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.

Its very harsh to suggest that it is a blessing that he got injured. The game v Wigan followed a run of 16 points from 6 games in which he had been critical and contributed 4 goals. Ultimately, a lot of other things came together which have continued in his absence, the centre back partnership, Nyambe back in the team and thriving, Downing stepping his performances up, Armstrong playing a more central role etc. Dack firing in goals with regularity on top of that would have only improved us further. He has 24 goals and 8 assists in 1 and a half seasons so surely your expectations were very high indeed.

It isnt about me not understanding, it is about you making massive insinuations about big clubs circling over the player and potentially bidding a massive, massive amount, even implying and name dropping City, without any detail from where you have supposedly got this information from, how you would have got it, and any questions are batted back with the same cryptic and at times patronising answers. If you are going to make comments like that people are going to be skeptical, especially when academy regulars suggest negative comparisons with our other young lads and all you do is patronise them with laughing emojis before admitting that you have never actually seen the player in question play! If you are going to try and play ITK, people are not going to just accept big assumptions without further questioning and if that is then responded to by simply patronising then it will rub people up the wrong way. @bluebruce hit the nail on the head I cant think off the top of my head of many players going to Prem clubs for 8 figure fees straight from someones under 23s without any positive exposure to first team football (yesterday was Buckley's first effective game and you made these comments a few weeks ago), but happy to be corrected on that,

You say fact, how do you know that hes being scouted by "massive PL clubs" and if so, which? Today was his first game at senior level when he didnt look totally out of place so I cant see it. Not sure how you could merit the 8 figure bid you wouldnt be surprised by considering his first team appearances thus far and obviously his games with the kids which pardon my ignorance, but like myself you havent seen?

The first time in a Rovers shirt that he hasnt looked massively out of place. More central and tried to get between the lines and often very neat and tidy with a couple of very nice passes. Lucky deflection but deserved it.

I would say he has been a liability more often than an asset but he either tends to be really impressive, the last 2 games, the opening day, Bristol City away and maybe 1 or 2 more. A lot of the time he has been really poor on the ball, constantly giving it away, albeit he is asked to receive the ball off the back 4 and he cannot play on the half turn like that. Its just frustrating because he certainly has the track record of a top 6 Championship midfielder but needs to be like he was today most weeks.

Both central midfielders are absolute bell ends in footballing terms. I mean that in a good way when they are playing for us, wind up merchants, if need be, cheats, hate them if they play for the other team.

I was just saying that my first reaction was not to randomly criticise Gallagher as you implied. He should be well down the pecking order at this moment in time. The 3 forwards who featured today and Graham who is miles more likely to score should all be ahead of him and it is very difficult to justify having 5 strikers in a matchday squad. The side should be the same with Rothwell introduced to the bench.

Totally agree. I appreciate that using young players warrants patience and can often compromise results in the short term but thats why it should be done incrementally and you do wonder if he has tried to do it far too quickly. He hasnt had loads to spend but his recruits have not really improved the team. They didnt lose loads of important players either, Downing couldnt start games for most of last season and Flint was poor for them. Pulis had them in 7th and was sacked so to drop so far down the table makes it nigh on impossible to warrant more time.