Charlton are open to offers for Lyle Taylor, would be a very good signing if the coffers hadnt been emptied signing 2 clowns. Would love to sign both him and his manager but suspect we wont be near the Taylor queue with us instead focusing on a 19 year old central midfielder plying his trade at Fylde.

Just a very unexciting potential signing. A young kid playing in the lower leagues in Germany in a position well down the priority list in terms of what we need, on a short term loan baring in mind Mowbray and his reluctance to play new players for ages even if they are domestic players. I will give him a chance but on paper it is not a signing that in any way excites me. Just feels very flat. Our squad is lacking in a number of areas and our lack of inspiraton and attacking threat is magnified with the unfortunate loss of our talisman. Bundled out of the cup, our form spiralling in the League following Dacks injury and seemingly penniless, I am not sure what there is to be excited or enthused about. Teams around us seem to be adding quality or making a conscious effort to improve, with Preston signing Sinclair, Bristol City signing Neketiah, Swansea signing Brewster, Boro signing Roberts, all the while Mowbray says he has no money after blowing 12m on shite.

After a period of natural scepticism you have returned to being an apologist and/or attempting to justify everything that the manager does or is rumoured to do. Sinclair would be a far better addition in that he has proven that he can contribute to goals from that left hand side position, something Rothwell for example has struggled to do, and Downing is better served playing central if possible or may be needed at left back. Schmidt is a strange one, one I am unconvinced regarding whether it will happen, but hes not played that many senior games, he will take time to settle which for a 6 month loan he doesnt really have, plus we have Holtby for that role. Sinclair isnt my suggestion, its Alex Neils. Rhian Brewster is going to Swansea, now I appreciate that he is raw but maybe he could have scored some goals for us? Neketiah at Arsenal? And Bundesliga 2 I doubt is the same level as the Championship.

Do Forest pay their players in Euros? ?

Focusing on the fans is a perfect smokescreen regarding the main reason that Brereton needs to leave, because he offers nothing as a footballer.

We cant sell Evans, pretty damning but with Johnson yet to perform he is a first teamer. Sinclair a very good addition for Preston while we sit on our hands. Bialokowski wouldnt come here over Millwall where he is now who are better than us sadly at this time and Cardiff who have a manager who have already has signed him this season. Nothing to get excited about a young United full back playing for Morecambe or a young german number 10 on loan. Penniless seems to be the key to this windowm

Mowbrays wage is a total guess but I suppose that proves that you get what you pay for!

I wouldnt be surprised if a mutual decision was made baring in mind his reluctance to commit to the area. With Whittingham I didnt quite get the same vibe, it seemed that he was much quieter and for him it may have simply been age catching up on him. With Johnson not being willing to commit and looking at him seemingly carrying a bit of weight you do queston his professionalism from afar. I havent lost all hope for Johnson but I really have been disapointed by him so far.

Undoubtedly he was better.

He was important and certainly a success, I dont doubt that. (Although I am not sure his presence would have jeopardised our promotion chances too much, we went up 9 points clear with a massively superior goal difference) He shouldnt have been "rewarded" with a new deal as that was short sighted and he is now deadwood but he undoubtedly did what we needed from him. Again, as a short term deal, Antonsson was a good signing, not brilliant but chipped in and played a part. I said Johnson is between average and flop. In most of his games he has been poor and I thought he was far and away our best summer signing (bar Cunningham who obviously got injured) but aside from 2 or 3 very good performances notably Bristol City away he has IMO been poor more often than not and often a liability with his inability to take the ball off the defence often seeing him regularly dispossed, and also his mobility is questionable. He cant argue with being dropped as he has been.

