If this was after the transfer window closed then sure we can gripe about a number of things. 

However thus far, we have lost Reed, Conway and Rodwell. 

Replaced with Downing, Johnson and possibly Adam. I would argue that the three are upgrades from the ones we lost (Reed was decent first half of season and not so great in second half) 

We need a new keeper, a new centre half and a striker. I'm waiting until the end of the window but not dissatisfied thus far. 

Just now, Tugay's Right Foot said:

Seems like the replacement is ready made - our own Andy Fisher, at least for today’s Barrow match 

what sort of money did we recoup for Raya? 800 grand with add ons and clauses rising to 3mil?

Thought it was 3 million to 5 million. 

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

Third or fourth? Unless it was some post on here, I’d say you’ve dreamt that.

We need a partner for Lenihan (maybe even a replacement), who would Bauer be behind? Mulgrew? He’s on his last legs and needs to be used sparingly. Williams? He was adequate when he was called on but no specialist. Bauer would have gone into the starting line up (once he’d built up his TM loyalty points of course). Anything else is sour grapes.

Downing is 3rd or 4th choice so this is where I got it from. 

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

So you don’t believe Bauer was our main CB target?

I’ve not heard of any others - perhaps you can enlighten “the rest of us”?

I read somewhere that he was coming as a 3rd or 4th choice centre half so went for Preston? 

Just now, neophox said:

Joe Mason, striker is available on a free...

Gone to MK Dons

Just now, JacknOry said:

Derby for me, Lampard will be found out dramatically in the PL - he barely made top six in the Championship. Also, want to see Villa have no choice but to fall in line with their spending next season.

They have super rich owners, that's not going to happen. If Villa win today, expect a similar scenario to Wolves. 

2 hours ago, DE. said:

Have to take a few issues with this Imy...

1. Mowbray's transfer record is very chequered at present, so I don't think we can start praising the scouting network until it starts producing for us. We've spent most of this season lining up with players that were already here when Mowbray arrived. Raya, Bennett, Nyambe, Lenihan, Mulgrew, Williams, Evans, Travis and Graham have all played fairly often. Dack, Chapman, Smallwood and Armstrong were brought in very early on before Mowbray would have had a chance to seriously implement a scouting network. 

The fruits of any major change to our scouting network so far have been Brereton, Rothwell, Rodwell, Reed and Amari Bell so... hmm. The summer needs to show improvement.

My point is that we had no scouting network (International one) so there is one now, which Mowbray has wanted. How effective it is, well we shall see. Think we have had a scouting network in the UK and that would account for all the players Mowbray has signed. 

2 hours ago, DE. said:

2. We were three points off safety with 15 games to go when Mowbray came in, so whilst we were struggling I wouldn't call it free fall. Free fall is Ipswich this season, or Rotherham the season we went down. As for us being playoff contenders, we're way off. Way off. We need a lot of upgrades and for Mowbray to gain some serious courage. If we'd been utilising the likes of Rothwell, Reed and Travis properly two months ago who knows where we would be now? Instead we waited until our season was dead in the water before taking a chance, and I'm afraid that it doesn't mean much now. Mowbray needs to be braver when there's still something to play for, or we will have to accept mid-table at best for his entire run here.

We were 3 points off safety and we are currently 16 points clear of relegation and 11 off play offs. With pretty much the same team, how do we account for the difference? Glass half empty or glass half full, Mowbray deserves praise. 

2 hours ago, DE. said:

3. I'm surprised by this if it's true. We still have all of our big earners from when Mowbray joined, and I assume they haven't taken a pay cut with their new contracts? Some players have gone but I can't think of anybody who would have been on huge wages, and most of them were replaced, one assumes on comparable if slightly lower wages.

Premier league players have left with their wages and I'm sure Mowbray has spoken of us cutting our cloth accordingly. We were under an embargo for a while too so wages were limited to 10k a week as well. 

