They'll just play it without fans. They'll stop at nothing to help Bolton out and get their games in so the fans will be the ones who miss out.

Well it is as easy as that. Mowbray knows he's in trouble with the fans and this 'fighting talk' is to cover his and our pitiful transfer window. I've zero faith in him delivering the goods today and he will be judged accordingly on results moving forward. Wont be long before the January window is being referred to as our salvation until it actually arrives and nothing happens. No other club hit February with no fit CBs at the club. Most other clubs have signed defenders this summer. You would think that experience alone, along with getting shut of Magloire, Wharton, Rodwell and Downing, would see priority given to that area.

We should know how this all works by now. Mowbray knows he is in for some almighty grief if nothing changes so we'll be scrabbling around for someone to come in and 'help' the existing players. Otherwise known as a short term loan on the cheap who can sit on the bench. Mowbray will likely come out tomorrow or on Saturday and say we tried our best to add but just ran out of time and that we weren't looking for big signings but it would have been nice to get some 'help' in. As I've said before I can no longer take what Mowbray says seriously as what he says and what actually happens are usually very different.

Sunderland moving for Martin Olsson. So much for his wages being a problem. We're just not interested.

Assuming we don't sign anyone decent, which looks likely, then the only thing that will save Mowbray is if he and his coaching staff manage to forge a better defence out of a weaker selection of players than we had last season who conceded 69 goals. Hopefully once Venus has finished negotiating transfers he can get to work on the training ground. The defence was our downfall last season and could have seen us in a relegation scrap had we not stopped the rot at a crucial time. We've weakened the personnel so the only way of saving it is by some fine coaching that will organise them into greater the sum of their parts. Talk of Hart and Grayson is frankly laughable and desperation stage stuff. Mowbray has undermined a huge amount of trust and belief the fans had in him and now even his biggest fans will be short on patience unless something unexpected happens. A shame but it seems we are now in the death throes of his tenure. Unless he pulls rabbits out of the hat or works wonders on the training ground with these players then it's only a matter of time. Could have been so different too. Seems Mowbray has succumbed to the same problem that's plagued him his entire career. Stubbornness and neglect of defence.

Marc Wilson being linked to Luton. Its now at the stage I'd take him on a season long deal to provide experienced cover.

The reliable Pete O'Rourke saying Magloire to Rochdale for the season. Sharp piggybacking on saying it doesn't mean any arrivals. Utter madness after what happened in February. Now lost Rodwell and Magloire as CB cover as well as Downing and Wharton.

All probably true. But if so Mowbray shouldn't be making bold promises about things he cant deliver and should be honest about the situation. He's said even recently that the Raya money is still there and that he's in control of recruitment.

Hart is nowhere near good enough. A decent run at a poor League One club doesn't change that. I've lost count of the number of players who played for the u23s who have failed to progress at senior level. Lewis Hardcastle now at non League Barrow and Willem Tomlinson at 4th tier Mansfield.

More strange figures from Waggott. We're now up to more than 500k spent on the pitches whereas a few months ago it was 300k. He seems to think things like relaying pitches and making improvements to the training ground are unique to us and that we are ahead of the competition in doing it. Every club does it on an ongoing basis. Starting to think Waggott just tells people what they want to hear.

They've only opened the bottom tiers so won't be many there. Probably get a decent following from Coventry though. Wonder how many players they will be allowed to sign after the deadline.

Clearly a big difference between having favourable links to well connected agents who can help bring in quality like at Wolves and Leeds and then handing over the running of the club to crooks to do as they please with it.

I think we'd need international scouting to unearth someone who hasn't either played for Mowbray before or recently come up against us in a match. We've just splurged £12 million on two strikers unlikely to have much impact as they'll be spending most of their time out wide. I'd have paid £7 million for Joao, made him first choice CF and then invested the remaining £5 million on other areas. Agencies haven't done Wolves, Leeds or Forest too much harm. It's one way to quickly recruit players to the standard needed to push on rather than sitting around going nowhere because we can't get deals done.

By the sounds of things similar to what we paid for Gallagher.

Reading have been busy. Lucas Joao on a 4 year deal, a Brazilian international goalkeeper and a midfielder on loan from Monaco. Guess their new manager didn't need 3 years to set up some international scouting.

