Interesting that Jansson's agent is none other than Martin Dahlin and that Leeds sold him due to FFP worries. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/pontus-jansson-explains-leeds-sold-17696147

There will be some numbskulls travelling from Blackburn Andy. You know the ones, they once had a pint of Guinness and they become Irish and want to tell the world how they are proud Paddies. Hopefully the police will come down hard on any of the sectarian bullshit.

He had no choice with Travis. Early in the season he barely got into the squad. He played against Sheffield United on December 28th because Evans was rested having played at Leeds two days earlier. Smallwood got sent off at Sheffield and Travis put in arguably the performance of the season against West Brom on New Years Day. In the next few games Travis was outstanding and contributed a lot to a winning run. I don't for one minute believe that Travis would have got much game time if Smallwood had been available. In fact I think Travis would have been sent out on loan in January but for Smallwoods stupidity.

Mowbray baffles me at times. He hasn't shut the door on Rodwell who is still on holiday in Australia. I would imagine his fitness levels are well down so he effectively would need 4-6 weeks to get up to speed and then some under 23 games for match fitness. If he signed it could be two months before we saw him in the first team squad. This genial, favourite Uncle Tony nonsense has gone on too long. He needs to get tougher with people who mess us about or aren't good enough.

You are being unfair Lenny. Andy Kennedy was distinctly average for us.

Mowbray also reckoned he had money left from the August and January windows. If his budget is similar to last season this money has either been included in this year's (in which case his budget is less) or he has more than last season. Unless the Indians withdrew it..................

I listed several reasons why it seems to be all over the place. For one example only a few months ago defenders were the priority so said Mowbray. From his words it's safe to assume that his main focus for scouting and recruiting would have been in that area. In the interim he has decided that defenders now aren't the priority as he wants to play a more passing game. That is perhaps why he has signed Downing and Johnson but I don't think they would have been on his radar when he made his comments about signing defenders. All through his tenure here I have never been comfortable that he has a defined way of playing as he constantly changed systems and played players out of position. His transfer policy seems to me to reflect his indecision in his playing style.

I know they are only links but it does appear to be a scattergun approach by Mowbray and Rovers. I don't think I've read an interview recently which has given me too much hope. He has oscillated between signing defenders and sticking with what he has, waiting until late in the window, talked about signing young players and polishing them up, loaning players from PL clubs and other things. There just doesn't seem to be a firm plan in place but the buck has to stop with Mowbray.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/liverpool-legend-graeme-souness-blasts-17484032 Some straight talking from Souness with a reference to Yorke. I agree with a lot of what he says about the modern game and many people in it.

The comments about Adam have been taken right out of context. In this, the pre season thread, there has been praise of his performance because he was the best player on the pitch. I haven't seen a word on here about giving him a contract but simply praise for his display from some people who were there. And those thoughts are pretty much echoed by Mowbray in his post match interview.

This thread is about pre season games and it's a comment about how somebody played. As we aren't playing anybody of note how do you propose we judge players? FFS.

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