Ahhh just as I thought. A current boycotter!! What would you know pal, you don’t even go to the game. Prob still hiding behind hating Venkys! Get your hand in your pocket, with a bit of festive cheer and get supporting your team!

Ok, I accept we’ve committed to those fees over the next few years mate but the budget is agreed annually and inclusive of wages and staff I’d say we will be in the bottom 5 teams in the division. Which is pretty normal when you’ve just been promoted.

Whatever mate. You just referred to Mowbray as a limited manager which officially makes you clueless. The end.

Do you think we’ve spent £10m net? You do realise that most transfer fees are spread over the length of a contract. I’d be surprised if £1.5m has gone out in transfer fees since May 2018.

What the actual f**k is this? A limited manager who’s turned the club round and currently has us mid table in a league where we have one of the smallest budgets!!? WOW!

Souness with our current budget!!? ???? That’s dreamland pal. Wow!

Watching the games and Listening to TM , it was fairly easy to work out that we would be prioritising a striker. CF is arguably the most important position in the team the only position we dont have nearly enough cover. Every good team has ample mainline options plus cover. Whichever way you look at it the manager doesn’t trust BB to do that job yet. Armstrong and Dack have been largely ineffective in that role and so as a manager he must be petrified of Graham getting injured. Every other position / player is open to being replaced by better quality additions and some are needed more than others but I couldn’t see past a striker two weeks ago and I still can’t. Prediction of what they’ll do / try to do remains: 1) Striker on loan (experience in Champ) 2) Reed - Perm 3) Chapman - loan to perm or perm As well as BB made perm. Can see Palmer return plus some loans for the likes of Travis and Nuttall. Note - A fully fit Davenport will be like a new signing. Highly rated at City and now at Rovers. Played most of his competitive games in the Champ last season and could easily have a ‘Reed’ like impact. I can see Reed, Travis and Davenport being medium to long term replacements for Smallwood and and Evans in the first Xl

I know what you mean and I have to agree. He was SOOOO poor when he came on. Looked cold and disinterested to me. But I haven’t scouted him for months and I don’t watch him everyday in training. The people who have and do, rate him really highly. It’s a tough one and depends on what investment we have. If we’re serious about going up then you have to be prepared to buy up talent and potential in every position. Either way, we need more strikers who do the job Graham does. If we want to go up then for me the following needs to happen over the next four windows: Be prepared to improve every position in terms of quality. Sell Dack for £25m+ in the summer. Bell, Williams, Smallwood, Conway, Downing, Evans replaced in first eleven and sold or prepared to be on the bench. Mulgrew and Graham maintain their fitness and performance levels or be replaced. Raya, Nyambe, Lenihan, Armstrong, Brereton, Rothwell, Davenport, Reed (hopefully) to be developed to Premiership level. Team built around them.

But that depends on our ambition and how much we have to spend. If the suggestion is that we have only the Brereton money to spend then I would be tempted to send the lad back and buy some quality as oppose to potential. However if we are looking to build a promotion team then over the next four windows I expect to see several millions paid out. Those teams would have three or four options for that mainline striker option and we should be no different.

Get a striker in!! I’d personally pay money for Maupey or Adams from the Championship . Moore or Marquis from league one would offer us great options too.

If anyone was under any illusion that BB is ready to challenge Danny Graham then the last 25 mins of today’s game should have clarified that he isn’t..

Watching the games and Listening to TM , it was fairly easy to work out that we would be prioritising a striker. CF is arguably the most important position in the team the only position we dont have nearly enough cover. Every good team has ample mainline options plus cover. Whichever way you look at it the manager doesn’t trust BB to do that job yet. Armstrong and Dack have been largely ineffective in that role and so as a manager he must be petrified of Graham getting injured. Every other position / player is open to being replaced by better quality additions and some are needed more than others but I couldn’t see past a striker two weeks ago and I still can’t. Prediction of what they’ll do / try to do remains: 1) Striker on loan (experience in Champ) 2) Reed - Perm 3) Chapman - loan to perm or perm As well as BB made perm. Can see Palmer return plus some loans for the likes of Travis and Nuttall. Note - A fully fit Davenport will be like a new signing. Highly rated at City and now at Rovers. Played most of his competitive games in the Champ last season and could easily have a ‘Reed’ like impact. I can see Reed, Travis and Davenport being medium to long term replacements for Smallwood and and Evans in the first Xl

Don’t know why I’m even arguing with you. Whatever you think mate, all the best ??

Absolutely!! For what it’s worth, with Venkys giving him public backing and access to cash I do believe we should be looking at adding quality that is ready to hit the ground running.

