Yep, thousands will be ringing to cancel their Sky subscriptions after this pile of doo doo. Better half just commented that Raya looks like he's wearing joke gloves. "Do his hands fit those?"

Nice to have a bit of pace up front as opposed to Graham. Should have been a yellow card and free kick for the trip. Irrelevant if he wasn't going to get it, if the ball is in play its a foul.

Disappointing that TM said that Mulgrew's "natural replacement" was Williams (who apparently isnt available) and Downing was Williams "natural replacement". No wonder Downing wants to leave. No comparison between the two for me.

TM just interviewed "DG 33 , lot of games coming up, JN gives us mobility up top and the opportunity to run in behind if they press us high."

Out of the two games Id rather win Tuesday and progress but it is a strange side. I dont think TM will consider it a weak side as such, I think it's just his ultra cautious nature kicking in.

Horribly defensive side, 9 defensive players plus Dack and Nuttall. No pressure on Nuttall. Score a hat trick or you're out next game. In fact you're probably out even if you did score a hat trick.

Was always likely to happen. Good player.

Have never rated Coleman tbh. Completely irrelevant to Jones though.

This guy does have an impressive track record so far at Luton though.

I saw the FGR chairman interviewed on Sky and he seemed quite on the button about the incident whereas the statement released from Anderson completely ignored the basic point of whether the player had been paid or not and instead resorted to insulting the FGR chairman on a personal level. Definitely believe the FGR version over Bolton's.

The new Stoke boss came across extremely well in interview, seemed unshakeable in his belief that the quality of his staff and their methods would bring promotion, how quickly was down to the players and how well they were prepared to buy into those methods and how hard they were prepared to work. Amazingly, not a mention of "slow burns" or 5 year plans etc!

No. Completely past it imo.

Cech's absolutely useless these days for me, about as mobile as a living statue. Don't get the criticism of Raya at all. He's one of the better keepers around anywhere for me and he's still only 23. Not many I'd swap him for yet people complain because he miscues the odd kick. He'll be leaving us for better things at some point I'd wager, not the other way round.

I like Downing and if Mulgrew is unavailable he should definitely be recalled. Looking forward if he understandably wants more game time elsewhere it would be natural progression for Wharton to be recalled and ultimately be integrated permanently into the first team.

For me Hanley ((wages permitting) and Chapman. I'd take Rhodes as well if it was realistic but once again wages might make that a non starter. They do say never go back though so maybe we'd be off better looking elsewhere and the recruitment department doing some actual work!

Couldn't agree more. Marshall's attitude was an absolute disgrace when he was here and there were some suggestions he was having difficulties with depression as well. Wouldn't touch him with a barge pole. I'll be really upset if we sign him back. Is there any chance of signing anyone who hasnt played for us before? Come to think of it, is there any chance of us signing anyone?

I don't think so. At least not in it's present form. Years ago loans seemed to be used a lot more sparingly to add the finishing touches to a squad or to cover an emergency when a couple of injuries left you without a keeper etc. Nowadays many teams try to cheat their way round the transfer windows by making loans the core part of their business rather than permanent transfers. I'd restrict buying Clubs to one loan and one emergency loan for a keeper if needed per season meaning the bulk of their business would have to be on a permanent basis. It would probably lead to a massive readjustment of wages downwards for players outside the Premier League but that wouldn't neccesarily be a bad thing.

Am I right in thinking that the authorities are trying to restrict the number of players Clubs can have out on loan to 7 or 8? That would stop Clubs like Chelsea stockpiling players and having 40 + players out on loan and rightly so.

I disagree slightly, to me the whole point of loaning a player from a PL Club is that you're getting the use of a player you could never afford to acquire permanently. The parent Club might be getting a loan fee but they're passing up on the chance to get a permanent transfer fee for the player and they're not paying most of his wages and sending him out to fill up the bench somewhere else, they want him playing so they can assess whether he might be any good for them at some point, or so his value can be enhanced for a sale. I'd have thought the unwritten understanding between the clubs would normally be that the player would be a regular starter if fit.

According to wikipedia he had a lengthy lay off through injury at Huddersfield and was recalled for the play off final so it may be he'd have played a lot more often for them barring injuries.

I liked Palmer. I thought there were some home games early in the season when he looked one of if not our best player but was hooked around the 63rd minute anyway . If we're only going to play one striker and no wingers I'd have liked to see Palmer lining up alongside Dack far more often. In general irrespective of Palmer's ability I think it's the ultimate show of disrespect to ask a Club from a higher division if we can borrow one of their players and then use them simply to fill the bench. We did it when GB was here as well and loaned Barrow from Swansea. He got recalled after a few weeks. I don't even see the advantage from our point of view, the Palmer deal won't have been THAT cheap, there would have been some sort of loan fee involved and for the amount of game time Palmer has had we might as well have given someone like Tomlinson some experience. Mind you, there's still another 89 Clubs we can ask I guess.......

We certainly won't be getting any more players from Chelsea in a hurry.

Hopefully so. I wouldn't exactly call Dack a "young Turk" though, he must be around 25 and I think comes firmly into the "senior pro" category in TM's eyes. If TM's dear old Dad is still with us and tried to tell him about George Best these days he'd probably be met with "Come off it Dad, an hour of Craig Conway patrolling up and down the line is better than these flying wingers!." ?

Very surprised at that John, Id have thought the Darwen End would be rammed at a tenner. Maybe the Toon fans take the view that if the fat Spanish waiter isn't going to take the comp seriously and field a skeleton side then they won't either. In the unlikely event there was a better than usual take up from Rovers fans for this one off event of around 16/17k home fans and only 1.5k away fans I think that would give us a big psychological advantage. Edit: Come on everyone, imagine this is a Bank Holiday **** up in the sun against Oxford and not a midweek televised Cup tie on a cold January night.

That's fine obviously but I think you know full well no - one is criticising anyone for a genuine logistical reason why a particular person can't make an evening kick off. I'm talking about people who could go but wont, choosing instead to save a tenner and watch it on TV. When I was on the Fans Forum years ago there were an astonishing number of people on the database who'd bought a ticket in home areas at some point. I can't remember the exact numbers but it would certainly have filled the ground more than twice over. The "can't make an evening kick off" problem will apply to some but certainly not all of them. One thing's for sure, if there is a miserable home turn out for this one it certainly blows out of the water the notion that cheap(er) prices are the way to fill the ground going forward.