That;s the main reason I brought it up to be honest! I was thinking as a number 10, or depending on the system deeper in midfield like he did at Ewood a couple of years back. Agree that his days as an out and out striker are well behind him, but could still do a job out wide if needed, right or left. I'm not saying we should go out and break the bank for him or make him integral to the side, but he'd still be a useful and pretty versatile squad player imo.

Something quite 90s which I like about the Umbro badge trim on the sleeve. Wouldn't mid that at all

Whilst we're speculating on the prospect of Rovers fans signing, would anybody take Jem Karacan? Been released by Horwich, apparently doesn't really fit in with Parkinson's style of play. Not seen much of him recently, but a talented player and one that would suit Tony's style a bit more, perhaps?

I think Gallagher as part of the squad would make sense, if only because he play in a number of different positions to a high standard and should fit in with Tony's style of play. That said, we still need more pace, badly, so he'd need to be an 'extra' one assuming we have the budget for it.

Little surprised that Bristol City are interested in him after his season tailed off so badly at Shrewsbury. Might be worth it if it was a permanent deal but not a 12 month loan

Never heard of him, but had a quick scout on twitter, some posts raving about his debut in February. Left pegger, technical midfielder, scorer of good free kicks.

If that's true it's amazing that hey haven't developed a superstition about blue and white!

Some good names there. Don't think we've got a cat in hells chance of signing Grabban though. Noises that Tony's been making about not signing players on massive wages, I expect that he'd be one. Paddy McNair would be decent but not sure what sort of money he'd be on. Right age, and not easy to look good in a team that is absolutely tanking.

Good indeed. I'm not writing Samuel off just yet. I doubt that he'll leave just 12 months into his contract and with so few other attacking options. If he can just get a bit mentally tougher then there's a useful squad player in there imo.

Will have been playing in the same team as Jack Doyle, so will be known by the club I suppose. Goes without saying, but I don't know the first thing about him

Think the frustration with Evans comes from how we know he has the ability to be more influential. On the face of it can run all day, defend and is decent enough going forward, and yet you never come away from the game thinking he really left his mark on the game. You could well be right about the level of criticism though, even though I'm probably as guilty as anyone. I think there's something similar with Williams too. In any case, two in midfield sounds about right, assuming our budget stretches. If not, then pace and numbers up front & out wide has to be the priority for me.

You're not the only one that thinks so

So long as it is on loan, that makes a lot of sense

We definitely could lose to them! Both have got a sprinkling of star quality and any team that loses to Iceland can easily lose to a team with Lewandowski or James Rodriguez in them. I know we can't have delusions about this being a particularly good England squad or amongst the world's best either. Even so, I'm not having for a second that getting eliminated by sides like those mentioned can be considered a par result, even for this England squad. We've still have enough quality, experience and depth to expect to beat them imo, even if we have earned the right to be pessimistic over the last few decades!

Anything less than a quarter final appearance has to be regarded as a fairly abject failure IMO. We only need to finish in the top 2 in a group containing Tunisia & Panama, and then we'll be playing a team from a group containing Poland, Japan, Colombia & Senegal in the last 16. Obviously that's not to say that we'll actually do it, but I'm not having that even this England team shouldn't see that as a minimum expectation before playing the big guns.

Think the old three club rule might be coming into play here! QPR don't have a manager for a kick off. Fairly unimpressed if true, although we do need bodies there I suppose. Maybe would've taken him 3 or 4 years ago, but would've thought he's well past his best now.

Basically think that's right, especially about Samuel who looks like he could be a handy player if he was a bit more mentally robust. Do think you're being slightly generous to Evans though. He's had big injury issues in his time here, and he has had a couple of good games recently, but sadly I think it fits far too much with the pattern of the last few seasons; he doesn't put any real stamp on games until the point when people are ready to write him off, then he puts in a couple of better performances to keep him in the frame. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty worse than him, and I wouldn't be absolutely desperate to get him out of the club or anything like that. I'd imagine, however, that he's one of the bigger earners, so if we got an offer for him I definitely think we could use the money better elsewhere.

In retrospect, a bad move for Mahoney, but easy to see how it could've worked out differently. I remember thinking this time last year that the way the Club was going, I wouldn't have blamed anyone from wanting out to further their career at a normal, functioning football club. Obviously a totally different feeling 152 months later, but can't blame Connor for not predicting that (I certainly didn't!)

Can take or leave Gallagher. Not too dissimilar to Gestede in that he's a good goalscorer who should probably have a better all round game, given his size. Anyway, as is mentioned, will probably get his chance at Southampton next year. Good luck to him.

Think that's spot on, only thing I'd disagree with is that I think Graham's well capable of starting and doing a very good job. What he can't do is that for 90 mins every game, or for three games a week, but I wouldn't mind him going in to next season as our 'main man'. Probably splitting hairs, as he clearly needs help up there. Samuel's issue is more mental fragility than ability or laziness for me, but in any case, I agree that he's clearly not the answer.

Think he'll be playing Championship football next season, be it with us or someone else. Links with him suggests that Mowbray rates him, but probably only as a number 10, and with Dack & maybe Payne in front of him, think he'll probably go elsewhere.

With loan players not necessarily coming back, we're short of support for Graham for next season. What's Luca Toni up to these days?

Agree completely. Only entertain the idea if: i) The bid is big enough to mean that we can comfortably bring in 4-5 players of a good calibre & ii) we actually get to spend that money. £15 million sounds about right for that, wouldn't consider anything significantly less.

I can see how this would work practically, but it doesn't change my biggest problem with it, which is that it simply takes all the joy out of the act of scoring, and it doesn't do anything about how a huge number of contentious decisions are just because they're not black & white. All this "but it works in rugby" you get from some quarters is entirely misplaced. I watch lots of rugby league, and even in a game where technical offences are much more clear cut, you still get controversial decisions all the time. This is even after taking 2 minutes or so to reach the decision, which is bad enough when you've got 6-10 scores a game. When so much emotion in football is often invested in one goal in a game, there is no way of brining in VAR in a way which doesn't mean that the high you get watching your team score is seriously dampened. Think I might've posted something similar a few pages back,. so sorry for drowning on about it, but I genuinely dread this becoming a permanent fixture in English football.

I can see him getting more but depends on how much we allow him to be a goal threat and not all that much else imo. If we play him like it sounds Bolton did then he's probably not going to be scoring that many, if we take his weaknesses on the chin like we did with Rhodes, then I can see him getting 10-15 quite easily.