From the bits I've seen online he looks like a tidy passer who most importantly looks like he tries to always play the ball forwards. By the looks of things though he is going to need to have a telepathic reading of the game and a great first touch as he looks absolutely tiny. You can be that small as a footballer, but you have to be very, very good. That's my biggest worry. No way of telling until he's had a run of games though

My view is a very cynical view but my concern is the amount of time remaining on Mowbrays contract. I firmly believe he thought he could get us promoted last year. Spent every penny we had on a hugely inflated squad to the point whereby we were right on the edge of Ffp. So much so that it seemed there was no money even for extensions. Now we have a little cash and flex from the Arma sale. Mowbray has 1 year remaining on his contract. What is more important to him. Seeing us scrapping against relegation with a thin squad but assets tied down to long term contracts. Or bringing a number of players some temporary, some permanent and us finishing around midtable. If he leaves at the end of his contract there is clearly one option which benefits him and his reputation, but harms the club.

Another year loan would do Magloire and Carter some good. I wouldn't mind loaning in a centre half so long as they were decent quality. We can essentially tell our two going out on loan there is a spot available for next season. Let them fight it out. Who can put in the best performance in league 1. Bit of incentive and hopefully we see them step up. Centre halves of Lenihan, Ayala, Wharton and a top quality loan should be enough to see us through. There was negligence last year but the Wharton injury completely screwed us over. Ayala was predicted though.

I've not kept up with the Arma deal so am a little confused. Are we thinking that Arma has gone to Saints for £15million and that deal is officially one on its own. But we've been a little sly by Southampton agreeing to sell us Obafemi for cheaper than their true valuation in a completely separate deal to prevent us paying as much to Newcastle?

Thing is we are all debating whether Arma is top level quality and his worth. But on this occasion Mowbray is right. If he had 3 years left on his deal no club would have a sniff under £20million and we would probably be trying to milk them for closer to £25million. Whether somebody would pay it is another question. If Southampton are after a striker to replace Ings who they are 100% confident in and represents very little risk then they simply don't exist at the prices they are willing to pay. £8million was insulting. I'm sure in their heads they value Obafemi who's done nothing in his career at that price. If they want him. They need to pay up and do it now.

I think Mowbray just truly believes his own waffle. He wasn't trying to elevate expectations last season. He genuinely believed he was going to take us up and with 5 subs possible he decided to spunk our money on a hugely inflated squad size with nothing left over for contracts. So nothing untoward, but putting his own career first as he wanted another promotion on his Cv. That and cushy contracts for the boys. Regardless of anything this situation is of his own making.

Without doing this we are in an absolute hole and back in the position of close to zero assets

I constantly question whether some of the posters on there are real people or just fake profiles to give a false perception of positivity to those with stakes in the club.

They continue to stick their heads in the sand. The small step forwards we need to see are experienced directors with the power to make local decisions at Rovers. Their is zero future until this point. And I genuinely believe there is zero future under Venkys because they've not done it in a decade so I can't see them doing it now. Your post was a good one. But without that step there is nothing.

Who'd have thought Manchester City signing Jack Grealish could have an impact on us selling Arma. Grealish from villa to city Ings from Southampton to villa Arma from us to Southampton They'd best be willing to stump up a decent bit of cash now though considering they've just got £30million for a 29 year old in the last year of his contract.

And come 12 months most of them would be leaving for nothing when their contracts expire. That's the level of positivity I'm at with the current regime.

It's the whole set up and philosophy that doesn't suit Travis. Get him in a battle and he's an excellent player. I agree he needs to be box to box as his biggest asset is his physicality and drive. Both when pressurising the opposition and when he's carrying the ball. As it stands Mowbray has had him holding which takes away his drive. I don't think he has the positional discipline either. And then when we're in possession we're trying to dominate games and he's playing short passes sideways and he can be very sloppy in that regard. It also again takes away his ability to drive forwards. In short I don't think he was over rated. He's just being asked to do things which take away from the things he's best at.

