Admiral Nelsen

I still really respect GB for lifting some of the gloom from what was the darkest part of our darkest period, and really felt for him when he was sacked. But having seen what some of the players we had during his tenure have gone on to do, it's difficult not to admit that he is tactically limited. Quite surprised that it's still being exposed at such a low level though. Hope he turns it around, as I still think he did much much more good here than bad.

Was meant to be the next big thing for Scottish football at one point but has definitely gone off the boil since leaving Hibs. Would be wary, personally.

Inclined to agree. In my heart of hearts I don't believe it will be us, but I get confidence looking at the fixtures which look quite kind for us. Brentford away scares me, that aside we can accumulate a lot of points if we're consistently near what we can do.

I agree that investing wisely is vital for any club in this league without parachute payments, and that some of Tony's signings haven't come off. At the same time I think that it's exactly by the strength of some of TM's signings (as well as with academy players) that we are in a position to trade now in a way that is like night and day with the squad he inherited. I'd say we could've got a couple of million for Lenihan, other than that we had a squad full of toxic assets, in financial terms. I know not everyone will agree, but a a couple of points which I think are worth making: Some of the players marked as failures in the original post made some signficant contributions. Would we have got promoted without P. Downing and Samuel? Maybe, maybe not. We're not seeing any profit from Rodwell, but he played a part in winning games for us last year. Every signing is a risk, and it's completely unrealistic to expect every signing a team makes to be a success. Some need to be, Dack needed to be, Tosin needed to be when we didn't bring another centre half in. Arguaby Walton needed to be and he's coming up a bit short, so TM should be the one taking responsibility for it. Sam Hart's wage still contributes towards FFP, but if you get the high ticket stuff right I don't think it's right to use free transfers or players brought in for their potential as evidence that we have been especially profligate when the squad overall is worth more than we paid for it.

Don't know, can see us finishing above at least the Dingles, West Ham and Bournemouth without breaking sweat ?

Stoke's upturn makes it so hard for the three at the bottom. 5 point gap between Barnsley and safety if they see out a win today, and you think that after their dodgy start that Hudds will continue to pick up enough points to get them over the line. Doing us a favour beating Swansea too!

Fair enough on Dack's injury, but my point is that looking at signings one by one, then giving them a yes/no success/failure isn't a misleading and unfair way of looking at how well TM has spent money. If you get the big stuff right, then all the loans and speculative young players who don't make it really don't matter. That's why we remember Sparky for his gems and not his dross, because every mamanger has them. I'm not especially good at judging transfer values these days, but Armstrong is a young, English lightning quick forward who scores and sets up goals. Inconsistent, yes, but it seems to me that 6 million in the modern game is a fairly conservative estimate of what he could go for. Rothwell on this season's form wouldn't fetch as much, but certainly enough to pay for himself and go a long way in covering most of the other small fees on the likes of Bell, Davenport etc.

Some very harsh judgements there for me, plenty of low-risk signings there which have either contributed whilst they were here or still very much have the potential to. Judging Nuttall as not worth his contract when we signed him on a free for the youth team, scored a few goals for us then sold on a profit seems harsh. Some other small investments who were fine, even if they weren't in the plans for the future, like Rodwell or P. Downing. We didn't worry about wasting money on fees and wages for Maceo Rigters, Bruno Berner and Johan Vogel when the profits from Santa-Cruz and Bentley pay for them fifty times over. I don't see why we should worry about the money 'wasted' on the likes of Hart, Lyons, Caddis, P. Downing or Rodwelll when you think about how much the value has increased for Dack, Armstrong and Rothwell. Can't disagree that the Brereton transfer is looking more and more like it might be an expensive error, but there's no doubting that the squad's value has increased enormously since TM took over, and by more than the outlay we've spent on transfer fees. Dack might be doing a bit of the heavy lifting for that, but Armstrong's value will have tripled since we signed him and Rothwell is certainly worth much more than the few hundred grand we paid for him.

Maybe, but in fairness Brad did go bankrupt, and he did basically double his wages to 50k a week if I recall. I think this case is more easily explained by the usual story.

I remember thinking at the time that I genuinely wouldn't have blamed any player from leaving if they got the chance at that point. Felt like an empty vessel of a club. I'd like to think he would have a lot more to think about if he was coming through now. Mowbray was on record in saying that he would've started in league 1 too, if I recall, so it might have turned out to be for the best for the lad for him to stay, but certainly can't blame him for going given how we all felt at the time.

Allardyce was good for Robbo, seemed to remember he got himself back in the England squad for a time. Even so, the fact that we've gone over 10 years without having a satisfactory long term keeper is shocking.