2 hours ago, DE. said:

4. Agree on this point.

I feel like the club is roughly back to the same state it was in when GB was here, with a lower wage budget but a higher transfer budget... so again no real difference. The board situation is a little stronger, I think, which is good. That said I'm still unsure where the true authority lies and whether Waggott, for example, is able to agree budgets or if he has to go through Venky's/Pasha first. It worries me that Mowbray is still having to fly out to India. That shouldn't be necessary with a proper board structure in place. 

I also feel we resemble a football club again, we are not focused on dodgy agents or managers who have no business in being here. I would give Mowbray until Christmas and then evaluate what we do next. 

2 hours ago, tomphil said:

Anthony Stokes upfront ?    When did this happen ?  

Anthony Stokes up in a bar in Edinburgh more like !

Just for a bit of balance and to highlight why some get annoyed at Mowbray despite some of the good stuff you've mentioned we also had a team that got relegated with Nyambe, Lenihen, Mulgrew and Williams often in defence.....we often still do.

That needs sorting as does the keeper situation.

Lenihen and Nyambe are better players now than they were 2 years ago. Mulgrew wasn't scoring the goals he is now in the championship either. 

This summer is a big one for recruitment and it needs to be for Mowbray and our sakes. 

19 hours ago, Stuart said:

We’ve covered all of this several times.

It’s really odd though that you quote points where I have been proven correct and use this as a stick to beat me with.

We cannot continue indefinitely to underachieve. Time is not on our side.

I disagree that the club is any different today than the one Mowbray walked in to.

So the club that Mowbray joined is no different to the one we have now? 

1. We had no scouting network, one has been set up. Expecting some foreign signings this summer, which should be the culmination of that hard work. 

2. We were in free fall, heading into league 1. You are now talking about us potentially being play off contenders. 

3. The wage bill has been dramatically reduced. 

4. We had a team with wes brown in defence and Anthony Stokes up front with Liam feeney in midfield. We have a number of exciting young players coming through. 

We are not perfect, Mowbray certainly isn't, his safety first mantra is frustrating but let's not re write history, we had Coyle as manager before Mowbray... 

19 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

£7.6m and another £2m at a later date on the transfer since last summer iirc. That makes BB £7m, AA £1.75 and Rothwell and the rest £1m (ish) 

Mowbray admitted in the press only last week that BB cost the equivalent of '6 or 7 players at £1m each'. 

Where is the information from? I have a very limited understanding of accounts, so any clarity would be appreciated.

Just now, frosty said:

He's been good all season, he stood out a mile the first time he came on as sub v Millwall at home. We'd be quite a few points better off if it hadn't taken Mowbray until April to make him a regular starter - so I agree with 'finally' in that sense.

Hopefully Mowbray has realised now and he can be a regular starter from now on, like Travis mainly has been after for some reason being ignored until Christmas.

 

We dont see the players in training but i would say this, Travis was brought into the team by Tony and Rothwell bought by him, so surely he gets credit for both?

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

No, it's based on the FACT he signed BB for £7m instead of signing a GK, a CB and a LB.

He didnt spend anywhere near 7 million and BB should be judged after a pre season/Christmas IMO.

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

It's based on his poor record in general in the transfer market, which BB is a massive part of.  

Dack is obvious, Rothwell will come good, Chapman too. Reed and Armstrong have been good signings too.

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

Also based on the FACT he said in February that it would be difficult to sign better players than the CB's we already have and then changed his tune to 'I know we need defenders' a month later when were getting pumped. We'd already been pumped regularly in Nov/Dec so he was actually talking out of his arse anyway. 

Hindsight is wonderful,  had everyone been fit, this would not be a conversation. We have a limited budget and i would wait until the right player appeared than by dross. 

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

Then there's his 'human qualities' of being 'loyal' that seriously impairs his judgement and costs the team points.

Then there's not picking the players in their best positions.

Then there' his '2 and a half' attacker bullshit - the theory being you can only have an attacking winger on one side of the pitch and not both because otherwise you'd leave yourself open. Amazingly yesterday we actually played with  3 and a half attackers and didn't get pumped, We didn't need a 'Bennett or a Conway' on the wing to balance things out, we had two proper attackers out wide. Puts his BS about Chapman not playing last season into perspective too. 

