In Gally, AA and Brereton we'll be shelling out circa 50k pwk combined easily. The money is there we can pay it's all about how it gets spent around the squad and recently it seems to be being chucked in the wrong direction. I like Gallagher but wouldn't have signed him unless on loan or cheap, I still pray Brereton will show something eventually but highly doubt it. The only one that makes sense was Armstrong because at 1.75 rising to 3 it is recoupable or most of it is and despite his inconsistency he's been a handy member of the squad and on his day does make an impact. To me those are the kind of calculated gambles a club like us should make the other two on the face of it really really aren't. Bauer is another calculated gamble that might have been less risk and had more impact, the money on the City loan kid and Downing would surely have covered that even if it doesn't seem as exotic.

We've got the youngsters though but they won't get used properly they'll just get a few mins here and there. He's signed two good mids in Holtby and Johnson giving us some potential steel and bite in there yet he still prefers to jerk them around and use Travis as his bit part man leading us to believe yet again he hasn't really got an idea what to do with them. And as soon as Samuel is fit he gets back in and will probably be no 1 if he isn't starting, this tombola shite of trying to keep everyone happy whilst giving youngsters the odd taste is going too far now it's detrimental to building and gelling the best first 11. Injuries will become his get out of jail card in that respect though now.

How many did we lose on that run last season ? He topped up his credit in the bank by finishing the season well and an ok position so all bets are off on us having similar debates on it this time next year. Slow 'build' remember.......

I just can't envisage him on the right side of midfield here either all i'd expect is every time he got the ball there'd be a slow 3 yard pass back inside or if under pressure turned back to the right back to be hoofed forwards. Like i said if you want possession based going nowhere football then he is your man.

They'll know about relegation by now they've manged two of them for their 150 million pound oversees project, some achievement that. Defenders they've probably been told enough if you spend millions on them they might serve the team well but you are unlikely to double your investment in one season or make a big profit at any time so better to plug those gaps cheap as possible !

And a few snide things when he played for Fulham. Bollocks to him unless he's coming back as an academy coach or something.

I'd never rule out advisors, middlemen and people doing business with their mates whenever any money is there to be spent with this lot.

Unless they or whoever else have restricted him in actually spending on some good defenders then this is down to him . He might have to bite the bullet on whatever his issue is with Nyambie and hope the loan fee on the City lad is justified now.

12 million invested up front over two windows on two strikers who have no scoring pedigree and usually get played wide when they are on. Defence jiggled about, patched up, gap plugging exercise over the last god knows how many windows with zero investment. This season the chickens are coming home to roost now in both areas of the pitch. Poor management.

That's because he's trading on this fallacy his teams play creative football so he seems to see no need for wingers just shoehorn in the strikers and multiple mids he or whoever else get into the club. I think a few of us would've spent the last couple of years trying to convert Bell into a left winger when it quickly became clear he can't cope with left back at this level and his best atribute seems to be running forwards in a straight line quite quickly.

He's always looked a different player when he gets green on although i think the difference in style of play of the international team seems to suit him. Far far too long he's coasted through the motions here keeping warm for his countries games it's ridiculous but if we don't have managers who'll get the best out of him it's no wonder. Now with the options we have it really is time to see the back of this little git for good but he appears very well in at Ewood for some strange reason, every manager through the door follows the same pattern at Rovers and to me it's highly questionable but that's another debate. However as long as Evans is here he'll get used no matter how many better players are in front of him and he'll continue to appear to be managed around his internationals. As always imo it's down to piss weak management at first team level.

Grim very grim.

Perhaps installing a decent DOF now above Mowbray might help get things moving a bit nothing wrong with a bit of pressure from above when you've had the place to yourself for a long time.

Gutted for the lad and concerned for the team it's back to the same tried and tested crap now. Still at least it gives an excuse i suppose.

Take off Houghton - the only real choice on there that makes sense and i'd take long punts on Johnty or Ainsworth just for the Blackburn lad angle which might appeal to fans at first. Best thing to do really though is make up a list of as many 25/35-1 shot busted flushes as you can find then narrow it down to anyone who's pathway might follow a similar one to most appointed under Venkys and you'll have your real shortlist. How about we plump for an actual in work manager whose doing a decent job somewhere but might fancy the better facilities / platform and contract on offer here. Source him properly then poach at the seasons end, that'd be a first.

