What, so he can teach the squad how to go out on the lash and keep themselves generally unfit?

Saw most of the game, very happy with a point as we were over-run for large parts of it. The lad Jones on the left for Boro looks a special talent. The two loanees Clarkson and Poveda were terrible, completely anonymous. Buckley and Dolan did well when they came on. Gallagher decent for once, thought Brereton was very poor indeed today. Carter was slightly unlucky to be sent off, another ref might have let his boot in the face go as it was clearly accidental and not as bad as the one from Branthwaite at the same ground last year, but you couldn't really complain about it being a second yellow. He needed to be more careful being already on a card. I'm no fan of Morsy and that's an understatement, think he's a thug, but in this particular instance, thought he was even more unlucky than Carter as it was more a case of Magloire running into him. The two red cards took the steam out of Boro's dominance and it was fairly thrilling end to end stuff for the last few mins. Good point but at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious we have major problems.

Yes, but I presume they will have done good business apart from that, it won't be the cornerstone of their business. Plus as others have said, likely to be a more experienced player.

I would say that's down to the incompetence of the people trying to get the deals done as opposed to the money only recently becoming available. We agreed a fee for Obafemi apparently so it must have been agreed the money was available at that point. What the **** is this bloke Park playing at? We should have had an Armstrong replacement done and dusted within 2-3 days of him leaving. Once Obafemi started stringing us along we should have had reliable back up options.

Also just seen on the LT website one person has posted they'd heard there was an Italian striker coming in. You couldn't make it up. J*B caught a whopper there.

So no doubt you'll be gushing in your praise for the owners being willing to release funds for a striker Gav..........

About what?

For once we agree, it would be criminal if we sold our major asset and didn't secure a replacement on a permanent basis.

I'd say it's fairly plain that Waggott, Mowbray and Venus aren't good enough and everything bad that has happenened at Ewood over the last few seasons stems from that as up to press the owners have given them free rein within an agreed budget. You generally however seem to try to ignore the evidence that is unravelling in front of our own eyes and present everything that happens at Ewood as being perfectly normal and the sort of thing you would expect at a "normal" football Club run by competent employees. Or do as you've done above and latch on to an isolated success like the signing of Kaminsky as evidence that all is rosy in the garden. "Less extreme" hmm..........Is it really that extreme to want to see the back of a manager and CEO who over the last 3 years have spent well over £100m of the owners money and revenue generated in producing finishes of 15th/10th/15th, who despite that level of investment have left us struggling to meet FFP requirements and facing the prospect of most of our better players walking out for nothing, and who underhandedly tried to flog off part of the Club's infrastructure to boot?

It wasn't me that initially tried to deflect attention from this appalling transfer window by mentioning a player we signed 12 months ago but please do carry on - you're the one making yourself look foolish with your unstinting everything is fine campaign and making out everything ludicrous Mowbray and Waggott do can be rationally explained away.

Yep, suppose it was Venky's fault the Trio tried to flog off the Training ground at Coventry as well. Again with detailed plans of a proposed housing development and no details whatsoever of any alleged new facility or even a potential site on which to house it! More to the point here - who do we think stopped the development?

Not quite as good as Raya but has proved a solid enough signing. If we're that desperate we're having to rely on past signings to cheer us up then what about that lad Shearer we signed in 1992 as well? He wasn't half bad.

So we'd be better off with Mowbray than Wilder then? Aye - all right!

"Bielsa, Potter and Klopp's Blue and White Army"!

They've been forced to turn off the tap because they've already backed him above and beyond what is permissible under FFP guidelines. If Mowbray had traded a little and/or kept the squad to a manageable size and/or not handed out contracts like sweeties to players who didn't warrant it and/or not wasted millions of pounds of dead money on loan fees there would no doubt have been a lot more room to manoeuvre.

Great Post. I think the cretins on the ground at Ewood will be held accountable in the sense that this is their last season and they possibly may not even get that if looks like we're in serious trouble but I can't really understand why action wasn't taken at the end of last season. Unless the thinking is that this season is Mowbray's mess, he'll have to sort it out and the landscape might look a lot brighter for a new team in 12 months time. Difficult to see how that will be the case without securing most of the necessary contract extensions though and if that is the approach it's taking quite a gamble with our Chamlionship status.

Personally I would have sacked Mowbray first and asked questions later in the second half of last season (Well in the early part of 2019 to be precise) but I can't see a great deal wrong with sounding out other managers whilst he is still in situ and I certainly have no sympathy whatsoever for him if that happened. The reason for it is his fault - he was failing at the job. Williams did exactly the same with Allardyce, when Ince was here. Ince knew he was a dead man walking a week or two before he actually got the sack. No-one complained about that, the difference here is that the move for the managerial target seemingly fell through this time for whatever reason.

Whilst I think this season will be a case of merely trying to ensure survival I believe there are actually genuine grounds for optimism that things will change for the better after that. Hopefully the reasons for thinking this way will become apparent as events unfold in due course. "The times they are a changing."

Sorry, the above is absolute rubbish imo, we're only 4 games in!!! 1) The financial hole we are in is entirely down to Mowbray's mismanagement of the Club's resources. 2) Him and Waggott are also responsible for not safeguarding the Club's position as regards our better players because Mowbray by his own admission had some (imo misguided) notion he didn't want to upset the rest of the squad. As a result apart from having to let Armstrong go for less than his true worth we face the prospect of another £30m or so worth of talent walking out of the door for nothing. 3) The last 3 years on the pitch have been imo some of the worst I've seen in 50 years of watching the Club bearing in mind the very generous financial backing he's had. 4) He brought an atrocious CEO into the Club to watch his back in Waggott then the pair underhandedly tried to flog off part of the Club's infrastructure on false premises that Cat 1 Academy Status could be maintained. Then they were forced into an embarrassing climb down. 5) He's brought another pal into the Club as Head of Recruitment who seems incapable of unearthing a suitable permanent transfer target we can get over the line. "There's a chance we'll be looking back fondly at the days of Mowbray!" Sheesh, give me a break! It will be a day for extremely joyous celebration when the toxic trio of him Waggott and Venus finally leave the Club.

We need to replace Armstrong because BBD and Gallagher haven't shown yet they are anywhere near the same standard. Completely disagree on Nyambe, immense player and the first one of those I'd tie down under a different manager. Lenihan I'm not quite as bothered about as Wharton could easily prove to be better. Still don't want to lose him for nothing though ideally, ditto Lenihan and Brereton but that's where we are temporarily thanks to having these idiots in charge on the ground at Ewood. Edit: Would tie Kaminsky down 2nd behind Nyambe as we've seen from the Walton debacle how hard it is to find a half decent keeper these days.

But what are OUR youngsters more likely to benefit from going forward? Regular game time in the Championship or regular game time in Leagues 1 or 2? You can't compare it to the Premier League. Their youngsters are behind some of the best players in the world, ours aren't competing against anywhere near that level of player.

That's absolute buttons if Payment is structured in the usual way I.e. over the life of the contract. If we can't afford that things must be desperate. Shows what folly it was to splurge £5m on Gallagher who presumably is no better than this bloke at best. For the same price you could have bought 3 or 4 of him plus the wages would be much less.

In addition to the 5k per week, we'll also be paying a substantial loan fee won't we? Premier League Clubs don't tend to let these players out for nothing.

Entirely my point really, you're not improving the team at all because no matter how good they are, they're not here the following season so you never get any long term progression.

Garnett wasn't even in the 18 Saturday. Poveda and Clarkson are more likely to block the progress of the likes of Davenport, Chapman, Buckley Butterworth and Dolan who all need regular game time at this level.