Was it? If that was the plan, it was never evident.

From the interview on BBC Radio Lancashire, it didn't suggest that it could be more than 3.

It's easy to make out like he has left a wreckage but we have an asset about to be sold for £15m that he bought aswell as £10-15m from one of his signings last summer left unspent and a potential further £4m potential fee for Rothwell that the owners prevented. As ever, it is the owners to blame.

It's all on Venkys.

I think your opinion on Pickering has clouded your judgement somewhat. He was very steady again and also got forward a few times with crosses and interplay down the left.

Absolutely terrible result and now 3 losses in a row in the league and lots of worries to think about. 2 of 3 signings will seemingly be defenders but our attack is a huge area of concern, especially as we will likely lose Brereton. I keep hearing about a fluid front 4, high pressing and high intensity and lots of talk about how Tomasson "likes to play" often spearheaded by @chaddyrovers. Well not only today but all season, any sign of a coherent attacking plan has been totally absent, there have been players out of positon, very few chances created and very little threat offered, Dack up front, Szmodics on the right, what was all that about? The passing out from the back doesn't work with these players either. We need more than what we seemingly will get from the window. We are so thin on the ground and there are players who are a million miles away from the standard. Rankin Costello was bloody shocking, if Brittain is out for long we are going to struggle because he is incompetent as a stand in and played for 45 minutes too long. Dolan is very poor too, no brain at all, constant unncessary step overs and flicks but no end product, not a Championship player. You can see how thin on the ground we are, Phillips again being flogged (he is so vulnerable in the air and easily bullied which is understandable at his age, not ready yet) and such a weak bench aside from Hedges. Kaminski was very poor with a few terrible kicks and the goal shouldn't go in like that from there, Buckley continued a poor start to the season and Szmodics was below par before he went off. Dack was out of position but played like someone who hasn't started in 2 years. Ayala was very good again, Pickering was also good and showed the difference between him and Edun, Morton was decent and Adam Wharton and Hedges really improved us.

Very strange team. Glad to see Dack start, terrified to see Rankin Costello and Phillips in defence and the balance seems strange.

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.