Give over, as if we need Hilton whatsoever. He'd be the first one to go if we want another space, I'd rather play Michalski as third choice than him, and we have other older u21 keepers if he's deemed too young. Third choice keeper is almost never required and the young goalies are much of a muchness. So that's 3 signings we can make with no worries, and if we wanted more we could make permanent u21 signings- which is probably a market we should consider anyway, with the opportunity for further development and resale. Plus Siggy hasn't been much use, so as you say he could go. Oh and no, we don't need to register Wharton, at very best he will be 'fit' for a couple of weeks or so. Squad numbers are not the problem, a strangled budget and neglectful owners are.

I've had the impression from various murmurings in various windows that the owners insist on final authorisation at the end of the process. So I don't think you can rely on getting approval before steps 1-10 and it not changing again at the end.

That would be a bit random...isn't he due back in about 3-4 weeks?

'I'm confident because quite frankly, if Steve doesn't deliver a halfway decent couple of attackers by the end of the window, I'm gonna headbutt his nose to dust, and he's been told.'

Yeh I don't buy this wanted a new challenge shit. He literally just started a new challenge like 6 months ago. The smart money would be on him not having appreciated the closer company of those at the top or how they run things and there being, putting it generously perhaps, a clash of ideas.

Players that have repped both clubs...you probably knew these already, but Kasey Palmer, Derrick Williams, Andreas Weimann. They're the only ones that occur to me.

Just looking at the team we put out last game... Pears - 500k from Boro, Championship. Brittain - 1 million ish from Barnsley as they got relegated to League One Hyam - 1.5 million ish from Coventry, Championship Batth - free after leaving Championship Norwich. Beck - loan from Premiership Liverpool Tronstad - free from Vitesse in the Eredevisie Buckley - academy graduate ACD- loan from Brighton in the Premiership Weimann - free after leaving Championship Bristol City Cantwell - Reputedly about 500k, possibly less, from Rangers in SPL Gueye - Around £1 million from Molenbeek, Belgian Pro League (they'd just been relegated from there though) That's a starting lineup that cost in the region of £4.5 million, maybe a bit more or less depending how accurate reports are. All of them signed (other than Rovers-grown) from Championship or above sides, or top flight foreign leagues, although Brittain and Gueye were part of sides relegated to a lesser tier. The subs: Dolan, free from Championship Preston JRC - academy graduate Hedges - 200k from Aberdeen in the SPL Leonard - academy graduate Forshaw - free from Plymouth in the Championship. Going off all that, the market we are shopping in is actually Championship or higher/equivalent leagues. Preferably on free transfers or loans, and never more than about 1.5 million. Of the unused subs, only Sanderson came from a lower league, and he has spent most of his career in the Championship and is only a loan. We barely seem to do lower league gems, although I think we should do, but we do look at the foreign top flights now. Only ones I can think of from recent years (not counting Brittain who had only just been relegated and didn't play there) are Sammie Szmodics, who turned out to be our best in years at about 1.8 million plus add-ons, but who had also just been relegated from the Championship and only played 1 League One game before we bought him, and Connor O'Riordan who has thus far been a pointless signing. There was Pickering too from Crewe, but that was 5 years ago now. Lots of cracking players from League One and Two that go on to shine in the Championship, so I do think we are under-utilising it.

Surely Dixie Dean has him beat. When he scored 60 top flight league goals in a season, 21 of them were headers. Don't think anyone is ever beating that.

Oh hey, no problem, I can field that one, I've seen this movie before. Waiting to the last minute ensures we can tell sob stories. We almost pulled it off but we couldn't quite get it over the line (or we'll find out a week later whether we got it over the line in time). There just wasn't good value in the market so we're keeping our powder dry. Things change quickly on deadline day, and things happened beyond our control that were unforeseeable, etc etc. Not to fret though! We've loaned a hotshot striker from Brighton's Under-16s who might turn out to be Premier League quality...in 4-5 years. Siggy is coming back and he'll be like a new signing on the wings. But also...we have a new signing on the wings! Stewart Downing has decided to give it another crack. We'll be reyt, the important thing is we aren't getting relegated. Unless there are any more key injuries to personn- wait was that the sound of Beck's hamstring pulling?

Nice goal. I'd call that 30 yards. Only possible because of a kamikaze keeper clearly though. He didn't hold off two defenders like the other post said. One defender backed off him and conceded the space, I don't think there was much physical contact if any. The other didn't really get close. Nice to see even after not much football he has the vision and confidence to pull that off though. Hopefully not a lost cause yet.

Is there proof the Head Coach was instructed to do that, or is that just the theory from the fans?

Why would the players be travelling on the train? Has our lease ran out on the much-lauded coach?

He will have been kept off the bench as the plan was to loan him back out for regular football, and if we brought him off the bench we can't do that. I very much doubt he is considered to be behind O'Grady Macken and Isaac Dunn in the pecking order. I'll not be surprised if that plan changes now. We brought in Forshaw because Baker left and Travis is injured for a bit longer. Now Tronstad is out we may decide we'd rather use Garrett ourselves. The budget is clearly a bit shit and being prioritised for a couple of attackers. I doubt we will take another chunk out of it to get a solid CM. For me we shouldn't have bothered with Forshaw, we should have been looking for a better CM in the first place. A good quality 3rd choice was what was needed, not a crap 4th/5th choice. All season, injury to Travis or Tronstad has loomed as a potential achilles heel, an area that can quickly go from being our strongest to our weakest position. Yes Travis was only going to be out a few more weeks when we got Forshaw, but injury to Tronstad, or recurrence to Travis, was always going to be a risk. It didn't need a top tier replacement, I accept the budget is poor. But we did need to bring someone in that was as good as Baker or ideally a bit better, and that should have been do-able.

Yep, I've been worried about this since Trav got injured, and even moreso once Tronstad got injured. He'll almost certainly be rushed back in. I'm confident most of Travis' bad patches or indifferent form over the years have come when he was rushed back or his body was overworked, or he was carrying an injury. Rushing him back will mean not only will he not be the Trav we saw first half of the season, but he'll be more prone to getting injured again. I know we are a bit desperate but I'd strongly consider giving him an extra 2 weeks from when he's back before starting him. Like you say, he'll be chomping at the bit and probably make out he is ready well before he is.

Lets hope it doesn't end up being another wasted loan. Looking at it now, sending him to a club who only have one league win since 5th October was probably a mistake, that manager was always looking imperilled.

I think Beck will be the next one to get injured if he doesn't get a rest at some point. Which he can't really for what, at least another month whilst Pickering is injured? Gives his all, pacey and aggressive...it'll do a number on his legs eventually.

Sorry, I could have sworn someone had said he was already back out on loan. Doesn't look like he is. Since he didn't make the bench yet again though and we'd rather put young Isaac Dunn on it, I think we can rest assured the intention is to send him back out, so we're avoiding playing him as that will prevent anyone else being eligible to field him.

Garrett already loaned back out. We're down to Buckley, JRC and Forshaw for the next few games. If Buckley plays like he did first half today, consistently, that will help a lot, but there's still no shielding for the defence there.

More - he should have been brought on instead of Forshaw.

It's a real shame we suck at corners.

For me, we already had one but have sent him on loan to League One.

Big balls up is more likely.

Good news then - Burnley didn't beat them at the Kassam, guess they're not going up.

Tbf that was a powerful free kick. Not easy to save.

Every bit as dangerous as it looked. Uphill struggle now just to get a point.