I feel confident it would take us precisely one game to all be in agreement it isn't. We are bereft of good centre halves. It's a huge glaring weakness. It's bad enough we need to field two of them.

He won't balance the books if his value drops drastically due to not playing in an average Championship side.

No. Who do you think his audience is when he says things in public? Us. The public. The fans. If he doesn't want the things he says in public to be analysed, he should stop saying so much in public. Or better yet, think more carefully about what he does say. It's out there to be analysed.

Supposedly he really rates Ajayi. Surely that was a deal which could have been done early in the window at a fair price before WBA showed their hand if we'd had a bit of conviction. So I don't want to hear about the right players not being available at the right price.

Something relatively minor is confusing me. With this new passing based system the manager wants to play, why was our first kick off a case of pass it to our CB (the one with the least passing ability too) and lump it upfield? Especially when we seem to want to fanny about with it at the back when we have a goal kick. Odd. You start with the ball in the middle of the pitch, but lump it mindlessly, but when you start with it at the back you try tippy tappy?

Christ it really wasn't all that. Any keeper would have gotten pilloried if that had gone in. I agree he isn't the culprit today though. But he doesn't look comfortable yet. Happy to give him time to click. Mulgrew and Bennett have had plenty of time to find a better level than this though. Are they both under contract until summer 2021? That'd scare me.

Did they lose to probably the worst team in the league who had a key striker out? What I do know is Sheff U actually had good centre halves. We don't. Mulgrew and Bennett had better not be lining up against Fulham. Even if he is going to insist on Bennett and say Tosin isn't ready yet, put bloody Nyambe in ahead of Mulgrew if he's so convinced the lad is a CB option like he's stated. I'd happily have Nyambe at RB and Magloire instead of Mulgrew, just to shunt those two out. Magloire isn't ready, but at least he might be in time. Mulgrew is done. I'd put a raw JRC at RB before Bennett. Just anyone to rid us of those two at this point. This is all assuming Tosin isn't ready, a new CB isn't ready, Williams isn't fit...honestly, just any of our other options now. Hard to see it happening except maybe Tosin coming in, as neither Mulgrew nor Bennett made way today despite being the worst two players on the pitch by a long way.

If I were Nyambe I'd knock on TM's door. If Tony's first words weren't: "You'll be starting next week" then mine would be "I'd like to leave in the next week". Lad can't dislodge the dire Bennett and his brand new contract was a pathetic two year one. He clearly isn't rated here, very unfairly, and should move on for the good of his career.

I don't ever want to see Bennett line up at RB again. How he gets away with this crap when Nyambe got dropped for months because of a couple of errors is beyond me.

Anyway who was it that soon after the goal lost the ball horrendously in a very poor position nearly leading to another goal? I was too disconsolate to have noticed who it was.

Nobody down the middle system, remember...

Most frustrating part of this is Charlton have been very shit. Yet managed to make us look vulnerable repeatedly. Walton isn't filling me with any confidence. Mulgrew...not sure I have words. Other than to say we can't even dream of playoffs if he starts a majority of games. Bennett has been Bennett. The usual great work rate, very inconsistent quality and lost the ball in bad areas including for the goal. We've controlled the general play and yet can't land the ball right in the critical areas. Have we even worked the keeper? Absolute gut punch of a goal. Big test of character for us now.

Bennett's fault.

I know. It's all well and good to patiently build an attack from the back with a passing game, but NEVER in risky situations. There have been some serious suicide balls.

We are playing well but the defence are giving me palpatations.

Is that a TM quote then? We have two players who I assume each cost us more than the entire Charlton squad? If you can buy an entire squad of players for less that are better quality than our entire squad, something went wrong here. The comment I'd expect would be more like 'hopefully our extra quality will be enough to see off their momentum'. Presumably just being excessively modest... (or I've misunderstood who you're quoting)

Brereton: "Tossin'? Nah no need to sign him, I've got that in hand."

Have you heard any nuggets of information about transfer dealings lately?

How can he troll the manager here? Unless I'm mistaken, the manager isn't a poster on these boards.

League One and Two teams have until 31st August to complete loans. We have until 5pm next Thursday.

I'm not going to pretend he can defend just to be respectful. Charlie has an absolute wand of a left foot. I don't think I've watched a Rovers player with better set pieces, probably even Bentley (hard to say though because Bentley was doing it in the Prem). His goal contribution is exceptional, a centre half has no right to score anything like that number, and he was so crucial to us in the League One season. He wasn't defending particularly well then either, but with the type of team we were relative to opponents, it didn't stand out as much or cause as many problems, and was easily outstripped by his goals. For this league though, he is too slow, with poor positional sense, stands off too much, and we are suffering from playing him even when he launches those beauties into the net, as the stats back up. It's not disrespectful to say this, it's just reality.

You can drastically improve your game at 22. A lot of players have done so. You can drastically improve your game a fair bit later. It might not be what usually happens (although a typical footballer peaks at 26ish) but it absolutely can happen. Especially when you're only just getting first team football. Anyway I wasn't talking about drastically improving it, just improving it. I wasn't talking about particularly 'high up the pyamid', just one league above where he is now going, and a level he has notched a few goals with very limited game time.

Great signing for them, good career move for him. I fear we might be the ones who this doesn't work out great for. I hope we have received at least 500k for him, as I think that's his market value, and that we've included a significant sell-on (30% or more). I think a loan would have been best for us, as I think he'll bang a lot of goals in for Blackpool if played every week, and his value will double by the end of the season. He reminds me of a shitter, League One level Rhodes. Good knack for goals but limited all-round game. But with his size, and still being 22, I think he still has some potential for improving his all-round game. Not ready to start in our first team by any stretch, and a lot of competition now to even make the bench, but capable of tearing up League One and potentially becoming a steady Championship striker. With Grayson managing them, that could only be a season away. Like I say, I hope we've protected our investment with a hefty sell-on.

Well it's not end of, is it. We don't lose every single game we play with him, and we're about to face one of the worst sides in the league at home. He's a gash defender though, and even with his goals our stats with him in the team make depressing reading. But we're not dead certs to lose with him in. Sure hope he's not starting by the time we play Fulham though, or they'll be licking their lips.

It feels like whoever comes down as favourites to go back up by storming the league almost invariably fail to even make the playoffs. Purely an anecdotal recollection thing, be interesting to see if there are stats on it. Certainly happened to us, and last season to Stoke.