent in a different way.

I can only assume Holloway didn't perform well enough to keep the faith of the higher ups at QPR. With their financial issues and squad worsening perhaps they looked to Holloway's stint at Millwall and decided it was too risky to trust him to keep them safe. McClaren is a bigger "name" although I remember a lot of people at the time saying the appointment was doomed to failure. Early signs aren't good, to say the least.

All things considered their aim has to be simply to survive. That being said I don't know why you'd bring in McLaren to try and achieve that. Imagine he'll be gone by Christmas.

Who would have predicted Bolton starting this well? You have to hand it to Parkinson, he's done a very good job there in difficult circumstances.

I knew QPR were shit but wow. How embarrassing.

Great result, first win of the season. Just hope Dack isn't hurt too badly.

Decent half. We look pretty solid. We were set up to nick a goal and we've done that. I just hope we don't revert to type and start sitting back because we all know what'll happen next. Get a second and this Hull team are done.

Very similar to Dack's goal against Ipswich.

Not too dissimilar to the structure under Bowyer. I wonder how much the likes of Tom Cairney would have cost us in today's market? From recollection we got him for under a million...

Yeah they look in real trouble this season. Hurst's departure seems to have been the catalyst - if he'd stayed I think they'd have had a season similar to last. Funny to see and hear Ipswich fans turning on each other already. It might be dawning on some of them that Mick wasn't necessarily the problem. Meanwhile Hurst is already berating players in post match interviews, which might have worked at lower league level but may not have the same effect further up the chain. McCarthy very rarely criticised the team even when it was deserved, and truth be told most successful managers choose to keep that kind of thing private.

Looks like we could handle ourselves in League 2. Good to know I suppose. Let's see who we get in the next round. Our FA Cup run a few years back was the highlight of an otherwise horrifically boring season, so it'd be nice to progress as far as possible.

Brian Kidd is the perfect example of somebody destined to always be an assistant. By all accounts a very knowledgeable and hard working person to have as a member of the coaching team, but just doesn't have the type of personality to manage. At first I thought Bowyer was of a similar mould but he's done alright at Blackpool in fairness.

Maybe. It's usually the same type of people who like to jump on ambulances and smash things after an England victory. #lads Anyway, loan arrivals... we could do with some.

Amongst some, maybe, but plenty of people I spoke to were convinced that Southgate was some kind of genius and we were going to breeze through to the finals and win the whole thing. Pointing out the flaws in our tactics and limitations of our players was considered treasonous by the quarter finals so I generally kept quiet after that.