We can probably discount instantly any player the parent clubs want to sell outright as we go round with the begging bowl hoping for loans or loans with an option to purchase we've no intention whatsoever of ultimately exercising.

We need a further 3-4 permanent signings that will improve the first X1. Anything less than that has to be judged as a massive failure. The padding out of the squad by adding two or three young PL loanees can come after when the core permanent business has been done. Instead we do it the other way round, it's the same every year the majority of the business is a few random loans of anyone who's still available at the last minute in positions that aren't our priority whilst key areas remain unaddressed. I think we can see which way this is heading by the long tortuous and no doubt ultimately unsuccessful pursuit of Dembele. Leaving aside the question of whether he's any good or not the fact "the money men" are baulking at a £1.5m fee is utterly ludicrous given the money bought in over the last 12 months or so.

Knew someone would say that. It was actually "only" £5m but what made that all the more unforgivable for me was the fact he'd already been on loan here and we'd seen beyond any doubt he wasn't all that. (Albeit a lot better than when he joined permanently)

I watched the second half of the Sven documentary yesterday and I found it a very uncomfortable attempt to try and airbrush history and make him look like this nice poor old chap who was dying of cancer. Back in the day I found him a thoroughly unpleasant character. When he was England manager, nothing was ever his fault, nothing was ever anyone's fault. He turned various tournaments into a farce with the WAG circus and wasted the best group of players we'll probably ever have. Like Allardyce at a later date also ended up losing his job due to greed, getting caught up in a fake sting thinking he was auditioning for a lucrative job. On a personal level he just shagged his way around with little thought for the consequences be it with a work colleague at the FA or a high profile Celebrity of the time. All the while his ridiculous partner Nancy whatever she was called sat back and tolerated it until he lost £10m due to being scammed by his financial advisor at which point she promptly dumped him commenting in the documentary that that was far worse than all the infidelity which probably summed them both up. Really really wish he'd never ever got anywhere near the England job. When you look back now, that period was so ludicrous you could hardly make it up. Probably best he never ended up at Ewood either. Did the dirty on Jack and even if he'd made it to Ewood would probably have shafted him and us at a later date. A journalist participating in the documentary described him as completely amoral which was probably about right.

A prime example would be this £6m striker we've been linked with. I'd be amazed if we go ahead with that but we'd be unlikely to ever lose money on him and as you say as a general rule of thumb you have to invest in a decent bit of quality in the first place to have the best chance of turning a decent profit.

OK, if you want to be pedantic about it, do they not have any "midfield" targets of their own?

If most will have no impact - then we shouldn't be signing them!

For me we need players who are going to improve the starting X1 and we don't need cover at LB, we need a new LB! So if the lad from Liverpool is a significant upgrade on Pickering and is coming in as first choice to replace him then fair enough. If not and he's merely coming in to sit on the bench and pad out the squad then I absolutely despair. Someone from our own Academy should be doing that, we're allegedly completely brassic yet we'd be prepared to pay Liverpool to take a young lad off them not to play. The link to Cantwell seems odd in so far as we were very heavily linked with him in the early part of last summer's transfer window. New Head Coach, new recruitment team, do they not have any targets of their own? As for whether he's any good now, I've no idea but his career does seem to have stalled badly recently so it's probably a deal to be approached with extreme caution.

Pick the strongest possible starting X1, bench a few after an hour when the game is hopefully won. Can't underestimate how important momentum is.

He was also extremely reluctant to hand Wahlstedt a start and we soon saw why.

Are you annoyed that the manager you don't like because he says "you know" in his interviews has started well or something Eddie? As for recruitment, just because the modern trend is to go down the DOF/Head Coach/ Data led approach that doesn't mean the standard of recruitment in general is any better than it was under the "old fashioned" approach. Brighton and Brentford are two Clubs who appear to do spectacularly well with their recruitment but there are a lot more you can point at whose recruitment appears to be pretty terrible.

You're on your own with that one. Let it go.

I'm not particularly aware of the links to the others and apart from Ruddy I've no real view on whether I'd want them or whether they'd be any good or not. So far we've signed zero former Birmingham players so let's see what happens. I'm rather more worried we'll sign no-one at all than where they'll be coming g from if we do sign them.

Ex player brigade is a bit of an exaggeration isn't it. We've been linked with a grand total of 2 of his former players. I'm guessing then you were similarly dismissive when Souness signed Neill, Tugay and Friedel? Sometimes a manager signing a player he knows well works out well, sometimes it doesn't.

It's thanks to relying on a DOF and recruitment team that we ended up with garbage like Ennis, Hirst, Telalovic and Wahlstedt. It's probably best that the coach has the overall say on incomings imo. He has to work with them ultimately. (Unsurprisingly Ennis has reportedly failed to impress at Stoke and is being offloaded on loan to Barnsley)

Agreed - in an ideal world I'd like 7. Keeper, 2 new full backs, creative midfielder, pacey winger for either side and a quality Szmodics replacement. We obviously won't get anywhere near that. I think we could get by with three, the keeper, midfielder and the Szmodics replacement if they were all permanent and really good quality. A couple of good permanent signings and three really good loans in the right positions (not just the usual pick anyone up who's left at the last minute for the sake of it) would probably be a reasonable compromise. Let's see how we go given Waggott has said quite clearly the owners have reiterated their full backing for the Club and there is no impediment to them providing such. *cough*

He's obviously earned no leeway from you with the way we've started the season then! I do concede though that it's odd he's not all over a cheap punt on another Japanese player the way Ohashi has started the season. Seems a bit like looking a gift horse in the mouth.

He isn't Jon with his boyish good looks and cheeky chappie smile though!

Apart from the Pears chucking one in bit.

Bloody hell that's a bit premature the fixture computer handed them Liverpool and Citeh to start! Lol.

Very kind set of fixtures to start but I think we'd all have been happy with seven points at this stage. That said there seem to have been large spells in each game where we've been very much second best so Eustace, who seems to be doing an admirable job thus far on an extremely frayed shoestring , needs a lot of help in the final week of the window. As for looking better after finally seeing the back of Gallagher; Who'd have thought it? Lol.

Just tuned in - sounds a grim half. Amazed Gueye didnt start. Hedges is dire everytime he plays. Absolutely no change there.

If he was tweeting pro Rovers stuff and views fairly supportive of the owners those would be his actual views as far as I'm aware.

Is it not Gary Smith who was temporarily on the Board of WATR before resigning? He's not a Club plant, based in California as the username suggests, but he is quite sympathetic to Venky's.

By their own admission they've secured the required permissions to fund the Club though. Hoisting themselves by their own petard yet again.