Me too in fairness, although reading between the lines it looks as though there's more competition for Marshall than there is for Westwood.

Seems to have been frozen out at Hillsborough originally for non-footballing reasons. If he's at the same level now as he was a couple of years ago, could be a very shrewd signing.

Completely fair enough, and Gally & Brereton have been gambles we haven't been able to afford on their showings so far. My point is that turning the 2.5 million or whatever it was on Dack & Arma into worth about 10 times that is Hughes-esque & exactly what we need for a club in our position, and not making profits (yet - important point when some are well placed to improve) on some of the other players we've paid 50k, 100k, 200k for is acceptable in that context.

I wouldn't want to argue that Mowbray's record is any better than mixed, but not sure that's the best way of measuring success and failure. Spending a few hundred grand on the L1 players did it's job as we got promoted first time. Others could easily fetch a decent profit a year or two down the line. How much would we have got for Armstrong last year? Small profit maybe, but much less than what we should expect now. Nothing to say that Davenport or Rothwell (accept that he's not as young as Armstrong) could put millions on their value after a strong 6 months. Put another way, I don't think the players brought in from Big Sam or Souness would have delivered profits given how much they spent and the age of some of their better signings. TM's successes easily pay for our cash buys which are almost all very small beer apart from the two big exceptions in Brereton & Gally. Obviously they're a different kettle of fish.

Thanks for this Kamy, I don't suppose you've any idea about the Cat. 1 academy fits into this do you?

Not great memories for me! I'm from the Wigan/Standish area so I'd gotten used to seeing Rovers impose our effortless superiority in my most local away game (the Ince 3-0 being an anomaly at that stage!). Coming from 3-0 down to 3-3 was amazing, only for a disgraceful bit of play acting from Ryan Taylor to get Emerton sent off, and at least one offside goal from Marcus Bent take away from one of the great comebacks. I don't even like seeing the Roque Santa hat thing because it reminds me of the rest of the game!

Never mind late thirties, he looks about 90 in some of those snaps! No wonder Noble thought he could run him ragged.

Broadly agree with that, but equally if you're stockpiling 6 or 7 central defenders, you start to ask why this is the lad they've chosen to get rid of. The examples you mention are all fair and there are countless others; O'Connell and Judge not getting a fair chance here, Rudy & Conway arriving for peanuts etc. I'd definitely still take him but being frozen out of Stoke's team does worry me.

I'm slightly wary about getting Lindsay, seeing as Stoke clearly don't rate him. Even so I don't think anyone at Stoke could possibly think that they can say that he's surplus to requirements after one season and at the same time expect to get the same money that they paid.

To be honest I think this is where we get the most out of Evans. His worst spells in a Rovers shirt have been when we've played 4-4-2 and he was expected to get forward a little more. Never really had the legs to do both and games just passed him by. Travis is a different kettle of fish. Has the legs to contribute further up the pitch and still do his defensive work.

Don't know enough about Souttar to have a reasoned opinion about whether or not we should go for him, but at 6"6 he has at least on advantage over the other young lads we have in that position.

Tried and tested managers not the order of the day, it seems. Sure some of these left field choices will pay off, but it makes for a very unpredictable season.

Spoke about Van der Hoorn a few pages back - would be quality but I'm not convinced that he fancies the championship. Dunkley's a decent shout on a free, albeit a downgrade on Tosin.

Probably worth it's own thread, this. Horrible goals that were wildly celebrated. Di Santo an early front-runner.

The thing that I always find funny about the Rangers-Rovers connections from those years is that there never seemed to be anyone who did it for both clubs. Inexplicable how Lorenzo and Ferguson are both modern day greats for Rangers, but couldn't cut the mustard down here, and yet Tugay could barely get a game in Glasgow! Sure fitness and age played a part, but even so. The worst thing about the Murphy-Etuhu axis to begin with is that you couldn't tell for a while whether one of them was letting the other down it terms of their legs having gone/not putting the effort in. It was only after a couple of months it became obvious that they were both as bad as each other!

Hope he's wrong about the loan keepers too! Wouldn't be the first time. As far as I can tell though this other bloke has just started his twitter account a couple of weeks ago and starting spitting out rumours like there's no tomorrow. As much as I would like Phillips, I don't think this guy has a clue either way.

To be fair Chaddy he might have all the ability in the world, but there's no getting away from it being a massive unknown and therefore a risk when he has played so little football. If he was a striker raw ability and letting the player make a few mistakes along the way is fine. For a keeper, it would be a risk even if we were taking the next Peter Schmeichel.

I'm afraid that he has all the hallmarks of a total chancer. For all the stick he (justifiably) gets on here, information from Nixon is like Reuters compared to most transfer rumour accounts on twitter.

I've defended most of Mowbray's decisions over the last few years, but can't argue with this. I was broadly fine with selling Raya (couple of million quid too cheaply, but fine) and loaning a player with Walton's CV for 12 months wasn't ridiculous either. Surely now we must be looking at getting a player settled in that position, especially when there are good options from 2 of the teams relegated to L1. If Iversen comes in & is brilliant then I'll eat my words, but even if it comes off it's a high risk call for such an important decision.

You might well be right, it did seem to come out of nowhere but equally I was under the impression that it was basically established that it was there. Suppose we'll find out in the coming weeks, can't see him staying there come the start of the new season.

I thought this was already confirmed, no? Could be wrong, but didn't Sharpe or someone say that it was a thing back in January? Can't say I'm overly impressed by the idea that we're looking at a loan for our number 1 again, although I'll see what they're capable of before throwing my toys out of the pram. Iversen at least has the advantage of a successful season of first team football under his belt. Don't really know what is meant by expensive loan, but surely if it's classed as expensive there can't be much of a difference between what it would cost to get Marshall on board?

I think that's a good point, and his performance against Hull early doors (not just his penalty save) would've created a good first impression post-Raya too. Equally, the less obvious mistakes can start working the other way where after a few mistakes, fans start second guessing goals which other keepers would get a free pass for. I remember watching the replay of Vaulks' goal at Cardiff 4 or 5 times thinking the only way he could've scored was Walton making a mistake with his positioning. Anyway, I completely agree that he wasn't of the right standard overall & miles away from a number 1 shirt in the Prem. All I'd say is that there were certain aspects of his play which helped us get a more solid defence, at least for a while before his poor form after the restart. If say, Barnsley, signed on him a 3 year contract for a small fee, I'd see that as about his level and would be a decent signing for both parties.

Was only a youngster at the time, but even I remember Nicola Kalinic levels of misfortune in front of goal. Christian Dailly's own goal would look highly suspicious these days if it was scored in such a big game!

Will be City's promotion game. I wonder if they'll show all four times that we hit the post!

If the alternative is loaning youngsters from Prem teams, we should be all over this.