There is no way Pears gets dropped without some stinking performances. It’s his shirt to lose on the pitch.

Friedel identifies the danger, notices there's only one player in the box, comes out of his net the moment the ball is crossed, catches the ball and takes Lyle out. The problem is my generation know what a proper top-level player looks like. So when Hyam goes walkabout, Beck is nowhere to be seen and Pears stands on his line its hard to comprehend.

I'd argue the opposite, he's no experience at this level. Could be Kaminski or could be Wahlstedt. It's a risk - but so was De Lange who was our number one target.

Really proud of them. Gueye seemingly didn’t know he couldn’t wave an imaginary card, so only just gets a pass as I know that’s very normal on the continent. But he didn’t half leave us in the shit - I thought we were really settled in the game and playing well at that point. No amount of “yeah, yeah, yeahs!” will excuse him if he’s going to carry on being a live wire in important games. Pears didn’t have much to do but he does some things I just cannot comprehend. I hope our new Hungarian keeper is more Kaminski than Wahlstedt, because not only is Pears capable of a calamity but the crowd just don’t have faith which adds pressure to everything he does. On to the positives: Carter really stood up to the test. Hyam and Beck were all over the place but both settled, the latter especially looked good. If that’s his standard I can’t see Pickering getting back in the first team. Tronstad and Travis are everything Arte et Laboure is about. Both worked hard, showed quality and for the first team competed against a Burnley midfield. Dolan can’t half be frustrating but my god did he put a shift in. Wiemann showed everything I hoped Sigurddson would, experience, quality, exactly what we hoped for when signing him. Eustace? I loved JDT. When we played well we looked incredible and having someone speaking out against the CEO was fantastic. I wasn’t convinced by Eustace last season but based on this season, if you asked me who’s more suited to Blackburn Rovers I’d say Eustace every day of the week. Them lot? I’m not convinced about Parker at all. They’re clearly internally in chaos, if Benson played for us and walked off the pitch like that I’d be seething. Parker is used to managing clubs down south with plenty of money and fantastic squads. I don’t think he represents Burnley at all, he’s a long way from home and looks like it. With the additions of Cantwell and Cozier-Durberry I fancy us in the return fixture. Between 15 minutes and 60 minutes I felt quite comfortable. I don’t suspect they’ll get promoted based on that, although simply due to the squad they’ll be around the top six. I feel we’re probably a mid table side, if the CEO had demanded the investment this club deserves I think the tide could turn.

A disgrace.

Probably will sign this evening but nobody has had a medical after 6pm this evening, I can assure you of that.

Good Lord Duncan, I’m glad you’re not in charge! Pears Brittain Carter Batth Pickering Travis Tronstad Hedges Cantwell Sigurdsson Gueye

He can't be off the pace if he's directly quoting the manager.

Trying to keep up here, but if we end up with: OUTS: Szmodics Gallagher Wahstedt Telalovic Garrett (loan) O'Roirdon (loan) Markanday (loan) Fleck (released) Ayari (end of loan) Moran (end of loan) Christene (end of loan) Koumentio (end of loan) IN: Gueye Ohashi Wiemann Batth Toth Cantwell Dembele Beck (loan) Cozier-Duberry (loan) I think thats a good window all things considered. Gueye looks better than Gallagher Wiemann better than Markanday (and gives Markanday a chance to prove himself) Batth is better than O'Roirdon (and gives COR a chance to prove himself) Cozier-Duberry is better than Moran Ohashi is better than Telalovic Leo to Toth is an unknown Dembele would be a squad addition Szmodics to Cantwell is a downgrade, but a good replacement given Szmodics was streets ahead of the rest of the squad Christene to Beck seems to be like-for-like on paper Koumentio and Fleck didn't do anything for us. Only two loan players isn't efficient given we can have five (?). Would like to see a CM that can play brought in.

I haven't seen him personally but the reviews I've heard back say he's not stood out and isn't as good as Igor.

Mafoumbi taking up one of our four precious ESC spots is classic Rovers. He doesn't stand out at U23 level.

Footballs a crazy thing, eh. Based on that performance I think he’d be lucky to get a league two club. He doesn’t have a single stand out quality - doesn’t make the right decision, isn’t quick, isn’t strong, can’t hold it up, can’t bring others into play. I’m not sure what the question would need to be for the answer to be Vale.

Despite earning over 30M in a calendar year by selling our best players and having "assurance that issues ... will not prohibit or prevent the Owners from financially supporting the club in whatever way on and off the pitch when required" we're in the gambles and loans business, it seems. Doesn't make much sense to me, but I'm not in finance nor legal.

If you can look past the headband, the TikToks and the rumoured bad attitude, Cantwell is actually a very good player. Not against signing him personally.

Can't be cashflow, Mani. The CEO of the club has confirmed there's no restrictions in investment from the owners. If short term cashflow is a problem they can subsidise it - like they always have until Nov 23 - right?