Admiral Nelsen

I think most of the players usually picked as deadwood are decent back up to be honest. Bennett, Smallwood, Evans, Mulgrew - all players who won't be major cogs in a promotion winning team, but played big parts in some good spells for us last season. Whether we can afford to keep them as back up is a different question, as is how much they should get in the way of promising young talent, but I really don't get the clamour to see them leave the club entirely if they're happy to fight for their place.

He's still all potential for what we have seen at Rovers. He's chipped in at a decent rate when he's played, but hasn't had enough game time to develop. I think if he's going to flourish, Blackpool are perfect for him. He has good instincts as a striker, and despite a few comments about his attitude, has always struck me as a very motivated player. He seems to be getting his chance a little later than some, so seems (as much as you can tell) to really want to make the most of it. I have doubts about whether he'll ever have the touch or all round game to really make it in the top two divisions, but given enough room to develop and make mistakes, I can see it being a very good signing at L1 level.

Do we actually have any indication that we don't have a loan-to-buy option? These arrangements tend to come out in the wash, rather than being announced straight away, don't they?

Think we'll likely start with that formation, but with Tosin (or another incoming) in for Williams, Bell in for Hart, and I'm not confident at all about who starts on the right. Personally I'd like Rothwell on one side and Armstrong on the other, but I think Downing or Bennett are probably more likely.

Wouldn't disagree with that to be honest. As much as I think he's doing a good job, I felt deflated when I heard he was our choice. Not quite Coyle levels of disappointment, but not happy all the same.

Picking players Bowyer may well have been better, but there's no shame in that. Found some very talented players for peanuts. Tactics, absolutely not a chance. The hallmark of Bowyer's Rovers was a committed group with some talent, but never looking that cohesive or well drilled. Hardly ever deviated from a simple 442, and whilst we had enough talent to win tight games, it's hard to imagine Mowbray not getting an awful lot more out of Cairney and King, just to name two. I know that not everyone agrees with TM's approach, but tactically he's on a different level to Bowyer.

To be fair, our problem with King was mainly just not playing him, full stop. If he was getting regular game time, even if it was on the wing, I don't think he'd have been in as much of a hurry to leave.

Totally agree. Will be tough for Cardiff to bounce back too in my view, Warnock or not, but he will definitely make it easier for them. Fulham will have the players to score a lot of goals this season, but teh Championship is a ruthless league to cut your teeth as a manager. WBA are a reall funny one this season. Their saving grace last year was a lethal strike force which has gone and has only been replaced with a gamble in Zahore. Bilic is a real coup, but does he have the squad to stand out? Think they'll need to bring in a few for them to be optimistic.

Looked at the thread on their message board about him this morning. Looked like around November/December time he was getting some really impressive reviews. By the end of the season, less so, but with many fans saying that they'll still have him. Something worth considering is that when you've had a few years in the top division, your frame of reference as to what classes as a good player changes a bit. Young lad playing his first full season in defence in a team which is expected to go up, but doesn't have the overall quality to do so (exactly like we hadn't) is a tough gig. He'll be better for the experience.

One saving grace. Some attempt to at least make it 'halved'. This is not a good kit

Looks like Chapman got 45 minutes in the behind closed doors game earlier today. Hopefully putting worries that he's still injuted to bed

Exactly! Good managers want to surround themselves with talented people. Insecure ones want colleagues and employees who won't answer back.

Agree. Can't have unrealistic expectations of reserve keepers at this level, but I think we've seen enough of Leutwiler to see that whilst he has good points, we want to keep him on the bench as much as we can. I'd be absolutely delighted with Ruddy, but I think all the names mentioned would be entirely acceptable. Can't quite believe that so many are dead against Hart either. I know he's not at the same level as he has been, but look at how players like Pantilimon who are accident prone in the top flight look a different class in this league.

Would be the best of the names mentioned for me.

Under the same circumstances? I.e. we have recently been champions of England & had Shearer in his prime? Basically as much as Kane would cost in the current market, comfortably in the hundreds of millions,

Has wonderful talent, but no. 1 - we're well stocked for players in is position, like you say 2 - I don't think he's reliable. Not saying that this is necessarily down to a bad attitude, he may have just been a confidence player, but for whatever reason he goes for long spells playing within himself. In the latter months under Bowyer he should've been our main creative outlet, and he consistently under delivered. Wish him well, but not for me.

Sounds like someone's trying to get us to commit to a higher fee. Be patient at that price, if Brentford want to pay it then good luck to them.

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.