Not sure thats stubbornness. He might have impressed in pre season thus far but im not sure thatll be enough to start him in the Championship. Evans was impressive in the last month or 2 of last season, Smallwood was our most consistent midfielder in general, add Davenport into the mix and id be surprised if Travis started.

Everyone has said that its a load of rubbish! Who is beating themselves up over it?

Quite clearly a rehash of existing rumours with a couple of made up figures added for that itk flavour.

I understand the World Cup thing in terms of teams not loaning their players out as they need them whilst their World Cup players are yet to return or be signed. However, it is difficult not to infer from that latest interview that we are ONLY looking at loans which would be a big worry.

Things like saying we need to replace Feeney, or that we lied about budgets etc, I do think thats OTT. However I dont understand why so many fans are insistent on shooting down those who are saying that we are currently weaker than we were last season, people cannot underestimate the importance going forward that the loans had on our season last year. Im not disregarding that some of our younger players have improved in the last year. Also being constantly told that we are being negative or unrealistic, its not ire necessarily aimed at the manager, and is it really unrealistic to suggest that not every signing (for example Gallagher) are not in some peoples eyes good enough, or that we need to spend a bit (which we have on Dack in the League below for example) to improve us. We are basing this all on rumour really too, Mowbray has said before I think that there is money to spend. No ones expecting 5 million buys or whatever so its unfair to keep shooting down people with the unrealistic or negative tag.

I know that I wouldnt automatically assume that the fans were to blame when the only information at hand is that BEFORE the game he bemoaned that the team always seem to stop where the fans are en route to an away game. Why would you randomly assume that the fans saw the team they had paid good money to travel to watch a friendly to see at the services and instantly start with a tirade of abuse. Its an unfounded and unfair assumption thats understandably got the backs up of the people on here that have read it. Im not particularly affected as I didnt go or wasnt insulted directly so im not going to go round saying he shouldnt play for us again etc but I can understand why those who were there when he said it are so offended. You seem particularly eager to shoot down and think bad of our loyal fans, and if im not mistaken you dont attend matches so are basing these opinions solely on internet personas. (And obviously I also dont condone abuse to his family. He has brought on the stick himself)

Totally agree. Sessegnon we can be fairly confident will play at least a full season as a starter in the Premier League. Assuming we continue with 3 at the back, and with Youngs age and Rose being really poor throughout the last year, including the games he played at the world cup (awful defending for both Januzaj and Meuniers goals), theres a place at left wing back that he should look to try and nail down. The others. Lookman had a decent spell in Germany but its half a season only. Mount seemingly had a good season in a very poor league, needs to go out and play somewhere. Sancho isnt a Dortmund starter is he? For all the praise he gets for moving abroad will he play enough? Foden again theres massive question marks on game time. England tend to produce players "destined for big things" that dont seem to play. Sessegnon is the only one from that list who has proven he has a goos chance of bucking that trend.

It is a fair question, why are you making random allegations (unless you have some information yourself?) that Rovers "idiot" fans were giving him abuse?

I feel like "completely rebuilding the team" is a bit of an exaggeration; I actually feel that his work in the transfer market has been very hit and miss, in particular his permanent signings. I think that the crux of Mowbrays good work was how he used the squad that was already here, many of whom were under performing for various reasons in the year before, Raya, Nyambe, Lenihan, Mulgrew, Williams, Evans, Conway, Bennett and Graham, with the only significant improvements to our first team being Dack and Smallwood. Aside from this, hes brought in Samuel, Downing and Bell as squad players and Gladwin and Hart who arent even good enough to do that. Of course he wisely sprinkled in some loans to give us some punch in attack who have since departed. I just want to take issue really to the sentence "Some fans need to be realistic about the job that Mowbray has to do here." We all want to see a squad improved from the one that was a League 1 squad last year, and failed in the Championship the year before. We have lost Armstrong, Chapman, Payne and Antonsson from last season, and we need to at least be going into the season with a squad thats equal to what we had last year. Its a point ive made with chaddy numerous times, its no good settling for players that wont improve us, just to cater for potential budget restraints. If potential signings wouldnt improve us, in peoples opinions, then to be realistic is not a viable argument to come back with. If the signings we do we make are clearly as a result of a restricted budget, then people are likely to be more unhappy towards the owners than the manager anyway, so theres no need to be apologetic on his behalf.

He definitely did. I remember an away game at Swansea in particular where he couldnt be bothered, which regardless of the manager, is not acceptable. He won the player of the season in his first season, I dont think people thought he was poor, more lazy and had a bad attitude, which led to a large spell of below par performances.

But you have to look at the age of the team. Only really Giroud from that starting 11, maybe Matuidi, they might have another tournament in them max, most of the squad are actually at the start of their development and should improve further. They seem to know what to do to win already, countries like Spain, Germany and Brazil have teams more reliant on experience than youth.

Its an international tournament, that they won their group in, and efficiently won every knockout game in 90 minutes. You need a bit of fortune, but their team is brilliantly balanced, defensively solid in the main, quality in midfield, and has 2 star players working around a target man. Im not sure what else you can ask for. Probably because he downed tools, which is unforgivable. Im guessing from the "fans" aspect of your post that you are on a wind up, as you dont lose your right to become a fan by not rating someone.

Just because people dont have a detailed scouting list of potential transfer targets under their arm doesnt mean they have to be satisfied with the targets linked through transfer rumours. You need to realise this. Was a joke chaddy. Chill out.

