Sums up how ridiculous it is though. QPR are supposedly under a transfer embargo as of January, so they've a narrow window to make signings to help them try and stay up, and can now go out and bring in decent signings like Wells and Hemed who will be on very good money.

I don't think ive gone as far as to suggest it is coming from the Rao's necessity to be 'liked'. I agree they couldn't care less about any of it. I'm not going as far as to suggest this is some elaborate ploy from them to win fans over. I also believe there is some money available (though not at the levels reported). But it doesn't do anyone any harm to tell people we've got a good budget thanks to the owners generosity even if it doesn't get us anywhere. We've heard all that talk since the day they arrived - supposedly billionaires who will pay whatever the club needs - 100 companies - never refuse to write a cheque - shame about FFP as without it they'd have spent more - then once FFP is lifted there's money there to spend yet we've not spent it etc. Its a running theme. But once again - none of it actually matters if we cannot get deals over the line Whether we've £1 million or £10 million is irrelevant if we cannot get the number and calibre of players in that are needed, that the manager expects or wants. I don't see Mowbray's words as a con job. I've taken his words at face value - which is the exact reason I am concerned as to why we're so far short of what he said. I've no doubt he's ambitious and trying to put an exciting team together. I've no doubt he's working very hard behind the scenes. There are other components to a transfer than what Mowbray wants - the owners, their advisor, Cheston, Waggott - all sorts of reasons that don't involve Mowbray leading us a merry dance. They might well have a big chunk of cash available to buy players but if we're unable or unwilling to pay the rate on wages or other fees then again, it won't get us what we need.

I'm not blurring any lines. It doesn't matter whether the manager has said he wants or likes or expects. Fact is he set the bar at 4 or 5 additions and so far we've had 0. That tells me that things haven't gone to plan. Mowbray didn't need to say 4 - 5 yet did say that which suggests at the very least that is what he wanted or expected to happen. Take your pick which, doesn't matter. What matters is we're short on where we wanted/needed to be. Yes I did expect us to keep our best players. The only 1 I worried about was Lenihan but then again he was injured most of last season so clubs will wait and see. Likewise they will wait and see on Dack to see how he copes in the Championship against the decent sides. The noise the club has made has been of a big budget, exciting signings and at least 4 more following the Armstrong capture. If they didn't expect to deliver that or weren't intending on achieving that then they shouldn't have said it. The options are that they said it to flog tickets or that they expected it to happen but for some reason it hasn't. As the deadline approaches selling clubs will be hesitant to let players go as they won't have time to replace them. Agents will go in high on demands knowing we've not much time to negotiate them down. That's why I'm concerned about talk of moving onto different targets after all this time. Clubs and agents can name a price and tell us to take it or leave it. We can do the same to them. But it could just as easily see prices go up then come down, depends whether we're more desperate than they are. In terms of your final paragraph - it is very easy to put an impression out there is money to spend, and to tell people that money is going to be spent or can be spent, only to turn around after and say 'we tried but couldn't'. The beneficiaries of this are Venkys, who win credibility in the eyes of supporters for 'trying' to invest and improve the club. You're probably reading me correctly. I'm suggesting that there's a massive difference between talking of spending money and actually doing it. I can talk about buying a Ferrari, go to a showroom, make an offer, then go home and tell all my friends that I'm interested in buying one and I've made an offer. But until that offer gets accepted and then I overcome the hurdle of finding £200k down the back of the sofa its nothing more than talk. Less talk, more walk. I'll credit the owners when the bodies are here and given their track record I'll believe multi-million bids when I see the outcome of those.

