JHRover

So going after a loan player, getting the deal almost done, then discovering at the 11th hour that the lending club, as is their right, are making appearance demands to protect their player and investment, and those demands are too much for us to agree to so the deal falls through. 2 weeks wasted. Do you not think the vast majority of clubs loaning players out will want to ensure their player gets game time? Otherwise why bother loaning him out? Only have to look at how Harper, Palmer and Reed went on here to see why clubs might be reluctant to give Mowbray freedom to do as he wishes and might want to put apperance demands into the deal. First question that gets asked. How much is it going to cost and are there any clauses/stipulations attached. If we can't or won't do it then it goes no further and we move on. Must be amateur hour.

Now do you see the problem with loans? Being told by the parent club how often he should play or the deal ends up falling through. Not that I believe that is the issue. We ought to have discovered City's demands right back at the start. Not the sort of thing they are likely to suddenly spring upon us at the last minute. Personally I'm bored rigid with the whole thing now. I'm disappointed with pre season and disappointed with our business. I'm certainly not going to get upset that a 2 week pursuit of a loan looks like ending in failure. Such a shame as this summer with £5 million available and no pressure to sell anyone we could have made a lot of progress. Instead here we are no better off, arguably worse, than last season from a defensive point of view.

Both Bolton and Bury have until 5pm today to satisfy the League on outstanding 'issues' or their weekend games will be suspended. Getting to the stage now where expelling both from the League is something that should be looked at. As unpleasant as that might be for the clubs and their staff/fans this farce can't continue. Anywhere else and a failure to fulfil fixtures leads to expulsion. Going to make the League even more of a laughing stock if clubs are having games suspended until they've sorted themselves out. Is this fair on Wycombe or MK Don's? Both will be looking forward to the season starting and probably a good win to start off against clubs in disarray. Why should they have to wait for them to strengthen and face a tougher fixture down the line? Still, pats on the back all round because Villa and Leeds get lots of fans on and Carabao have signed a big sponsorship deal.

Reed will end up going the same way as Gallagher if he wants to get his career moving. He'll have to find himself a Championship club and accept a reduced wage. The sad thing is if he wanted he could probably spend the remainder of his career hanging around the fringes of Southampton's bench getting very well paid for it but never playing, such is the level of cash about and the attraction of having a few British home grown players on the books. I doubt we will see him back here given how we used him and the nature of his departure. Real shame because other than Dack I think he's been Mowbray's best signing. Not only that but he delivers the 'versatility' that Mowbray loves but actually can play to a good level in numerous positions rather than 'can do a job' there.

I don't understand why there has been such a difference between the Bolton and Bury situations from the Football League. They've said next to nothing about Bolton all summer long, whereas they've released several statements recently about Bury threatening to suspend their fixtures and even kick them out of the league if they don't provide answers by a set deadline. I still think Bolton will come out of this ok. The league seem to want to do their bit to look after them so will bend over backwards to accommodate them. They've already said they will rush through a takeover if needed, still no news on further points deductions (i'm guessing they're waiting for the takeover to go through and then wipe the slate clean). Even with hardly any players Bolton will still be able to quickly bring in free agents as soon as their takeover is done. They'll be able to attract decent enough League One players when you consider they'll be competing with the likes of Stanley and should be able to outspend them even in their current state.

Goalposts moving again. Virtually every outlet to have reported on that signing has referred to £5 million. Just like Brereton was reported as £7 million. Maybe not all paid up front. Even if it was only £2 million it was still not a priority area and the funds should have gone to the defence first.

I know we've not spent a penny on the defence, like we didn't in the last two windows, and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if we didn't do in the next 11 days. I know who I will be holding accountable if we don't and it won't be other clubs/managers or 'the market' and i couldn't care less if other clubs havent signed many people.

Classic blame deflection tactics in play. All gearing up for the inevitable 'we tried our best but couldn't get the deals over the line'. Try to convince people that Rovers and its owners/staff aren't responsible it's external people and other clubs. Spent £5 million on Gallagher, claim to still have the Raya money available yet can't get a CB to improve on what we have. Starting pre season games with 4 midfielders in defence.