Consider yourself lucky. It seems the targeted ads are for me to click on chaddys avatar

I for one would like to say a huge thank you. Having moved 'down south' aged 10 this site has been a huge part of me staying true to my roots and feeling involved as a Rovers fan. The club are part of me as a person and this site is part of me feeling connected to that part of me. As I've sod all other people to talk to about anything Rovers related. So a big thank you. I can't overstate what this site has meant to me over the years. Without it there would be a hole in my life, so I can say for me your graft has been genuinely appreciated. Edit: I'd also like to extend that thanks to the new team taking over the reigns

Genuinely, if it were an option, yes. I have noticed over the last 12 months there has been a significant increase in ads and noticeably more as of the relaunch today. Its not a criticism, as I for one fully appreciate all the work that goes into this site and as has clearly been stated, the site is 'not for profit'. So in terms of the upkeep I know it's a necessary evil. As an end user though, I log onto this site virtually every day and the amount of them are annoying, so providing the monthly fee wasn't too high, if it were an option I'd be happy to pay it.

Brentford paid Peterborough 10m quid not Newcastle. Quick Google says Peterborough bought him for about 500,000 plus 30% sell on fee.

We are run in a very, very old school way in that the manager is just left to get on with things. Between the lot of them they have clearly not prioritised proper forward planning. Last seasons squad was beyond huge and large contracts have been handed out as rewards to aging players. Non of this has been done for the good of the future of the club. If those in charge had the good of the future of the club at heart making sure Armstrong, Nyambe, Rothwell, Brereton and Lenihan had longer than 1 year left on their deals would have been the number 1 priority. Instead the 'reward' contracts and going all in with last years ridiculous squad size was prioritised. These things shouldn't have been left solely up to the manager but they were and they have been willfully neglected. Venkys let the clowns run free and they've cocked it up. Through both incompetence and what I can only assume furthering their own careers by spending money which should have been securing the clubs future on extra sweets from the candy shop on players with no long term benefit. Mowbray has no respect left from me. He's incompetent, insulting and false. Venkys continue to be the joke they've always been, consistently shirking their true responsibilities.

I'm making this up as I go here but surely if you took a 'C shot' (hate that term) there are ways of increasing the odds which make it a C shot opportunity. For example hard and low and some kind of signal you are about to have a go and few other players follow in at pace. Or even making a dummy run when they see you lining one up to open up the chance of a reverse pass when the defender goes for a block. I agree that so much attacking is very sterile. Crossing being the same. Big sides don't do it. They look for an overlap in the box, square it and a tap in. So long as the midfield are positioned well to pressurise and prevent a counter there's nothing wrong with giving the ball away. Sure certain moves result in goals more often. But if you spend 30 minutes playing it sideways to get there because the opposition know exactly what you're doing it's slightly self defeating.

I don't think it's made a jot of difference, us having been in an embargo. We never organise ourselves to take advantage of early deals anyway as we're usually waiting for the budget, a meeting with the overlords or Tony's hollibobs. The notion from the club we missed out on early targets is waffle and more excuses in my eyes. The only thing the embargo did was offer a suitable excuse which will be trotted out all summer and then probably all season long. Conveniently.

