Tony Mowbray Discussion

[Gav]

34 minutes ago, SoldierMo said:

I honestly think Hughes would return...his reputation is in tatters...noone wants to touch him...he will be eager to build his rep

I loved Mark Hughes time at Ewood, almost brought back the Kenny years, I couldn't wait for the next game to come, superb. As for him coming back, not a chance, he needs money to build a side and wouldn't work with the 3 stooges in Pune, its a pipe dream sadly. 

We have 3 very winnable games coming up, if Mowbray can get 7 points from 3 I'd be more than happy with the current injury crisis, sets us up nicely for the NY.

He's going nowhere, best to get behind him I say.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Hughes built a great time on very little money though? 

[G Somerset Rover]

At a push, I think he may walk in the summer if the crown jewells are sold off, the likes of Nyambe and Rothwell leave for free, Elliot heads back to Liverpool and he’s given bugger all by Balaji to bring in any half decent replacements. If the above were to happen, he’d realistically know where we’re heading.

[TheRoversReturn]

27 minutes ago, Gav said:

I loved Mark Hughes time at Ewood, almost brought back the Kenny years, I couldn't wait for the next game to come, superb. As for him coming back, not a chance, he needs money to build a side and wouldn't work with the 3 stooges in Pune, its a pipe dream sadly. 

We have 3 very winnable games coming up, if Mowbray can get 7 points from 3 I'd be more than happy with the current injury crisis, sets us up nicely for the NY.

He's going nowhere, best to get behind him I say.

Hughes always did best when he didn't have much to spend. He spent little on keeping us up (he made us hard to beat, a la O'Neill and Warnock) before getting in the players who had a bit of flair. We made a heck of a lot more selling the likes of Bellamy, Bentley, Roque, Samba, Warnock and so on then we paid for them. However, it is likely a pipe dream.

We'll all get behind him and the team during the games. It does feel like we've been here though under TM time and time again, though... 

[JHRover]

 

6 hours ago, darrenrover said:

👏 100% Spot on.

      I spoke to a couple of pals yesterday, that I go to most Rovers' games with, home & away (or should I say did amidst this terrible Covid shit storm). We've been going together since we were first years at secondary school in 1972!  They were amongst the patient bunch and signed up to the "slow build" brigade, even they have had enough now! They totally concur that if our back 4 was Hird, Faz, Keeley & Bailey, we'd be top of the League now and by some margin. Main issues discussed and agreed:

 - Why has our defence not been sorted in 4 years? In fact it's probably regressed if anything. You can date this back to the sale of Hanley and Duffy, when Coyle was allegedly promised half of the sum received to re-invest but got nowt!

 - Why all the 'Boro transfers, all in our direction and on decent money/contracts?  Bar Downing, they're all duffers in one way or other? (Chapman, Pears, Ayala). Further, Douglas is a hopeless case defensively, worse than Ding Dong and has clearly lost his attacking and set-piece ability. Sadly you can only second guess the reasons as to why!

- Amongst many odd team selections, strange substitutions, tactics, one sticks out: who substitutes all 4 midfield players during the course of a match with 30 minutes to play? Ludicrous decision!

 - Why all the public dumbing down of ambitions for the Club? We as supporters want to be successful, as we did in the seventies and eighties, a time that we didn't have a pot to piss in, football's all about ambition. Even during that 20 year dark period, we still managed a couple of promotions and flirted with it 3 times but failed on each occasion. I feel that if you have no great desire to improve, be successful, aim for the top, then what's the point? You may as well jack it in and watch the kids kick a bundle of rags about in the back garden. It's not entitlement, as has been said by some, it's what supporting a football club is all about!

Last but by no means least, there are strong rumours round Brockhall that Waggott is retiring next summer! Hurray, I heard but then this snippet was followed up by "Ah, but Bob Lord's Grandson is being lined up as his successor"! (The last parts a lie but knowing our lot, it could be true!)

The unanimous decision was cheers Tony but there's a taxi waiting outside!

Merry Christmas to one and all, keep safe and remember, deep down, WE ARE The Rovers!!

COYB!!

I've heard multiple times that Waggott will be retiring in the summer. I suspect that will be the natural conclusion to the latest cycle of Venky ownership. Will Mowbray be weakened by such a departure? I doubt it but it's clear having a familiar face or ally in the boardroom was high on his priorities back in 2017 and if Waggott departs we will be left with a skeletal executive structure once again. Will he even be replaced? Doubtful as they had 2 years without a CEO and IMO it is blatantly obvious that Waggott was only brought in on Mowbray's say so and recommendation.

