We shouldnt be considering dropping Lenihan who has been probably our best player in the last month, or coming up with a new formation to fit in 2 loanees. If Mowbray feels like he has to go out of his way to give the 2 young lads regular game time, then the deals are not to our advantage. Lenihan and Branthwaite have the shirts, Bellis should wait until injury/drop of form.

As if 2 kids on loans and a young left back in the summer for half a million is a massive play by the owners to get to the Premier League. @Mattyblue makes a correct point and I myself am not that old, but many of them are very young and dont fully understand or appreciate the situation.

A big statement having never seen him play. People are questioning a player lauded by some as a great talent as to why he isnt joining the squad immediately which I can understand to an extent. Where is this from?

He might end up signing but that wouldnt prove that a deal is already set up. Such an arrangement makes no sense, especially considering that we are only paying a fraction of his wages.

I think that is quite pedantic, they are kids relative to other footballers, right at the start of their careers with minimal first team experience. He probably isnt a fully grown man, he will likely fill out even if as you touch on, he is physically able already. My post was not critical of them, Branthwaite has slotted in very nicely with Lenihan and Elliott has been an excellent loanee.

Not true on Douglas. Very true on the hypocrisy of signing players half a season in advance for not knowing what division we are in! I welcome forward planning but I also criticised the club for being so lackadaisical waiting so long to sort budgets etc.

The Pickering one is a strange one to judge, a lot of people seem to have concluded solely from data that he will be a brilliant signing but that can be a dangerous conclusion. It does underwhelm that the signing wont go through until the summer and you do wonder if he was such a stand out talent, why it is even possible that he should remain out on loan in League 1, for example if Chapman does well this season I doubt that would suddenly change things for him. Douglas has had a recent turn of form but if his injuries re-occur or his form drops, we have no credible alternatives. I do like the fact that there seems to be an element of forward planning however, whether he will come in and be first choice left back straight away next season remains to be seen, but Douglas can play for a contract in the next 20 games too and that could potentially be a problematic position solved with a younger talent and an older experienced head competing next season. Ultimately like seemingly everyone else I havent seen him play full games but I am cautiously optimistic at signing a highly rated left back as part of a longer term plan. Loan signings split people and for me they are to sign talents that you couldnt normally afford, or to fill temporary gaps due to unavailability. Elliott very much fits the former and is a talent we wouldnt normally afford, the 2 kids at CB are to add bodies in an area we are light in so those 3 make sense. Douglas felt like plugging a gap by sticking a plaster on it but as mentioned, he could earn a contract, which just leaves Trybull as a bit of a puzzle. On Branthwaite and soon to be Harwood Bellis, both are very raw and ideally we would go out and get someone like Brentford (a direct rival) getting ready made quality in Winston Reid but we do have the cover now. I just desperately hope that Mowbray doesnt try to rotate or even change the system to please their parent clubs. Whilst 2 kids on loan and a young left back who wont join until next season might not be the most exciting window, I think it would have been difficult to expect more. The target now has to be to sign up Armstrong, Nyambe, Lenihan and one or two others on longer deals if at all possible, although especially with the first 2 that will be difficult if not impossible. Failing that, the summer might be a bit of a rebuild. Dont get why Buckley isnt going out on loan.

Where have you seen that?

Im not sure that 2 kids on loan and a young full back for a small fee who will be loaned back is going for it to be fair but lets hope it is good business nonetheless.

They wouldnt be able to afford Kipres wages like we wouldnt but they are rumoured to still want him on loan, although Van Den Berg would be a 5th loan which is the maximum you can have in a squad at one time.

I think the player who played it across goal (peeled off Gallagher I think) was offside from the flick on. Nonsense. He started only 14 times in the Premier League yet has played 22 this season so your theory doesnt check out. In spite of when its going well at the level we are comparing to and hes playing every week yet when he doesnt start half of the games in the Premier League that proves it?

