Its not hate. Gallagher was weak and incapable of holding the ball up, especially as a lone striker. It wouldnt make any sense to sign him on a temporary deal, his goal record in the Championship is very underwhelming and hes not played all season. Id suggest he is pretty similar in style to Brereton, tall, lanky, not the strongest, and fairly quick. Neither have particularly impressive goal records as of yet. It would bring the signing of Brereton into further disrepute if we signed Gallagher on loan and he played at the expense of our own player whose development would be further stunted. It would also show a lack of imagination in the transfer market to sign them 2. We dont need more impact subs in wide areas, we need a first team one.

Raya Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Williams Rodwell Evans Reed Dack Rothwell Graham Subs: Leutweiler, Downing, Travis Smallwood, Brereton, Armstrong, Palmer

How can you say its exceptional business? 3 goals between 4 attacking players with a combined cost of close to 10m suggests theyve yet to have a significant impact. Not denying their talent but theres no way you can say theyve been exceptional pieces of business at this point in time. If you said "theyve yet to really have an impact but I believe they will in time" then that would be much fairer. Your figures for Bamford and in particular Celina are total guesses. Swansea spent a small fraction of their incomings and have relied a lot on youth so I am skeptical of your assumption that they are spending loads more than we could afford. Armstrong has been nowhere near as effective as he was last year in League 1, theres no way you can suggest otherwise. I have never suggested that we arent playing Brereton due to the managers disgruntlement over signings above his head, contractual reasons, any of that. I am basing him solely on footballing matters. I also do agree in theory with mainly signing younger players to develop. But we are judging them as individuals. I feel like you are overestimating their youth and portraying them as being less ready than they are. Rodwell and Palmer are only here for a year so any impact needs to be this season. Rothwell and Brereton have played enough at previous clubs to make Mowbray interested in the first place. Much of your argument is based around totally hypothetical figures, the difficulty of signing players in general and an underestimation of the fact that we do offer competitive wages at this level. Not with Villa, Stoke etc but 10th-16th as Waggott said. You are seemingly reluctant to admit that the signings bar Reed have had a significant impact thus far, calling them exceptional is presumably not at all based on what they have shown in a Rovers shirt. We made numerous signings for a lot of money combined to improve our squad, in particular going forward, with Mowbray often talking about making us play more attractive, passing football. At the moment, our team is the most direct in the league statistically, and for goals we are almost totally reliant on the Graham and Dack partnership we had last season, or Mulgrew set pieces. Beyond that our few goalscorers are on 1s and 2s. As it stands the new signings have not developed our team in the way we may have hoped, not that they may not in the future, fans are perhaps slightly frustrated not to see more of them, and as a result to describe the business as exceptional.

I still dont understand how you gave the signing of Brereron an 8 out of 10 judgement the other week. May I ask what you have seen to justify that? Theres no way that its been in a Rovers shirt, in the main hes done very little in his cameos. His price tag is a double edged sword, people are very protective of not over burdening him because of it but I think that the price tag is the only evidence we have that he has the ability to really make a name for himself at the moment, and if he had signed for 700k, based on his uneventful cameos and his goal record prior I dont think anyone would bat an eyelid if he was left out of the 18, and people as with Nuttall may have queried whether in fact a loan to the lower leagues is the best bet for him. Its perfectly reasonable to suggest, not that its easy to sign players, but that with the budget Mowbray had, no matter how much you seem to downplay it, you would hope we would have been able to improve our team more than we have. Waggott confirmed that we are mid table in terms of wage budget and for some reason youve assumed that Brereton has come in on a pittance, and also shoot down any suggestions that we could have signed someone to have more of an impact or to provide actual competition for Graham. Your primary argument is to guess that any alternatives will be on wages far too high for us. The "I hate Tony comment" is laughable. No one hates him, but hes not beyond reproach in terms of judgement over signings. Only one of his signings has had a positive, consistent impact on the team AS OF YET, and thats Reed. Armstrong has played regularly but in the main looks poor at Championship level, and none of the other 5 have managed to really come close to establishing themselves in the side. It is a very commonly held wise idea to sign younger players to develop, I dont think many would disagree with the concept in general. At this moment in time though, weve yet to see much to suggest that he could be an asset to profit on. We all hope he makes more of an impact but so far hes not had one.

