Actually, I can't speak for his previous clubs, but Northampton have made it clear they absolutely do want to take him in League One.

I'm sorry. You did just say that GK, LB then CM is the order of priority? Not CB? We're fucked.

Far too early to call this. I generally wait til the transfer business is done before calling it. I believe I've actually predicted it more or less spot on since and including our relegation season (I think I might have said top 10 for the season just gone which even one more point would have got us, not sure though). It really depends on whether we sell any stars and whether we fix the glaring defensive problems with the right recruits. Too much change is still needed right now.

25 not 24, but yeh a good age for a goalie. Should easily have 10 years or more left in him, and likely get better over the next 5 or so. From that video...not too many I'd put in the 'just wow' category, and I'd say most of them I'd expect Walton to have stopped too. But a few that I think you'd rarely or never see from Walton. Looks a bit like he has a tendency to parry when he could catch, but that's a modern keeper's disease. A lot of these were pretty much straight at him, and I find saves like that to be overrated, but some he came out well for, some good intentional parries on them (as opposed to it being blasted right at him, which I find it bizarre when a keeper gets praise for) and looks good at stopping them with his feet, which I think is an underrated keeping skill. It bugs me when I see a keeper beaten because they tried to get down to something they could have stopped with their feet. Only a highlights reel but overall I'm feeling fine about it if we get him at the right price. The real measure of a goalie is in their consistency though, and it's promising he got player of the season for Charlton, a team who I'm sure spent much of the season under the cosh. 65 goals conceded, only 2 more than us despite being 15 points lower. I wonder what a likely fee would be. A few suitors, and Charlton clearly rate him, but they just got relegated, have financial issues, and Phillips has a year left on his deal with no intention to extend apparently. Plus the current financial climate. A million with a sell-on? It also occurs to me that TM said his preference is for an experienced, older stopper, and a younger one to learn from them. I doubt Phillips wants to be the understudy. And just read this: Only Millwall's Bartosz Bialkowski recorded a higher save percentage than the Addicks 'keeper That sounds good to me! Sign him up.

And yet I was a (pretty decent) CB and never got to go to town team trials. *shrug*

I rate Costello too, but if you're looking for explanations, it's probably a lot to do with we haven't seen Wharton for more than a couple of seasons, only heard he is doing well. Meanwhile we have seen JRC, recently, and for some (not me) he hasn't impressed. Basically Wharton represents the slightly unknown youth player who has played well at the level he has been sent to (it's a low level but that's the level hes been sent to) and JRC represents the 'known' quantity youth player. You can rest assured that if he was a bit naff in his first couple of games for us, the same people would stop pushing for Wharton's involvement.

So you're open to a different view, but because these ones are too different to yours, the only possible explanation is that people are definitely completely biased, even though you have no idea on what grounds this would be the case? Come on Joe. Just accept some people don't see it your way and you'll stop being so puzzled.

With what little I've seen of Butterworth I'm sure TM will see his attributes as suiting the flank. And as usual it probably won't work. Butterworth has struck me as a little similar to Rothwell perhaps.

Since there are no new links today, thoughts on these suggestions? https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lancs.live/sport/football/transfer-news/blackburn-rovers-five-strikers-transfers-18701028.amp I'd put striker as 5th or 6th priority (gk times 2, cb, lb, maybe another cb) but no harm in thinking about it. I'm not familiar with these players but most don't sound too inspiring. Bonne sounds alright and maybe available at the right price. They make Nicholson sound good, but at a guess from the article we might be talking 4 or 5 million which is far too much in current circumstances. And we all know what would be said if TM paid about that much for a striker...

