I take on both of your points about his potential, he has plenty of attributes but as a player at this level I dont think at the moment he has done enough to warrant bigger clubs circling just yet. I suspect that he will get a run as a striker and he is undoubtedly our primary goal threat but his numbers and his impact in his season and a half in the Championship here on the back of a couple of underwhelming loan spells elsewhere at this level wont have people beating down the door just yet. I think there are both questions and answers, for each strength a weakness. A player with such electric pace will always carry a threat. That being said, his movement is often quite poor and the stats show he is never far from seeing the offside flag. Fast players often rely on their legs rather than their brains and go a yard too far when they dont need to. Also, give him space and a simple kick and run approach often is what makes him the most effective. When he dribbles because his pace terrifies defenders he sometimes gets past through luck as much as skill, I dont think his dribbling is the most refined but you see v Preston a perfect example, he actually overran it but the ball luckily fell back for him to slot in. He is technically decent and has scored a couple of belters but Mowbray is right that he needs to score more scrappy goals and tap ins, they are the bread and butter. I do have doubts about his ability to hold the ball up and be a nuisance, I appreciate that he is small and slight but he often doesnt even challenge, you look at Paul Dickov who was similarly small and he was a right handful to every defender because of his attitude and intelligence. Chaddy you have used the saying "theres a player in there" about Gallagher, I disagree on that but its a quote that certainly applies to Armstrong. Its now to make sure that player comes out and if and when he does, that is when the interest will come. Hopefully the numbers will go up, he will become more prolific and then thats when it goes with the territory that the vultures shall circle. I wouldnt like to play against him.

No but you have told me before that you dont care what fans of other sides think so I was shocked to see you using it to back up your opinion!

Armstrong is again one I wouldnt be imminently worried about losing. His numbers (7 goals, 5 assists) but when you compare to the numbers of some other players, they dont make him stand out from the pack and his overall performance and numbers in this league are unremarkable. Last season I felt like he was pretty poor and his numbers arent great, he had one brilliant month but aside from that he was poor in the main. Prior to his last 10 games many were demanding that he was dropped. He is young and he is a fast attacker so if he does start to perform better over the course of a season and he takes on the mantle as our main source of goals and main striker then the opportunity is there for him to turn heads. Him, Lenihan, Travis and Nyambe are 4 potentially high value players and have become key players to us but all of whom have certain doubts attached to them and I would be surprised to be poached just yet.

One thing that I would say is that the standard of goalkeeping right across the division is really poor.

I think ultimately the overall season is the best indicator. Yesterdays win was absolutely brilliant, but also is in isolation, was totally unexpected in terms of poor recent form and was whilst I am not saying that we wouldnt have won v 11, it was v 10 men. Clinically ruthless and dominant and very pleasing all the same. To trouble the top 6, we would have to go on a freakishly consistent good run that we havent threatened to do in any way up until now. Weve had good runs and bad runs in equal measure, something consistent since promotion, we have good players and we have weaknesses, we have never been in the top 6 or in the bottom 5, we are the definition of an inconsistent mid table team. We have also struggled more since our best player got injured and we dont have much money to strengthen. Suggesting that the top 6 is a very real proposition based on one game is a little fanciful, equally suggesting that we might get into trouble is equally difficult to back up with historical evidence.

He has only established himself for a year to be fair, he amidst more experienced options of Corry Evans and Bradley Johnson has made himself the first name on the teamsheet for us which is very impressive. And as others have said, Mowbray deserves plenty of praise for that. He I think statistically is only behind Jacob Davenport (from yesterday) in terms of his passing, hes quite a safe passer usually though which is fine but he hasnt got the range of say a Downing. Hes industrious and tenacious, and he has plenty of energy and a turn of acceleration so hes a well rounded player. Got plenty of strings to his bow and plenty of time to improve. Of course he will need to be able to run games a little more and stamp his authority on games for longer. I just think that whilst he continues to impress, I am not sure that he stands out enough to have vultures circling, he is a good midfielder for a mid table team. If you wanted a Championship midfielder, there is Phillips at Leeds, Pearson and Johnson at Preston, Sawyers at West Brom, Cairney at Fulham, theres a few that are probably a bit ahead at the moment.

