I suspect Downing has been made an offer on much reduced terms which to me suggests they (a) the wage budget must be reduced and (b) we would like to keep him but we’re not desperate to.

Quite impressed by the imminent Kaminski signing. Never seen him play but he’s an experienced GK who has played European football multiple times for a decent club, and he was their number one GK until covid hit. Their fans are saying they are surprised he’s being let go so cheaply, so he could prove to be a real bargain. If we can get a decent LB and CB, added to the good talent coming through the youth ranks, we could well have a very good season.

My thoughts exactly. We get told every year there is no budget!

I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Liam Lindsay end up here. TM tried to sign him last summer, Stoke don’t want him, and I can’t imagine his wages are that big. Never really seen him play so I can’t comment on his ability but pretty much everyone is underperforming at Stoke, so I wouldn’t write him off just because he’s had a tough time time there. Could be a smart move.

You'd think Brentford failing to get promoted makes it more likely Raya will make a move to the premier league this summer. Duffy and King almost certainly likely to move too so we could make a fair few quid from sell on fees this summer. Not sure if we would have a sell on fee inserted for Duffy though.

Far too early to say. Hugely depends on the transfer business in the summer. According to Nicko we have a decent transfer budget for this summer, not huge but money is there for new signings. What I do know about next season is that it will be the weakest league since we’ve been in the division. The three teams going up are far stronger than those coming down. I don’t anticipate anyone spending big money on signings to transform their squad so there’s a very real opportunity for us next season if we add some clever signings.

The reality is, we cannot afford the type of quality players needed to get promoted so either have to unearth some gems abroad, get top quality players in on loan, or unearth some academy gems. If we get all three strategies spot on then we may have a chance.

Love a bit of positivity I do agree though that it was a dead rubber and we can't draw too many conclusions from it. Plus, Reading are a dreadful team. However, I do think Breo and Gallagher have shown more promise since the re-start, particularly Brereton.

There's no doubt we have some very good young players coming through. Buckley is probably the most talented of the young players, but very promising all round. Gally and Brereton did well I thought. Starting to show signs of life. Walton was terrible as usual.

Brereton has been sensational out there. Definitely his best game for us so far. He’s held the ball up well, always looked to move the ball forward, and obviously he has scored. Rothwell and Holtby good too. Trav and Armstrong excellent as always. Carter has had very little to do. Missing the quality of passing that Tosin gives us though. JRC looks decent. He looks like the sort of player who will be a solid 7/10 every week.

Classic Rovers. Pressure off and we look like Barcelona.

I think that confirms to us that Samuel and Graham won’t be offered new contracts. No point playing Tosin as he won’t be here next season, good to see Carter come in instead. Let’s see what he can do. Looking forward to seeing Brereton too. I thought he was looking impressive before his suspension.

I agree. I think we'll know our budget has been cut if we decide to keep Samuel. TM won't keep him if he thinks we can get better quality in.

I thought Leeds looked better. Pereira is probably the best player to play at Ewood this season though. He's definitely a premier league player. Just a shame that he dived a couple of times to try and win a pen.

Given that he's had a lot of stick this season, it's nice to say that he was excellent when he came on today. Pace, power and end product. Set up our goal and also set up the one on one for Davenport.

So frustrating not to win it at the end but a draw was probably a fair result. The subs changed the game. There's had a negative influence on their performance whereas ours took us up a level. Who was that striker that came on? He was called Gallagher or something like that. He looked very good! Holtby was outstanding when he came on. Rothwell and Davenport also impressed. I like the look of Rankin-Costello. Good on the ball and athletic.

The Owen Coyle team was lge 1 fodder. The team we had then was beyond useless.

The resources we have are way below the resources teams above us have. Look at WBA, Fulham, Leeds, Notts Forest, Cardiff, Swansea. They all have bigger budgets and bigger wage bills than us. I wouldn't expect us to be above them. Brentford are the team everyone looks at because they've built slowly, and invested and re-invested very well. With the resources at his disposal, to go from lge 1 fodder to a good championship team in 3 years is very good progress. However that progress has to continue next season.

I have voted stay. There have been a couple of times this season where I have called for him to go, but once you strip back the emotion and look at it objectively we have had a decent season. We are where we should be imo with the squad we have; we’re not quite good enough for top 6. Plus, we have improved on last season, and that’s despite being without our best player for a large chunk of the season. There’s no doubt he’s made mistakes throughout the season. He also made two big mistakes in the summer transfer window last summer - using most of our transfer budget on Gallagher and getting rid of David Raya. Next season is a biggie. I expect us to make a firm push for the top 6, rather than just flirting with it.

Can’t wait to see the back of Walton. Absolutely useless. We lose the first goal yet again, just as we have in every game since the re-start.

Wouldn’t these just be fans who already have season tickets and they’ve been auto-enrolled for next season? It may help cash flow in the short term but they will have to refund that money at some point. I certainly don’t see any fans being allowed in for the first half of the season.

I think this will be a summer when football presses the re-set button and we see a correction in terms of wages and transfer fees. I don’t see anyone other than those with parachute payments spending any money this summer. Even those with parachute payments will have to cut their cloth accordingly as the likelihood is that no one will be making any money from season ticket sales next season. I do think we’ll see a sale of a key player to cover the losses from now season ticket money. I also don’t expect anything other than our transfer budget to cover wages for players, I can’t see a transfer fee being paid. There are some good free transfers coming onto the market and hopefully we can work some magic in the loan market. Id love to see Jordan Rhodes come back here on a free. Brewster would be amazing on loan, but don’t see us being in the running. Ben Gibson would be a good option at CB if he’s prepared to take a huge pay cut, and Cunningham would do nicely at LB.

Huge gulf in class sadly. We get 1 point off the play off places and then we go on to lose three in a row, conceding 7 and scoring 1. Happens every time we get in touching distance.

If we are to make a serious attempt at promotion next season then Gallagher, Johnson, Bennett, Rothwell, Holtby need to become back up players and not see so much game time. Tbh a lot of those are already back up players but have seen more game time than we’d like due to injuries. Holtby has disappointed me since signing, I was expecting a lot more quality from him.

Game over. Season over. Both teams wide open at the back but they have way more quality to expose the gaps. I didn't think for a split second Gallagher would score when he went through one on one. His place in the starting 11 has to start being judged on his performances rather than his transfer fee. If he cost 100k, there's no way he'd be anywhere near the starting line up.