Smallwood and Downing were essentially temporary signings, who contributed when we needed them, in terms of the squads shape at the moment, Smallwood overall was a success as part of the initial process to get here but is now lingering as unwanted deadwood for the next 6 months, of no use to the first team as many of the hangers on where when Mowbray returned. Antonsson too. In terms of a squad rebuild, add Reed who has gone and Adarabioyo and Downing who are short team deals and you would say all 6 are fairly successful to varying degrees in terms of doing a job short term but dont contribute towards a rebuild. @JoeH most of them look correct, Leutwiler has been a definite failure who has let us down basically everytime he has come in, Bell has been a weakness throughout his time here and Samuel (some for reasons out of his control) has not scored a League goal for 2 years. All 3 have to be failures for me. Rodwell had a few decent games but would do well to cling on to average status. Johnson has been a big dissapointment but has had 2 or 3 good games so is perhaps in the grey area between average and poor. Rothwell is similar, has talent but an enigma with no end product, and Holtby I think should be a regular now but again as of yet hes got it all to prove.

ITK War!

We will never know on the latter.

No, he initially went on trial at Sheffield United and I suggested that we had a look at him.

I think him not getting the sack is fairly obvious, under his mate he has a cushy long term job. Regarding skint, are you sure? https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18132327.no-treasure-chest-rovers-spend-january-window/ "But we’re not sat here sitting here with a treasure chest to be able to bring lots of players in."

Dack has been an absolutely and uniquely brilliant signing by Mowbray and I am always keen to give him the credit for that. He is very unfortunate that Dacks long term injury has massively reduced his worth, meaning that when he returns from a very serious injury, he will only have half a season on his contract left. Whilst you should never have all of your eggs in one basket, which I felt Mowbray did in Dack due to his failed signings elsewhere. The squad is better but not massively and nowhere near as much as it should be considering the funds and time available to the manager. Something you have essentially agreed on in fairness. It may seem unfair to exclude the Dack deal when analysing the current squad but he is unavailable for 12 months and I have been keen to state that while I have lots of sympathy for Mowbray in that Dack is injured, my analysis is without him being available. You have echoed my views on the Gallagher and Brereton deals, indeed with their woes they have become liabilities rather than assets, no one would take them and their wages off our hands, for a fee in a million years. We are lumbered with them. I also dont think that any of the other players Mowbray has bought, Rothwell, Chapman, Bell, Davenport, Samuel, Leutwiler, Hart etc, have any of them done anything at all to warrant a team paying money for them? I would suggest not. And Armstrong I think we might break even on. People blame Gallaghers inadequacies in front of goal on Mowbray quite rightly in that he shouldnt have been signed. I was far from in a minority thinking that he shouldnt have been re signed. He was ok here, 1 in 4 goal ratio, not too bad, and that was his best season to date by far, one people look back with more fondness than it warrants. Since, he had a dreadful spell at Birmingham and a further season of stagnation. This season comes as no surprise really. Regarding Travis, Mowbray deserves plenty of credit for his development, one of the main successes of his reign and one he is often not given the praise for, indeed one or two even harshly suggest he has gone backwards. Nothing to do with his transfer failures though. Aside from the now injured and rapidly diminishing in value Dack, Mowbrays record with shorter term deals, whilst still being hit and miss, has been better than his investment in players to potentially develop and grow, as I have mentioned earlier, Rothwell, Chapman, Davenport, Samuel, Bell, Hart, the now departed Gladwin and of course Gallagher and Brereton have all either massively depreciated in value or at best in terms of possibly only Rothwell, perhaps stood still, doing nothing much of note. Shorter term, Armstrong was a brilliant loan signing at League 1 level, his time in the Championship baring in mind the fee has been very average in comparison. In League 1 he mainly relied on the players he had and rallied them (and of course Dack) with Smallwood, Armstrong and to a lesser extent Antonsson adding to that. In the Championship, the loans of Reed and Adarabioyo and the free transfer of Downing have been 3 of his best signings but are all short term fixes. Johnson has been a big dissapointment and the likes of Whittingham, Caddis and Palmer all failed, with Payne and Downing in League 1 and Rodwell at Championship level both ok as squad players. The one good thing about that relegation squad is that most of the crap was out of contract. If a new manager came in now, would he be excited with what he had to work with? I dont think so. The 3 main points of excitement would come around 3 academy players.

