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.

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