You've given up on Whittingham then ? I think we'll struggle to loan him out even if we pay his wages. On another tack , what about the invisible man that is Gladwin ?

I'm out on holiday with a pal who's a die hard Sunderland fan. I'll risk his blood pressure and ask him for the low down on Rodwell later we he gets up.

Hutchison gave plenty of full backs a tough time. He had a trick were he over ran the ball and then dragged it through with his trailing leg. He fooled me every time and I was only watching from the stand. I've never seen another player do this particular trick. I rated Nyambe when the knives were out for him on here. He has pace and athleticism. That'll take you a long way in today's football. The skill bit will come with time.

I'd rather not panic buy. It rarely turns out well.

From what I read about Rodwell he's exactly the wrong sort of player to bring in. The original bad apple. His attitude at Sunderland stank. I daren't ask my Sunderland supporting pal what he thinks of him, he's already got high blood pressure !

Is he what we need though ? We seem well stocked for midfield players. On another tack - when are we going to move some of the fringe players out ?

I wish we were still playing 2-3-5 , it was great, goals galore in the old days. I loved seeing two wingers and two strikers with Dougie laying chances on a plate for them . That was then, this is now. There's a reason we aren't playing like that anymore. It's much easier to destroy than create so now we play almost the opposite system.

Me too. There's got to better out there. Henderson at Rochdale scores plenty of goals in a poor team.

Not with our propensity for gifting opponents soft goals.

And then you woke up.

Nobody plays with four attacking players these days. Our two in central midfield will get run ragged by the four or five opponents in midfield whilst our front four are stood waving for a pass.

Amazing players do amazing things.

Starting slowly has been an issue for a long while. The first 15 minutes is when the opposition are at their most vulnerable. No team likes playing away from home. You should get your foot on their neck and keep it there. You can tell after a short period of time if we're up for it. Same with my Rugby League team. If they're stood about like a bunch of grapes, taking the ball stood still, falling off tackles in the first 5 minutes you're usually in for a long afternoon.

Name me a top player that hasn't missed a sitter. Two of the best goal scorers I ever saw were Jimmy Greaves and Denis Law. I've seen both of them miss from two yards out . Greavsey hit the bar with an header when he was stood on the goal line !

I read that Keifer Moore got a good hat trick for Barnsley at Rochdale last night.

Yeah I bet some of people on here never slept a wink on Christmas Eve.

I liked Barrow, how he never played more for us is a mystery. I saw this lad Sims play once for Southampton and he looked pretty handy.

Maybe the Chicken Chokers have decided to lend a hand now the test match is as good as over.

I won't damn them if they don't sign him. As you say we can't afford to get this one wrong. There's a lot riding on it. Somebody worth that sort of money at our level has got to be a starter not Graham's understudy.

So why haven't they signed him ? £ 8 million is absolute peanuts to clubs like Utd or Liverpool.

Nobody at our level plays two up front and a player like Dack in behind. That ship sailed years ago.

I'm hoping for a win but I've been watching us too long to be over confident. We love a banana skin at Rovers. If we win well tonight I'll really start to believe we can go places this season. I'm going for a draw 1-1 tonight.

Very good signing. Just our luck we play them on Wednesday.

Forest are just stringing us along hoping we'll pay daft money for this lad. It's time we called their bluff and walked away .

His recent injury record would put me off. If you're going to pay big bucks whoever it is you sign they have to play. Martin Britt who I mentioned a while ago had such a bad knee injury he could only jump off his good leg !