@JoeH @Bigdoggsteel this was my analysis on our squad development. We have some players that we have brought in, notably the obvious 2 that I dont consider as assets. You can attach an arbitary and random figure to them but for me they are liabilities because we are stuck with their long contracts as there would be no chance of anyone buying them. Weve also added some new deadwood of a different type, younger players to be fair but none of whom have done anything to warrant a buyer coming in for them. We had plenty of deadwood but their contracts were soon to expire and they were in addition to what we have now. We had Lenihan and Williams and Mulgrew then, Adarabioyo now. As bad as Hoban, Greer, Brown and Ward were, they were not instead of Lenihan etc, they were in addition to what we already had and have. Our squad I will concede is worth slightly more now but that is mainly the players who we already had who have obviously continued to get experience. For 20m worth of spending our squad is nowhere near where it should be I am sure you would both agree.

I did an analysis on the whole squad yesterday on this thread. I concluded that the squad is perhaps slightly more valuable but it is nominal either way. Most of our poorest players back then had deals which were about to expire, sadly now that is not quite the case. What you have done is selected 4 players, one of whom was already here, 2 of whom have done nothing to warrant becoming sellable assets, and a 4th who I would be sceptical as to whether we could break even on. You have then unfairly compared them to 4 of our worst players in that squad, 3 of them whose contracts were nearing expiry. Ward who numerically was in addition to Lenihan, Williams and Mulgrew/Adarabioyo. I feel that your valuations are too high and unrealistic, quite a few of those players are almost liabilities rather than assets. Gallagher for example is on a long contract I suspect as one of if not our highest earners. Theres not a cat in hells chance that someone would take that wage on in full AND pay 1.5m (Which would make a loss of 3.5m) so we are stuck with him. Likewise Brereton, who in their sane mind would pay 1m (a 6m loss) and take on his wage. Neither are even assets to us really at this moment. 13m of your 20m (totally fabricated but to be fair its incredibly difficult to accurately value players not being sold) is based on players we had at the club when Mowbray appointed, I couldnt see anyone paying 1m for Buckley and am unconvinced about the other 3 but Lenihan and Nyambe were in the team back then so we havent gained them in comparison, and whilst Mowbray has brought Travis through he was technically already at the club. I doubt anyone would come in for Rothwell, Chapman and Bell at them prices either. It certainly doesnt bode well considering how much we have spent under Mowbray.

You interjected into a conversation that I was having where I stated that I felt describing his best season as "very good" was a massive exaggeration on a 1 in 4 season which I felt was ok, satisfactory, average, no more than that. That season has been followed by a really, really poor season, then a non existent one, and finally this season an embarassing one where he has the worst goal rate in the league.

Wilder signed Egan, Norwood and McGoldrick. A whole spine for a similar total fee, all very good players. Our recruitment under Mowbray is night and day!

Gallagher and Bell?!

Yeah, 1 goal every 4 games, not bad. But not "very good."

I personally dont think Gallagher "did very well" here by any means, he did OK. Likewise Brereton didnt do "very well" at Forest, he was scoring infrequently and eventually couldnt make the squad. I dont doubt many of your points to be fair, I do agree with player misuse and stagnation and questions about his coaching staff but I think Mowbrays main failing is his really poor transfer recruitment. I dont think any manager could get that much from these 2 players.

V Bristol City, Birmingham and Huddersfield, started up front in a 2, and scored in none of the games. Whilst it doesnt account for examples such as Huddersfield away when he did play a small chunk of the end of the game wide, @JoeH backed up what I was saying with some stats that proved that he plays mainly central. Playing him wide at all is a bizarre idea that Mowbray thinks works but still it doesnt excuse his incompetence even when he is down the middle. Another poor signing by Mowbray.

In 2 of the 3 games we crossed less than our opponent. As an aside, we got 1 point from these 3 dismal performances!