It was a Nottingham lad telling me that although he did say he was surprised Brereton hasn't shown anything yet but like everyone else concedes he's a raw kid who could've flattered to deceive like so many do in his appearances down there.

If he's getting vile abuse on the club twitter it's up to them to police it and delete or block. If it's is just fans a bit upset at his perceived lack of effort or questioning the signing then fair enough he'll have to man up and take it, a wise trainer would say use that as motivation.

Because you think he might be getting upset at nasty comments even though he's probably sat there laughing at them whilst lounging in his 600k house and wondering how else to spend his 10/20 grand per week. End of the day you take the rough with the smooth on social media or you give it a miss it's all part and parcel of being in the public eye. No need for trolls but they exist and everyone knows it.

He can choose to lock his social media accounts to privacy though.

Way I heard it is Forest are guaranteed 7 million over the course of his contract plus add ons if he really becomes something good. Basically if he stays and plays we pay seven million, maybe the only way out of that figure would be if he doesn't make a certain number of appearances which would have to see him get loaned/frozen out. Sell him and we might still be liable for the full amount. I don't think we are quite at the loaning out or writing off stage yet but it might take a completely different approach to get a tune out of him in the long run. Anything else to pay is probably just icing and cherries on top if he becomes a top player.

Yes they get dropped on like anyone else but different bodies have different criteria as to what they ban and don't there's too many grey areas. WBC have a voluntary program which they encourage fighters to sign up to but what happens when they have signed up is anybody's guess. Fury had to join it to fight Wilder but it was only at the last min they did, Warren blaming a delay in 'paperwork' ! Povetkin a known drug cheat was alleged not to have been tested in the run up to the Joshua fight, Saunders ( who's been suspected of fat stripper before & fights out of the notorious Ingle gym) inhales a stimulant masked in the form of a decongestant whilst training over here for a fight in the States, said item was allegedly ok to use here but not over there so he got banned although his team should've known. Too many different rules and too many loopholes for cheats and potential pitfalls for those just a bit careless.

Grabbi clearly had ability but his head and heart never seemed in it and ironically he was a wide striker struggling when stuck in a front two after probably being used to a three.

My god we haven't half shared some shite players with them you can certainly see why both clubs have had more big struggles over good times in recent years !

The skin of the large banana has been peeled off and is sat on the already greasy floor going nicely brown and slimy....... Heavy legs, patched up team, over confusing selection and tactics. Rovers 0 Ipswich 1

Decent turn out last night after all apart from the barcodes who were amongst the first to sling mud at Rovers fans during the early Venky era - boot on the other foot now eh lads ? Them brining 2k here at 10 quid a ticket is like us taking 300 to Stoke for that TV dinner time kick off, we got hammered for that yet the press are all over two thousand Geordies still coming to Blackburn despite their differences with Cashley, big club bias in its finest mode again. It drew out a normal league type turnout from home fans so that's a plus for us if it had been normal league prices there'd have been sub ten thousand on in total so don't tell me for one min discount tickets didn't work.

It's a difficult ask we've seen Samuel struggle asked to play wide and one or two others so whilst it can be marked down as a learning curve there's a fine line between seeing if someone can get to grips with it or plunging them way out their depth were they'll sink everytime. Moreover it doesn't help the team which is the most important thing, it hinders it and that's not fair on the rest of them nor the paying public who have to suffer a mangers whim or as you say stubbornness. He needs to pull his head out of his arse with this one, tell everyone BB has a knock, give him a week off then put him in the u23s before easing him back in tail end of the season. If nothing else he can work on his strength and maybe get a few goals to get the confidence back again. I said before I wouldn't be surprised to see him loaned back to Forest or something daft at some point then the whole thing will stink to high heaven !

Poor signing at this point in time and completely silly tying all that money up in an unproven young lad no matter how long the payments are spread, I think that's a given now. However as I've said from the start Mowbrays handling of him is extremely poor and is contributing as much as anything else to ruining whatever there might have been to see in the lad. I'd suggest the grumbles and questions are aimed in his direction rather than Brereton's at the min if Tony is trying to make him into something he isn't he's failing and if he's trying to justify the signing by keep chucking him on somewhere he's failing, don't look to blame the fans for this it is at the managers door end of. Of course he could be told he has to play him whenever he can..........

