I have to disagree. Of course the individual progress etc is what matters, but I can't see how that isn't affected by playing against worse teams than in the PL2. Pretty sure even the u23 manager at the time was talking about how the harder league was bringing players along better when we got back into it a couple of seasons ago. It's also easier for senior management to be confident in them taking the step up if the youth level they've played at is at least the most competitive youth level there is.

The issue there is the real risk of relegation, which would see those same u18s competing at a weaker level next season. That won't be good for development. But I'm fine with the loans out we have made (except Carter, I think that was foolish given our first team squad needs, albeit good for Carter himself).

I'm not sure about invariably. Even with BBD for most of it, we only scored 2 goals in the league in January, in 5 games. Goals have dried up lately as it is, let alone if our 20 goal man was out.

I dunno about that second paragraph. We had no RWB cover for Nyambe (hell, Nyambe isn't really even a wingback) apart from injury prone, unfit JRC who isn't a defender. Competition there was definitely needed. We maybe didn't need Brown as yet another option there, but it's clearly been done for very cheap emergency cover, and as someone we own who may be able to step up a bit more next year when Zeefuik and/or Nyambe are gone. Markanday and Hedges are both attackers, which people are still saying we need more of. One got injured for the season, which is highly unfortunate. Giles probably wasn't necessary until Edun got injured in addition to Pickering, leaving us facing probably about a third of our remaining matches with no LWB. He can also play CM apparently, which is an area I don't think we have enough quality cover. I don't object to who we brought in, just that some other core issues were not addressed.

I was just reading about Giles and had a thought. Mowbray reckons his high assists figure is from the quality of his set pieces at Cardiff. Which would have meant aerial deliveries to that monster Moore, I imagine. Or at least with him being a significant distraction for the defence. I trust BBD to get on the end of things in the air now, but I'm not so sure about the other attackers. Thankfully though we have some beasts at the back who tend to come forward. In his general play though I hope he is good at low crosses and through balls, as they tend to be more likely sources of goals for our front line.

Usually, when we are all saying that about a player not being able to step up after a star leaves, we are right. Brereton is the exception, not the rule. You could argue it happened with Arma when Dack got injured, but personally I always rated him. I think it was more split on him than BB. It's unlikely lightning would strike again but more importantly, we can't take that risk right now. All that said, I'm much more concerned about the squad holes at GK, CB and CM than I am about the attacking options, as soon we will have a lot of players available in those areas. But yes I'd have like one more who could be trusted to bang a decent amount in if BBD is out. The cost of that is much higher than the other positions though.

The shift from signings connected to TM to ones who aren't has more to do, I think, with our lack of a scouting network worth the name when he arrived. Not that we have stopped with the old boys network...Pears.

He does, but we have had a fair few of those arrive, meant to be good at set pieces, footage of them scoring some free kicks...then when they're here the set pieces continue to be crap. Maybe because we barely work on them. Douglas, Pickering, Rothwell, Downing, all touted as set piece specialists when they arrived. I'm not sure we have scored one direct since Mulgrew.

Good summary, although as far as we can tell from reports at the time, it turned out there either was no extension in his contract or we hadn't met the conditions for extending it. We in fact got him to sign a new 1-year contract. Lad does seem to have an attitude problem, although to a degree it's been understandable as I do agree he has been mismanaged. At some points I'd even say messed around. We will never know whether the deal could have worked great with a different manager in charge. But we do know the deal as it happened was a waste of money for BRFC.

Yes, 4. We need 3 available at all times, as we play with 3. A good rule of thumb for a football squad is 2 players for each position. Since we play with 3 CBs that would mean we need 6, but since they're interchangeable if need be (though the left footer does bring us good balance), 5 makes sense. We have 4 excellent CBs as you say. After that we get desperate. That's quite the leap, from excellent to desperate. Imagine Ayala gets injured (I know, imagine...) and then one of Wharton, Van Hecke and Lenihan is injured (Wharton and Lenihan have form for injury), has to isolate, or is suspended (Van Hecke and Lenihan a bit heavy handed). Just like that we have to scrape around, with our only options players who aren't CBs, or kids. Risking changing our strongest area of the pitch into our weakest. Another alternative is to change our entire formation, which has brought unprecedented success.