They have been regularly and consistently reported at that amount across the board since they happened, the manager has also touched upon them fees in interviews during that period. Speculating as to how they are paid is baseless, if it is on the assumption that most if not all fees are paid in installments which is a fair assumption then it becomes irrelevant because had the money been spent elsewhere that would also be installments. To be fair and acknowledge the Dack and Armstrong bargains, the other 2 deserve to be scrutinised too.

The minnow thing shouldnt ever be accepted and this is the perfect example. Mowbray has had over 15m over 4 years to assemble his own attacking options, obviously he has done that to a mixed degree, 2 obvious bargain successes, and 2 overpriced curiosities. You look at bigger clubs above us and naturally its easy to cast admiring glances at what seems to be bigger resources. But take Watford, parachute payments, bigger wage bill, surely they are at a huge advantage to which we cant compete? You look at it with more clarity, they have Andre Gray and Troy Deeney, washed up, de-motivated on huge wages, unshiftable, with the manager forced to try and get a tune from them. You look at Norwich, their best players all signed years ago in the Championship on frees or for minimal fees. You look at Stoke, O'Neill coming in and surely having all the benefits and perks of being a former Premier League club? Look closer, and you have a constant wreckage left behind by numerous managers. Swansea and Brentford constantly having to replace star players with cheaper replacements.

Both aged 41 and retired, I doubt many would disagree.

Douglas has done well lately and the shirt is his to keep, and further forward, ideally he could earn a contract. I agree with your desire to get Pickering in now. Ideally bin off Bell but dont pay off his contract would be my choice.

There are 2 aspects that you arent grasping: 1) He will not have been told that he will rarely make the squad. He would have seen an opportunity to join a Premier League squad and play Premier League football and as an ambitious footballer would have not wanted to miss that opportunity. Its ok you being a career adviser unable to put personal bias aside, but 99% would have done what he did. 2) It is also ok taking the moral high ground implying that money should not be at the top of his priorities list. If say he is on 20k instead of 10k, thats half a million a year. Everyone wants more money, to discard it as a reason is naive to the extreme.

I do think that a lot is on reputation though, the way that Reed, Adarabioyo and Elliott have been used is obviously in Mowbray's further. Say the current 2 stay fit and on form for the rest of the season and Harwood Bellis having been convinced to be sent here on loan doesnt play, it has to impact our reputation negatively though. Big clubs often put in clauses where the club is financially penalised for not playing their players. Are you still hopeful that Pickering should sign now, that Bell should be paid off and you would be disappointed if it turns out otherwise?

Watford are a strange one, they look rather impotent going forward with Deeney and Gray I think getting one goal between them from open play this season. This is the thing that people never consider in their desperation to make us seem like we are peasants compared to all of the rich giants in our league is that a large chunk of those resources are tied up in players that end up proving to be liabilities rather than assets. They have some real quality through the team, Sarr is one of the best players in the division, and players like Hughes, Cleverley, Chalobah, Foster (when fit), Kabasele, Femenia, Wilmot etc. But they are not untouchable. One thing we have to lose is the inferiority complex. We need to genuinely believe that we are equal to Watford, Bournemouth, Brentford etc. I remember when we lost a 2 goal lead against Brentford when we was x points from the play offs last season, and people were buzzing with a point! Earlier this season, we lost to Bournemouth and we was made out to be plucky underdogs as if it was a cup game, Prem v League 2. And then we played Watford and lost 3-1 yet it even convinced one member on this form that we were going up! That has to go, these teams are not on a different planet to us, Watford dont have our goal threat, Bournemouth are managed by a rookie, Reading have come from nowhere to leap frog us this season, Swansea and Brentford have both sold key players, when we play these teams, we have ground to make up, we need to target wins.

Cant argue with the reputation, the worry down to the injuries and his increasing age could mean that he is never physically capable of recapturing that form, especially as it would require consistent starts.

