Signing Hanley would definitely diffuse some of the angst around here (myself included). We need a championship quality CB to come in and Hanley has been signed by teams that have won this league twice in 3 years and was formidable and POTY at us 4 seasons ago. Raya Nyambe - Lenihan - Hanley - Bell Travis - Downing Armstrong - Dack - Rothwell Graham Subs: GK, Mulgrew, Evans, Davenport, Bennett, Brereton, Butterworth. Glaring issue is Bennett 100% starts in the team with TM in charge and will do at the expense of either Nyambe, Travis or Rothwell. ? If Hanley is a loan I want to see some money spent on CM as we need options beyond Evans and especially Smallwood.

To save other people a Google... "Liam Lindsay for £2m. Adam Davies, Jordan Cousins, Nick Powell and Lee Gregory on free transfers." Gregory is a meh signing to me, but Cousins is highly rated and we all know what Powell is about and we could have done worse than all 5 at our positions of need. GK, CB, CM, AMC, CF - Talk about building a spine of a team for £2m. Dont see any of them being nailed on best X1 here but certainly upgrades on most championship 18's. The queue for the buffet is getting long and if Mowbray ain't careful we're going to end up with only the last tuna and egg mayo sandwich which has a piece of bread missing.

Souness was a big admirer of a certain Tim Cahill that summer too, though he obviosuly chose Everton for something like £2.5m. He would have been an absolute game changer for us. Unreal attacking midfielder. That Millwall team lost Steven Reid, Lucas Neill and Tim Cahill in 12 months and also had a certain Burnley manager in their team. Wonder what Cahill would cost on today's market. £25m? (Edit: When Eveton bought him from Millwall I mean)

Luke Freeman close to a £3m move to Sheffield United from QPR. Didnt we have double that rejected 10 months ago? There seems to be a worrying disparity between the quality of players we get signed and ones (in some cases we enter talks with) that choose not to join. McGinn, Freeman, Bauer and Assombalonga compared to Smallwood, S. Downing, P. Downing and Brereton. Mowbray talks a good game yet keeps ending up with the classic "10 to 2 bird" in the kebab house.

Blackburnborough Rovers

When you read something and it leaves you speechless. Also, Joe Aribo choosing Rangers. I know they have Steven Gerrard etc but to turn down Championship and apparently Premier League teams in favour of the SPL, again, speechless. Lots of good free agents starting to make their moves, and we've secured Downing.

I think Nyambe has been treated shockingly by Mowbray and is always first casualty in "Operation play Bennett". Bennett at RB instead of Nyambe is the cause of so much of our defensive problems and a back 4 of Nyambe - Lenihan - *Hanley* - Bell, would bring down our goals against column by a good 25%. Now of course I'm not saying that Nyambe is Cafu, he will make mistakes, but compared to anyone else in our squad, he the only choice at RB. CB is the biggest priority in our squad by some distance.

Said the same probably 12 months ago to the day. If he was available I would be very happy with him. Turns 35 in January. Flourished as a lower L1/L2 player but never been able to climb any higher with any success.

Its Friday so I'm going to be positive about something I'm probably very underwhelmed about. Downing has played in CM a fair bit this past season or so and is a technical player who is good on set pieces and gives us a left footer beyond Mulgrew. With the emergence of Travis as our unquestioned CM#1 who has an engine, pace, bite and commitment, I much prefer the idea of a Downing-Travis pairing than any with Smallwood and to a lesser extend Evans in it. Downing could be a technical upgrade on Evans and can come and play as we develop Davenport for a year with a view for a Davenport-Travis pairing. Of course, I'd have rather pushed for a Joe Aribo or actually committed half the transfer budget on a proper CM as I'm more convinced Downing will be the next Danny Murphy or Peter Whittingham. Surely we deserve some luck with the golden oldies signing. If not, it's only a 1 year deal ?

Well the pressure is on Mowbray now to get a signing through the door to appease the discontent a lot of us are feeling with the Bauer news. Like him, rate him, whatever, the fact is it's slightly embarrassing to be so linked and for so long and him join Preston. Hanley, Cooper or Linsdsay would do. But we certainly need one, maybe two quality CBs to go with Lenihan. Que Rodwell to resign and Downing.

