Never heard of this before?

Nope. We sold him to Stoke. Stoke sold him to Sevilla. Any sell on clause would have gone when Stoke sold him.

I'd rather have Bambi on ice who plays games and plays a part in getting Wigan promoted in Leonardo Da Silva Lopes, than Bambi's mum who plays no role in helping us forward in Ben Gladwin.

Wigan spent £1.5 million on Leonardo Da Silva Lopes.

Stoke spend £10 million on Ince, and we are all sat here wondering if we are at any stage going to break the £1 million barrier. Not asking that we spend silly money. Just get a move on and get things moving!

Mowbray said that he wanted the bulk of his signings to be made before the trip to Austria. Whilst that might be just an aspiration, it is worth remembering that the trip was a month ago. Pre-season is always talked up as being key to getting a team working well together as a group when hitting the turf during the coming season. Our last signing was 21 days ago. That is 21 days where we have played key fitness and teamwork building games which have gone out the window. At this stage of preparations last season we had announced Mark Venus as Assistant Manager, restructured backroom staff, signed Tony Mowbray up to a new contract, signed Peter Whittingham, got Lewis Travis, Joe Grayson, Stefan Mols, Charley Doyle, Tyler Magloire and Ryan Nyambe to sign new contracts. Signed Richie Smallwood, signed coach David Lowe up to a new contract, signed Bradley Dack, Ben Gladwin, signed Dominic Samuel and Paul Caddis. Released Anthony Stokes and signed up Joe Nuttall.

Who's willing to bet Tony Mowbray is planning another trip to India to ask for more money. The sums being asked for in terms of transfer fee's and wages are utterly bonkers (Armstrong requiring circa £25,000-£30,000 a week). It is clearly way more than Mowbray budgeted for and the simple fact is we all of us know that the current squad that we have isn't going to stave off relegation. Something needs to change quickly.

Ipswich Town have apparently agreed a £750,000 fee with Bristol Rovers for Ellis Harrison according to the East Anglia press. Edit: Accepted offer confirmed by club.

Fair enough. How about a double move for Adam Armstrong and Rolando Aarons. We can dream.

Three bold names who could be good loan options in terms of what we are looking for who haven't gone out from their clubs yet... Reiss Nelson (Arsenal), Ademola Lookman (Everton) and Tammy Abraham (Chelsea) could all help solve our pace issues. Tammy would be a massive step into solving our problems especially if he replicates his Bristol City form.

Could we just clarify exactly what we need. Do we all agree 1x CB, 2x CF's and 2x Wingers are needed? Emphasis on height for the CB, pace for the two wingers and one of the Forwards, whilst the other has some height about him? This sound about right?

Alexander Sørloth on loan could be a good optional alternative to Gallagher. Tall, obviously talented and hasn't quite made it at Crystal Palace.

Ryan Kent has signed for Rangers on a season long loan.

Nuttall was the top scorer in that team. Place him in the 1st team and the gulf in experience and capabilities are laid bare. For me, the only U21 ready for the 1st team now is Travis.

A double move for Marriott and Maddison could solve a lot of our problems.

Ipswich Town have apparently joined us in being interested in the forward Ellis Harrison

Offer £1 million straight up. £500,000 after his first 20 goals. £500,000 after his first 40 games. Another million upon successful promotion. + 5% sell on fee to cover the staggered instalments. (Championship Manager answer to complicated question)

Some context for this goal. The goal came through Markovic, Keita and Sturridge. Those 3 players cost Liverpool a combined £80,000,000 One of them has been deemed surplus to requirements, one of them spent a chunk of last season out on loan and the other is a new £48,000,000 signing. Meanwhile our entire team cost £4.25 million to put together.

John Toshack is the manager there. They also signed Harry Forrester.

Markovic's goal.

Markovic scores for Liverpool. 1-0 We lack pace and that spark of creativity. In fact the only player with the pace that's so badly needed doesn't seem all that fussed to play (Samuel).

SAVED!!!

Really foolishly hoped deep down that we'd have a player announcement just before kick off. Such as Dack signing a new contract or a new forward coming in. How very foolish of me.

Graham absent again along with Gladwin. Shows how badly we need more signings in before the season starts.

Interesting little comparison for people to ponder when deciding which has been our best team over the last couple of years. Personally I think we had a stronger squad last season than we currently do this summer. If you boil it back to its bare bones. We have effectively swapped the availability of Harry Chapman (when fit), Marcus Antonsson, Adam Armstrong and Jack Payne for Joe Rothwell and Jacob Davenport. I suppose you could argue at a push that Rothwell and Davenport replace Chapman and Payne. But for me that doesn't replace the two center forward options we had and doesn't confront the lack of pace availability on the wing that we had last season (which might have been somewhat addressed with Chapman being fit). For me. We still need at least two center-forwards and a winger, if not two. In an ideal world we would get another defender to cover for Mulgrew if needed. But at a push I guess we have Wharton and Downing.