Hes purely a number 10, when he played elsewhere he was totally ineffective. And hes obviously nowhere near as good as Dack. We'd still need a central midfielder, Payne has just come off a poor season and isnt of the quality we need. Knowing "the lads" isnt a reason to sign him, we dont need him nor is he good enough. Suspect its rubbish anyway with all the teams linked.

And that the centre back in question was told he wouldnt even get in the team straight away, despite the fact that our defence is absolutely awful.

I think the amount of flak Rodwell has received is a little harsh. From everything he has said in public, it didnt seem like Mowbray saw Rodwell as a particularly big part of his plans, or was particularly bothered whether he stays or goes. Rodwell had no reason to come back in to do fitness testing, hes not contracted with us anymore, people seem to have reacted as if hes gone AWOL. In terms of his season last season, he was not fit for purpose for the role he was intended to play, in defence. He is not a defender, and was always an incredible bizarre alternative once the Bauer negotiations hit a dead end last summer. Due to the contracts were dished out to the likes of Smallwood, Bennett and Evans, Rodwell becomes someone much easier to discard and I can't say that I'd be desperate to keep him.

Fair point, of all the playerd linked I want Hanley or Cooper ideally. My point was about signing a ready made first teamer.

Promotion, second best defensive record (by 1 goal), played 38 games. Whereas our defence was awful. My point is not that Bauer would or wouldnt have been a good signing, its irrelevant to his ability. Its that we need to be signing a player to go straight into the team. Mowbray needs to be, not even ruthless because that implies its a tough decision to rip up such a crap defence.

I agree with what you are saying, we need starters, not just padding out of the squad. As you say, Lenihan needs a new partner right away, not one to come in and sit and wait. The defence from last year isnt good enough to push on. Specifically on Bauer, I dont really understand why he wouldnt have gotten into the starting 11 straight away, in that hes had a very successful season and our defence only proved itself to be incompetent last season. If it was between Lenihan, Bauer, Williams and Mulgrew surely the former 2 would be first choice, of course initially, everything depends on performance. We have 3 senior centre backs, sadly Mulgrew in particular would be difficult to shift off the wage bill, so youd suspect that theres room in the squad for one more, it has to be one that has the ability and capability to go straight into the team, initially.

That goes without saying that selection depends on performance. But ultimately, last season basically all of our defenders proved that they arent capable of playing regular football if we have aspirations of pushing on. Our defensive record was shite. New defenders need to be of sufficient quality to improve the first team. Should this cause a rise in our existing players performance then brilliant but I would be bitterly dissapointed if the defence we put out v Charlton contains only players that were here last season. They arent good enough.

Mowbray said he didnt think he was going to "force his way straight into the starting 11" which suggests that he would choose Williams or Mulgrew over him initially. The worry is that a player who obviously fit the criteria of Mowbrays need for defensive reinforcements was someone who the manager didnt see as instantly able to get his way into what was a horrendous defence last season. Either questions should be asked as to why hes chasing a player of that standard, or more likely that Mowbray is continuing to lack ruthlessness to drop quite a few players who have proven themselves unable to have the quality to push us on. This summer, we need players to improve the first team, not pad the squad out. Obviously he would be expected to work hard, he would at Preston or anywhere for that matter. You seem keen to make out as if Preston have promised him x, y and z but he made it clear in his interview (and Mowbray himself touched upon it) that he would have to battle to get into the team at Preston.

The King of Preston? Your use of hyperbole is ruining any point you may have, he went on to say that hed have to fight for his place at Preston. Theres a very reasonable doubt amongst many that Mowbray will sign players for the starting 11, rather than adding "depth" as he puts it but lacking the ruthlessness to remove some of the players that need replacing, Bennett, Bell, Williams, Mulgrew, all of whom should be at best, squad players.

If he isnt capable of dislodging Mulgrew or Williams then why has he even been chasing him? We need to sign players who can come straight into the team and the defence. Lets see if he can be ruthless with the defence as he must.

Mowbrays comments about telling Bauer he might not come into the team worry me simply because they IMO point to Mowbray being reluctant to dislodge the likes of Williams and Mulgrew, I suspect them 2, Bell and Bennett will play fairly regularly in our defence this season and if thats the case we simply will continue to leak goals. If them comments are because he planned to always sign another centre back then fair enough. A lack of ruthlessness continues to be his achilles heel. Also would much prefer Armstrong, Rothwell and Chapman over Mahoney.

