Mowbray acknowledged the Brereton fee was as reported when he said that that he could have spent "could have bought 6 or 7 players for 1 million each." Theres no way that the fees for Armstrong, Dack, Samuel, Bell, Rothwell, Chapman, Davenport, Downing, Gladwin and Hart dont come to the remaining 3 to 4 million.

The thing about the play offs is that Mowbray has repeatedly mentioned his desire to push for the top 6 this season, and it seems that this is a common theme across the board when youve got our new signing saying we can go for the top 6 too. You mention that hes signed Dack and Rothwell (the latter who for all his promise and perhaps due to being underused is yet to prove both here and in his career that he can provide goals/assists consistently) but he has spent over 10m, a very decent amount, much of which hes wasted (or maybe more amicably put, is yet to yield any on field return from) and claims to have a similar budget this time. If that comes to fruition, and he continues to seemingly not need to sell as he goes to raise funds (granted hes signed a few of those who theoretically could be sold) then hes at an advantage to most of his rivals. I wouldnt say top 6 or bust but we need a convincing push. And to clarify, I am very strong of the opinion that I give Venkys absolutely no credit for any supposed funding they provide, I echo much of what youve said about them.

Like you've implied, you've got to judge each player on their individual merits. For example, Graham and Mulgrew are both 33. Last season, Graham was brilliant, whereas Mulgrew went past the point of no return, regularly responsible for goals conceded and far worse points accumulation and goals conceded records with him playing compared to when he wasnt. You often find a sudden and sharp decline with players at that age. With Downing, obviously he will be 35 before the season, but he played plenty of games last season, and 2 goals and 1 assists suggest his influence has massively waned. Boro fans seem pretty conclusive that they are happy that he has moved on. As a player reliant on his pace and running at full backs, a lot of his main attributes are now very much in decline. I am not at all optimistic, I also dont think hes going to be a squad player, so I worry that whilst he may obviously help them in terms of learning one or two things, he will be a hindrance to Armstrong, Chapman and Rothwell in terms of game time.

But he came in when we was at a lower level, and also never had pace to begin with.

I dont understand why some people seem to be of the opinion that Downing will slot into Conways position and play a bit part role. I doubt he would have taken a really low wage nor would he have joined without the chance to play a good amount of football.

Not happy with this signing. Was hoping to see a bit of a new dawn moving away from Bennett and Conway trudging up and down creating and scoring very little, with the likes of Rothwell, Armstrong and Chapman chomping at the bit, and Conway leaving. Downing has lost his pace, will be 35 before the season starts and his influence on games has massively waned as you would expect with age, contributing precious little last season. A poor and unimaginative signing IMO.

I dont understand this comment at all. Criticism and "negativity" towards this potential deal is in my opinion constructive. We have a few pacy, exciting players who can play in the wide positions in Rothwell, Armstrong and Chapman, and have moved on (well sort of!) one of the two "defensive" wingers that have often lagged up and down the wings at the cost of an attacking threat down their sides. Its not easy to see why a soon to be 35 year old winger who was fairly reliant on his increasingly waning pace can fit in and improve us in that position, one who will presumably take a decent wage and is coming off the back of a barren season where his contribution of 2 goals and 1 assists is indicative of why Boro fans seemed fairly relived to see him leave. In terms of overall pessimism, you can understand impatience somewhat considering the owners we have have proved incredibly eccentric and unreliable as we all know. Mowbray hasnt done anything to warrant much confidence in terms of his ability to improve a defence either. Its an area hes neglected throughout his tenure here, spending less than 500k of well over 10m, on Downing (very much a League 1 stand in who has been released), Bell (cant defend at all, very flimsy) and Sam Hart. (who?) He turned his nose up at spending a fairly small fee on a defender he clearly wanted, and his back up choice was to sign a free agent midfielder and try and fail to shoehorn him in there. Defensive issues have been his achilles heel in the past, notably at Coventry where he admitted regret over not signing a leader at centre back. So is Lenihan, the long diagonal out of play is his speciality. Very limited on the ball.

Wouldn't fit in Villas team, with Grealish and McGinn in front of one sitter.

I'd find it a little strange if Sheffield United did go for Lenihan. He is key for us but thats amidst a defensive shit storm, Lenihan himself can be very rash and prone to making big mistakes or conceding penalties, for all of his attributes in terms of his bravery and athleticism. Also, presuming Sheffield United continue to play with 3 at the back, he is nowhere near good enough on the ball to play as one of their overlapping centre backs, so he would be competing with the impressive Egan in the middle. One thing is for sure, hes one we cannot allow to let go.

Disappointing to see 2 players who could have improved our defence, both on free transfers, go to clubs we need to be aiming to be ahead of in the last 24 hours. Of course, it all depends on who Mowbray brings in, hopefully we will bring in someone better. Do i have much hope that Mowbray can bring in a really good defender? Based on his neglect of that area since he joined, not sure at all.

He wasnt finalising his budget, before he went he didnt have the foggiest what budget he had. The significance is the timing of it. There was no need to wait so long to do it and there was no need to fly to India to do it.

Mowbray flew out to India for a week on the 18th May according to the LT. He was there for a week, so returned back 6 weeks after the 2-1 win at Forest, and 3 weeks after the last game of the season. He mentioned prior to the meetings that he was unsure whether he would be getting another decent budget or if hed be looking at free transfers, and following the week in India he of course needed to find time for his own family holiday. I just feel like weve forfeited any potential head start we could have had by becoming the first team in the league mathematically certain of the division we was going to be in. It surely would have made most sense for them to have flown over straight after that Forest game. I dont have a problem with face to face budget meetings, its the way the whole process is anything but proactive. Last summer Mowbray continiously bleated on and made excuses about why he couldnt sign players as early as he clearly wanted. The poor processes clearly spread across the club under Venkys, hence the delays in announcing everything from season tickets to kits.

