Cheers. Although surely Evans and Smallwood shouldn’t be featuring in these preparation games as much as they are. That can’t be a good sign as it means we are struggling to find buyers. Only Rochdale but good to see Brereton scoring, that will grow his confidence. Was he in a striker role or wide?

0-9-1 then.

No defenders or no keeper?

Another midfielder?

Moaning because you want better: negative. Accepting mediocrity and regression: positive. ??‍♂️

Everyone has their limits. If Mowbray signs Steele then that’s any hope gone.

When Mowbray signs decent players who can improve the first team, he gets credit. Sadly this doesn’t happen very often. Just as frustrating is when the same people put a positive spin on everything in some bid to be seen as a better supporter. “Trust Mowbray” (even when he goes back on his word).

This was the mindset under Bowyer “still only” kept the goalposts moving for weeks and months. Our squad is not ‘coming together’ our we have a huge surplus in midfield and attack, and we are still looking at Adam and Butterfield. I honestly can’t believe that we haven’t signed a goalkeeper this week. In other news, how poor is the LT Sport Editor these days? Gallagher photographed at Brockhall and not a peep from them. They can’t even catch fish in a barrel!

What other manager would put up with that? We are either lucky to have him or he is helping them to continue their abysmal tenure. 9 years.

Although I get the sentiment I don’t think the problem is dealing with them, it’s the calibre of players we are talking about. That lot got promoted while barely giving us a second thought. We need to stop being so obsessed and just be single-minded about promotion regardless of where players have played. Oh, and celebrate when they are relegated... and every time they lose of course. The concern is surely that Hart was the reason that they were scrambling around the relegation places - much to our delight. You could almost call it karma in response to our Schadenfreud if it wasn’t for the fact that our manager is carefully selecting our targets.

Let’s put ourselves in the mind of Mowbray... Lenihan and Williams did reasonably well at the end of the season when we were safe. Mulgrew. Pitches in with goals, legs have gone, may even leave. Nyambe. Apparently had a decent ANC, despite scoring and own goal (did anyone see it?). Bennett or Travis can cover at right back. Wharton. Has been on loan - might be able to earn his place. Could go either way. Magloire. Didn’t look dreadful after some early nerves. Back up from the bench. Smallwood. My mate could potentially do a job there if necessary - if we are desperate. Sorted. Ooh look, there’s a centre midfielder going cheap...

With one who the receipt is still wet! If Mowbray has bought these new players tonplay Unless Dack is being sold... For all the concern about the defence, all he has done is tinker with the midfield.

We need to hear fewer stories like this. It makes it really hard to have any faith in the Mowgster.

The irony is you are right. Only Mowbray could spend £12m on strikers and play them on the flanks. We are a team of misfits... Lenihan and Mulgrew: “converted” midfielders. Nyambe and Williams: full backs (potentially) at cb Armstrong: number 10 played out wide Brereton: striker out wide Rothwell, Reed: centre mid out wide Travis: converted rb (with some success tbf) Downing: to be confirmed Leutwiler: ? Bennett: who knows

Don’t.

This could be interesting...

I think that sums things up for me at the minute. We needed (still need) an upgrade on last season’s squad. Right now we have replaced two of the departures and brought in an understudy and have another understudy on trial. Lambert brought in Graham on loan and he brought with him much needed quality and experience. Coyle convinced him to sign up permanently. (Coyle!). Mowbray doesn’t seem able to bring in the same kind of quality - despite having money to spend than Lambert could have dreamed of - and we are now relying on Gallagher to grow into the role. Feels like there is going to be a sting in the tail of this window.

Anything else is just ignoring the problem. Pre-season is well under way. We have had no first team keeper for a week. We have a makeshift defence that isn’t up to scratch and need any new players to be working together so it can hit the ground running. Time is not on our side either. Championship transfer deadline: 5:00pm Thursday 8th August. And all this ignores the fact that our manager talked about “getting our business done early”.

That’s not how I remember it starting but ok, if that’s the position. It’s still nonsense. And if that’s really how Mowbray thinks then it’s no wonder he is regularly disappointed.

It really isn’t. In FlexWorld™️ a £10m transfer fee would put a player on a couple of grand a week. It doesn’t work like that. It’s a fallacy brought about because of free transfers like Michael Owen going to Real Madrid.

If you count Dack, we will have six when we sign Gallagher. Meanwhile, Jayson says hello ??.

“Flex” isn’t a real thing but is a contrivance of conniving agents whose clients are out of contract but of good pedigree. “My client is worth £5m in today’s market (if he was contracted to another club). Do you want to sort him out with a big sign on fee or divide it over his wages? Oh, and the club down the road has already said they will. When it’s an incoming player some fans justify it as a necessary evil. When it’s an outgoing player it’s a mercenary who needs to be knocked at every future opportunity.

You have to wonder if after parting ways with their like-a-family-member that Venkys turned to Kevin Keegan for advice and settled on a ‘try to win 4-3’ model.

I’d rather we put £5m towards and keeper and defender and make do with our existing strikers. Our glaring problem is conceding goals not scoring them.

Greatly underwhelmed by the (now very likely) prospect of Gallagher joining, and wonder how we will accommodate him along with Graham and Dack, and to blood Brereton in his correct position. Nuttall is certainly going to have to leave. I just hope we announce a credible goalkeeper at the same time but the idea of Gallagher, Adam and Hart does nothing for me and is not going to generate much in the way of extra season ticket sales.