Appreciate that a lot (to put it mildly) of players are out of the door. Plenty needed to given the size of your squad, but that's a slightly different point. But it seemed as though a few days ago Brownhill, Benson, Koloeosho, Foster, Trafford and maybe others seemed to be going out of the door alongside the others that have already gone. It seems as though some of these might be more likely to be staying now? I could be wrong of course.

Whilst I'm sure this isn't the week that Burnley will have been hoping for, is it fair to say that (as things stand) you look like keeping more of your first teamers than some of the stories from a few days ago would have suggested?

I think half of our team probably could play that sort of way now. Trav would relish it. Szmodics would've thrived too. A lot of it is about mindset as much as how you set up. Similarly to how that Mark Hughes team was such a nightmare to play against.

More than one way of skinning a cat, but there's a great logic to playing in a way that goes against how almost everyone else thinks the game should be played. They've out performed the quality of their squad for years, and good luck to them. Obviously you need the right players to do it, but I'd love to see a Rovers team do well in the exact same way.

We should remember this the next time we reach the "300 pages without a signing" stage of a transfer window. For some reason I've always had Bergkamp in my head when talking about a number ten. Basically a centre forward but one that can create and doesn't run in behind very much. I think people tend to think of it more as an ultra attacking midfielder who doesn't have any proper defensive responsibilities now though. Whereas an 8 is just a normal midfield player who gets forward

I think (not certain) that Baker plays deeper than Cantwell. Cantwell will be playing behind Gueye I suspect, whereas Baker I think will be competing with Trav and Trondstad.

Quick look on their MB suggests that they're not bothered about him going, but they don't think he's awful. By the sounds of it he knows where the goal is, takes a good free kick, seems technically pretty good but not especially energetic. Laurent on the other hand, who appears to be on his way to our six-fingered friends down the road, doesn't have anyone saying a good thing about him.

Harper. Absolute unit who couldn't play football.

Indeed. Although sometimes players just don't have it in them to add certain strings to their bow. For whatever reason, he definitely didn't get any more threatening, even in Mowbray's last season when he was ostensibly a wing back.

He's not terrible, he's just a victim of how the game has changed. He's not too dissimilar to Jordan Rhodes in that respect. Rhodes was unbelievable at putting the ball in the net, and a total liability in other aspects of the game. Fine if you play 442 with wingers and a hard working strike partner. Unacceptable if you play differently. Same with Nyambe. He plays in the 90s or earlier where his first, second and third priority is defending against your winger then there's no way that he'd be slumming it in Derby reserves. But he can't attack, so he is. It doesn't make him terrible though, or even bad. Just more one dimensional than he can get away with.

That's how I saw it. Decent dribblers but bad ball carriers: Hoilett, Dolan Decent ball carriers but bad dribblers: Rothwell, Nyambe

If he's a previously undiscovered average Championship standard player who doesn't throw one in every five or six games, then he'll play for us before long.

Definitely was a weakness of his, although my increasingly unreliable memory was that he was getting better at it as time went on. My thinking was that you could get away with having one of the three who wasn't dominant aerially if the other two were strong in that respect. And he's that quick that it allows the team to set higher line. Maybe you're right though. He's just too one dimensional to be a success at this level.

In the modern game, he'd be very handy playing on the right of a back three. Just not threatening enough with the ball. Brittain has already contributed more in three league games this season than Nyambe did in almost 200 appearances, which tells its own story.

I'm probably more on your side on this, but he was a long long way away from stealing a wage! He was probably paid a pittance to begin with and was a decent defender. He just got a nosebleed in the opposition's half.

JRC had an unbelievably poor 20/30 mins against Blackpool. But he's played there before and been pretty good. Really good in spells actually. I like him as a player but I'm not convinced playing him wide on the right in our system really suits him. Having him as an option in CM might be the best way we get a tune out of him, as bad as he was the other night.

Moran last year showed how hard this league can be for players with zero senior experience. Which isn't to say that I'm not in favour of him signing - pace is exactly what we need.

Probably isn't the right thread to be returning to this, but I couldn't disagree more with that! Look at what he's done since. Nyambe was a strong one-on-one defender, but beyond that? There's no way that I'd swap him for Brittain (who admittedly has his own problems). Agree that losing Dolan wouldn't be a game changer, but he's an asset and one that I'd rather not be letting go for nowt.

I can definitely see the appeal from his perspective! I just worry slightly about his mental toughness. We've been giving forwards who have fallen from a grace chances for as long as I can remember. The successes like Bellamy, Santa-Cruz, Danny Graham etc. are those that are hungry. I just hope that Cantwell is more in their mold and less like Dwight Yorke's!

Genuinely thought we'd signed Riquelme when I saw those training clips. A more innocent time!

I've always thought that his size will limit what he can achieve. Probably the reason why PNE let him go in the first place. But he has his good points. Covers a few different positions, and he scores and sets up more than he is given credit for. If he goes for a seven figure sum then I'd be happy to shake hands and thank him for his contribution. But losing him for nothing would be a bit of a kick in the teeth. Not quite Brereton levels of annoying, but moreso than Nyambe.

I hope not, ideally I'd like him to sign a new deal. But if he sees himself as a 10 and doesn't think he's getting paid enough, then bringing in a top earner who pushes him down the pecking order isn't likely to persuade him to stay. If it's a choice between selling him and him leaving on a free, then the choice is obvious sadly (assuming there's a buyer!).

If it doesn't go well then we'll do well to recoup a penny - we seem to be getting him on the cheap as it is and that's partially because he's seen as damaged goods. If he does alright then obviously it's a different story, but if he fails then it'll be a case of someone taking his contract on a free at best, I think. That said, I'm definitely coming round to his signing. I didn't realise that he was doing alright at Rangers before throwing his toys out of the pram. I still worry about his attitude, but it's a worthwhile gamble.

Totally agree. I think some of their remaining big hitters who are linked away will probably end up staying too and may well be responsible for them sustaining a promotion push. But it's a big ask to get your head screwed on for this fixture for a Saturday lunchtime when you were hoping to be driving to Manchester Airport on the Friday afternoon. I'm certain that the Burnley starting XI (and at least some of their bench) will on paper be stronger than ours, but they'll have had some serious disruption. Some won't be properly fit, others won't have even trained with the rest of the squad. Others won't want to be there. There's no excuse for it being anything like the last time we played them, especially at their place.

Always a balance with early cup games. We have a small squad and a huge game at the weekend, and some players who will be important for us who didn't get a full pre season. Making lots of changes makes sense but I still expect us to win. Taking these games seriously and making changes are not mutually exclusive, as we showed under JDT.