We can be as 'busy' we like. No rewards for trying in this game. All about doing. We've seen all this before and it usually ends in disappointment and excuses.

There we go then. Forget about deals being done or anything of importance happening

Whilst I agree it would be a nice positive start I'm afraid you are being extremely optimistic with this. When does Mowbray go on his holidays? Because I very much doubt deals will be done if he is off. By the sounds of things Waggott hasn't been seen for weeks so I doubt he's going to be doing the deals No, we all know how this one works. Its happened every year. We do diddly squat except perhaps a low cost squad filler looking for a new club. The weeks go by with key areas lacking. Pre season rolls around and Mowbray 'has a look' at some of the reserves. Then we go running around for loans to fill the gaps but this can only happen late on in the window. I wish it were different but its a well trodden path here.

Couple of problems. The money is unlikely to be of any immediate benefit to the club. It is likely to be a small amount, probably will get swallowed up on running costs and even if reinvested we have a manager with a poor record of spending. Secondly there's no evidence that we have even discussed a new deal with Nyambe. Given Mowbray can't even get simple answers from India he probably isn't in a position to offer him an extension. So if we lose him and have no money or approval to sign anyone then there's another hole in the squad to negotiate. Before you know it we've got Williams, Bell and Bennett as our defence, if Lenihan gets flogged to Sheff Utd. Relegation time.

I don't like speculation about selling our best players. I don't like clowns like Nixon doing it and I don't like how all the talk going into the summer is about who we can sell and how much we can get. We should be looking upwards as a club. We should be adding better players to replace those departed whilst fighting tooth and nail to keep our best players. Of course if a Premier League club decides to bid for one then it might become difficult to keep them. That's life. But I don't like this attitude of almost as though it is a foregone conclusion, necessary etc. It isn't. Nor have I seen anything other than made up rumours on here of anyone taking interest in our players. What happens here though is Rovers show themselves open for business, players become unsettled or feel unwanted or feel the club isn't ambitious and then other Championship clubs come along with cheeky bids. We need to strengthen, not weaken. The league is there for the taking.

Example?

on what basis are you suggesting these things? All I have ever seen was a 'link' in some tabloid about WBA being 'interested' in Dack. That was more than a year ago, before they got promoted. There's no evidence it even went anywhere. Are you just plucking clubs out of thin air like Bournemouth, West Ham and Palace? Or have you seen something somewhere that suggests they might be interested in our players? Why would we be selling anyone to AFC Bournemouth? Would they even have a transfer policy yet with Howe possibly leaving? Are we ambitious as a club because selling players to Bournemouth isn't. Its no wonder made up rumours spread like wildfire.

Unless of course in an effort to overcome the Venky syndrome Mowbray is doing things back to front. E.g. he still doesn't have any confirmed budget, nor has he even spoken to the owners. He knows this is a potentially disastrous situation to be in as far as summer recruitment is concerned. So he attempts to work within that situation by speaking to players first, doing his homework on them, in the hope or expectation that at some stage in the near future he is given some sort of budget and then he can give the green light to sigings. In a case like Whiteman he will already know that having chopped significant wages off the books that adding a young lad from League One is likely to be doable.

Sounds like Karanka to Birmingham might be happening. Pretty decent appointment for them. Don't really like the bloke but his record is decent. Another one we wouldn't even consider here because he's 'too expensive' or 'negative football yet I expect he will have them above us next season.

Don't worry, he won't join Burnley. His girlfriend doesn't want to live up north.

My sarcasm must not have been obvious enough

No it wasn't. I said it was a nonsense excuse to try and explain why he didn't come back. The point isn't moot. If we were an attractive prospect and put together an appropriate financial package he would have joined like he would Everton if they did the same. Fact is we didn't make a good enough offer. Nothing to do with where his bird wants to live.

With the size of the squad, seeming lack of budget and other issues to deal with including a short time frame to get business done the likes of Holtby and Rothwell need to stay. In an ideal world we'd look to upgrade but I don't see that as being possible this summer. Both have an awful lot to prove given the fanfare around them. Letting more go now with gaps we already have would be suicidal.

Fulham signed him on deadline day. On loan. We had oodles of time to sort a deal out before that.

