I just can't see us cracking top 6 with a defence of Bennett - Lenihan - Mulgrew - Bell. Even swapping Nyambe for Bennett or the City lad for Mulgrew I just don't think it's strong enough.

I think Palmer is a decent Championship level player tbf, but he needs to be in a specific role - AMC - which we already had Dack in last season anyway. Palmer wasn't a loan we really needed, and we probably would have been better off loaning a proper wide player rather than trying to shoehorn Palmer into that position.

And the most important fact - we were bloody rubbish under him, and on our way to the Championship!

Next N. Ireland match is 05/09 I think, so we can expect a spell of fitness and a couple of good performances around that time.

I believe that was Oliver Holt. That was one of the worst pieces of "journalism" I've ever seen.

Defensively at home we were pretty good, but away from home we were literally the worst in the entire football league. It would suggest our defenders struggle to deal with pressure, particularly when teams are attacking us. You could make an argument that our tactics away are wrong, too, so it either requires an experienced head at the back to help manage games where we're under pressure, or a significant change in tactics to avoid inviting unnecessary pressure when we're on our travels.

It's a shame he plays CM as it's a position we're arguably already overstocked in. Evans, Johnson and Travis are likely to be ahead of him in the pecking order, and we currently still have Smallwood lurking around with Downing also able to play that position if needed. I'd be happy to get rid of Evans & Smallwood to allow players like Buckley a visible route to the first team, but at the moment it's unfortunately looking like both will be staying.

Worryingly suggests that, as I suspected, TM does not consider LB a priority and is happy with Bell/Williams in that position. I think this is going to be a very weak link for us in the coming season. It's possible that Bell will improve, and I hope he does, but Williams simply isn't good enough to play LB in a team that's genuinely aiming for the top six. He showed far more capability at CB in his brief appearances last season than he ever has at LB, imo.

I think it's fair for us as fans to judge the manager on what he says in public. We can talk about it being cryptic messages to the owners or attempts to lower prices for players we're after, or whatever else, but as few if any of us are privy to what is going on behind the scenes we can only really go by what the manager is saying in public. A manager who many have described as being trustworthy, salt of the earth, etc. The fact is Mowbray said both at the fans meeting towards the end of last season and in the oft-linked press conference that new defenders would be coming in and our current lot essentially hadn't met the standard for the division. We're now potentially looking at going into the season with a like-for-like GK and a youngster on loan from City who will probably not be a starter. As it stands I'd say we have a right to be concerned at what appears to be backtracking, as the manager is yet to come out and say anything about targets being missed, wages too high, etc. Unlikely he'll come out at the end of the window and admit that either, as it wouldn't exactly be good for the morale of the defenders we still have! So, inevitably TM will get some flak - on here at least - if we don't reinforce the defence. And that's surely understandable?

To me this summer will only be a breath of fresh air if we sign a good CB and LB. Otherwise it's just the same old story, spending all of our money on attacking players at the expense of the defence, with results that will likely be similar to the last nine years where we're decent up top but a disaster at the back.

I have a bad feeling Evans will be in the starting line up against Charlton, meaning one of Travis or Johnson will be on the bench.

In fairness I don't think we've ever really heard anything from Mowbray to suggest he has a problem with the full back positions. Williams was publicly dropped last season, but whether that was more of a motivational tactic rather than an admission that we need better players at LB I'm not sure. We mainly heard comments from Mowbray about defenders not heading the ball (CB position) and a lot of comments about Raya in goal. Hard to tell whether Mowbray thinks we really have a problem at full back or not. I still think he sees Bell/Williams as 1/2 at that position with Downing there as a back up option in that position if necessary.

I'd be worried if we were playing with wing backs as I don't think we have the personnel for it anyway, but I really think Downing would struggle to play the LWB role. It's really a position for a younger player with a lot of energy and stamina. You're up and down the flank pretty much constantly - and if you don't do that then you're either leaving the team exposed at the back or further forward, depending on which area of the pitch the player prefers to stay in. If Nyambe could cross a ball he'd be a great shout for RWB, same with Bell at LWB. Unfortunately neither are particularly good at this, but I'd rather focus coaching those two on crossing/inside passes than put players like Downing in that position.

Almost certain that it will be worse. Venky's tend to appoint cheap managers who are out of work. You could argue Lambert wasn't cheap, but look how that turned out. The best we could hope for would be Johnson getting promoted to the manager's seat, imo.

