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.

The interview with TM is a superb read. It gives further insight into his character and in the article he comes across as everyone has always suspected, as a man of great integrity. However it also tends to confirm what some of us have been saying about being too loyal to existing players. If you struggle with leaving players out of the team you're not going to get very far, and you're going to be even less inclined to replace those players altogether with better ones. He also comes across as incredibly old school which being of roughly the same age I think is great but you do wonder how the "Luxury! We had to get up an hour before we went to bed t' lick road clean" sort of approach will wash with the younger generation of players many of whom are already earning thousands of pounds a week.

Could he read the Board during his enforced holiday? He'll have a month's worth of stored posts he disagrees with ready to fire back and quote at everyone! Seriously though it must have been hell for the poor lad being temporarily barred. He lives for this place.

But what is there to moan about now? It's presumptuous to assume a Club our size could never have been relegated from the Premier League and I keep getting told on here the manager is doing a brilliant job and we're over-achieving etc etc. I know I've been more critical than most of what's been happening on the field this season but my view has always been you hold up your end of the bargain as a supporter of the Club by buying your season ticket and / or match day ticket then you can moan. This tie also presents an opportunity to temporarily escape from the mundane slog to finish in the bottom half of the Championship and enjoy a bit of success by claiming a Premier League scalp. The supporters should be all over it whether it's £10 or £20. Not "I'll see if it's on TV." etc.

Best post I've seen on here for a while. I've always said you don't need two holding midfielders and that if you do, neither of them are any good. It would be a "travisty" (pun intended) if Travis were to be dropped for Smallwood or Evans as he's miles better than both of them imo. I am usually left scratching my head at the end of 90 mins as to what Evans has actually done and if you watch him closely for 10 mins or so you see how bad he actually is. Whereas good players make themselves available for the ball, Evans appears to do the opposite, rarely seeking the ball out and often moving away from the man in possession making himself unavailable for a pass. No doubt he'd claim he was plugging some imaginary hole but it doesn't wash with me. When he does get the ball it's generally a pointless short pass to the nearest man, rarely forward and very rarely one that puts us in a better position, it just leaves the receiving player with the problem of what to do next. I could cope with Travis and Smallwood (who at least gets stuck in) but long term if we're going to progress we need to be looking at Travis and Reed in central midfield. 2 lads who can dig in AND play a bit.

It's not often I agree with Philip but I do on this one, if Venky's are reading this thread they must wonder why they bother really, I know the situation is largely of their own making but Fans take it as read as though it's absolutely nothing that they have absorbed a loss of 110m plus without batting an eyelid and are seemingly prepared to fund ongoing losses of 10 - 15 m p.a. and still expect a huge kitty every transfer window. Yet when an attractive tie against Premier League opposition comes up people are apparently prepared to consider going for a tenner but not if it's any more. "Rovers 'til I die." (as long as it's at a ridiculously discounted price of course)

I'd say wingers, a striker in his prime, and a big nasty centre back are much more of a priority than LB. Bell isn't the finished article but has potential and we can manage with him for this season. Williams on the other hand should be nowhere near the team unless as a makeshift centre half due to injury.

Got promoted to the Premier League with Huddersfield and I think he got recalled for the play off final after a longish injury so he must have done a job/been highly rated there.

My thoughts exactly, I'm sorry to see him go, Dack apart we have zero flair or creativity and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he turns out to be a star elsewhere. The only consolation will be if we bring an out and out winger into the squad to replace him. Wouldn't be completely surprised if it's Evans/Smallwood type number 5 behind them Reed and Travis though.

Hope you have luck in persuading your husband to go. I agree parking near the ground is an absolute joke, Far from accomodating Rovers it's almost as though the Council don't want a football club in the town. As things stand, despite the warning signs to the contrary, up to press it' has still been free to park on the McDonald's /Aldi car park opposite the ground if that's any help. Send me the fine if they start ticketing cars on the day you decide to go down! ?

The mere fact we're discussing him shows how quiet it is in terms of actual rumours. The Club are also playing it quite craftily with this "there won't be much to see here this window" facade IF the bloke I was talking to is right who said we had a large budget at our disposal.

Im not going to put you on ignore gb but yes I do find much of what you post irritating, it now seems you managed to get to Newcastle for a game which I do find a little odd when you have previously cited travel difficulties as one of your reasons for not going to Ewood and had me feeling quite sympathetic towards you. I hope you can make it to as many home games as possible in future but if you can't I'm not particularly interested in hearing the reasons why.

Hmmmm......I did. I thought he did all right but predictably he was promptly dropped for the next game. If he was a 27 year old and had played like that in the opening game of the season there wouldn't have been the slightest suggestion he should be dropped. Everyone would have been saying he'd be fine when he'd bedded in and got used to the rest of the team etc. His age is irrelevant for me. If we're spending £7m on a player he needs to be going straight into the side as first choice in his chosen position. As others have said we aren't a Man City who can afford to spend £7m on a player and stockpile them, the rest of the side isn't good enough and it's even more relevant when we've got FFP waiting to bite us in the arse after a 3 year period.

Klopp has put himself under unnecessary pressure now imo. Should have gone to Citeh with his most attacking side in the knowledge that a win and it was all over and if they lost it wasn't a disaster. Instead he changed what has worked for them against Citeh in the past and lost and now he's tried to be clever with resting players and it's backfired. Needs to win the League or Champions League now or this will be quite rightly held against him.