If ever anyone loses track of what we have become under Venkys, consider that we have sold a player for upwards of 15m and are about to borrow 2 players from Brighton that no one had ever heard of because we still have so little money available. Does anyone have any belief that we will sign a striker on a permanent deal before the deadline? If I had to guess, it will be these 2, some unheard of left back and thats it, all on loan. For what its worth, I try to be quite open minded about loans, the key is not to rely on them, but 5 is going to be too many and piss poor on the owners behalf for not giving us a competitive chance. We do 100% need a centre back, you need 4 competent centre backs even before considering the fragility of Ayala. If Lenihan does sign a new deal, that area of the team for the next 2 years looks as strong as any part of our thin squad, but Wharton is seemingly a bit away from being ready and even then, with the severity of his injury and also the position (you cant give a centre back 20 minute cameos for example) we are looking very light without him. Ideally, Carter could go out and play regularly but we need him until at least January, centre back is a tough position in that if Ayala does stay fit, Carter wont play. I have never heard of this Brighton player, at least he has a small amount of first team experience though. The idea of Poveda playing central is a worrying but inevitable one, no doubt in the false 9 bollocks position. Him and Khadra would be 2 players, both of whom are total unknowns.

I think West Broms football is much more entertaining than many teams. Take 2 examples, West Brom constantly have the ball in the box, so many chances, could have had 6 or 7. Constantly in your face, high pressing, full of energy. Or say a Swansea with their "principles" passing it out and obsessed with possession. Give me West Brom every day. Suppose it is personal preference.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2021/august/EFL-STATEMENT-INTERNATIONAL-CALL-UPS/ Good news. Brereton wont miss 3 games.

It couldnt otherwise it would have. We finished 14 points and 7 places above relegation, it wasnt ever a close run thing. I pointed out to Mercer earlier who claimed that we was in reverse for most of his tenure, that simply and objectively isnt true based on the results each season. Only true for the 4th of his 4 full seasons. Obviously, avoiding relegation wasnt a satisfactory season last season and it was a significant regression on the previous season, rather than moving towards the top 6. That alone is enough to justify his sacking without dreaming up hypothetical alternative seasons in which x y and z happened and we ended up being relegated. That didnt happen.

That would be a shame. 2 specific runs of form amidst seasons whereby we ended up in mid table, never in any real danger, over a full successful season.

We definitely need 4 or 5 more players, so whilst this initially is a worry, there are a few on there that certainly are not Say we bring in a left back, a centre back, a striker and an attacking midfielder, whether that is another wide man or a goalscoring midfielder from the middle. 2 would be registered automatically to take us up to 25. Then you have decisions to make. Magloire looks a million miles off a Championship player, short term we will have Lenihan, Ayala, Carter and hopefully a new centre back, with Wharton to return in a couple of months. Even long term, with 2 prospects looking well ahead of him, he should be allowed to move on permanently and forge a career in the lower leagues, so that is 3 spaces. Stergiakis doesnt need registering either, he doesnt make the bench in the absence of Pears with Eastham preferred, so he should be loaned out rather than taking up a place as an untested fourth choice keeper. So there are your 4. Even beyond that, Butterworth could potentially be loaned out to get regular game time if we got a couple more across the front line. Why dont they take any blame for trusting someone not capable of doing the job anymore? Blatantly not true. He had the first half a season when he failed with a very difficult task, we wasnt in reverse, he was just unable to get us out of the deep hole that Coyle got us into. The main two thirds of his reign in the middle were blatantly and objectively not in reverse. Promotion was a forward step. 15th in the Championship and comfortable in mid table was a further forward step. 11th was a further forward step, not a major one, but quite blatantly No doubts that in the last year, regression has very much happened, and he should have long since been potted. But there is no need to make him out as worse than hes been.

We cant do without our (cant believe im saying this) main goalscorer for 3 games, also setting a precedent which may mean he misses 7 or 8 overall. Nor is it right to bribe him to sign a new deal by allowing him to go. I suspect it will be a joint decision by the whole league rather than us ourselves not allowing him so it wont be something that he can be annoyed about.

Hopefully he wont go, we cant afford him to miss numerous games. Ive seen people suggest that he should do, perhaps the novelty of his Chile call up has gone a little too far.

If indeed we did sign someone from Liverpool, I think Ojo might be sold if possible, and players like Rhys Williams and Neco Williams I suspect will remain with their first team. So it would most likely be someone who has never played for the first team.

Do you know the position of this mystery player?

Even in this situation where you have assumed that Mowbray has been told implicitly that this will be his last year, no matter what. Something which I doubt would be so rigid anyway if he surprised us all and overachieved. It still would be in his best interests to do as well as he possibly could for his own future career prospects, something which we have no reason to suspect otherwise and indeed something that based on a very reasonable points haul after 4 games, is something that he is doing. His performance in these last 12 months is more than enough evidence to want him to be sacked, without needing to come to extreme conclusions.

Implies that otherwise, he wouldn't be as averse to relegation if he was here for the longer term. Lots of lovely conspiracies, lets hope that one of the rare benefits of Mowbrays evil plot to maintain his CV is that we dont go down.