Agreed with the above. 

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

The legend of the Oldham full-back. Mowbray's negativity in a nutshell.

Also that he sets up his team to 'stop counter-attacks' - which explains our pitiful goals return at Ewood in the first half of matches.

Tony tends to make it up as he goes along. His judgement IMO is flawed and so is his character. He may be a 'nice guy' but you don't 'stay loyal' to players who are contributing to the team getting stuffed most weeks. Mowbray did exactly that. 

His character is not flawed imo, he is someone who is loyal to his players, but this was a season of consolidation and he has stated that next season players will be bought to replace the current crop...so lets see.

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

I could go on....emotion is a real bugger. ??

Overall for me Tony is at 7/10. Done well to get here but areas of improvement needed to progress.

4 hours ago, Mercer said:

Good post.

There are options out there but I question our abilities to recruit well.

To me, Dack is Mowbray's one and only real success.  The rest are Joe Averages or the likes of Hart and Gladwin. 

Not one of Mowbray's signings this pre season / season has been a regular starter so far - that says it all.  So on that basis, Mowbray has not improved the team as his signings can't be any better than what we already have. 

I don't buy any of this 'trust Tony' business - to me, he's tactically all over the place, doesn't get the best out of what he's already got (square pegs / round holes) and his recruitment is very average.

The fact is our best three permanent signings over recent times have been Dack and Coyle's two (Mulgrew and Graham).

Isn't it a key part of management to make your existing players better ones?

Raya, Nyambe, Williams, Evans, Bennett and Lenihan have all been better for us under Tony.

Bennett oh my goodness!

Unselfish by Dack and nice finish by Reed.

Pass of the season by Bennett,  according to the commentators.

Another great move.

What a finish by Graham.

What an outstanding move and finish.

What a great free kick.

That extra quality makes the difference.

Reed and Brereton.

2 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Very calm, Chris.

Nice that you’ve spoken to the players. Did you ask about how much they laughed at Dack having the craic last night? I bet they were all having a right old laugh about it in the dressing room after the game.

Not happy with the second half but it is a wake up call.

Personally cannot see the Dack pic making a difference to the numerous poor decisions and performances,  that's on Mowbray and his line up chosen today.

January will come round in no time, we shall get Chapman then!

Just now, Oldgregg86 said:

I seem to remember the chadster championing this guy. Might be worth a punt

Signed for Sheff utd. 

1 hour ago, gumboots said:

Hardly a find. He was good at Oxford last season. The great thing is that he has been able to make the step up

Umm..He is a find...played at Oxford in league 1 and was hardly setting the world on fire! We get him for a few hundred thousand and he looks excellent.

Davenport is supposed to be better, so can't wait to see him.

What a win vs a title contender!!

9 hours ago, Stuart said:

FFS.

He played three games for England 5 years ago!

He played 5 PL games when season MC won the league.

He moved for 25m because of... Man City. 15m to join them in a window when they spent 16m on Javi Garcia (Who??) and the rest when they sold him.

Let’s hope he can rediscover some of the form that he had at Everton because he has been ? since.

Trouble is he’s played an average of 9 games a season in the last 11 years.

If Tony can get a tune out of this lad. He will be the first!

Guess the wink at the end didn't work hey...

1. He played for England at international level, meaning he performed at premier league level consistently enough to be called up and play three times.

2. Yes he did play 5 games but contributed enough to win a premier league medal.

3. He moved for 25 million because of City? Well he signed for Sunderland for 10 million too... Javi Garcia is/was an excellent footballer (googled to check his whereabouts, he is at Real Betis, playing consistently for a team that finished 6th last year).

I agree Stuart he has been poo since, no doubt. My point is that he has been an elite player who is currently on 27. Having seen him play on numerous occasions for Everton, he always looked like a Rolls Royce footballer, Jason Lowe has never been or ever will be! 

If Tony can get 50 per cent of Rodwell this season then that is someone who will be more than good enough to get into this team and play at championship level, all for a low wage, end of the season deal.