The latter thing isn't happening as if we did invest £10m in the squad this month and didn't go up, there is always the safety net of selling BBD in summer. Plus, any money spent wisely isn't just money down the tube, it should stand us in good stead for years to come and maybe even realise a profit in due course. I'd have thought the only issue would be whether the right sort of players were available in January when notoriously any sensible Club is loathe to let anyone half decent go.

They really aren't!

Nonsense Gav, this is Mowbray covering his backside - Mowbray and Waggott have landed us in the situation with the out of contract players in the first place, they should have had their contracts sorted with a minimum of two years left on their old deals, are you telling me they wouldn't have signed reasonable offers at the time? There's been no such prevarication with Gallagher and I wouldn't even have offered him anything! Anyhow, the RB seems decent back up and I did say the Spurs lad would be a permanent deal if it happens. Good signings and I reckon there is money available, Mowbray just (rightly) isn't admitting to it. We need quite a bit more though.

In my opinion (and it's only my opinion) it's a mixture of the two. Originally Mowbray had (rightly) lost the owners confidence after the dreadful form of last season and expenditure in summer was kept to a minimum as this was originally seen as a season of survival. Since then however events have been completely superceded by our unexpectedly good form. You will recall that at one point Waggott was going round telling all and sundry that anyone who had not signed a new contract would be sold in January. For the likely sums involved and given where we are in the table however that would plainly be crazy and it does appear that some sort of discussions have been held whereby Mowbray and Waggott have been told no-one is leaving. To the extent they'll push the boat out beyond that we'll have to wait and see. Personally I'd be a lot less worried about the owners being willing to take a reasonable punt on promotion than I would be about the ability and competence of those on the ground at Ewood to get any deals done and over the line.

That doesn't mean to say we should negate our best chance in a decade by failing to strengthen. Whether at the start of the season we thought we'd be in this position now or not is completely irrelevant. We are where we are and Imo we definitely need strengthening quite significantly if we're to have an outside shot at at automatic promotion. Even to finish top six I think we need quite a bit of squad reinforcement as the depth outside the first X1 is paper thin and teams behind us seem to be gearing up already in anticipation.

Think so.

Why don't we just get the deal done? I'd heard a whisper about a Tottenham youngster but now our interest in him has become known, no doubt that'll be the end of it as another Club moves in and beats us to the punch.

Yes, should be a useful addition to the squad IF it goes through. As regards anyone else it's neither use nor ornament being "interested" in players. It's getting them over the line that counts, something we've been abysmal at in recent seasons.

I.e. He hasn't got the faintest idea how much money we're prepared to spend or who we've actually put offers in for. That said, it's results that count and the only stat that matters so far is we haven't managed to bring in anyone of any note.

Arguable whether he is "first X1" but Gallagher is the obvious weak link at the moment.

On the investment front, it's difficult to say on the amount until after the event. A couple of really brilliant loan signings to try and give us a bit of extra swagger and pizazz to get us over the line would probably be better than loading up with lots of career journeymen like Hedges on a permanent basis at this stage. Second paragraph, agree entirely. For once we need results, not hard luck stories missed targets.

I wouldn't class the Irish lad as a serious option at this stage personally. Was there ever any real doubt that RN (and indeed the others) should stay until the end of the season regardless?

Well, anecdotally he wasn't self isolating when he first arrived over here, it's certainly a new one in the long line of excuses about why it wasn't possible to get deals over the line. Perhaps the posters who had Nyambe's bags packed for him had better go running after him and offer to unpack again Lol. We may or may not have a bit of a war chest burning a hole in the manager's pocket and the Club may or may not be playing in coy in their pursuit of targets. All we do know is we have the best chance of promotion in a decade and need a couple of really astute signings in. Thirteen days have already elapsed of the window and there's only eighteen days left without any real signs of incoming players so far. Ideally we could have done with any signings in before Saturdays game but as usual it appears it was beyond us to get our ducks in a row and our business done early. The usual sob stories about how we had offers for players in all window but either no-one took us on or we got gazumped at the last minute won't cut it this time either I'm afraid.

🤣🤣 They've as much chance of signing Mbappe!

On that one he was 100% correct imo. Edit: Pedersen may not actually have been a pensioner during his last five or so seasons here but for me he swung the lead and certainly played like one. On Shebby, didn't realise he was so young. Met him very briefly once at a disabled supporters Christmas party and he seemed a genuinely nice bloke. RIP.

You mean like when we had 3 weeks to bring in an Armstrong replacement?

More likely he's here as back up and both he and Nyambe will be leaving in summer IF we can't agree a deal for RN I'd have thought. If we're baulking at £3m for an Armstrong replacement, what's the chances we'd pay £3m for a right back? It would surely be way way cheaper to just give Nyambe what he wants. As someone else has just said the deal makes zero commercial sense on a commercial basis.

£25m for Wood is absolutely mental if it goes through. Think Burnley have very much got the better end of that deal, foisting one of their lumps of deadwood (pun intended) off on one of their direct rivals and pocketing a huge sum in return. No good if they don't use the money to strengthen though. If they don't, could be the deal that sends both clubs down.

Hopefully only in as back up anyway so it shouldn't really matter.

Not sure that's a good move. We need a couple of additional bodies overall, not to be losing them.

Our recruitment department seemingly don't do "getting deals over the line". Been the same way for the last several seasons.

Be a short one.

The one that's the proven performer.

The campaign to discredit him is frankly baffling. Note Forest have bought in two acquisitions already with more on the way. What is it our recruitment department actually do?

Yep, and Kaminsky et al this time next season.