Very surprised that they didnt change upon relegation. Not sure his record is anything to write home about even before Hull.

Reading on my laptop it allowed me to directly translate, here is the bit mentioning us (With some hilarious translation) In addition, there should now also be a request from England. Blackburn Rovers is traded as a possible buyer in the transfer market rumor mill. The club from the 2nd division (Championship) ended the season in 12th place and is apparently looking for reinforcements in the attack. Philipp Hofmann would be such a man, because last season he helped keep KSC in the 2nd division with his 17 goals . So he knows where the gate is and that has now apparently been heard on the island.

Had accumulated a lorry load of shite players but were ultimately propped up by Grosicki and moreso Bowen who is a Premier League player. Once they went, they predictably tumbled.

What about Dack?

I agree in hindsight but obviously the aim for every team is not specifically to finish 7th-20th. The aim was play offs for us. Therefore the logic to Adarabioyo and Cunningham was the correct one. I would say that the problems were primarily loaning a young goalkeeper which is always a huge risk. He turned out to be crap and we had no alternative to stick with him due to the position, and with no potential long term benefits. They were also trying to fix all 3 positions with loans within the same area of the pitch. That was compounded with us actually having money, spending it elsewhere having sacrificed the keeper to do so, and missing out on Bauer. I would be happy to get 1 or 2 loans this season IF they are better than the other players in that position that we could attract and afford. The thing is, I would not want a loaned young goalkeeper, or ideally a CB to be honest.

To be fair, we do indeed have 2 goalscorers and none of them are called Sam Gallagher. Bradley Dack and Adam Armstrong are those 2 players. Gallagher is often reminisced about with fondness over a 1 goal every 4 games season which is well out in front as the peak of his career thus far. Whilst not awful, it doesnt warrant the term "goalscorer." Hopefully Armstrong and Dack can strike up a partnership central as well as we can hope, and Gallagher (and Brereton) can post respectable figures as very much competition/back-up for those 2, rather than being shunted out wide at times as you touched upon.

If you are thankful solely that your club is still in existence/has not been put into administration then it suggests that you have very low expectations surely and you do not view your club as a competitive one. We can hope for more than that.

Very good addition but I dont think they will get promoted unless they seriously strengthen. Smallwood did his role well for us in League 1 but ultimately it was the quality of Dack, Graham, Mulgrew and Armstrong that really made us stand out, the likes of Smallwood played key roles complimenting that, soldiers and artists. Hull dont have that quality. Their attack consists of Josh Magennis and Tom Eaves, even if Smallwood does his bit winning it back, they wont be scoring many with them 2 donkeys!

Agreed. He put his neck on the line with mentioning Iversen, for him to go elsewhere isnt particularly bad in terms of the link, but less than 48 hours afterwards to a totally different league, on the back of the last 2 keepers he linked to us (Hart and McLaughlin) being specifically rubbished by Mowbray in interviews, he is clearly not in the loop. Now he has reverted back to cryptic tweets clearly, listing the positions we all know we need!

Food analogies aside, I think the problem going back to those loan deals were not the deals individually, it was the fact that we filled ALL 3 spaces with loans, having sold a permanent goalkeeper of the same age, missed out on a permanent answer at CB ( after apparently saying essentially that he wouldnt be a first team player) and spending 5 million on a striker. If we filled say one of those spaces again with a loan, it wouldnt be that bad as long as it wasnt the goalkeeping position, for the reasons I have stated (little alternative once you get him in as number 1 if it doesnt work out, and also the position whereby you are most prone to costly mistakes, not ideal developing someone elses player there) and if it was only one of the defensive births. For example, sign a permanent experienced keeper, a left back and then loan back Adarabioyo (wont happen but for example) and that would be totally fine. The only thing I didnt agree with in what you put is if you say you may aswell avoid loans if you are going to finish mid table, you are then accepting finishing in mid table before youve begun! But I agreed with your scepticism on loans, especially in goal. Definitely agree on Muric. If Mowbray chose to plug the goalkeeping gap with a player with 5 senior League appearances on a temporary basis, following a loan spell at Forest in which his inadequacies were costing them only 5 games in and they had to sign another keeper, he would need his head testing. If Nixon has suggested it then hopefully its as accurate as his Iversen link, the McLaughlin link earlier in the summer that Mowbray totally rubbished, and the Joe Hart link which again Mowbray said there was absolutely no truth in it.

I just think that if he specifically mentioned us and another Championship side as interested in Iversen and within 48 hours, he moves abroad on loan, it seems like the story was not correct. Also, all of the back scratching, "spot on again" type posts we saw on here on Sunday (including from yourself) because the oracle Nixon had put his name to the Iversen rumour turned out to be premature and misguided. Now he has reverted back to being cryptic, just naming the positions we all know that we are looking for. My status on loaning a kid in net hasnt changed and I am just glad that there is one less possibility for that. Hopefully the Muric link is equally untrue.

https://sport-90.de/hamburger-sv-und-blackburn-rovers-an-philipp-hofmann-dran Unsure how reputable this is, it needs translating too but a link to Hofmann. https://www.mylondon.news/sport/football/transfer-news/brentford-boss-what-went-wrong-13219230 Also a bit on why things didnt go right at Brentford, including that he wasnt physically in good shape. Would be a weird one, maybe agent talk. Last season he scored quite a few goals, before then, not so many, he is a target man so not really fitting in with Mowbrays supposed "vision" and he would cost a decent fee. Would also potentially mean Armstrong out wide, unless he is going.

Glad that Iversen has gone elsewhere, one less potential loan. Hopefully Muric will go elsewhere too. Yet again, Nixon proves to be talking shite and all the back scratching and self appreciation done once the Iversen link surfaced at the weekend was premature.

