Dreams of 1995

I'd have spent the approx. 4k a week extra on wages for Lenihan to make sure he signs a new deal. That at least guarantees you a fee in the future also. I am not a manager though. Conway resigning is a bit of a meh for me. I'm not bothered by it because I don't think he'll start a lot of games, if any. However, I'd rather have got Dack and Lenihan sorted before him and then maybe sign Conway if we exhausted all over opportunities. There is better out there no doubt.

BDS to the rescue once more!! Tony must sleep well at night knowing any slight criticism is leapt on like a fly on shit by his trusty companion big dog

I'll bet they can spell inaccuracy too.

The Conway deal is a strange one. He had under 30 appearances last season with many of them coming from the bench. He's had a good career here and in his heyday brought some quality out wide. However, last year he showed his age and that loss of half a yard meant he wasn't getting in anywhere near as many crosses as he used to. You would expect that he is on between 5-10k a week and arguably there'd be better ways to spend that money. He is, or was at least, a good player though. As a coach his experience could be invaluable and we have to remember he has over 150 apps for us. There's no room for sentiment in football but influential players like Conway can help younger lads come through. More worrying is that we have no other wingers for him to pass on his wisdom to.

I hope Bennett is on the case. I think Armstrong and Chapman added greatly to the team spirit last season and that can only help this year. Chapman showed glimpses of brilliance so a further year loan to see how his hamstring is won't hurt us or Boro. Likewise Armstrong seems to have the touch of scoring goals for Mowbray so a chance for Newcastle to see him at this level under him is a no-brainer, despite his recent let down at Bolton. Two lads who have both lifted international youth trophies can't be bad. Get them wrapped up - Armstrong permanent, Chapman loan! I think the collectiveness shown by the team last season was one of my highlights. We had to rally together after a terrible start and did so. Then, in my mind, a weak squad may have collapsed after that 2-0 come back from Wigan but we pulled our socks up and took it to the post. All credit goes to Mowbray and the boys there. I'd do all I can to keep the core of that squad together.

Sensible deal for Graham and it has to be said that it's about damn time! Whoever is advising the three scrouges at the moment seems to have some sense. Thank fuck...... You'd have to expect the supposed appearance based extension will happen. It will take some striker to keep him out of the team for the majority of the season I'd say. It's because of Graham players like Armstrong & Dack excelled like they did. You can tell he has been a Premier League player that's for sure.

I agree. To clarify I was taking the piss out of a comment Gav made about Jason Lowe and how unappreciated he is

Every club needs one.....................

Emile Heskey was a deadly striker in his Leicester and Liverpool days. 62 caps might be overstretching him but he definitely deserved to be in some of the England squads he was in. Owen Hargreaves has to be one of the biggest disappointment for me. He had a brilliant tournament (2006?) but then failed to materalise into a regular. He always seemed to have some sort of injury and Fergie said in his autobiography he lacked the determination to be what he could have been. Owen Hargreaves might just have settled the midfield and allowed the golden generation to flourish - he settled that midfield and Lampard/Gerrard would have benefited from having him there. Paul Scholes was a disappointment for England but more because the managers at the time underappreciated his talent. It was a crying shame he retired so early. The insistence to use 4-4-2 at a time when we had abundance in creative talent stifled careers and there was no bigger casualty to this than Scholes.

I got it wrong. I thought he was a poor player, his "new team" form shall we say changed my mind and then his form dropped massively once he signed permanently. I got it wrong on both occasions. The signing, due to it being free, will be a good one but I can't see him shaking Lenihan or Mulgrew from their perches and the calls for a tougher centre back echo the sentiments that he isn't quite what we need. You really can't take any criticism of any Rovers player, can you? It's more than fair to say Downing's form dropped. I want to know how many games you saw after Christmas to claim he was solid in every game called upon? Downing's passing game became terrible and he lost composure on the ball. He lost his place because Lenihan is twice the player Downing is. Suitable back up but by no means the same player we saw in early 2017.