The worry for me would not necessarily be the player, but it all boils back to this ridiculous system that Venkys insist on, making the manager wait until a couple of weeks after the season has finished to go all the way to India to plead with them for a budget, especially when our league status was confirmed with weeks to spare. Its essentially giving everyone else a massive head start.

At Norwich, in his first season he was very good, he was the runner up in their player of the season behind James Maddison who obviously then moved for big money to Leicester. He then got an injury early on last season and Ben Godfrey came in (further back than he played at Shrewsbury) and was a revelation but it doesnt mean he isnt a good Championship defender. Lenihan is a player I think we need to keep and hes got plenty of good attributes, hes our best defender, but he was still a part of our horrendous defence last season, made quite a few errors and is always prone to giving away a penalty, I would say Hanley is a better defender, but id love them both (Hanley permanently) together.

Is it fair to base this on peoples Instagram's or social media? I dont have Instagram but from everything thats posted on here etc, the vast majority of it is posted by his attention desperate girlfriend, putting up videos from when they go out will be much more interesting to her followers presumably that videos of Dack training. I am sure Dack has done something to keep himself ticking over too, and I'm sure Travis has got pissed up on holiday over the summer.

The chance of a more ambitious club coming in and snatching Mowbray is a very slim one. Hes the one whose repeatedly mentioned top 6 and he said only yesterday that hes got a similar budget to last year so if we are loitering in mid table im sure he will be questioned.

He was, spending the majority of the budget on a 19 year old nowhere near ready to contribute to the first team is exactly what people are questioning. He also had played regularly for a couple of seasons at Forest. Expectations that he could at least provide some sort of competition for Graham were far from unrealistic, but ultimately he didnt come close to doing that. In his cameos he looked out of his depth. When Graham was unavailable, despite a lack of other real options, even the incredibly limited (and I suspect a player with less senior appearances) in Joe Nuttall and even playing no striker at all (something that didnt come close to working) were often seen as better alternatives.

Jake Bidwell Jake Cooper Yoann Barbet Albert Adomah Joe Aribo

The fees comes into play in terms of the discussion as to whether hes a success as a signing. Premier League clubs obviously dont want to throw money away either but they have much more money in general to afford to take a risk on a project. You can say how long ago the Andy Cole deal was but for context, all the rest of our transfer fees combined over at least 5 or 6 years wont match the Brereton one so yes it is a massive amount of money for a club like ours at this stage of the teams development with many weaknesses in the team. People are right to question whether we can afford to blow the majority of our money on a project who last year didnt even provide competition/adequate back up for Graham. In terms of my prediction as to whether he can be a top level player, I base that totally on what I have seen so far, and I would suggest that he is incredibly unlikely to have the potential to do that. If you prefer not to comment due to not having all the information (scouting reports etc) at hand then why are you so embroiled in defending the deal. Ultimately all that matters is what happens on the pitch. Makes no sense this. Should we have a ban on discussing any of our players until they leave?

So you feel that it is justifiable to spend 7 million pounds on a player who "has no real first team pedigree?" You say what do you expect like it is normal but as @Stuart asks are there any similar deals you can remember that could compare? If he proves people wrong no one will feel stupid because it will benefit the team they support. Your suggestion of him becoming worth 25m plus and firing us to promotion within 2 seasons is baseless and ridicilious sadly.

Henderson is still underrated even after captaining his team to the Champions League. Rice has impressed in the Prem but especially in that Holland game he went missing rather than as you say making an option to play the ball into midfield, Delph isnt good enough, Winks will be key as will Maddison having played under Rodgers at Leicester in a midfield 3 rather than as a 10. As soon as Henderson came on it was noticeable that he was available so much more often to take the ball on the half turn.

I havent seen this, but in general I see little to no point in getting hung up on social media over the summer, especially in terms of judging whether players are keeping on top of their fitness whilst on holiday. Didnt the whole team go to Las Vegas last year after promotion? People use their social media for different things, and ultimately its Dacks girlfriend who is clearly desperate to portray this flashy image in her desperation for fame and publicity. I dont know if its just a lack of things to talk about, but I remember last season when Samuel was videoing himself running up hills, I imagine most if not all footballers do at least some fitness work over the summer to keep ticking over but people made a big deal out of Samuel doing it and how he deserved another chance to prove himself despite not having scored in the last 6 months of a League 1 season.

Why are you on here clearly to wind people up? It is just standard, vague transfer talk which somehow youve interpreted as Mowbray being "absolutely buzzing" and your primary objective is to try to prove/manipulate that others would be anything but happy if we had a healthy budget and the manager was "buzzing."

No one has ever doubted his teams work rate, people are seemingly more confused by suggesting that some of the teams weve had inbetween havent worked as hard. Whether you agree or not, anyone calling for his head is doing so after many balls have been kicked, strange comment considering he has been here for 2 and a half years.

No, my point was not to criticise a lack of signings, it was to answer as to why for any discussion to take place, it would inevitably go off on a tangent, otherwise there will be no discussion at all. Seperate point, but I do understand why Rovers fans have extra reason to quickly get concerned at a lack of signings, Venkys have history of turning off the tap, and they have this backwards insistence on making the manager wait to find out his budget weeks after the season ends, so it puts a delay on things. Last summer Mowbray repeated ad nauseum his desire for earlier signings that never materialised.