In the second half of the season he rarely started due partly to a contractual issue and his stats in general last season were very poor and with his age and lack of goals or assists, with Boro fans seemingly happy to see him go, there was plenty of scope for scepticism when he came here. The main thing that didnt suit Adarabioyo wasnt because he wasnt under Mowbrays unique tika taka passing style, it was being played at right back. Ultimately his only prior first team experience and relevant at this level was not indicative of someone who could come in and make such a big difference. Again there was justified scepticism. And he has been like Downing a huge success. On the flip side, Johnson had played regularly for the play off finalists and at 2 or 3 years younger to Downing seemed in prime shape to play a pivotal part in our season. As it happens, hes had 3 or 4 good games but overall his consistent level has been so low he was dropped for a couple of months. Obviously brought in to bring experience but his lack of passing ability isnt really in line with our new way of playing. I wasnt overjoyed at signing Gallagher but there was at least enough on his last average spell to hope for double figures as a striker. I think he is the opposite of Adarabioyo, who is suited by Mowbrays attempts to pass it more, playing in his natural position next to a more physical partner, everything suits. Gallagher on the other hand seems an illogical signing for Mowbrays tactics, he is technically poor and often played out of position has led to some very poor performances. My point was that there was valid reasoning behind the scepticism of Adarabioyo and Downing, and reason for optimism when we signed Johnson and to a lesser extent Gallagher, yet all 4 have either over or under exceeded the majority of expectations.

I havent seen these comments, bar like I said the ones that said that he joined Hull was because he declined Charlton due to location/traffic issues and financial reasons which I dont think is at all indicative of a bad attitude. It has nothing to with their chairman, and if he can be quoted to say that Maddison has a bad attitude then please feel free to show me and I will concede. Fester was perhaps a poor choice of word. My main point is that I dont see the season as a whole as a failure but there are parts of it or aspects of it which I do. I feel that it is fair to deride the signing and tactical use of Gallagher, the over (but now IMO refreshingly changing situation) use of Bennett, the non existent winter transfer window etc, praise the signings of Downing and Adarabioyo or the development of Travis, Armstrong and Nyambe individually or indeed comment on the overall expectations without being branded either positive or negative as an overall opinion. For context, our first season in the League was a massive failure but Rhodes form was a success. A successful thing can happen in a failure of a season and vice versa. I suppose you could say that about Dack, when he joined us maybe Championship sides were thinking he has only joined Rovers, he cant be that good. And he has tangible issues regarding his personality in terms of a court case. It perhaps would be naive to dismiss anyone solely on prejudged or perceived personality based on the success of Dack but that is a different debate! I have never said that Maddison will be a good signing for Hull, he was just an example of a player who could improve us, who was affordable (loan deal with further fee to buy as Hull have) and who could score and assist from the wide position. He may well flop. He may well build on his goal last week and prove a bargain. The only reason debate has rumbled on is because I think people are going out of their way to speculate and justify the fact that we didnt sign him, ergo he cant be good.

I always felt that cover in defence was down the list of priorities and that although he failed to bring them in, he was right to prioritise attacking players in the wide areas. A left back would also have been preferential. The comments about Downing are correct, he has massively exceeded expectations but a full picture is needed. People were right to be sceptical, he is 35, barely played last season and when he did he contributed very little and Boro fans were seemingly happy to see him go. He has been very impressive. Similar with Adarabioyo, he did not pull up any trees but was out of position at right back and was displaced by another signing in Mason Holgate. He has been a very shrewd addition both defensively and with his passing. Conversely, I and many others were made up to sign Bradley Johnson, unfortunately in the main he has been hugely disappointment with only isolated examples of the player we thought we were signing. And to everyones surprise, I didnt want us to sign Gallagher but many were happy and indeed I did expect him to show much more competence than he has, albeit part of that has been down to the position he has been asked to play, which he cannot do as couldnt Adarabioyo at right back. I think we have had a bit of a mixed bag in terms of expectations, arguably the 2 that got the most positive reactions have been the 2 that have not met expectations, and the 2 that came with some trepidation have massively improved us.

I wish he was a few years younger, has been very impressive.

What rumours have I used to make my points? Or even to scoff at others? If you mean Maddison, the thing I maintained was that the only actual evidence of anything was his chairman saying that his transfer was partially money motivated, which I dont see as an issue. If people can find anything showing or highlighting a bad attitude, be my guest. My whole point was that the transfer window was unsuccesful, which youve agreed. And that so many people are desperate to make other fans seem like they are just only interested in negatives that it affects their judgement, that is the case for the odd one but its the same with people who defend every single thing the manager does or if they cant, they deflect. There has been so much crowing after Saturdays win but more about desperation to humiliate and pick apart people perceived to be too negative rather than the actual result. I dont think you could file my overall opinion and current outlook as negative, yet you are continuing as if I am.

