No doubt that Mowbray will flirt with the idea for one game at some point with underwhelming results and revert straight back.

Brentford seem to be tipped as one of the favourites to win the League, not sure they will be top 2 but they will definitely be up there, pressure on Toney who is a goalscorer to be the third different prolific striker in 3 years for them, Benrahma's future is up in the air but speculation has sort of gone away, but again you'd have faith in them sorting a replacement. But they have more than them 2, Mbuemo is a really good attacker, they have some really good midfielders like Norgaard, Jensen, Da Silva and Marcondes, and last year they built on a brilliant defence, they still have Jansson, Pinnock, Goode now aswell, Rico Henry, Dalsgaard, Raya too if they can keep him. I think people wrongly put their success down to Watkins and Benrahma, they were 2 excellent players but theyve got a brilliant all round team this year. Watford look incredibly strong and would be my favourites for the title but obviously depends who they keep. That being said, they have loads of depth, so they could shed Deeney, Deulofeu, Pereyra, Welbeck, Sarr, then theyd still have Luis Suarez coming back from Spain, Andre Gray, Glenn Murray, Will Hughes, Perica, Quina, they have a never ending list of quality with others (a left back playing regularly in La Liga and Ben Wilmot too) coming back from loan, if their very interesting new manager can get it all together, they will win it in my opinion. Norwich have made some strange signings like Dowell and Hugill and Bournemouth have lost a couple too but both will be there or there abouts. Stoke are again tipped to do well and I think that they have a decent chance with their signings. Cardiff with Kieffer Moore and maybe Boro just down to the Warnock factor should be around the top 6 too. Some crap at the bottom, Wednesday will struggle after the deduction, Wycombe and Rotherham I suspect will go down, Reading have some decent players but god knows whats going on there, Huddersfield look weak, Luton will be down there, Barnsley and Coventry maybe too but probably should both have it in them to stay up.

I would guess an underwhelming mid table finish. Too many goals conceded and no faith in Mowbray to fix the defence.

To say that Boro are earmarked as being some sort of justification for our failures in the transfer market, despite the fact that for us it is the same every year, they have just completed their third signing of Championship experience in Sam Morsy.

Surely not one to tick the boxes for Mowbray: Upon his arrival to the Ekstraklasa club Lech Poznań, he was nicknamed Bad boy by the fans of the club for resembling Jesse Pinkman from the AMC TV series Breaking Bad. He is known for his multitude of tattoos, which he started collecting as a hobby after his club banned him from riding a motorcycle.

"I decided join x because quite simply, they offered me more money and it is far more important to me to earn x thousands of pounds a week extra compared to the supposed 'project' that the manager of a second division club is offering me." A very much underused quote from a new signing.

Theres an incredible determination to see things with blue and white tinted glasses. Armstrong is a great lad who came to play for Mowbray who he adores, any player who goes elsewhere is a greedy tosser who we can do without.

Bell is dreadful 1v1, if a winger runs at him, seldom is Bell anything more useful than a traffic cone. His pace is totally worthless especially going forward because he simply refuses to do so, checking back or even on the rare occasions that he does, his final ball is beyond poor. Technically he is awful too, whether it be shanked crosses behind the net or clearances similar to the Doncaster game. I have seen no improvement at all from him. Should not have been given another contract. Williams is not a good left back either but he is a better defender than Bell 1 v 1 and he is also not totally inept like Bell in terms of crossing, he has a few assists, something Bell isnt capable of. That being said, it is a joke that we are entering another season with this conundrum.

We arent, but why are we comparing against the teams seemingly having the most frustrating time? We need to improve more than most, weve lost quite a bit and already were quite a bit away from our target. No one said it is easy, but we seem to struggle more than most, year in, year out. There are plenty that have had successful windows too. Indeed, based on your example, Boro have signed 2 players and have Morsy in to sign today. Theres no way that even our club is idiotic enough to base their current transfer dealings and plans on sell on clause income. If those transfers happen, they should be seen as a bonus and only considered for budgetary purposes if and when they happen, it isnt prudent to wait for them to happen. Rich Sharpe confirmed as much the other day. Terrible keeper!

Was what has happened at Bolton and Wigan a "structured wind-down?!" We need to get Nyambe and Rankin Costello signed up ASAP, albeit even if they refused we will get a fee even if its via tribunal. Dack for all intents and purposes has 2 years, although his supposed new deal has a "next 24 hours" Junior Hoilett vibe to it. I would like Holtby and Evans to stay on but with their injury problems and probably being higher earners, maybe not quite as much urgency there. Rothwell and Chapman need to earn a new deal. Mulgrew, Williams and Johnson can all go for me.

Rich Sharpe said that we arent working on a deal for Cunningham at the moment and that the Rathbone rumour is predictably a load of bollocks and that any midfield recruit will be most likely a loan. We are currently looking at European based defenders, only problem I suppose is because of the pissing around and failures so far, with a 2 week quarantine period inevitable, the likelihood is that Bell and Williams are going to be needed not only for 1 game but for 3 or 4.

With Mowbray telling players that they wont get in the team over Williams and Mulgrew still here and Waggott telling them it rains so much in Blackburn, its little wonder that deals arent getting done!

Shouldnt be picking the team based on that sort of behaviour.

Where is this from?

