Fortunately we haven't seen that level of incompetence since we sold Samba outside of the transfer window in 2012 (unless I'm forgetting someone in between).

I sincerely hope you're right. Fingers crossed we start the season with Armstrong, Chapman and a few other players of genuine quality to really give this squad competition for places and a bit of much needed depth.

Agreed. I'd be happy to have Armstrong and Chapman here as I think the pair of them would bolster the squad nicely, but I'm not sure there needs to be any suggestion we're aiming higher. Obviously if we are then that's great, but there's just no need to say it publicly. We just need to do as we usually do under Mowbray and get our business done under the radar. Should we make a couple of even better signings then that's fantastic, if we do end up with Armstrong and Chapman then most of us would be perfectly happy with that. The only frustration would be if we ended up with nobody, or more loaned youngsters as in the 16/17 season who either aren't able or aren't willing to contribute enough. As it stands I trust Mowbray to ultimately get it right. I'll be anxious until the end of the window, though, as the owners have screwed us and other managers over so many times in the recent past.

The problem is that if Mowbray was referring to Chapman and Armstrong as "D" signings, then it's going to make it a bit underwhelming if we do end up signing them as the thought will now be that we could have gotten better but for whatever reason didn't. It might also make it harder to sign either Chapman or Armstrong if they don't think Mowbray rates them and know they'd be coming in as "last resort" signings. Not sure it's necessary to put stuff like this out in public, unless Mowbray is very confident we will get better.

As far as free transfers go they aren't bad, but I imagine Bolton will be fighting at the wrong end of the division this year no matter what - even with the midfield dynamo that is Jason Lowe marshaling the midfield.

Free transfers are generally free for a reason, especially if they're 30 or under, so chances are only a couple of Bolton's signings are likely to make much of an impact.

Mulgrew got caught out more than once last season defensively, so not baseless at all. If Mulgrew and Lenihan can strike up a good partnership then they should be able to make up for each other's weaknesses, but if one of them suffers a long term injury I would fear for us. Downing isn't Championship quality imo.

In my view the decisions taken then have a massive impact on our current position, so I completely disagree and would say the bitterness and anger is wholly justified.

Pretty much spot on. Considering how shallow our squad is I think injuries will end up having a huge say in where we finish. I also can't help but think that if Graham struggles for form or fitness we are going to be in trouble. Mowbray must surely be concerned by our lack of forward options?

He's not negative, he's just realistic. I'm of the same mindset and agree with JH on the vast majority of things. There's a bit of remaining giddiness on here due to our promotion from an absolutely dire league last season, and that's fine, but it shouldn't cloud the fact we still have a lot of work to do to make this squad competitive for a 46 game season plus cup competitions. We have no strength in depth and two of our most important players are old and injury prone. Meanwhile we seem only capable of signing loans or players for less than £1m. If that doesn't give cause for concern I'm not sure what will.

It might just be me but I look at that team and see a lot of weaknesses. I'm not too concerned by Raya in goal, but god help us if he gets injured. Nyambe did OK last season in League 1 but still a lot to prove at this level. I've never particularly rated Williams and think he'll be a weak link much like he was in our last Championship campaign. Happy enough with Lenihan and Mulgrew as a DC pairing but an injury to Mulgrew would leave us in trouble. Smallwood had a half decent and half poor season last year, and obviously was a part of Rotherham's relegated side the season before, so it remains to be seen whether he has what it takes. Evans only shows up for a handful of games a season so I'm not happy with him as a starter. Don't rate Samuel at all and will be disappointed if he's starting. Dack and Palmer obviously very good players. I think Dack will be able to make the step up. Graham meanwhile will only be able to play 70 mins max and we have no replacement of any quality for him. Honestly if that's the team we have for most of this season I'd consider staying in the division a decent achievement.

The main issue with loan signings is that they usually have one eye elsewhere, especially if the going starts to get tough. I like the Palmer signing but would certainly be more assured by a couple of decent permanents on sensible contracts.

