If you could get Wickham fit and firing then you have an excellent player at Championship level however that is highly unlikely as his injury record is terrible.

In the week where Mowbray talked about bringing the fans back to Ewood a performance that won't live long in the memory of those that attended and one that won't be bringing back those who didn't attend. It was a performance that pretty much confirmed everything that we all ready knew, that we are desperately short up front, lack any genuine width and are light weight in the middle of the park. To have such a weak squad two games into the season is very poor, you just looked at the bench today and Armstrong was the only name that you looked at and thought he could come on and win the game. Another striker simply has to be brought in before the next game that has to be the priority the week. In his selection Mowbray has got to be more ruthless the likes of Bennett and Smallwood are good League 1 players but not good enough to be Championship starters. We look very lightweight in midfield with Evans and Smallwood (hopefully Davenport can be effective in their otherwise we need someone brought into put his foot in and try to dominate). Bennett I'm not sure what his best position is to me he is a jack of all trades, who you would have on the bench to come on and do a job but he's not a starter. Palmer looked good and shouldn't have been taken off although Rothwell did decent when he came but neither looked like natural wide men which is what we are crying out for, someone to run down the wing and put some crosses in for Graham. Nice to see Bell get a start and I thought he was very solid. On the whole a point gained as Millwall could have been out of sight by half time.

They were not loan's with a view to buy they were brought in on loan and after their performances we made bids to sign them but nothing was agreed when the original loan deal was made.

According to you Nicko (who I know you hold in high esteem) Brereton was as shocked as anyone about the deal, so that through that thought out of the window. Why wait until the summer for Bauer when we need a centre half now and if he has an excellent season this year there will be bigger clubs than us pursuing him. What make you think we are going to bring players in on loan with a view to a permanent? One when was the last time we did that with anyone? And two why would a club loan a player out when they can use him until January and then sell him? He's had 3 months to bring your 3 players in on permeants or loans don't get your hopes up that he will in the next few weeks.

Not sure why everyone is pinning their hopes on loans, its not like the loan window has only just opened it's been open the last few months and we've only brought Palmer in. So what make people think that we are going to go out and get the 3-4 players we need on loan in the next few weeks?

The squad is marginally better than the one that went down purely because of Dack however this is a stronger league than the year we went down it is probably the strongest Championship in a very long time. And the squad is not all that different to the one that went down, 7 of the 11 that started on Saturday were regulars in the team that got relegated along with Conway who came on as sub.

In reality though you won't get anyone. Just like you didn't get any of the 3 permanent deals that you thought we were going to get this week.

As we haven't brought in any of those players during the last 3 months what makes you think that we are going to bring any of those positions during the next couple of weeks? And I thought you wanted an experienced back up goal keeper as well?

You said the other day that you expected 3 more permanent signings and told me that Gallagher would be in the squad on Saturday. What's gone wrong?

Garner for a million pound 10 goals last year in the Championship in 32 games. That's more than our current alternatives to Graham,(Samuel and Nuttall) managed combined in league 1 last season. As for Windass he has an eye for goal and something that we desperately lack which is pace. Hurst had a clear plan sign players that he had seen last year that could be bought for a reasonable fee and could be improved. Whereas all Mowbray appeared to have was a few lists.

Wigan showed today that there was value in the market getting Windass and Garner for around £3.5 million combined. Both would have been good additions for us in positions that we needed signings in, instead we bid 5 million for an unproven teenager.

Failure we've done exactly what I feared we would do when we got promoted which was fail to strengthen significantly. We are barley any better than last season, a relegation battle beckons, no width and one striker. It looks to me that Mowbray has been given a good budget but simply didn't know how to spend it, he kept talking about A lists B list and so on but it looks like he had so many lists he didn't know which list to use and we were scrambling about on the final day just trying to sign one player despite Mowbray earlier in the week saying he wanted 4-5 players. I also don't buy the argument that Mowbray won't pay over the odds for a player given last season he paid £500k for Samuel and £300K for a reserve left back.

Very good signing. Would have been ideal for us.

We hardly romped home though did we. We were promoted with just 2 games to go. We were just fortunate that when we dropped points at Gillingham and Bristol during the run in Shrewsbury failed to take advantage otherwise it may have been a different story.

One problem this squad is not good enough to finish 14th . Its a squad that is barley any better than the squad that struggled to get out of League 1. A relegation battle looms unless something happens in the next 2.5 hours.

Wow how ambitious. Would you also be more than happy to Finish 14th and then the likes of Dack and Lenihan leave to go to clubs with more ambition which would no doubt happen. Its typical of our luck over the last few years Venkys finally appear to have stumped up some decent money and now the manager won't spend it

If you want to achieve anything beyond scratching around the bottom half you are going to sometimes have to pay a bit extra as fees are inflated in football today thats just the way it is. Unfortunatley Mowbray is an old fasioned sort of manager and his approach has shown to be just that this window hence so few signing despite Mobray himself saying last week he wanted 4-5.

The attempted Bauer signing seems a strange we apparently bid for him a couple of months ago and haven't gone for another centre back since then surely it wasn't Bauer or nobody for Mowbray. With Downing not making the bench the thought of Lenihan or Mulgrew going of injured in a game and Williams playing at centre back terrifies me.

Surely an experienced manager like Mowbray who knows the Championship well can't think that Samuel and Nuttall are adequate however I fear you are right.

Incredible that we are could be going into the second game of the season with no backup to Graham (who we all know can only last for 70 minutes). Will be really disappointed in Mowbray if that happens as its should have been a priority.

Brandon Barker played for Hibs last season, didn't look anything special and was in and out the team.

Going to Celtic

If we are going to bid for someone from Rangers then bid £2 million for Josh Windass, as one he is a good player and two he plays in a position where we need to strengthen.

I can see what will be said at 5 O'clock now 'we tried a number of things but for one reason or another they didn't quite come off, but we still have the loan window to get players in'. Which will equate to a young unproven kid from a premier league under 23 team. A very disappointing window.

Token bid?