Neither have done anything above League One level or at a club remotely near the size of Rovers. Impressive work at small clubs in the lower leagues with no pressure. I'd rather we got someone proven and capable of getting a club into the Premier League. Plenty of obvious candidates all of which will be employed somewhere in the coming weeks and months.

I think it is quite obvious that the club won't even have started talking to him about a new deal. New contracts seem to be off the agenda at the moment and Mowbray can't even get a budget. Expect some fictitious reports of Nyambe rejecting a new improved deal to emerge during August. All to prepare fans for his sale.

If I was getting paid tens of thousands of pounds a week to play football with a career of 15 years max then yeah. I'd move to Timbuktu if it was the right thing for me and my career. The life of a footballer is a nomadic one. You know that each year you might have to uproot and move across the country. If a 2-3 hour drive or train ride upsets his girlfriend so much then he'll be glad he isn't good enough for Real Madrid or Man City. He isn't going to have much of a career if he is only able to go to clubs within a certain distance of the South Coast under his girlfriend's orders. The Everton point remains. We all know if they or City offered him a chance to earn more and develop a career and progress in football he would snap their arm off and his girlfriend's domestic preferences wouldn't enter the conversation. Its only appeared as an excuse here because we either weren't able to entice him to stay for financial or football reasons or because we dropped another clanger but they won't admit it.

So Everton offer him a deal this summer after being impressed with his performances. He's going to reject going there because his girlfriend doesn't fancy living up here? Not a chance. A convenient excuse.

Who have they sold?

Good news though for Caley and Co. who will be able to work for a fraction of the hassle and aggro, and be home in time for tea. Anyone else explain why we need to pay circa 50 stewards to stand around inside the ground watching the game when there are no fans there? Surely one stationed on each gate outside would suffice and save thousands in unnecessary expenses.

Anyone who watched Reed play for us last season would have seen a real talent and an asset to try and keep. He's the sort to build a team around, guaranteed to increase in value over the next couple of years. For me he should have been priority number one last summer and the £5 million Gallagher fund should have been earmarked for him instead. However, Mowbray mucked the lad around. Expecting him to play out of position whilst Richie Smallwood played there was ridiculous and seemingly based on Mowbray wanting to reward Smallwood for his League One efforts more than anything else. Then towards the back end of the season Mowbray had Reed sat on his backside on the bench whilst he experimented some more. Clearly if Mowbray wanted him back that much he would have had him playing. It seems another cheap loan was the ambition but it backfired when Fulham snatched him at the last minute. Another case of us going round in circles on targets for weeks or months whilst others are decisive and act quickly. We saw similar with Bauer.

I thought Middlesbrough were making cutbacks and were in FFP trouble?

Good cover at CB or up front? Who?

Those of limited means have to make their limited resources go far to get out of this league. It is no coincidence that those with multiple promotions from this division all have reputations for football that is simple, but effective football, that won't win awards for attractiveness but works consistently. Bruce, Allardyce, Hughton, McCarthy, Warnock, Dyche. Those managers work with what they have and build from the back. Not sexy, but they get the job done more often than not. Mowbray is a dreamer. Always has been. Remember his WBA on their way to finishing bottom winning plaudits for 'nice' football and him being unwilling or unable to change it to give them a chance of survival. Plenty of nice ideas and intentions. But this isn't Barcelona and unless the owners make vast sums of money available we aren't going to be able to get the players together to play our way up. By the time we do our prized assets will be picked off and it starts again. Sort the defence out, get fitter, learn how to go direct and be a threat from set pieces and forget airy fairy possession statistics which are utterly meaningless.

IF we have cash to the tune of multi millions to spend on someone like Whiteman then fine. Highly rated, could be a good addition. But here we have the paradox of Rovers these days. What cash we do have should be directed towards the gaping holes in our squad. CB and GK. If the season started tomorrow we could cope without Whiteman. We couldn't cope without at least one new decent CB and at least one GK. Who would be surprised if we went early and spent a bob or two on this lad for a non priority position only to spend zero on the critical positions and end up scrambling around for frees and loans late on? It also wouldn't surprise me to see Stoke come in for Evans at some point. I expect he is high on O'Neill's list. I wouldn't be keen on that one because him and Travis seem to be the perfect partnership.