I cant accept that Mowbray is actively in preference of wanting kids on loan over more experienced players. He has said so many times that he doesnt like loans in general and that he cannot afford anything else this summer. Why does he keep suggesting that he wants experience then? https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/19519380.blackburn-rovers-transfer-search-set-go-wire/ Tried to get Ben Davies, couldnt get close to his wages. Bemoans lack of experience. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/19514336.blackburn-rovers-set-make-first-summer-signing-monday/ “Some of them are really young so here I am talking about looking to bring some experience in but the ones you can get from the clubs we’re loaning from we can’t get anywhere near."

The following is on Sky Sports Transfer Tracker. At that price, and at Stanley, you would think he might fit the bill here, perhaps not though. BRISTOL CITY EYE ‘VARDY-TYPE’ STRIKER Bristol City are in talks to sign Northern Ireland striker Dion Charles - as boss Nigel Pearson eyes a new ‘Jamie Vardy-type’ for the Robins. Pearson is said to see similar characteristics in the Accrington forward in terms of his pace and ability to stretch opposition defences with his running. And Charles’ similar pathway in the game, coming through Non-League football to become an international, also gives him an edge that Pearson admires. Nottingham Forest and Barnsley are also very interested in the 25-year-old who - like Vardy - played for Fleetwood before spells at Fylde, Southport and Halifax. He scored 19 goals in League One last season, as he earned his first cap for Northern Ireland earlier this year, and he has again been called up to Ian Baraclough’s squad for this September’s internationals. Accrington do not want to lose him but are said to value him in the region of £700,000, as he has entered the final year of his contract at the Wham Stadium.

Lots of assumptions and guesses to be fair, for example we wont make as big a loss this year because of the return of fans, we have just sold a major asset too. But as I said, abiding by FFP is Venkys responsibility and the people that they delegate to.

They should always be in control. There is no way that they should run the club in a way whereby it is possible for Mowbray to inflate the wage bill out of proportion, even if we make that massive assumption that he has. They give him the budget every year, he always talks to the owners for his budget, usually in India. There is no evidence or suggestion that he spends beyond that budget, risking the financial future of the club in the process. Mowbray shouldnt be here which is on them again but these theories about them not trusting him to spend money, if that was the case, again there is no logic to use that reason as if they dont trust him, sack him. Again, assuming that it is a strategy to stay safe of FFP is giving them far more credit than they deserve, but we have massively cut the wage bill this summer and made a huge profit on a Mowbray signing. And again, the assumption that they have pleaded for their futures by offering to work on the cheap is a huge one. And again, if that was the case, more fool them for being tricked, but I very much doubt such a conspiracy. I find it incredible that after all of these years, that as this is far from the first mess that we have found ourselves in, that anyone but them get the blame. I personally think that people focus so much on "the Coventrio" because its somewhat putting heads in the sand, maybe the problem is fixable, remove them and maybe there is a bright future. They are the common denominator.

This window is shaping up to be up there with some other horrendous windows under these owners. To lose such a key player in Armstrong as well as plenty of experience and some added quality in Elliott and Harwood Bellis and having to sign so many kids on loan. Perhaps on par with the other window in which we had an embargo and sold Gestede/Cairney but brought in Koita/Akpan/Delfouenso, the window under Coyle in which our centre backs were sold and we had to again make the numbers up with dismal loans, although in Graham, Mulgrew and Williams we did at least get some experience in, and of course the first summer following relegation when it wasnt a summer of scaling back but we just saddled ourselves with expensive rubbish. At least Balaji 'wrote' a statement faking an interest as they run us into the ground, which to be fair has turned some of the deserved wrath away from him. The one thing they are capable of delegating is blame.

I am not sure how much planning you can do when you are given such a low budget that your only option is to beg Premier League teams for kids on loan. Make no mistake, the problem is in India. The "Coventrio" are underperforming symptoms.

If none of them is Balaji Rao, then you are wrong, if we are indeed as skint as it seems.

Dale wouldnt make sense as an Armstrong replacement, different position before you factor in quality and likelihood of stepping up and really having an impact.

We need someone who can score goals from midfield, an attacking midfielder. My suggestion was Stiepermann who was at Norwich. Wharton is injured and we are always walking on egg shells waiting for Ayala to get injured again. We need another centre back.

Not everything is about the long term though. Plus we have such a small squad.

If Chapman heads back out then it would be very strange at this moment. Obviously we are very short in attack, but Poveda aside as an unknown, i would have Chapman in my first 11 at this moment ahead of Dolan, 100%. We arent in a position to let him go at the moment. To have such a definitive idea on whether signings will be the difference between promotion/relegation is very difficult. That would essentially be having confidence before a season that you wont go down and wont go up, and takes any point out of even bothering at all and trying to improve the team.

I certainly have my doubts about him, but he has looked really bright in the last 2 games, on the back of such a good loan spell in League 1. Dolan seems to be seen as so far ahead of Chapman, and I dont really agree with that. Dolan is very limited and raw and in my opinion would not replicate Chapman's form in League 1 last season.

I suspect that if Gallagher, Brereton, Poveda and Dolan all got injured for the full season, that Chapman would still not get plenty of chances.