'Defenders are coming' became 3 players on loan, one of which is a keeper inferior to the one we sold. It is now nearly 12 months since Mowbray promised defenders and come the summer we will have Lenihan, Nyambe and Williams as our senior contracted defensive players. We've made no progress there, other than Nyambe improving his game and Lenihan clearly being very important to us. We can debate whether Tosin and Cunningham represent improvement on last season, I accept they probably are, but the reality is not enough to get us where we want to be and unlikely to be back. The GK fiasco is a major concern. Mowbray now talks about signing 2 keepers in the summer. But why should I believe that after what happened last year? Time and time again he's made these sort of promises to the fans and then what actually happens falls some way short. I don't see a medium term plan. I see a club operating on 12 month cycles trying to manage as best they can with what is allocated by the owners. There remains a clear and obvious policy of not spending on the defence or goalkeeper positions, preferring to make do with loans for 6-12 months, whilst allocating all our resources on projects up front.

Not sure that tonight really takes us any further than we've been at the last couple of meets. Seems to be 'business as usual' with very much the same stuff coming out. Owners are committed, manager and CEO only want to be judged on what happens whilst they are here, money available but not being spent (heard that one before). I agree with Mattyblue that the slip from Waggott about the academy is potentially concerning if you interpret these things at face value. Clearly if there is a view to ending Category A status this is completely at odds with the recent proclamations about developing youth and FFP worries. As we've done to death on numerous occasions, academy expenditure is exempt from FFP calculations so if there is a reduction in funding to the academy that will be entirely of Venkys own volition. Strange thing to do if they are desperate to invest. Then again maybe just a poor choice of words from Waggott. Not sure re-use of pint glasses and concerns about contamination or the location of away fans during games are really issues that should be dealt with at these meetings. These are bi-annual precisely because they should cover much more than the usual gripes and matchday preferences.

Again, I think hoping those 3 were adequate replacements for Dack was foolish and naive. Buckley has looked out of his depth, Holtby not put a run together and the manager clearly doesn't fancy Rothwell. Doesn't really matter now though. Just looking forward to Mowbray and co. moaning about our injuries and the cycle will be complete.

Derby just signed Groningen captain from the summer. FFP clearly causing them massive problems....

When did Dack get injured? We had time and opportunity to address his absence and failed. Anyone who has paid any attention to Holtby's career would know he's an injury waiting to happen. One hell of a gamble. A serious club would have gone and signed a Dack replacement the minute his injury was diagnosed. Instead we've done the usual routine of shuffle around, make do and mend and now we will suffer the consequences of that.

An entirely predictable development. Whilst unfortunate only an idiot would have expected us to navigate the rest of the season without long term injury. Unfortunately for Holtby and the reason he is at Rovers is he has never been good with fitness and injuries. If our solution to the Dack injury was to sit back and hope Holtby picked up the slack whilst playing 20 odd games without injury then someone needs firing because it was never going to work. Like early last February we were punished by losing Lenihan, the same has happened now. You get what you deserve and we've asked for this.

Trouble is you'll get your usual 500 or so away day regulars and the other 500 or so London/South based Rovers fans. These people will go to all the London and SE away games anyway, whether it is £5 or £25. Then you might get an extra few hundred who are enticed by the bargain tickets who fancy it. Probably not much more than 1500 actually go because as good as the price is it is still a long trek, expensive travel and a full day job for what amounts to a fairly nondescript fixture. I'd love to see the results at Ewood if we made say Bristol City at home £5 anywhere in the ground for any age group, started selling and advertising now, especially if we were pushing the top 6. Sadly that's isnt ever going to happen. Charlton can do it but we can't.

I think all clubs are going to have to realise that prices for match tickets are going to have to radically reduce, never mind increase further. With the increase in internet and TV viewing and growing prices its only a matter of time before going to watch games becomes an expensive luxury and the younger generation don't bother with it. Anyone who goes to midweek games will see this unfolding. People like Waggott can come up with whatever numbers they like to try and justify £30 second division match tickets. It can't last.

We got trains from Manchester for £35 with a railcard but booked a few weeks ago.

There's no reason why this can't be done or alternatively a statue or bust putting somewhere to commemorate Parkes' contribution to the club. The Riverside isn't sponsored by anyone although they did do that odd thing and remove the RFS signs and replace them with Venkys earlier this season. Remember the spell when someone upstairs decided to rename the Blackburn and Darwen Ends after Clayton and Douglas. Fitting tributes which were done well with big signs and murals of them up. Be nice if similar could be done across the front of the Riverside. I always wanted us to use the top of the Riverside to mark each of our trophies but this is probably more appropriate.

Fulham's away record is mediocre. Won 5, drawn 5, lost 4. 20 points from 42. A bit better than our away record but not much. We are unbeaten at home in months. It's an opportunity to close the gap on those above us.

Are you referring to me or Venkys?