I felt last year that although he did score a couple of goals, Nuttall in the main did appear quite a bit off in terms of physicality and knowing how to play that role as striker, and that was in League 1. If he came into the side this year he would look equally as inadequate especially as a sub for Graham. You say he can do no more than he is doing, but from the sound of it his recent purple patch comes off the back of a poor run due to the players attitude. Due to the finance committed to the deal, Mowbray will have to somewhat perservere with Brereton, who already has a couple of seasons of experience at this level. I dont feel like Nuttall is capable of backing Graham up yet and is definitely shy of a loan deal to get him used to League football. The choice of club is critical to his development, even if it means going down to League 2 he needs to be playing every week.

Rodwell is never a centre back in a million years so I disagree. Im not convinced, wonder if theres an element of lazy journalism assuming we will re-sign players we have had in the past. 4-3-3 would mean Dack wouldnt be in the side so no to that, we cannot break up or interfere with the Graham and Dack partnership. I dont think that there is a problem with playing 4-2-3-1 and it certainly doesnt have to incorporate the current direct, long ball, percentage based football that we currently play. We just need to make sure that we upgrade upon some of the players down the sides, ie at full back and out wide. Mowbray also needs to trust and get the most out of his summer signings, notably moving Reed central, playing Rodwell more often (solely as a midfielder) and also by giving Palmer and in particular Rothwell more of a chance, especially to nail down the left of the 3 behind Graham. A direct right winger for the other side as a starter and that would have the potential to be much more threatening.

Not for me at all. Firstly, every time weve played 3 at the back before, its not worked. Furthermore, any formation with Rodwell in defence and Bell in the team is a firm no from me! Bennett isnt a wing back either. I also think them 3 signings would be underwhelming and show a total lack of imagination from the scouting system and from Mowbray. We need a winger to come into the team, not onto the bench as Mowbray has stated he would before, plus his injuries make him a no go from me. Gallagher I dont rate, hes not strong enough to be a focal point and it would bring the Brereton signing into even more disrepute to bring in another lanky, flimsy, lightweight striker on a loan deal to go ahead of Brereton in the pecking order. Bauer has spent a lot of the season injured.

I dont think he has hardly if ever played 3-5-2 has he? When he played 3 at the back we tended to play 2 off Graham, i recall the 2 being Dack and Armstrong against Bury for example. I think we could play the trio you suggested in the formation we already play. Either way, our weakness at the moment lies wide. Our full backs are weaknesses and our wide men dont contribute enough. Our full backs are either very conservative ie Nyambe and Williams or just shite ie Bell. Please can we stop with the infactual comments implying that we are minnow in this league. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/16986757.were-mid-table-for-wages-rovers-ceo-waggott/ “I would think we’re probably, league wise, 10th to 16th in terms of wage bills from talking to other clubs." So thats from Waggotts mouth, and we are currently 12th. Factor in a net spend of what must be close to if not 8 figures and the poverty line becomes a bit worthless. We are this season about where we should be I would suggest. He failed his first (difficult task) to keep us up but he did very well to "turn us around" last season and get us back into this league. He has overall done a good job, thats for sure. But lets not pretend where we are in the table is a miraculous achievement.

I thought that Graham was our best player on Saturday yet again. The first thing that we need to bare in mind is the supply and style of play that we adopt is not one that favours our attackers, and whoever is up there is going to be feeding off scraps. For all this talk about "The Mowbray Way," we play the most long balls in the league, very much play the percentages and it can be a hard watch to be honest, and I bet its even harder to be a striker in. Graham is the master at holding the ball up with very poor service. He wins headers v taller centre backs, hes clever in terms of giving the defender a slight nudge on the blind side of the ref to gain an advantage, hes the only player on the same wavelength as Dack and the pair of them are scoring goals with regularity in a side thats anything but creative. We look far more threatening during intermittent bursts of pressing, winning the ball back high and playing a few one touch passes at speed but it is all too infrequent. The main difference when Brereton comes on is that his first touch is notably worse and invariably loses possession. He also failed to even challenge on more than one occasion in the air which caused frustration. Other than that, agree with your points regarding the psychology of the team and also Mowbray being too loyal to Smallwood in particular at the expense of any control in the game. If Reed is needed wide right to cover up deficiencies in Mowbrays summer recruitment, which is galling in itself, then I think Rodwell should play alongside Evans to give us a bit more control in there. I dont think Smallwood played a successful pass in the first half and at one stage he was tackled by the wind.

