briansol

I think it's more to do with it's harder to compete on wages. We are a medium Championship club and pay medium wages, how do you convince better than medium players to come here? Last summer was an example where Celina went to Swansea who had parachute money and McGinn went to Villa insted of us even if we could afford the transfer fee. The bigger clubs get first picks because of size/wages. Sounds like we have a similar budget to last year, where there is a sizable amount available for transfer fee, but the wage/attraction challenge remains. Brentford seems to have their scouting spot on. They are selling their best players all the time, but are able to replace the exciting players like Ollie Watkins and Benharama

I'm probably considered a "happy clapper" at times, but I expected more from Brereton. He had quite a lot of first team experience for 19 year old (53 championship games, 38 of them starts and 8 league goals for Forest). He was basicly involved in every game from his breakthrough in January 2017 untill we bought him in August. There is obviously potential and a player there if we can get it out. Still I think it's fair to question if the money could've been spent more wisely. My suspicion is that is was a last dance at the disco scenario, where you have to settle on what's available before the light go out.

You can only coach the players available to you. How do you think you aquire the best players and coaches? Money.. In the modern football world ruled by agents, 95% of footballers goes to the biggest paycheck. You can certainly spend Money poorly as you mention, but as a general rule the league table reflect the wage budget. The reason I find the Championship so entertaing is that it's probably the league with most upsets against the Money rule. The Premier League has become so boring and predictable with the top clubs so far ahead. Villa went up because they blew us out of the water on wages to McGinn and could afford the massive wages to Tammy Abraham. They underperformed but it is easier to turn things around when you have a massive squad.

If you are going to compare and rate managers, you should use the wage budget as metric. It's the strongest correlation to results you will find. In our premier years under Allardyce and Hughes we were about 10-14 th place in wage budget. Top 10 meant we were doing better than expected, bottom 5 meant worse. We didn't spend a lot on transfers, but had a competitve wage budget. John Williams only weakness was probably handing out too generous contracts. Salgado springs to mind, great guy but you don't give 60k a week to someone who's legs are gone. Mowbray delivered last year with us and Wigan having the greatest wage budgets. Similar this season with a midsize budget, led to a midtable position. Neither better or worse than expected. Sheff Utd showed that is possible to punch above your weight, but it's a rare exception. People usually make too much of what a club spends on transfer fees, it's the wage budget that will determine success. It will make you keep hold of players, secure the best loans and frees. It doesn't matter if we can pay the tranfer fees if we can't get them within our wage budget. I think we learned that last year with players like McGinn and several other enquired about.

I think Mowbray has to be ruthless for us to progress. A more dominant goalkeeper and a physical centre back alongside Lenighan is needed. Williams and Mulgrew as backups. We also need a box-to-box midfielder alongside Travis. Evans can be a squad player, while Smallwood needs to go, to slow for this level. We need more goals from midfield. Vaulks a decent options, but not sure he's more than decent Championship level. I also hope Davenport might step up. He has potential to be good. We're in desperate need for an alternative to Graham upfront as well. Doesn't have to be a target man, Pukki at Norwich showed you can lead the line with great movement and aggresion without being dominant in the air. Rhodes is surely not the answer. Also sceptical about Toney and Lyle Taylor making the step, although I like both. Most strikers fail to make an impact coming from League One or Two. Ipswich tried with Kayden Jackson and Ellit Harrison for probably close to 3 million combined. Both failed. Omar Bogle also springs to mind. Ollie Watkins is probably the only one I can think of that has made a successful impact the last seasons and he's probably more a winger. 2-3 million will get you a lot more value in Europe. Full international players with European experience from Scandianavia for example. Belgium, Ligue 2, Eastern Europe are also places with value for money for a Championship club. I also think there are several players that still has a lot of potential to harvest like Nyambe, Travis, Dack, Rothwell, Armstrong and Davenport. Brereton hard to call. Big fan of Buckley and Butterworth but they would probably benefit from a loan first. Magloire likewise. 3-4 first teams players and keeping the core should give a decent chance to try for play offs.

Rovers in full control won 2-1. Liverpool manager says it was the worst performance of the season so we must have done something well Gave away a sloppy goal 10 min before the end. Keeper came flapping and missed on a corner very much like Raya and Leutwiller. Blackburn bossed the game although the second half was more flat than first. Liverpool had a strong lineup with Brewster, Curtis Jones, Camacho and Woodburn. Netiher impressed. Magloire was a monster at the back with power and pace. He pressed all over the pitch which a 3 man defence might allow. Rankin-Costello great at right back. Good on the ball and pretty good defensive. Davenport was the pick of the midfield. Bossed with his passing and good defensive awareness. Vale also impressive a lone striker. Clever movement and uses his body well. Butterworth scored a great goal on the break and has a "Dack" edge about him. All the other looks great as well.

Just watched a wonderful first half against Liverpool. Up 2-0 after goals from Rankin-Costello and Butterworth. Hard to single out anybody as a great effort from everybody so far. Been dominant and could be more up, fun to hear Liverpool commentators trying and failing to find hightlight from the home team.

Agreed. Thought Rothwell did well when moved into the middle. Leutwiler had some excellent saves, but kicking is worse than Raya and won't come off his line. What was up with Lenihan today? Worst performance of the season. Poor positioning all game, looked hesitant and nervous.

