Johnson certainly shouldnt be given one, but Bennett would be another level. He is not even a utility player, he is a total liability.

Or number 2 pick.

Bell will in 5 years time still be a player that people think there is more to come from him that will never materialise. He is no better than Douglas and theres no way that either should be here next season. He isnt clinical and that may very well prevent him from succeeding at the top level. But there seems an unhealthy obsession to dismiss his achievements, his goal record is phenomenal yet even today, he scored another hat trick and there is criticism about one or two shots thay he didnt take. Scoring so many goals isnt lucky, its a fantastic personal achievement that deserves praise and should have left him picking up the player of the season award.

Blinkered by goals is possibly correct because he has scored an obscene amount and it is the most important part of being a striker. To say that he cant finish, he cant take penalties and he ruins 5 or 6 chances a game to set up a goal for our other prolific attackers, hes not done too bad. I am not backing Mowbray, ive wanted him out and your comment there makes no sense but I think that the second top scorer in the league is a strength strangely rather than a weakness.

Mowbray is currently in a tense meeting, Alex Neil is being primed for the job and will be armed with 10m from the sale of Buckley coupled with the promise that all he needs to ask and our brilliant owners will provide.

I think all playing together and getting battered is counter productive and demoralising though. The manager wont learn anything because they will all struggle together and the player will lose confidence. For us for example, say if Pike is considered the closest to the first team, he and the manager would get more from him being next to Lenihan, Kaminski in goal etc, rather than around Annesley, Eastham etc. Obviously the problem is that Mowbray hasnt done that. Its more the youngsters that are closest ie Buckley, Davenport and Dolan that should have been used.

Definitely. Harwood Bellis has been really impressive, when the other 2 played for our first team they lookdd miles off. You genuinely think all 3 are at the same level? Its not as if their development has been stunted, they have been playing at a lower level whilst we have had a better player playing for our first team. That is how it should be. Obviously various other things have not been managed as well.

To be fair, I find Bowyers policy in this last week to be a little strange. If you chuck so many in at once and inevitably get battered as they have done twice in a week, im not sure what can be learnt from that, and I dont think it is constructive. The key is to pick a team that wherever possible will be here next season at a time when results lose their competitive importance. Mowbrays sole focus has been ironically on results to the point where players already told that they wont be getting a new deal are still featuring. The correct approach would be in between Mowbray and Bowyer.

My point was that if loanees are better than what we have and as long as we dont have too many, then they shouldny br dismissed purely because they dont belong to us. Obviously things change at the end of a season in which any competiveness has long gone. Harwood Bellis and Elliott have been good signings though.

"Too inconsistent." Second top scorer in the league and with more open play goals even than Toney, I think thats a little inaccurate. You dont get that many goals if you arent consistent and are "feast or famine."

Mowbray specifically mentioned that Evans and Downing are leaving. If Johnson, Bell and Bennett arent, its a disgrace.

Comfortable win but the game wasnt competitive or indeed an indication of unfulfilled potential necessarily. Birminghams line up was beyond weak, full of unknown kids which I thought was a little odd as no way will Bowyer learn anything from that. Armstrong again a class above, the amount of criticism he gets is bizarre. He has had a superb personal season and things look bleak without him and of course with Mowbray. Thought Buckley and Davenport wasted their chance really, both really poor and Downing and Evans (not saying either should say) were far superior although their appearances were a little pointless.

Do you think that if we had Carter/Magloire and Dolan playing instead of Harwood Bellis, that our finishing position would remain unchanged in mid table? Naive. This idea of "developing our own youngsters" is nice in theory but the 2 loanees are clearly far superior and the problems lie elsewhere.

