That's going to be difficult now I think. This season at least. He has Graham and now Gallagher directly ahead of him for what as far as we know is just one spot. That's where he needs to be playing to develop properly, and he needs it regularly really. There is also Nuttall and (lol) Samuel, as well as potentially Armstrong to contend with. Though I'd imagine Brereton will be third in the pecking order for the role due to his fee. Then again I didn't think I'd see TM wedging Palmer and Dack in there ahead of him last season at times. His other 'role', the wide forward, has competition in the form of Armstrong, Downing, Rothwell and Chapman. Probably Gallagher too, who is likely to get the nod ahead of BB there for any game where DG doesn't start. It's hard to see how BB gets the regular game time he badly needs to develop, especially up front. I see him being a bench player again with little cameos, until he can do something special with one or two of them. I wonder if any of the promoted teams would fancy loaning him, and if so whether they'd regularly start him?

Pretty sure he's not talking about future profit, but first team regulars now.

Sorry I don't follow City's doings too closely - why is Pep responsible for Hart's collapse? Seems more likely the player just lost it. Even if it started after he got benched for a new goalie or something, his fall has been too dramatic to not be down to mental shortcomings.

All the Championship transfer business so far

Sam Gallagher deal for 5 million reported to be close

Bit of an overreaction tbh mate. There are plenty of worrying signs, but there is also a lot of the window left. I have numerous concerns, and I'm not optimistic they'll be resolved satisfactorily, but we don't truly know how this will end up yet. Posts like yours will become more common the longer we go without a goalkeeper or CB signing. But I'd say they're not merited yet for another 1-2 weeks. Longer in some's books.

Mike Bassett England Manager

Sorry, I hadn't read your subsequent posts at that point, which don't appear to support the notion at all. I was just going off the fact you appear generally happy with how things are going and will go, and have staunchly defended our transfer approach pretty much all summer.

That simply wouldn't be an acceptable allocation of resources. I'm amazed you seem to think it would be. Not sure what you mean by open ended here? But yes, spending upwards of 10 million on a player between fee and wages would impact other areas this window.

I agree with almost everything here, but...look I get that you and you alone don't like Graham, but do you need to age him as well? The bloke is 33, not 35.

Both. And yes I'm sure we can do better than Hart. Not in terms of profile or expense, but the lad looks a busted flush these days. Ruddy please.

I got a bit worried.

It's really a shame we can't just wheel him on for his set pieces. He'd probably be a 3-5 million pound player even at his age if we could!

It was. I don't recall exact numbers, but we won more total points in the games where Mulgrew didn't play than the ones where he did - and he played in something like twice as many games as he missed. When you consider how many goals he scored, too...that's some seriously bad defending that went on in the games he played. Could be coincidence, but my eyes suggest it wasn't.

You'd think some non league team would fancy an impromptu runaround at Ewood or something. Or we could play against our u-23s or something. Seems odd we are just letting part of our schedule vanish.

Tugascout, interesting website name. I mean, I would, if it'd get one of them to spot a beast of a CB for us. Just hope I wouldn't then have to do TM and Waggot too.

I'm speechless that you are still trotting that out as if it's fact when I don't think anyone else on the board shares that view. We all know he could reach that point practically overnight, but we all know (except you) that it hasn't happened yet.

Reported as either 1.3 or 1.7, not sure which. Total rising to 3 million with add ons. No idea what the adds on, might be quite easy to meet (appearances and goals) or a tad unlikely (promotion, England caps). We'll never know what we end up paying.

On the other hand, we just finished above City's youths, despite their vastly greater resources (including playing expensive first team defenders who cost far more than our entire first team).

Boateng would be an internal promotion that has 'been there' as a player.

Well, you've got me thinking again about why I got passed over for a decent role at my company in favour of a complete idiot with minimal life or work experience...probably should have answered less honestly in the interview about where I saw my career going!

And I think it's early to be drinking so heavily.

If he does step up, that's great. What wouldn't be great is a strategy based on him stepping up instead of getting an experienced CB. Even if he's looking terrific in training. Surely you see that?

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/football/tom-white-joins-blackburn-rovers-458010 This article says the fee was 5-figure (not 6 as I thought I read before) so it really might be peanuts. Sell-on clause too. It also says Gateshead could have an option on loaning our youth players. I assume that would be our lesser lights or very young players, as it's not a particularly great testing ground with the league they operate in.

Oh to be clear I was in no way arguing with you, just commenting on the situation as presented. I'm glad for the info, which for some reason I'm assuming is accurate. Maybe it's just the way you talk about it, sounds legit to me. Definitely happier with frees than loans, as long as they're not ancient and they're up to the task. Oh Jesus Christ.