I understand your point in regards to its the application of VAR rather than VAR itself, but could you not argue that it is better in theory than it is in practice? The time it takes and other minor points may be ironed out but even with VAR, these sort of issues will always exist in terms of how the human referee uses it, or how the human team in the room judge whether the referee should use it or not. The fact that VAR is the main talking point in the first World Cup Final that it has been in use in suggests that surely its not usable.

Very well is a massive exaggeration. All 4 players linked by Alan Nixon are the ones you want...maybe @Tom was on to something...

I know you have been very pro-VAR all tournament but surely that isnt an obvious error? At best, its debatable. The ref spent ages watching it so it was clear even he wasnt sure. Hands by his side, no intention at all to handball it. Has to be an obvious error, it certainly is not. VAR is the talking point of the World Cup final so far, never should be the case. Could rob Croatia of winning the World Cup. In terms of the actual football, which has been secondary, Croatia massively on top, Mbappe hasnt shown up yet, Perisic's goal was brilliantly worked and Croatia have controlled the midfield.

"Premier League Strike Ace" is a slight exaggeration.

Hope todays conclusion to the World Cup (probably the best in my lifetime) is fitting to what has been a thoroughly enjoyable month. Think it might be quite cagey, the 2 finalists are definitely the most efficient you would say, both full of experience, both know how to win games, fancy France just to being a bit fresher and a bit more of a cutting edge. The tournaments had basically everything, its fair share of brilliant games (Spain 3-3 Portugal, Croatia 3-0 Argentina, France 4-3 Argentina, Belgium 3-2 Japan, Germany 0-1 Mexico, Belgium 2-1 Brazil, Uruguay 2-1 Portugal) and a healthy dosage of shocks (Argentina being humiliated, Germany out in the group stages, Russia dumping out Spain There have been plenty of breakout stars, Pickford, Golovin, Lozano, Rebic, Trippier etc all impressing more than you could expect. Everything seems to have run smoothly in Russia and the 2 potential things that could have spoilt it were England crashing out early, yes theres regret that we couldnt take advantage of a favourable draw but the nations involvement with the team has been great, and also VAR, which I still dont agree with but more often than not it worked well. Sadly, this might be the last brilliant World Cup, with those in power intent on ruining it by moving the next one to winter, making it more of an inconvenience, and then changing it to 48 teams.

Dont think Kent came on for Liverpool at Bury today. Wonder if hes close to a move.

like who? considering our budget please - its not really his job to state, weve got this apparent upgraded scouting network to take care of that. Silly question. on his time at Birmingham, how many chances did the team created for him and the team style of play considering who the manager was for majority of the season - do you think he would get loads of chances here in comparison? No he wouldnt, his career goal record thus far is really poor. you seem dismiss every player link we had recently - they are just all rumours at the moment, its clear that rarely are they true and we tend to sign players unmentioned. You'll actually find that you always think EVERY signing without fail we are linked with is a good idea. Theres no debate, everyone is a good signing. That said, I try to take each potential signing on its own merits. Armstrong, Maddison - id very much like, Gallagher, Harrison and McFadzean - no thanks, do better. Kent, Chapman, Baeur, I am unsure, all 3 have potential plus points with also big reservations (Kent has been really poor in recent loan spells, Chapman has big injury question marks and if he wouldnt be a potential starter I wouldnt want him anyway, Baeur im not sure we need another centre back as a priority) source is rubbish? how? - Nixon gets loads wrong as we all know. Talks shite. Mowbray and Gallagher got on very well when Gallagher was here on loan last time - how do you know? The point was if we signed 2 ex players, it would perhaps lack imagination as others have said, and render any scouting upgrades pointless if he was to just resort to players weve had before, Armstrong id like (permanently), but Gallagher I think we can do far better than him as mentioned previously.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/15680956.Tony_Mowbray_looking_to_overhaul_Rovers__scouting_and_recruitment_departments_and_awaits_the_green_light_from_Venky_s/ It would show that Mowbrays attempts to get the scouting system developed havent come off!

Was an example of how the World Cup does indirectly affect signings for Championship clubs. Agree totally. Lacks strength, doesnt score nearly enough goals, need better to avoid being right in the thick of the relegation trouble. The source is a rubbish one so lets hope its not true. Nixons put a couple of teams in to increase his chances of stumbling across an accurate story. I cant see Mowbray going back to Gallagher anyway, think its a lazy link.

But there is a trickle down effect. For example, Liverpool have only just been able to wrap up the Shaqiri, which will allow them to allow Wilson out on loan.

Golden Boy Captain? Hes our sole world class player, proven to score goal after goal. Granted hes not look his self these last couple of games, but no way do you drop him. Maybe the injury he rushed back from at the end of the season has affected him? You are using massive hyperbole and exaggeration by saying very poor. Even today we had a massive spell of pressure and should have scored. Japan did well v Belgium to an extent but they lost as well, so dont wax lyrical too much. Slow and pedestrian again is incorrect, we have I think the youngest team in the tournament with plenty of energy, its been know how and intelligence for me that weve at key moments lacked. Rashford for me has had a particularly poor tournament whenever hes been given a chance. Those suggesting that Sterling should have been dropped for him seem ignorant to that.

Whilst you are right about the draw, and the lack of chances in open play, to say we are "very poor" and "fortunate" (in anything bar the draw) is a big overreaction.