But presumably that applies both in terms of making positive and negative assumptions and suggestions, and raising both potential positives and red flags. I raised a couple of doubts which I think are valid. Doesnt mean he wont be a positive signing if he came, that I couldnt be convinced otherwise and if he signed that I wouldnt judge based on that. As I have with Downing and Johnson who both proved me wrong in opposite ways. For example, @chaddyrovers is making an assumption that he will be a good signing, he is using stats, youtube videos to create a collage of positives. Seemingly has seen as little as you or I. And also he has used the opinions of other teams fans which is a good way of collecting opinions but one he has repeatedly berated me for using in the past as "he doesnt care what other fans think" so theress an element of hypocrisy there. Ultimately, the fact that Nixon is reporting it makes it unlikely that it will happen anyway! For example, regarding Schmidt, presumably there was no point even bringing his name up because none of us have regularly seen him play. What we can do is comment on what he do know or can assertain, position, age, league that hes playing in, stats, situation, things like that without saying player x WILL or WILL NOT be a good signing

I think Travis and Nyambe have become very important players but I am unconvinced that we need to be too nervous at the moment in regards to them being poached by Premier League clubs, think they have a way to go yet before then.

I questioned whether he would be an upgrade based on the fact that whilst I cant proclaim to have seen him on more than a handful of occasions when Sunderland are on TV, I do know that he has been dropped for part of this season at a League 1 club as I mentioned. Surely this potential worry can be flagged? Im also incredibly skeptical about the prospect of him signing based on Nixons lack of insight as shown by the screenshots on the Mulgrew situation within 10 minutes. Out of interest, is it ok based totally on conjecture and things like highlight reels to state the positives of what a player we know little about can bring? Signings and expectations can go either way, Downing had very limited impact on games at Boro towards the end and at his age there was always a red flag there. Hes come here and is enjoying an indian summer. Adarabioyo had a poor spell at West Brom, their fans didnt rate him at all and nearly everyone on here correctly pointed out that he was being played in the wrong position so there was always a question. Hes been a very good signing. Conversely, Johnsons signing was greeted solely with positivity. And hes been with occasion exceptions, a poor signing and has been unable to get a regular start for months. So it can go both ways. But if we cannot make a judgement on potential signings, based on positives and negatives either ideally from what we have seen ourselves from a potential signing, or from other evidence, positive or negative, good stats, bad stats, being dropped, being a sides best player, playing out of position, having a side built around him, price, whatever it is, then we may aswell close this thread.

To be fair, Mowbray again came out yesterday and said that we hardly have any money to play with so that does somewhat strangle the transfer thread. Difficult to speculate on a nameless signing with no information and I dont really think theres much in the way of ITK. The buzz is naturally in the thread of the game in which we got such a brilliant result.

This is quite interesting, we are on the same points that we were at this stage last season. Not really progressing as good as yesterdays win was.

The stats were incredibly flawed though because they compared someone who is a right back with the occasional time at centre back v someone who plays here there and everywhere, sometimes in midfield. I think most could see with their eyes that Bennett is poor wherever he plays, especially at full back where his recklessness often leads to him diving in, being drawn out of position or giving away penalties. Nyambe is a far better one on one defender. That being said, you are right that Nyambe is reliant on confidence.

Not sure he knows much based on this! When I look at that side yesterday, the main 3 players that first require improving are LB and the 2 wide roles. McLaughlin, video showreels aside (they made Brereton look competent!) has apparently been in poor form at Sunderland so not sure if he would even be an upgrade on Walton.

Would be a strange signing based on the information available and with the ignorance of not seeing him, position, expected settling in time on loan, lack of senior experience, hoping its a natural right winger.

Hes obviously even worse on the wings but hes been really poor even when he has played up top which is easily forgotten. As much as I am pleased for him to score an excellent finish today, you look at justifying a central role for him, which is the only position he should be considered for, and Holtby should be the number 10 for the forseeable future in Dacks absence and obviously got 2 today. So there is one place left, and whilst Armstrong is comfortable wide right, he has had a couple of very productive games up front so I would not move him to accomodate Gallagher.

He is the biggest attention seeker in football that man. Very unprofessional on his twitter. Wouldnt mind them failing to make the play offs!

Theres no point being biased about the red card decision, it was incredibly harsh. Doesnt take anything away from a brilliant result or mean that we dont sometimes get decisions against us to admit it!

