Not just that either. The line about 'not getting too happy after a win and not getting too down after a defeat' is also straight out of a Tomasson press conference. I heard it for myself a few weeks ago and Broughton has also said similar in that podcast. Original thought? Nah. That's overrated.

Exactly. Yet Gregg thinks the pair of them can play in the Premier League one day. If those two are your established centre mids, you can forget about going up.

A message for you, Jagdish Rao: Keep your stupid ideas for Football Manager on your laptop. It's cheaper and the only hope you have of 'winning' anything. Take a look at where Blackburn Rovers were before you and your family took over, and look at the joke the club is today. That's all on your family. 12 years of embarrassment. Take the hint, some things aren't meant to be. We don't give a damn about your money, or your reputation in India. We only care about our Rovers. Take your money, take your project and F.O!!

I hope you're enjoying the Head Coach/DOF model that you were crying out for. Just like Vinjay crying "takeover, takeover" for years. I hope the pair of you are enjoying it.

The final score, please? We can't be making excuses every game for piss poor showings.

There'll be no accountability, Jim. That prick Broughton thinks this is normal for a young side and that we shouldn't panic. This is repeated by the manager. JDT is under no pressure as the tossers at the top have no idea. A sorry, pathetic situation, where we are stuck once again with dollopers.

One game versus 8 of them?

This project will be the death of this football club. Listen to Broughton talking about Travis and Buckley being able to play in the Premier League. I don't know what dream world, fantasy island he's living on. Those two are seen as 'established' and the two kids are the future, therefore no need to sign quality midfielders as that would be 'expensive'. A shit project, which will only take us one way. Down.

You can be as positive and as balanced as you want on here, it's not going to change the reality. This squad is shit and is going nowhere. A crap project set and operated by chumps. I will not make excuses for this bullshit.

Garrett is no midfield destroyer. We're overhyping a kid because we have been starved of anybody who can put a tackle in for 10 years. Dack our best player so far today. The only real quality we have going forward.

I think we can stick a fork in Chelsea. They are done, IMO. The signs are recognisable and all too familiar, relatively speaking. They can't buy a win, the owner can't get anything right, money being blown all over the show, the embarrassments are piling up, they are already (so quickly) a shadow of what they were, and the new signing who they've shelled out a huge loan fee on gets sent off on his debut. This stuff is right out of Barry's "Owning a Football Club for Dummies" handbook. Project, give him time, building. Yeah, alright. That doesn't wash at clubs that are alive and kicking, and with fans who refuse to accept "this is our level" and "it isn't 2003 anymore". When results go downhill, those clubs act. I think Potter hasn't got long left there, their fans aren't having him and I don't blame them.

Yeah, exactly. That's how almost every other club approaches it. Not Venky owned Rovers though. As soon as Broughton said he didn't want to block the pathway for Wharton and Garrett, and went for the manageable Morton loan move, we should have known what to expect. No quality midfielder will be coming here due to this pathway shit, IMO.

On first viewing, that looks like the signing of a club that doesn't have a pot to piss in.

The centre of midfield is the problem area for me. A lot of the abject defeats we have seen have involved the midfield being bullied and brushed aside. We have the same type of midfielder, in terms of build, style etc. Crap players like Ledson see it and start acting the hard man against us. It gees up the opposition. There was a Boro player, Howson I think, and a Cardiff mid who started putting in aggressive challenges once they realised they were up against Morton and Co. That needs addressing. Even when we win games we struggle to string more than three passes together. It was the same against Norwich in the cup. For me, our options in there aren't good enough and need upgrading. Adam Wharton is the only one, IMO, who has something special about his game but he's having to wait or pull himself together to get back in.

Would have Trybull ahead of all of our current midfielders. An underrated player who has done it before at this level. Very good signing for Blackpool.

I'm not seeing any real links to Benfica anywhere. There's a Benfica fan page on twitter tagging Vetlesen and urging their club to buy him. A few of their fans have been putting his name forward as an ideal signing and a possible replacement for Enzo Fernandez (linked with Chelsea), but that's about it. Benfica are trying their best to sign Andreas Schjelderup and this has led to a few "we want Vetlesen too" posts from some of their fans. Unless Burger has seen something else which confirms Benfica are in for him, it seems to be wishful thinking on their fans part, for now.

