You have absolutely no justification whatsoever in making such an outlandish statement based on anything we have seen from Ben Brereton so far. Also, it implies that any Rovers fan will be anything but benefited by Brereton suddenly scoring and showing something he hasnt thus far. How pleased everyone was when he scored v Bolton showed that contrary to myths being put out, no one wants him to fail.

Can we please stop with the "insistent negativity" crap, it adds absolutely nothing. The primary criticism is that weve spent 15m on 3 attackers, something youve claimed is "not a massive amount of money" when the same manager has spent a mere couple of hundred grand TO DATE(not just this window to clarify) on a quite frankly embarrassing defence. I also may be wrong but I cant think of many young British strikers bought for similar amounts and sold on for a profit. Can you think of any examples? For me, the chance of profiting on English players as a low risk strategy becomes high risk when you are paying so much money in the first place. The premise of signing 3 attackers covered by the future sale of our main asset may be somewhat idealistic in theory, but I dont think its the best way at all of reinvesting future predicted sales money. Ultimately, I don't think we can justify two such highly priced players who at the moment would have to play in an unfamiliar wide role or be on the bench in our best 11, when our defence is so bad. One sure, two is reckless.

To be fair, hes been linked with practically half of the league, so presumably theres nothing in it, and the universal response has been a demand for someone with much more know how in there. One thing I am sure of is that the answer to our defensive woes is certainly not already at the club. Its not fixable by a keeper or a new defensive midfielder protecting the defence, its not fixable by moving someones position, Williams/Nyambe re-born as a central defefender to solve our woes, and in this case it also isnt fixable by promoting youth players. Magloire may well be a good player for us in the future but he showed v Sheffield Wednesday that hes nowhere near ready, needs a spell in the lower leagues to learn how to head a ball. Wharton had seemingly underwhelming spells at Bury and Lincoln, Platt coulnt get in Stanleys squad and Grayson isnt ready either. The names mentioned, Hanley, Ajayi, Cooper, Dann, they are the sort of centre back we need.

Saw this from the Mirror. Linked with half the league. An untestes novice isnt what we need.

Exactly, if it was just the hardcore, the advertising costs would not need to be above zero.

This sort of crap seems to be rife at the moment. I am against the signing too, for reasons I have explained, but you can be critical of a signing or of a player whilst still supporting him on a match day and wanting him to do well, which benefits absolutely no one.

Im not sure I swallow this line about him being hindered by a shambles of a season. I think I would only really buy into it if it was a blip/poorer season within his career, rather than by quite a distance his best to date. He always played with a partner, whether it was Graham, Emnes or Joao, and he had (a couple of years and at the start of the season especially, an in form) Conway and Marshall playing quite a few crosses, and our side in general was obviously primarily dysfunctional defensively rather than offensively, hence the pile up of 3-2 defeats. His goal return of around 1 in 4 was fairly respectable if very unspectacular. He was actually far better under Coyle than under Mowbray, where he often played wide towards the end when the goals dried up, something I fear may be replicated if he is played there again. He definitely has something to his game, hes easily our second best striker, he is fairly quick and although he cant win a flick on to save his life, he has a really good header on him if hes attacking the goal and gets a yard on his man. He was forever offside, often lacked intelligence (somewhat understandable at the age he came in at, but nothing to suggest hes developed since) hes obviously nowhere near prolific at this level and he cant hold the ball up at all. I'm also unsure that he fits into this supposed technical side Mowbray wants to play, he is quite ungainly and clumsy and technical ability doesnt rank as one of his best attributes. All this being said, my main gripes with the deal are the cost baring in mind our frailites elsewhere, rather than with the actual player. But he wouldnt get into my team v Charlton.

The squad is both bloated and incredibly light in certain areas at the same time. You'd presume that Evans is one of our top earners, add to that I haven't seen any suggestion that he is anything but a major part of Mowbrays plans and I can't see him going anywhere.

But its not people like you that the club are/should be targeting. Its people who are less dedicated/obliged/diehard in their attendance and it is people who seemingly are less financially stable. I get a season ticket every year because I make it a financial priority of mine, so seemingly do 6 or 7 thousand, beyond that the rest may not see Rovers as their number 1 priority. I don't understand how people have such difficulty getting their head around that fact.

Very true, our chance to offload some of the players on higher wages went with needlessly and prematurely extending their contracts as a "reward," see Mulgrew, Smallwood and Williams.

