Feel desperately sorry for the fans who travelled to watch us today. After literally 30 seconds they might as well have got up and left.

An overhaul is needed, no doubt about that in my mind. Don't care where we are in the table right now, I'm sick to death of these spineless players who collapse every time we go behind.

Gallagher runs around a lot, mostly aimlessly, but I wouldn't call him physical. He's never put his frame to good use, and at this point it seems unlikely he ever will.

Sorry, but this is just embarrassing. It's not that we're playing badly, but the way these lads fall apart in front of goal when we go behind is really unacceptable. If JDT can't change this issue in mentality he's going to have to move most of them on and start from scratch. It can't continue on like this. Some very strong words needed at HT. Lose this one and our entire forward line need to have their cards marked. Our inability to come from behind has been going on for too long now, across two separate managers. We've had plenty of chances in previous matches where we've been behind, and today, and the forwards just repeatedly fail to do the absolute basics. What else can you ascribe it to, beyond a poor mentality? Keep in mind that as good as Dack and Brereton have been for us at times, they've also consistently featured in a Rovers team that has proven itself incapable of coming back from going behind for, what, 4 years now? It's gone past the point where you can just call it bad luck. A big second half coming up. Lose this one and JDT should realise, if he hasn't already, that these players can't be relied upon when things get tough. The question for him and GB will then be how they move some of these lads on, and who they can get in budget-wise to replace them. Not an easy task, but lose today and it's clear to me that it needs to be done. Enough is enough. I really hope we do pull it out of the bag in the second half and show that a huge overhaul is not needed, but right now I'm very sceptical.

Do we lose games that we go behind in on purpose or something? Why do all of our players become absolutely useless at shooting when we're trailing? Is it a mentality thing? Our xG is one of the lowest in the division so when we don't go behind we must be fairly clinical. I don't understand how an entire team can have such a horrendously weak mentality that going a single goal behind destroys any confidence in front of goal.

£5m for Gallagher. Cheers Mowbray.

Hence "we aren't missing Bradley Johnson of current day". Unless you think he was terrible throughout his career, but he had a pretty solid run in this league with some decent teams, so I don't really buy that he was always incapable of passing the ball.

Whilst we aren't missing Bradley Johnson of current day, we do miss having a player of his ilk in the middle of the park who can keep a cool head, read the flow of the game and engage in the dark arts every so often when appropriate to break the opposition's tempo and wind them up a little. Tossing a ball at somebody's head isn't the same thing.

Boehly made a pretty big gamble on Potter, so it would look really bad for him to get rid now after handing Potter and his staff five year deals, presumably based on it being a long-term project. With that said results are king and for a club of Chelsea's stature it can't go on like this for too much longer, regardless of injuries and general bad luck. I think he'll get until the end of the season, assuming results pick up somewhat over the next month or two, but Chelsea seem almost certain to miss out on the CL places now. Assuming they finish between 5th and 7th he'll probably get the summer and early next season to prove himself, but if results are still not good enough you have to think he'll be gone, regardless of how much it'll cost.

The problem with relying heavily on youngsters is that they tend to lack consistency and are still learning when it comes to judgement. These are two things that typically you shouldn't have to worry about if you pick up a more experienced player. We've seen with our midfield this season that there's been a lot of rotation due to consistency and other issues. Having a steady, reliable hand in the centre of the park is as useful as having an Ayala or Hyam at the back. It's all about striking a balance. To be honest I would have understood more if he'd said something like a 30 or 31 year old on a three year deal, but 27 is the ideal age to be paying a decent amount for, as long as it's a solid player who you can rely on.

Absolutely, we just have to weigh up the risk factor. For me personally Cantwell is too risky for anything other than a very cheap fee and wages that fit well within our typical payscale.

I mean, logically it makes sense for the Khans to be interested if their only major competitor is for sale. In fact it would be crazy if they weren't. I can't see it happening though - I don't think Vince would entertain them for a start. It would be incredibly ironic, though, if the same people that ended the wrestling monopoly in the US ended up becoming the monopoly themselves.

I believe I read it was to the tune of £60m, so yeah, it's a lot.

I was reading it would cost Chelsea an absolute fortune to get rid of Potter, so I think they'll back him for a while yet.