Shame that we have to wait so long between the 5-0 spanking and this match, would've been a great opportunity to keep the momentum going. Having said that, they're not travelling well at present, even if they're playing good teams. Soft club who won't be up for a winter midweek away game up north. 3-0 Rovers

Any idea about what he's like on the ball? Possible Tosin replacement come next year?

My instinct is that you're right, playing is the most important thing at his age. Flip side of that I suppose is that I think it's a mistake to get him playing at a lower level just so he can cope with the game physically. I think the way he gets past that weakness is by using and developing his strength on the ball. We might struggle to find a L1 or L2 team willing to take him and use him properly, but then again playing anywhere is better than not playing at all.

Definitely. I don't want to use Wigan as a yardstick for what our expectations should be, and doubtless we have made the odd decision on recruitment which might not look like being that wise as things stand, the state of the two teams at present is like night and day. They were genuinely gutted when Charlie came back to Rovers. That's the difference between where we both are.

Yes, certainly is easy it is to forget just how highly rated he was at one stage. Strangely though the Brereton case shows how big money might well be a possibility even at his stage, we spent money on potential, so there's no reason why teams with much bigger budgets in the top-flight might well do the same. On Buckley specifically, I'm still very optimistic. Even the Huddersfield game, for which he got a lot of stick, I remember him getting involved and trying some things which other players wouldn't have been able to see. Execution was off a couple of times, but definite progress from his 5-10 minute spells where he's looked like a little lad. Physicality is obviously a problem in the short term, but if his brain and talent are his strengths, he'll learn how to get past that problem in no time.

I've no fondness for the club (quite the opposite) but I live in the area so I try and keep abreast of their fortunes. You're definitely right on the creativity point, nobody with Powell's ability. It looks on paper as though having Moore, Lowe, Garner and Windass up front along with having no creativity in the middle is tailor made for playing on the break, but for whatever reason it's just not working out for them and the locals are extremely anti-Cook. Hopefully they'll be back at their level next year.

Think that's where the smart money is. Even Charlton I think can put a big part of their bad patch down a silly number of injuries. Can see them picking up slightly. Wigan are a difficult one to suss out. I don't think their squad is very good, but they've spent plenty and they're definitely under-performing to be cut adrift at this stage. Trouble they seem to have is that when they've put in their better performances, they still haven't found a way to win.

I think he was unlucky even last season to not get on the score sheet more often. Don't think I've seen a player hit the post as often since Kalinic, who also seemed to have an uncanny knack for it. Really pleased to see him kick on. The sort of player he is will mean that he'll probably go through a few quieter spells in the future, but if he carries on the way he is that couple of million quid or whatever we paid is looking like small beer.

It's a fair comment that I'm not actually mentioning any replacements! My view of things is that say we have the money for two left backs (money we might've spent on Cunningham & Bell's contract) then I'd use the money for Cunningham either on him or our 'good' left back target, and use the Bell money on either a useful looking prospect from L1, available from a top flight team or similar for our 'decent/prospect/back up' target.

I think he still has the opportunity to put the performances in to warrant that. He'll get games, so if he plays like he did vs Bristol City & Wednesday (I was still frustrated with him against PNE even if others were impressed, but he's certainly had worse games) then I might be inclined to give him another couple of years on modest cash. I'll still need some persuading before I think it's a good idea though. He'll be 26 by the time the season's finished, so isn't likely to get heaps better, and more importantly doesn't seem to be doing a good job of ironing out bad habits. As keep a player who is borderline L1/lower championship standard, I'd leaning towards looking to use the money we would've spent on his wages on another understudy.

Wonder if it will be dependent on Richie finding a new club? I agree we're pretty well stocked there on paper but if Holtby is now seen as an attacker to cover Dack and Evans is out for a good while, we suddenly find ourselves 3 bodies lighter if Smallwood leaves. Having said that, unless we've got an obvious talent/good deal on our hands, I'd be inclined to see this as a chance for Davenport to stake a claim rather than bring in a short term solution.

Agree that we can't go forward planning to have him in the XI, but I wouldn't go as far as finished. Wigan's fans look pretty united in saying they looked more solid with him in the side, stats seem to provisionally back it up. Clearly his ability on the ball & set piece specialism is still there. Compare that to the likes of Gordon Greer, who was definitely finished when he came for his second spell. Charlie's biggest problem is his contract and his pedigree. If he was willing to be a squaddie and not be one of our top earners, I'd have no problem whatsoever in having him as a part of the squad.

Easy decision this one, well worth another 12 months.

Been absent from here for a few weeks (5-0 win totally coincidental to my return), so do we know much about Rathbone? Any good and does the interest look real?