It would indeed, signing a player in a position we are well stocked in.

Very underwhelmed, didnt particularly rate him when he was here last time and that season was by far the best hes had in his career, was dreadful at Birmingham and has spent the last year either injured or in the wilderness. Think its incredible that we have spent 12m on 2 strikers not as good as the 33 year old we already had, and have spent a couple of hundred grand in the same time period on failing to fix our horrendous defence. Unless Gallagher is joined by a good goalkeeper and the few defenders Mowbray promised to come in, then hes a wreckless and quite frankly idiotic spend of a substantial amount of money. If they do come in then I would consider Gallagher to be much closer to pushing Graham than Brereton has. Hoping for the latter scenario.

Whilst that is true, its even more counter-productive to put players into a team based solely on price tag rather than on merit. Dack is our best player and he plays best right up off a solitary striker, move him back and you hinder his ability to anticipate and finish chances in the 18 yard box. I'd have that team with Armstrong on the right, he looks so much better there than on the left. Sadly, with Chapman again injured, I feel like hes gonna start off the pace and struggle to ever break through.

Playing Dack in a midfield 3 would nullify his threat. Thats before you mention the state of that back 5.

If the plan is to rely on untested kids to transform a diabolical defence whilst we have 12m tied up in substitute strikers then that would be insane. Magloire cant head a ball, Platt couldnt get a game for Stanley and Wharton apparently didnt impress at Bury.

The fact that Mowbray has suggested that the defence isnt much of a priority is astounding. If its true itll cost him his job at some point down the line. 69 goals!

He would have been a brilliant signing, if it was in any way possible.

But that has been his best season to date! That is the most potential hes ever shown, he went to Birmingham and was muchvworse. The team he was in always gave him a strike partner, and it was a team where we had natural wingers, a younger Conway, Marshall and sadly as you mention Feeney. Hes definitely an upgrade on Brereton of course, I definitely think its incredibly difficult to argue that its not "big money" for someone who hasnt really proven much. My main point is the way we have utilised our resources whereby weve spent a pittance on our terrible defence and 12m on our 2nd and 3rd choice strikers. If we fix the defence aswell then fair enough!

I am not convinced that either do have said potential, especially the dearer one, but we can only hope now.

It is for 2 strikers with 25 total Championship goals between them prior to that, neither of which get into our starting 11.

Wheres that from?

Full back is critical, the defence needs an overhaul rather than a solitary addition. Going into the season with Bennett and Bell at full back (which youd suspect we will) will lead to goals being conceded, there no two ways about it. He was often disinterested when he played for us in his first season, lazy and stroppy. And he was crap, he didnt score after November. A couple of social media videos of him running up and down hills doesnt convince me hes anything but below the standard we need.

Plenty of talk about new formations that involve Dack moving back is crazy, hes not the type of player to dictate play, he has to be around the 18 yard box. And hes our best player so he has to be built around. We have one competent centre back, so playing 3 there would just put additional demands on recruitment. He says on here (this is 2 months old) "I've got no defence...defenders are coming." Lets just hope hes true to his word because its of criticial importance, we wont get out of the bottom half with the same set of defenders. He barely signed any defenders at West Brom, he left Coventry regretting his inability to sign a big centre back and here hes only signed Bell, Downing and Sam Hart so hes not improved our defence. Just signing one centre back I dont feel will be enough at all, we need a revamp. Our full backs arent up to it either.

To be fair, ambitions/aims/expectations of top 6 this season would be pretty much pie in the sky unless the manager fixes a defence that was, apart from the 3 teams that went down, only better than QPRs. You dont tend to trouble the top half with a bottom 6 quality defence. I think even you have touched on that if Mowbray doesnt fix the defence you wont be happy with him. Most of the people criticising the Gallagher deal are doing so because our resources should be prioritised in terms of fixing the defence. Gallagher would come into a position whereby we already have our player of the season and someone who cost 7m and is supposed to come good this season, and he wasnt that good last time, so hes a luxury we cannot afford without first fixing the defence. Its understandable why people are so anxious that it will remain unfixed because it has been neglected for so long. Everything depends on the rest of the window. If he fixes the defence, we may have a chance. If he doesnt, then presumably pressure will intensify if it continues to be our achilles heel when aspiring to be higher in the league as per his own expectations. Lets hope its the former. Everyone wants the defence fixed.