Cant comment directly on todays performance but a fantastic result, well done to all concerned. Very lucky with the red card which was a poor decision and made our job easier but even against 10 men we often struggle so to get such a scoreline at a difficult ground is a brilliant achievement. A few more general observations: Really glad to see Holtby get a couple of goals, and scrappy, scruffy goals from close range at that. A lot of people have clamoured for a 442 formation in the absence of Dack, but Holtby is a high quality footballer who understandably has had to be shoehorned in when Dack was fit, despite his own quality. I dont think its realistic to expect him to post the numbers and thus impact of Dack but we should build the team with him as a 10. Armstrong didnt score but got 2 more assists, and he is absolutely key. Would be interested to know how he played as the number 9 as I still cannot shake lingering doubts that he should play that role due to certain deficiencies (cant really hold the ball up, always wants the ball in behind but often poorly times his runs and gets caught offside) but he is becoming a very important player for us Really glad to see Gallagher get a goal at the end, ultimately overall his numbers are still very, very poor and his previous 2 goals havent led to him kicking on but it was a superb finish and I hope this can be the cataylst for him to push on. The wing experiment should be stopped so I do wonder how he would get much game time with Armstrong and Holtby down the middle. The one thing that I can always guarantee with him is when you compare him to Brereton, he grafts and busts a gut whereas Brereton doesnt. So good on him. The centre back pairing are one I am happy with, I just hope Lenihan is here long term, give him the captaincy full time, and we are back to square one next season once Adarabioyo goes back but he has been a very shrewd short term addition. Nyambe I hope goes under the radar and his body is capable of standing up to the rigours without repeatedly breaking down injured, he is a good one on one defender who really causes so many problems with his pace and power going forward, he cant cross at the moment so hopefully he is practising plenty but him and Bennett are night and day and he really has made himself a key member of our team. Downing is a class act as we know, Mowbray often uses Bennett as an example of versatility but whereas he is basically a liability wherever he is played, you can put Downing at left back, wide left or today and perhaps where he is now best at his age, in the centre of midfield and he will almost certainly perform to very high levels. If he carries on like this he is a must for an extra year. And great to see Rankin Costello come on and get an assist. The last player who came through ie Buckley looks a million miles up so it would be a huge bonus if JRC could come in as a regular member of the squad in those wide positions which are very much open to nail down. It would be interested to see who is loaned out, JRC definitely not I would suspect, Brereton and Buckley definitely should be, the interesting middle one is Chapman.

Agreed but in a way its a god send for him because people forget how bad he is up front too!

Mowbray has been moaning about the injuries again, and no doubt that they are a bad stroke of luck. He was also banging on about not being a Premier League club with 20 odd quality players. Theres absolutely no personal responsibility as ever. Any team that loses their best player warrants sympathy but all it does is really further expose his abysmal transfer dealings. You cant spend 12m on strikers and they offer absolutely nothing and then still whinge and moan. Regarding Cunningham, again it was a huge blow but as he was only a short term plaster over our left back problem, he now has the flexbility to be able to send an injured player back without having to keep paying his wages, surely opening up a void for another player to come in. Evans again is a blow but we are presumably paying good money to have Johnson and Downing here. The Mulgrew situation is strange too, it seems obviously that it was at the players request, but with money so tight, surely say "sorry Charlie but we cant afford to bring you back."

"We haven’t got loads of money to think ‘we’ve lost a midfield player let’s go and spend £1m to get another one in’." "Regarding the transfer window, what doesn’t change with the players we’ve tried to identify and like, when you ask in the first week or two, millions of pounds are being quoted,” “At this moment we’re miles away with trying to negotiate correct deals for the club.” Or in other words, I wouldnt hold your breath!

Why would they give us their starting left back for so cheap and why would he join a club far less likely to be near the play offs?

Whilst I also dont think he is up to it, Gallagher has put in repeatedly woeful performances all season (including many up front) and you think "theres a player in there." And you have repeatedly defended Bennetts inclusion ad nauseum. So seems a little hypocritical, based solely on what Mowbray does.

I love that you are spinning everything into a positive once more. Why didnt you reference Adarabioyo ans Reed as youngsters that we have loaned? Because they are successful and dont fit into your argument! And why are loans of youngsters from the PL the only alternatives to using our own kids considering we have money as you say. We dont want to be playing Buckley because hes absolutely nowhere near being ready. If Mowbray is right to not overpay for players, why did he spend 7m on a total waste of space, then repeat the same mistake by spending 5m on another? Its quite clear that our bids are nowhere near the asking prices and hes made a million and one references to us having a limited budget. Lets not pretend that that is down to some sort of principle that Mowbray is not buying these players, the budget is seemingly not there. I struggle to be overly excited about the rest of the season, before you spin that into a superfan narrative I will still be attending but for the reasons I have given, poor recruitment, little chance of us upgrading the squad as required, injury woe, a stagnant manager and a miniscule (at best!) chance of anything other than a mid table finish, its hard to be overly excited.

If we are talking Rhodes in his last spell, he was absolutely brilliant here, nothing less. Ultimately all of these other smaller things, hold up, creativity, they are all geared to try and eventually get goals. Rhodes made up any deficincies there by actually scoring that additional amount of goals himself. I find it incredible that goalscoring has seemingly become an underappreciated part of a strikers armoury. Having pace, strength, flair, whatever are usually tools that are used to get the player the end product of goals, but having the brain to sniff out opportunities and the composure to then take them trumps them all. That level of consistently superb goal output meant quite rightly that his place was guaranteed. Whether he could still score at that rate is a different question.