Appropriately, the one Nuno is wearing actually looks pretty good to me. Less said about the other two the better

Nyambe certainly not and I agree with those who say that Bell is improving. Someone said in another thread that if we go three at the back with wing backs, then it does change things because all of a sudden they become much more important players and need to have good delivery. If we stay with a back four, no major issues for me.

Option two, with a loan option for a back up striker would be my preference by far, assuming that this is a fair reflection of the budget.

Hopefully the lack of competition means that we can get them down to a more reasonable fee. Looks like the consensus on here is that he'd be a useful enough addition, just that you can do more with £5million

saw something on twitter the other day, showed Jansson to be amongst the top 2 or 3 defenders in the division for a bunch of different measures, but amongst the lowest 5 or 6 too, including aerial duels, which seems incredible given his status as a dominant centre back. I can see why at this point no prem teams wanted to take the risk on him, and probably quite a few championship clubs (us included) would think that he can't be trusted for that price. I think you could probably say the same about Duffy when he was here in that he was brilliant at certain things and woeful at others, and he's made a good top flight career albeit playing in a team which plays exactly to his strengths.

It will be interesting to see if he is considered a starter next season. I would like to see him there and for him to kick on, but bringing in Downing (which I'm not against, in principle) could mean it's him on one side and Rothwell on the other. Something which stood out to me last season was how many times AA hit the post/bar when cutting in from the left. Seems like he ad the same curse as Kalinic had when he was here! Still managed a healthy goal/assist return though, I think there are certain deals which can definitely be debated, BB being the obvious one, but I'm very confident that when we all come to judge TM's time at Rovers, bringing Armstrong in will be seen as a good move for the money we paid.

I think we could get away with just the one extra centre back of the right quality but other than that I agree completely. Much easier to get a promising forward on loan from a top-flight club than a reliable defender.

I thought AA was cheaper than that? £1.odd million guaranteed was what I have in my head, could be wrong though. To be fair I still think £3million will turn out to be good business, can have quiet games but he contributed well last year imo. Will only get better too.

That's where I am. Reading between the lines he'd like to be here and we'd like to have him, but the boy will be 24 in a couple of months. If we had a bottomless pit of money he could well develop to be worth more than that in a couple of years, but the odds don't seem great to me.

Totally natural that Travis will be on the radar of plenty of top-flight teams. Part and parcel with having such a top young talent. Anything less than an 8 figure bid shouldn't be even considered

Like Gally. All things being equal I'd be happy signing him. I can't see £5milion being good business though, amazed that Wigan are going that high.

Totally agree. I'm in a different place about TM, but I think those of us in the /sun shines out of his arse' brigade recognise that bringing in a good centre back (and now a good keeper) is absolutely massive. I'm comfortable with Ben and Gally, if that's who it turns out to be, fighting out to be second/third choice. Plenty of three game weeks in this division, and whilst Graham is having an indian summer, wouldn't bank on him staying fit throughout. They'll both get gametime imo.

Scott Dann too, recently

I hadn't realised that Ruddy was in the form that he was for Wolves in their promotion year - it seemed to me as if he was going through a Robinson-esque premature decline in fitness and form. The he got into the team of the year as recently as the season before last makes him an absolute no brainer if he's within our budget.

I've said this a few times over recent weeks, so I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I really think this is a massively important point which can't be overstated. I don't like using the language of assets/liabilities - we're a football club who exists to win games, not post profits. But there's no getting away from the fact that if you were to look at that team in financial terms, we were littered with toxic assets that were unsellable due to age/form/size of contract, or loans. We managed to get a fee for Steele somehow, other than that there was only really Lenihan who could have realistically fetched a fee into the millions, even then perhaps £2million. Fast-forward to where we are now; a squad that definitely needs improving significantly, but one where we can actually operate as a trading club, where we own our best players and where they're of a good age. Obviously we want to keep the good ones, but at least it gives us options and a platform which was a million miles away from where we were.

Good thing about Downing is that he fits just as nicely across all of those three positions behind the striker. In most games, I'd be looking to get Armstrong in there, but as a part of the squad I agree that he looks like a good option.

That's the think which stands out to me too. Control of the ball is very good, just abysmal when it comes to crossing!

Very possibly. Such a high pressure position though, I think there's something in that you very rarely see a keeper come through the ranks and stay at one club. We've seen the mistakes of a young player, with a clean slate I can see him really kicking on there. I think, for his faults, Raya has been the best that we've had (admittedly, compared to some absolute dross) since we got relegated so I'm sorry to see him go. That said, there's no getting away from the fact that he was a contributing factor in our goals-against last season, so maybe we just don't have the luxury of giving him the time he needs to progress.

Happy with Johnson, really very disappointed with Raya but I can see why it might work for all parties. If Raya irons out the issues with his game, he will be worth plenty more than £3million one day. If he can't, then we've probably done well to get that amount for him. Seems a decent sort too, wish him all the best.

Taking the requisite amount of salt - the Butterworth link is very interesting too. Very talented in his spell at Hudds, seems to have dropped off when he should've been coming into his prime. Wouldn't be against it, but a strange one. Johnson is a grade A sh*thouse on the pitch. Which is ideal. I'd be absolutely in favour of this on a free, Johnson and Travis would be a pair with serious bite and still try to get the ball forward quickly.

Very smart kit. Which is is obviously awful news. Everyone knows that Rovers having a good kit is the sign of us having a dire season. Announce relegation.

Love Johnson. Done a fabulous job and couldn't be more deserving of his promotion. Only thing I worry about is that if he's involved in the first team set up, he's in the firing line when it comes to managerial upheaval, but then again if you take that attitude then you'd never give him the chance to progress and he'll be off to a club which does. Huge asset to Blackburn Rovers.

One way in which we're better off is that we actually own our best players! If we had stayed up in our relegation season, it would've been off the back of loans and players with no saleable value. Our squad isn't there yet, but it was an absolute empty vessel when he took charge. As you say, game of opinions, but the measures of success that we use need to be selective in the extreme if we're saying that we haven't progressed under Mowbray.

Just looked on his wiki, the boy is the same height as Samba, so could well have been what we needed! The Bell you describe is exactly what I saw at the start of the season. Personally, I thought that he was getting tighter to his man and was travelling with the ball well in the final few months (agree that his crossing still isn't good enough). In any case, if Bidwell was a clear upgrade then we should have been all over that on a free.

Hasn't Pinnock been at Barnsley for a year or 2? Don't know anything about his quality to be fair. Bidwell's another one I only really know by name if I'm being honest. I think Bell improving was one of the missed stories of the final few months of last season, so I don't think left back is as much of a problem as I would've done last January. That said he's still not great, wouldn't be against brining in a replacement if one was available.