Taking Mercer's word is a dicey game. If I did that, I'd be thousands of pounds out of pocket from betting on Rovers to win! 'I see no reason' for all the other stuff he has 'shared' on here that proved unverifiable or outright bollocks, or for why he predicts us to win every week whilst saying how shit we are. But it still goes on, and will go on again this season.

The first question is ARE they refusing to back us financially? We won't know that definitively until the end of the window, even if we see signs along the way. But UEFA don't decide our fair play rules, the EFL do. And although they weren't as limiting in the past as we made out, with loopholes we never exploited, they certainly are now. There may still be loopholes, but the people at Ewood aren't smart enough to figure them out if there are. So there are hard limits on what we can do now. If Venkys won't back us up to those limits, I'll criticise them (again).

So THAT'S who our mascot is!

I can only see us finishing midtable this season. I doubt (once signings are in) we will be poor enough for relegation or good enough for the playoffs, largely due to the transitional nature of the squad and staff. Therefore I'd rather focus on assets than experienced freebies in their 30s who would probably need replacing next season or the one after at best. If though by experienced you mean in the 26-28 bracket, I could be down with that.

I know, typical, I think I first asked well over a year ago, then as soon as it gets done it needs undoing!

Well it's not Tony Mowbray, so, no I don't think it depends on who's pulling the strings.

People keep mentioning Dwight Gayle from time to time. But he is 31, 32 in October, and wasn't his game largely based on pace? Has he still got that at his age? Has played 51 games in the last 3 seasons combined, with only 9 last season, and has 1 goal total in the last two seasons (albeit in the Prem). Wages at Newcastle will dwarf what we pay too. Unlikely and probably undesirable too, unless someone who saw some of his 9 games last season can correct me. He was terrific at this level a few seasons ago but age comes to us all.

Colak is 28, 29 soon, and frankly his CV is uninspiring for a forward. Mostly played in poor leagues and only had a good goalscoring record in a few seasons (in the German 4th tier, top Croatian league twice, and last season with Malmo) and an ok season in the Polish top tier (10 goals in 30). Just before Malmo, with PAOK in Greece, he was a 1 in 7 guy at his best. His best spell in the Bundesliga was 4 goals in 22 games. I'm not mad about missing this one, on paper anyway.

I think it's pretty obvious the Boro love-in was all Mowbray. I don't have any fears on that front anymore. Unless the player in question is actually any good, I don't see why GB or JDT would be interested. They've enough of a challenge on their hands as it is.

If this thread is to be believed, half of last year's Malmo team is leaving. Yeh I know, Colak was just on loan there.

Like I said, their cast offs.

Noticeable? Yes. Odd? No, not at all. I'm sure they're focusing on getting on with the job, and I'm glad of it. They're new to the club and there's a lot to do. If anyone should be giving updates, it's Waggott, who now probably has less work to do with GB here. And frankly I'm not really interested in what he has to say anyway.

If that's true, fair enough we can handle his wage. Whatever we gave them last time though, they'll want a bigger loan fee after how well he did. And/or a more glamorous move with a new test. But as you say, they're more likely to just want to keep him around.

Even if they do, they'll be looking for a better loan this time. He has done all he can with us. Would likely end up with a cash-flush promotion chaser who can afford a full wage contribution and large loan fee, or in a top tier league abroad.

You'd be better disregarding JPVH than Ayala. The latter is far more likely to make some appearances for us this season than the former.

Pretty sure the profits should be used to reduce the losses. Which would make it 53.5 mill for Boro and 37 mill for Bristol C.

It would be hugely frustrating to lose both Nyambe and Lenihan to Boro. Thanks to Mowbray we've had to endure their cast offs, players past their sell-by-date and Ayala who is only fit about 30% of the season. Meanwhile they snag two of our first team for free, who we developed for many years.

Absolutely we have. But now we have done it, and need to wee with the willy we've got. With that willy, I don't think it's reasonable to expect us to have pissed transfers in a way other clubs without those issues have. The club totally deserves criticism for the bungled managerial process but the new guys themselves deserve a clean slate and a fair chance to get players in. If we still have nothing in a couple of weeks it will be a major concern. We certainly can't afford to do 6 deadline day signings or some shit like that.

Do those clubs have new managers, a new DoF and their head of recruitment just left?

That's not true. When talk of the Brentford model happens, people mean buy smart, fairly cheap, develop and sell on. The fact they scrapped their academy wasn't key to their success, they just didn't have a good one like we do so it wasn't a good use of their resources. Our owners have shown they're happy to fund the academy though and it isn't taken into FFP calculations. We wouldn't suddenly have a better budget if we scrapped it, we would just lose our player production line. Our accounts show we can't spend more on our first team than we are.

Thousands of them just showed up to storm the pitch.

So you think Sharpe got premature tweeting about Anel on holiday? I hope nobody noticed and he got himself cleaned up.

Only earns 6 points on the work permit calculator. Nowhere near enough, wouldn't be possible.

First pro deal for kid I've never heard of: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20256806.first-professional-deal-just-magic-monty/ Mentions in there that there is uncertainty over whether Jay Haddow will sign the deal he's been offered. Was a bit surprised to read that.

Tbh, I don't want anyone that ends up in League One instead.