How long would you say you need to play before it starts getting a grip on you? I'm a few hours in and not majorly excited to jump back in, but I'll keep going if it eventually gets good.

Just a feeling I've got. I will say that of the games against the top three we've played this season the Blades were by far the most impressive.

Norwich and Leeds for me. I think Sheff Utd will ultimately run out of steam and have to endure the playoff lottery.

I can't help but get deja vu when I read what people write about Mowbray. It really is GB all over again, right down to the tactical naivety and strong relationship with the owners. Dack is Mowbray's Cairney and Brereton is his Rhodes ( whoops).

In comparison to the teams around us our major deficiencies (imo) are LB, RB and CF. Two of those are first team issues (none of our full backs are great, although Nyambe is getting better) whilst CF is squad depth as we have nobody decent to cover Graham. I think we're fairly well stocked in other areas, enough to support a playoff push at least.

And yet both Tony and a good portion of our fans seem happy with not spending available money in the window. Hmm. We didn't strengthen a great deal in the summer either, so when exactly do we plan to add some actual quality to this squad? Can't help but look at the Championship right now and think a couple of decent signings might have us in those playoff places rather than being constant nearly-rans due to lack of squad depth.

An utter embarrassment. Shameful. How do you go from a five game winning streak to that?

Third time we've conceded four this season, isn't it? Bristol City, Preston and now Brentford. No team with that kind of record realistically gets promoted. Usually they're at the other end of the table.

Good transfer window though lads. Obviously no need for reinforcements here.

Is this not what happens every time we get near the playoffs? Same old story.

Normal service resumed then.

That's not a bad start is it?

Now I'm worried

I would guess closer to £35k, but who knows what Shebby ended up offering him. If there were goal bonuses in his contract then overall he was probably earning a very nice annual wage for a Championship player.

According to this we at least matched the 45k p/w he was getting at United: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/blackburn-rovers/3019509/Blackburn-sign-Cole-for-8m.html Can't imagine Cole would have taken a pay cut to come here, anyway. £45k doesn't seem like much nowadays in footballing terms, but back then that was a lot of money!

Agreed with both, it's just interesting looking back. At the time I think most of us would have been pretty excited at reuniting the Cole/Yorke partnership, when both were still only in their early 30's. Unfortunately other than a few bright moments (like that Spurs match) it seemed to bring out the worst in both of them and by 2004 both were totally frozen out.

I think we're one of the most unpredictable teams in the division. On our day we're good enough to beat anybody, but on the flip side when we don't turn up we really seem to struggle. There's also the issue of conceding late goals which seems to have subsided a bit lately but still lurks in the back of my mind. My guess is that by the end of that set of fixtures we'll be in roughly the same position we are now, maybe a little lower, with the gap to sixth having increased slightly. Similar to the season under GB where we ended up finishing 9th.

So many of those games are typical "bannana skin" matches that it wouldn't surprise me if we got a pretty average points haul. It'll be interesting to see how we approach Bristol, Preston and Wigan at home, as all three embarrassed us at their grounds. Still can't believe we let Wigan beat us like that. Really poor considering their form ever since. Worth noting that of the teams in that fixture list we've only beaten Brentford this season so far. We got draws against Reading, Boro, Birmingham and Rotherham (at home!) whilst as aforementioned we got smashed by Bristol City, Preston and Wigan. I don't think we should be going into that set of fixtures expecting too much.

Cole was certainly up for Yorke coming to join him here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/b/blackburn_rovers/1966835.stm At the time bringing in Yorke was considered a bit of a bargain: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2002/jul/26/newsstory.blackburn Interesting that Fergie actually wanted to shift Yorke before Cole, but was "forced" by the United board to sell Cole instead: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/blackburn-rovers/3019509/Blackburn-sign-Cole-for-8m.html Tottenham 0-4 Blackburn Rovers - Yorke and Cole send Rovers into Europe: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/yorke-and-cole-send-blackburn-into-europe-590420.html Good times.

