Admiral Nelsen

Like most, I really don't like FFP in anything like it's current form, and it's never nice to see football clubs (apart from the odd exception!) suffer through off the field stuff like we have. That said, the fact that clubs are still being punished makes our embargo a few years ago seem a little fairer when it seemed like more than half the league was at it.

Looking increasingly like Whittingham isn't going to get a sniff. Other than that I'm not sure what else we can do. Smallwood is clearly staying, and first choice to begin with. Whilst I don't get the feeling that Mowbray is that enamoured with Evans, I can't see anyone offering the money which would make it worth our while getting rid.

It was down as a trialist, but I'm not convinced!

Annoyingly, there's nothing about the game on Rovers twitter. Luckily, the Dingles had the foresight to make sure that someone was documenting it, but haven't said anything about Rovers other than the score. Right on cue, 5-0

For all those interested, Rovers under 23s are currently playing Burnley's kids at their place. So far, the game is going as you'd expect. About 20 minutes in, Rovers are 4-0 up.

There were reports in the Daily Record that we were interested, so more than the Maddison thing, but nothing too concrete.

Doubt there's anything in it, but will be interesting to see if the John McGinn rumours have anything in them. Seems like there are some murmurings about a busy week at Ewood. Numbers don't necessarily equate to quality & investment, but if they include McGinn & a Maddison or Chapman then we can genuinely expect to surprise a few this year.

Four year contract. Very happy with this, goes a long way from solving our chronic shortage of pace & numbers in attack. Still think we're a little short on both to be 100% happy, but all of a sudden we look a lot more capable of doing well in this division.

I thought Gally had some fairly serious weaknesses last time around. His first touch, especially, sticks in my memory as being a real flaw. BUT, he managed to get 11 goals with dire service and no manager. Some of his goals were all of his own work. In the set up we have now he could be twice the player, and a real asset.

He's been involved in some games, so should be in front of Palmer in that respect.

Always liked Graham Fenton

I'd be happy with either to be honest. Really liked what I saw of Armstrong last year & think Mowbray is far more likely to get a tune out of him than was the case at Bolton. That said, I'd probably just go for Maddison because he looks like he can handle himself physically.

Peterborough are pretty well known for getting top dollar for their players. If it is us that's in for him, then expect it to be done late.

Optimistic about the season, but less so about this fixture. We never do well at Ipswich, and we've been slow starters for years. Fully expect us to finish above them come May, but a point here is acceptable.

Definitely appears to be on his way out of Forest. Interestingly, Bolton fans don't seem enormously keen on bring him back either. Can't have impressed much on loan if he's gone from their only real asset to not worth his place for relegation favourites in a couple of years. Having said that, he strikes me as a player similar to Armstrong, in that he's clearly not going to get a kick for a Parkinson side, doesn't make him a bad player. Would be pretty happy if we could get him on the cheap.

Davenport thing is disappointing, but the indications are that he would be starting on the bench anyway I guess. Most likely Smallwood & Evans, with Travis an outside bet. Hopefully it's minor, and he'll get his chance to start against Carlisle, see what he can do from there.

100% agree. It'll be too much for this squad to compete at the top of the table, but there's no reason at all why we can't be successful with momentum and the culture of the squad. We'll be clear of relegation as a minimum, for me. A couple of clever signings and a fair crack with injuries and who knows.

Evans I'm not so sure about. There are question marks about all of them, I accept, but it's equally likely that a Davenport or a Travis will get in the team in front of Evans on merit rather than injury. Given where we've been in the last 5 years, we're alright in the middle of the park imo. Agree about depth elsewhere, but you can probably say that about a few teams. The one which is really frightening at the minute is back up to Graham, but I don't think that'll still be the case in a few weeks.

Expect to see him in a Rovers shirt come the weekend! Could be completely wrong about this, but I'm not all that sorry. Going off the totality of what other fans have said, clearly there's some talent there, but a lack of an end product & footballing intellegence comes up again and again. If a loan player has to do too much 'learning on the job' then it's probably means that the loaning club is getting the rough end of the deal. Hopefully this means we can get better.

Pleased for Wharton. Convinced that there's a long term future for him here, even if this season is at least 12 months too soon for him to be playing a consistent first team role. If we're determined to play 3 at the back this year, then it might be worth keeping him around the squad, but hopefully he can get 1st team football at a good league 1 club next year.

Hopefully, wouldn't have taken much betting to shift those odds though I wouldn't have thought.

Really don't know what to think about this one. On the one hand, it doesn't seem like we have £2 million or whatever it would take to sign him when we'll need another 3 or so additional players. Also seems totally implausible that you can keep something like that secret these days. Having said that, if you take him it face value then there simply aren't many clubs it could be! Really hope it's us anyway, first team looks okay apart from a massive Maddison-type-player hole in it.

Pretty much exactly how I feel about it. There's no getting away from that in certain areas, we're badly short. Fortunately though, we look fairly well off in others. Defensively, we're fine. We were fine last time as soon as Coyle was potted. Numbers wise we're okay in the middle of the park too, albeit with an element of players stepping up to a new level. Already better than last time we were in this division, if Davenport can be as good as he seems, potentially miles better. Issue as everyone has recognised is up top and out wide. No idea if Gallagher has improved since we had him, but he would be useful even if he simply hasn't got worse. Got goals in a team with no service and basically no manager. No reason why he can't get more now that we've got a proper set up. Don't see anything in Mowbray's comments which look like panic stations just yet, but clearly the next few weeks are massive in terms of what we can hope for this season.

Given that we'll be looking for 3-4 attacking players by the end of the window, don' think there's any problem at all with 1-2 of them being loans. So long as they're all of the right calibre, think that's an entirely healthy ratio for a team looking to do well in the Championship. If we get Gallagher & Armstrong on loan, Chapman on a permanent & ideally another attack minded player in (Middison if the budget stretches), then I'd be happy with that.

Like winning the league vs winning the FA cup. One is a slog. Your bread & butter. Something that you invest all your time & emotional energy in. The other is a great few days out and some amazing memories, but you'd never take a good cup run vs league success. It would've been brilliant if England won the world cup, the entire country would need a week off work. Ultimately though, Rovers doing well is something I've thought about for not far off every day of my life since I was in short trousers! No contest.