Its obviously a totally subjective discussion topic once you remove managers but I would disagree that our squad is better than those you mention, in particular Reading. They have a number of good players, they have Joao, Swift, Olise, Ejaria, Meite and Puscas in attacking positions, I would put Armstrong just about above all of those, but overall they have better attackers than us, and are pretty solid all round, Cabral in net is probably of a similar level to Kaminski, their 2 central midfielders are very consistent, their centre backs very experienced and Richards at left back has agreed a deal with Bayern Munich. Cardiff and Boro both have obvious examples of quality managers, the former has a goalscorer like us, but I would probably say there isnt too much between the 3 clubs. The likes of Travis, Nyambe, Lenihan and Rothwell, I suspect they could give or take.

4th, behind Courtious, Mignolet and Casteels of Wolfsburg.

Sorry, was a mistype. I meant his main strength. Amended.

A good manager would be able to overachieve naturally, but I dont think the squad is "massively" underachieving. Looking at the teams above us, not many if any do I look at and think that our squad is definitely better. Sometimes I think people confuse that as a defence of the manager, it very much isnt, Mowbray has had decent resources and more time than anyone else to build a squad that I dont think is close to being a genuine threat to the top 6. I think that even a top Championship manager would have to jig things around in the transfer market to get it close. I would also agree that obviously Mowbray as a manager at this moment in time is more of a hindrance than a help. Some of the tactical choices he makes, Gallagher wide a notable one, definitely hinder us. I am a big fan of consistency in team selections, I do wonder if he would rotate less but in a number of positions, he often rotates between a number of underwhelming options that he has signed (or given new deals to) none of whom perform when given a chance. I dont doubt these flaws, and I totally agree that Mowbray is a hindrance even beyond recruitment. But I also think it is naive to be totally unwilling to judge the players as if Mowbray is quite that destructive, especially when few if any of these players have careers pre Mowbray that suggest that they are performing well below their normal level.

Kaminski has had a very good debut season, his main strength is his reliability. I dont think hes kept us in too many games single handily, but the main thing you want is someone you can trust and he is that. I personally would think that Armstrong deserves it however. You cant argue with his goal record, phenomenal in such an otherwise poor team.

I dont have a problem with Ayala being above kids in that Ayala will be closer to the first 11 (if he could ever stay fit) than the kids will and is contracted for another 2 years, so it makes sense looking forward to next year. In regards to tomorrow though, the illogical aspect of it would be that giving him half an hour is neither here nor there, and of course I would ask if there is a risk of a recurrence. My issue lies more with some of the other players that have played in the last few weeks, Holtby and Evans have both had game time recently despite being about to leave, Trybull, Johnson, Downing and Bennett have all played too. I dont agree with dishing out appearances as rewards necessarily, but moreso to see if the one or two best under 23s can play within an otherwise strong side and not look out of place. The most obvious example in recent weeks of when that should have been used is when Nyambe was injured at Sheffield Wednesday, Pike should have started over Bennett. Another would be Davenport surely warranting a few games over Trybull, Evans and Johnson to see if he can compete for that role into next season. In Mowbrays tenure, he has brought through Travis, Rankin Costello and Buckley, I dont think youth development overall has been one of his major and obvious weaknesses, but in the last few weeks, there has been a glaring lack of forward planning as I touched on in my previous paragraph. There are occasions (Harwood Bellis and LB) in which its unavoidable to avoid playing a player who wont be here next season, but in the main, players contracted into next season should have been prioritised and havent been.

Yeah plus sounds like we are mixing things up too.

I found the fanfare and sadness underneath the Holtby video to be a little strange, I think thats just the modern day culture on social media but you would have thought that Shearer was leaving!

Birmingham lost 4 nil last week playing a total scratch team full of reserves and kids. Unsure if they ae likely to do similar this weekend.

For his age for sure but De Bruyne the best.

Hes definitely a brilliant player to watch, I just hope he starts. I put him ahead of the other 2 personally.

Stones is playing well but a lot of it is down to Dias who is an absolutely superb defender, I do fear that it will be a different story next to Maguire. Foden is an excellent talent although could and should have had 3 or 4 over both legs.