Agreed. Adam was classy, always had time on the ball and his long diagonals over and inside the full backs were excellent. Clearly it's too early to make a decision on him but he is something we haven't had for a long time.

Bretton hasn't improved his upper body strength during the summer.

At Brentford last season Raya dropped one of the biggest clangers of his career when he went for a cross he was never going to get and Brentford scored with a header from his indescretion. If they think they can fix that rash decision making good luck to them.

Hopefully Monk has made himself pretty much unemployable now. There are too many of his kind in cahoots with agents and other 'third parties'.

The old 'undisclosed fee' narks me. Good luck to Raya who always seemed a genuine person. I suggested Joe Day, then of Newport as a potential signing. Young, free and an excellent prospect. He has since gone to Cardiff and I think he will end up as number one there soon.

I wanted to get rid of Raya and believe Mowbray has done the right thing. He was an enigma. At times brilliant but more often schoolboy like. He was making the same mistakes and just didn't seem to be learning from his many errors. Bringing new players should be underpinned by one question - are they better than what we have. We can do a lot better than Raya.

That is quiet common in managers contracts. It came to light when Hollowhead was at Blackpool. He bought Matt Phillips cheap and was in for a cut of the profit when they sold him for a large fee.

I remember Souness was a shareholder in an agency and there was a furore when we signed Andy Cole who was a client of said agency. Souness received a dividend as a result of the profits and increased share price. There were several other high profile managers who had shares too. SFX rings a bell.

I have worked with people who have either worked or negotiated with Steve Gibson and they all say he plays with a straight bat. Hopefully he is irked enough (and has the evidence) to push this all the way. My fear though is that the FA are so weak and will not pursue it as vigorously as they should. He should bypass them and go through a civil court.

Where is 'everyone moaning' ? That's a gross overstatement. It's pretty much split over whether we should sell him.

It's difficult to be critical of Mowbray here. I thought it was a gamble worth taking and pretty much win/win for Rovers. There is a player in there somewhere.

I have no problem with selling Raya. He has too many weaknesses and I didn't see much evidence of him eradicating these. A player is only worth what somebody will pay for him and the fee seems fair to me. Johnson is a decent signing simply because he is better than what we have. Hopefully we can bring in better centre halves quickly and shift some of the dross.

Increased wages would eat up a chunk of what we could get for him. I think if we could get £500k for him it would be great.

If that is true about Evans it's another baffling decision by Mowbray. Why give him a new deal until 2021? I don't disagree with getting rid of him or Smallwood just that he will have unnecessarily had an longer, improved deal. And Mowbray eulogises about him in this piece. https://www.irishfa.com/news/2018/december/northern-ireland-midfielder-corry-evans-signs-new-deal-at-blackburn-rovers

My memory from queuing at silly o'clock was a well prepared Rovers fan in a camping chair reading Cas Pennant's autobiography. It's strange what jolts the memory. I remember the food outlets being open but not what they had on offer.

The latest rumour is a bit of a bombshell to me. My hunch was that the Indians had cut Mowbrays budget hence the distinct lack of movement and that we were apparently outbid for two players. This bolt from the blue has thrown the cat amongst the pigeons but Mowbrays admission that he had to persuade the owners not to spend adds a touch of credence to the story. If it's true then Mowbray isn't the right man to take us up and we should prepare ourselves for the low light oven rather than the microwave we were expecting. But then again why would he target a top six finish and not spend big? I'm confused but come the end of the window all will be revealed.

An interesting development in the aftermath of Argentina v Brazil when Argentina felt incredibly hard done to by VAR. I read that they have requested the audio from two VAR referrals which the referee allegedly refused to look at. There is also an inference that the Brazilian FA interfered. https://mundoalbiceleste.com/2019/07/03/referee-advised-to-go-to-var-during-argentina-vs-brazil-afa-request/

One of my fears about VAR was that it would sanitise the game. If you take the letter of the law to the n'th degree there was contact but anybody who knows the game understands that it was completely unintentional. I'm just so glad that it won't be in the Championship next season but it won't be long before it is.

Sounds like a decent prospect. An under 23 regular at 19 with a successful side gives me some optimism.

A funny skit on Roy Keane with a Goodfella's scene.

Mowbray did use Gallagher in the way you describe although we played a back three and Mulgrew played long diagonal balls. But doesn't this way of playing conflict with Mowbrays wanting to play a more passing game?

The name of the prospective Bolton owners, Football Ventures arouses my suspicions straight away. Is it the first sign of venture capitalism in football?

I was in the same boat as you and would chunner to myself every time I spent my hard earned at Boots on razor blades then my brother recommended the one he uses bought from Lidl. The make is Cien and for £2.99 I got a razor and blade and a pack of four blades for another £2.99. I have actually been using the first blade for over three weeks now.

I really don't know why you come on here then. People have different views, that's the way of the world and nobody should take it to heart. Its no different than sat watching a game and listening to comments around you. Some you agree with and some you don't. As far as transfer speculation goes all there is to go on is snippets in the media and in the fullness of time we'll know how true they are.

With the current bunch I would say out of the bottom three is my expectation. A few decent signings could change that but given the players we have been linked with I honestly don't hold out too much hope. I say this having fallen for Mowbrays 'top six' talk at the end of last season.