He was dropped for a period in the Championship season. Indeed at Ewood they had understudy Jamie Jones playing.

I am just saying that obviously he mainly played in League 1, and maybe it is telling that reviews were mixed and they didnt seem too upset that he wasnt coming back, or indeed Cook himself wasnt desperate to bring him back.

You only really see a player once you watch them week in and week out. Wigan fans were hardly gutted to see him go following his solitary prior season at this level, and Cook upgraded to get in an experienced and proven goalkeeper.

@JoeH whilst I understand your skepticism in regards to loans, its a little simplistic to say that any team that finishes mid table may aswell do it without any loans. That would imply that you are settling for mid table before you start the season. Swansea got into the play offs having loaned Brewster and Gallagher, but failed to get promoted. Ultimately they are back to square one but again, they were successful signings still. Adarabioyo for example, I think we would have been better off getting Bauer as he would have been permanent and an equally competent Championship centre back. But once that deal was allowed to slip through our fingers, Adarabioyo came in as the best we could have got and indeed was a successful signing, even though I take your point about being back to square one now. Even if it hadnt worked, we could have just played Williams with Lenihan, not ideal but competent. Goalkeepers are a seperate issue though for me, a totally different issue to the discussion on loaning players in general. When you loan in a kid as keeper, you are most likely doing so under the promise that he is coming to play, not sit on the bench. You are also probably going to have a second choice goalkeeper as an alternative to him. Henderson a few years ago was the exception to the rule yet defenders of the fact that we may (or may not) loan in a kid in net always point to him, but its not accurate of what usually happens, and of how much it is a gamble. But you look at Virginia at Reading or indeed Muric who we have been linked with, who went to Forest. Both players really struggled at the start of the season, and both clubs were lucky that they had the resources and the time to realise so soon and get in very successful goalkeepers in Rafael Cabral and Samba. Why anyone on the back of me would defend a deal to sign Muric should it come about, and to clarify, thats all we are doing at the moment, discussing hypothetical links with players in the media, is beyond me. He is a kid with 5 senior League appearances, in which he made a few errors at this level and was dropped. Surely no one would want him to come here on the back of that thinking that he is the answer. Then you look at Huddersfield who loaned in Grabara from Liverpool, highly rated but untested, he really struggled for half a season and they had to loan in Lossl in January but ultimately suffered losses of points in the first half of the season because they had no alternative. And closer to home, we had Walton regularly costing us points. We had to suffer that because we had no alternative. I dont see any reason to advocate potentially loaning in a kid in that position. I am dead against the idea and will be very unhappy should we go down that route in that position. If we loan in one or two players who are upgrades/improvements in other areas to help us along? Totally different story and I am much happier with that. The ideal situation is to get an experienced goalkeeper. If we cannot, at least someone like this Pears would be ours to develop, a goalkeeper at his/Iversens/Murics age is more prone to making mistakes due to inexperience and learning on the job. There is also little scope for a competent goalkeeper should you want to take the kid out of the firing line, with only a back up goalkeeper who himself is probably not going to be too good. The idea of having a kid in net costing us points then going back does not sit well with me, especially post Walton who compared to Iversen and especially Muric, had far more of a track record of senior football.

Spot on. Unfortunately things like sitting in specific seats and having a beer and a pie on the concourse are going to be impossible luxuries at first. Many of the points that you have answered are logistical issues that as you say do not impact the ability to sell seasom tickets. The tickets could be transparent in their flexibility and there is no need to refund in any situation, any payment could be deferred. If there are a few people that would refuse to commit because they have no guarantees on where they sit, fair enough, but many still would.

This isnt specifically anything to do with Mowbray but it is never too early to get promoted to the benefit of the club. And the quality towards the bottom of the Premier League means that with some calculated and wise spending, its not unfathomable to be competitive. Also, the notion of it being 2 or 3 more seasons before we are challenging is totally flawed because it implies that the side sticks together and gradually improves. For various reasons that wont be possible and indeed it would be likely that the core of Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis, Dack and Armstrong will all be elsewhere in 3 seasons.

If only we could sign Copenhagens goalkeeper!

Arent people just commenting on players as and when they are linked with us, as per the whole point of this thread?

Yep, we definitely cant become dependant on other teams being shite We need to make a few shrewd improvements to weak areas and Mowbray needs to stop with his nonsensical ideas, false 9s, wide strikers etc and get us playing in a way that is familiar and gets the best out of our players. But Sheffield Wednesday being deducted 12 points and Bristol City and Bournemouth choosing novices or seemingly more qualified and experienced alternatives is a good start in my opinion.

You said I was being very judgemental and over the top which was totally unwarranted considering that I had put together a few thoughts, half of which you yourself agree with, and some bits from his performances, things like Nothing about Pears that I put was in my opinion very judgemental and over the top. I tried to take both sides into account and indeed even said that I would prefer him over loaning in a kid because at least we could develop him as our permanent player. I have not assumed that we are even signing him, I am just passing comment as I have with others we have been linked with. If you are only prepared to comment once all business is done then this thread isnt for you and neither is taking any interest in rumours.

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/transfer-news/blackburn-rovers-pears-middlesbrough-transfers-18747156 Interview with someone from Teeside Live on Pears. Pretty much as expected. Young. Broke through. Has made mistakes especially on crosses. Might be willing to move for first team football. Raw talent but nowhere near the finished product.

Crazy, but I am pleased that they have appointed a novice rather than a proven Championship manager in Hughton as it is better for us, being in competition with them. Reading the comments underneath, it is safe to say that the fans are not happy and understandably so.