Wish people would stop trying to convince themselves that the reason we haven't strengthened at the back is because we don't have the money or other clubs aren't prepared to sell. We do have the money having spent more than £10 million net over the last 2 years. For some reason, as yet unknown, our owners/manager have decided to not use those funds to improve the defence. Selling Dack to raise money with a view to spending some on a quality CB is ludicrous, because our manager or owners don't want to spend on a CB.

The problem is that the manager himself has set the bar for the summer window when he decided to tell everyone what he would be doing. He told us what would be happening and so far we're miles off doing that having signed no defenders. Can't really blame people for being confused, disappointed or even feeling let down that the manager boldly declared he would be doing something and then hasn't done, yet. The point about net spending doesn't really interest me and shouldn't be the measure of a successful window. We could have a positive spend of £15 million by signing another 2 Ben Brereton's to sit on the bench for the next 12 months, which would get us nowhere, or break even by selling Raya and then using the money to address the key areas of GK and defence and come out of the window much stronger. I know which I'd prefer. So other clubs may have spent less than us but they won't have invested into project signings - they will have invested what they can into their weakness areas.

I'm a bit worried that we spent so long and so much effort going after a CB who was supposedly nothing more than cover, failed to get him, haven't got anyone else in. This despite the manager saying we needed players to play ahead of those here last season. Completely baffling. There was a lot of stuff in the papers in January about Assombalonga and I recall either Mowbray or Waggott effectively confirming we were interested but couldn't go ahead due to his wages,

I don't understand your first sentence. Do you believe he is contractually guaranteed a place in their team every week? If City are moving the goalposts then perhaps the lesson to learn is not to rely on loans and to actually get your players signed up so you don't have to worry about parent clubs making such demands. Can hardly blame them really given the way things went with Palmer, Byrne, Samuelson etc. who were all welcomed in as great signings but contributed nothing. If Assombalonga was never going to happen due to wages then why was there so much media coverage about us being after him and I recall Mowbray saying we were keen? Kept the fans excited through January though so job done. Interesting that you criticised me not long ago for comparing our actions to other rival clubs yet you are now using a couple of other clubs as examples to try and show things are ok here. Both those clubs haven't been equipped with £15 million to spread around 3 attacking signings in the last two summers so the comparisons end there.

So just so I'm clear. We've spent 1 year pursuing Patrick Bauer. Failed to agree a fee to get him last summer or January so stuck it out only to watch him join PNE because we told him he would be sat on the bench as '3rd choice' CB behind the dreadful defence of last season. He didn't fancy coming here as '3rd choice' so joins that lot up the road instead. Having missed out on a long term target and seemingly having no other irons in the fire we then go after this lad from City on loan. Get him down to Brockhall, get everything up and running but then the deal falls through at the last minute because we can't or won't promise what City want in terms of games. If true, we're a complete shambles. Surely the x number of games routine would have dropped up as an issue early on in the proceedings not suddenly before he joins? Like wasting a month trying to get Assombalonga then deciding his wages were prohibitive. Rather than prices come down they are actually more likely to go up in the coming week. Sellers know we are increasingly desperate and will play on that. We think we are clever but will end up with egg all over our faces. Mowbray will try to cover for it by coming up with some weird and wacky way to incorporate the existing players into a competent defence. Exciting.

We had a baffling summer window last year which really, with the exceptions of loanee Harrison Reed, and Armstrong/Rothwell, didn't get us very far. We had a failure of a January window where we inexplicably allowed all our defensive cover out on loan and then watched as the regular defenders got injured. We also 'pursued' Assombalonga then appeared surprised that he is on big money at Middlesbrough which we are unable/unwilling to pay. We've now reverted back to baffling/failing again this window. Utterly baffling to tie up £5 million on a player the manager won't play in his best position and to dish out big wages to players in positions which didn't urgently need strengthening and being sat here 1 week from the big kick off and 1 day from our final friendly with no defensive improvements whatsoever, little indication of getting any and as such a weaker defence than last year which dragged us down all season. There will be the eternal optimists who cling to the idea that a young lad from City is going to sort it all out or one of those few young lads from the U23s are going to overnight become good standard Championship defenders but I'm not buying it. Even if Mowbray was bold enough to chuck them in at the deep end, which I don't think he is, they've not got any 1st team football behind them except brief loan spells at mediocre League One and Two sides (Hart and Grayson). Mowbray has a rapidly diminishing time window to address this otherwise he's going to be out of excuses and time when/if results deteriorate like they did last season. Last season he had the benefit of momentum from League One and the excuse of giving a chance to those who got us promoted. Not this time. Only he truly knows why he's performed one of the biggest u-turns in transfer strategy ever witnessed. To go from his passionate, bold, even controversial comments at the Fans event late last season and the tagline 'defenders are coming, make no mistake' - laying blame at the door of those already here - to this ridiculous situation we now find ourselves in is beyond belief. Either he's lost his marbles or someone upstairs has forced him to change track.

