If the Championship has been poor this season, it has been absolute kak before.

Your mission is to sign, fitness test and submit all the paperwork in time for a PL quality striker within the next 18 waking hours. Here is a list of telephone numbers. Off you go.

Either the Raos have given GB and JDT as much as they can within the rules or JDT will be on his way. Yes the January window was a disaster in terms of bodies actually arriving but on 30 January we were on for the best window since the days of Tom Finn and John Williams. So I am confident the recruitment team can do a top class job if Swag gets the allocation of responsibilities for paperwork right. Whatever the budget, the mood music has to be hair shirts and penury irrespective of discussions between Pune and Brockhall.

Disagree. Mowbray simply played into their hands by going narrow and trying to dribble through them presumably on the basis his midgets wouldn't win anything in the air. Rovers have twice matched Luton this season by making the pitch big and running into space.

If we start a season slowly we are going to be really in the soup!

If my inside is correct it won't be Potter at Southampton. The current Southampton ownership is pretty clueless by the way. Leicester are by contrast a very managed outfit and to the extent I have any sympathy for anyone other than Rovers, this relegation is very harsh. I know they are not down on paper but they are down on the field and in the dressing room. That shambles at Leeds could well have saved their skins with the deal they struck with Big Sam. Forest may yet get caught but my gut feel is dingle Dyche is going to have to hang around for a relegation this time. Let's see how wrong I am!

I gave my reasoning with the grade.

Luton did a job on Dialo

No idea what this thread is about now.

Classic Mowbray. Chose the wrong tactics then had no plan B

Was that picture from his official account?

Let's not forget we let a lead slip at Sunderland and conceded a 93rd minute winner.

Poor guy. Hope he fully recovers.

Would have been completely against natural justice to get 107 points and not get promoted. The Borehamwood and Chesterfield play offs will have shredded the nerves of every County supporter.

Really felt I was watching two imposters in that play off. Didn't enjoy it at all.

The decision was on 30 January. The Ferguson injury looked serious at the time. In the event Undav has had marginally more game time than Markanday at Aberdeen. Here's hoping we have vastly less ill fortune with the window opening in 28 days' time.

Evan Ferguson got injured for Brighton against Liverpool on 29 January. Sh1t happens...

I noticed you expected Rovers to be promoted as Champions

The difference is Duff's transfer clause was triggered by a big enough bid and Brereton Diaz wasn't. We didn't hand Duff over to Chelsea for less than he cost us.

The deal for Undav was completed but the player had a very late change of mind. The rest is explained in my post if you care to read it.

Very solid A from me for JDT and GB. Ownership and CEO bought into the vision and plan of the two of them in making the appointments so assessment has to be against the criteria they set. Both have been absolutely clear to the point of being repetitously boring this is a project which JDT has signed up to for 3 years. Looking around the EFL, the clubs with ownerships willing to contemplate such an approach are extremely rare- Coventry, Luton, Rovers, Wycombe, Accrington, Sutton are the ones I can think of. So JDT and GB have to be judged against the benchmarks they set and have been accepted by the Raos. JDT - a transition season. He has given chances and integrated the academy youngsters, imposed his approach throughout the club (in many ways to the detriment of results in the u-21s and u-18s) and has got more out of Carter, Pears and JRC I would ever have believed possible. Oh and we missed out on the play offs on goal difference. Go back to the season expectations posted on brfcs last July and tell me this isn't a solid A for JDT. Giving GB an A is more controversial. Mola and Hirst didn't work out, Morton is no Elliott but no Clarkeson either, Brittain and Szmodics very good replacements in slots we never wanted to become vacant while Hyam is an upgrade on Lenihan. The hard work was done in January. Thomas, O'brien and Brierley was a fabulous set of signings. The easy bit was cocked up but Broughton stood up in public to take the responsibility even though in my book the CEO always is where the buck stops. I am more generous than everyone else but by the same measure, the project will be more than half way through this time next year and an A in 23/24 will require a concerted serious promotion campaign.

Villareal are a very shrewd club. I think it is more likely Ben will be a success there than a failure. I do expect we will see his playing style to evolve though. One word of caution, Ben is clearly much more of a confidence player than the vast majority of pros. I would worry for him if he gets off to a disappointing start. Those two goals against Millwall are probably worth their weight in gold down in Valencia Province.

A little thing called covid

Have a look at the accounts then

A safe prediction is Ismael Valerien will be sacked after a pre-season kick about.