Armstrong is worth £20million in todays market at the end of a window when clubs get twitchy. They would come back to him as West Ham did with Benrhama. Was that about £28million?? However we are an abysmally managed club. Waggot this, Waggot that. In terms of how he's done a poor job at Rovers. Put simply. What are a clubs most valuable assets? The players. What has Waggot allowed to lose value? The players. He's meant to be head honcho in the UK. Even Venkys. I'm sure if they had it explained in black and white they'd have been willing to throw extra pennies at some of these players to protect their value with meaningful contract extensions. As it is our club could be soon on its knees again because we haven't managed our assets effectively. We have made some poor but also some excellent investments over the years. And now we hold no cards when trying to extract fair value for them. And that's it. The hard work is for nothing. £15 million for Arma today... Yeah. Reluctantly yes. Because we've slid into an insecure situation of our own making. Take the money. Spend what little there is from it. Renew a couple of contracts. Midtable... Oh and learn some bloody lessons in the basic of protecting the future of the club by having foresight beyond the immediate. In this long rambling post this is the only thing that matters. Mowbray cares about himself and his own reputation more than the club. He'd happily throw valuable money at adding an additional zero future value squad member such as Downing to his squad (last year). As he thought he could potentially help slightly in that immediate season. Things like this are done rather than allocating funds to protect the clubs future with longer term contracts for the clubs top assets. As Mowbray has them all now. Rather than an asset secured and a squad member added. Blah, blah, blah. Pfftt

Could you imagine if he left on a free. And he really, really started to kick on. It would be the most horrendous bit of business ever.

I mean he tackled him with his knees not his foot. It's a clear red. Unfortunate the fella has picked up a serious injury. But it doesn't deserve such a mad ban. You'd think he'd gone Roy Keane on him

Just watched it. Six match ban is harsh in my eyes. Comments on YouTube saying he went out to injure him. I think they just don't know Derrick Williams like we do. It's a very poor tackle but more just a complete lack of awareness. He actually makes the tackle with his knees where he tries to pull out.

One of these two line ups for me Pickford Trippier - Stones - ?????? - Shaw Bellingham - Rice Foden - Mount - Grealish Kane Pickford Walker - Stones - ?????? Trippier - Bell*/Mount - Rice - Chilwell Foden Grealish Kane *Bellingham not Amari I prefer the 3-4-2-1. Trippier and Chilwell can be huge attacking outlets. Trippier is in for his set piece ability and the amount of free kicks we will get. Foden and Grealish will complement as inside forwards. The big question mark is if we come up against midfield overloads and whether Rice and one other can handle it. There is also the question of Mason Mount and whether he has the disciple to play in there as that is a huge amount of creativity on the pitch if he can. If we are being overrun it doesn't take much to switch to a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3. In both these set ups it is essential that Kane does not carry his new found Spurs habit of dropping to deep. As good as he has been at it this season we have the creativity already. He needs to be finishing the moves, not starting them. I'm totally stumped as to what to do about the Maguire scenario. He's one of our most important players, not because he is World Class (he's decent) but because the other options are awful. I'd be tempted to gamble and put Ben White in. Southgate had a misplaced confidence in Mings. He shouldn't be in the squad and it's posing a problem. In terms of Grealish/Foden and Sterling/Rashford I hear a lot of talk about pace in behind but I'm so unimpressed with both Sterling and Rashford they've both blown it with their terrible form for me. I see the argument and I agree with the argument. But form and that both prefer the left where the un-droppable Grealish likes to drift in from makes it a no brainer. Foden being a left footer on the right adds balance to the side too. That's the side hands down for me. Only question marks is can the brilliant Mason Mount play in that formation and who the hell fills in for Maguire. In saying all of that I imagine we'll see some dross like this. Pickford Walker Stones ?????? Shaw Henderson Rice Sterling Grealish Rashford Kane Totally uninspiring and Southgate's loyalty will begin to cost us big time. If they're on form and they fit in a system then they should play. We'll see an unfit Hendo, an out of form Sterling and Rashford, Kane being starved and dropping deeper and deeper for the ball and our more conservative full backs.

I still don't understand what Southgate is trying to do. Again we are playing 4 at the back which totally goes against his selection of 4 right sides defenders. We've already seen Sancho drift more centrally. Which is when he's played his best stuff but then the team look unbalanced as we lose any width. Grealish has drifted to the left a lot where Rashford is. Kalvin Phillip's very slow in possession. I still have no idea what Southgates plan is. I'm not sure he does either