Is he going to be able to bring in another CEO to keep the show on the road? Will we bring in a CEO without Mowbray's input? 

All very uncertain. But I get the impression that is what they want. A cycle of 3-4 years of invest, grow assets, see how it goes and review. Maybe hit the jackpot but no particular stress if not. They trust the bloke with their money and can sell a few to cover the bulk of their spending and start again.

[Gav]

Hughes spent £10m on Savage and Bellamy alone, £30m in todays market, but yes he recouped plenty from sales.

Since he left Ewood he's been seen more of a chequebook manager - £140m at Stoke I read recently, what was he thinking....

[Mattyblue]

£3 million for Savage, £5million for Bellamy, it was the mid 2000s, not the mid 1990s, they were fantastic value signings from a manager who had a real eye in those days.

[TheRoversReturn]

10 minutes ago, Gav said:

Hughes spent £10m on Savage and Bellamy alone, £30m in todays market, but yes he recouped plenty from sales.

Savage was only 3 million, Bellamy can't have been 7 as he release fee that Liverpool triggered was lower than that. 

To be fair, if he'd been any good at Southampton or Stoke we wouldn't have any chance at all in going for Hughes. As it is, it'd be a slim chance at best if not quite none... 

 

[Mashed Potatoes]

1 hour ago, SoldierMo said:

I honestly think Hughes would return...his reputation is in tatters...noone wants to touch him...he will be eager to build his rep

Giggs has some issues that mean the Wales job could become available in the next year or so. I suspect Hughes has his eye on that.

[tomphil]

Maybe we should have an eye on Giggs ?

Curve ball.

[JHRover]

Even if Hughes was desperate to get back to management I very much doubt that his ego, financial demands or the Venky regime would enable that to happen.

Him coming back here in our current state, him returning to where it began, would be something of an acceptance on his part that he's gone full circle in his career. I don't think he could stomach that. 

I think he'll realise now that in club management he needs a good Championship job or foreign job to rebuild his career.  But expect he'd want full control, a decent budget and no clowns in the background. He'd have control here but unfortunately a few clowns and hoops to jump through to get things done. I can't see him jetting off to Pune every summer.

But you never know and you'd hope the questions would be asked

Sadly here it is more likely to be those desperate for a job willing to take whatever stipulations get thrown their way.

[darrenrover]

55 minutes ago, JHRover said:

 

I've heard multiple times that Waggott will be retiring in the summer. I suspect that will be the natural conclusion to the latest cycle of Venky ownership. Will Mowbray be weakened by such a departure? I doubt it but it's clear having a familiar face or ally in the boardroom was high on his priorities back in 2017 and if Waggott departs we will be left with a skeletal executive structure once again. Will he even be replaced? Doubtful as they had 2 years without a CEO and IMO it is blatantly obvious that Waggott was only brought in on Mowbray's say so and recommendation.

Is he going to be able to bring in another CEO to keep the show on the road? Will we bring in a CEO without Mowbray's input? 

All very uncertain. But I get the impression that is what they want. A cycle of 3-4 years of invest, grow assets, see how it goes and review. Maybe hit the jackpot but no particular stress if not. They trust the bloke with their money and can sell a few to cover the bulk of their spending and start again.

There are several Rovers daft supporters that I know, more than amply qualified and suitably experienced in high end 'blue- chip' Directorships, to carry out any of the Board Roles with absolute distinction. They keep themselves 'under the radar', aren't members of 'the prawn sandwich brigade', prefer to sit with the lads and are all 'just one of the lads',  no airs and graces but love Blackburn Rovers vehemently.

Most are retired now, cost wouldn't be an issue, I'm pretty sure any of them would do it for love and for free but why should they?! 

 

 

 

 

 

[tomphil]

Where is this talk of Waggot retiring come from ?

Surely a couple of years here hasn't filled his coffers that much has it ?  He's not that old is he ?

[Bigdoggsteel]

Lets say we finish where we are now and Mowbray does the right thing and walks. Where would he end up? Being honest, I would have to say it would be one of the teams relegated from the Championship to get them back up. Like he would get a job, so it wouldn't be that bad financially walking away. I think fans here would hold him in higher esteem if he did that. I would hate to see him get sacked with us in a relegation battle and if we don't get play offs this season, that could very easily happen. 