We’re going to have to agree to disagree on Mowbrays transfer dealings. You have valid points but in the main I disagree with most of them. I’ve explained exactly why I think he’s been great in the transfer market so far (sales and purchases in the context of success). Iv even accepted what I believe to be his failings but to say he’s failed there is beyond me. I’m not going to change your minds and neither are you going to change mine. ?

My point still stands. The success of the team over the past 18 months has been effected positively by Mowbrays signings. All of the players I have mentioned have contributed and that’s a fact. No one is saying that they’ve been perfect but the ‘mainly miss’ point is ridiculous imo.

I think TM is about the most honest manager we’ve ever had. I don’t know why he’s not playing him but he’s said enough about the situation to prevent me from thinking there’s some cynical sub plot. From what I hear BB played a lot of games early on at forest due to injuries? Maybe if we’d had multiple, long term injuries in this area we would have played him more?

Ahhhh so what’s your point? That Coyle’s recruitment is the reason for our success? Maybe Lamberts? Or that one game (Saturdays) is accountable for the managers whole tenure. Dack, Armstrong, Smallwood, Antonsson, Samuel, Caddis and Bell all played a role in last years promotion. The first three on that list were arguably pivotal. This season, Armstrong, Brereton, Reed, Rothwell and Palmer have all scored or assisted thus showing a direct impact on the team performance. Whilst I personally think Rodwell has also made a decent enough start. I don’t get how narrow minded this argument is. It’s really simple, we don’t get promoted last season without the players mentioned above. And we don’t make the start we have this season without the impact of the others Iv mentioned. We know this because they’ve directly effected our matches in terms of goals and assists. Just because some of them signed this season aren’t regulars doesn’t mean they’re bad signings. He’s openly said he expects the likes of Rothwell, Brereton and Davenport are signings that will benefit us over a long period. In all of his reign I can only think of Whittingham who came with a rep, likely on decent money and failed. We’ve never had any bad apples brought in either. No rumblings in the dressing room... AND in the middle of all this we currently have (arguably) the best player in Championship on our books who was signed for £750k and will likely go for £20-25m in the summer. That’d be enough for most fans. Obvs not ours! ???

Jones was a curious case. I watched him bully a peak Drogba at Ewood Park aged 18. There was nothing gonna stop that lad from being the best CB on the planet. Injuries and possibly too much too soon killed him. Had a good career but definitely underachieved. Intersting points you make about Lowe and Hanley being thrust in too soon. I also think Hoilett was trusted too soon. That guy had some skills. Has never really hit the heights. Dunn and Duff were definitely introduced slowly. The other thing about them was that it wasn’t until 2 or so years had passed that they were then expected to change games. Perhaps because we had lots of good players back then. Maybe the biggest issue with throwing young players in is their mental strength in dealing with the expectation? Maybe that’s the reason he’s taking things slowly with BB. His interviews suggest it...though I don’t know the answer.

Opinions are exactly that. They’re just a persons thoughts. But the validity of those opinions are tangible. SAF made mistakes but his success was primarily based on how well he dealt with bad apples and replaced players giving him longevity. His success was a barometer of his ability in the transfer market. TM is no different and his transfer business has shaped his progress so far, which has been very good. If we fail to progress towards the Premier League then his prowess in the transfer market is wide open as well as the other facets. IMO

Ok, so my opinion is that I’d love to see more of Brereton. The club are very excited about him and I value the opinions of the people I know who rate him. (I haven’t been able to make my own judgement because he hasn’t played much) I can therefore empathise with people wanting to see more of him. But I stop short of making myself beleive there is only one possible, cynical reason for it. As Iv said before, I would have bought another mainline striker in the summer as well as BB. I look at every success story in there and the teams always have several different goal scoring options. I genuinely believe we would’ve been 5/6pts better off had we done so. I suppose they thought they’d have Samuel who has Championship experience but still. They should’ve addressed that imo. So yes 100% a striker would be my priority. I want to see BB play up front and I’d pick him if Graham were injured.

He’s played his way in by doing well. But that’s a good thing isn’t it? That the likes of Rodwell and the others have increased his standards? I still think he’ll move on as he’s suggested. Because ultimately he knows he’s 5th choice.

Mowbray has played Lenihan, Mulgrew, Williams and Rodwell before him this season. The only reason he played recently was because TM refused to play two left footed cb’s with both Lenihan and Rodwell injured. He’s been in the press this week claiming that he’s looking at moving on. Because he’s not playing.

Downing is now 5th place defender. Samuel was replaced by £7m BB Smallwood - We signed Reed and Davenport (who’s been injured) and tbf to Smallwood he’s fighting hard to keep his place. Bell is young and was bought to develop into a championship player. Caddis has gone. You make a great point initially but those players are and will be removed through the season. He’s openly said that the players are under no illusion as to what standard they need to be at to stay in the team. Even the likes of Bennett and Mulgrew.