We didnt know the exact budget until after the window so there was no noving of the goal posts. But Maddison didnt go for 2.5m, he went for a 6 figure loan I think with another fee to make it permanent in the summer. Most of the conversation about Maddison since has been people going out of their way to try and prove that we were right about not signing him, mainly fabricated nonsense about his atttude. I meant around the time of the Preston away game and Huddersfield at home, im sure we were 17th or 18th. Again my point has been taken out of context regarding my expectations were at the lowest at that point during the season, naturally. Wasnt even a criticism.

You perceive my stance to be negative and have been very focused on trying to trip up people who you think fall under that category to the point whereby you are just totally ignoring anything positive. Of course positives are usually much less dicussion worthy because there is more agreement and thus less debate. I have just repeated a huge evaluation in which I stated that I am happy with the manager, have seen progress this season and highlighted at least as many positives as negatives. The expectations that matter are the ones before the season, the one the manager set out, the aim we all wanted and the one the incoming players echoed. Thats the benchmark, where we are aiming, not if and where I felt we would fall short. Ultimately we have never at any point been in the top 6 and yet for someone being so negative it is surely strange for me to be happy with the manager, surely I would use that as proof that he should be sacked or that am I unhappy? My expectations are going to be lower like anyone else when we were 12 places off the play offs or when our best player gets a bad injury, but I have been impressed by recovery from both.

The benchmark has always been the top 6 target set in the summer. I didnt think we would get into the top 6 but expected a considerable improvement on 15th. My expectations reduced as the season went on, especially when we was festering near the bottom and again my expectations took a temporary hit following Dacks injury. If you are measuring where we are now v start of the season, we are slightly behind where we aimed to be and not far off what I expected. Compared to my expectations during the season at our 2 lowest ebbs then obviously we are well in front. All of this though is irrelevant to my valid point that we failed our objectives of the transfer window, something I am sure Mowbray would agree with.

Well we couldnt afford the player within our budget so it is therefore unrealistic.

I dont understand that last paragraph, its relevance or its meaning if I am honest. It seems sarcastic but I am unsure of what exactly you are saying so apologies if not. I was judging an individual thing ie the transfer window against the objectives at the start (to improve the squad) and the failure to do so. The manager himself admitted his dissapointment. Amidst undoubtedly various hurdles to overcome, he was unable to locate signings within his budget as aimed to improve the team. It was a difficult task to improve us with limited funds having spent most of our budget in the summer, but there was still scope and the targets he scouted seemingly were not realistic. There is absolutely no need to extrapolate that opinion, which in my opinion is pretty black and white in terms of meeting objectives, to make an overall conclusion about the manager or our overall progress. I gave my opinion on the season to date recently but because I have scrutined the transfer window, it seems to be assumed that I am casting the managers future into doubt, hence the need for a constant staunch defence or deflection by numerous posters over issues I feel are worth scrutiny. The aim was top 6, I felt this was a fairly unlikely objective but one he has set for the team. I still dont think we will get into the top 6 and we have yet to even make it temporarily which would boost my confidence in regards to possibly sneaking in at the end of the season. I have seen progress made in the implentation of a new style, of the development of certain players especially Nyambe, Lenihan Travis and Armstrong and most importantly in terms of points accumulation compared to last season. Phasing out players Mowbray trusts but are no longer good enough has been a somewhat slow process but again we are in a much better position now with Bennett seemingly the final player under that bracket now only a squad player. The money spent on fees in the summer has yielded an even poorer return than I expected and been more of a hindrance than a help. Another key signing has also in my opinion disapointed more often than not in Johnson. 2 further signings I was particularly excited about have been amongst the unfortunate injuries, whilst 2 shorter term signings have massively exceeded my expectations and have been critical in our style change. Walton has pretty much been as expected, a fair few errors but overall I would say average. There are also mitigating circumstances in terms of injury and I am happy with the manager being in charge.

Not really. People are justifying it by giving potential and in some cases hypothetical reasons why we didnt sign players, but the main point is that we went in the window aiming to bring in reinforcements which didnt materialise. Ergo, black and white, it was a failure in terms of our objectives and the manager even admitted his disapointment. For some reason, people feel the need to defend it and justify it as if its a character assassination or an overall judgement of Mowbray, its not, just as an individual judgement, it is a valid assertion to say the window was a failure.

Theres a lot of revisionism about the transfer window, it was a failure. Mowbray wanted signings and had a small but tangible transfer budget as well as the option to request more, apparently. He failed to get signings. Its not even necessarily critical to accept that, Mowbray himself admitted dissapointment. I am sure that other players were available even if our initial targets were unobtainable and indeed there is no need to create specific reasons and excuses as if it was all part of the plan to end up with no one.

