JHRover

All I need to know about him is that Neil Warnock made him his first signing this summer. That tells me he is either decent or a decent manager can rely on him. Warnock is a far superior manager to Mowbray and I fully expect Hall to be a regular in a team pushing for the top 6.

We were looking over our shoulders in November. Our defence was porous last season and we have a manager incapable of setting a team up to be defensively solid. Replace Walton, Cunningham and Tosin with Fisher, Bell and Wharton. You've lost an average keeper and two good defenders with one crap defender and two unknown entities, that might be OK or might not. It doesn't take much in this league for a team to go from mid table to relegation trouble. Just ask Middlesbrough, Stoke and Reading. Lose Dack or Armstrong or both and we are also in serious trouble for goals.

The difference is that pretty much every other club has done some business of a positive nature. They have either appointed new management teams, signed at least one player or have issued new deals to senior players. Off the pitch most clubs have done basics like securing revenue streams by selling tickets and memberships or releasing new kits. None of them have allowed a situation to develop whereby they have no goalkeeper and are facing a race against time to find one of a good enough standard before the season starts. It makes an absolute mockery of Mowbray's proclamations of building a squad and developing something here. It just hasn't happened. It also makes a complete mockery of Waggott's regular pleading poverty woe be us spiel. It seems the entire club is in lockdown waiting for something to happen. We are going to be in serious trouble if we haven't sorted this within the next fortnight.

we gave Sam Hart two contracts even though he was never remotely good enough. I'm not saying Wharton isn't. Just that in 3 years Mowbray hasnt shown any desire to play him. I'm struggling to believe that has suddenly changed this summer just as we happen to have no other defenders.

If it were so simple then all the trouble about Spain and France quarantine measures could be circumvented simply by people having tests done on arrival. The rules are the rules, I don't see why exceptions should be made for football clubs just because they can afford private testing. The players would still have to travel to the training ground potentially spreading the virus. We won't be signing triallists from abroad so we need not worry about that particular issue.

That's far too much of a gamble, especially in a position like CB. Too much being left to chance. Lets try him because he's here, last man standing in that position because everyone else has gone and he's done well in the 4th division. I'm not qualified to determine if he is or isn't good enough, because I'm not watching him train and I've not watched him play at this level or for Northampton. But it is a big step up from being a play off chasing/promotion winning League Two side to playing in the Championship, especially if we have serious aspirations of promotion. Accy Stanley are an established Lge 1 club... Far too much experimenting and hoping for the best here. Stumbling around hoping to end up with a solution that is easy and cheap rather than making a football and results based ruthless decision. If Mowbray doesn't judge him good enough now then the lad needs to move on. If he does judge him good enough then fine, play him in the side and lets see. But I can't see how Mowbray is genuinely going to be of that view. I don't think he knows what he wants. We would all like Wharton to establish himself at CB because everyone loves a local academy product getting through but I have serious reservations about our approach to defensive recruitment and the potential consequences if we get it wrong. Mowbray can't organise a defence to begin with, even with experienced defenders in the side. Chucking in someone who has never played higher than League Two in the hope it works is gambling with our league status. We need promotion, risks should be kept to a minimum and yet the agenda here seems to be the opposite - maximise risk in the hope a player or two rocket in value and we can get away without any investment into GK/CB.

Someone being daft. Don't expect any incomings for the foreseeable and certainly not decent money being spent. Wouldn't surprise me if our first addition was a midfielder though.

Another Bury. I think the Football League will demand guarantees from them before allowing them to kick off the season. If they can't they'll boot them out and they'll either disappear or apply to join non league. Doubt it will happen to Wigan or Charlton though. Too high profile.

Whelan must be stuck between a rock and a hard place. No doubt tough watching them face oblivion and he has the means to bail them out. But he's also in his 80s, a businessman who took years to offload them in the first place. Is he really daft enough to plough his families inheritance into keeping a League One club afloat?

https://wiganathletic.com/news/2020/august/Update-Statement-from-the-Joint-Administrators/ I would be worried reading this if I was a Wigan fan. Effectively 4 interested parties, but only just over 2 weeks to sign up and buy otherwise they won't be able to start the season. Not much time. I'd still expect someone to step in at the last minute but doesn't need much to go wrong.

So this mon reckons that there is a meeting next week between Mowbray and the owners, yet a week before that meeting he knows what the outcome of the discussion will be. Impressive journalism. He can tell Mowbray the outcome and save him the time of meeting the owners.

This the Sheffield Wednesday who we are supposed to be using as an example of how not to operate these days yet are doing decent business as we speak. I find it amazing that we are not raiding Wigan for a couple of their assets. They are desperate for cash and to reduce wages.

What hope do we have

New season kicks off in 4 weeks and the club haven't the foggiest even on a date for release.

Good point. And assuming that we are not allowed or are unable to spend on defenders and will have missed any decent free transfers then the only way that scenario will be avoided is by decent loans or promoting youth. Mowbray won't trust youth so loans it is, however these only come available late on in the window after the season has started.

Is there anyone in the commercial team working at Rovers or are they all still furloughed? If so we can forget anything happening any time soon. Even if it is commercial suicide.

