I can and many I’ve spoken to a few colleagues and friends who are now rather envious of the youth based model we are using. It will upset a few but I think we’ve turned a bit of a corner in general. Fingers crossed this continues! The manager (who I would’ve replaced in the summer) has given more debuts to youth players than any manager in our history… Serious question, IF Tony got us up AND kept us up could he be considered our greatest manager EVER? When you look in context at what he inherited in terms of players and culture and what his net spend has been…you’d be hard pushed not to give that consideration… I mean, if he got us up to the PL he’d have to make our top 3 best managers EVER, right? Would we end up telling our grandkids the story of woe and how Lemon drizzle Tony took us to the promise land!!? I’ll leave you with that one 😊

No, I think Tony clearly sees Joe as a full back / wing back as evidenced by him playing him mainly in those positions for the manager. The additional cover in those areas and a lack of reliance on Joe is them being worried about whether his body can stand up to the rigours of Championship. I think a lot of the signings made have taken the pressure away from the club having to rely on players like JRC and Dack until after they’ve done a full preseason. But I fully expect that JRC will challenge Zeefuik next season for the RWB role once Nyambe leaves. Could he cover in CM or as a wide forward? Yes. But he’s built his reputation in the position Mowbray plays him in. 👍🏼

Very good 👊🏼

A lot of ifs and buts there mate. We could’ve signed one or two and they then got injured like the unfortunate Markanday and we end up relying on the rest anyway… Having five or six if you include Giles, for the two wide forward positions and then two for the one (false 9) position is adequate. If / when all fit, we’re still going to be disappointing 5 of this group who won’t be starting the game. The two we let go are neither here nor there. Butterworth has been like playing with 10 players when he’s come on and Chapman is never trusted anyway. Outside of those top three positions we are adequately stocked in the defensive and wing back areas. I do worry about our ability to cope without Travis and Rothwell because I don’t rate Johnson or Davenport. I’m hoping Edun and Garrett can step up there. Overall, we’ll be hoping and praying we can keep our first 11 on the pitch as much as possible. But we have kept the side that’s got us to 2nd in tact and added depth and quality with 5 signings. One last thing - I’m REALLY looking forwards to see which of our young guns step forward in the second half of the season…will it be Garrett who comes in for a suspended Travis and blows us all away? Will it be Adam Wharton who breaks through and leads us to think ‘Joe who?’ Does Ash Phillips get thrust in and end up playing the last 5 games with MOTM performances to propel us to the Premier League?! Its all possible pal - If we only believe!! 😊🔥

Argh come on mate, no way have we finished it weaker. Keeping JR and signing Giles (🤞🏽) whilst letting those three go out. Not one of em good enough…. BBD, Khadra, Hedges and Giles in our squad vs Swansea 👍🏼

Great point and a welcome reminder that they’ll soon be available 👍🏼

Absolutely….Buckley and Dack to rotate in the false 9 role. BBD, Khadra, Gally, Hedges and Dolan in the wide forwards role. Giles provides cover for Pickering and Edun covers CM.

I’m as disappointed as most but… If you’d have offered me Brown, Zeefuik, Markanday, Hedges and Giles with no major sales on January 1st I’d prob have taken it.

It’s always someone else’s fault. Ridiculous mentality I agree….the people who are threatening Rothwells wife and children need to take a good look at themselves, first and foremost.

Argh come off it mate….Mowbray has played this in the best way he could. He also specifically put JR’s absence on himself and asked that JR not be blamed. I think this more likely plays into our hands…”we would never do this to you Joe”

Piece of cake. If he’s here tmrw they sit him in front of the lads, he’ll tell them he’s going to give everything he’s got to fuck Bournemouth up and they’ll lap it up….most hard faced industry in the world is football! Rothwell cannot come back and toss it off because he’s a money hungry 27yr old trying to feather his nest! A terrible second half of the season will knock zeros off his summer pay day! I still think a move for JR will go through…we just need to pull the trigger on our deals now.

Careful what you wish for Joe!! Must feel absolutely shit now…. The best thing we can do now is do the business we’ve got lined up as if he is going…take control of the situation. I have a feeling they’ll try again at the end of the day. Venkys need to flex their muscle and run over any dodgy plan Afcb have to destabilise us! If I were SW now if be on the phone to Madame asking for £10m to blow these fuckers out!

Bang on. 👍🏼

You’d think so…but then we had Maja in on deadline day in the summer and no one knew… I feel like we might get let down too but I can’t work out if it’s intuition or PTSD from the last decade. 😩🤣🤣

I don’t think it was Maja…gonna be a struggle to get someone in from abroad now though surely??

One more than you’ve got right then eh Jimbo!!? 👍🏼🤣🤣 Based on what Mowbray said I’d want a striker, 2 x midfielders (with Davenport leaving) and wing back cover on top of the Hedges deal - either way there’s a LOT of work to be done mate 🤞🏽

I think Giles is the ‘versatile’ one Mowbray mentioned, pre the Rothwell news breaking. He can play LWB or Further forwards 👍🏼

I really want to believe Mowbray….I’m accepting that JR has gone down to Bournemouth - Hopefully it’s in anticipation of a move DEPENDANT on the ones we do. Ill be furious if tmrw ticks by at 11pm and we’re chatting shit about all the ones we’ve missed 🙈

He only travelled to Lancashire on Friday. Was probably done yesterday but unlikely to announce on the day of a match… My bet on why it’s come in today is to get it done and dusted because tmrw is going to be BUSY!

5 min warning for Hedges…

I’ve listened to the clip a few times and I think he’s being very specific about the two he wants.

The clubs stance on Rothwell makes it win win for me. If we can’t get the two top midfielders in who Mowbray wants then Rothwell stays and gives 100%. There’s no scenario where Rothwell stays and tosses it off because he’d basically be taking cash out of his own pocket. A poor end to the season into the summer would change everything for Joe. My advice, sit back and let’s see what we can do between now and tmrw at 11pm. Im actually more concerned about getting a forward in along with Hedges and some midfield cover for the ones we’ve got, whether Rothwell goes or not!

It’s not overly hard to work out guys. There’s no value in us allowing players to run down contracts. There’s no evidence of us doing this either….we’ve offered new contracts to every player we’ve wanted to keep. Some sign them, others don’t but the decision really is the players to make. If they’re looking around the market and their form and thinking ‘this is the best deal I can get’ then they sign…if THEY believe they can get more then they hold out. The Sam Gallagher contract renewal is a great example. The club see the potential for him to kick on and want to protect their investment and position so they offer the extension….Sam, having shown some promise (6 goals in 13 starts) but not set the world alight signs the contract because he knows he won’t get any better. If he subsequently fires for the next 18 months and has PL interest then it strengthens his position and suddenly he sees the money and his name up in lights…so he refuses to sign another extension! The only way we win is to get in front of the contracts we have with a view to renew or be sold at 24 months before end of contract.

Buckley and Travis will eventually be that axis anyway imo. If we bought Styles and Dembele we’d be flying. Dembele and Dack fight out the false 9 and Bucko, Trav and Styles fight it out for two spots.

It dies if they’re doubling his wages!