It's very easy to "throw mud" on here and is a tactic used by some far too often. I wouldn't say criticism of a player signing is necessarily 'writing him off', more a show of initial disappointment. I can't believe any fan would want a player to fail in a Rovers shirt. I was disappointed with the signing of Downing, then after 6 months of good form I said I'd look to sign him on a free. His form subsequently dipped and he's looked the player I feared he was at the start. That shows what I know and is why I am not paid to make decisions. That doesn't mean I can't at least voice an opinion though. Chaddy said Gladwin scored lots of goals at this level (league 1 at the time) and bigged the signing up. Turned out to be wrong and he was the predictable shocker most expected. That isn't brought up every single time he mentions a player - maybe lessons should be learnt.

QPR and Hull are tough rivals to have for the signing of McGeouch. McClaren and Adkins are respected managers and you'd expect hold some sway with agents and players, in particular McClaren. Hopefully Dylan will take into account their last few clubs' records and see Mowbray is the better option of the three - there's a real sense of positivity about us at the moment in comparison to QPR/Hull. Bristol City are a different beast altogether now. They could have gone up this year and Lee Johnson is an up and coming manager. His tangles with Man City and the turnaround of Bristol's fortunes may just turn the tide in his favour. In terms of McBurnie I think he'd be a very good signing. Be a bit of a coup really as I'm sure a lot of Championship clubs are courting him at the moment and he's part of a recently relegated Swansea squad. You'd imagine they'd use him rather than loan him to a divisional rival.

If we get a million for Williams sell him now. There's hundreds of better left backs than Mr Cut Inside. We would only need half of that to find a better replacement than him and put the other 500k to another position. Hardly. The boy simply isn't a good footballer and hasn't been part of a good defence since he came. Compare our defence last season to Wigans. We'll be cut apart if we defend like that in this league. The season before we were shocking defensively. He may have got POTY (how I don't know) but he was part of the worst defence Rovers has seen in decades. I fail to see what he offers that another left back can't. A million quid is a huge sum of money for him and if we turned it down we'd be foolish. On that basis, good riddance and cheers for the two years + a million. Presuming he goes that is.

Knowing Williams' positional awareness if he's meant to be in Bristol having talks he'll probably be spotted wandering aimlessly around Brighton any time soon. Good riddance.

Karacan was great at Reading but I haven't heard much of him since. I assume this is because he's been plagued by injuries. If he's fit and remains fit he would be a good player for us (I always love a Turk) but sadly I think injuries have had the best of this mans career. On another note, regarding Gallagher, there surely isn't room in the squad with Whittingham there. Out of the two I'd prefer Gally, he's shown he can still be competitive in this league whilst Whittingham had a very, very poor season last year. If Gallagher is an option, Whittingham must go. Ideally in this window we will bring in an out and out goalscorer. Nick Blackman spent the year on loan in Israel after a disappointing start at Derby. As an ex rovers lad and a pretty decent finisher I think he could be a good loan signing, if available. Sticking with Reading there's a central midfielder there called John Swift. An England U21 and a fantastic player although maybe out of our price range. Reading struggled last year and look poised to do the same but there's some talent to be had at that club, starting with Swift.

In Mercer's defence I'd much rather have £100 in a charities pocket than listen to him and Chaddy bang on about who is right and who is wrong. Mercer has all the right in the world to post here but is persistently hounded by Chaddy.

If there was a clear method in transfer policy then I think it would take the most unreasoned of posters (JAL) to complain. Signing young players with quality potential and, more important in todays game, potential resale value is a clever way to run a football club. Bowyer did it quite well, despite making a lot of misses in the process. Signing dross like Brown or Greer is what got peoples backs up. There was clearly no set in stone transfer policy in our relegation season - simply, "get what you can". We have had success in the Bundesliga before and certainly players from that league, both 1st and 2nd, are similar in quality than in the UK. Remarkably they are all cheaper too which is why more astute managers are starting to look there for their signings.

