Gallagher - wide right or up top, Armstrong same as but left sided. These are the things that appeal to him it seems actual goal threat and creativity come second. Every striker he's signed he's done the same with non of them carry much goal threat or create much but they can all be moved about the park in his eyes. Samuel, AA, BB, Gallagher and that's to the tune of about 16 million invested all in. Ad hoc is very much the way !

THat's what it needed but to avoid that he's slightly altered the tactics it was clear he intended to start the season with the same old defence with a bit of back up instead of buying some quality for there. Think he was just looking to tighten things up in front of them and hope for the best but it quickly became apparent it was same old same old so out went Charlie. AS DE says above it's ad hoc again now instead of following a plan.

I think his answer to the defensive issues was to buy a hard working big lad to run the right side channel and hit early whilst holding the ball longer along the back 4 / midfield. Shoring the whole side up in other words adding in a bit of much needed muscle in the form of Johnson in the middle as well. Obviously it's proving detrimental to the bits of football and quick countering we did play. Tomorrow will be very interesting and imo it's back to hoping our main men just pull something out the bag individually or Millwall have a bad day.

I'd certainly keep DG on his rolling contract if he's happy to stay there's a future coach there by the sounds of it and our young strikers certainly need all the help they can get. As for Smallwood it sounds an odd attitude to fighting for his place and turning the loan down it's looking like a sitting out his nice contract case.

When is his contract up ? Perhaps all this is just the start of building up to trying to get a fresh one it usually starts with this kind of thing in the press. Never fear anyway Dominic is on the comeback trail !

Players man, happy camp, good old Tony. One day we'll get a manager and set of owners who put points before players, pals and 'investments'.......then again probably not. On Graham it'd be good for him he's not getting any younger and he's served us well but i worry there's a danger he'll switch off if he knows he's off.

Or actually buying strikers for the wing not buying wingers then complaining your strike force isn't getting the right service...... Managers confusing simple solutions.

Court again for stalking and harassing a bird and her mum, he really is a loathsome little scroat.

Ah but one of those strikers will probably start wide right, one won't be anywhere near and the other could be left, up top on his own or benched. Not difficult to see why our 15 million quid strike force doesn't blow teams away ...

It's called the Champions League and that is what it should be no ifs buts or maybes there's other competitions for runners up and the rest to be in. The champions league might then get boring granted but the other comp would then get more kudos it's swings and roundabouts. Which brings us back to the old style European Cup, Cup Winners Cup and Uefa cup etc.....

That's what i was alluding to a pragmatic style dressed up in 'keep ball' clothes i.e a long punt every 5 or 6 square passes instead of every 2 or 3. That's the new idea of opening up the opposition it would seem.

Think i'd be asking DG not to play ! Unless he obviously knows he's playing second fiddle as sub on Sat of course but still a bit risky.

This is what i don't get with Mowbray if he wants to play that way or the Sheff Utd way then sign players for that purpose, set out that way and play that god damn way drill it into them until it hurts. It might take a season or two but it should get results however he'll need a proper target man. He strikes me as a pragmatic type trying to put on fancy clothes and pretend his isn't but if ever there was a guy who seems caught in two minds it's him so what we get is something in between. If he did play that way and get them more regimented then it wouldn't allow him to swap and change so much and half his favs would have to be left out so on we roll, maybe he is trying to evolve it slowly but it still all needs to be built on a solid defence and keeper. Something he's fallen down on since he walked through the door. What i do feel he and we are good at is the counter attacking moving the ball a bit quicker however he only does that now and again and still you need the right types coming in for that to perfect it. To be fair it's hard to play way every week but i still think we are capable of doing it a bit more effectively with the right selections and coaching. Far too much mix and match in terms of players and tactics yet it still usually ends up resembling the same thing but then again it is the championship with championship and kids and league 1 standard individuals so never going to be easy. I think teams have proved though that unless you are a cut above everybody else like a relegated side looking to bounce straight back you really have to try and grind your way out of this division very few football their way out.

Promotion at the first ask swept all that quickly under the carpet otherwise there'd have been another spectacular meltdown at some point or people would just have given up, one thing or the other. Just goes to show that whilst we are stable its got a lid on it but as a few better placed people have said we are only ever a couple of weeks away from something crazy whilst they remain here yet we are still light years away from really kicking on. Fans should look to the future but in our case it's always very wise to keep an eye on the past there are certain patterns you can almost predict and it's usually little things that kick it off.

