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.

There is absolutely nothing to talk about regarding transfers, thats why.

I dont need to justify not going to the match as I am still a season ticket holder. Not that anyone has to justify their non-attendance to any one else, nor does that mean that those people dont or shouldnt still have a vested interest. My main criticism of your "opinion" is that it is based on something that I am not sure is entirely true, that people who dont attend are the ones complaining about a lack of signings.

Putting aside the ridiculous nature of the suggestion that no team in the last 24 years has matched Mowbrays for effort, something thats irrelevant to the original point you made. I've no idea where you've got this agenda from, whereby people who are not attending ("putting their hands in their pockets") are complaining about a lack of signings. Do you have any quotes that can back this up, if so then fair enough. If not its just blatant fishing for a reaction that you have clearly got. And to be honest, just because someone doesnt attend doesnt mean he/she doesnt have a vested interest and passion or that they dont want it to do all it can to succeed.

Never a Championship player, terrible goal record.

Such a strange comment. I was under the impression that most of the main contributors on here are either season ticket holders or live too far away to be able to get one.

Steven Davis has signed for Rangers and Hoban is neither ever fit nor particularly good anyway.

Very much a no from me to the Downing signing. Unimaginative deal for a player well past his best.

Many of the players I mentioned are pacy wingers who play on their natural side. Whether the tactical requirements of a winger has changed is neither here nor there, many teams play with out and out wingers. My point about Armstrong was that he is far better on the right than on the left.

Hes not the best crosser but being on his natural side makes his game far simpler. Look at his assists v Ipswich, Brentford and QPR, bursts of acceleration followed by dangerous crosses.

A common myth. Look at last season. Benrahma, Canos and Watkins at Brentford. Hernandez and Buendia at Norwich. Harrison at Leeds. Barkhuizen at Preston. Murphy, Montero, Barnes and Phillips at WBA. Adomah, Green and El Ghazi at Villa. Wilson, Jozefzoon and Holmes at Derby. Lolley at Forest. Eliasson at Bristol City. James and Dyer at Swansea. Grosicki and Bowen at Hull. Ince and McLean at Stoke. Taylor at Rotherham. Maghoma at Birmingham. Osayi Samuel at QPR. Edwards at Ipswich. Ameobi at Bolton. One or two of them may be wingers who play on their weaker side and cut in, but wingers are very much still effective. I also think from our current team, Armstrong is 100x more effective on the right playing as a winger than on the left repeatedly coming into traffic.

If weve got a similar budget then Mowbray is very lucky IMO. Just hope the biggest signing is a centre back, Jake Cooper fits the bill. Have to look at free agents, the likes of Jake Bidwell, Albert Adomah and Liam Palmer could all improve the team without a transfer fee, as well as the loan market as the 2 play off finalists prove. And hopefully pick up a couple of gems from abroad.