I suspect he's been on the radar for some time now. We wouldn't pay for him last summer whilst he was still on Huddersfields books so now he's free its more appealing to us. Plus he's probably been knocked down a peg or two after getting relegated with Bradford and will be happy to 'fight for his place' which seems to be the requirement of any new signing these days. If we'd have kept him last summer after promotion I'd have been happy, but 12 months on it feels quite lazy/desperate and backward looking to bring him in. I quite like the lad and think we could do worse but I'd have hoped for a bit more imagination than that really.

I'm not sure the age issue is a factor. Warnock is in his 70s yet manages to put together a side to succeed and players buy into it. I'm more of the view that sitting around a table with Ridsdale and Neil providing clarity, coherence and a proper offer and answers will have won the day over waiting for Mowbray to arrive back from India then having to wait for India to authorise any deal etc.

Its obvious that this is the way Mowbray wants to play. Yet here we are in his 3rd pre season not really any nearer to being able to do it. We're already at the long term point. He's been in the job long term by Championship averages and we should be well on the way to being the way he wants us to be.

Of course Tony may be covering up his or the club's failings by claiming that the issue was not offering Bauer guaranteed game time. That excuse is the most palatable to concerned supporters who will prefer to believe this line rather than the uncomfortable truth. The alternative is of course that Preston gazumped us by virtue of being better organised and prepared, could sell themselves more or could pay him more, or indeed just actually offered him a proper contract rather than messing around.

Seems to be at odds with Mowbray's plans for the window which he broadcast earlier on this summer. He claimed to be after new players good enough to start immediately and replace those who had struggled last season. Strange

Agreed. But I don't see why Rovers feel the need to say it, as though we should be grateful to be playing them. I'd expect magazines and media to describe them as giants but not a club of our stature. Then again after the West Ham 'Premier League giants' slap in the face nothing should surprise me.

Just call them Scottish team, club, side etc. No need for Scottish 'giants'. Whatever your views on them I always think that sort of language from official club media is embarrassing.

Most clubs aren't in the same position as us. Most clubs don't sign players for the future costing millions of pounds.

Just wait for the talk about it only being 4 months until January when we can sign players instead.

Going to be inconvenient when we reach a stage where most clubs have signed more than us after people have spent the last few weeks claiming nobody else is doing any business.

Suspect the club staff will be sat waiting for a transit van to turn up one morning outside the shop with boxes full of kit and start unloading. Until then they won't know, or indeed care, about when it is going on sale or what promotional material to produce. We need a kit deal that works for the club rather than sitting around waiting for Umbro to sort it out. Heatwave coming. Would be great weather to sell a load of new replica shirts......

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/patrick-bauer-reveals-reason-joined-16483078 Written by a certain Alex James. Wasnt he the resident dingle at the Lancashire Telegraph for a while?

At least with an embargo in place Uncle Harry won't be able to 'do his thing' with their transfers.

Gladwin came here from QPR and joined them at a time when they were throwing money around. Safe to say he wont have taken much of a cut when penning his 2 year deal with us. If, and it's a big if, he's only been on 5k a week, that's half a million over his contract. About 1700 adult season tickets. Perhaps that is enough reason to be baffled/concerned by the talk of handing him a 6 month extension to enable him to get fit. If he goes down to 2k a week and signs on until January that's still nearly 60k committed on someone unable to play. Amazing given all the talk about Ffp, balancing the books etc.

Sounds like we've dished out a contract of some description to Ben Gladwin who hasn't played for 18 months and wont be for the next 6 months and even then he isn't good enough for the Championship. Don't think Mowbray will have any qualms handing Rodwell another deal even if he's not fully fit if he can fill two slots in the squad and doesn't cost much. Easier than finding an alternative.

The fact we might be able to get a few quid for Evans but clearly won't for Smallwood should mean we keep him before Richie.

We haven't had any update recently on Ben Gladwin. No mention of how his contract discussions have progressed or if he's still going to be here next week. I'm accepting that the team kicking off v Charlton is going to be more or less the same as the one that finished last season. I think Downing will start on the bench, we'll have another CB trying to force his way in ahead of Lenihan and Mulgrew, and possibly another CF to make up the numbers (likely to be a loan) and then that will be that. Think Mowbray is going to do his usual routine of taking the younger lads away to Austria to see if any of those can step up, then wait and see who is available later on and if any deals can be done. If we spend close to the £10 million of last summer I'll be amazed. Doubt there's any serious interest in any of ours at this early stage.

Pretty sure if there's any prospect of selling out Rangers will provide more. Think the 1000 is just an initial batch and see how sales go. Can imagine a fair few will be up for it purely as a new ground with Rovers and a day/weekend away. Certainly more interesting than any of the other games.

1000 allocation at 15 quid per adult, on sale later this week apparently

Hull have appointed Grant McCann from Doncaster as their new manager.

Have to say I'm surprised/impressed by the news that we're advertising season tickets beyond the confines of BWDBC. Long may it continue. Hopefully there's more to come than just a few posters and we start actively promoting the club in neighbouring towns. We moan about Norwich etc. Having big catchment areas but there's hundreds of thousands in Lancashire. The key is getting them in young. Funny to see Preston lot get their knickers in a twist about it but they should be used to bigger clubs on their doorstep by now. Wasn't long since their buses were coming through Blackburn with adverts all over them for their season tickets.

The negativity comes from the constant mixed messages and moving of expectations that we get from the club. Mowbray kicks off the summer saying he's going after ready made players to strengthen our team and wants them in quickly. He wants defenders who will replace those who conceded far too many last season. He wants to tap into the European market. He wants players ready to impact now rather than in the future. Fast forward 6 weeks and we're hearing about loans, frees, players to polish and sell on. We've seen a long term target go to Preston and with pre season starting on Monday weve got a weaker squad than the one that finished last season. Of course plenty of time to address that but as with last summer we see bold ambitions and claims replaced with something far less impressive. As expected talk soon shifts to Davenport and Chapman being new signings even though he didn't play them last season and neither have any sort of track record at this level.

Sigh. Mowbray has said he 'hopes' for 'up to 5' which suggests as things stand 5 will be the maximum number and it could well be less than that. We are 3 players down. Reed who was a mainstay of the team and one of our best players will be tough to replace. Downing has gone so at the very least we will need a proper competent CB to replace him as back up for the other two, unless we foolishly go into the season hoping to avoid any injuries. Conway's time was up but he still needs replacing with someone who can cross a ball otherwise we will have lost our only player able to do so. If we don't replace those 3 with at least as good replacements then we are weaker, and that's before we talk about Smallwood, Mulgrew and the CF issues. How can we do all that with 'up to five' players?

So why are they going then? Like Stanley and others their owners see merit in trying to increase their profile and are trying to generate interest.

As expected the bar is being gradually lowered on expectations for the summer window. No longer talk of ready made better players with the focus now on frees, loans and padding out the squad. Worth remembering that we are already 3 down on last season with Conway, Reed and Downing out the door so this talk of 'up to five' new ones actually consists of only another couple of extra bodies on what we had last year. If one of those is Stuart Downing it isn't a good start. Completely as expected though. This is why I wasnt taken in by the bold talk early on.