This is my biggest concern too, the lost opportunity in being far more attractive to players, as even Waggott said. If we don't go up - which looks more likely now we haven't made a modest gamble with the budget to cover areas for inevitable injuries etc, whilst Bournemouth have - I think we are in a bit of a predicament. Zeefuik, Khadra, Giles and Van Hecke will be gone. Rothwell will be gone. Nyambe and Lenihan may be gone. Diaz will likely be sold, and this should allow us to fill some of those positions adequately but we know a lot of that sale probably won't be made available. That's up to 8 key players in the team (I'm assuming Zeefuik and Giles become that, they seem good signings for the few months that we have them...and I'm assuming we won't have the 2-3 millionish touted for Zeefuik, as, well, look at us, we don't spend 3 mill on a RB). Even some squad fillers, like Chapman, Butterworth and Davenport are out of contract too. A few important players will also stand to be out of contract the summer after, and we have shown we don't offer enough to necessarily keep our own players. Their values will start to drop. These include Kaminski, Brereton if not sold..I may be forgetting some other fairly important player. We don't seem to have the funds, particularly in the wages department, to go and recruit that level of quality in all those areas. The time to spend was now, whilst we sit 2nd and can lure better players, possibly for better value wages, than we are going to be able to do in the summer if we have lost or missed out on the playoffs. It made sense to spend now because the spend may result in a promotion worth nearly 200 million, and it made sense to spend now to better bolster for next season and beyond if that doesn't happen. We will have to spend anyway, after all. Even beyond the 8-man gap impending next season, we have gaps now. More then one absent central defender and we are seriously scraping the barrel there (a big worry as it's our main strength right now). An injury or suspension to Kaminski and we have oil-hands Pears in goal. Travis' backup are Davenport (not trusted by the manager) and Johnson (far less mobile, nowhere near as useful). We will see about Rothwell's commitment, but if he's out or out of form nobody can do what he does. The same goes for Buckley really, nobody else with that range of passing in the middle. Apart from Dack, who may take a while to be up to speed, nobody outside of the usual three is close to being as good as them. Unlike others I'm not too worried about the striking options as long as BBD stays fit and available of course. And in form. But I think our season was always going to depend on that - strikers scoring even close to as many goals as him aren't cheap at all either. We also have a deluge of players returning soon for the attacking end of the pitch, and Hedges already available, hopefully Khadra and BBD too (I do wonder if TM will say he is jetlagged and match tired or whatever). I feel the other positions could probably have been filled for 500k-1 mill each for the most part, and that's why this is such a disappointment. 2-3 shrewd signings in those areas and this would have been a great window. Looking forward to seeing Giles and Zeefuik in action though. Hopefully the injury doesn't prevent Markanday turning into a talent for us, and we will just see what Hedges brings.

Have we even scored one since?

We are. And a reliable goalkeeper short, and a CB short.

Thought that was a loan. If we are loaning to him to the Scottish second tier I'm sorry but I don't see how he goes on to make it here like that and therefore I'd rather sell him if that was on the table.

Depends on if they buy youth, hard work and dedication...

Sounds like a terrible one. The English League One move sounded alright. If he is going there his Rovers career is basically over.

No, comments he made whilst a Manure player that I don't have time to go over again.

We don't need a better CB than our current 4. But we absolutely need cover, because if 2 of them are out we are either changing formation, putting Johnson in there, or playing an untested kid. Was very unwise to send Carter out. And Phil Jones can fuck off, don't ever want him back at Ewood.

Well that was short lived! 11 minutes from rumour to him signing somewhere else, is that a record?

Offer them 250k more than they're asking for?

There's a cautionary tale here for Rothwell, if he's willing to heed it. Turned out Bournemouth weren't keen enough to get the deal done, they just wanted him because they thought he'd be cheap and unsettle a rival. The grass isn't always greener, Joe. Now pull your socks up, get us promoted and boost your career prospects beyond some tinpot club.

The feeling I get is that they were just fucking with us. They didn't have to spend a penny and they've unsettled one of our key players and probably the squad harmony.

That was yesterday though, Den said this morning.

I consider the exorbitant wages to be a bigger issue than the exorbitant fees. If fees stop happening players will just want even more, in wages and sign ons. Make no mistake, the agents will still get the same huge slice no matter how they make it happen. And whether it goes that way or not, clubs will remain in huge debt as they and supporters both armchair and stadium-bound are milked dry to fund these extravagant lives whilst we worry if our beloved clubs will go bust. The game off the pitch makes me feel a bit sick sometimes. One day the bubble has to burst and a reset happen.

LT article about fringe players going on loan eckons we are in talks with Burton about it. Which surprises me. Sounds like they're trying to get him cheaper than last time. I can see this going the way of when we loaned Fisher to MK Dons. They never played him once, his contract ran out as we didn't know if he was any good as he hadn't played, they signed him for bugger all (dunno if they paid a nominal fee, at the time I thought it was free but a sell on has been mentioned). Then they immediately played him from day one and he became their top keeper, selling up a league for a significant profit. I know Chapman has played a bit and I'm not saying Burton are doing it on purpose (I did think Dons were), I'm just saying he will turn out to be a very good free for that league if they get his head straight.