In the spirit of the season I take that back then, as I read it as you STILL thought it was exceptional even as the new signings all spent months sat on the bench...

Laboured point? You wrapping a black water heating appliance? You have repeatedly said 7 million isn’t a lot of money these days, so by default BB was worth a punt due to this ‘flex’. I (and many others) think it is and he wasn’t. You keep saying daft things like it was ‘an exceptional summer of transfer business’ when the reality is slapping you in the face and when you get pulled up on it you post gifs of goalposts and say you are being selectively quoted or taken out of context!

Bielsa has handed debuts to 5 homegrown players this season. That’s a team going for promotion to the PL and the high stakes that go with it. Mid table Rovers? 0. For all the talk of our ‘model’, when are the next crop of academy players going to make a mark here? Is it due to the manager not being willing to blood them or the players in the academy not being of the required standard? Though an earlier graduate, I can say I’ve not seen Travis, as an example put a foot wrong when called upon. If it’s the later, why? Why is the Cat 1 academy not producing?

By the same token you can’t admit 7 million (and the rest) for a club with 9,500 season ticket holders is a lot of dosh to commit for a teenager who couldn’t get in the team of another mid table second tier club.

You have to have a Sky subscription for the games to be available on the app.

LT says Mulgrew was ill, he must have a chance? He’s been under t’weather a few times - get the lad a flu jab!

It’s been a superb game. Full of intensity and quality too. Much better than a lot of the tripe served up in The Greatest League in the World.

It’s a huge sum FOR US and most other Championship clubs.

Im delighted that we are in a position to spend, we could become contenders again. However, we won’t if the ‘model’ is just young, English players. Too unbalanced approach for this relentless league. And the 7 million must and I wager could have been spent better than someone who’s as raw as BB. Who replaces the experience of Mulgrew, Graham?

Depends on who’s making the ‘club’ decisions. £7million is cheap for some, not so for others, all about circumstances. And yes £7 million is a lot of money for a raw teenager for a club like us.

Of course he will have ok’d it or a man of his integrity would have had to resign, no? The story to me is more that we have seemingly moved towards a Sporitng Director/DoF set up who is identifying players that ‘fit the model’ - but who’s the Sporting Director?

Not my story. You mean meadows (who knows a good few folk in the game from his journo days) and Crimpshrine who’s talked to people at the club are silly? This happens constantly in the game now, even the mighty Pep admits that it isn’t him that identifies players. I don’t doubt he will have ok’d it, but it doesn’t mean he found him, pushed for him etc.

Interesting to see meadows/Jim Wilkinson, who does have decent sources, I believe, say on Twitter that he’s heard BB and Davenport were not players Mowbray wanted...

Think you’ll find it was an *exceptional* summer of recruitment.

Great bargains to be had abroad. Whereas we don’t have a single outfield non Brit or Irishman in our whole squad (apart from Nyambe and he was homegrown) ...

I’m not expecting anything more from BB than a basic level of competence and some decent touches and passes.

No it’s a mess, the lad’s confidence is at rock bottom and he’s considerably weakening the side every time he comes on. This kind of spell could seriously derail his career. It’s awful to witness and even you can’t put a spin on it.

Not like that around us. Palmer got a load of ‘lazy’, ‘show pony’ ‘send him back to Chelsea’ etc etc. BB it was more worried looks saying ‘we’ve made a rick here’ and groans on his many, many poor touches. Personally think he could’ve received much worse at Ewood so far, considering.

Indeed. What a mess.

Yes it makes a difference to how bad a signing this is looking. Like Kevin Davies before him. Chris Brown was shite, but he was free, a squad man and you can kind of look back and laugh. Davies was brought in to be the talisman and was a disaster for the club. But it doesn’t change the fact a 19 year old isn’t anywhere near good enough for the side and needs to be away from the first team squad for the foreseeable.

Seen a few posts worrying about the other end of the table. Only positive is the teams down there aren’t winning many either and 11 points is still a decent buffer. Been a real poor run since QPR that means we are even thinking it...

Mark Atkins on Radio Lancs was cutting - ‘out of his depth, making basic errors that tells me he isn’t ready for this level’ The way I look at it is this. If he was our own 19 year old academy lad, what would we be saying? ‘Raw, not ready, needs more time with U23s or a loan out’. So, just because he’s got a price tag shouldn’t make a difference- currently he is nowhere near ready for the first team and needs taking out the firing line immediately for the good of the team and the lad himself, because today was painful for all concerned.

Slightly bigger than usual, as expected.

Of course it will be ‘a flop’. Its £21 in the Riverside for every Cat B game (which this game has now reverted to). In essence you can pay your standard admission but in a nicer stand like like the Jack Walker, which is nice for the regular attendee, but it won’t pull in many more.

£15... on Boxing Day! Well there you go. Big crowd, big away following, big atmosphere. The marketing is the product itself and some of the floating fans getting a taste of that will be back for more. Whereas, in Waggott world...