Youd prefer Bell?

Id play them both, its not ideal having Williams at LB but he is Ashley Cole compared to the alternative.

Oh Steve. Firstly, why havent you updated the fans at all for 6 months to keep them in the loop or addressed that in your interview? We wont know for sure what the package is even after the communication with the authorities, because it is subject to change at any point. So that fear will never be eliminated. How can you justify the price rise? I get that you want to claw back money but thats not going to be the long term effect with more becoming disillusioned.

He was the player closest to him I think but it wasnt anyones fault.

Morsy wasnt in any way to blame for Dack's injury.

Even if he does move on, it wont affect our transfer business this summer, I dont even think we are stupid enough to depend on a transfer sell on for a current transfer window.

What I cant get my head around is why we are using the teams with the least competence in this summers transfer market as our benchmark? We need to improve considerably on last season to get where we want, we cant afford a transfer window that is worse than most but similar to a few with the same issues. Middlesbrough are often mentioned, Warnock has again come out today and shown his frustration, why would we want to compare with that? That being said, they have got their second deal over the line today and have had a third in for a medical and are apparently well down the line with Sam Morsy as a fourth. Preston, they never have any money and cant register a player until they get a senior one off their books. Ultimately, they have a similar squad every summer, rarely do they get loans and short term deals, but they always have to scrape the bottom of the barrel, our third most expensive striker since promotion was for money that they couldnt compete with, they get their forward players from teams like Exeter and Morecambe. We had plenty of advantages in many ways. We knew the division we would play in (that was an excuse at one point) with a couple of games to go. We for various reasons arent waiting on player sales, seemingly we arent reliant on the money and we dont have any players that have starred enough to make it impossible to stop them going to the Premier League, Dack has had a serious injury, Armstrong has been scoring for half a season only and none of the others are good enough like a Watkins, a Cash etc to make them inevitably primed for a move this summer. So we can get to work as soon as the owners get their arses in gear, which of course is always late. Our 3 loans were all in defence/goalkeeper because Mowbrays squad is imbalanced, but we knew which players (them and the out of contract players) were going early and knew where the holes would be. Why dont we compare to teams who have seemingly had far more joy in the market getting what they want. Take Coventry, apparently very much into their recruitment like we seemingly are supposed to be now, 8 signings in from various places. Maybe Swansea, even more reliant on loans than we have been and also with Ayew who is on disproportionately high wages and although he is right up there in terms of the best player in the league, he limits them getting other players in. But they knew what was coming this summer, they got Woodman and Guehi back on loan who are both quality, they replaced Connor Gallagher with Morgan Gibbs-White, they addressed a lack of experience bringing in Smith from Bristol City and they got Jamal Lowe on the cheap to bring some pace and goal threat. Stoke, quite a few signings that look impressive. QPR, had to wait to sell Eze but have addressed a few different positions. Forest, got a few of the better freebies around. Derby, got Clarke back, Marshall a very good keeper and showed real pro activity signing te Wierek on a pre-contract agreement. They also replaced Bogle with Byrne within 2 days. Bristol City have done some really good business. Brentford replaced Watkins and Jeanvier before they left. Birmingham, Cardiff, plenty of teams have done decent business. We still havent shut the door totally on Downing in contrast, its just so indecisive. I noticed how todays transfer update suggests that the Williams interest has fizzled out and he will be our third centre back. Even if we replace Cunningham and Adarabioyo with players as good, we will still have Bell, Williams and Bennett getting plenty of minutes.

No one has said that it is easy @chaddyrovers but it is always Rovers making excuses and struggling, and ultimately people will judge those "experts" who are in charge on what is done, and ultimately we are going into a season with a defence of the same players that we had last year aside from Adarabioyo (and Cunningham for a few games) which is why people are so critical. We can't field a back 4 of a greedy agent, FFP, financial inferiority and a failed medical, people dont want excuses, they want the long awaited defenders to actually come in, ideally before the season starts. Maybe other teams have better people negotiating deals than we do. Passing comment doesnt mean that they are volunteering to do the job themselves, just that they are passing opinion rather than just acting as an echo chamber for everything that comes out of the mouth of Mowbray or Waggott. Equally if someone criticises a player for missing an open net or making a mistake, it isnt them putting themselves forward to sign a 5 year contract. You will need to come up with better than that. @RovingRover see @Swanson's post above. They arent interested in him.

What? Why would he know about that?

The Downing approach makes no sense. Surely he himself would have provided that competition in central midfield, in a 3 which would have suited him more, had he been involved from the start of pre season. Now it shouldnt even be considered, at his age playing catch up would be even harder. Its this indecisivess, surely you can try and fill all positions simultaneously, if Downing ticks off CM before the CB comes through, so be it. If a deal that was financially worthwhile couldnt be agreed, then dont flirt with going back to it after the season has started when he isnt fit. Im guessing reading that, maybe a second CB and sub keeper isnt in Mowbrays mind either. We dont need competition at left back either. We need someone to come in and play. Bell is dreadful.

With the seating, I actually think that it is very difficult to get people sitting where they want. Where I have no sympathy for Waggott is: - that the Jack Walker upper has been kept for corporates. Thats not on. - that it has been announced in the local paper after 6 months of radio silence with no interaction prior. That rubs salt into the wounds.