I rate him at least as Mowbray's equal if not better. Though I admit that Mowbray's personality and temperament are better suited to the madhouse here. It is for those personal qualities that Mowbray is here after 3 years and they love him whilst Lambert walked after a few months. In terms of CV Lambert's is stronger than Mowbray's. Managing 3 clubs in the PL across 5 seasons and never relegating a club over a full season, whereas Mowbray has had 1 season in the PL more than a decade ago which ended in failure. When Mowbray rocked up here he had left Coventry all but relegated from League One whilst Lambert was managing Wolves in the Championship. As I said Lambert has made some dodgy choices but can't really be held to blame for those relegations judging by the state of Stoke and Ipswich when he took over. Both were the equivalent of blaming Mowbray for our Championship relegation. The only major blemish on his CV that he was entirely responsible for was not getting Ipswich up last season. Both ultimately are steady eddie managers with flaws and merits. Lambert is disliked because of his persona and his resignation and bizarrely little blame is attributed to the idiots in India for that debacle. Anyhow, shows how exciting this transfer window is to be debating managers from 4 years ago.

What were people expecting from Lambert other than what he delivered? Nobody could seriously have expected promotion from the position we were in November, especially with a depleted squad that had just lost Gestede, King and Cairney and signed Delfouneso, Guthrie, Akpan and Koita. There was zero investment in summer 2015 and zero investment in January 2016. I always remember that shortly after Lambert arrived here Jokanovic got the Fulham job. His record with a better squad there was no better than Lambert's that season. But he got to grips with it and the following year they reached the play offs. Guardiola wouldn't have got us much better that season. It was all about doing enough to get safe and putting building blocks in place. I couldn't give a stuff about style of play. Intact the opposite. Give me a negative defensive minded manager and a pragmatist who prioritises organisation and fitness over a dreamer like Mowbray any day. I saw evidence of a fitter and better organised side under Lambert with some game like the Middlesbrough home win sticking in memory as impressive. The only difference was he had the clout on his CV to walk when mucked around by these delusional lunatic owners and had enough to land the Wolves job. It would have been the same with Warnock if they had appointed him under false pretences. whereas the rest of their appointments know they won't get better than here so put up with the rubbish. Lambert has made poor choices in taking over sinking ships that he hasn't turned around in Stoke and Ipswich but that can change. Remember where Mowbray was with Coventry before getting the job here.

At the end of the day Preston are a small club at this level with a restricted budget. Despite Hemmings being a 'billionaire' and subsidising their losses every year he will not splurge millions on players or allow huge losses to mount up. But Preston do have a transparent structure and everyone pulling in the same direction to try and get promoted, and their transfer business reflects that. Balanced, sensible, methodical. Each signing made to do a job in the team and to try to improve the team on an immediate basis. We far eclipse them in finances, facilities and pulling power, and supposedly have very rich owners always willing to write cheques out, and yet as you point out they are in the relatively comfortable position of having the essentials in place under contract. Even if they don't sign anyone this summer they will still be able to field a competitive established side. Compare to the farcical situation whereby despite losses of more than double what PNE have and a wage bill significantly higher we are sat here with pre season upon us with no GK and 1 CB and seemingly yet again going down the old favourite loan route to plug gaps for a few months. Just what the plan is here i don't know but with each passing window I become less of the opinion that the aim is promotion asap and more of the opinion that there are ulterior agendas taking place here. Just how hard it can be to sign a proper proven keeper and a CB i do not know. Already we've seen Marshall, Phillips, Hall, Chester doing the rounds - all would be good bets for a couple of decent seasons yet they'll all go elsewhere whilst we fiddle.

See i don't think he would. He certainly wouldn't be headhunted. If he was unemployed and keen to return and applied for jobs he might impress in interviews but I don't think many would put him top of their list or pay for his release. Can forget the likes of Swansea, Bournemouth, Watford, Norwich, Brentford, Barnsley and Huddersfield because they use fancy head coach systems. No chance Stoke, Derby or Forest would be interested. Middlesbrough he's already tried. He might at best get a struggling Sheff Wed or Birmingham to guide them through a sticky spell if struggling.

Maybe Rotherham, Coventry (if he hadn't already been there) or at best an Ipswich if they were to get up again. Other than that I can't see it. He's done an admirable job which most would respect but nothing sensational that will get clubs queuing up.

All true but if we are discounting or diluting seasons or achievements pre WW2 then we must do so across the board. We can also apply similar approaches to so-called Big clubs outside the top division at the moment. Such as Forest. We can say that they had a golden era during the late 70s and 80s but apart from that nothing since way back when. The point I suppose is whilst I agree we aren't entitled to a place in the top division, we should certainly not feel any less deserving or worthy than anyone else because from what I can see our pedigree both pre WW2 and post WW2 is as impressive as anyone else's around this division. Sheff Wed similar in having the majority of their success way back. I dont think it is any more or less relevant than say Wolves being good in the 50s or Leeds in the 60s. Even if it were true that we spent most of our time in the 2nd division that still puts us in a bracket above most at this level who have been regulars in the 3rd and 4th divisions. So even if we accept that we are a regular 2nd tier club that still puts us top end in this league.

Not correct. 73 seasons in the top division, 44 seasons in the second division and only 6 in the third division.

Not if they aren't good enough or ready for it. Then you start sacrificing results for the sake of individual progress and development. Heard that before?

Thought it wouldn't be long before this started. Williams hasn't kicked a ball this year with injury unknown and isn't particularly good at the best of times. The other 3 have virtually no Championship experience and Mowbray has shown little serious desire to use any of them. Suspect he might be forced to though.