True, although I think we'll potentially be looking at a more competitive Championship this time around. Last season two of the relegation spots were practically filled in December, and there were some incredibly poor teams down there in Rotherham, Millwall, Reading, etc. It's possible it will be similar this season with a few teams already in dissarray - Hull and Birmingham for example - but the other positive we had last season was momentum from our League 1 campaign, which carried us to some excellent early season results. This season could be very different looking at our first few fixtures. Do I think the current team and manager have the stomach for a fight if we do find ourselves scrapping at the bottom early doors? Not sure about that. I don't think we have any real leaders which is a major concern for me. A no-nonsense defender who can crack some skulls together when things aren't going well is what we desperately need. Either that or a proper DM to replace Evans/Smallwood.

Still strange to me that our first major signing, with a fee included, is going to be for a striker when we already have Graham, Brereton, Armstrong, Samuel and Nuttall who can play in that position. Granted of that lot I'd only trust Graham to be any good regularly, and Tony probably sees all except Graham as wingers anyway, but still. I'd be much happier if we were talking about getting a goalkeeper or defender. Instead our first two signings are going to be attacking players, even though our problem last season was not scoring goals, but rather leaking them at the other end.

I don't disagree with much of what you say, I've said before I think Dack's inconsistency is more down to Tony's tactics and team selection than the player himself. If we improve on both next season there's no reason Dack can't be effective throughout, but even with periods of inconsistency this season he hit very respectable figures in goals and assists. We really would be half the team without him. Once players get to Graham's age the decline can come fast. Look at Mulgrew, there weren't really any warning signs there, he just seemed to suddenly become much worse over the space of a few weeks. Entirely possible DG will have another solid season in 19/20 and I hope he does, but we really need to be looking beyond him if we want to push forward. We can definitely do better than Raya, but to be blunt we have been shit at bringing in goalkeepers since Robbo left. I'm pretty worried about this position if Raya goes. IMO Travis had a mixed season, some good and some bad, although he wasn't helped by being partnered by either Evans or Smallwood most of the time. I think he would have looked much more impressive if he'd been beside Reed more often, but I guess we'll never know. As of yet no signs of reinforcements in this area so unfortunately it looks like it'll be Evans beside him again. Sigh. Rothwell had some excellent games towards the end of the season, but I'm not convinced that Tony will keep starting him. He only did so at the end of the season because he had nothing to lose. I can see the manager reverting to type, being overcautious and leaving Rothwell out again - at which point you wouldn't begrudge him looking for a move elsewhere. I hope he is a regular next season though as he has shown he can be the difference in the same way Dack often is. Not pinning any hopes on Davenport or Chapman. The former because he'll have to "earn his spot" and will be lucky to make the bench imo, and the latter because his injury record suggests he won't be able to contribute regularly. Also question marks over whether Mowbray will start him - he wasn't willing to do so in L1 so will he do so in the Championship? Defensive reinforces are an absolute must if we are realistically going to progress rather than regress. If we start in August with Nyambe/Bennett - Lenihan - Mulgrew/Williams - Bell then I foresee another season of goals being conceded on a regular basis.

I am assuming Downing is being brought in for a more central role. It seriously wouldn't surprise me if Gallagher came in to play on the wing with Brereton as his backup, despite neither actually being wide players.

Gallagher might end up on the wing as well tbf.

I'm not so sure to be honest. We went through long periods of relegation form last year and one of our best players in Reed is yet to be replaced, whilst we may soon be selling our No1 keeper. Graham is another year older, Mulgrew looks finished, Lenihan is injury prone and Dack's form is inconsistent. We will need the likes of Travis, Brereton, Nyambe, Bell, Chapman and Rothwell to step up which is far from guaranteed. We can't even be sure how many games Chapman can realistically manage before breaking down. Granted this is a bit of a pessimistic perspective but I don't think we're anywhere close to being too good to go down.

We have a tough start to the season and we saw last season that we struggle to get out of ruts, so I fear if we start badly we could be looking at a very difficult season. If we get through that first month with a decent points haul then I think lower mid-table is most likely - assuming we have no significant squad improvements. Obviously if we make some great signings then that may change things.

So basically if you have black hair and a beard you stay, everyone else out.

If that's their plan they may want to have a rethink as we don't exactly have form for allowing young loan players to flourish. Hendrie, Byrne and Samuelsen barely got a look in during our relegation season. Harper and Payne didn't do a whole lot during our L1 campaign and Palmer was wasted last season and left after six months to go elsewhere.

What a dark day this was.

