£3.5m up front and £2.5m if Bournemouth go up.

Haha - it’s water off a ducks back. I do know that they’re confident that the WBA job is sorted. So much so that ‘Veno’ is telling the out of contract lads (DL, JR & RN) not to sign any deals elsewhere because they’ll be able to offer them all a contract! 👀 Im also absolutely CONVINCED that TM is keeping Dack fresh so he can come in for him in the summer - this bit is just my opinion.

He’ll blame Venkys for not sanctioning Bournemouth’s £6m bid for Joe Rothwell for our drop off. He had two players lined up with the money. Venkys pulled the plug.

Fairly open.

Yes, he’s going to WBA.

We won’t. It’s worse than getting relegated. Because he has this habit of creating hope and then flattening us with a Mowbray death spiral.

In honesty, I don’t think he’ll go!

Come on mate….they don’t want him, he knows that by now. Imo the India meeting is a ‘thanks for everything Tony’ meeting… Big question is, who if anyone do they have lined up?

He’s got a top one! With money to spend…wouldn’t surprise me if he’s keeping Dack fresh so he can put a cheeky bud in for him in the summer too!! Be tempting to any promotion chasing club to think they could get DL and JR on a free and a full fit Bradley Dack through the door for £10m?

You’re going to be blown away!!!

Would anyone be in the slightest bit annoyed if it were true that Mowbray has a deal lined up to join a Championship club in the summer? That he was advising the out of contract three, not to sign elsewhere (there’s upto 4x what’s on the table at Rovers on offer elsewhere - it’s 100% about the money) because he will be able to offer them deals at his new club?

Kaminski Lenihan. JPvH. Wharton Nyambe Travis Rothwell. Giles Hedges. Buckley. Brereton Subs - Pears, Ayala, Zeefuik, Johnson, Davenport, Khadra. I don’t think Khadra will start because he hasn’t really trained. He’d be a good player to bring on for BBD at 70 mins. If they decide BBD isn’t fit to start I think they might put Zeefuik at LWB and play Giles as the left wide forward. Looking forward to the game. Would love to see a return to form and 0-3

Pretty sure he’ll play as a wide forward as we haven’t really played with anyone up front since we changed to 3 at the back. Buckley & Dack will rotate in the false 9 position centrally and Hedges, BBD, Khadra, Dolan and Gally will fight out for the two wide forwards positions. Poveda will hopefully supplement them from April and Markanday joins that pack from next season.

Brilliant post.

I can and many I’ve spoken to a few colleagues and friends who are now rather envious of the youth based model we are using. It will upset a few but I think we’ve turned a bit of a corner in general. Fingers crossed this continues! The manager (who I would’ve replaced in the summer) has given more debuts to youth players than any manager in our history… Serious question, IF Tony got us up AND kept us up could he be considered our greatest manager EVER? When you look in context at what he inherited in terms of players and culture and what his net spend has been…you’d be hard pushed not to give that consideration… I mean, if he got us up to the PL he’d have to make our top 3 best managers EVER, right? Would we end up telling our grandkids the story of woe and how Lemon drizzle Tony took us to the promise land!!? I’ll leave you with that one 😊

No, I think Tony clearly sees Joe as a full back / wing back as evidenced by him playing him mainly in those positions for the manager. The additional cover in those areas and a lack of reliance on Joe is them being worried about whether his body can stand up to the rigours of Championship. I think a lot of the signings made have taken the pressure away from the club having to rely on players like JRC and Dack until after they’ve done a full preseason. But I fully expect that JRC will challenge Zeefuik next season for the RWB role once Nyambe leaves. Could he cover in CM or as a wide forward? Yes. But he’s built his reputation in the position Mowbray plays him in. 👍🏼

Very good 👊🏼

A lot of ifs and buts there mate. We could’ve signed one or two and they then got injured like the unfortunate Markanday and we end up relying on the rest anyway… Having five or six if you include Giles, for the two wide forward positions and then two for the one (false 9) position is adequate. If / when all fit, we’re still going to be disappointing 5 of this group who won’t be starting the game. The two we let go are neither here nor there. Butterworth has been like playing with 10 players when he’s come on and Chapman is never trusted anyway. Outside of those top three positions we are adequately stocked in the defensive and wing back areas. I do worry about our ability to cope without Travis and Rothwell because I don’t rate Johnson or Davenport. I’m hoping Edun and Garrett can step up there. Overall, we’ll be hoping and praying we can keep our first 11 on the pitch as much as possible. But we have kept the side that’s got us to 2nd in tact and added depth and quality with 5 signings. One last thing - I’m REALLY looking forwards to see which of our young guns step forward in the second half of the season…will it be Garrett who comes in for a suspended Travis and blows us all away? Will it be Adam Wharton who breaks through and leads us to think ‘Joe who?’ Does Ash Phillips get thrust in and end up playing the last 5 games with MOTM performances to propel us to the Premier League?! Its all possible pal - If we only believe!! 😊🔥

Argh come on mate, no way have we finished it weaker. Keeping JR and signing Giles (🤞🏽) whilst letting those three go out. Not one of em good enough…. BBD, Khadra, Hedges and Giles in our squad vs Swansea 👍🏼

Great point and a welcome reminder that they’ll soon be available 👍🏼

Absolutely….Buckley and Dack to rotate in the false 9 role. BBD, Khadra, Gally, Hedges and Dolan in the wide forwards role. Giles provides cover for Pickering and Edun covers CM.

I’m as disappointed as most but… If you’d have offered me Brown, Zeefuik, Markanday, Hedges and Giles with no major sales on January 1st I’d prob have taken it.

It’s always someone else’s fault. Ridiculous mentality I agree….the people who are threatening Rothwells wife and children need to take a good look at themselves, first and foremost.

Argh come off it mate….Mowbray has played this in the best way he could. He also specifically put JR’s absence on himself and asked that JR not be blamed. I think this more likely plays into our hands…”we would never do this to you Joe”

Piece of cake. If he’s here tmrw they sit him in front of the lads, he’ll tell them he’s going to give everything he’s got to fuck Bournemouth up and they’ll lap it up….most hard faced industry in the world is football! Rothwell cannot come back and toss it off because he’s a money hungry 27yr old trying to feather his nest! A terrible second half of the season will knock zeros off his summer pay day! I still think a move for JR will go through…we just need to pull the trigger on our deals now.