Not sure whether it is correct that I am constantly trying to find some sort of cock up or conspiracy or that our activity to date suggests that there is. I'm only going off what the manager has said compared to what has happened and now what appears to be a slow shift in his comments in the press. If Mowbray had come out in July and said he didn't think we needed to add to the squad and that he felt one or two additions would do then I'd accept that. On his head be it. But he hasn't said that, so it is only natural the people wonder what is going on when we're significantly short of where we said we would be. Not sure what 'not bowing to agents' means. The way I see it the closer we get to deadline day without necessary reinforcements the MORE likely it is we will bow to others demands and cough up a bit more, otherwise we're taking a huge risk. Just about every other club in this league has spent more or added more players than we have this summer - have they all been taken advantage of by agents? Yes we've been fleeced in the past but surely with this new competent structure in place such a thing couldn't ever happen again? Also in the past the club was being run by agent(s) which was the reason we were taken advantage of. We had a Director of Football. That lasted for 1 transfer window where we signed 1 player on loan so I don't think it actually matters. Another example of what I'm getting at is this talk about Xmas and 'hoping' we don't have to go through until then without these reinforcements. Just another example of delaying and pushing it back - a month or so ago the very suggestion of making do with what we have until January would have been met with uproar with the manager saying he expected 4-5 quality additions in the building, yet now as we enter the final few days of the loan window with no additions the thought of making do and waiting until January is gradually being put out there as a possibility and entering peoples minds as a possibility. It should never have reached that stage. No doubt when January does come round we'll get the same talk - its a bad time to do business, not many other clubs do business, agents are making too much money, clubs are asking for too much money, better off saving the money and waiting until the summer when the better deals are available - all might be true but that doesn't help put together a squad with sufficient depth and quality. The 'choosing not to spend' line comes from the club - last January and since then Waggott boasted of the resources made available by the owners and either Mowbray or Waggott said that they chose not to spend all the cash available. So I don't think it is unreasonable to expect something similar to occur this summer - tell everyone that we had cash to spend and tried to get deals done but just couldn't manage it. Already I've seen bucket loads of messages and tweets from people saying how Venkys now 'get it' and are spending heavily in backing the manager and yet at the moment the only basis for that is rumour and talk, not bodies in the building.

People can say what they like about McClaren but his record as a manager is far better than Coyles. Whilst he wouldn't have been top of my list his record in the Championship at Derby is pretty reasonable. He failed miserably with England and Newcastle. Also of importance was his 'head coach' suitability and willingness to work under a D of F. A lot of their odd decisions seem to have come under Les Ferdinand yet their fans won't really get on his back. For all their problems and poor decisions I expect QPR will ditch him quite quickly and appoint someone else, rather than allow him to remain in place until February as we did with Coyle.

Tend to agree. Too much of a risk for me in terms of his fitness but also his lack of experience in the Championship. I wouldn't mind if he was being brought in to work his way into contention over time and develop at the club but more urgently we need people who are able to go straight into the team if called upon. I'd also be quite alarmed if after all this summer and all the talk about budgets, new recruitment, waiting for our targets etc. that we ended up doing the Chapman one. Mowbray has suggested we're looking at a higher calibre more experienced group of people so if after all this time we bring back on loan a lad who was here last season who Mowbray didn't fancy to start back then it won't tally.

If you believe the stories that we're going around bidding £4 million for Freeman and £5 million+ for Brereton then it seems cash for transfer fees isn't the issue. Makes me question what the wage situation is like at the club as its clear we're in some difficulties in getting Championship experienced players into the building despite being supposedly armed with millions thanks to our kind owners. Just hope we don't reach a stage where Graham or Lenihan or Mulgrew or Dack enter a sustained absence and we say we could have added more people in the summer and had the money to do it but didnt.

How many other Championship managers have put their neck on the line like Mowbray has this summer? Time and time again he has said he wants 4 or 5 more players, we didn't get any of those in time for the permanent deadline, now we can get 4 maximum yet haven't added any more in the 10 days or so since then. We've even boasted at times of the budget provided by the owners, Waggott expecting a surge in ticket sales on the back of new signings, Mowbray saying Chapman wasn't the level we were looking for etc. Whilst there may well have been a strategy to begin with its clear things haven't gone to plan and may well change again in the coming week or so. What comes next is anyone's guess but if we're sat here with no additions or only one then the window hasn't gone well. Talk about the owners making money available but we couldn't spend it simply won't wash.