It's interesting how perspective works. I saw plenty of people saying Adam would be a great signing, class player, dem assist/goals in pre-season, etc... then when he's signed for Reading comments about how it's a good thing we didn't sign him, etc. There was also comments on the opposite end of the scale for both. Almost like everyone has their own opinion rather than BRFCS being an entity with a combined opinion on everything which is absolute. Granted that doesn't work well when making sweeping generalisations, so, whatever. Johnson is a decent signing assuming one of Evans or Smallwood leaves. If all three stay then we're suddenly overstocked in centre mid, although I doubt Smallwood is on very much so shouldn't have a huge impact on the budget. Downing we certainly don't need as a first teamer, and I hope he hasn't been signed on that basis, but as back up he's an upgrade on Conway at least. I'm quite worried he'll end up playing LWB, which I can only see being ineffective at best.

He already told us last season that he lets the players sort out their own problems as the dressing room is "their domain", so yes I suppose you're technically right.

I don't consider Walton an upgrade to Raya, but he isn't a downgrade either. Roughly the same, except he isn't ours, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Assume Tosin will be announced as well shortly. Hopefully there's at least one other CB to come in before the season starts.

Problem is the central CB needs to be able to put his head on the ball regularly, which Mowbray admitted last season none of our current defenders can or will do.

The brutal truth for Bolton is that almost any investor seriously looking at them is going to be dodgy to some degree. What smart businessman is going to look at Bolton, in their current state, and say "yeah, that looks like something I want to sink some cash into" ? There is no obvious upside to putting any money into Bolton, unless it involves something on the side which will almost certainly not benefit the football club.

According to TransferMarkt Adarabioyo played CB 21 times, RB 14 times and LB once. So a bit of a utility man. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/tosin-adarabioyo/leistungsdaten/spieler/258878/plus/0?saison=2018 Squad: 41, Starting eleven: 21, Substituted in: 8, On the bench: 12, Suspended: 0, Injured: 0 I think suggesting people are unhappy with Adarabioyo or Johnson is missing the point though. I haven't seen many people say they are unhappy with either signing in isolation, it's more that we haven't signed any defender who can be identified as a definite first teamer, and we've sold our first choice goalkeeper and look set to replace him with a Brighton loanee who doesn't appear to be significantly if any better than the player we just let go. I'm not convinced our first team is significantly stronger than it was last season as it stands. The squad overall, yes, I think the likes of Johnson, Adarabioyo, Downing and Gallagher do give us a stronger squad in general. Not sure it's going to mean much if our defence is still consistantly leaking goals though.

I'm not going to panic just yet, I'm really, really hoping that we are just keeping a couple of deals hidden and we will all be pleasantly surprised by the time the window shuts. If it closes and Walton & Tosin are our only defensive reinforcements I will be extremely disappointed though. My fear is that Mowbray sees Lenihan, Mulgrew, Williams, Nyambe and Tosin as five available CB options and that is more than enough. Meanwhile he sees Bell, Williams and Downing as adequete LB/LWB options and Bennett, Nyambe and Travis as adequete RB/RWB choices. Personally I don't think there is anywhere near enough quality there to realistically push for the top six. Yeah, but are we going to be starting him ahead of the regulars? That doesn't fit into how Mowbray traditionally operates. It could be months before the lad even gets a shot in the first team ahead of the established players, unless Lenihan or Mulgrew get injured.

Assumedly so, although Walton for Raya is essentially a like-for-like except we don't own the player, and the City lad will presumably be a bench option as I don't see him starting ahead of Bennett/Nyambe, Mulgrew or Lenihan. Still in desperate need of strengthening the back four and running out of time to do it. Think this might be our lot. Maybe one more player with an eye on retirement to fulfil the "experienced" CB criteria. Wouldn't rule out spending more money on a midfielder/striker we don't need either.

Have to assume Pedro means Waggott, etc, as it wouldn't make sense with Venky's as from the moment they took over horrendous amounts of money began funneling out of the club towards SEM and parties associated with them. There was obviously something badly wrong around the 15/16 period as we were suddenly having severe cash flow problems, which we didn't have even at the worst of times during the Jerome Anderson/SEM era (aside from the £10m Barclays loan incident, although even then there was never any missed payments for wages, emergency loans being taken out, etc). That all seems to have been cleaned up for the most part, and now we're essentially back to where we were before with budgets that change depending on the date, targets being missed for reasons unknown and the manager flying out to India on a semi-regular basis to discuss financial obligations even though that should really be solely down to Waggott and the appropriate board members. I think we're likely in a better place in terms of financial transperency than we were a few years ago, but the underlying problems with how the owners run the club remain and continue to hinder us. Appreciate that they're keeping the lights on, etc, but my concern is what happens if and when they finally decide they've had enough. The only person trying to build any kind of structure that benefits the club long-term is an employee who could be gone by Christmas.

Agreed, listening to Bassini he seems like he's not all there. He did an interview on SSN not too long ago and was barely able to form coherent sentences at times. It's all rather odd.

12 days until our first match of the season. No first team goalkeeper, no defensive reinforcements. The only signings on the horizon a loan goalie arguably no better than Raya and a City youngster on loan. And even those are dragging for unknown reasons. Worrying times.