Harwood Bellis would be an interesting one. I would welcome another centre back for sure, ideally one with experience hence why I would prefer Kipre who has the know how to slot in, there is always a risk with a kid with barely any senior football even with past success stories as much of his reputation will be based on sanitised kids football. It is a further example of something that Mowbray deserves credit for, he has seemingly boosted our reputation as a potential club to loan players to. Conversely, having Branthwaite AND Harwood Bellis if he signs, wouldnt that mean that at least one (assuming Ayala never gets his place back this season) will be sat on the bench which could then hinder that reputation going forward? Central defence is not an area for rotation so there is also a risk that Mowbray will tinker a little too much in order to keep Ancelotti and Pep equally happy. And I dont think youd want 2 kids together, so we will need to wait and see how it plays out. In an ideal world, we would bring in a more ready made senior defender for whom there wouldnt be third party pressure to play assuming that Lenihan and Branthwaite continue to keep clean sheets, but I suppose especialy financially that is easier said than done.

At that point, he would have fancied his chances of Premier League football, a very difficult prospect to turn down, plus double his wage. I would have done the same, but we dont have a career adviser with a biased viewpoint like yourself.

I personally think that Lenihan is after Armstrong our most under appreciated player. He can be rash, he isnt the most cultured of players and he isnt perfect but we win far more points with him than without him. He wins lots of headers, hes quick across the ground and he is a leader. The only partner he has had trouble with is Ayala, whether that is down to a lack of balance (both struggle on the left of the 2) or Ayala's constant injuries making it difficult to strike up a partnership together. He did have a wobbly spell earlier in the season but his problem is, he is the constant so when we have a decent spell, the credit goes elsewhere. He kept a few clean sheets early on with Williams, but Williams got all the credit for some reason. Wharton came into the team, he was the new kid on the block, the pair did well but Wharton got all the credit. Now Branthwaite, I think Lenihan has been superb in the last month but the new loanee gets all the credit.

Nonsense. Well some might, and wed all be pretty tempted by doubling our wage packet. But because he hasnt played doesnt mean he went there knowing he would never play.

I have noticed especially in the last year that the number of people and twitter accounts doing their own analysis has really multiplied for whatever reason. As I have mentioned, a scout at a Championship football club surely would watch a player numerous times and not select players solely on data/metrics/stats etc, and I am skeptical as to the use of them in general. He ticks a lot of boxes, a young player who can fill the position for years if up to it quality wise and seems highly rated. I would take far more comfort in the opinions of Crewe supporters (assuming they are positive about him which it seems they are) over random data about how many crosses he does a game, how many progressive runs, how many expected assists he gets etc, even backed up with compilations of assists he has got. I have been criticised for putting too much stock into opinions of fans from other clubs and they obviously wont always bear fruit on how they will do here but I would put much more credibility into fans opinions who have seen the player week in week out over basing an opinion solely on data. Not only can you not conclude based solely on data and highlights but I have noticed that all of the data out there show off the attacking side of his game, when what we have been constantly calling for and what we at the moment have managed to achieve is clean sheets, can Pickering help us with that? So I am cautiously optimistic based on this signing but I do think it is a shame that he seemingly wont sign until the summer. I do think the shirt should be Douglas' for the time being but if his form dips again or he gets injured, Bell is crap. I would suggest that the task for Douglas now would be to earn a years contract for next season with his performances and that would then conclude any business for that position for the next 18 months. If we can get Nyambe signed up long term, which I doubt at this stage, maybe we could have a pair of full backs to build on for quite a few years?

Not on the pitch anymore im afraid. He isnt versatile in that I dont think he is capable of filling in especially at full back and doing a competent job at this stage. I take on board the stuff about his obvious off the field personality but then again, if he chose to reject Shrewsbury to be an off field mascot here, would that not be the same as Smallwood and Mulgrew in the past who both got criticised for choosing that route of being here and not in the team? Until the next injury.