As our debt is mostly owed to our idiot owners it will only really become a problem whenever they leave - assuming they don't choose to wipe it out. Until then it is, at this point, just an astronomical figure that we can't ever hope to pay off and will continue to get bigger. In fact, the ONLY way we could ever realistically hope to pay it off is by getting promoted into the Premier League. We'll never make a worthwhile profit in the Championship. As an aside, how utterly mismanaged were we to end up with such ridiculous debt? We've made a net profit most seasons as far as transfer fees are concerned, so it's not like we've spent big on transfers and that's how we've ended up in massive debt. It's just been horrendous mismanagement at numerous levels - particularly when it comes to contracts, which have typically been way too long in length and way too high in wage. Even recently you could argue that signing Caddis up for two years was a stupid, unnecessary decision which is costing us an extra year's worth of wages for a player who wasn't even useful last season in a lower division. But really it's the likes of Murphy, Etuhu, Orr and Best that have fucked us over. Terrible decisions and god only knows what we've been paying in wages and signing on/agent fees to end up over £100m in the red.

I've seen people use Cardiff and Fulham as examples of teams who haven't spent big but got promoted. Cardiff's net spend since the 14/15 season is £17m, Fulham £29m. I imagine in comparison Rovers have earned far more than we spent. We don't even seem to have a million to spend on a player these days. We're a long way from being seriously competitive in this league - our goal now appears to be surviving with as little outlay as possible. I don't see that ending well.

The last time we were in this league we were able to make a push for the playoffs buying players for less than £3m - usually far less. Times have certainly changed, and very quickly too. Spending big money in the Championship is high risk due to the lack of TV money relative to the PL. Obviously it all works out if you get there, but if not... Regardless, as long as there are enough owners willing to throw money into the black hole of English football we're going to find it increasingly difficult to compete. For better or worse Venky's aren't the type of owners willing to throw money at the club, so the only other way to compete in this league without much of a budget is to already have a solid base of decent players and a manager who can get the absolute best out of every signing. We'll see soon enough if Mowbray and our squad is up to the task.

I don't think anyone would disagree with that as a sensible plan, but I have serious doubts in the abilities of our owners to support such an undertaking even if that's broadly what Mowbray is aiming for. I'm sure they'll do something to screw it up in due course. 2-3 years without them doing something stupid and detrimental to the club seems like a long time. Here's to hoping though.

Yeah, I only excluded Dack because he hasn't had any major past fitness issues. Mulgrew and Graham on the other hand... That's my concern. We desperately need another decent striker. I know some are expecting Samuel to step up but realistically it isn't going to happen. Without strengthening we're a bottom end Championship team. It's possible we could avoid relegation due to there being teams worse than us, but is that a position we're happy for this club to be in? Venky's are already squandering last season's momentum and good will, as I knew they would, and if we don't start well Mowbray will get sucked into that negative spiral too. I'm honestly pretty concerned at the moment. Hard to believe we were challenging for the playoff spots only a few seasons ago. Seems like a lifetime away now.

The signs aren't hard to read, even for somebody like Nixon. We have apparently decided this squad is good enough - for what, I don't know. Scraping survival I assume. Injuries to Mulgrew or Graham will leave us in pretty deep shit though.

As far as I'm aware Villa still have to raise something like £30m in sales to avoid FFP sanctions. I don't think their new investors can do anything to change that. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-takeover-ffp-grealish-14935263 A decent summary of Villa's situation here. Keeping Bruce on is a smart move on their part, but I do wonder exactly what was going on with Henry. There was far too much smoke there for there not to be a fire.

Same here. Comes across as an utter buffoon - and it's a shame, as when it comes to football I think he has a solid handle on the game and how to build a half-decent team. You wouldn't think it from listening to him though.

Players we've signed on silly wages like Evans tend to be paid off as opposed to being sold, meaning we save little or no money. Technically they're off the wage budget but from a cashflow perspective nothing has changed - you'd be just as well off keeping the player and just increasing the wage budget.

I'd stick with Bruce too. As a pundit Henry basically came across as a French Alan Shearer, just stating the obvious repeatedly. Although there was also this moment: But who knows, it could work out for him. Or it could end up like Zola at Birmingham.

Everything I've read suggests we have a very small budget for Championship level. I said last season that, in spite of all of the rampant optimism, our natural position with the current owners in charge may be yo-yoing between the Championship and League 1. We've seen and heard nothing so far to suggest we're looking to do anything more than survive this season. If that is the case, you have to wonder what the point is in Venky's owning us. From their perspective we're a consistently loss-making entity with very little room for growth or evolution without significant investment, which they evidently aren't willing to provide. Why the hell won't they listen to offers?

Reports that Henry will be replacing Bruce at Villa. That should be interesting.

Caddis hasn't been fit for purpose since day one. An awful signing, and even more baffling that he was given a two year deal. If he wasn't willing to accept a one year deal I'm sure we could have found a traffic cone willing to accept cheaper terms and which would have done the same job, if not better.