Girls like her are worrying news for any football fan. Can bet your last quid if some club comes in offering 5k+ more a week she will be in his ear telling him to take it rather than stay put and work for a club that adores him. Quicker she gets offered another reality role and has another fling-for-cash with some other talentless dope the quicker Dack can get himself a proper girl. Decent rack though.

The Belgium game is a concern but in truth both us and Belgium should have two good wins vs Tunisia and Panama and more or less guaranteed ourselves qualification. We should win the Panama game by 3 or more goals even if this is a World Cup game. Belgium's first 11 is fantastic but looking past that and you have some average players. Our issue is that we don't have a De Bruyne or Hazard - players that can single-handedly win games. Ideally we want to be winning our first two comfortably and then go into the Belgium game knowing that we are only playing for top spot.

Payne is good back up though and you'd much rather have him than, say, Gladwin. I'd be looking at signing Payne as he can play out wide, the 10 role and central midfield if we really need him. Every successful sides have back ups of the quality of Payne! Bare minimum requirement, in my mind: centre back, central midfield x2, 2x wingers and striker

Tyrone when we removed Samuel and put Armstrong there vs Bradford the game completely changed. Granted we were all over them throughout but we looked like we could score every time we got the ball for the brief spell he lead the line. I could see him, Graham and Dack being a powerful front 3. The only issue being is that all 3 players are narrow so unless you have top full backs bombing on all the time it becomes a bit too congested. Armstrong is good enough to play up front on his own but I think playing him with a Graham type player, who will hold the ball up and find his runs from deep, is where his real potency lies. I think Mowbray sees that too as it's exactly the way he's been playing even when out wide. He comes inside and makes that terrifying diagonal run across that every centre back hates. If we can maintain the quality passes from Dack and Graham then I'm sure, even from a wider position, he'll continue to score goals for Rovers. As for Newcastle - @#/? em. Their loss is our gain. Signing Armstrong next season is an absolute must in my opinion. Not only has he scored goals for fun since coming to us he's scored goals for fun every time he's played under Mogga.

I can't see that happening. We have arguably a much better midfielder in Smallwood. Plus Evans has got into some fairly decent form the last couple of games despite a relatively uninspiring season. There are a million central midfielders better than him and I'd imagine Mowbray has his eyes elsewhere than Lowe. We've seen more bite in midfield this season than in the past 3 combined!! We do need another central midfielder though but I suppose that is looking too far ahead.

Amazing how out of all of them Danny Guthrie couldn't get a contract in England. I'd say he's one of the better technical players on that list but unfortunately couldn't get fit. How Hopeless and Lowe got contracts in the Championship is beyond me and it's of no surprise both clubs they are at are fighting relegation.

20 million and you end up with overpriced, over paid players like Ross McCormack. You don't need that amount of investment but you do at least need millions to spend. 5-10 million should see us put together a good squad. That's if we go up, that is. If we don't I suspect this "investment", as some call it, will be recouped in other ways.

I think it's more the lifestyle now Mattyblue. The vast amounts of money involves turns the most average of international players (who still, by merit, are very good players) into thinking they are something special. When you look at the England team you see a bunch of lads all very good on social media, or on their Soccer AM appearances going through old tweets, but you don't see somebody who is going to roll his sleeves up, slap his badge and get stuck in when we need him too. The players in question will get their 100k+ a week, appearance bonus, sponsorship money, tv appearance money, international cap bonus whether they win or lose. They don't mingle with the general public like they used too because they are the elite now so why bother what the general public think. That's my belief anyway. Although you could argue that it's the same around the world and other countries perform regularly. Italian, Spanish, German, French players etc all seem to take great pride in putting on the shirt - you get the impression with England players it's just "part of the job".