If it takes as long to appoint him as it has our new u23 manager we'll be lucky if it takes effect by next summer.

Ah good old Rich

As an anti-loan man I've reached the stage where I'd be quite pleased with Cunningham on loan for the season. Expectations have plummeted to the stage where any competent defensive additions would be welcomed.

Move quickly and get the deal done? Not likely here. Why would Cardiff do us or anyone else a favour by loaning him out on the cheap?

I'm convinced that Mowbray sees our CB options as being Mulgrew, Lenihan, Williams, Nyambe and this City lad and thinks he has enough there. Ignoring of course that three of them aren't really CBs and three are injury prone.

Fair enough to let Magloire out to get games IF there's a CB coming in but if not then I give up. After what happened in January/February with letting defenders out and ending up with injuries and having to call upon Magloire in the league we will have even less depth should either Mulgrew or Lenihan get injured. Playing a dangerous game here.

Rovers have made reference to FFP rules on a consistent basis over the last 2-3 years, eager to point out to fans that they are restricted as to what they can do under FFP constraints and suggesting that they'd like to do more but can't. I've just pointed out that Derby have found more than one way around the rules to enable them to continue to recruit well, invest heavily and compete for promotion without any suggestion of a punishment. It all boils down to how much you want something. Derby really want promotion and have kept going and investing to get there, riding roughshod over the FFP rules and treating them as something to be overcome in their pursuit of promotion. Wolves, Leicester, Bournemouth, Brighton and Villa all did the same. As I've pointed out, we could spend more if we were determined to do it, but it appears to me to be a convenient excuse with little to no effort made to get around it. We fell foul of the previous incarnation of the rules, when restrictions were tighter and we were still carrying an obscene wage bill following the Shebby SIngh madness. We are led to believe that the club has sorted that out now so we should be comfortably inside it otherwise the planning has gone wrong somewhere. You seem to consider Venkys to be some sort of uniquely benevolent people doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and there's nothing similar elsewhere in this league. Without Morris Derby would be bust, same goes for Forest, Wednesday, Hull, Middlesbrough, Bristol City, Preston, Wigan, QPR, Fulham - all heavily dependent on external owners who 'could' pull the plug any day and they'd be knackered. We aren't any different. Like it or not that's the nature of the Championship these days. Any one of those clubs 'could' go the way of Bolton on the whim of their owners, we're at no particular greater risk just because Bolton is nearer to us geographically or we know Bolton fans. A benefactor model of ownership dominates the Championship and that comes with its risks. I'd actually suspect the risk to be lower here with Venkys and their 4-way agreement only system where if any 1 of them doesn't agree then it doesn't happen - rather than entirely in the hands of one person We could just as easily thrive after Venkys. It's impossible to know the answer at this stage. In the end whether they're pumping in £1 million a year or £10 million a year if they aren't running the club properly and aren't doing their best by it then I want them gone and replaced by someone who will. They've had ample time to sort it out and despite flushing £170 million away we're still making up the numbers in the 2nd division precisely because they won't take it seriously enough. I'd also point out that floating around the bottom half of this league or League One for the next 5-10 years is going to see another £100 million of debt appear. We don't have time on our side if Venkys have notions of stopping funding. There seems to be an attitude that what we've been doing the last 2 years is sustainable or sensible. We've still lost bucket loads of money and there's an argument that spending a bit more is a risk worth taking if it gets us up.

Derby being very clever from what I can see. 'Excluded items' from FFP calculations: 5.2.4 - 'costs of employee benefits for employees only partly involved in Youth Development Activities (for example, a coach having part-time involvement in Youth Development Activities and otherwise working for the Championship club)' Presumably therefore Rooney wont fall under FFp calculations. Keep on moaning Rovers. I actually respect Derby for taking the rules to pieces in full public view - 'selling' their ground and getting Rooney as a 'coach'.

I sense Chaddy is starting to turn with a few doubts coming to the surface

But we didn't get it done. Fortunately for us we could carry it over into the loan window with a deal agreed for January so it made little difference. Don't think that option is there this time around. Its Thursday or January. No middle ground.