Easy to get down in the dumps when we have a frustrating transfer window like this one, and the bad bits of today showed that we're still well short of a centre back and that we need another keeper as back up. Even so, today also reminded us that we've got some good footballers at Ewood. Most of this team is ready to compete for a top 6 six spot. Buckley's cameo was quality, simply oozed class.

His first touch tends to be really poor (the worst facet of his game for me) but I think his finishing is really confidence driven. The goal against Wolves & his second vs PNE were both astonishing finishes, I just don't think it takes that much for him to lose his mojo. I think if he got on a roll at a lower level he would be unplayable, but obviously that doesn't mean that he was £5 million well spent now we're in the Championship!

No, you're right there. Graham still being somewhere near his best for the L1 season was huge. Equally though, whilst we've lost Graham, Armstrong is clearly a miles better player than he was in the L1 spell. Mulgrew didn't get worse in the Championship either, he was just doing a lot more defending against better teams. I'd agree that our transfer dealings have been patchy and often quite drawn out like this one, but I wouldn't say they've all been a failure. Sometimes we've been a bit too short term, like with Downing or the loans last year, or a bit unlucky like with Cunningham. Other times we've just overpaid or signed players which haven't improved us - so there are plenty of areas for criticism, but at the same time there have been some decent captures too.

I think we are to be honest. I know Gally for instance gets quite a bit of stick on here (or Mowbray for playing him wide) but if he was in the L1 team in the Antonsson role, he would've impossible to deal with at that level.

I don't hate completely hate it, but the frustrating thing is that if they just left it to be red with blue trim it would've looked great. Fortunately the home one is the best one in a while.

Fair enough on the injury, but bang average isn't at all fair. You could argue that he didn't play enough to show his weaknesses, but when he played he was good.

Being honest, whilst obviously I respect that it's always a lot of money to part with to get a season ticket & I'm not judging anyone for their individual choice, I have a lot of sympathy for the club when it comes to the current situation. Championship clubs leak money at the best of times, and that's without an unscheduled 6 months when we don't generate a penny in revenue. I know people will perfectly reasonably bring up the Smallwood/Sam Hart contracts, amongst other things, and that's fair enough. There are certainly things which could have been done differently, but the fact remains that our club (as with most at this level) are in a bloody difficult situation at present, so provided the price hike isn't a ridiculous one, I'm happy to cut them some slack under the circumstances.

Fair enough, but hardly fair to say that this is a Mowbray thing when Graham, Steele & Emnes were all signings from different managers!

I'd be quite surprised if that happens to be honest, if only for the reason that we'd need more bodies in that position. We're supposedly selling Williams & letting Mulgrew go, so even with two extra defenders brought in, we'd only have four recognised senior centre backs for three positions.

All the talk of Ayala when he was released was that he was nailed on to go to Leeds. Whilst that clearly hasn't come to fruition, implies that he still should be at the top of his game. Think I saw somewhere that Swansea were in for him but struggled to meet his wage demands. Would be interesting if it was something that we could afford but they couldn't

Jimmy Phillips' lad. Promoted at Stuttgart last season. Other that that, no idea on what to think about this.

No information whatsoever, but from the few titbits I'm nailing my colours to the Christian Atsu mast

Completely off the point, but loving that the Charlton fans have given him a song to the tune of 'Baby Shark'. We've really missed a trick not doing the same for Bradley Dack over the last few years

According to the Oracle, the young Celtic striker has signed for us earlier today.

Don't know him from Adam to be honest, but 2.5 million seems like a lot in the current climate for a defender who has never played above L1 level. Must be highly rated if he's going for that amount.

Above him in the pecking order.

Interestingly, Neil cops for plenty on their message board. I would've thought that he would be praised for walking on water given the job that he's done there.

Completely agree, and to be fair he admits himself that he was garbage. I'm just saying that even when players are not targeted by fans at the ground (although I guess Brown got a bit of stick at Ewood too) it's amazingly difficult for them to escape stick from other quarters. Also, if anyone is stuck for Christmas present ideas in a few months time, you could do worse than to get one of these.

Interesting point this, I was thinking about something similar after Amari'i Bells tweet yesterday. I one hundred percent agree that Rovers fans have not been a difficult bunch to play in front of since L1, and Brereton has for the most part had nothing but encouragement from the terraces. But like you allude to, unlike players of even 10 years ago, unless you're that rare footballer with no social media presence, there's simply no getting away from the torrent of comments about you if you have a bad game. You're right that the abusive direct messages are from a minority of idiots, but a minority of 15,000 fans at Ewood and tens of thousands more away from the ground is a lot of people telling you that you're no good, and if you're one of the ones who gets picked in then it can be particularly grim. I remember David Goodwillie, admittedly not a man who deserves too much sympathy, once giving away a last minute penalty in an evening game against (I think) Brighton, and the amount of abuse he got on twitter after full-time directed at him really took me aback. And that's just the abuse, the amount of posts which might not be as direct but still give stick to players is far greater, and Brereton will have been getting plenty of that for almost two years. Take Chris Brown. He was explaining on his podcast that he was palpably aware of how much Rovers fans thought he was a waste of space. He mentioned the 'Has Chris Brown Scored Yet?' twitter account, which was just a bit of fun and hardly in the abuse category, but clearly he saw it and it got to him. I agree that part of being a high-profile sportsman is about being mentally strong enough to deal with pressure and fans questioning you, and with any luck Brereton will be the sort that will come through it and still be a good player for us. But there's no getting away that Rovers fans being patient with Ben at games will only have been part of the story, and having to deal with the thousands upon thousands of less patient comments from being a 19 year old boy will have taken huge mental strength.

Perhaps, perhaps not. I think as number 10s go he already gets through quite a lot of work, and if he's the most attacking player in a midfield three then at least he wouldn't have the same defensive demands, but let's see. I think there's a chance of him playing deeper and him still having a real impact with his goals anyway, but time will tell if that's the road we go down.

Nothing to get too excited about just yet I don't think, one of their young players being signed for the U23s.

I share the worries about how not playing him as a 10 might mean that we don't see Dack at his best, but if we're playing a standard 4-3-3 then in theory it could work out like you say. Like a Championship Frank Lampard.

Was just saying exactly the same to my dad. No idea what sort of career the boy will have, and one thing which is definitely coming across (other than that the lad can play) is that he's bursting at the seams seems with enthusiasm. Great, but he won't be making his debut every week so you would imagine that we'll be seeing a fairer representation of his ability after abut 10-15 games rather than now. Even so, if I was a PNE fan, I'd be frothing at the mouth about letting him leave to another Lancashire club after seeing his performances so far.

I know that's an away, but I've always been impressed how Bolton manage to take such an inoffensive concept like a plain white shirt and every year find a way to make it look disgusting.

Am I missing something about Nyambe? The way that we're talking it's like he's been kept out the side like Harry Chapman. He played more than 30 league games last year, a similar number the year previous and this is a player who has missed a lot of football through injury, not just not being picked. I don't know why his contract situation is what it is, but if he doesn't sign I doubt it's because he doesn't think he plays enough.