Dreams of 1995

That bottom paragraph is a classic. It’s the one sentence that drives me insane. No business owner should ever get credit for not refusing to sign a cheque, it’s their responsibility. They are putting a service on for us and it should be worthy of the entry fee. Currently it isn’t. So all of this not refusing to sign off cheques is shite - you can fix the ground, get decent pies in and put on a decent show without worrying about FFP.

With all due respect tho he’s hardly going to stand there and say “yeah I’m looking to move this summer mate”. Here’s to hoping he does stay though

We have some tough games coming up though. Brentford don't look like losing and then we play Stoke and Swansea in that same week. Things in this league can very easily turn. A win vs Brentford and suddenly belief starts to happen...already excited for that game, which usually results in a lifeless 2-0 loss.

4 in 5 now on the road. Unbelievable form. Dare I say we've looked good since Dack and Rothwell have been out? Absolutely bossing the games we win at the moment and today was no different. Haven't been on an away day in a few months but loved every minute of today. Even stretched to a couple after breaking the whole no drink until April rule but how can you not? Three points from play offs and players still to return. We go again.

What are you even talking about man? This topic is about signing Walton, not the manager. Besides, he's never 'admitted he's clueless' anyway so that's a blatant lie. Give it a rest.

All of the above is modern football in a nutshell. For such a global sport it is a very close circle, each infesting different parts. The truth is what happened to us was sin, we got on the wrong side of a deal that has been done many times before and many times since. When an agency gets so involved in a football club there will only be one winner in the end. In the case of Wolves both sides are winning, right now, but that could change at the drop of a hat if Mendes isn't placated. Unfortunately for us our agent(s) are bad. They don't have the talent pool and in our early days were interested in lining their pockets only. Now you get an idea the right kind of people are at the club but there's still that potential for the 'odd' signing that raises a few eyebrows. A horrible symptom of a sport gone bad.

Walton has made a few errors but we’ve also kept a lot of clean sheets with him this year. His distribution is good and has to have some credit for our better defensive record surely. I think at this level he’s a good enough keeper to get promoted. I don’t think Brighton will sell him though and if he does he will probably go to a club further up the league than us. There’s a lack of keepers out there now that every manager wants one who can use his feet too. Raya has conceded fewer and kept more clean sheets though, so whereas at the start of the season it looked like Walton was an upgrade it’s swung the other way. Raya looks assured and every bit the goalkeeper we thought he could be, although he has dropped a couple of clangers himself. Part and parcel of a young goalie though! My point being that whilst I don’t think Walton is necessarily better than Raya I don’t think there’s a lot in it and if Walton wants to come, the finances are right then I wouldn’t be averse to him signing. I would prefer a more experienced keeper though.

We aren’t in a predicament though and it’s getting very frustrating trying to get this across. The only crisis we are facing is an injury one and we are so far coping as well as we could have hoped.

Stuart, I can write an absolute guarantee now that I will never try and 'score points' at you being positive. In fact, the day in which you do I will even give you a 'like'. ? "Have some pride back" would assume one has no pride currently - losing 1 in 5, in my eyes, isn't lacking any pride. If anything yesterday made me more proud. Outstanding given our losses in midfield. Call me 'that guy' if you wish but I will always call people out for making out like we are anything but what we are. I haven't had a single moment this season where I've felt we had no pride.

It was only 4 weeks ago Walton was a pariah on here....now he's an unrivalled success and living proof our recruitment department is terrible because they didn't spot him! Our recruitment department also spotted Tosin, Holtby, Dack, Rothwell, Reed. We've had just as many successes in recruiting as we have had failure but that's a discussion for another time I'm afraid. I don't have it in me to go over that topic again, sorry.

??? What problem? I will hazard a guess that what you consider a problem 98% of people don't.

It says they got lucky. That's about all it says really.

A bit of pride back? We've lost 1 in 5 man....

In fairness to the twitter geezer he's more on about how this board is a mob of foaming at the mouth abusers and not our fan base as a whole.

This is literally halfway through his third full season. That isn't a long period of time. His first full season = promotion, his second full season = consolidation and now he aims for the top 6. I will judge after 46 games but anywhere above 10th and he keeps his job for me, especially given our injuries right now. You use words like naturally but there is nothing natural about the clamour on this board, like it or not. It's not a conspiracy either. Look back through the transfers sanctioned by Venkys since their arrival and there is no money spent on defenders in comparison to other areas of the pitch. There is a topic on this board about it, very well researched I may add, but it was brushed under the carpet though as posters preferred 150+ pages of debate on Brereton and how much of a slag Mowbray is. Anyway my point was that Mowbray should get criticism in equal amounts to praise. He has been the manager during the time our playing squad has improved. His money hasn't been wasted as we now sit comfortably in the Championship. If he was to leave now we would be in a far better state than when he found us and that is the measure of a manager.

Every single piece of praise Mowbray gets on here is met with a reason to as why it isn't such an achievement. However, when the lack of defensive reinforcements is shown to be an issue since Venkys came and not just TM that is ignored and used as a stick to beat the man with. We can't have it both ways. Regardless of the budget or not Mowbray has been the manager here through the good and the bad and deserves the credit for the good as much as the criticism for the bad.

