To be fair, he isn't going to come out and say how shit he is!

People seem fixated with suggesting that we could have as much depth as last year, a season in which we didn't have enough depth! Even so, that includes players like Vale and Phillips who aren't ready at this standard, and internal promotions like Buckley for Rothwell whereby all that does is means that Buckley then needs replacing.

Has anyone totally written him off?

Just because people may have complained about a lack of signings which likely cost us results due to having too stretched a squad doesn't mean that complaining about the specific individuals that we may sign is unreasonable.

Only if it is purely focused on positive aspects and any constructive criticisms and doubts are ignored for fear of being negative.

Every time I have seen him bar tonight when his speculative cross was headed in and he has been no better than ok not facing a winger, he has been crap. He is crap, lets not pretend he was a talent wasted by Mowbray.

Let's be honest, I bet a potential big pay rise will be as big a reason as any. For a club who have just been promoted and seemingly aren't spending big money, and I suspect this will be laughed off, but they could do much worse than Mowbray. Certainly a safe pair of hands if they can't attract a Dyche-esque appointment, and better than a number of other current managers at this level.

Fair enough. So you wanted 4 or 5 but now are happy to modify that to fall in line with what will happen. So be it.

@chaddyrovers you asked for 4 or 5 yesterday. Now Tomasson has said 3, are you disappointed?

It doesn't "need" to take time. It may well take time and indeed no one is saying that if it doesn't happen instantly that we should panic and do something drastic. But the league is average, player turnover means that every team changes considerably each summer and the idea of writing a season off as a development one 5 games in is nonsensical. Loaning Morton and potentially signing Caulker doesn't fit into a slow build either. I don't think they bought into it necessarily, otherwise they wouldn't have withheld all spending last summer or tried to interfere to block sales and prevent reinvestment. They have never been good at making footballing decisions based on merit. So why have you come onto a forum to pass comment on them yourself! Hyam and Caulker are almost certainly not the first choices if strong rumour is to believe. Ahmedhodiz, Ben Davies and Van Den Berg (not convinced Van Hecke was ever a live target this summer) were all tried for unsuccessfully. Not necessarily a slight on the ability of anyone who does sign, but we tried and failed for others first. End of.

It's the usual spiel from every manager, but this idea of a slow build is extremely flawed both because of the high player turnover at the majority of Championship clubs fuelled by loan signings, and the fact that Venkys do not in any way act like owners willing to allow a build, with inconsistent reinvestment amounts and interference. We may well not finish in the top 6, but we certainly shouldn't be almost writing off a whole season in a bang average league in favour of focusing on player development. There has also been plenty of talk of wanting to be in the Premier League, there's no reason to push those ambitions down the line.

Does he? He seems to play on the right of a back 3 from what I have seen. That would be better if he likes playing on the right as Wharton is his most likely partner.

One big problem with comparisons to last year is that we are supposed to be trying to improve, not match the 8th place finish, and we were short of depth last season. The big 6 losses are Nyambe, Lenihan, Van Hecke, Rothwell, Khadra and likely Brereton. The question is which of these are potentially going to be adequately replaced. Hyam was far from the first choice but potentially would be a decent bit of business. If it is him and Caulker though, for me that is a definite downgrade on the very difficult task of adequately replacing our captain and player of the season. 2 big bits of business are the fees on Brittain and Szmodics to replace the easiest to replace of the 6 in Nyambe and Khadra. I like the look of Brittain, that could be an adequate replacement or even a slight upgrade. Szmodics I am less convinced on, Peterborough fans were not arsed that he left and he doesn't seem to have any stand out attributes, Khadra was inconsistent but always a threat. Rothwell to Morton again seems a downgrade, and we simply won't sign a 22 goal striker (I would at least love someone like Riis/Campbell/Adebayo/Surridge but it will never happen) but equally we can't let him run his contract down. Whether you consider the likes of Johnson, Giles, Davenport, Zeefuik, Poveda etc to be big losses or not, perhaps not, but we were short of players last season, and the likes of Vale and Phillips aren't ready for this level. There is also lots of internal suggestions, for example Buckley replacing Rothwell. Even before the questionable assumption that Buckley will be as good as Rothwell from deep Buckley played week in week out last season so who replaces him? Lots of added questions, players could have better/worse or less/more injury ridden seasons, the manager could get more out of the team, the system has changed etc, but on paper, underwhelmed thus far. But all in all, assuming Brereton goes and our business goes as it seems, the window is a 3 or 4 out of 10 unless we really pull the stops out for a forward, too many positions (central midfield, left back, right back, back up keeper) we are very thin in.

What sort of logic is that? Based on misinformed opinions on players like Van Hecke who won player of the season. Surely the comparison is on the actual squad. Numbers maybe, quality less so. Vale and Phillips clearly aren't ready. The squad wasn't big enough last season and there is even less first team experience this season.