And yet they let him go for £7m, which is a fairly low amount for a young English striker with so much supposed potential - and some of that may not even be guaranteed to them, if it's in instalments or based on certain achievements. Something doesn't quite add up there for me. It's not like Forest are strapped for cash and desperately needed the extra money. That said it's still a lot to spend on a player who can't have an immediate impact. I think that's the only real point that is being made by people disappointed in Brereton's signing. Even if you only spent £2-3m on a player, at this level you expect them to come in and at least have some kind of impact. Cairney and Evans both cost less than £1m. Dack was £750k. Graham and Bennett either free or nominal fees. Mulgrew was free. AA was £1.75m. Brereton's contribution hasn't been anywhere near good enough considering the fee we paid/will pay for him - although I put the blame on whoever signed him for that, not the player himself. I would say that if Graham gets injured maybe it would force Brereton to start matches and he'd acclimitise that way, but Mowbray has already made it clear in previous matches that he'd rather put an attacking midfielder into that CF role before putting Brereton there - despite his reportedly legendary finishing in training. Again, something doesn't quite add up there but no journalist seems willing to ask the question. I'm still of the mind that this season might be our best crack at slipping into the top six. A combination of a settled team, momentum from L1 promotion, our quality players still going strong and mostly staying injury/suspension free (Dack, Graham, Mulgrew), not to mention the emergence of Travis and having an excellent versatile player on loan in Reed. How much of that will be true next season? The momentum from promotion will obviously be gone. Graham and Mulgrew will be a year older. Dack will likely have some significant interest from various clubs. Reed wants to establish himself at Southampton so that one is very much up in the air as far as a permanent signing is concerned. I don't know. I can see this being similar to Bowyer's tenure, where we slowly start regressing after a promising start, ending with us drifting in mid to lower-mid table for a while. If Coyle hadn't been appointed I don't think we would have even been relegated in 16/17, and would have continued on the trajectory of Championship non-entities. Maybe that is our ceiling under the current owners, and if so then we'd just have to hope for a miracle Blackpool style season where it all suddenly clicks and we sneak ourselves into the PL. Not something that happens too often these days though!

Unfortunately such logic is generally beyond our esteemed owners. When big money appears it tends to come out of nowhere being spent on a player that's completely out of left field. We needed a back up striker for Graham at the very least in this window. Even if it wasn't big money. Nuttall has had a few good games but overall limited ability, Brereton is clearly not ready and Tony doesn't even seem to see him as a striker, Dack's impact is quite obviously blunted when playing CF. Despite scoring a few goals recently Mowbray seems to see AA as a left winger/inside forward. Very disappointing to have not strengthened in this area. Samuel will be back soon but he really isn't that good either, and he's still going to need time to get back to match fitness. I doubt we'll see much of him this season at all. Otherwise I think we're OK to finish mid-table this season. A top six push was feasible but only with a couple of ambitious additions to the squad, which we seem unwilling to do at the present time. I'd say with the current squad (and barring a serious injury to Graham or Dack) we're good for a finish between 8th - 15th. We've been on a good run as of late but I think it's unrealistic to expect this team to finish top six.

We signed a fair few decent players under Bowyer's tenure, so there must have been some competent scouting in place during that period? Now granted we also ended up with the likes of Koita, Browny, Varny and Delfouneso, but that was towards the end when the tap was turned off. During the time we did have a bit of cash we made some very astute signings - Conway, Duffy, Evans, Cairney, etc.... there must have been something in place? I'd also put into question whether we've 'got it right' regarding our domestic scouting, considering our best players (Dack excluded) were generally signed by other managers. Our most expensive signing since Rhodes meanwhile has been a total flop thus far.

I have no doubt that Mowbray is trying to build for the future and good on him. However, the fact remains that the owners could pull the rug out from under him and all of us at a moment's notice. I'll always feel that we're one step away from disaster with Venky's at the helm, irrespective of the manager. If Mowbray is still here in five years time and noticeable progress has been made across the club then maybe it'll be time to reconsider. In the meantime the 8+ years of mostly misery under Venky's remains at the forefront of my thoughts in relation to all things Rovers - as sad as that is!

It's hard for me to feel confident or positive about the long term with Venky's in charge. I don't think I'll ever be able to trust them. We heard it all before regarding taking small steps and stablising the club - stability was the mind-numbing mantra of the Bowyer era. Ultimately, it ended with all of our best players being sold, the manager unceremoniously dumped, a donut-loving chimp in the dugout and playing in League 1 for the first time in decades. Success is built on long-term strategy, but the only thing Venky's have ever secured for the club long-term is failure and disappointment. Until that trend reverses (and mid-table in the Championship for a single season isn't enough) I'll always be in a state of mind of "the time is now". With this lot in charge I dare not think any further ahead.

Personally at this point in the season I'd prefer to bring in the best possible quality of player to push us towards being realistic top six contenders, rather than signing a player with the thought of them one day becoming great. Things change in this league very quickly. Millwall were sniffing around the playoffs last year, but this year it's been a relegation battle. Ideally we want to keep the momentum of the last month going strong and bringing in top players, even if only on loan for a few months, would be more likely to help us achieve that goal than bringing in prospects who may take time to get up to speed. For the record long term planning should always be at the top of the agenda, but those kinds of signings usually happen in the summer rather than the winter.