The answer unfortunately is the shambles contract situation (as seen with other first teamers) I’d keep him unless we get £20m, what’s the point like you say given the time invested in him and how good he’s got now. Wouldn’t go near £10m We we’re offered £4m (allegedly) for Rothwell with 6 months on his contract! No chance we should settle for under-offers now for Brereton

Why are people assuming it has to be a short term panic buy. We've known we have no Van Hecke since the last kick of last season and we've known Lenihan was off for over a month. CB was clearly, 100%, unequivocally, a huge hole that we needed to fill in the off-season. We've had 2 months to draw up a shortlist, find a player, negotiate fees, negotiate contracts etc...It should not be a 'short term panic buy' just because we've had additional youth team / reserve team injuries in the last week to escalate what was already a glaring off-season issue.

I don't disagree with that at all, but I don't see why it's has to be 'either or' between VDB on loan or a complete fluff like Paul Downing. The window has been open for 2 months so it shouldn't be the case of a rushed, short-term, rubbish defender.

Pretty obvious what the point is. We finished our last match with our only recognised fit CB in the squad, the same CB who has the worst injury record in the squad. The other CB who is apparently fit made his league debut and got cramp (not ideal for 3 games in one week). You've got your head in the sand if you truly believe we should be waiting 2 weeks for the Liverpool lad who we might not even get given their injuries despite yourself making up that it's already agreed. The window has been open for 2 months, if we don't know which CBs we want by now, I see that as an issue.

We finished Sunday with a back 4 of Buckley, Ayala, Pickering, Edun, of course we need a CB right now.

He was sat on the bench for Liverpool last night. We need 2 CBs now, not to wait until Liverpool are happy to hand him over

I read that Watford rejected a £20m bid for Joao Pedro from Newcastle today. Obviously the contract is going against us with Ben but surely £20m has to be the minimum we’d accept now.

Their keeper (on loan from Boro ironically) made Pears look like Gordon Banks at the weekend. Hopefully we see a similar level performance on Wednesday

Whilst I agree to a certain extent on the Pickering comments, it was the same when West Brom played Watford last week. Wallace is their superior winger so all the play comes down that side. He’ll trouble every LB in the league. I do agree that I’d prefer an upgrade there in the window though.

I fancy a very good following to Bradford! Luckily I’m over from Ireland for work that week (on the Wednesday) so I’ll be moving that a day forward if it’s a Tuesday match for sure.

Wasn't really sure where to post this, but a bit of lunch time viewing for all.

Impressed with WBA so far, they certainly look improved on last year. I’m worried about Wallace against Pickering next weekend!

I’d be amazed if even 2 of the front 3 are still there by the time we play them. They’re getting battered here but 1 bit of quality from Sarr is the difference whereas Grant couldn’t finish his dinner.

Did none of you ever read the matchday threads last season? It used to take about 2 mins and a few pages before BigBars first Buckley moan.

Yeah that's why I stated the year they got promoted. Fulham then went out and spent £150m or so.

Interesting one - player of the year at Wednesday and I think he played most of the season when Fulham got promoted. Surely he would be a very good pick up at Championship level

I think the point I and others are making is that there is absolutely zero evidence to back up the 2nd paragraph that people seem to be randomly spouting. In the 9 sub appearances he made after the 2nd injury (what I assume all these opinions are judged on) he didn’t exactly look Championship finished, and if he did then so did every other one of our midfield and attack….including Brereton who did nothing in those same matches.

Agree with a similar comment above, the Dack comments are complete nonsense and over the top. He's comfortably the best footballer and finisher in our squad. He's the only player I'd want the ball to fall to in the box. Talk of 'stinking the place out' last season just shows how clueless some are on here. He didn't start a single match, and only came off the bench 9 times, making the difference in the Derby match and more-so Coventry where he showed our alleged number 9 Gallagher how to play with instinct, positioning and finishing ability. The only real negative you can say is the missed penalty in his 1st game back against Bristol City, arguably he shouldn't have been on it, but either way, hardly 'stinking the place out' More fool us if we push him aside for the likes of Gallagher, Dolan etc. because they're better at cross-country. I seem to recall a certain Alan Shearer still being the best striker in the league after knee and ankle injuries. Dack is one of the best in the league at interlinking play and finishing anything at his feet in the box and that's how he should be used.

To save me scrolling through pages can anyone explain this paragraph please?

At an average of £25 per match (4 x £30, 4 x £20 and 15 x £25) you need to go to 17 of the 23 home games to make a season ticket worthwhile. This doesn't even take into account potential £5 or £10 offers we may run as a one-off. If you cannot / struggle to attend mid-week games then you need to go to 16 of the 19 weekend matches to make it worthwhile! The point is, I'm hoping a decent number of people have thought, what's the point of getting a season ticket when I can just pick and choose as I'll likely be unavailable for 5+ games over a season anyway, which should then boost our attendances a little bit. You'll never struggle to get a walk-on home ticket even if we're top of the table and playing Burnley. But the real point is, this just highlights how out of touch the season ticket prices are. It's worth adding the £30/£25/£20 walk-on tickets are fair and probably the only ticket news I've agreed on in recent years. (albeit it's a stretch to put Wigan and Blackpool in the top bracket) Like the international season ticket, which I liked the sound of. It's £150 for 6 games so same as an average ticket (and capped the number of tier 1 games to 3), so the most the individual tickets would come to is £165. £2.50 difference per match if you max it out for the best games. It's pointless considering the commitment to fly in and get to Ewood anyway, might as well play it ear and get walk-on tickets.

We'll live and die by who we manage to loan in, just as most teams do in this league every year We get in players of the quality of JPvH or Elliott then we'll push for promotion We get in players like Clarkson and Brainthwaite and we'll be struggling to get in the top half

Did I miss an unleaded post?

Khadra announced at Sheffield United

We were also on bbc breakfast this morning apparently

Brilliant stuff. Am I correct in thinking we were stitched up out of a promotion one year as they automatically put a Man Utd Women's team in the top tier? Was good to see some of the team signing autographs at the open training session yesterday too.