Low blow on Rochdale ?

Rather him than Smallwood. @ me.

Believe it or not, today is the first day "back at it" from the manager. Scandalous.

TBF You couldn't possibly know that I couldnt possibly know that.

Grant Hanley on a season loan at 30%(?) wages, Patrick Bauer on a free. Keep Lenihan. That's the CB position sorted for me. Check and move on. Lenihan, Hanley, Bauer, Mulgrew, Williams, Rodwell(?), Magliore, Wharton... Not exactly world beating but for the £0 transfer fee involved we should be all over that. 3 big nasty starters who can each play a bit. Mulgrew as first rotation, Williams a 4-5 game option in there and the others to supplement it. Spend the *£7m* on a proper CM to play alongside Travis. John McGinn cost what, £3m? Look for more frees, and then some loans (at a later date). Just please Tony, don't spunk the money and wage budget on the over 30 club - 18 month wonder package from Boro and Albion. (For what it's worth, those clinging to hope that worst case scenario any Lenihan sale to SU would generate £12m+, you'll be very disappointed as it'll be nowhere near that high unfortunately)

I'll pay for your season ticket if that happens.

Can't wait for Monday when we actually start our summer with the manager back in his office. He should really use those first 10 days to go through the list of all free agents in the top 3 divisions and reach out to the best 3 in each position group. See what's what... then revisit them after they have been a free agents for a week and got over their delusional wage demand dreams. Speaking of free agents, hearing Paul Downing could be making a somewhat surprising signing to a major L1 club next week, pretty sure it will be Sunderland. Not bad for our 5th choice...... If our first signing is a U20 PL loan, or an ex M'Boro, WBA or Coventry player, I'll be annoyed.

So this is the 4,277th post in this transfer thread, I swear about 3,000 of them have been related to Ben Brereton, a player we already own! It's getting old ? Hugill is one I've never liked and get the feeling it was a mutual dislike for Rovers from his perspective. Would prefer we splooged this years £7-10m elsewhere.

GK Zabaleta - CB - Kompany - LB Keane - CM RW - Zidane - Dugarry Lewandowski I think those 7 would beat almost every Blackburn starting 11 from the past 8 years. ? Were we not linked with Gareth Bale at one point during the Bentley to Spurs period and turned down the part exchange, also we turned down signing Son Hueng Min for the weekly wage of a championship player, did we not? Stick Bale at LB and Son on RW and that team is only a CB and CM shy of Champions League domination... I'd personally keep Raya in goal ?

Kompany and Zabaleta were both signed for £6m (ish) within weeks of Hughes leaving Rovers for City. They were Hughes' top targets for us that summer and the wheels were in motion on both. Hence why it was such a quick double signing at City. Imagine if City had waited a few more weeks and we signed both of them in 2008 instead of Grella, Andrews and Simpson. They can join the fantasy 11 players we almost had along with Keane, Zidane, Dugarry and Lewandowski.

Also don't expect to see any action this week with transfers as the manager is off to Spain on Friday before he's "back at it" from next Monday. (???) 250+ pages it is then.

The irony is that this is probably the most relevant Rigters has been since the day we actually signed him ?

"And it is understood enquiries have also taken place about the availability of Republic of Ireland international Glenn Whelan, though he is set to join former club Stoke City." Woohoo ? There are literally 50 players from the Prem, Champ and L1 released on free transfers that we could be targeting that could add to this squad... yet we're here confirming the price tag of Maceo Rigters from the mid-2000's ? Love it.

Same. IIRC he was player of the tournament and top scorer at an Under 21 World Cup. Sure we paid some daft figure like £3m for him... That's almost half a Ben Brereton for Christ sakes. I confess I was also buzzing about Corrado Grabbi and Javier De Pedro... I am not buzzing about any of our links so far this summer.

That list of names is flat embarrassing. Good job Sharpe didn't keep going as it was probably Carlos Villanueva in 2008, Maceo Rigters in 2007, Jason Brown in 2006, Shefki Kuqi in 2005, Javi De Pedro in 2004, David Yelldell in 2003, Sebastian Pelzer in 2002 and Ciccio Grabbi in 2001? The sad list of our first summer signings probably (likely) goes on...