Hmm...like I say, I think there’s a player in there. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they did replace him.

I understand to a certain extent. But they’ve probably played 100 games together. A couple more in preseason wouldn’t have changed much imo. Those two are done imo.

Minutes don’t matter. Bennett is a terrible RB and Mulgrew looks like his back legs are gone.

No way is justified to expect top 6 as a minimum. The top 6 is the aim. For me as long as we’re there or thereabouts then we are on track. But that defence from yesterday will never deliver that in a million years.

In all honesty, it is an absolute scandal if he doesn’t. Nyambe should be banging his door down this week.

Just watched the highlights back again. That fuckin defence is rancid. Including Lenihan! ?

No nearly means he’s nearly good enough and I think I could give him a bit longer.

I think Williams is a decent CB but Mulgrew is finished for me. Lenihan, Tosin, New, Williams and one of Grayson or Magloire would do me.

I think he lacks conviction. He nearly does all of those things well but mostly falls short. Bennett and Mulgrew are TRULY awful. Nyambe needs to ask for a move if he’s considered a lesser RB than Bennett.

Tbh if those performances by Mulgrew and Bennett don’t make him go out and sign a RB and CB then nothing will. They were horrible. I felt sorry for them. Mulgrew life oks like he needs putting out of his misery.

See now I still think there’s a player in Amari’i Bell

Nothing has changed. We need a CB and a RB before the window closes or Mowbray has signed his own death warrant.

My take - In the development of Travis and intro of Johnson we are now stronger in the middle. This will be proven by the omission of Evans who played most games last season. Raya has been replaced by Walton and at this point we cannot judge whether that is an improvement or not. The introduction of Gally, Johnson, Downing, Tosin and Walton can be judged on quality, impact and value over the season but there is no doubt that we have added championship experience to a team which had the second lowest average age and limited game management qualities before. The glaring problem to me is that we still need a defender or two before the window closes in just less than a week.

What is this drivel about picking his ‘own man’? It was Mowbray who gave Joe the chance, signed him in the summer of 2017 AND gave him an improved contract ffs! ???. I wish you could ask Joe what he thinks about Mowbray and Rovers. How TM saw his potential at a really bad time for Joe personally and how Jonty and the club used their resources to develop and build him up. Earning him a new contract and some financial security for him and his mum. Joe would tell you that he owes everything he’s getting to those people. Samuel was injured all last season!? So how on earth did he keep Nuttall out? Brereton struggled for form too so the only competition for Joe was DG. The fact of the matter is that he just isn’t good enough. If he were then there would be Championship clubs banging our door down at 6 figure fee for a goal scorer. There’s no hard feelings. It’s truly a win, win situation. Man management - The ability to motivate and inspire a group to meet a collective goal. Everyone does it differently but if he had poor man management skills then there would be unhappiness around the squad. Poor morale. Stories of arguments leaking out. All of the evidence points to the opposite. Tell me the last time you heard anything adverse about Mowbray. In the last 12 months we’ve signed Arma and Gally from PL teams who’ve taken wage drops to play for him. Dack and Rothwell have been on record as referring to him as a father figure. There’s so many more.

Oooosh! Really?

Max Clark would be exactly the type of LB signing we need. I wonder if they’re after another CB as well as Ada? If so then there’s potential for three more signings this week if you add a keeper.

Ageing and old school, yes. But out of touch, no. The club he walked into had no scouting network or proper infrastructure. He is the one who backed the funding of the cat A academy which managers often fight because it comes out of his budget. He instigated this and the European focus. But the work he’s done in cultivating Jonty and then integrating him into the first team is fantastic. Jonty brings a direct link to the young lads but more importantly, a focus on tech analysis and psychology which the club has never had. Regardless of whether TM stays as our manager or not, the positive effects of his tenure will be there to see.

Ah come on. Lenihan and Mulgrew are defenders. Both play in defence for their national teams. Downing was covering for Bell after Hart got injured vs Bury. The only odd one is Bennett who for me is a midfielder. The real point here is that Bennett and Mulgrew in defence are not good enough to take us to a top 6 finish. Bell improved towards the end of last season but question marks still hang over him. For what it’s worth I quite liked the look of Hart in preseason. Looks more aggressive and imposing than Bell.

Is that the deal offered? Or just your thoughts on this...

Nuttall isn’t worth persevering with. He was a pretty poor striker who has been coached well by Jonty and the first team to be a quality League 1 striker. His stock is up at the mo and with Graham, Gally, B.B. and Arma in those positions, the time has come to cash in imo.

Yup, be brilliant wouldn’t it. But look around you, nearly everyone is in the same boat. Waiting for the last week to do their business. Historically this has dragged on much longer (Aug 31st) so all fans should count their blessings as the jousting will soon be over. Clubs leave it to the end to see which one finally succumbs to pressure and takes a discount. Then it creates a domino effect. ‘We can now have this player for y so we might as well let our player go for x.’ They have cut the Summer transfer by three weeks to combat this problem and it’s frustrating for the fans. But ultimately it saves clubs millions to wait. The trick is to do the deal whilst they’re desperate but not too late when they cannot replace them and the fee goes up!

Maybe, but in that case then 90% of clubs have failed. Most of them are heading into the final week without the players they want. Missing out on targets is completely normal. The key is, at 5pm on August 8th, have we got the defence sorted? If we have then I genuinely believe that we have the options inmidfield and the forward line to achieve our stated goal. If not, then we have failed and the manager needs to face the music because that defence is not good enough. But no amount of worrying right now changes that.

It’s just common sense lads. The window closes on August 8th. To judge it before then is just odd. If we don’t get the defenders in then we’ve failed. End of.

Yes

Not only did he not deny it. It would appear that he’s confirmed Bormuth as one of the targets!