QPR getting beat again. Good time to play them before they make a change.

Have we signed anyone yet? Until then its all ifs, buts and maybes. Not interested in excuses about leaks, tough negotiations etc. Lots of work to do just to hit the manager's target of new signings. 4 needed. 10 days to go.

First 7 games of last season Leeds won 5 and drew 2 and the media were beside themselves with excitement that it was Leeds' year and they were going up. Then they fell away and ended up finishing in the bottom half. Not saying they will do again this season but it really is tiring listening to all the pro-Leeds hype on tv, you'd have thought after last year they would have learned their lessons and would keep quiet for the time being until the season was slightly more advanced. Leeds are the Liverpool of the Championship. Media love them and are desperate for them to be successful after such a barren spell. Liverpool they would love to win the League after 30 years(THIRTY YEARS) without winning it whilst Leeds the massive club that hasn't even appeared in the top division for 15 YEARS and they're desperate for that to end.

Tomorrow night

Seems a bit late in the day to be realising that a deal might not be possible and that we might need to look elsewhere. Also notice that the number 2 is now creeping in. First it was 4 or 5, then 4, then 3 soon, now it's hopefully 2-3 or 3-4 but only 1 any time soon with others later. Hope I'm wrong but I'm seeing a continuing backtracking from the optimism of early summer and bold talk about 5 more signings a couple of weeks ago to now preparing us for the possibility of only a couple.

Absolutely. As a Championship club we will always be at risk of losing our best players to clubs in a higher division. That's life and the only way to avoid that is to get promoted. I also think it is the only way the manager will ever be able to coax any serious money out of the owners if he can put forward a business plan behind it on the basis that the investment now will grow massively in value over several years. Again its perfectly sensible and reasonable to operate on those lines. The plan has fallen down and is now treated with cynicism by some because the last time we had an excellent crop of players they were sold too quickly, mainly to league rivals, with no reinvestment. By all means sell one of them to a Premier League club for mega money when the player wants to go and it suits everyone to do the deal, and then reinvest the proceeds into strengthening and repeating the process. But if the plan is to sell them all off en masse in the space of a couple of windows to anyone offering reasonable cash and then refuse any reinvestment beyond a few loans and frees then the whole cycle of decline starts again. Lets hope they've got the message and they understand it.

Not sure. I would think that interest and bids in for players would be known on the football grapevine regardless of whether it is leaked on twitter or messageboards. E.g. if Forest are prepared to sell Brereton and Rovers are bidding I would expect Brereton or Forest to leak it in football circles to see if other clubs would be interested and increase the money on offer. Essentially that's what agents are paid for. Can understand why Rovers would want it keeping quiet but it would be naïve to expect the selling club to not try and find out if they could start a bidding war to drive the price up, or indeed an agent to find out if he could get his client more money.

Reading will be a tough nut to crack. They'll be desperate to get their season up and running after 3 narrow defeats. By the sounds of things they haven't been particularly bad - lost in the last minute v Derby, went down 1-0 at Forest and then were apparently unfortunate to lose 1-0 to Notlob. Paul Clement sets his sides up to be hard to break down so the first goal in this one will be crucial. Nonetheless we need to build on the momentum and positive result at the weekend. Reading at home the sort we need to be winning for survival. A win here makes it a very decent start which we needed given our history of poor starts and decent fixture list.

I'm surprised that Mowbray is so frustrated about deals being 'leaked'. All summer long I can think of perhaps 4 names that have obviously been strong targets of ours - Brereton, Freeman, Bauer and Armstrong. Bauer has effectively been confirmed by Charlton and Armstrong was an obvious target that nobody was surprised by and yet wasn't public knowledge until the deal was done. Palmer, Davenport and Rothwell were kept well under wraps. The rest is complete guesswork. No evidence we've been interested in others like Maddison or Chapman. In this day and age that's pretty good going in terms of keeping targets quiet. Mowbray also referred to a small group of people who know our transfer targets so if the leaks are coming from our end then it should be quick to work out who it is doing the leaking. To be honest I'm bored now by all the talk. This summer has been a bizarre transfer window and as it stands we've had plenty of positives - like not losing anyone important and bringing Armstrong back - yet also I remain concerned about our failure after all this time to properly address obvious lack of numbers in key positions and the manager keeps on referring to wanting as many as 4 more additions yet we never seem to be close to doing it.

