Tyrone Shoelaces

Or the other clubs our " want away " players will be linked with.

I remember asking a bloke I'd met at a rock concert what he did for a living. He said " I work in a lie factory ". It turned out he worked as a printer for " The Daily Mail ".

Any other wealthy owners would take the ruling body to court. This can't be sustainable in the light of other clubs spending. Our problem is our owners will be only too pleased if this is true.

We need some mobility from centre midfield or you end up with seven players marking two or three opponents and you get over run in centre midfield. First time I saw Smallwood play ( Rochdale Away ) he intercepted an opposition pass in the opponents half, put a good ball out to Bennett, sprinted into the penalty area, and then neatly volleyed in Bennett's cross from the edge of the six yard box. A really good piece of play were we did them for numbers because they hadn't tracked him. We need more of that.

Maybe he's thinking Charlie can contribute more on the ball in a back three.

If that's what you want to do then having Armstrong playing alongside Graham would make sense. I'm not a great fan myself, I'd prefer to look at the players and decide what system to play based on the skills they have. Fitting players into a system that may not suit doesn't normally end well. With three centre backs it should enable Charlie to carry the ball out more than the current system does.

Correct. If we play say Bennett, Linighan, Mulgrew, Williams, Bell as a back five we can't afford to have two defensive centre midfielders as well. Somebody out of those two has got to get up with the strikers regularly.

I think you're right there. He must be a slow learner.

I'd be good in the dressing room for a tenth of what Conway will be on. I've got a good sense of humour and loads of stories to tell. It's stepping out over the white line were my problems would start. I'd rather spend that dosh on a young up and coming player from the league we've just left or one being discarded by a Premier League club.

I'd rather have a real winger than Armstrong out there being played out of position. His skill set isn't that of a winger. I think his type of player is rapidly going out of fashion with only a few teams being brave enough to go with two strikers.

I wouldn't agree to it either. He needs to come for a set period of time on loan or not at all. I think the juries out on wether he'll ever be injury free again. They are serious injuries for a player who relies on pace.

I'd seen him play before he came to Rovers and I thought he had it all. I thought Souness had bought a replica of himself. What went wrong I don't know but the guy could play no mistake. I'd seen him run international games for Rangers and Scotland. Obviously he never really settled and just as he was showing some form he got a really bad injury.

It's always a gamble bringing in new players and bringing in players from Scotland is a bit more of a gamble. In spite of what their fans say it'll be a big step up for him. For every success story ( Mulgrew , Hendrey ) there is a failure ( Goodwille, Davidson etc ). If he does come in I can see Whittingham going, if only on loan.

The new Whittingham ? We don't play a system that suits that style of player at the moment.

In todays crazy prices i wouldn't take anything less than £ 10 million.

Somebody higher up the food chain than Rovers will be in for Kone.

What sort of striker is he ? Is he an Armstrong style goal poacher or is he the sort of player that can play up front on his own and lead the line ?

Strange signing for me. Especially as we have young lads coming through our junior teams.

We actually have three left backs, Williams, Bell and Hart on loan at Rochdale who appears to have vanished from the face of the earth.

You'd have to ask an Oldham fan about the rest of the season. All I know is he looked a different class to our midfield at Boundary Park. That's the whole 90 minutes in the flesh, not the " highlights " on TV. As for Chaddy saying Byrne isn't good enough - maybe, but he was too good for us that day.

Byrne ran the show when we lost at Oldham.

He'll be on mega bucks.

I can't see us having £5 million to spend in total never mind on one player.

It'll need more than a repeat of last years dosh to make an impact next season.

Accepted. It's been a long winter.