The answer to the question is yes - we can make the play offs. Beyond being achievable with the points remaining it is also a wide open division and in the end you could pick any 2-3 from about 10 who will secure 4th, 5th and 6th spot. In the position we are the manager, his staff and the players should be targeting the top 6. If they don't believe that is achievable or don't do everything they can to try and get there then they are probably in the wrong jobs. If you aren't going to target it from this position then you never will. Nobody aims for midtable in this league. As I've said before being 4, 5, 6 points off the top 6 isn't really an achievement at this stage. Obviously better than being 15 points off but the reality of the play-off system and the congested nature of this league is you will always have 10+ teams in early February threatening to get into those positions. Most won't last and will fall away. That isn't to say that people DEMAND promotion, or think they have a god given right to success. But if you don't aim for it you won't get it. That's why I get annoyed with Mowbray and his 'target' of 70 points or 'better' than last year - both are ultimately futile targets - it matters not whether we get 71 points or 51 because come August we will be kicking off on 0 points with 23 other clubs. What matters is getting promotion. If Mowbray doesn't feel that is achievable then he should move on because it is achievable and it is quite probable that sides like Forest, Preston or Swansea will be getting into the top 6 - i don't accept they have anything we don't as a club. Notice when Warnock went into Cardiff who were bottom of the league he didn't sit there talking about increasing point returns each year or a 3-4 year build. He didn't have time for that. He wanted promotion and did it in his first season. I could accept the gradual improvement idea if there was a reason to believe that foundations were being built and a class squad being assembled whereby each window we address deficiencies in a carefully thought out way - but that isn't what is happening. Our transfer policy is chaotic, limited and shoddy, and we face a summer of wailing about FFP whilst trying to once again rebuild GK, defence and attack because these areas have been neglected. That's before dealing with sales of key players which will come sooner or later. Once all that happens it is then we start the 'consolidation' stuff again and around it goes in circles. Can anyone genuinely say that we have kicked on and improved from last season or learned lessons? Cos I can't see much evidence of it. Will we get into the play-offs? Probably not, for a range of reasons stretching from injuries to the manager to a thin squad and a refusal/failure to strengthen just like last season.

Yes but most clubs have at least one senior keeper on their own books. We don't. All well and good moaning about other clubs, players and agents. The summer window lasts for months, we should always have lists anyway. In the end we are a big club in one of the biggest leagues in Europe. Not being able to sign our own keeper is ridiculous. Build from the back is the way it should go yet for starters this summer we are going to need 2x keepers a first choice CB and LB. We know that right now. So no excuses when it doesn't happen.

Even if the question is asked I doubt it will get a sensible answer. If you look back at previous Consultation Meetings they tend to time positive announcements so they are made at the meeting or just before. I think the one I went to was when they announced Bennett had signed a new contract and the last one Waggott announced his new 'senior management' team which was exactly the same as before. So I suspect this earth shattering big news of a scout arriving will be the news for this meeting as something to settle supporters down and stave off any unrest until after the summer. It doesn't take 6 months to do and it doesn't need a scout like this to sign a player from abroad. Expecting to come up with a Brentford style recruitment is pie in the sky stuff.

It's taken 6 months to appoint a scout and 2 years+ to sign anyone from Europe so I hope he's a good appointment. Hopefully by 2030 we will have signed someone from further than Teesside.

So we keep Mowbray forever irrespective of performance because they might promote a scout to be manager? Even by Venky standards that's pushing it. I thought they'd learned painful/expensive lessons and were no longer being badly advised?

Can't even use FFP as an excuse on that front. Just comes down to a complete and utter lack of care or attention from those at the top.

The whole point in the play-off system is that at least half the division will be in or close to the play-off positions until near the end. That's what they are designed to do. At the end only 4 can get in. We haven't been in yet, haven't strengthened whilst rivals have.

We can spend all night talking about FFP rules or whether these owners want to spend or not. The reality is that Mowbray has once again failed to deliver on the grandiose talk that he so often comes out with. For months, no years now we've listened as Mowbray has talked the talk about building over a few years, delivering this super duper new scouting system and tapping into European markets - he's been here 3 years now and there's about as much evidence of progress on that front as there was the day he arrived. There's only so long you can talk the talk without walking the walk and for me Mowbray is at that point. FFP rules haven't suddenly appeared overnight. After promotion Mowbray and his mate Waggott knew full well what we were going into and have had 4 windows yet really have struggled/failed to deliver in all of them. We all know January is a tough time and players are expensive. So what do we do about it? Never improve our squad mid-season ever again whilst rivals around us find ways of doing it? After promotion Mowbray claimed Venkys wanted to 'go for it' but he felt it was his job to talk them away from that and instead sell them a medium-long term vision of a 2-3 year build to promotion on a solid footing. Now we're at the tail end of that timescale - we've a thin squad deficient in numerous areas, reliant on 2-3 loans and facing major upheaval in the summer whilst moaning about FFP rules at every turn. I'm not saying it is easy, but it is disappointing to see little progress being made. The entire operation appears ill-equipped for the demands and pressures of a narrow transfer window. And what on earth we are doing with European scouting I don't know but what I do know is it doesn't take 2 years to sign players from outside the UK and it doesn't take 6 months to appoint a European scout. I suspect they are playing the fans for fools on this front as they don't seriously want or intend to exploit this market - as they haven't since 2010 - but it sounds good to the fans who hang on every word with optimism. Both on and off the pitch the momentum and positivity of promotion has been squandered and we seem to have owners and management happy to plod along without rocking any boats. If you are unwilling or unable to strengthen mid-season the reality is you'll probably never get promoted. West Brom have been busy, as have most others up there, adding to their ranks. Our attitude seems to be cart on, hope we get lucky but if not then 'oh well'. I'm afraid there's a lot more to it than that.

Might as well have bid for Messi, Ronaldo and Griezmann End result the same - no players and no improvement.

Of course not. Always an excuse why the money doesn't get spent though isnt there. Let's assume FFP is this year's excuse for no signings, what was the excuse this time last year?

Hands up who believes that we were seriously, genuinely in for Atsu or Assombalonga last year? I don't. Those lads are expensive, big name players. Look at the business we have done under Mowbray's management. Are there any deals remotely similar? I just think those 'deals' were drip fed to the press to keep the fans quiet or in the hope Boro/Newcastle agreed to send them here for nothing (never going to happen).

You mean the left back and the bloke the manager has hung out to dry in his press conference?

Every club has navigated FFP. Other than Birmingham yet it didn't really do them any harm when they were punished.