Dont get a fascination with 2 up top, when our strike pairing including a second striker have scored so many goals between them and are doing so well together. The likelihood would be that whoever came in as a second striker instead of Dack would score less than him, and Dack out of position would almost certainly lose much of his goal threat. If theres one area of our team that is working and can stay as it is, its Dack and Graham as a partnership.

This will be lapped up by half the messageboard but its peddling a load of old rubbish that isnt true. Most of my friends believe we are heading in the right direction with exactly the right manager at the helm - so do most of the people on this messageboard, contrary to what some would suggest, very, very few people (Mercer and jim i think are the only 2 I know who have insinuated it) that arent happy with Mowbray in charge. Very much the minority. I was very happy that the owners signed Mowbray up on a long term contract - again, see above, so are the majority on here. impressed with some of the football that we are trying to play - in terms of results, ie the important part, we are about where we should be, and Mowbray has done a good job. Aesthetically, less so, we are very direct, play the most long balls in the league and often rely on set pieces to score. there are players who will gradually be replaced - Mowbray said that himself last month - agree that it needs to happen, some feel that perhaps it is happening too slowly in terms of too much loyalty afforded to the likes of Smallwood and Armstrong, with some of his own signings (Rothwell, Palmer, Rodwell, Brereton) yet to be consistently incorporated into his team. Lets not go down the route of perceiving criticism of certain aspects to be an overall unhappiness with Mowbray or the direction that the club is going in under him.

It hardly not accompanied with some level of scope to suggest that, this early within this teams progression, as Mowbray will testify with his pleas for x more transfer windows and comments such as the one he made yesterday, stating that "thats where we are at the moment, " that the TYPE of signing Brereton was is a questionable one. Someone who may turn out to be a prudent signing long term, we dont know. But someone who has yet to really contribute, and has yet to start a league game, with so many other areas in which we needed to improve first. You seem to be insistent on downplaying that we had any room to manoeuvre in the transfer market, and quashing any scope for discussion. Firstly, that we are recently promoted is factual but also slightly misleading at the same time. You compare us to Rotherham for example, we have far bigger expectations and far bigger resources. The point of the list was more to add some context to any suggestions that 7 million is anything but a large amount of money at this level. I'm not naive enough to go, we should have signed Hunt, Robinson, Egan, Benrahama and Pukki with that 7m instead. I appreciate that there are other factors, notably wages. What I dont accept is to just presume that there is absolutely no room to manoeuvre, its the same with your similar argument @chaddyrovers. Just to make assumptions about the wages that potential targets may or may not have demanded with no real evidence. We have also got resources tied up on the likes of Rodwell and Palmer that perhaps werent the wisest in retrospect, 2 players who have been signed very much for the short term and dont have the same argument about a long term project to fall back on like Brereton, neither of whom have at any stage been able to nail down a regular place or contribute significantly to our season. For me, the acid test for Brereton will be, as soon as Graham leaves the club, is he ready to instantly take over his mantle, albeit perhaps in a different way. He is not a total novice now by any means, but obviously he will need to markedly improve before then. We can only judge from what weve witness so far.

I'd offer to take him for a drink but I suspect I may get an answer similar to Mercer...

I think that when Dack goes, we are in trouble due to our reliance on him and his at times underappreciated consistency in terms of goals and assists. None of the signings that Mowbray has made have suggested that they can come close to taking on that mantle, and where do the goals come from then? I find your comment that "he can be invisible when things don't go well resulting in a 10 vs 11 type of game" to be incredibly harsh, he more than anyone shows for the ball and even yesterday he was coming for me a little too deep to try and get involved.

I never felt we would be near the bottom, mid table is about where I expected, wouldnt say we are overachieving. But I do think that Mowbray is doing a good job and have never suggested otherwise.

Im not sure thats entirely fair. He plays in his favoured position but playing the most long balls in the league is hardly playing to his strengths. One of those blessing in disguises whereby the second striker we currently play who scores on average every other game (and assists too) is removed?

The thing is, I dont think ive seen anyone say our league position is not good enough. Thats not what people are questioning. Have I seen people question his recruitment? Yes. His team selections? Yes. Our constant throwing away of points? Yes. Just hurling valid, constructive individual criticisms and discussion under the "yeah but we are meeting expectations in terms of our position" is totally missing the point.

I believe the comment was part of a follow up to a question about us throwing away 2 more points, nothing to do with our league position in general.

