DE.

Staying at Chelsea according to the papers.

Gives me nightmare flashbacks to that period when we were relying on the likes of Jake Kean and Simon Eastwood.

Interesting, thanks for this. Shows that our back line (Lenihan excepted) are all prone to mistakes, which we knew going into the season. That's why I would have liked to have seen some strengthening there but we seem obsessed with central midfielders instead. Palmer's contribution really was poor when he came on - nonexistent save for that glaring miss. Even Nuttall had more impact and he was getting a lot more criticism. I suppose if Palmer had fitness problems going into the match that might explain it, but then why bring him on at all if he wasn't ready?

Well, at the very least they'll have a competitive League 1 squad should they take the drop.

Yeah, for the record I called retaining Moore a mistake months ago when they first announced it. Not saying he'll definitely be a failure but early signs aren't good. Losing to Bolton at home was atrocious, first game or not, and tonight they looked lethargic and unorganised for most of the game. If Forest's attackers weren't so panicked in front of goal it would have been over by half time. Still time for Moore to turn it around obviously, but I think they're going to struggle.

Giving inexperienced managers a chance is fine in certain situations, but not when you're trying to get up to the PL at the first attempt. There are a lot of issues to deal with at a recently relegated club and it's pretty foolish to leave it all in the hands of a novice.

Forest made to pay for wasting chance after chance. For all the money they've spent they still look dodgy all over the pitch.

Well, not really. Since Anderson left in an official capacity we sold all of our best players, stripped the squad bare of any talent, hired Owen Coyle and got relegated. Granted the last year and a bit have been alright and JA brought nothing positive to the club, but Venky's majorly screwed us over as recently as summer 2016 so we shouldn't get too carried away. I wouldn't put it past them to bring Kean back if Mowbray got the boot in the future. "He thinks well", said Desai...

WBA looking abysmal. They'll regret not getting in a proper manager.

Anyone remember when we randomly tried signing George John from the MLS years ago? http://www.ekathimerini.com/135506/article/ekathimerini/sports/blackburn-makes-bid-for-george-john Probably best that one never went through...

Yeah, of course. D'oh. He was alright.

Do you mean Tim Payne? Was picked up from a club in New Zealand in 2012. As with every other signing from that horrendous era he amounted to nothing and is now back in New Zealand according to wiki. Think he had issues getting a work permit whilst he was here.

He'd do a better job than Evans or Smallwood in the centre. Surely it'll be a loan? Why would Bournemouth release him on a free?

He got away with it a few times last year. He's going to need to be more on his game this year and step up his concentration, particularly as he doesn't have the pace to make up for ineffective positioning or poor decisions. Lenihan will be able to cover in some situations but he's learning too, and will likely be looking to Mulgrew for guidance.

A touch of revisionism going on regarding Armstrong's impact last season. He had an incredible purple patch initially but faded away quite significantly towards the end. He has talent but whether he has enough for this level remains to be seen. I don't see the need to jump on others for expressing a cautious view. Considering Armstrong's previous form in this division it seems smart to take a balanced view of this signing. The potential is there for it to be a fantastic piece of business, but it could also be a largely ineffective transfer which keeps us at lower-end Championship/League 1 level. Either way we need more reinforcements before the deadline ends.

That missed effort from Palmer was the turning point. 3-1 up and Ipswich are done. We could get away with missing those types of chances last year, but not this year. We need players like Palmer to be more clinical when presented with easy chances or we'll end up losing more points than we gain. Hopefully that miss was just a blip and first game nerves.

Armstrong has it all to prove in this division, so let's see how things go. Chances are he won't be playing in his natural position so it remains to be seen how effectual he'll be. That said for the price it's a no brainer. It's also likely the most we've spent on a player in terms of transfer fee since we signed Jordan Rhodes in August 2012. Let's hope there's more to come.

The shot itself was a fluke but the goal came about due to a lack of closing down and our insistence on allowing Ipswich into our half for the last fifteen minutes. If we aren't fit enough to see out the 90 minutes then there's still work to do, although the heat may have played a factor.

I thought the format of the show itself was fine. Bare bones but all I want is highlights of the goals, a few manager interviews and a little analysis if anything interesting happens. In that sense it was pretty much spot on. Shame about the picture quality but maybe next time I'll watch it on my old CRT and it'll look better.

Downing was an MK Dons backup player brought in as emergency cover due to Lenihan's long term injury. Signing him on a permanent was a mistake, although he had enjoyed a decent few months prior to January. He's nowhere near Championship standard so I can only assume he was signed on the off chance we didn't get promoted. I'm more annoyed about Caddis being given a two year deal tbh.

Calling them water-carriers would have been too polite. Most of them were bloody useless.

Says more about WBA than Bolton imo. Still think we'll finish above them, but expect Preston and Wigan to end the season a few places higher than us. Wigan have a less cowardly attitude when it comes to maintaining a lead and Preston are unfortunately just a better overall unit. We like to pretend it's just good luck or other teams making silly mistakes against them, but the reality is they're just a decent, gritty Championship team. Not too dissimilar to us under GB in the first couple of seasons.

Whilst this would have been accurate for the past five seasons or so when Ipswich were managed by Mick McCarthy, there's a lot more uncertainty with Paul Hurst in the dugout. A McCarthy team beats us comfortably yesterday imo. No way Dack is in acres of space for the goal he scored if Mick is in charge. Ipswich are tipped by many to go down so all it's proven so far, imo, is that we're at least equal to a fellow relegation rival.

Yep, and we also regularly conceded two or more goals, so we're right back on track with that as well.

Without any decent additions I think we will be too. I'm talking better additions than Armstrong, for the record. At the very least we need a pacy, tricky winger, somebody better than Smallwood and a decent backup to Graham for when he tires at around the 60-70 minute mark. Would need to be significantly better than Samuel, who should be nowhere near our starting eleven.