There was a lot of talk about Mulgrew's goals and set pieces last year, but he had no assists to his name and we either won very few or none of the games he scored in. I believe our win % was a lot higher without him in the team, also, but I don't have those exact stats to hand.

What's the betting Wigan didn't get the paperwork through in time, and Mulgrew ends up staying here and we don't get Cunningham? Would just make this even more of a shambles...

I imagine the excuse will be that we will be potentially looking to sign Cunningham on a permanent if he does well, whilst Tosin will give us time to look for a permanent CB (or two) in either January or next summer. All bollocks of course as we had three months to get in CB's and only managed one loan which took so long he wasn't even in the squad for the first match of the season. In fact you could argue we had longer than three months as it was patently obvious way before the season ended that our defence was not up to scratch and we needed better central defenders. Mulgrew was dropped in March for goodness sake. We should have been on the lookout from that point onwards.

hah, definitely not. With Mulgrew gone Bennett is probably now our worst defender, although in his defence (no pun intended) he isn't a defender to begin with.

Been saying that for about two weeks lads. Seems like the court injunction is a convenient excuse to say "we were about to complete the transaction, honestly..."

Yes, which is why I put him at LB!

I don't think anyone would have predicted Mulgrew leaving tbf. Bell's performance on Saturday must have really terrified Tony if he felt he had no choice but to push Mulgrew out to get Cunningham in - if that is what has happened.

Cunningham is a great signing assuming he arrives, but letting Mulgrew go is a pretty big risk. I guess we're looking at Lenihan, Tosin, Nyambe and Williams as our 4 CB options. Better pray they all stay fit or we're thin on the ground to say the least. Nyambe - Lenihan - Tosin - Cunningham is an adequete defence and certainly better than Bennett - Lenihan - Mulgrew - Bell, at least, but I'm still not convinced Bennett is going to be dropped.

#versatility

Mulgrew is a liability who costs us points every time he's on the pitch, and the stats from last season overwhelmingly back that up, but it would be the most Mowbray thing ever to let him go with no replacement. Evans or Smallwood will probably end up at CB.

?

Either way it would be ridiculous to bring him in with Travis, Buckley, Evans, Smallwood, Johnson, Dack, Rothwell, Bennett and Downing all able to play either DMC or AMC. Would be a pointless and unnecessary transfer unless at least two of those were leaving.

Bell would probably get by in the SPL, but can you imagine him in the Champions League? I actually want this transfer to happen just so I can see this.

Technically as many as we like, but we can only name five in the matchday squad.

Could literally splice Mulgrew's name in there and it would be just as accurate! But of course those players never get named. Only the youngsters.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17727308.mowbray-on-the-likelihood-of-loan-signings-at-rovers/ TM didn't seem particularly keen on bringing in first team loans back in June, but if we brought in a CB and LB on loan we'd potentially be looking at 3 of our back 4 as loan deals... obviously not good for long term progression but would give TM some breathing room for a few months at least.

No sign of Tony's coaching having improved any of our players in over two years, and certainly not the defence, so not sure why he thinks that would reassure anybody.

It's an infantile comment from the manager and imo shows how little he respects the supporters. "How dare you be mad at me for not delivering on a promise I made!" - desperate and ridiculous.

You are the one that said "defenders are coming" Tony, so you can't now sit there and cry that people are being unfair and/or mean to you. You made a rod for your own back and should be mature and experienced enough to accept that you deserve criticism for making a public statement and failing to back it up.

True, but if the LT was following the club's lead you would expect their statements to be in harmony. Instead you've got Sharpe saying "nothing happening" and Mowbray saying "irons in the fire, trying to improve the team, potentially hectic afternoon". Either the LT is totally out of the loop or TM is lying. Either is possible. Actually both are possible. We'll know soon enough.

Interesting as that is the total opposite of what Sharpe has been saying. Only a few hours ago he reported that there wasn't likely to be any business done today. So much for the LT being the club's spokespeople! Seems they're as much in the dark as anyone else.

And until Smallwood got suspended the plan was to loan him out, so that was more good fortune than good judgement.

Yeah, but unlike us Spurs don't need an entirely new defence.

Was just about to write the same thing. Definitely possible that TM has one eye on the future, under the impression that Dack and Graham will be gone by the time next season begins. Dangerous to look that far ahead when there is still plenty to do in the present, though. Don't look so far forward that you trip over what's right in front of you.

I wasn't particularly excited about Hanley when he was initially linked, but right now it'd be like signing Virgil Van Dijk.