Yup!! at least 9 or 10 teams on paper looking stronger than Rovers, and second season syndrome likely to be a significant factor. On the flip side, there are, on the face of it, at least 3 teams worse than us, so 12th to 17th is realistic - barring disasters [ ie something like a leg break or cruciate for one of the starting back 4 ]. Fulham away will be a good litmus test - if they show up like the Rovers of last January and get a caning, then it could be an indicator of a long, tough season - if they're competitive and draw/lose by less than 2 then there's a glimmer of hope. The fixtures don't look kind for a team trying to find its' feet, but there should be enough quality to get by, and there's now a bit more of a tougher thread running through the side to go with that quality. Think we'll be ok, but not quite good enough or consistent enough to break the top half.

just how it should be .... a friend {Glos based PNE fan} pointed me to this post on the PNE forum, interesting perspective on Rover's business in the window quite why they consider Rovers as 'Plastics' is beyond me, but presumably some obscure reference to us competing at the very top of the top level through the 1990's along-with the so-called big boys, [it's also quite ironic as PNE were last in the first division in 1961 when plastic probably hadn't even been invented]. Maybe Rover's transfer business looks better from the outside than from our own perspective?

knees of glass though....... bench warmer for the treatment room.

No Hanley very limited, has a mistake in him, and IMO very much in the envelope of players whose ability seems to be enhanced the more they don’t play. had you even heard of Cunningham last week? And Danny was well past it when we signed him last time........leave him festering in punditry ( although purgatory would be preferable)

maybe selling Tarkowski to Leicester then?

except for carrying on as the manager................

What about Keith Fear? Hadn’t even been introduced to the team then scored 2 (or maybe 3) at Burnley

taking lessons from Boris J on how not to answer the question ? I agree with you, Mowbray failed in his first season target, - he would probably admit that much himself - Your original assertion is that Rovers are no better off now than when he arrived. in Feb 2107, when Mowbray arrived, we were 23rd in the Championship table, that's second bottom, the team as follows Subs - Emnes, Feeney, Wes Brown, Conway, Tomlinson, Raya, Nyambe. My recollections were of a club with little purpose and direction, potentially headed for oblivion and with no semblance of anyone in the management structure with the gumption to recognise that fact, or plan to reverse it. There will be a point where Mowbray will have taken Rovers as far as he can in the club's current form, I don't believe it has yet been reached, but I do believe that Mowbray will know himself and its just a likely he will walk rather someone needing to fire him - there's been a fair few manager's through our doors in recent years of which that certainly couldn't be said. Like many, I'm baffled why the defence hasn't yet been bolstered, and in the lack of the goalkeeper of note arriving, but worse off than when Mowbray arrived?? No, Nay, Never.......

Remind me, what position we’re we in when Mowbray arrived......

He’s put his balls on the line for the club before .......(on a goalpost actually)

Frazier Forster .......... (Pure guess - not pretending to know)

Perhaps I should have clarified when he told me.....

Mate of mine is communications manager at Bristol City, he says they’re going for it big time this season, 7 signings done/imminent the latest was the ex Chelsea CB they had on loan last year. Bankrolled by Steve Lansdown who’s a big fish in business down these parts and doesn’t see FFP as a barrier any more. Mate is very confident they won’t lose Webster to Villa either and bullish about their chances of playoffs minimum. He doesn’t think Fielding is going to Rovers (or that Derrick Williams is going back to Bristol anytime soon). I

and that's just their hip joints ........

Championship table based on wage bill (extracted from last published accounts) source walesonline.com The final Championship table predicted based on wage bills 1: Stoke City £94.2m 2: West Brom £92.2m 3: Swansea City £90.7m 4: Huddersfield £62.6m 5: Fulham £54.3m 6: Middlesbrough £48.7m 7: Cardiff City £48.4m 8: Derby £40.4m 9: Birmingham £38.5m 10: Reading £35.3m 11: Leeds £31.3m 12: Hull £31.1m 13: QPR £30.6m 14: Sheff Wed £29.3m 15: Nottm Forest £27.7m 16: Bristol City £27.2m 17: Brentford £17.1m 18: Balckburn £16.7m 19: Preston £15m 20: Millwall £13.3m 21: Wigan £11.7m 22: Barnsley £10.6m 23: Charlton £10.2m 24: Luton £6.2m Figures based upon the most recent accounts published

that table can't be right...... we conceded 69 goals last season in 46 games, that's 1.5 goals/game, so if Raya really made 3.5 saves per goal, he'd be making 5.25 saves per match. [even noting that Jason Lukewarm played a couple while Raya got his nose reattached] worked the other way, if he did 2.7 saves per match over 46 matches, that's 124.2 saves, equivalent to 1.8 saves per goal, that's more in the Bailey Peepshow Flannel envelope.... maybe Raya' agent made the table......

All very interesting and worthy of a debate, but maybe the Mods need to be redirecting this stuff into a Tony Mowbray 'any good or not' thread ? - I think the one being hijacked is supposed to be about the summer transfer window.......

With TM's preference for age and experience, more likely to be Dick rather than Virgil

we're men of a certain age.............

Not like rovers more realistic target Alf Aville. ??

Or with Brentford? ......

Probably, although their players dancing the 'loser dance' while holding pretend 'spy-gate' binoculars, at Leeds' ground was top class....

Fulham? Charlton ?

Peter Crouch..........'great' being liberally dosed with salt

and how many red cards? ....different game these days, Killer would struggle to last a full 60 minutes most weeks [and not because he was tired]