With his record so far of spending big fees i'm glad he turned them down if it's true although also if true that money will be gone for good now probably so yeah on that note he should be potted !!!

That sounds a bit '50 million war chest' or borrowing against land they don't own tbh. Quick glance at it only connection seems to be ICICI bank.

what title have they actually given him now he's running around with ipads and helping matchday warm ups ?

Funny he crops up whilst we are talking about fitness etc from academies as that was the very thing missing from Grabbi a bit like Dack he always looked like he should have been fitter and worked harder. He did though show flashes of skill and good touches you could see there was talent there but it was a hell of a leap from the Italian second tier to the cut and thrust of the Prem. Some of TMs famous easing them in and hitting certain fitness targets before being ready to be selected wouldn't have done him any harm. In reality though i think English football at that period was always going to be too much for him.

Fitness fitness and looking the part, hair, abs, coloured boots, headphones etc it's the modern way not just football hell the next gen of darts and snooker players will be like that. The make them into athletes now first and foremost in many academies and nothing wrong with that it was missing in the past but the ball should always come first and last. I wonder how many fall away still because they can't cope with the rigours of the gym and football combined at such young ages yet might be quite good at actually playing ? It's odd that that kind of regime is then often followed by robotic, contactless slow sideways football when half their training has been building them up to cope with the opposite. There even used to be such things as entertaining nil nil draws !

I can't stand the guy but he's tailor made for that circus he really is and from his paymasters point of view it is a desperate and probably wise attempt to get people over there to know who he is before he fights Wilder again in the hope of boosting PPV. After he drew a pathetic 3 thousand sold tickets in his last fight they are now desperate to drum up some interest and try and get something back for their huge investment. ESPN backed the wrong horse there but hopefully they'll convince him to piss off to WWF full time ! What was more astounding was reading comments of people over 15 who actually thought it was real ?

Yeah if it carries on as it is. I can still see Mowbray going for a draw and everyone saying before i'll be happy with a point then going bananas that we didn't go for it afterwards !!!

Can understand it in the Prem that's where it all stems from because so many clubs just start the season looking to stay up so knowing they usually get beat off the big clubs they look to grind point off each other. No need for it at all at Championship level but it seems all about managers playing it safe to stay in their jobs. Pointless when you keep losing anyway though. And as pointed out too many of the same type of player getting churned out where's before you had a better mixture which gave teams balance. Now it's wide midfielders and wide strikers and midfield types occupying forward berths and square pegs in round holes across the park designed to cancel the other side out first and foremost. No wonder the football doesn't flow if you have a quick right sided lad now they train him to be on the left and cut inside all the time and vice versa. A quick midfielder will be told he's a wing back even though he can't cross or tackle for toffee and can't get to grips with the positional side of things in defence and some who might make a solid full back will probably be coached into a defensive sitting mid who can occasionally stop attacks and pass the ball tidily a yard sideways. Over complicating things for basic players instead of enhancing the strengths they have and making them the best they can be in that position. As for playing 6 foot plus strikers on the wings from the start or bringing them on out there to try and change a game ??? Biggest load of crap ever that is.

I think academies tend to turn out a lot of right footed bang average types that can play somewhere in midfield but don't really have the tools to be good anywhere else. The lack of contact that's drilled into them these days means not many are good tacklers or very robust nor are they good footballers but they master the art of controlling the ball and the 3 yard short safety pass sideways or backwards. You get what is essentially a load of water carriers, they're ten a penny and quite cheap and some can slot in defence so lower down the food chain squads get buffed out with them. Good managers mix them up with better players and get a tune out of them but others just juggle around trying to make the best of what they have which is a load of similar very basic midfield types. To keep shoehorning them in they then have invent alternative names for them to try a make out they are specialists at one thing or another when in truth they are robotic and almost identikit. The odd ones who do have a bit of individual flair or raw pace are criminally underused by some managers who seem to prefer to try and drill it out of them on the training ground and try and make them something they aren't in the name of keeping team shape.

That's where the good coach comes in then it doesn't matter if the manager is a bit aloof. If he's single minded and driven and has a bit of young manager ruthlessness then all the better because that's probably what is missing at the min.