So basically, we're struggling to even get a loan deal over the line for a player that isn't really what we need in the first place?

Depends what happens this season really. If Mowbray takes us down has he really taken us on from where Coyle left us? Personally I don't think finishing 15th is anything particular to write home about. However if we show significant improvement on that this year then obviously the Mowbray fans Will be justified in thinking we're heading in the right direction and the arguments of doubters like myself will carry less weight. As for whether the squad is stronger, it's a moot argument really because TM has received substantial backing and spent around 18m since we went down, whereas Coyle was restricted to loan signings. Several younger players have also come through like Travis and Lenihan and they might have come through anyway under a manager other than Mowbray. Conversely you could argue that certain youngsters like Nyambe and Raya regressed under TM. So it's an impossible argument as you're not comparing like with like and furthermore I think everyone thought from the off Coyle wasn't the man so comparing Mowbray's record to his isn't a useful yardstick. We should expect and demand him to do far far better than that.

Give it a rest Evans is barely any better than Jason Lowe.

(Tin hat on) I think Brereton has far more about him than Gallagher. I'd start either ahead of Graham though. Bring him on with twenty to thirty minutes to go if necessary to see games out.

Is he going to be the new Bennett? Play him out of position anywhere just to get him on the pitch?

"Flirt" with relegation? As I said a month or two back I'd snap anyone's hand off for 21st before a ball is kicked. The best thing for us long term might be if we are struggling badly early on and Mowbray is gone before November then a new man will have enough time to get us out of trouble and players like Nyambe, Travis, Chapman and Rothwell might get a look in.

Hate it. The home shirt is ok this season.

What a **** poor line up. Typical Mowbray. Can't bear to upset or leave out his old favourites

That at least is mildly encouraging.

Is there any indication whatsoever we're actually in for Forster? It seems as though we let Raya go assuming we'd just be able to get someone in and fairly predictably found that decent keepers aren't as easy or cheap to come by as we thought hence us now scratching around at the last minute for everyone who might be available.

"They didn't let Raya go without one pretty much done .........and there's options should it not" Well one thing's for certain, you'll be right whatever happens. You've covered every possible base there!

On holiday in Majorca at the moment so not been keeping fully up to speed with what's going on but two weeks to go until the start of the season and from what I can gather there's still no sign of a keeper, and not much more progress on the CB front other than considering a 21 year old loanee from City. Where's the experienced specialist CB we need? Why have we shot ourselves in the foot by selling Raya? Completely unnecessary. With the possible exception of Johnson, still a shocking window so far imo.

Spot on. It seems madness to me to replace a promising up and coming young keeper with an older keeper on loan who you're only going to have to replace again in 12 months anyway. Nevertheless the saving grace is that if it's anyone else but Hart the sense of relief would be massive. I wouldn't call that dodging a bullet so much as a bazooka.

Don't agree at all with people saying the forward line is not a priority as imo replacing Graham is equally as much of a priority as the defence. However, still a very strange signing for me. I'd say even on the best form of his career to date he's clearly not the man to take us forward if we have aspirations of challenging for promotion. However we're stuck with him now (and vice versa) for the forseeable future so we have to hope his season with us was not the high watermark of his career and that he can improve substantially on the form he showed at Birmingham. Hope he doesn't just get shunted onto the wing to accomodate Graham though. That would be a waste of (another) 5m.

As he would probably be saying exactly the opposite to me were he still frequenting this board, obviously not!

Apologies. Thought he was 35 in August not 34. Point still stands though.

Or a slate the people who are slating Mowbray page?

Bit worrying that Mowbray has dampened down expectations to the point where having brought in a 35 year old and a 32 year old on free transfers into an area where we were numerically already well stocked, and having sold our first choice keeper with no idea who's going to replace him, many people now seem happy with the idea of only signing a replacement keeper and a centre half. The keeper isn't really an addition or improvement, it's trying to put us back into roughly the position we were before we sold Raya. Although I'd wager his replacement won't be as good. As things stand with just over three weeks to go before the start of the season, we've replaced Conway with Downing, Reed with Johnson, have no first choice keeper, one decent CH and a 35 year old leading the attack. Although certain posters try to portray everything that happens as a positive and as part of some grand design, I can't believe the majority would have been remotely happy with that had you offered it at the end of last season.

Nail on the head. In that respect the attitude and culture around the Club seems to be identical to when Bowyer was here "Do the bare minimum." Don't bother turning up in home games until half time, just put it in for 45 mins (or less). On the odd occasion you do string a few wins together and people start thinking you might be able to achieve something then throw in a few bad performances and results to ensure that normality and the status quo are restored asap. All this nonsense about long term plans puts no pressure on the players to produce anything out of the ordinary or achieve anything either. As long as you do the bare minimum I.e. survive, it's happy days.

I'm speechless at that point of view. Graham - knackered. Armstrong - jury still out a this level Samuel - not good enough Could Brereton or Nuttall come good? Possibly but it would be a colossal gamble. I know we need a CH and a keeper as well but the keeper situation is entirely self inflicted as we didn't have to sell and presumably the sale will fund a replacement anyway. A QUALITY striker who is actually good enough is at least as important for me.

Ended up paying £3m for Armstrong. More or less what the reported asking price was all along. The assumption all of last summer was that at £3m he would be out of our price range until we unexpectedly went on a last minute spending spree.

Would be lucky to get 10 League goals (excluding penalties) out of Gallagher imo. 20 + scorers are surely in the 10-15m bracket at least these days. Sounds a lot but then again we were prepared to risk 7m on a completely unproven 19 yr. old.

Whilst Gallagher per se isn't the answer imo, a top quality striker to replace Graham is an absolute must for me. Our transfer policy really does appear to be a joke. We know what the price for Gallagher is, if we have the money and we really want him we should pay it or alternatively move onto someone else we are happy to pay the fee for. If we don't have the money then similarly we should move on and stop wasting the window hoping Southampton will sell him to us at a price that isn't the price. If I want a Ferrari that's £200k I'm not going to get it by offering £120 k , six months down the line I'm still going to be stood there with my nose pressed to the window. I'm not going to suddenly get the item on the cheap just because they feel sorry for me no matter how many times I walk round looking at it amusingly. Not that Gallagher is "a Ferrari" of a player, more like a Ford Mondeo but the principle still applies.

Given the shambles that was our transfer window last summer it's not hard to think we might be thinking along those lines again but I'd say it's a fairly suicidal strategy as a) You don't really know which players PL clubs will allow to go out on loan until the last minute and b) If there's no-one suitable then there's only a week to go until the end of the window to sort something out leading to the potential for silly money being waved at anyone still available who you don't necessarily want or need as happened last year.

Completely disagree. Had Bauer stayed at Charlton he'd have been a first choice CB for them in the Championship which is exactly the same level as both ourselves and Preston are at. I think he's entitled to assume that if anyone at the same level come in for him and want him badly enough to sign him, he'll be going istraight nto the first X1 initially until he proves otherwise by not performing. It's insulting to expect him to agree to a move whereby he will move from being an automatic first choice to a squad player. On the other hand if someone at a much higher level say Liverpool or Citeh were in for him then of course he should expect to have to work his way up and fight for his place. It would be completely unrealistic to expect to walk straight into the first team. As for your comment about Mowbray taking us up; I'll have a pint of whatever you're on!