Stone Cold actually did an excellent job during his heel turn, but the fans at the time simply didn't want it. Buyrates and ratings tanked straight after WM17 and never really recovered. Biker Taker character was good, but he was booked far too strong, to the point where people got sick of him. He should have come back as Biker Taker for his match against Cena at WM, it would have been much better than the tired deadman gimmick. Invasion failed because there were no legitimate WCW stars in it, save for Booker T and DDP. both of whom were buried the moment they got to WWE. Booker recovered, DDP did not. Interesting fact: Vince was planning to transform WWF Raw to WCW Raw. with Smackdown being the WWF show. However he cancelled all of these plans after Booker T Vs Buff Bagwell on Raw totally flopped. Heyman being in charge of Raw should be awesome. Not sure about Bischoff. I think he's got some serious flaws as a creative mind, but I guess we'll see. My main concern is reading that they both report to Vince, who has the final say. If so then it's possible very little will change at all. You can tell Vince is getting desperate, and so he should be. Attendence for Raw this week barely above 3000 people, Smackdown less than that. Absolutely horrific numbers, and ratings are still at record low levels. Once the NFL returns in September we could see by far the worst Raw and Smackdown ratings in history. Add the new and exciting AEW into the mix in October and it's shaping up to be a very interesting few months.

To be fair almost every player is multi-position to Tony. If you're a striker or centre midfielder you better start getting used to playing on the wing, because that's likely where you're ending up.

Agreed, I've had enough of us signing crocks to last a lifetime. Recently we've been doing better in that regard so let's not go back to that!

I have no idea how it'll work out for Lampard at Chelsea. I thought he did alright at Derby considering it was his first ever managerial post, and he hadn't really been involved in coaching or anything like that beforehand. If he surrounds himself with knowledgable people it might work out. It'll be interesting regardless. I'd rather see Lampard given a shot than one of the usual suspects from the good old boys managerial merry-go-round.

Nobody would have been suggesting Payne last week, let alone in May. Just because he's free and has been here before doesn't mean we should sign him. It would be a total waste of a squad space and an unnecessary blockage for young players like Butterworth.

If they're calling it "Wednesday Night Dynamite" and it's airing on TNT then yeah, explosions are a must. Also some good music please. Raw and Smackdown have completely removed their intros nowadays so it would be another way to differenciate from the competition if they had an awesome intro package.

I assume Hanley is now the primary target to sort this out, although we conceded plenty of goals with him at the back too.

Hopefully it's a good show! Loving this... Obviously no chance of AEW using anything like this as WWE would sue them into oblivion, but this intro was so simple yet so great.

Hanley certainly would, but I fear Gallagher would end up on the wing as that seems to be the common theme with Mowbray and strikers.

My biggest concern so far is that we've seen very few links to new players. It's either players we've been linked to in the past, former Rovers players or cast offs from Tony's previous clubs. We supposedly have a scouting network, so hopefully we're just keeping things quiet. It's still somewhat early days but we're about to enter July with nothing obvious on the horizon in terms of player recruitment other than the possible return of Grant Hanley.

Personally I would already have rescinded the offer. He obviously has talent, but not enough to treat him like some kind of special case. If he'd rather be on holiday than with the squad preparing for the season then thanks and good luck elsewhere. He didn't have enough impact last season to warrant anything else.

I really hope they appoint Roy Keane. That would certainly make things interesting.

Yeah, and in League 1 he did it with Antonsson too. This strange obsession with turning strikers into wide midfielders needs to stop.

Last summer and the January transfer window weren't exactly great, so it's fair for people to be a little nervous at the moment imo. Last summer we signed Rothwell, Armstrong, Davenport and Rodwell. I'd only class Armstrong as a minor success at the moment. Rothwell only started to have influence when the season was dead and Mowbray had nothing to lose by playing him, Rodwell only appeared sporadically with mixed results, and Davenport didn't play at all. Palmer, Reed and Brereton came in as loans which looked good on paper but ultimately only Reed had any impact and he was almost always played out of position. Palmer obviously never fit into TM's plans so not really sure why we signed him in the first place, and I'm not even going to go into Brereton. January saw Chapman come in, Downing leave, and that was it. It's entirely possible that the likes of Rothwell, Brereton, Davenport and Chapman will come good this season and retrospectively make these windows seem a lot better, but we didn't sign anybody that immediately improved us - except Reed. Mowbray now has to prove he can sign players who can have an instant impact and come straight into the first team, as we've already done plenty of signings for the future. He also needs to avoid signing players and then proceeding to play them out of position, as he did with Armstrong (striker shoehorned into a winger/wide mid), Brereton (striker shoehorned into a winger/wide mid), Palmer (attacking mid shoehorned into a winger/wide mid), Rothwell (attacking midfielder shoehorned into a winger/wide mid), Rodwell (midfielder shoehorned into centre back), and Reed (centre mid shoehorned into a winger/wide mid). Granted Rodwell can play CB (although not especially well) and Rothwell was used every so often in his proper position, but even so... sign players to play in their natural positions and stop trying to convert everybody into a wide midfielder/winger please, Tony.

If so then we aren't looking at a player who is destined for the odd cameo off the bench.