Not sure you can compare Cantwell to the likes of Bellamy/RSC. Both of the latter were proven quality regardless of attitude/fitness issues, whilst Cantwell has drastically declined over the past two years. Signing players with a bit of an attitude problem can be a risk worth taking if they've proven to be very good on the pitch, but when they've been rubbish and injury prone for around 24 months it's a different scenario.

Preston are the joint second lowest scorers in the division (they'd be joint bottom if we hadn't let them score four against us), so not sure where the confidence comes that Delap will get into double figures considering he only has three senior goals to date.

Norwich may be looking at how Peterborough got us to up our bid for Szmodics and think they can squeeze a little more out of us if they play hardball. Evidently they aren't in a rush to sell him and may wait until the end of the window to see if Rangers make their interest concrete or if we are desperate enough to put more money on the table. Personally I'd leave it alone if they aren't willing to accept the £2m offer. Considering the potential attitude problems at play I'm not sure it's worth chasing any further.

Agree with the general point, but I'm sure I remember reading that ground maintanence and stadium investment in general are not factored into FFP calculations - so the only thing stopping Venky's from spending decent money on general upkeep is Venky's themselves.

CNBC now reporting the Saudi sale isn't happening and the rumours were never true to begin with. Makes you wonder what the purpose was of putting this out there in the first place - too much smoke for there not to be a fire somewhere, even if the actual rumour itself was a falsehood. Certainly drove the stock price up.

Most of the rumours are saying the deal is done. One assumes if it is the company will go private, ultimate control returns to Vince, and we are basically in the darkest timeline as far as WWE is concerned. Sami Zayn will almost certainly be unable to continue with the company, you'd have to think, which is a huge shame considering he's at his professional peak right now. Grim for WWE fans, but could be a big boost for AEW - unless the Saudis start throwing crazy money around to pay the wrestlers, in which case it could cause them some major headaches.

It might be easier to find two players who are specialists in their positions than one player who can do a bit of both, but if we had to focus on one position I'd say a striker who actually scores goals at this level is crucial. We have players in the squad capable of providing assists - A. Wharton, Dolan, Bucko, Hedges, Dack, etc - but outside of BBD no genuine goalscorers and therefore that has to be the focus. In fact I'd probably go as far as to say I'd rather we bring in two decent strikers than a striker and a wideman.

Well, yeah. When you think about what he cost and the outlay on his wages, bonuses etc over the past few years, even a £10m fee may actually technically be a loss for us.

Probably not. The only way it would make sense to sell is if we received a crazy bid (£15m+) and could invest at least 50% of that in the fee/wages of the replacement, who would have at this point needed to have been scouted and analysed to a point where we'd be confident of a quick sale and immediate impact. Chances of the above happening, however, are close to zero you'd think, so at this point we might as well keep BBD. For the future though we simply can't let situations like this keep happening if we want to have a sustainable long-term transfer model.

That's exactly what this model demands - it doesn't work if you sell a player for decent money and then spend a fortune replacing him as well. How is that sustainable? You have to take gambles in order to make it work. You can obviously reduce the risk by having a good scouting team in place who understand what to look for. Would I do it now, whilst we're 3rd and BBD only has six months left in his contract? No, that's obviously a failure of the supposed model because these decisions should be made well in advance, but BBD can be replaced in a sustainable way - it's just a case of whether our current structure is capable of doing so.

In regards to replacing BBD being a supposedly impossible task, players who have scored more or the same as him this season so far: Chuba Akpom - bought for £2.75m Viktor Gyökeres - Undisclosed but considering he was bought by Coventry it couldn't have been much at the time Óscar Estupiñán - free transfer Carlton Morris - bought for £2.8m Zian Flemming - bought for £1.7m Iliman Ndiaye - bought for £200k Ross Stewart - bought for £350k Jay Rodriguez - youth team graduate Josh Sargent - bought for £9m Will Keane - free transfer Jerry Yates - bought for £200k Oli McBurnie - bought for £17.5m Scott Hogan - bought for £2.8m Wages probably not eye-watering for most of those either (Rodriguez, Sargent and McBurnie aside). So no, I don't buy the idea that BBD is irreplaceable unless we spend a fortune. He actually has the lowest goal conversion of all of the players who have scored or or the same as him at just 17%. To replace him would of course require some decent scouting and recruitment, but that is exactly what Greg is being paid for. He would have known the BBD contract situation as soon as he arrived, so no excuse at this point not to be on top of it. Sourcing a replacement, presuming he will leave either this month or the summer, should have been #1 priority.