Not afraid of that at all?

Wish we had a passer in the middle like Neves. Can't believe he's only 21. Class act - Young Tugay!

Thought we had Burnley then for a second!

I"be noticed that several times. Gets up against the last man through the middle but won't run past him through on goal. Weird.

Yet they are not areas he seems to want to improve. Odd!

I'm hoping it returns to port if/when Dack goes!

For me, Armstrong will only work playing in 2 up front in a big and little partnership. An inside forward/winger he is not.

Yup, which is why he has brought pressure on himself next season.

A pressure created by the manager though?

I was referring to promotion the following season not this one. Given that he said around 4 windows to develop. Last summer was one, this is 2. End of this season 3 and next Jan 4. After that you expect that the owners would want to see a top 6 team based on TM's plan. I fear the issue is that TM has a Group of players that he really likes and fit in with his work ethic etc. The problem is that some are clearly not good enough to go on 'the journey' with us but I'm not convinced he is ruthless enough to get rid.

Depends whether we invest in slightly older players. Gallagher and Reed are both 23. Luke Freeman at QPR is 26, Bauer at Charlton 26. This age range is the type of player we need to target. More ready for the first team and experience/developed enough to compete immediately - ye still have sell on value. Signing lads under 20 is ok for the future but the likes of Brereton, Armstrong, Davenport etc aren't quite there yet. Over the next couple of windows we need to add around 5 first team championship players who can go straight in. Picking up the odd young. Kid (like Chapman) along the way. The younger lads should be loaned out (I'd definitely be sending Brereton to league one to toughen up a bit and develop).

Depends on how Venkys bought into his plan. If he told them we won't go up this year but with good backing could push for promotion next year, then £20 mil (which may include summer) is a fair shout. Also in line with what we would expect for Dack...

But they are 5 positions we need to strengthen regardless. Would love to see 4-4-2 with Travis and Reed in the middle, A couple of direct wingers and Graham and Gallagher up front.

Great post.

Don't want to keep getting on Brereton's back but jeez. Looking forward to Samuel coming back and at least winning a couple of flick ons.

Good point. For a reflex based keeper, you would have thought he would be pretty good at pens.

Let's try an experiment. Keep Graham on for the whole game and see how many we win? It's like a curse or some voodoo shit.

Chapman came of bench so cup tied. Probably nothing happening with that one this month.

Rodwell injured again. Not a player we should be offering any further terms to.

Then why did he try to get him in at the death of the transfer window? I see he is on the bench again today for Boro.

Got to be fair Rev, Graham has looked plenty fit enough to me -demonstrated by him chasing down the WBA backline in the last 5 mins on Tues. Something a fresh on the pitch 19 year old couldn't manage.

Exactly that. We have nobody in the side that can genuinely beat a full back.

And will probably be as effective sitting in the stands with us ?

Absolutely no point planning on Dack being here next year. Selling him and reinvesting (some) seems the plan.

I thought exactly that reading the report. No more panic buys!