@Ewood Ace responded with the same point as I was going to make. You judge based on what people say rather than what people do. There have been no signs of us changing our style on the pitch, we still play direct, long ball, playing the percentages football. I judge on what I see on the pitch, not on soundbites in interviews which until they are carried out mean nothing. He has been accused of being overly loyal to his favourites, he Smallwood for example has had numerous poor games but he continues to be selected, rather than moving Reed central or the far more technically capable Rodwell who he signed. He has been overly loyal to Armstrong, who in the main has been poor this season. 2 more of his signings, Rothwell and Palmer who both are capable of perhaps making our team more technically proficient, have in the main been kicking their heels on the subs bench all season. Even with the personnel at his disposal, if he does genuinely want to play a more passing based style, he seems reluctant to use the players that he presumably brought in to help implement it, and there have been no signs of these changes thus far. Football is all about results anyway, there is no right and wrong way to play. But just commenting on all of this Mowbrays vision nonsense.

Nit picking a tad but wasnt too impressed with Mowbray saying maybe "thats just where we are." He was right to feel frustrated, I dont think that a constant surrendering of points is ever something that you should be accepting of or is just a growing pain. What makes you say that Brereton would suit a passing style, his first touch and technical ability are certainly not his strong suits? I dont think that a total change of tact from a long ball team to a passing team is imminent or reasonable and there are no signs that it is being gradually done. We need competition at right back now, Travis is seen as a midfielder, as is Bennett.

You keep talking about this vision but ive not seen any tangible signs that we are working towards a new playing style. We play long ball football (most in the league) and have shown no signs in terms of playing style of slowly filtering in any Please can you explain exactly what you mean by Mowbrays vision? The reason that @Gavlar Somerset Rover! presumably posted that is that Brereton is not only a player in his own right, but a player who cost such a big fee that people may argue that could have been utilised in better ways. Gallagher is unable to hold the ball up so wouldnt be adequate in terms of an alternative to Graham. If we are going to change style then we may aswell pursue with our 7m signing.

If your primary argument is that its difficult to sign players at reasonable players full stop then surely all signings and all managers are exempt from judgement when they make a signing? Just to prove that there are reasonably priced players that could have improved us in various areas where we could have done with reinforcements, here are some other Championship transfers from the summer. I have excluded some loans that I felt were unrealistic (, and I am not saying that ALL these players were necessarily attainable, or that all of them would have proved to be clever acquisitions. Prices taken from transfermarkt: RB - Moses Odubajo (Brentford, free), Jack Hunt (Bristol City, 1.5m) CB - Kyle Bartley (Swansea, 4m), Jordan Storey (PNE, 750k), Ezri Konza (Brentford, 2.5m), John Egan (Sheff Utd, 4m), Adam Webster (Bristol City, 3.6m), Tamas Kalas (Bristol City, loan), Michael Hector (Sheffield United, loan), Michael Hefele (Forest, 300k), Reece Burke (Hull, 1.5m) LB - Connor Townsend (WBA, 750k), Jay DaSilva (Bristol City, loan), Barry Douglas (Leeds, 3m), Jack Robinson (QPR, free) RW - Barrie McKay (Swansea, 500k), Florian Jozefzoon (Derby, 2.8m), Duane Holmes (Derby, 750k), Brandon Barker (PNE, loan), Said Benrahma (Brentford, 1.5m), Gwoin Edwards (Ipswich, 700k), Jack Harrison (Leeds, loan) ST - Jack Marriott (Derby, 3m), Martyn Waghorn (Derby, 5m), David McGoldrick (Sheff Utd, free), Andreas Weimann (Bristol City, 2m), Teemu Pukki (Norwich, free), Nakhi Wells (QPR, loan), Lewis Grabban (Forest, 6m), Josh Windass (Wigan, 2m) Just wanted to dispel any myths that 7m isnt a hell of a lot of money to spend at this money. No one has said that. You are exaggerating and twisting a genuine argument that we could have improved other areas or spent the money much more efficiently at this stage of the teams development to something totally ridiculous.

Surely that is a closed minded comment baring in mind our glaring deficiencies elsewhere? Why are we spending the majority of our budget on someone yet to start in the middle of December, when we are still so short in other positions.

Feel free to answer and accompany with further reasoning. I dont go as a group of 4, it wasnt me, were these people shouting their opinions or just talking amongst themselves?

It also adds weight to the argument that perhaps, at this point in our development as a team under Mowbray, that spending such a large sum on a player unable to provide competition was not a wise idea.