Why don't they just put them on sale now and allow entry for Wycombe to the first 5000 who buy them before the 19th September. Seems fair to me. We probably won't sell that many by then anyways so don't need to worry. Just let anyone in. Only problem is that with the club shop closed those who don't have Internet access might struggle to renew. Doubt Rovers will be bothered about that though.

Maybe thats why Waggott is doing his annual price increase so we can all contribute to the Mulgrew sponsor/pay off fund. Personally I find it criminal that a player on Mulgrew's money is being paid off or sponsored out the door whilst the manager who gave him the deal we are lumbered with fails in his quest to sign defenders. I'd rather we just kept Mulgrew here and got our moneys worth than subsidised another move elsewhere whilst failing to get what we need.

Loan, young, inexperienced, cheap. Can see that one happening.

Who? Perhaps Wycombe, Rotherham, Luton, Barnsley. Not sure who else comes into the 'folder' category There's the 3 relegated clubs. Then sides like Forest, Derby, Brentford, Millwall, Swansea, Cardiff, Preston, Bristol City who finished above or alongside us last year. The other 8 clubs remaining we have Warnock's Middlesbrough (likely to be up there due to him alone), Huddersfield (unknown entity), Stoke (will spend and likely to improve with their squad and manager), Birmingham (new decent manager and made some good signings), Reading (unknown entity but some good players in their squad), QPR maybe or maybe not, Coventry may struggle but have upwards momentum and Sheffield Wednesday who will be hamstrung by their points deduction but aren't a bad side on paper. I don't see an abundance of clubs I'd put money on us finishing above. A handful maybe.

We are currently weaker and the season starts on Saturday. Facts What we might or might not do at some stage between now and October doesn't matter. We don't get points for that.

and this is something to be happy or positive about having spent £10 million+ and lost £30 million since 2018?

Kaminski we know nothing about yet. Nyambe doesn't play every week. Williams we are trying to offload Bell is a liability. Holtby won't play more than half the season. Brereton might look better but has a long way to go before being a good Championship player. We will see what unfolds. I think a lot of people are living in a rose tinted universe.

Who have we got now that we didn't have in 2018/19 that you think is so good that they make up for the multiple departures? Fine margins in this League. Doesnt take much other than departures or injuries to drop. Middlesbrough plummeted from play offs to relegation zone in one summer by getting rid of experience and turning to youth.

Because we have a weaker squad than last year. What happens when mid table sides get weaker?

Or 71 and the goal difference we got. Either way not enough.

Well we would have needed 71 due to GD but yeah

With that sort of attitude you will never get promoted. Likewise you don't aim or target the top 6. You aim for the top 2 because 3rd might not be enough. One of my biggest gripes with Mowbray is his meaningless 70 points target (which he missed). Not enough even for the top 6 so why bother? The likes of Warnock, Santo, Wilder, Bilic would never have done that

I don't see why Venkys would do 99% of what they have done at the club. I'm not saying it makes any sense, does anything they do make sense? We don't know who advises them or what potentially deluded views they might have on 'investments' into their team. They clearly fancy a goalscorer more than other positions - the evidence for that is massive outlays on Rhodes, Brereton and Gallagher which dwarf all other transfers and clearly represented special one off injections from India. Why if they fancy a spend of that magnitude on attackers can the opposite not apply to defenders?

And all get their directions and instructions from the loons in India!

And if that's correct we are allowing him to continue as our manager?

We've had Kean, Bowyer, Lambert, Coyle and Mowbray all preside over Venky transfer windows across a near 10 year period. How many cash permanent defensive signings? Amazing that all those managers from different backgrounds and abilities all decided they didn't want or need to spend on the defence. Quite a coincidence.

I'm not 'for' loans. I accept they are part of life and that they can do good to a side looking for some extra depth or quality. If it means you can add to options by bringing in real quality then fine. But our policy isn't that. Last summer we relied on loans to become cornerstones of our squad and relied on them being fit and playing every week. We knew last summer that Mulgrew needed replacing and Raya too after Mowbray sold him yet took the short term route by loaning replacements, apparently not concerned about the inevitability of losing both this summer. Kicking the can down the road stuff. I don't accept that we couldn't find our own players of sufficient quality that could now be 1 year into 3-4 year contracts and we could go to bed comfortable with the situation instead of extreme concern.

