RevidgeBlue

That would be incredibly underwhelming.

Thought Gallagher was absolutely shocking when he came on, couldn't hold the ball up, made the wrong decision with his passes, didn't put their defenders under any pressure, and managed to get himself booked with a clumsy challenge. He wasn't on his own in being below par today though.

Great result, terrible performance, rode our luck, will have to play better but will definitely take that today. The red card for Nyambe was the most ludicrous thing I've ever seen. Didn't do anything at all wrong for either of the two yellows imo then one of the Cardiff players deliberately stamps on Wharton's achilles and only gets the same punishment, a yellow. The game's gone.

The timing is also crucial. Even if we were offered a ludicrous fee, do we have an equivalent replacement we know who would join us and is there time to get it done? No point agreeing to a sale at 11.59 on January 31st.

Bollocks to that we have to aim to win every game and try and crack the top two. I think it's unlikely we'll get automatic but you never know and if we fall just short then the play offs will have to do.

I'm as anti Waggott/Mowbray/Venus as Dav is against the owners. But you're correct, contrary to all known logic things have somehow gone contrary to all expectations this season and for as long as the promotion chance lasts we should, get behind the team on the pitch and temporarily cease hostilities against the team off it.

C'mon Chaddy, £150m is more than we'd make from a season in the Premier League and that's a long way from being guaranteed! Let's be a little bit realistic. All that said personally I'd turn down flat anything we're LIKELY to be offered this window. If however Newcastle or someone else unexpectedly came in with £40m plus though you'd probably have to think about it depending on how long we had to bring someone else in.

Yes, we need to put the champagne on ice on this one for a bit longer, there are still details that need ironing out apparently.

Well, yes, but only if they're worth their place in the side on merit if needed as well! We already have one "experienced" player in the squad I think is a waste of a wage in Johnson and that's been the root of our problem over the last ten years, overpaying a load of over-rated and over the hill journeymen and dollopers!

Always makes me nervous when deals are allegedly agreed, publicised, but not due to be completed until "next week". Potentially I think this sounds like a cracking signing though if it goes through and, for a change, one of our own not a loan.

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.