If I up my work rate on jokes, I'll be making more, so I'm not sure what you're saying here. Do you mean quality? 5 likes so far suggests it was at least an adequate joke. I think what really bothers you is you didn't grasp I was only kidding around and have decided to take it personally, which is a shame. Maybe because it's the second time in two days one of your typos has elicited a joke. You don't need to get narky about it though, it's just a light-hearted jibe at an auto correct mistake. It gets us all sometimes, no shame in it. No, I didn't miss your correction, I posted (or at least started to) before you made it. I said in the second post that you 'initially' wrote pooped, and seemed to have forgotten it, so it's pretty obvious I had spotted your correction. You reckoned he was on track to score 20 goals which season? The next one after his 11? He was still young and did seem like he might have 15-20 capability in him if he kept developing. Just hasn't kicked on though. He was mostly played CF at Brum that next season when he only notched 6. No question that playing him on the wing and playing aerial balls to him there is doing him no favours though.

You've obviously forgotten that you initially wrote that he pooped in the area, and also what a joke looks like. 11 goals actually though, which is still bang average. Hasn't hit more than 6 in a season since.

I'd berate him for that too. Very unseemly. A waste of time, too. I bet he would score more if he wasn't defiling the pitch.

It may do but I just don't think it's his way at all. I see no signs at all that the penny has dropped, and some unconfirmed rumours that we want a winger doesn't convince me it has. Knowing Mowbray, if we really were in for the likes of Jones and the Polish winger, he wants to either just have them there as an option for maybe a dozen games a season at best for something different, or he plans to play them centrally. I'm pretty sure if we sign a winger it won't end well as long as TM is here.

@roversfan99 Since you've seen repeatedly that Mowbray isn't interested in playing with width and that any wingers we do sign (Chapman) inevitably just rot away, why do you still sorely want us to buy wingers? I completely agree that we should play with width and that we need wingers to do so. But since we very clearly are not going to play that way, what's the point of buying a winger? Anything that lowers the budget enough to lower the quality of CB or GK we get is a no go for me. At least those (surely) can't be played out of position by TM.

Well if Jones wants the exact opposite managerial style......

I'm sure we can expect to get quotes from TM soon. "Scotty has been out on loan and come back a man, with a cracking ass. Literally. He bust open 10 walnuts with it in a minute in pre-season trials and is firmly - pun intended - in contention for a starting spot. Tyler has come back with a flabby backside though and will have to go out on loan to build a man's arse."

28 games, and 4 goals, for the reserves. 20 games for the first team. Had an injury too. He was definitely a surprise gem, but even he was in a different league to the CV presented here. But as ever, who knows. If he has attracted Rangers too, then as much as that league is a joke, what works for them would probably work for us these days.

On the other hand, it would be remiss to ignore that as far as we know, no Championship teams are after Scott Wharton despite clearly paying close attention to the Northampton defence. I also question whether playing next to a presumably Championship level defender in League Two may have given Scott an advantage and made things easier for him to impress. Then again, it's not his first time getting good reviews in League Two. And you could ask whether Scott has helped make the other lad look good enough too.

Absolutely it can happen, and just because it's a much lower level doesn't mean you can't hack it at two tiers up. I think what he is saying though is that it's an extreme assumption that just because he did well at League Two level doesn't mean he WILL do well at this one. As opposed to saying the fact it was two leagues below means he CANT. I think it's a fair statement. It's just harder for us, especially as fans who haven't been watching him, to feel safe in relying on him. Personally I have no issue with him and Del duking it out for 3rd choice CB. Then see how he does and if he can compete for regular starts. But I'll be worried we are in for a long and depressing season if we are relying on Wharton making that jump, even if it may turn out golden.

I'd love to get Adarabiyo back, but I really hope our strategy isn't reliant on that. We can't afford to wait all window for City to decide on that one.

He's a tall, black centre half. That appears to be where the similarities to Tosin end. The one review we have of him so far makes him sound like a considerably worse player, albeit possibly with potential, and he just got relegated from a gash league. No reference to silky passes. If we do sign him I guess we'll see if he's like Tosin, or just toss.

Precisely.

Tom White.

We have enough 'boys' centre half prospects. The only reason I can see for bringing in another is if we plan to send most of them on loan and need u23 cover, which seemed to be why we signed Tom White last year.

Yeh he is completely right. But please also remember that just because we were linked with a player etc, it doesn't mean we DID try to get them either. It works both ways.