Not sure what to make of the Caulker rumours. Firstly I am unconvinced by the reliability of the rumour. On the player, has been in Turkey so none of us know how he has been doing, he was a good defender about 10 years ago but that is a long time ago and he has had demons and a chequered career since then. I am definitely underwhelmed by the fact that we are only signing 3 players, nowhere near enough. At least one has to be a central striker as we desperately need one. If Brereton goes as expected as we cant let an 8 figure fee vanish, then so hard to envisage us being anything but a lot weaker than last season when we failed to make the top 6. @Finlay McKenna the problem is quality. If Edun has to play left back for a spell he isnt good enough. Garrett has not kicked a ball in a league game, nor has Wharton. Not many goals or assists amongst those wingers either, plus our sub right back isnt up to standard either.

https://twitter.com/bittar32/status/1562906882226159616?t=Vnl3RZNNYajcbbzflYZ-Pg&s=19 Says we are about to sign Steven Caulker on a 2 year deal but no idea on reliability.

Its not a put down on Hyam but clearly he wasnt our first choice but we couldnt get primary targets over the line. Would your view on Venkys worsen if our net spend this window is a negative?

2 problems with the journey thing: Firstly, the Championship is very volatile in that there is a big reliance on loans and a constant high player turnover by most teams. On polishing assets to sell on, Mowbray was right. Sadly, Venkys have never consistently committed to such a plan, sometimes preventing any reinvestment, sometimes interfering to block sales of assets, so this will never happen under Venkys barring an unexpected change. I wouldn't argue that he doesn't know much more about Hyam than me, so thanks for this thread, very encouraging. What he is like on the ball was mentioned a couple of times on here and when I have seen Coventry their defence in general has been fairly limited on the ball, but its not comparable to how many times these people have seen him. See thread below: https://www.skybluestalk.co.uk/threads/dom-hyam-blackburn-bid.144553/page-2 Certainly not getting the same vibe from Peterborough fans who were even polled about Szmodics and 80% said take the offer.

Agree with the positives, dismiss any doubts. Got it.

Yeah but not as much as I have Van Den Berg. None of those 3 Coventry defenders I mentioned have ever seemed particular graceful on the ball, Hyam included, maybe he is deceptively good in possession. Although stats like that I have a number of issues with personally. Highlighted lots of potential positives to be fair in the deal, certainly not firmly against the deal by any means. Maybe Liverpool would be reluctant to give him to us with such competition. So if we signed Yakubu now, you wouldn't be thinking, bloody hell no thanks he is too old?

Great example of a player who was unanimously rated once he got going, so shows that questioning a signing on here is fine as long as people are open minded enough to change those doubts should performances dictate, which they clearly are.

No, Ayala doesn't have pace. Ayala is limited on the ball and is massively injury prone. Excellent defender at this level though. From the limited times I have seen Hyam and what I have gathered, there are numerous positives and negatives to him too: Good injury record, probably the best defender at a similar Championship club, good experience, good age, permanent transfer Not the quickest and limited on the ball which goes against our supposed intended style, potentially harms the Van Den Berg deal Problem being, you only consider the positives, and shout people down who dare suggest any doubts, whilst repeating how your "glass half full" attitude has seen you do so well in life.

Because doubts are raised as to a potential signing of a Coventry signing as clearly 4th or 5th choice (Anel, Davies, Van Hecke, Van Den Berg) signing, you have come to the above conclusion?

We will see at the end of the window what the spend is and whether there was ever good money for a couple of decent permanent striking options. I am not convinced that big money is there. Initially it was 5 or 6, why has it now gone to 7 or 8? (The 3 already here plus 4 or 5) No chance of 4 or 5 signings by the way. Why does it always come down to pigeon holing people as "negative" or having the wrong attitude should a potential signing not excite them. Why can't someone pass comment on a player prior to signing, assuming of course that they are open minded to changing that view if and when he joins? If we tried to spend big money on Yakubu right now, would you comment on that being underwhelming or refuse to say anything w

Unsure what to make of the Hyam potential deal. Coventry are one of Sky's less fancied teams and they concede a lot of goals as a team and have a number of quite slow centre backs in Hyam, Rose and McFadzean. I always think it is useful to gauge opinions of the fans who have seen him week in, week out. Like with Szmodics, there is a common theme that they would rather sell him than others in the squad and that the fee is decent, albeit they certainly aren't as keen as Peterborough fans were to let him go and they are very commonly suggesting that he is their best defender and would leave a big hole. Style wise, his lack of pace and limitations on the ball don't really tally with the supposed fluid, energetic style that we want to play (perhaps a symptom of not having the manager choose the players?) but as a more no nonsense defender, hopefully he likes to keep clean sheets, more than he has in the last 2 seasons! He would be a permanent signing, is a good age being experienced but also coming into his peak so that goes in his favour and he also has played consistently over the last 2 seasons at mid table Championship level. The LT suggests that it could be Hyam only in defence with the deal for Van Den Berg who is very good at this level potentially falling through. I am not convinced that Hyam, Wharton, Ayala and Carter is anything other than a significant downgrade on last season. We also cannot hold off signing players to try and guarantee Phillips game time because he isn't ready for Championship football yet. Could this deal not have been done a week or two earlier? Probably.