bluebruce

Our pressing game looking just as effective as it did at the start of last season. Credit where it's due, we have been excellent for the most part this half and should have at least two. Much like last season though, that pressing game is hard to sustain for a full campaign. Without reinforcements it can't be sustained. The only players in the front 3 we have who we know can do it effectively are the 3 we have out (since Armstrong looks to be off). There's no way the same 3 can do that all season, and if Brereton got injured again like last season, then what? It's not the only area we are thin in squad depth to be maintaining that intensity either. I don't think 5 loans are going to cut it, we simply have to be able to reinvest some of that Arma money, even if most of it gets swallowed by debt and contract renewals.

Bloody hell how did that not go in

The other one is a bit misshapen. (Almost went with, the other is at the Albert Hall but didn't think an implied Hitler comparison was fair)

We look hungry today and Swansea look leggy. I think our players are geed up by having the fans back in after so long, it must almost feel like they're making their debuts. I notice that so far in the Championship, no home team is losing today.

Why? They'll all be delighted he is playing well, so what would that achieve? He looked pretty poor for the first chapter of his senior career, with only glimpses, started having the occasional very good game late last season, and has been excellent so far today. Long may it continue but it won't rewrite history, only the future.

Buckley looking like a player today. Great tackle, beautiful ball. (Just realised that sounds like I'm describing his genitals)

Yeh it's got this terrible way of making me honest.

If you mean towards TM, hell no, why should anyone do that? The man is bare-faced lying and quite probably taking the club we love on a path to destruction. FUCK him. Nobody has any obligation to be nice about the prick. It's not like he is on here, and he has said publicly that he doesn't use social media.

He will still be full of shit whether we lose today or win 5-0.

I'm tired and momentarily read the topic title as 'this way for excrement'. When I read it again, I thought 'nah I've misread that'. But when I think about our impending season, it was still right.

A desperate attempt by what looks like a Man City news twitter feed, to make it look like Rovers are doing something?

Too generous for me. This would more or less all have been true about a year ago, but I think he really started to act like a snide, arrogant prick last season. Plus he showed he is a hypocrite or liar, whichever you want to go with, for claiming he would go if he was a burden.

I don't see what that letter was supposed to achieve. (Despite which, it will still woo many in the FB and LT crowd I'm sure)

I don't think there are any 9/1 anymore? Most I can see is 8/1. Which is still shockingly generous. I struggle to understand why the bookies aren't cottoning on to how much danger we are in. I can only think they know something we don't, or there are so many FB idiots lumping on us for top six (6/1 for that on the site I looked at, bizarrely) that they figure it'll even out. Some bookies are figuring it out a bit, noticed some dropping odds. Lowest I can see is 6/1 though for relegation.

Sadly I doubt we would see much added to the kitty even from 8m. It all has the vibe of the taps have been turned off and attempting to avoid an embargo next year (which, I mean, if you can't spent anything anyway, you almost may as well be in an embargo?). Doubt it helps that Mowbray rushes him back as soon as possible every time, even when we had perfectly fine alternatives.

Probably cos he's virtually our only source of goals? Of course he needs to be replaced. The defence is a serious problem too, but we can't fail to replace someone who just notched 29 goals. The defence wasn't as bad last season with Kaminski behind it, and if Wharton comes back in similar form that will improve it from the majority of last season. We also signed Pickering, we will see how that turns out. Obviously if the club had done and continued to do good business, we could be strengthening both areas from the Armstrong fee. Instead we will get less than we should and give a huge chunk of it straight to Newcastle, at a time where gate receipts are down due to SW's incompetence. But not replacing Armstrong at all simply shouldn't be an option.

There's nothing like clawing for a positive spin. It's the same operation that took on that same 'deadwood' (deadwood that found us Kaminski btw) and lauded how magical this European scouting network, that apparently took years to set up, and are now seemingly dismantling it.

Getting ridiculous this. Another sure sign we have no money to spend this summer.

Where'd you get that number? I'd prefer a million Chileans, has a better ring to it.

Thing is, that's exactly why you should post on it. They live in their own little echo chamber in that group (as do we of course). The lack of sufficient challenge on there is a factor in why a lot of the fanbase think everything is fine. The power of Group Think is real.

First I've heard of him even being linked.

I think Elliott is a really strange example to use. Liverpool are very happy with how we used him and I'm pretty sure his reputation was indeed enhanced. THB is a weird one to mention too. Both players were success stories here, that's not really in doubt. Branthwaite not so much, but the experience will still have been valuable for him. We have too much of a need for numbers to rely on our own u23s. Some of our u23s should be good enough to step up into the gaps, but about 10 of them? Nah. We need to bring in some better players. I don't want to keep borrowing any more than anyone else does, but 5 quality loans of the standard of the 2 you oddly criticised...if that's how it has to be, with our own players filling the squad gaps for the other 5 ish spots we need filling, until they can show they're up to being regular starters, is probably about as good as it could get at this point sadly.

I'll be honest mate, it's hard to care right now. Aside from how bad things are at the club in general, the fact we are told there may be no permanent incomings means that even if we get a few pearlers, it won't be enough for anything more than mid table and repeating the hunt to develop another club's youngsters again next summer.

Christ, can we not just all agree that the owners AND the management team are responsible for our plight?

We only just got done upsizing the recruitment team! I'm sure the new head of recruitment is delighted with that. Such things are minimal costs in the scheme of a football club, and yet if we are as fucked as we look, clever recruitment is now more important than ever.