Yeah but with respect there's no need to be throwing away money unnecessarily. Is Assombalonga worth 50k p/w? Is Austin worth £10m? Is Gallagher even that good? Is Brereton worth £7m.......oh. I hope he's had his fingers burnt regarding Brereton and is now much more considerate about the money that is there to spend.

In fairness though the departure of Downing equals the emergence of Rodwell and the departure of Palmer is irrelevant because he didn't exactly play much of a part. With any luck it will mean more chances for one of our own in Rothwell! Plus Nuttall stinks of goals anyway so balls to Britt

All joking aside you have to assume our scouting was a complete shambles pre-Mowbray. Under Bowyer we only ever seemed to sign available players - in such they were often cast offs, clearly offered to us by an agent/agency. It's been a long time since we pursued a player and landed them a la Harry Chapman (although you could argue Boro didn't really want him). I'd love to have had Assombalonga here (don't rate Gallagher or Austin much in truth) but if the finances aren't right then sod him. Let him sit on the Boro bench and let them pay his wages. We have our valuation of a player and that's the bottom line. Besides we spent £7m on Brereton and I can feel it in my waters he's about to start banging them in. He's currently Rovers' top scorer in training.

Funny init. Whilst the country is embroiled in a bitter battle to get out of Europe, we are investing a transfer windows budget trying to get in!

This is going to be the best damn scouting department ever seen in football. 18 months it's been in the making. Let's hope we can land a man in Europe soon.

Go on Tony lad

We will be mid table and it's exactly where we deserve to be. I still think this squad can make a play off push but I firmly expect us to land about 10th. We haven't got the ability to bury teams which is what turns a team from contenders to promotion.

Aron Gunnarsson would be a good signing.

Had Tugay on my shirt as a kid. Growing up in the Midlands had the usual jibes of "Too Gay". That was until he announced his presence in English football and everyone realised the man had a gift. My favourite player ever and always will be.

Downing should only be allowed to leave if we bring in another centre back. By letting him go we'd be left with 2 first team centre backs, both of which are converted midfielders. I was underwhelmed by signing him to say the least but his attitude won me over. Did a sterling job for parts of last season but then dropped off understandably when Lenihan got fit again. He doesn't seem to moan about being back up and always gives his all when he comes on. A good player for us and it'd be a shame to see him go but, providing we have a replacement in mind, it's the right decision. He deserves to be playing every week.

I'd take Marshall back as right winger. He's a useful enough player and can you really blame him for leaving with the state of the club back then? I don't begrudge the lad anything at all.

Leaving your phone on charge overnight is a fire hazard. Good call Mellor. Do you have a portable charging kit?

Lucky him

Naaaaa. That would give us 46 points. We got relegated with 51.

Either that or he's on about Palmer. Shut out of here and straight into Bristol City

82 pages. No signings. A record.

What a stupid comment. You don't know anything about anyone else's financial commitments.

Yeah I know. We are priced out of players like him but one can dream

There are quite a few very good Premier League players out of contract in the summer. Young lads like Piazon from Chelsea and Dominic Iorfa are reasonable targets. Iorfa in particular is a good player. Also the likes of Baines, Phil Jones, Andy Carroll etc but far above our station I'd imagine. Although, with the big hold it up type player Mowbray wants, a cheeky 6 month loan move for Carroll with a view to buy would be very very interesting, assuming he'd stay fit. Dreaming though. Wages would be enormous having played for such putrid clubs like Toon, Liverpool & West Ham. License to print money getting a contract at them 3.

Yeah. There must be something above our level of understanding of the tactical side of the game to as why Rodwell/Rothwell aren't playing more regularly. With BB you get the impression that he simply isn't ready to be shunted regularly in our first team - whether you agree with his transfer fee or not - whereas Rothwell and Rodwell have been more than good enough to command first team games when they have come on. Either there is reasoning to his methods or Mowbray is sticking to what he knows (overly cautious?). I don't for an instance think this current starting 11 will ever get us relegated but I don't think we will get any further either. It's all well and good "signing potential" but eventually they have to realise that potential; they won't do that sat on the bench watching Smallwood and Evans run around the pitch like men possessed.

I thought we had a good transfer window in terms of players bought. I don't think we have used them half as much as I'd have liked though. There has to be a point in the season where Rothwell and Rodwell get a run of games. Smallwood and Evans are hard working characters but, like it or not, are a huge part of the reason why we aren't putting games to bed. There's such a lack of game management in this team it's unbelievable and you can't help but think a person of Rodwell's experience would go a huge way in seeing games out as opposed to a tired, lethargic duo of Smallwood/Evans. As a conclusion though if we are to judge the summer window, up until January transfer window, it's hardly been 'exceptional' or even good. There's a chance that there could well be some good additions but, saving Reed who is on loan, no player has really stood up and made to be counted in a team you could argue is more than replaceable.

The problem with modern gambling is the ease to which one can keep the addiction private. With the advances in phone technology somebody could be gambling huge sums of money over the phone whilst sitting in the same room as you and you wouldn't even know. In years gone by you'd have to physically walk to the bookies and you'd know the person behind the counter, who would possibly know your wife, cousin, brother or mother and, I would assume, if you became a bit too regular then word would get out about it. Nowadays, the young lads are using their phones to secure pay day loans, using their phones to transfer the funds into an app and then spending it without ever having to leave their sofa. The problem of gambling goes above and beyond simply banning the advertisements or sponsorship but technology needs to advance in such a way that enables strict monitoring of such activity.

4 huge games coming up now and these are the games I'd be looking at my £7m striker to score and win us some points. If we went into this run of games with a Jordan Rhodes (really, despite the Grabbi references, the only true comparable signing we can make to BB) then I'd be far more confident than going into this run with Brereton. Rhodes justified his fee by putting the goal in the back of the net, regardless of any arguments about the remainder of his play. Brereton simply hasn't and, ultimately, that is what strikers are judged on. Potential aside we are now in a situation whereby the centre forward who we can be confident in scoring is DG. Can he do all 4 of these big games? There surely has to be a game coming up that Brereton starts - it is, in my view, a chance for him to define his Rovers career. If Brereton doesn't get a single start over the Christmas period then my assumption will be that there is something not quite right by all of this. There's no need to panic with his lack of game time thus far but we are due to spend the money on him very soon - show us why!

I was hoping to see at least a glimpse of Davenport by this point in the season. What exactly is his injury?

The simple answer to the question is that we are not good enough. Mowbray is right - we do deserve to be where we are. I think we'll linger around this position until the end of the season which isn't a bad thing. I only hope he has approx. £7m to spend on players that we actually need...wingers, full backs, centre back and an actual player in the middle of the park.