Having won against Millwall, I think we should be looking at a seven point week with two games against teams with no manager in situ. I'd just make the one chance and bring Brittain in. Not straightforward to decide who for though.

Good post, but I agree especially about Dolan. I'm definitely guilty of forgetting how young he is - maybe not surprising when he's going to have just shy of 100 league appearances before he turns 21. As much as I liked him for his attitude and obviously the way PNE gave him to us for nothing, I've always thought it would be difficult for him to really kick on. Players of his stature need to compensate for that with serious ability and/or intelligence if they want to be consistently productive, and it wasn't clear to me that Dolan would be able to get to those levels to properly reach his potential. Still a long way to go, but the rate that he's scoring and creating this year is a big step in the right direction.

If we had Johnathan Woodgate then he'd walk in at present! Terry, Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Carragher, King, Woodgate, all peaking at the same time. Ridiculous strength in depth.

Have to make the best with what you have though. Maguire's had a torrid time or a while, but he's shown before that he looks a different player when defending a bit deeper in a three compared to playing in a two on the half-way line. His ceiling in that position is much higher than Coady if he is the next option (who also probably needs to play in a three too). Another issue is that any other likely partner to Stones has barely been given a sniff. I've not seen enough of Tomori to judge, maybe him and Stones are the best option, but they've barely played together. Same with the other domestic options, it still remains to be seen if Guéhi can make the step up to international level. Far from an ideal situation, but I think we have to take Maguire just because of the lack of other decent options.

I'd much prefer us to play four at the back against the lesser sides, but an issue that we have with pretty much all of our domestic-based centre backs (Stones aside) is that you don't really trust them in a two. Shouldn't be a massive issue in the group - touch wood - but once we play some of the better sides I'd be much happier if whomever we choose from Maguire/Dier/Walker weren't as exposed.

Brittain could be back for this one it seems. Would be harsh on Cater if he was dropped after a good performance vs Watford, and his size would come in handy against a team as direct as Luton.

He scored the equaliser away at Derby on the opening day of Bowyer's first full season. I seem to remember it was a pretty good finish. That one aberration aside though, one of our worst signings in the last 10 years, and that's saying something.

This is right - but then again neither should have Sunderland, Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday or many others that have spend multiple seasons down there. Now that he's finished we can say that he finishes some way behind Kenny, Souness and Sparky in his achievements, but much much higher than most of the dross we've had in the last ten years.

You did indeed. Garry Flitcroft had him on toast.

We've also had a serious lack of options there though. We now have enormous depth, which indicates to me that we'll probably be playing that system plenty more as we go forward.

Take your point, but he probably will be fit for about half our games. Not enough, obviously, but he's a big player to leave out when he's available.

So we actually have the two centre halves in. Surely now we must be playing three at the back on a pretty regular basis. Ayala, Hyam, Wharton, Phillips, Mola, Carter, all now first teamers.

Trav replacement rather than a partner. Good player at this level, but not the sort we need for me.

Can't pretend to be overly excited about Caulker, but then again I'm on the fence about needing a second centre back coming in (unless we want to play 3 at the back). If Caulker is cheap back up and comes in alongside a SVDB or Hyam, then it could be a shrewd move.

If the job is to stabilise a badly underperforming team, they could do plenty worse for me. Obviously not as a long term solution though.

Very bad. They've actually got some handy players when fit. Joao, Ejaria & Meite would all worry me plenty if they were playing. They still have some solid pros who are fit. Shane Long is there now, and they've got Tom Ince and Hoillett. On paper though, we should do them.

Completely agree. When I say fair investment, I mean from the perspective of what Phillips owes us rather than us rather than what we as a club should be looking for in normal circumstances.

Injured, fortunately. I'd share your worries had their injury list not been as terrible as it is. There's a chance they won't have a single senior outfield player on the bench - we should be beating them really.

I don't think he is a Rovers fan to be honest, although I could be wrong. Don't get me wrong, I would also be gutted if he were to go for peanuts, and I posted a couple of days ago that I think he should do (for his own sake) something similar to what Bellingham did at Birmingham. All I'm saying is that whilst he does owe us to an extent for the work we've put in behind the scenes, it's potentially a big gamble in the face of a (potentially) huge financial offer from a club that competes for Champions League places. If we were to sell him now then we would likely get a couple of million or him, which is obviously a snip compared to his value, but is a fair return on the investment that we've put in to develop him. I think he could leave with a fairly clean conscience in those circumstances - even if the system itself is rigged. Hopefully it'll all be academic anyway because he'll sign the new deal and we can start building the statue!

Seriously hope this turns out to be right. Huge feather in the cap to the new lad at Lancs Live too. Doesn't seem like we get the big news from the local outlets much these days.

Entitled to your opinion of course - but I think disgusting is OTT. The only thing that the lad can do in this situation to pay us back for what we have done for him is reject Spurs' offer and back himself to get another one further down the line. I don't care how talented you are, how much self belief you have, that is a big gamble when you've made a couple of professional appearances and you're an injury away from disaster.

I wouldn't be averse to having him around if Spurs don't want him straight away. But I wouldn't actively look to get him back on loan as a part of any negotiation. As good as I'm sure he will be - he's only playing now due to a pretty extraordinary set of circumstances.

As much as we're going through a crisis there now, we're obviously looking to bring at least one defender in, and in a fortnight will have Wharton and Carter back. That would put Phillips as at best fourth choice, and that's only if you put him ahead of Carter, which given that he is still our player, we definitely shouldn't do in my opinion. If he goes, get the best deal that we can and let him go for me.

Yes - technically he's not irreplaceable but the idea of getting in a player who will be as good straight away seems fanciful. He's developed into a brilliant player at this level.

I think family connections probably helped there.