You do realise that the fact we signed Tosin and Walton on loan last summer rather than a couple of permanents is THE reason we are in this predicament now? If we had signed Mawson, Sessegnon and Martin in the space of a week I would hold my hands up and hand it to the club. That is dreamland stuff here though. No problem with loans if it takes the squad up a level whilst having a stable solid core of our own to fall back on. Relying on loans to assemble the squad and to avoid making permanent signings? Well that is nothing but a short term patch up approach and look where we are because of it.

If we seriously splashed out £1 million to land Tosin last summer then more fool us. I don't think I've said we haven't spent money since promotion. My gripe is and has been that it isn't invested into the right areas - the defensive situation is verging on a disgrace and the fact that this manager looks set to turn up at Bournemouth on Saturday starting yet another season having failed to address it is a massive problem. As of now we are well into another transfer window having failed to recruit the PERMANENT defensive acquisitions that we need. I've put it on here many a time that a suspicion of mine has long been that the owners will not authorise permanent deals for defenders except in very rare circumstances. FACT is that we've spent less than £500k on defensive signings of our own in more than 4 years now. It has never been an issue heaping wages onto the payroll as they did with Downing and Johnson. Quite the opposite it seems to be 'easy come, easy go' on the wages front with Mowbray and co. dishing out extensions galore to Gladwin, Hart, Smallwood for no purpose. Why am I against loan deals? Because relying on loans has got us into this state where we've no defenders and keepers because we've avoided addressing those positions with permanent signings, going into the summer in the unprecedented situation of having 1 established CB and no goalkeepers. If we had then we could relax a little more this summer. I think it is now inevitable that the only defensive additions we will get will be a loan or two from generous lending clubs which is a shambles. I agree with your point about Bristol City - done some impressive business this week - Mawson, Sessegnon, Martin - no transfer fees paid but top quality players in BEFORE the season starts, no messing or dilly dallying. Why can't we do similar? I don't really care if we paid £5 million for Tosin. The more we paid the more foolish it seems for an arrangement never likely to last more than 1 year. I thought we were meant to be building a squad to grow and develop not chucking big money at loans and short term contracts to patch up for 12 months? Anyhow, these discussions whilst enjoyable and we can go back and forth about whether I am right or you are right are ultimately achieving nothing. One fact that everyone recognises even if they want to try and hide it is that yet again the season is kicking off and we are short.

All done with loans and frees too

I wouldn't put it past them

I'm inclined to agree. The sad thing is such a conspiracy actually makes more sense than us offering Wigan nearly a million quid for a centre half, which simply doesn't happen at Venky Rovers. Deliberate leak to Sharpe told he can run with it on his back page. He wouldn't have done that without Rovers approval. And it has worked because for nothing most of the fanbase have spent weeks believing that we are after good players armed with a proper budget. Nothing to show for it though.

I suspect that is our defensive recruitment policy in a nutshell. Sit tight, wait and hope City do another heavily subsidised loan late on if nobody else has offered more. Harrison Reed part II.

Perhaps the plan is to allow all these players off on free transfers. Then nobody will expect any money to be spent because we don't receive any. At a normal club the owners would be extremely concerned at the above and be instructing staff at Ewood to get it sorted. Here though we stand to lose millions on these lads and the owners seemingly couldn't care less. and we are supposed to be reassured because the club has an extra year's option on Dack. Forget about that and give him a proper extension. Can't afford to do it? How about can't afford not to. Mowbray has extensions on his mind. Needs a bit more than being on his mind. Needs to be in black and white and rubber stamped. No evidence any talks are even taking place and looking at the inertia and lack of communication around the place and the disrespect they show to paying customers does anyone reckon they are on the ball in communications with players?

How do you reach that conclusion when a bigger squad with all the same players as now was mid table all last season? We havent improved other than potentially in goal which remains to be seen. We are undoubtedly weaker in defence which was a problem area last year and have lost depth further up the pitch e.g Graham and Downing. Vast experience and in game know how. Wycombe, QPR, Rotherham, Luton probably the only clubs that I would have any sort of bet on us finishing above.