I've posted something similar before but this is the squad Mowbray inherited vs Burton: Steele Nyambe Mulgrew Lenihan Williams Conway Guthrie Lowe Feeney Emnes Graham Subs: Stokes, Joao, Gallagher, Mahoney, Tomlinson, Brown, Raya Our squad vs Fulham: Walton Nyambe Lenihan Tosin Bell Travis Johnson Gallagher JRC Downing Armstrong Subs: Williams, Graham, Samuel, Davenport, Brereton, Bennett It's a completely different squad and there has been massive improvements. We are missing Evans, Dack, Holtby, Rothwell and Cunningham from what was our strongest squad after the transfer window in summer. So I expect more of the same - improvement in quality and depth. For whatever reason there is 0 appetite for the Rovers financiers to sanction defensive recruitment. This isn't a TM issue. It has happened since they came. Unlike when TM came in this summer we are only due to lose Tosin and Walton, rather than half the squad we lost in 2017. That would mean that a GK and CB is on the wishlist. Whether Venkys sanction these signings is another thing. Providing we keep hold of Dack it would leave us a winger short of a terrific starting front 4. The whispers in Jan would leave us with a safe assumption this will be addressed. It is absolutely remarkable how this topic was started with the "utter mismanagement of our first team squad". That is such an overstatement it is untrue. Take a look at the revolution we have had in players. Mowbray has brought the squad age down, ensured we own the majority of our key players and has some top quality experience thrown in (Graham, Downing). Our squad is considerably better than when he took over, so how we are now considering it "mismanaged" is beyond me. As things stand if Mowbray left us tomorrow he will have transformed the club from that squad to what we have now. That is fantastic management. Yes he had a terrible signing in Brereton considering the fee but at 20 years old he still has a chance to find some form and, hopefully in the future, move on for a fee. Other than that Mowbray has improved us year on year and this looks no different.

Gallagher's work rate has never ever been in question, even by his staunchest critics. He works hard whenever he plays. What are you even basing his agility from? ? You've literally thrown that in there to beef up the criticism. How are you even able to judge that? Gallagher is a good dribbler of the ball and his first touch is more often than not where it should be. He's had a tough season out wide but I tell you something I'd much rather a Gallagher than back to the days of Liam Feeney knocking about there. Gallagher showed during his first stint here he can score. That player is still there and like any striker we are hoping he can find the purple patch soon. When Armstrong first came here he had a great start followed by long spells without a goal- he's scoring free flowing now and looks every bit the striker we knew was there. Gallagher has more about him than Brereton and will get us goals. I know you love your stats but the eye is better than Opta and your opinion on his work rate, first touch and agility is just weird - he certainly doesn't deserve criticism in those aspects. He's lacking goals and no doubt he knows it more than most. I hope we bring in a few wingers in the summer and he gets his chance up top where, as proven under Coyle, if you throw the ball in the box enough Gallagher will get goals.

No we are not.That's the narrative you are pushing. By all accounts we went after two wingers in January but the finances on the deal weren't right. Gallagher isn't a poor player either and coupled with your "joke footballer" comment on another thread it'd be nice if you weren't so disrespectful to the lad. We can all have opinions but he tries his hardest every time he walks on the pitch for Rovers and that's more than can be said for Brereton and, indeed, Chapman. He's had several scaving reports during his time in the U23s and quite often whenever there's whispers of a bad attitude they aren't wrong. Never once heard a whisper about Gallagher's professionalism. We are desperately light on the wing because Downing has had to move centrally, Rothwell out now and Armstrong proving more effective up top. January showed that Mowbray is trying to address the problem so we can assume in the summer we can see some wide attackers brought in, providing the finances are right.

We got anymore yoots? JRC getting injured is actually mind blowing. What is happening up top? Freakishly bad luck for the boy, he would have had a run if only out of necessity. Let's hope its a tweak and he's back the weekend. What about the likes of Butterworth, Buckley, Mols, Vale? How many of them are ready for first team action because we are running on volunteers right now....

Yes Alejandro! I clicked on this topic first this morning and I won’t be clicking on another all weekend. All you need to read. Let’s hope we get a win today! Come on you blues

January is always a frustrating window. Prices are sky high and teams are scrambling to cover themselves. It's all well and good naming random player names that may well have fit in but ultimately they didn't come. Most would cost too much, some are unknowns and the truth about it all is you don't know if any of them names would have worked at this club. It's a real easy argument to have to say "x could have improved us - what a terrible window!!". Out of all of them players the only one that would have got me out of my seat excited is Wells because he has proven goals at this level, but there's no way Burnley are going to send us him. It wasn't a waste. We've kept our squad and can build on it again in the summer. Our squad now is the strongest it has been since Bowyer's time, which is in part thanks to the work Mowbray and co have done. You will do well to remember that in your haste to throw shade his way. To end discussion, because I have 0 interest in going into a back and fourth with you about Gallagher as a winger ala every topic on this board, I'd have personally spent the Gallagher money elsewhere (on out and out wingers) but I am not a football manager, I don't know the market and I can't grumble given our current position.

Definitely not considering the players and budget he has at his disposal. He may sneak into the automatic spots simply because Leeds crumble time after time.

We are now short in the attacking areas because we have Holtby, Dack and Rothwell injured. Prior to them being injured you'd have them 3, Gallagher, Brereton, Graham, Armstrong, Bennett, JRC (now), Chapman and Downing. That's 11 players vying for 4 positions. Hardly short of numbers. Definitely not "desperately short". Players have contributed goals and assists from there. We have scored 43 goals which is comfortably in the league average so we are definitely not short of goals. I'm struggling to see how we have not been effective going forward. Dating back to the 0-0 vs Cardiff in August we've only not scored in 2 games. I'd say that's relatively effective... We are short of quality in them areas but there was no way we were going to get an attacking midfielder of any higher quality than we already have in Jan. Quite simply our injuries have been horrendous in this department but Mowbray can't be blamed for that, however much you and the hornets nest stir and try your very best to do so.

They've not lost their last few games though so on some decent enough form. This is a tough game but our home form is very good. I'm calling a score draw.