Agree Rev. When our natural players for a position are fit, Bennett should be on the bench. Great cover but not good enough to start in first 11 unless injuries.

Bennett seems to be getting a pasting according to Sharp. Funny that...at least we have a proper full back on the bench.... ..oh wait. This is going to be 4-4 or something daft.

No way Williams should be on the bench ahead of Nyambe. Not sure Bennett should be at RB ahead of him either.

Prefer Petrol. What do you use to fan the flames?

Agree. I don't believe for one minute that leading up to deadline day, managers aren't aware of the wages their targets are on. How hard is it? "Oy Starman" "Yes Mr Mowbray" "You've been at Boro for 10 years, how much is Britt on? "About £50k per week. A lot of the lads were quite peed off about it." "Hmmmm... Ok, Let's enquire about Austin. He used to be a dingle, probably happy to play for packet of pork scratchings." Harrison Reed : "Yeah about that boss..." FFS.

Pretty much somes it up for me. Although it's tempered by the fact that a one off, 7 figure loan deal for a striker is peanuts - if their goals get us in the play offs. So we could site a lack of ambition.

Think the playoffs are seen as a bonus this year.

Not the end of the world if we don't. Our weakest part of the squad was out wide and we've bought a winger. Two or three good signings in Summer and we'll have a good shout next year regardless of who comes down.

Cat amongst the pigeons time. If we are looking at ex dingle forwards, then how about a current one? Vokes on loan would be just the type of player to replace Graham...

Interesting -Waggott points out that players like Assambalonga come at very high price. Yet then says they could be pursued if Tony wants them. Clearly there is money to spend. Ties in with what TM said a few days ago about paying over the odds for players from rival teams or looking at loan to buys/loans instead...we know he likes to get value. Think we will end up with someone, possibly leftfield again if It's true Gallagher is staying at Saints. Happy we"ve added Chapman though so anything else a bonus.

You may need to check the floor for your rattle, it appears to have fallen out of your pram.

I think Brereton is a hopeless case. That said, if I close my eyes and pretend we paid £7mil for Armstrong and £1.8mil for Brereton, I feel much better about things. Swings and roundabouts. We only need one of the 2 to 'come good' to have a £10 mil plus striker on the books. If Armstrong were to double his goal tally between now and the end of season, then a 21 year old English striker with 13-14 champ goals wouldn't be far off that bracket. Mad world. In other news, Dingle bricky on loan till summer will do nicely for me. Will give us presence and goals. Then look at the situation again in summer. Shows ambition but no big fee commitment (yes high wages but only a proportion of).

Just can't buy into this Assambalonga link. He can't play the lone role according to Boro fans. Plays better with a partner. Doesn't fit with our recruitment model to date, would definitely break our wage structure and surely hold up the progress of Armstrong who is starting to find his feet at this level. Unless he plays out wide, which may not suit him, I just can't see it. I'm all for signing players better than we've got and smashing our transfer record for someone to push us to the next level but our current set up is so reliant on Graham, that this seems like a stab in the dark (Like Brereton) rather than a perfect fit signing. Gallagher, ticks the boxes and seems the logical choice following our recruitment policy so far. Only striker I've seen that can play that physical front role, is young and scores a hatfull is Tammy Abraham. Now that would be a statement ?. Have a word Madon

Donis. The poor man's Kanchelskis!

I agree. Gallagher loan the sensible option for me.

To be fair, if he was ours, you would expect us to negotiate at least a 20% sell on clause.

Wiki has him at 1.76 m. He's small.

Is he? Oh FFS.

Ok Just playing devils advocate here. Brereton was a leftfield, out of the blue signing. Asambalonga (sp) another potential leftfield signing out if the blue Connection: Nottingham Forest Possibility therefore that the same agent involved?

Bet you wish you never started Madon!

I wonder if we are simply starting to play by the same rules as Derby, Boro, Forest etc. Over the 3 year ffp cycle, spend £30-£40 million. Making sure that you sell an asset every couple of years to balance the books. It's a great ploy if you have that asset sat on your books - which we do in Dack. We basically get to buy players for 4 windows, then sell Dack. If enough of the incomings are a success, you repeat the process - strengthening your chance of promotion. Asambalonga could be the example that TM talked about when discussing buying from rivals and having to pay over the odds and not seeing that back financially. I still think, Chapman aside, that we won't buy anyone straight this window. Any 'big' incomings will be a loan with a view.

Loan with a view for the Ass guy would be a great bit of business...we stump up a big portion of wages and if he fired us up, we buy him. If not, back to Boro and we unleash Brereton?

He can come and play wide for us ??

Agreed. If we spend now, you would hope it's on genuine quality to get us up. One or two astute signings may sneak us in. There are no nailed on certs in this league but a lot of competitively matched teams who can all beat each other. It will be the same next year, regardless of who comes down. Win 4 or 5 on the bounce and you're up there. Feb will be a decisive month I think. If we can get 9 points or more from those games, it will give us as good a shout as anyone.

Reed permanent? Wouldn't be cheap.