bluebruce

Sod off....I can do better than Downing (suddenly wondering if his surname is a euphemism). Anyway the problem is Mowbray basically came out and said he is doing no such thing. We do need a better centre half though.

I don't think it would be bottling it to draw against the league's in-form team, as long as we compete. Crazy...that Hull away game, I thought then and until their recent resurgence that they must be the worst team in the league. They were awful and we should have beat them by a lot more.

I'm not sure on the plan to loan him out either. He is just as likely to be injured on loan as here, maybe moreso. TM doesnt think he is good enough to start for us when fit yet...I do, but most importantly we need to find out. If we don't know by summer, then, for me, we are gonna need to sign someone else for the flanks as it isn't a strong area for us. Then Harry will just end up being loaned out for years like our equivalent of Todd Kane.

He didn't say we are, or put a timeframe on it, he said there are possibly discussions to be had?

A fine post, well researched (heard different fees for a couple of them, but you just can't get the truth these days). A couple of things though. You say other Champs clubs are picking up decent frees in defence this window, but the thrust of what you're saying is essentially criticising doing frees as your bulk business. Just seemed incongruous with your point. A lot of the big money sales were in the Prem days, where it was a different ball game monetarily. Granted there was still insufficient reinvestment in the defence, but that was happened in other areas too. That period was short lived and distorts the figures. I'd be more interested to see the figures stacked up since relegation. Regardless, extremely damning that when you take out Dann (flop, sold for a loss but still half his fee back) our net spend is a shameful 1 million over that whole period on an area that covers 4 of our 11 positions. Criminal. It's also been a clear achilles heel for years.

People are missing the point about Paul Downing. It's not that we want to blow him off. It's that in a lot of people's views, we were already weak in this area, the players we do have left there are injury prone, and TM has zero intention of bringing in replacement cover or (far more desirably) someone to compete for a first team spot. Wish people would stop counting Williams as a decent 4th choice, gynaecologists see less gash than the fans who've had to watch him this season.

Which he's made it plain he doesn't. Bloody better be smoke and mirrors though or we will rue loaning out all our cover.

The vast, vast majority of the teams in this league have a statistically superior defensive record to us, despite the fact we play a cautious style and use two holding midfielders. So it can't be that hard to improve on our defence. Nearly every other bugger has managed.

Sorry but I'm fucking fuming at TM for this decision to loan out three centre halves and not bring anyone else in. It's unacceptable, and will definitely bite us in the arse before the season is done. We needed a new one before this window started. It has been our CLEAR achilles heel, a leaky error-prone defence. Since then, it's only a couple of weeks ago that we were so struck by injury there that we couldn't even field two actual centre halves (was it 0 we fielded? Can't quite recall). And now we loan out all the cover and don't want to get anyone in even on loan? First time I've said this, but are you fucking stupid Tony? His comments even imply that if we signed someone better than our four centre halves (three injury prone converted centre mids and a recently prone and fucking atrocious left back, who is also the only cover at left back) they would still be 5th choice. Maybe he misspoke but Jesus. I had some bad personal news today so maybe I'm overreacting, but this really wound me up. I can't see any logic in it.

Wishful thinking. Williams will play for us again. Thought he was alright the season we went down, but been utter bobbins this year.

I can picture it now. Tony Mowbray on new signing Jacob Murphy "Well yes, we weren't going to sign anybody to be honest. But then, being as Twitter-savvy as I am, I saw a hashtag trending for this Jacob Murphy fella. I thought do you know what, I haven't heard of him, but I'll look into that. I watched a few videos, and it turns out he played against us for Newcastle in the cup recently, twice. Hadn't really noticed. So I got on the blower to Benitez, and here he is."

There's no way in hell he is on 4k a week here. If he was we definitely wouldn't be extending his contract. It's not like he was a star at Liverpool. I can't imagine they pay all their kids 4k upwards, and even if they do that doesn't mean we matched it for a kid who was trying to make his name in league one. Didn't they release him? If not he was bought for a pittance. Far far from one of their best. Even our main guys earn around 20k tops now. We don't pay a lot, and certainly not for third choice left backs. I doubt Bell is on much more than 4k a week.

He'd have to be on 4k a week to cost 200k in wages for his one year extension. It's obvious he isn't on anything like that. I don't see the point of this one. In fact it makes me think TM has no intention of signing a better left back even in the summer.

Damn, thanks for trying but didn't read this until the next day. Luckily I saw it perfectly in Greece in the summer.

Hard to rank, but some of my best memories of performances... Duff and Jones' debuts. I remember wondering where the hell we'd been hiding them and why. Jones at 18 I think, shackling Drogba at his peak. Friedel single-handedly keeping Arsenal out, away. We were peppered all game and somehow came out 2-1 winners I think it was. Bellamy savaging Portsmouth with two goals, one of them utterly sublime. Bentley smashing Manure. Some of my worst that spring to mind... Duffy, obviously, takes the cake. What was it, 3 own goals in about 60 minutes of consecutive football over two games? Should have been investigated, I swear that was match fixing dressed up as an unsettled player. Fettis shipping 4 goals in a game...every time they shot it just flew in, no matter how poor. Ostenstad in a cup game. Think it may even have been a quarter final or something. Against lower league opposition, and he was on the outskirts of the team so a big chance to impress. Never seen a more disinterested performance by a professional, ever. Remember him not 'chasing' what was basically a comfortable pass a few yards in front of him. This season...Williams against Preston I think it was. I identified him as making mistakes on three of the four goals.

In fairness to the video makers, that appears to be a full vid of everything he did in the game, including rare mistakes. Even with that considered, the footage from that one game looks a whole lot better than most players' entire career highlights (minus the goals). He had absolutely no right to have a game like that at 36 against Liverpool, no right at all, the impudent bastard! What a player. I miss him. We'll never see the like again.

Really? Now that's interesting...

Mowbray has said on more than one occasion that the lad isn't motivated by money (these days at least). Rodwell has said similar in the past. I bet 5k is near the mark for his current deal, maybe less, with heavy appearance incentives. We don't play flush with wages these days and he was by no means a guaranteed starter even when fit. The rub could be in what he or his agent want next if he does go on a long run of appearances restoring some of his stock.

Saw that in the article after posting. Probably became aware of him in youth football over here then. But we must have still sent a scout on their jollies to Gibraltar (or procured video) presumably.

From Gibraltar ey? Well it might not be for the first team, but clearly we are finally starting to scout abroad. Has to be a good sign. Also makes loaning out Grayson make a bit more sense.

It'll be the fish that bite him on the arse.

Yes. Our first team ones are not consistently up to scratch.

I think we'd love you to play two up front and come at us at Ewood. Teams who shore up against us at home are usually the ones who take points away. Out of curiosity, why did you want us to do well in the FA Cup so much?

Because if you keep your best players and buy better ones, you improve.

Problem is we only really have one round peg out wide. And he's old and inconsistent.