When we've signed him and the window is shut we'll know whether it's all we've got or not. Mowbray said 4 or 5 and then 3 targets so I doubt he's blowing the lot on one.

As I say it won't be 8 million in one go it will be spread over several years. Funny how the mere prospect of us spending a few quid and people are getting worried about Ffp whilst most of our rivals have been spending way more for a number of years and have got away with it. Even only yesterday Sheffield Wednesday were released from their sanctions in time to strengthen should they wish and they haven't sold anyone or suffered some major hardship as a result. All a con.

Lambert led us to a 15th placed finish after only taking over mid way through the season and didn't spend a penny on transfer fees. Let's see if Mowbray betters that this season with his own squad and a bit of money.

It won't be £8 million, just like Rhodes wasn't £8 million. It might be half of that up front with the same again in installments, bonuses, add ons etc. Much of that will probably hinge on us surviving in the Championship, getting to the Premier League or him scoring X amount of goals or playing for England. If any of those happen his value will increase with it and Rovers will benefit by more than £8 million be that through his value increasing or by increased revenues as a club through being at a higher level. In some ways it is a no brainer. At the age of 19 barring a horrendous injury his value is likely to at the very least stand still and probably increase further over the next 3-4 years by which time he will still only be 22-23 with a lot of Championship experience behind him. Don't know much about him but I certainly won't be grumbling if the owners finally see sense and invest a substantial amount for a new forward. Seems a bit odd that people are so concerned by the prospect of spending such a sum of money when the motive here from the owners is investing now in a talent that ought to be worth more in a few years who they can sell then if they fancy, just like with Dack, Lenihan, Cairney, Duffy etc. They've made plenty out of sales without reinvesting so I think it is well overdue that they spend on a new player or two.

Interesting how uncomfortable people seem to be about the prospect of spending money. Even when the person proposing to spend it is our much trusted and respected Tony Mowbray and the owners spending it have spent next to nothing for years. Don't think many Forest fans were complaining whilst spending 25 million this summer. We're completely at the behest of Venkys. If they want to spend it that's up to them and if they don't that's up to them. The clubs existence is currently on their whim so a bit of money on some decent players who are likely to grow in value won't change that. Oh, and we haven't committed to a penny yet.

Easy to say the money might be better spent elsewhere. Trouble is with Venkys if it isn't spent when available it may well not be available again. It's down to Mowbray and he'll be judged accordingly. IF the owners are putting that money out there then Mowbray deserves the chance to spend it. We know that they have previously tried to make a statement with an out of the blue big bid with Rhodes. I doubt that it's as simple as spending smaller amounts on a number of targets.

If English football was the same today as it was in the 90s or 00s then Dyche would have been long gone from Burnley as there would have been a host of bigger clubs interested in his services. Sadly things have changed so much in the last 10 years or so that appointing young British managers from Burnley etc. just isn't the done thing any more. Clubs like West Ham, Everton, Leicester, even Spurs, Villa etc. would have been the sort who would have taken a punt on Dyche yet these days its all about the Silvas, Pochettinos and Pellegrinis of the world coming in from Europe with their 'new ideas'. Had West Ham replaced Moyes with Dyche this summer there would have been uproar there. You can probably say the same for Howe at Bournemouth and he has a far more impressive reputation for playing attractive football and yet he's still at Bournemouth after 5-6 years of immense success.

Very good if both come off. I don't buy this stuff that we don't need them. Both will increase in value IMO and with Graham in the later stages of his career we need to forward plan. I'd expect one to be a permanent arrangement and the other to be a loan, I'd be very pleasantly surprised if we were going out on the best part of £10 million for the pair of them, not to mention this other 3rd signing.