1-1 a hard fought draw, think it's going to be a win,lose,draw 12/13th place finish kind of season.

Add Benni in there and Suker etc, man we've had some class.

I'll never trust Barry and his pals but iv'e a grain of sympathy for the other family who were probably hoodwinked from all angles. However then you think about the ignorance of we know better, the arrogance and of course wilful neglect and blind stupidity and that grain disappears i'm afraid.

Steve Kean the man of relegation bonuses and not one but two wages on his contract, just where was that extra few million per annum really going ? Bad advice ? Stitch up ? or wilful blind eyes being turned ? Either way they were all responsible and the majority of that was with the owners. One almighty cock up for sure but there was a lot more at play than meets the naked outside eye.

Of course you get some top quality games in the Champs league it is by and large the cream of the crops so why would anything less be expected ? The whole thing though is a bit of a farce just designed to try and get the cream of those crops in the final stages after dragging it out for ages and having a few whipping boys in there the fill tv fixtures. Then being able to go into another competition if you get knocked out after going so far is again another unfair farce. The old format was better surely knock outs are more exciting and gives smaller league winning teams a better chance, European Cup, Uefa Cup, Cup Winners Cup - Bring them back

Good point about Hart etc i think certain flaws are ingrained but others can be ironed out through time, experience and of course good coaching. In Harts case i think a lot of it was mental and a touch of the too much too young making him think he was invincible and it was never his fault them when he realised it was he crumbled a bit. Some get over it some don't, he's a bit like the David Price of football. On the coaching etc though i really don't see how working under an experienced coach and with other good keepers can't help a young guy IF he'll listen and buy into it. THe training drills themselves can vary massively from coach to coach you only need to have watched the warm up routines under different ones over recent years. Iv'e mentioned it many times on here but those under Johm Keeley involving Steele and younger Raya always seemed very thorough and very good. Contrast to when Lambert took over and brought in his guy a fat lad who could barley boot it to the goal from the edge of the box and it changed massively and didn't look very good at all, if one or the other is replicated through the week..well..

Characterless robots and for me it starts now at academy level these days of course they have benefits young players are fitter and have better basic skills but flair etc or traditional type players who'll only ever fit certain roles but fit them well are fast becoming a thing of the recent/distant past.

I wonder if his treatment would've been different had TM signed him, or even more so had he signed him from Boro or another previous club ? Where's the human angle on that one ? I wasn't a huge Raya fan but could see his good points and would have preferred to keep him in the squad and give him an experienced coach to work under and proper no 1 competition to work with. As always here these days its been done instead in a penny pinching way that will cost more in the long run.

Agents, most player wages in all leagues, ticket prices, bias Media coverage, being at the behest of tv paymasters and their messing of fixtures, sterile atmospheres nearly everywhere, plastic modern day internet hooligans, early kick offs. Liverpool, Man U, Burnley & PNE Apart from that the game itself remains beautiful even though it's cruel and boring at times ?

Both at fault really for not handling it well. Mowbray openly dug him out whilst ignoring the other glaringly poor form of his key defenders and in my mind he either never was one of the favs or they sniffed a transfer fee, probably a bit of both. Raya obviously has a fragile ego and took it badly instead of on the chin the managers concerns were justified but he shouldn't have hung him out to dry. Raya again surely knew he had things he really needed to work on but perhaps he voiced his concern over what was in front of him etc and that pricked Mowbrays ego. And what did the likes of Mulgrew have to say about it seeing as he was running the dressing room allegedly ? Verdict = Situation untenable, nobody covered in glory not least the club for grabbing the money then not insisting we signed a proper replacement.

Such short memories sometimes... When Mowbray installed Raya as no 1 he papped on about his quick distribution and operating off his line and how that would serve us well then we continued to play a style that made no use of that really. Brentford said the same when they signed him that's why they were after him because he fits their core style they've played for years and keepers like that are rare. Must admit although i think he's still a good prospect i never saw in him the future big star some do but each to their own. However he just didn't fit our style but some of the clangers he dropped had nothing to do with that, weak defence didn't help him of course. Apart from when the Graham, Dack long ball old school approach clicks who does fit 'our' style ?