Anybody know why when I go to Now TV for Sky Sports it says you can watch it from 5.99 a month, and then when I click on it the best offer is 9.99 for a single day pass?! Some kind of voucher I can apply maybe?

Boro are everything we're not, and their strengths sit perfectly against our weaknesses. I expect defeat. Probably not a thrashing as they don't seem the types, but it will be comfortable for them even if they only win by a goal. I see we have gone for the battle though with our midfield selection. Maybe it will be enough to earn us a draw. Annoyed I have to pay Sky to watch this one, it will be turgid. At least paying ifollow would have meant it (mostly) went direct to the club.

Everything after the first sentence there seems a near-perfect explanation of 'how there's so much debate about the guy'. Did you do that on purpose? Personally I feel that, on current first team evidence, Buckley's technical ability is enormous...ly overstated. He's decent technically and plays some lovely passes at times, but not to a degree or frequency that remotely makes me think 'my, this kid is special'. And that's completely independent of his shortcomings, which for now are too many. As with all our players, I hope he comes along brilliantly. But he will have to play a lot better than he has to impress me, and I don't ever want to see him at RB again. Trundling him out there made me switch from 'Mowbray should go' to 'Mowbray must go'. It was a camel's-back-breaking moment for me. He has precisely none of the qualities needed for that position. That's not his fault of course, but the manager's. Buckley needs to play in his proper position, and regularly, and needs to toughen up. Definitely be sending him on loan to League One personally. We are ruining any talent he does have with this piecemeal part in a league he isn't cut out to compete regularly in yet. He is trying, bless him, I'm surprised how many fouls he is giving away given his build, although that mostly suggests he can't tackle properly (not the be all and end all for his role of course). And I'm not ruling him out, worse-performing players have developed into decent or good ones. But I don't see what the fuss is about, yet.

There is the counterpoint though - namely that we have been very crap for a while now using that system. I think you make the argument well. But I also think the need for a plan B, even if we don't change our plan A beyond a little tinkering, has become increasingly apparent.

I feel as though that talk is merely to dampen expectations though. I expect it would have some, if only a bit, of an impact on the budget (unless it all goes into contracts that we can't quite afford at the mo). My thinking is that we already have those running costs. They already exist and yet a budget has been allocated separate to that. For me, it stands to reason that whilst we are already probably over stretching our budget due to our defensive crisis, if we got a couple of million then surely a few hundred k or so would be made available to ensure either longer term replacements or higher quality short term ones if we honestly believe promotion is on the cards. Then again maybe that's what all this talk of the cost of replacing the pitch is for, to enable it all to be swallowed up no questions asked. But I dunno, since the summer it seems to me we have reacted to the fact we are priced out of nearly every deal we approach by pleading poverty in public. We were more active in the last window than anticipated in the end (albeit partly because Trybull only cost peanuts it turned out).

On top of which I expect him to be afraid of the necessary rebuilding job if he let's too many go. Which, tbf, I would be afraid of it. Increasingly decreasing budgetary support and we have shown before how difficult we can make recruitment. Recruiting from Europe will also be tougher from now on thanks to the Brexit regs. I expect a player sale will be considered necessary to fund improvements...we all know who that will be of.

I'm also confused at the notion that we 'had' to train on Ewood. So what, there wasn't another suitable pitch within 30 miles that we could have borrowed?

I'm confused that the statement says the pitch is now 30 years old, so we are now looking at relaying it. Didn't we relay it a few years ago? I could absolutely swear I remember that happening.

I'm glad my trauma cheered you up, jeez... 😉

Well, with the remedial class in charge, there's a chance.

Pah! You were lucky! Boots coming off? I once played on a pitch so frozen that my boots wouldn't come off. Ever. I had to amputate both feet with an icicle. They're still there on that pitch to this day, frozen in place 20 years later despite the summers since, along with the frigid corpses of the other 21 players and numerous attendees who never made it back that day. Some of them because of the lethal frozen winds, some of them because a polar bear migrated down from the North Pole and savaged us. Ref wouldn't call the bloody game off. We thought he was a stubborn bastard. Turned out he was just frozen dead from just after the kickoff. Still, positives had to be taken from the game. We had 100% possession after our kickoff vanished into the blizzard winds

You'd be thinking though.

The recent quotes from Mowbray talk about grounds staff in the plural. Not just one bloke. I know one of the grounds men, though I don't see or speak to him often. I'm reasonably sure I remember he was still there in League One though.

Yes they are, and that's the exact situation we are in. Would you mind answering? I'm genuinely curious. I'm not trying to beat you with some stick, I'm wondering where the limit is that you could consider changing your stance, as there must be one. I'm not attempting to get you to change your stance.

If we lost all of the next 7 or 8 games, would this still be your stance, for us to wait until the summer?

Thanks. No club quotes but there aren't usually about contract details. Hope to fuck it's true! I was thinking whilst reading that article, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, but if he leaves to an English club this summer and we don't activate the clause, we are due compensation as he is under 24. But if we extend his deal and he left next summer for free, he will be 24, so due nothing? Though I can't remember if it is under 24, or 24 and under.

I've seen it mentioned twice now that Nyambe has a 12 month option in our favour, but I'm yet to see an actual source. Can you provide one?

In fairness, you don't need 6 decent defenders to replace that. Bell, Douglas and Bennett are not decent defenders for us. Mixed opinions on Williams.

That last bit only makes it all the more likely for me...

I'm sorry am I reading that right? He has only played 3 games for their u23s? For an u23 team that are 6 places below our u23 team? Really hoping we can chalk that up to being involved with the first team squad, which I'm aware he has a bit, so not being made to play u23 football much. I don't want to have to chalk it off to injury as...well we know about our injury problems in defence. Either way though he might be lacking a bit of match sharpness, and we know how long Tony takes to bed people in, especially if there is a sniff of a fitness issue. (Unless they're carrying some sort of injury and then they can have at it)

Depends on how much he was playing. Maybe he is just better than that level and due for a loan a bit higher up.

So Fleetwood have been keeping tabs on our goalkeepers. Not enough to have realised Leuts wasn't up to much, though he does have previous of being decent in that league.

You can get around the staged payments stuff with amortisation and accountancy trickery of the sort. Just got to be competent. Oh wait...I see your point.

Tbh whoever is his editor clearly isn't fit for purpose either. I could proofread his work better in my sleep. Accuracy at the LT was horrendous even when I did work experience there. At 15 they had me proofreading obituaries one day. Which is a bit scandalous in itself, but I used to find and fix a ton of errors. You would think more care would have been taken.

That would be the extraction from arse I referred to. I don't mind him either (terrible command of the language, mind, but good analysis and output rate) and understand why he has been up TM's arse too, but up his arse he has nevertheless been until recently.