They had a defensive crisis at CB and didn't even consider recalling him in January. I'd suggest he's not in their first team plans - which is a shame as his style of football actually suits City. Suspect his agent will be angling for a permanent move away after they sit down with Guardiola in the next few weeks.

Neither. I guess you're happy with Rovers paying the full whack.

If we paid £10k a week and his new club paid £10k a week, what's there to agree to? He's not going to sign a new contract at the same rate with anyone - and he's certainly not going to be playing for us. I guess it depends on whether he wants to sit on his arse for a year.

I mean it works if you have a CM who can pass too - which we don't currently have.

I'd pay half of Mulgrew's wages for a year if it got him off the books. You'd still be saving £500k a year.

Gallagher scored two old fashioned centre forward goals post-lockdown. Who knows, maybe the light has finally come on for him. ?

I don't think he's half bad as a CB. He's a poor LB though. I'd look to bring in a loanee to play alongside Lenihan, with Williams being the first CB off the bench - but realistically the issue at LB and CM (the lack of defensive cover) is the biggest problem we have defensively. Well that and the GK.

You know he's going to offer Downing a new deal. Holtby doesn't bring enough to the table - I'd rather run with Dack / Buckley / Rothwell in that #10 role than pay him a sizeable wage for his 10 minutes per game (when he's fit). Evans I don't mind, but if the option is Evans or Whiteman, I'd be happy to sell Evans.

This is where a good manager comes in - there's so much fat to trim from this squad: Mulgrew Johnson Evans Bennett Downing Holtby If we have aspirations of pushing for the PL, we can't lose players like Armstrong, Lenihan, Nyambe, Travis or Dack unless we're blown out of the water by the money on offer. I'd add Gallagher and Brereton to the list of players to move on, but we'd get peanuts for them at this point.

So you think Mowbray is getting the most out of this squad? He can't even settle on a formation. At the end of the day, he's badly mismanaged the generous (for the Championship) resources he's been gifted. Any manager worth his salt should have us in the playoffs.

Shite is harsh, but people are definitely viewing him with rose coloured glasses. He was an excellent shot stopper. The rest of his game was poor.

He said he'd leave if he ever felt he was holding the club back. That bridge has been crossed.

At the end of the day he's proven to not be a man of his word. He's not walked.

We only have one consistently good one. Of course we should be looking at CMs.

If we have any aspirations of getting promoted, selling Travis for such a paltry amount can't be the plan. He needs a midfield partner. I'd much rather see the back of Evans, Downing and Johnson.

"What weaknesses? I'm a PL GK". Delusional muppet. Glad he's gone.

Rankin-Costello has looked OK playing out of position because our manager hasn't managed his squad / finances correctly and he's been asked to do a job there. I've seen enough of his passing and vision in the final third to suggest there's a player there. He's also one of those squad players I've alluded to - you can't pencil him in to the starting XI, but he's one of those cheap 14 players you have who come into the team during a two-game week or a cup run (or of course injuries). Carter should absolutely go out on loan to get senior games under his belt, but he didn't look as poor as some on here have suggested. We conceded 6 goals in 2 games with him playing at CB, but that was without the aid of a proper LB and an actual GK behind him. He's a big, strong, athletic player - we can't afford to throw those away because they're not the final product at 21. Buckley isn't athletic enough to make it in this league as a CM - not with his current level of skill. He's going to get bullied every week. I don't think he's fast enough to play AML or AMR, so that leaves him fighting for Dack's role. He's worth keeping around to see if he develops as a cheap option. I'd argue Holtby is allowed to drift through games because of his 'pedigree' (3 caps for Germany, don't you know!). Evans is an expensive squad player. Only consistently performs when it's contract re-negotiation time and isn't really anything more than a water carrier when he is on form. Downing isn't a CM - he doesn't have the vision or range of passing to pull the strings there, nor the tackling or positioning to break up attacks. I was fine with him as an option on the left hand side (AML or emergency LB), but I'd let him walk if the plan is to play him at CM. Especially considering he won't be cheap. We are reliant on our Academy, which is great - it's one of the few things that keeps me interested in this Rovers team. Where we need to make the jump is by a) settling on a formation and b) bringing in some proper senior pros for the starting XI at GK, LB, CB and CM (transfers or loans, I'm not fussed). We'd see a marked difference in the standard of play / results with those two things happening.

My residing memory of Smallwood is the sinking feeling you'd get when you heard his name being called out on Radio Rovers before walking down the hill to the ground and seeing the mood in the car deflate.

You have to be realistic though when it comes to finances. We can't afford to have four Championship quality starting CBs on the books. Not without sacrificing squad depth elsewhere. I'd be happy with Lenihan, A.N. Other, Williams, Wharton and Carter as our CB 5. Carter being primed for a loan if the opportunity arises. Backups on this team HAVE to come from the Academy. I think people both overestimate the quality of the Championship and underestimate the ability of our Academy graduates. The way a club like us gets out of this league is by having a quality first 11, on good wages, with MOST of the remaining 14 first team places taken up by cheap journeymen (as I don't trust our scouting network to find cheap prospects) / Academy prospects. Not to mention the metrics of Wharton having gone away, winning promotion from L2, playing nearly 90 professional games by 22, and being told "thanks, but no thanks" are terrible. Why would you send your kid to Rovers if that's how they treat their graduates? We're in an absolute cloggers league, not the Premier League. He deserves a chance to fail.

A familiar story.

You must have Stockholm Syndrome. The Venky's have destroyed this club.

The way teams run through us when Travis isn't playing is staggering. We need a complete CM to partner with him, if we plan to push on from here. I think Rothwell's best position is actually as a box-to-box CM.

If we're honest, it was a three year career at Rovers. He was finished as a top level player after that accident. He's absolutely a tragic tale of 'what if'. If he'd not crashed in Rome he'd either be loved or hated by the Rovers faithful (hated because he'd have left for a Top 4 club!). Instead he's just fondly remembered for what a great player he was for those three years.

Something we're in danger of becoming.

Salgado played for Real Madrid for a decade. Baines played for Everton.