Not for me. And if/when we lose Brereton we are miles worse off.

I can’t help but think there’d be a lot more dissenting voices around Caulker if it was the first week in June. Expectations falling all round as we approach the end of the window.

Really? Shades of Wes Brown for me. Flies in the face of “the project” too.

I can definitely confirm this is the case. We had quite a few back and forths about Brereton! I’m delighted (and a few grand better off) to be wrong on this one. Falls into the cult hero bracket all day long for me for the absolute madness of the whole situation and the magnitude of the turnaround. Cult heroes are not the same as club legends. I think he’s fare better in the Prem than Armstrong as he’s better equipped physically and less greedy. But I’d prefer him to go abroad.

When looking to replace Brereton we need to be thinking about the here and now. We can’t invest another big chunk of money on a player who is going to take 3 or 4 years to come good. While Brereton came really good, he was at best a passenger, but more often than not a complete liability for 2 years. We will need to attempt to replace a large chunk of his goals this season. A massive ask. I can’t see lightning striking twice with any of our current crop. Problem is we would have to spend more than we get for him to have a good chance of that happening. It will more than likely be a loan though, so we just have to keep our fingers crossed.

Plus 2 games and a bank holiday in that time. I’m predicting 3 deadline day loans.

Proven centre half at this level sounds good to me. We need one through the door urgently. There should be an expectation with a fee like that. 2.5 million isn’t insignificant to us these days, and when we lose good, proven players on frees or for peanuts we have to make sure the players we do spends are good uns.

Thanks for clarifying. I wasn’t sure if you meant we needed 4/5 more or 4/5 total in this window.

Just for clarity Chaddy, is that 4 or 5 more, or 4 or 5 total? Are Brittain, Szmodics and Morton already included in your count? And would your number change if Brereton goes? I think we need 3 or 4 defenders, a midfielder and a centre forward on top of what we already have. That’s without losing Brereton.

Well done Vale for that goal

It’s on the DAB channel

Andy Cook for them is a proper old fashioned wily centre forward. He’s going to be a big danger.

Ok, who is going to be the first person to say something along the lines of “we don’t need another centre back, Morton can play there” between now and the end of the window?

100%. As much as we moan about early cup exits, it’s always a thinly disguised blessing. Today I’m hoping that we pick a team containing players I know aren’t up to the job, because we can’t risk the ones that are.

By the time the window closes we’ll have already played 15% of our league campaign, as well as 2 cup games. Being annoyed by what looks like it’ll be yet another last minute scramble for a few deadline day loans (at best) isn’t an overreaction.

I’m not stopping him getting on with his job. Something clearly is though!

It wouldn’t be easy for you and me, but we have supposedly appointed someone with the correct qualification, experience and skill set, so it shouldn’t be this hard!

I’d say you abandon them at the point it becomes unlikely they are coming. We seem to have put all our eggs in one or two baskets in terms of centre backs, so far no joy. It’s cost us in our last couple of games and looks likely to for at least the next couple too. Its not just bodies either, there are plenty of good options out there. If that’s the reason for a hold up on centre backs, ok, but there are plenty of other glaring gaps to address. For clarity, the bulk of my criticism goes to the common denominator of the last 12 years.

I don’t know about easy, but it certainly shouldn’t be so difficult. It’s literally his job. Why is it seemingly a much harder task for Blackburn Rovers to sign players than practically every other club in the world? Is JDT being pathetic? Cos he’s clearly frustrated and growing impatient.

That’s another premature statement Chaddy. Everyone hopes the structure is right, but at the moment it looks dysfunctional. The structure might work if we had decent budgets, a top CEO, an established recruitment team, and a well established strategy built with the managers input. We appear to have none of that.

For once we have bought in a replacement before actually losing a player. I don’t think Dack is fancied for some unfathomable reason.

Wonder if he will be told to be patient/patience

If they had any real long term plan they would realise it was absolutely necessary to introduce a policy like this, especially given recent events.

Gregg has got some serious work to do to prevent this being the worst transfer window in Rovers history.

That’s fair enough!