Raya is always going to make blunders he's one of those keepers a good reflex man but not a good decision maker but he'll still earn more points than he chucks away so to speak. Tim Flowers when asked about what it takes to be a top keeper replied along the lines of it's all about minimising mistakes and doing the basics right week in week out not the tipping over the bar from the top corner then dropping the next cross. The best thing right now about Raya is he's NOT Jason Steele !

Interesting jump in population from 2001 to 2011 after being quite static I would have thought ? Blairs Britain !

That was less about Tom Cairney and all about trying to build a team around Lowe and Evans and make captain fantastic into something he wasn't so he was worth a few quid. GB did some cracking stuff at rovers but that was a balls up.

Fair points but I think it's a bit different talking about elite level because those guys come with more than pace, a lot more so yes they are very much sought after and not ten a penny. We are at the meat and drink end though and just raw pace is a good enough starting point lower in the English leagues but the trend seems to be play 'wide' midfielders which is probably imo just a bit of a cop out because basic midfielders are probably what is most churned out these days, there's an abundance so they give them names and accommodate them. A proper wide midfielder and a proper winger are obviously two different things but these days the tendancy seems to be fill out your squad with midfielders then bung one or two out wide. I'm also of a mind that at a different time the likes of Henley, Nyambe and Bell would've been encouraged to be wingers because of their pace and lets face it non of them seem really natural with the art of being full back or wingbacks it's very much having to be drilled into them.

Yet we did unearth one from nowhere in the form of Chapman ? I disagree 3/4's of the clubs might be after them because they are out of fashion at the moment, not many like them it's not the modern way. Souness was certainly a forward thinker when he declared 'the winger is dead' in about 2003 ....... just before he bought Emerton and Reid and tried to play them as wingers ?

He's not fooling us with that never in a million years was he going to spend big money on a midfielder ?

Well I did say it would be impossible to replace him like for like so the system of play would have to change, it would be a big blow I don't think anyone is underestimating that. But if and when it happens it needn't be the end of the world but it will need some smart recruitment to probably replace the only real flair we have with some pace out wide and/or a good creative mid otherwise it will be bland.

It's improving but it's nowhere near the level it should be and the punishments imposed given the nature of the sport are ridiculous. Depending on the evidence at hand and the case for defence if they have enough to be beyond reasonable doubt it should be a minimum 2 year ban and if caught again or it's a serious case of first time doping it should be a life ban, no ifs buts or maybe ban them. Part of the problem in the UK and probably elsewhere is UKAD and other bodies seem to put all their energies and funds into trying to bring down cyclists and don't invest enough time and money elsewhere.

That's what happens when you end up relying so heavily on one player and your whole style revolves around them. We'd never get another creative/goal poaching type like Dack so I think he'd be forced to get some pace on the wings otherwise we'd need a creative mid and possibly a front 3 of Armstrong/Graham/Brereton which is something I've thought he might be planning should Dack leave.

From their point of view that would be the best time for a bid then the brass would disappear and if we survived ok they'd use the excuse we don't need to spend big, really its already been reinvested upfront.. We'd miss him and I don't want him to leave now or in the summer but I do think we'd be ok and it would force Mowbray to use the number of options he's been collecting properly. We did ok when it was altered on Saturday when he went off after all.

Hmmm but Graham was brought in by Lambert to replace Rhodes and was all set to sign here whoever the new boss was although Coyle probably had to ok it to be fair. To give him the credit for that signing is a bit of a stretch I think he'd have had Barnes instead if he'd half a chance. Mulgrew I also believe was being lined up by Lambert to come anyway but maybe Coyle got that over the line so fair enough although he neutralised that by lumbering us with that shitehouse Stokes at the same time so it probably had some grubby little fingerprints on it. I'll tell you one thing though any longer playing under Coyle and Mulgrew would've been ruined and back off up the road.

You haven't done any yet obviously ! Good luck with it anyway.

All except Chaddy who'd already ordered and paid for a taxi for DG ?