I agree with you. The eye test is enough to tell anybody that Gelhardt is nothing like Hirst. One is lively, tricky on the ball and can cause defenders problems, the other is George Hirst. Wigan will be getting a good player there.

I don't know the names, just that, supposedly, one is German and one is Scandinavian. One of the three is an attacking midfielder. If Vetlesen doesn't fit that description, then one of the other two is an attacking mid. It is also being claimed that a midfielder that was being shown around is going to sign. Don't know if that is Hugo or not, it would be quite surprising if it was him. It appears the info is coming from different sources, as they both had slightly different versions of the BBD/Simms-Everton story, and both have separately mentioned Vetlesen, with one alleging he was one of the three that was spoken to. Again, we are going off what a couple of fans have heard, so it could yet turn out to disappoint, but it seems to be the only transfer speculation we have at the moment. If it is true that Vetlesen is one of the trio, then that is encouraging. To make it happen though would be more impressive, that's what most of us want to see.

Thanks for providing the detail. Sounds like he would be a very good signing, but maybe unrealistic for us if his price tag is expected to be high. I like the look of him from what I've seen on the YouTube videos. If price is an issue, the only way it could happen, I guess, is if the owners are persuaded that this is a "special case" and that they could make a big return on him in the future. Unlikely, but let's see.

Anybody know anything about Hugo Vetlesen? A Norwegian central midfielder that plays for Bodo Glimt. He is supposedly one of the players that GB spoke with last week, according to the same couple of people who claimed we had interviewed three potential signings. I don't know how good he is or how realistic the move is, but the Bodo link makes it sound like a plausible rumour.

That was what I took from Broughton's last interview. He was asked about January signings and didn't sound overly enthused by the prospect. Based on how he was talking, it sounded like there wasn't much left of the budget. JDT talking about one in, one out today and money difficulties. It's looking like a case of the same old, same old, right now.

I think I heard the commentator say he's a boyhood Chelsea fan due to watching Drogba. They certainly need him to provide them with a fresh spark. There aren't many goals in their frontline as it stands. Havertz and Pulisic are goal shy, Sterling has been disappointing and Aubameyang looks like he doesn't want to be there. I can't see them challenging for trophies like they used to in years gone by.

Personally, I think Chelsea's time at the top table is coming to an end. They've had a good 20 year run at it, but I think this could be the start of their slide down to 7th/8th place finishes. We know as much as anybody how important it is to have an owner who gets it. Whether people liked Abramovic or not, and I'm not a fan, he was fierce in regards to winning, he actually cared about Chelsea and showed a ruthless side on many occasions. That's a major part of why they have had so much success since 2003. I don't think it's a coincidence they are falling away now that he has departed from the club. This Boehly fella comes across as naive, excitable and is throwing money around willy nilly without any sort of plan, by the looks of it. He has already had his pants pulled down a couple of times in regards to signings. He also has the perfect manager in place too, IMO, to have them close to mid table. I'll enjoy seeing it all unfold anyway, as I still haven't got over the fact that it was this lot that took Duffer off us.

Dom Hyam putting in another colossal performance. Got his head and boot to everything. Brilliant. He looks a bit like Laporte out there from a distance. The signing of the summer for us by far.

Embarrassing is the word. Really small time stuff which just sums up the decline and the thinking at the club. Think small. It feels like a very long time since the club shop had anything that I thought was worth buying. I've always had an interest in buying Rovers related t-shirts, but the produce at the club shop has been nothing but overpriced tat for years. No imagination to the designs, but £25 a pop? Piss that. I must have bought around 7/8 Rovers themed shirts from elsewhere over the past couple of years. All better quality than anything in the store. One of my favourites posted above. Why can't the club shop come up with something like the above? As if I need to ask. There are so many potential t-shirt ideas based on our history, the players that have played for us etc. However, the stuff in the shop year after year, and the response to 'Brereton Mania' suggests we can forget about any of that happening.