For me it's play off or nothing. I hope he thinks the same. 

Edited December 22, 2020 by Bigdoggsteel

[Mattyblue]

He’s certainly resurrected his reputation within the game, if you rate the job he’s doing or not, I could definitely see him getting another Championship gig.

[JHRover]

22 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Where is this talk of Waggot retiring come from ?

Surely a couple of years here hasn't filled his coffers that much has it ?  He's not that old is he ?

Surprisingly he's 66 according to companies house. By the summer he'll have had 3.5 years here seemingly on £300,000 a year and he'll be 67 or close to it.

I also believe he is London based and spends most of his time there so can't imagine the commute to Blackburn is easy.

He'll also have his ear close to the ground and no doubt time an exit for when the budget gets slashed or his mate runs out of patience with the fanbase.

He'll be well set for a cushy retirement. We'll be picking up the pieces with our 2500 season tickets.

Edited December 22, 2020 by JHRover

[JHRover]

1 minute ago, JHRover said:

Surprisingly he's 66 according to companies house. By the summer he'll have had 3.5 years here seemingly on £300,000 a year and he'll be 67 or close to it.

I also believe he is London based and spends most of his time there so can't imagine the commute to Blackburn is easy.

He'll also have his ear to the ground on financial matters and probably detect when the brown stuff is going to hit the fan and it is time to get out unscathed after 3 years of telling the Indians that Tony is the saviour.

He'll be well set for a cushy retirement. We'll be picking up the pieces with our 2500 season tickets.

 

[tomphil]

9 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Surprisingly he's 66 according to companies house. By the summer he'll have had 3.5 years here seemingly on £300,000 a year and he'll be 67 or close to it.

I also believe he is London based and spends most of his time there so can't imagine the commute to Blackburn is easy.

He'll also have his ear close to the ground and no doubt time an exit for when the budget gets slashed or his mate runs out of patience with the fanbase.

He'll be well set for a cushy retirement. We'll be picking up the pieces with our 2500 season tickets.

Surprised at that i thought he was at least a decade younger for some reason and had just had a hard paper round.

Unbelievable that he sounds like another part timer as well for his 300k.  I don't know all the ins and outs of what he actually does but from where i'm standing his renumeration far outweighs his contribution. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

20 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Surprisingly he's 66 according to companies house. By the summer he'll have had 3.5 years here seemingly on £300,000 a year and he'll be 67 or close to it.

I also believe he is London based and spends most of his time there so can't imagine the commute to Blackburn is easy.

He'll also have his ear close to the ground and no doubt time an exit for when the budget gets slashed or his mate runs out of patience with the fanbase.

He'll be well set for a cushy retirement. We'll be picking up the pieces with our 2500 season tickets.

A lot of speculation there. Pretty much all of it actually! 

[Bigdoggsteel]

27 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

He’s certainly resurrected his reputation within the game, if you rate the job he’s doing or not, I could definitely see him getting another Championship gig.

You think? Phew I'm not sure about that man. Maybe I'm wrong. 

[Mattyblue]

Certainly see him getting a Sheff Wed/QPR/Millwall/Reading/Birmingham/Huddersfield etc level job.

[Dreams of 1995]

His career has been 'resurrected' following the previous jobs he has had.

I do think that failure to reach play offs / promotion with this squad will constitute a big failure though. This season could undo all of that hard work.

[JHRover]

19 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

A lot of speculation there. Pretty much all of it actually! 

What's speculation?

His birthday is on Companies House.

The top paid director at Rovers is on £300,000 - that's in the club accounts - the assumption of course is that the highest ranking executive is paid the most. Something very odd going on if he isn't.

He is London based. Only have to look at his career before here to see that and I've heard from multiple sources that he's spent most of the year based at home in the South East. Same people have said he's retiring next year so let's see.

Its also a fact that he's overseen a collapse in our season ticket base. Can dress it up all different ways but the fact is we've got a lot of work to do just to get back to 8500 and its happened on his watch.

 

[Mattyblue]

The likes of Monk and Rowett go from Championship job to Championship job without achieving feck all, so I don’t see why TM can’t join them on the merry go round...

[matt83]

I can’t see him retiring. He can retire, live in London and do naff all. Or he can live in London, do naff and have Rovers pay him £300,000 a year. No brainer.