Ewood Ace

He will have have got a decent pay rise by signing for us. Crewe at the very most will be paying what they were already paying him.

Fee of £650K according to Sharpe.

This lad will be coming in as more than cover. City wouldn't be letting him come here just as cover.

Pickering confirmed. Back to Crewe for rest of the season.

I thought that you'd be disappointed with the Pickering signing as towards the end of last season when people were saying we should be making signings you said it was stupid to sign players for the following season before we knew what league we were going to be in. I have no problem with one or 2 loan signings to plug a gap or two but 5 is excessive and is going to leave at lot of work to be done in the summer. I'd be very surprised if that is already the case.

Nils-Eric Johansson Joe Rankin-Costello

Good singing for Brentford that. Bit of extra experience is just what they need.

He's had one half decent game against a very cautious Luton side. At Middlesbrough he was poor.

We do on centre backs. Four years in and Mowbray still hasn't spent a penny on a centre back. Is it any wonder that it has been a problem position for us for years now.

Why do you disagree? In Tony's own words loaning players becomes 'dead money' at the end of the season. 'This close' - Mowbray feels Rovers won't be far away this year | Lancashire Telegraph He's also said "We might sit here at the end of the year having spent a million pound for instance on a player who is not even ours. Then he'll go back to his parent club, that money is down the drain and we finish mid-table. Blackburn Rovers encounter loan market complications as Tony Mowbray looks to bolster his squad - LancsLive You also 'can't build a club of loans' according to Tony. 'You can't build a club off loans' - Tony Mowbray's final interview as Sky Blues boss issues parting shots - CoventryLive (coventrytelegraph.net) Because come the summer we will need at least 1 probably 2 centre backs just like last summer, we will need at least one left back unless Bell contract is extended and I'd hope we aren't going to do that. And we will also need at least one right back, which will become 2 if Nyambe goes. As with every summer under Mowbray the defence will need a fair few signings and why is that the case every summer because he sorts the defensive issues through short term loans.

You think we will reach the Premier League this season with these loan signings? Because I don't and if we don't then the loan signings haven't been a success for the club all we have done is helped develop another clubs player.

The signings certainly don't match his comments. He has previously said that you can't build a team through loans yet if Bellis signs then he has the full quota of 5 loans. He talks about building and being on a journey yet short loan signings point in the complete opposite direction and towards short termism.

How about the £350K and 4 year deal on his mate from Boro's son. That money could have been put to much better use especially when you consider the number of young keepers we had on the books and even Tony can only get one on the pitch at a time. Four years as manager and he still hasn't spent a single penny on centre backs.

The trouble is come the end of the season they will be gone and we will be back to square one needing more defensive signings. Tony Mowbray once said you can't build a team through loan's yet he seems to think he can build a defence through them. Unless the loan signings get us promoted then they haven't been successful signings for us, the only two parties they are a success for are the player and his parent club. For a manager who talks about building and a journey it is very short sighted.

You have ago at someone else's ability to spot a player and then in your next post you say that Brereton 'is a player'.🤣

He was an extremely solid defender. You are the one rewriting history. If we had a defender of his ability in our current squad then we'd most likely be in the top 6.

Both were streets ahead of any centre back that we own now though.

I've just found it Armstrong cost £1.75 Million with add ons rising up to £3 Million. Just the £1.75 Million alone is more than 25% of clubs in this division have spent on a player in their entire history. So just remember that when you telling us that we are paupers in this division. Absolutely not if you go back and read my previous posts you will see that I have had long held opinions on Gallagher and Brereton.

It difficult to move on when they are both here on 4 year contracts. Surely even a devout supporter of Mowbray like yourself must admit that the £12 Million could have been spent so much better. You are always telling us how we can't compete financially so surely that make it even more vital that when we spend significant sums that we get it right. It was £2.5 Million plus add on actually so lets not make out that they bought at knock off prices although I'm not surprised you are as you seem to love talking the club down and making us out to be minnows with no money.

Or perhaps he knew that Billic wasn't going to be there for long.

Billic isn't manager there anymore. So that is now an irrelevant point.

I know Crooke is a young lad but surely even Rovers' reputation hasn't sunk low enough over the last few years that signing a 22 year old full back from Crewe is seen as a 'massive coup'.

No one has a guaranteed a starting place you say yet previously you said if he came here he would play regular first team football. If he was told the shirt wasn't his to start with, which is quite likely given some of Mowbray's previous comments then why would he choose Rovers on less money in a lower league?

How do you know he would have been a regular here? As you were so keen to tell the forum when Bauer turned us down, Mowbray does not gave assurances of a place to anyone. Which at the time you wholeheartedly agreed with.

He never got promoted with Norwich they were a Premier League side when joined them. Also he barely played for Norwich when he was there.