True. But the way these clowns operate it honestly wouldn't surprise me if they had stipulated that no signings would be approved if there wasnt an outgoing first. If they're leaving it to the club to fund then every penny will count and getting a few grand a week off the bill for 12 months may just do it.

Wharton going out to Northampton for the season could well free up the cash to bring in someone else. Expect an arrival very soon. But they'll tell you incomings don't depend on outgoings...

Everyone knows the defence wasnt good enough last season. The manager knows it and publicly admitted it at the end of last season. Something has changed along the line. Either the manager has lost the plot and has suddenly decided that everything is fine and has performed a complete u turn or his conversations in India have forced him to change track. Personally I think it is more the 2nd option. There isn't the flexibility or money to recruit the standard of defenders required so plan B is to wait patiently for favourable loans to materialise having missed out on the freebie he wanted. I can't believe for one minute that Mowbray would decide to invest as he has in the attack without spending on the defence. I don't believe he has any intention of playing the likes of Hart, Grayson, Wharton or Rankin Costello in the team. He'll want them all out on loan and is playing them in friendlies to attract attention. As I predicted a couple of weeks ago I believe there is a stipulation for departures off the payroll before arrivals will be sanctioned. The Walton one is only a loan and won't be costing much with Brighton making a large contribution. Unfortunately for Mowbray unless e makes the required signings or there is a radical change in performance/coaching with the existing ones he's going to be left with nowhere to hide and a fanbase running out of patience.

I've given up trying to work out what's going on. I'm still struggling to come to terms with a defence of Rankin-Costello, Nyambe, Grayson and Hart starting in our penultimate pre-season friendly before the season starts. I do not think Mowbray will have any intention of playing any of those in the League with the exception of Nyambe at RB so I'm wondering if half the point is to attract attention from elsewhere for loan destinations etc. for those lads. In terms of incomings despite Mowbray's mixed messages I'm not confident on much happening. Mowbray is trying to dangle another substantial signing by saying the Raya money hasn't been used up on Gallagher but we had all this sort of thing in January. Then the window shuts and the status quo remains.

No, not especially. 18 appearances in a side that survived by the skin of their teeth and who couldn't buy a win after January plummeting down the table. Lots of players 'impress' in awful League One or Two teams. Shall we sign them all?

I expect we will ask Bury to wear their away shirt so that we can wear the grey.

And I'm entitled to say ' I told you so' when he doesn't play for us because he isn't good enough or our defence continues to flounder as we've failed to strengthen.

And I'm entitled to mine that a couple of fitness exercises against crap sides isn't evidence of him being good enough for the Championship.

I'm one of those people who have watched him play live this pre season. I accept he's looked ok. I also realise that there are lots of players who perform well in meaningless pre season kick abouts against poor standard opposition. It doesn't mean very much. Impressing against Barrow and Mansfield doesn't mean he will be able to cope with defending against Fulham and West Brom. Suspect we will get more of it following tonight. He will probably impress against a Bury side effectively dragged in off the car park to make numbers up.

Whatever. Whenever I saw him play for us his was way off and that was in League One. Bit of a difference between being 'excellent' for a relegation threatened League One side and being good enough for an aspiring Championship one.

Never ceases to amaze me. Sam Hart is nowhere near good enough for what we need. Makes me laugh when after ok performances against non league Barrow and 4th division Mansfield that he's now considered to be a realistic option at full back in the Championship. Some never learn. We're so determined to avoid investing in proven quality in defence that he is now seen as a contender for the team. Frightening. I think if we had played some semi-decent opposition pre season he might have been exposed a bit more.