Of course there is nothing wrong with changing your stance on the managers future, but be flexible with it. Its not healthy to either defend against all logic or deflect and ignore genuine and valid criticisms. I personally wanted Mowbray out earlier in the season, now I am happy with him in charge, but from both positions I could see both positives and negatives. No one has said that they can do a better job as manager either but stuff like that as you pointed out earlier is lapped up and taken as fact. There is an exception or two in terms of people unwilling to give Mowbray any credit no matter what just as there are one or two who refuse to criticise no matter what but they are as I said the exceptions yet the amount of crowing and smugness since we won on Saturday has been totally bizarre.

You can disagree with him without thinking or stating that you could do a better job yourself, something that I have not seen people say. I still dont think that we will meet our aim of a top 6 finish, and we have not been in yet, but I wouldnt sack him and am happy with him in charge because there are mitigating circumstances and there has been progress made. But that is all irrelevant to the point I was making from that article that suggested that people think they could do a better job themselves. Who has said that?

One thing I am sure of is that we cannot move Nyambe away from his position as a right back in a back 4. He is uncomfortable at centre back and aerially not very good, whilst he doesnt have the end product to be a wing back, but he is flourishing at right back which is a happy medium. It would probably have to be Williams although him and Adarabioyo did not impress together as they lack leadership.

"As supporters we sit behind our radio phone ins and keyboards en masse with an amazing level of misplaced confidence and grand delusions that we could do a better job than the actual professionals." - Is that true? Dont think anyone has said that.

Should go with the same team, get Rothwell on the bench and Williams for Carter if hes fit enough. No point going down there with an inferiority complex, its a chance to get into the top 6 and lay a marker down. Will be a tough game but if we see ourselves as a top 6 team then it will be for them too.

Would say Dack is the best finisher then possibly Graham, although Armstrong is better from distance as we have seen. Theres plenty of promise with Armstrong as a striker but of course there are elements to his game that he needs to improve. He needs to anticipate chances to get more scruffy goals to get his numbers up, he needs to work on the timing of his runs and he needs to be able to hold onto the ball at times. That being said, hes still young and is still a big threat and a very important player going forward.

I have found it a little distateful to see so many people rather than themselves concentrating on the win yesterday smugly going round taking the moral high ground trying to dig people out for what they have said in the past. The manager has specifically been criticised for very tangible and fair reasons, the majority of the money being spent on failures etc and very fairly, these criticisms remain. Of course you will always get exceptions on both sides of people sticking to their guns unfairly but in the main even those perceived to have been quite negative have given the manager some praise yesterday and prior. Sorry to single you out @Bbrovers2288 but I felt you was very harsh after the win midweek with your criticism but you followed it up with plenty of praise yesterday rather than sticking to your guns so fair play to you. Ultimately, our aim is the top 6 and as of yet we have not at any point reached that so I suspect it is a little premature for smugness. Of course there are plenty of mitigating circumstances and progress is not measured solely on finishing in there or not. For what its worth, I have been critical at times of Mowbray this season, questioning his job several times. I have been impressed and very much have seen a plan coming to fruition in the last dozen or so games, we have dealt with injury misfortune and whilst of course I am not totally 100% convinced by everything he does, which wouldnt be healthy, we are picking up results. But i find it just as strange that peoples first instinct is to gloat and take the higher ground just as much as it puzzles me to see people unexcited even when we win.

Hes undoubtedly been a very good signing but talk about him going back into the City team next season and being better than John Stones is incredibly far fetched. There are very few Premier League clubs at this moment in time that he could have a good chance of securing a regular slot at centre back.

Can see very clearly with my eyes that Gallagher offers nothing out wide. We have looked far more balanced without him in these last 2 games. To be fair it isnt his fault. We should go with the same team next week but Rothwell, Chapman and Rankin Costello should all be picked ahead of him if and when needed.

Was dissapointed by his predictability when running at the defender but his defensive willingness was there which surprised me. If he got 2 starts back to back at some point as did Rankin Costello I would suspect that he would have more involvement.

I would personally have Winks, Henderson and one of Maddison or Grealish, probably Maddison, with Winks as the pivot and Henderson and Maddison ahead. Sancho would be right, I think he is better than Rashford plus Sterling is better on the left. Henderson Arnold Gomez Maguire Chilwell Winks Henderson Maddison Sancho Kane Sterling

Somewhat agree on Bennett but I think its unfair on Mowbray to give anything but praise regarding Travis who has consistenly been in the team since Sheffield United, something many including myself did not expect. Its unfair to say he was only picked because of this or that.

Be interesting to see who if any of him, Maddison, Chamberlain and Alli miss out. With them options I think the likes of Mount should be well off.