The main thing about it is the clarity of how they are working, Jones mentioned that they have been working on these deals for months, and to announce all 5 ahead of pre season is exactly how in an ideal world business would be done. Would it be realistic to expect us to have 5 signings ready and waiting for pre season? No. But the point is that Mowbray, even with safety secured, has only recently discovered his budget having had to wait to fly to India, so it puts us at a disadvantage. In terms of individuals, Powell in particular is a bargain, he will get them goals and assists, in terms of him coming here obviously we have a number 10 as good as the majority in the league but Powell is still a very good player. Davies was brilliant for Barnsley and would walk into our side, as of course would Lindsay. Gregory would have offered far more credible competition for Graham. Cousins I agree is not very good.

Theres nothing wrong with judging as we go, if we sign someone good next, people will be happy and praise the manager, if we sign someone crap he will be criticised. If players that could have had an impact here go elsewhere, especially those linked strongly here like Bauer, of course people are going to comment on the potential that a rival competitor has potentially got an edge on us. Only the occasional conspirator will claim Mowbray is not a good man but we are judging his managerial skills, not his personality. In regards to Downing, I can understand plenty of the criticism, I am personally not the fan of signing a 35 year old winger who was fairly reliant on his pace, but the potential plus points have also been pointed out plenty.

If you arent interested in peoples judgements, then why are you in this thread prior to the closure of the window?

I dont disagree with your point in terms of Mowbrays reluctance to give game time to youngsters, it frustrated me a little at the end of the season when we had nothing to play for. To be honest, 2 of the main 3 I wanted to see more of, Chapman, Davenport and Butterworth are not academy graduates. My main disagreement was that the only thing splitting the young lads is game time, its totally baseless to imply that Tomlinson would have been equally as effective as Travis. In regards to Buckley, would have to totally disagree, he looked a little boy lost admittedly in a fairly short half hour cameo. Magloire didnt impress me either with his inability to head a ball. Butterworth looked right at home however. Came straight on and made something happen.

Whilst I appreciate your point that Mowbray has perhaps not utilised a successful academy as much as he might, you are speaking as if the youngsters are robots all of the same ability. When Buckley came on v Bolton he looked miles away. And as Jim said, the fact that Tomlinson left to join Mansfield says alot about where hes at. If you put a handful of the youth team in they wouldnt all adapt like a duck to water as Travis has done.

Who he supports or where he comes from is surely an irrelevance. Jason Lowe came through the academy but we couldnt want him any further from the club. The question should be does he have the quality to improve us and aid our supposed push for a top 6 place. I would say certainly not.

Where are these rumours?

We are quite a bit away from being relegation fodder but I think only Evans from that list of 4 would improve the teams who went down.

Sam Hart is never good enough. There is plenty of exciting youth as seen with the success of the u23s and some players above that already around the first team but Hart needs moving on for his own sake as much as anything.

Your sudden desperation to make everyone seem negative is bizarre. The main criticism when Harper signed was that as a 17 year old on loan, he would prevent our own young central midfielders from coming through. When he did play, he wasnt up to scratch at that time and looked out of his depth, highlights I remember are against Crewe when he got sent off and against Blackpool when our performance level dropped after his introduction. Its quite ironic that you put this down to "couch scouts" when many of these people who have recently commented are regulars at games and saw him play to make these judgements, and you are not in a position to do so yourself. As you say, the move didnt work out.

To be fair, he was specifically referring to Bennett being utilised basically anywhere he can be crow-barred in. I for one agree that it didnt work. Other things he has done have worked, obviously.

Yeah but very poorly and I dont want to see him play there again. Hes not a winger.

Im not sure the bottom paragraph is true. Brereton should only play up front if at all.

Mowbray was very lucky that many of the shit players he inherited were instantly out ot contract, Lowe, Akpan, Guthrie, Brown, Greer etc. But IMO much of your assumptions are obviously guesswork. He got to keep many of the main senior players that presumably on the highest wages, Mulgrew, Bennett, Graham, Evans etc. I dont get why you think Smallwood would be on such a low wage for example, a senior player who apparently had other offers when he joined. I bet Whittingham had a decent wage too. Whereas im sure Petshi was on nowhere near 10k. Guthrie and Akpan signed under embargo so theyd have been on 10k or under. Again, like yourself, just my own assumptions and guesswork but I dont detect a noticeable lowering of the wage budget under Mowbray at all. Any relegation clauses will have since im sure have been reversed with promotion. Also, with as much flex as you like, there would have been no way that Coyle could have splashed out 9m on 2 new forwards no matter how low their wages were. Mowbray has also been keen to dish out new contracts willy nilly to half the squad so that will have caused the wage bill to rise. Ultimately, the main reason for people mentioning a play off push so regularly is not because hes spent what hes spent or been allowed to keep his squad intact. Its because Mowbray himself keeps saying it. If we are miles away the pressure will soon build.