Probably, since Mowbray claims nobody can beat Magloire in a foot race. I think the most stunning thing with Rothwell is how fast he is with the ball. He would outrun Smallwood controlling 2 balls. Magloire is promising but like a lot of young players needs to learn how to handle themselves physically in this league. He was dominated in the air in his two appearances. Biggest difference from U23 football is the physical, positioning and strength in senior football. Playes like Joe Garner, Billy Sharp, Steven Fletcher and our own Graham will bully a young centre back even if they are not the tallest.

I think it's been well reported that some of the U23's are training with the first team regularly. Magloire, Butterworth and Buckley has been mentioned by the LET. Mowbray has indicated he will blood some of them, esp if(when) our season falters. Just saw an interview with Buckley. He's been at the club since he was 6(!), and also said he has been training regularly with the seniors

That's great news! I have watches 4-5 games and he has probably the best overall. Seems to have a bit of everything you look for in a midfielder. Can drive forward with pace and go past people, passing is good but also have a very high workrate defensively. Not suprised to see him linked with larger clubs, so delighted to see him commit. Expect him to be given his debut before the end of season.

What's happened to Mulgrew??? No coincidence our poor run has come after he came back in after Lenighan's injury. He looks so far off match fitness.

Travis proving to be our best midfielder. Had a hand in both goals with his forward play. Seems to found the right balance in not overcommiting tackles as well. Also thought Nuttall had a decent game. Great work rate and won quite a few challenges against some very big centre halfs. Not everything came off, put got in the right position to grab a scrappy goal. Has a knack for scrappy goals. Will be hard to judge whether to send him on loan now. Brave call of subbing Dack, but Armstrong really paid off and credit to Mowbray for going for the win when it was written 0-0 all over it.

I think we all hoped he would hit ground running, which he hasn't. Still he is very young for that type of striker and they usually never peak untill mid-twenties. Graham was only a bit-part player out on loan scoring very little untill he dropped down to league one with Carlisle at 22. First then he carved a good career for himself. Brereton desperatly need a goal to get going, you can clearly tell from his interview: https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2019/january/ben-delighted-to-pen-permanent-deal/

Biggest improvement today was probably no Smallwood. He's a great grafter, but for a side inspiring to be top half in the Championship he is too limited. Travis proved certainly proved what we have been missing. Best thing for me was how constructive he was in posession. Smallwood either just hooks it away or passes back to defence. Travis would go past people or pass it forward. Very refreshing!

I think he's head was turned refusing to sign a professional contract with us and Leicester is paying upwards to 1 mill for him (probably a lot of clauses). Very highly rated and a big blow to lose someone that young.

I can't remember him having to make a save. Must be a first time this season. Other than that looked the part, kicking was good, claimed a couple of dead ball and sniffed out a couple of situations clearing the ball. He's a bigger unit than Raya so he looks a bit more imposing. Still impossible to judge, the centre-backs kept him very well protected. Both Williams and Lenighan was excellent. Williams even dominated Matt Smith in the air which was quite impressive.

You would think Lenihan as an ex-midfielder would be a bit calmer in posession. He goes for the long crossfield pass 8 of 10 times..

Agree on Evans. However he is one player I'd be willing to give a break, probably been our best player so far. Smallwood on the other hand should be looking over his shoulders, Reed would think he has a decent chance to start next game after that performance.

Bad performance today. No coherent play all game. At paper the team looked ok, but Armstrong looked out of sorts today. Strange that he was dropping getting in aerial duells while Graham was trying to win races in behind? Smallwood also annoying for me. I can accept he is not the best passer in world and it shows, but the half-arsed tracking back for a "warrior" I can't stand. Hard to find a player that performed today, a couple of mediocre, rest below par. Should serve as wake up call to the Championship and a reminder that you need to put in the effort to compete. A couple of weeks should hopefully get Dack back because he was really needed today.

doesn't look affected to me

After Peter O'Rourke and well respected John Percy reported it I'm very confident. These are sources on the top of the ladder when it comes to credibility and doesn't deal in rumours.

Watching too little Norwegian football to have an opionon, but by all account a very exiting player. Fits the profile. There are certainly profiles in the scandinavian market to be picked up for reasonable price, wondering how far our scouting network goes. The Wil Trap thing suggest that Mowbray is putting in place a network that will go beyong UK. He has experience by bringing foreign players from previous jobs. However I can see the large benefits by keeping the group young and british. Very similar to the one that one PL. Henning Berg claimed that one of the major reasons they won was that it was tight knit group in the same age spectre.

I think objectively the windows hasn't been terrible. Our most important assets in Lenihan and Dack has been secured on long contracts. Pleasantly suprised to secure Armstrong, Rothwell very promising so far and improves the team. However I can very much sympathize with people getting restless now. By all accounts(Mowbray, Rich Sharpe) we are in a position with resources now(money) that most clubs in this division would envy us. Currently we are failing to execute on that advantage. The level of expectations has shifted, which means the dissapointment is surfacing as the deadline approaches. We will see how it's panning out. Most important for me is to address the Graham backup.

Just watched his interview with IFollow, came across decent. Was looking forward to get involved with the group and the camaraderie that Mowbray told him about. Wasn't too interested in talking about the past, but rather looking forward. Said he didn't feel he had to prove something to anybody but himself. Getting involved and playing games. Still unsure if he is brought in as a midfielder or centre back. Might be an option for both.