On the evidence so far.....................

No.

I wouldn’t even play Bennett as a CM in a 442 on FIFA!

Put Upson or Ogogo in his place and you could be close, though.

Jacks

Litts
Millwall Tone
Davies
Leahy

Ollie C
Upson
Bennett

Sercs

JCH
Reilly

5-3-2

GK - Jaakola (or how ever you spell his name)

LWB - Holmes-Dennis (if not fit then Leahy)
CB - Craig
CB - Kilgour
CB - Davis
RWB - Little

CM - Clarke
CM - Sercombe
CM - Ogogo

ST - JCH
ST - Nichols (but I wouldn’t mind any of the ST playing as long as JCH is playing)

This feels about right ..,

Sadly I don’t think we will see THD play for a long time if at all. Not expecting JCH at Blackpool either ...

Crying shame that GC has no money and is hamstrung by awful signings of last summer.

Thankfully Bury & Bolton start on -12 .... as I have no idea where the attacking threat is coming from, teams will press us as their defences will have so little to do.

With everyone fit I’d go:

___________Jaakkola
Little___Davies_____Craig__THD
____________Upson
________Clarke___Sercombe
__Rodman____JCH____Bennett

I don’t think there’s any ‘animosity’ towards Bennett as such, but he’s never been and will never be a central midfielder. Particularly not in a system with only two CMs - he isn’t combative enough, has spent his whole career as a winger and has no defensive side to his game at all.

Unless of course you’re trolling and it’s flown over my head....

I don't doubt his budget isn't great as we are losing £3m a year and have to cut our cloth accordingly. But is he really being hamstrung by awful signings of last summer? Had Payne still been stealing a wage here I could see that, but GC has been pleasingly decisive in getting rid of him.

Of the side suggested, six are GC players, with Craig, Upson, Clarke, Sercombe and Nichols being the only ones he inherited. I can't imagine he is disappointed to have any of these players at his disposal, although clearly he faces a challenge to get Nichols scoring goals. In my book, the other four have all been good signings (and I haven't given up on Nichols yet). Add to that the other good players he inherited such as Bennett, Kilgour, THD and Rodman and it would suggest he didn't exactly inherit a terrible squad, albeit one lacking firepower.

GC also decided to release our one creative midfielder. Fair enough...that's his call if he feels Lines is no longer good enough at this level. But it's also GC who has failed so far to replace him with the similar type of player that most on this forum at least would probably suggest we are crying out for. I wonder if he even wants that sort of player.

Where he has been unfortunate is in losing a very good centre half and goalkeeper. They would be a test of most managers to replace with players of a similar standard. That's the thing that did for DC in the end...the failure to keep on adequately replacing his best players.

This is GC's side now and he will rightly stand or fall by the performances this season. Hopefully we will be here in May congratulating him on a job well done (I'd say a comfortable mid table finish would represent that). But if we struggle or go down, it's GC who carries the can. It can't be laid at the previous manager's door 18 months after he left.

Yep same for me. And I expect it will be Scales in for Kilgour if he does indeed sign.

I can't see Wellen's publicly announcing he hopes to sign Bennett if he, or his agent, has suggested that he's now happy to stay at Rovers & GC's indicated that he's not going anywhere, can you? If he does stay then I'd use him as a sub at Blackpool, if we're chasing the game and try and fit him in for our home games.