And if that gamble fails? Considering automatic promotion is now beyond us and the Playoffs are a crapshoot at best it seems highly likely we'd just be adding to our debts. I think JDT has massively overachieved with this squad. I was excited to see what his team would look like after a few transfer windows, but I suspect this is his last one with us. I'd have been happy with a short-term gamble on a good PL (or European top league) loanee ST to 'chance our arm' in the Playoff race, but Broughton failed to deliver.

If I'm being pedantic the squad now is stronger than it was in December - Thomas is a huge upgrade - but it's not enough.

My point is that we've been a laughing stock / basket case club for more than a decade. This particular incident is just par for the course if you're paying any sort of attention.

So you want him to publicly commit to seeking out and replacing those responsible for this error (it can only be one of the aforementioned two people) and then go behind their back to the owners to make it happen? That's simply not realistic. At best the Club Secretary will be quietly replaced / sidelined (if he has any sway in the building) as someone more competent is brought in to handle the administration of the club.

To quote the great Diaz after he choked out McGregor: "I'm not surprised, mofos". If you've been paying any sort of attention you can see that it's a horribly run club - I've come to expect this level of incompetence... but then I've always been more perceptive than most.

Nobody that sits around me (or rather noone around me that engages in conversation!) thinks we're a well run club - far from it.

Broughton has just said that it wasn't O'Brien's full wages, or anything close. I doubt there was a loan fee too on top of the '£10m on promotion clause'. That said, no I don't think it was a wise way to spend our budget - but JDT has clearly told him that he doesn't think A. Wharton and Garrett are up to the week-to-week rigours of a Championship season just yet or he'd clearly be playing them. Like Thomas, he's much better than what we've currently got so I understand why the offer was made, but personally I would have moved heaven and earth for a striker that's going to score you 10 goals between now and the end of the season as that's our glaring weakness and where you'd get the most bang for your buck.

No, that suggests that we were spending well beyond our means and it wasn't sustainable.

Then most fans you speak to are fools. This hasn't been a well run club since Williams left.

The year of four managers should have highlighted for even the blind that it was a shitshow at Ewood.

We were spending 200% of our turnover on a lower mid-table side just a few years ago.

I genuinely don't understand the backlash to this particular transfer window / fuck up. Don't get me wrong, it's bad, but anyone with eyes can see that this club has been on life support for a decade. We had 9 Academy graduates in the starting 11 and on the bench against Birmingham in the FA Cup at Ewood. Find me another Championship club that does that - without the Academy we'd be in League 2 / liquidated already.

I imagine he doesn't have the authority to replace the Club Secretary or the CEO so I'd rather he just stuck to the facts tbh.

Again it's funny how people can interpret things so differently. I see that quote from Broughton and think "thank God, finally there is an adult in the room that is planning the long term future of the club". Money at this club is incredibly tight, BUT the budget is there for promotion if you manage it wisely. You just can't go wasting it on a washed up Downing or an unwarranted extension for Gallagher.

Has Ethan Walker ever played? I can't recall seeing his name on the teamsheet.

I don't know where you've heard that. He was actually in Pune having a sit down meeting with the owners.

I wouldn't criticise Broughton on here, you'd never get a transfer deal done - the EFL wouldn't stand for such tardiness. We were in the Top 6 for more than half the season with a combination of Gallagher / Vale / Dolan / Szmodics (at times) leading the line. It's not a stretch to say that a good Championship CF (which none of those listed above are) would have a very positive impact on our results. Before you ask, no I don't know who that player is because it's not my job to find him - but someone like Cameron Archer or Keinan Davis would have made a world of difference.

Adam Wharton and Jake Batty. Newcastle United and Leeds United both wanted Batty.

If it was a very good one, yes.

If I take away all of your successes you'd be deemed a failure too. Sure he signed this really good Championship CB, but ignore that because it doesn't fit my narrative(!) The permanent signings have been very good and he managed to lock down both a very promising manager (we floundered for 5 weeks without a manager in the summer before Broughton arrived) and 3 highly rated Academy graduates (who had the PL sharks circling) to long-term deals. He's come here to cut his teeth as a Director of Football - he was never going to hit a home run from day 1.

I'd stop looking at the table if I was you - we didn't sign a striker, the season is over.

Or if only the Chilean wonderboy had scored the one-on-one...

At the end of the day I'm what many would call a 'happy clapper' because I have a season ticket and appreciate the professional breath of fresh air that Broughton and JDT have been. That said, as pedantic as it sounds, if boxes on the form haven't been ticked and an agent's name has been misspelt then that's entirely on us and we don't have a leg to stand on. These are deals for hundreds of thousands of pounds - you absolutely have to dot every i and cross every t. It's a basic administrative failure on our behalf.

You mean Waggot, right? Broughton was with O'Brien in Manchester, then Brockhall.

I mean that and it's a more central location than Blackburn - easier to get to. Not to mention it's a better place (sorry lads, I'm a Mancunian).