Tony Mowbray's Reign...& is he off to Sunderland ?

[roversfan99]

Assuming we don't go up, which only the biggest of optimist would expect now, how would people judge Mowbray's tenure as a whole if he left in the summer and how many out of 10 would you mark his reign.

There has been a lot of hyperbole often at the most emotive of times eg during/after a loss, silly comparisons, lots of analysis of stupid little things and conspiracy theories but I am wondering how people would reflect overall a few days after a game amidst an international break when things are calmer.

I would give it a 6, its been ok. The club as a whole are definitely in a better position now, and we have never been at all close to going down during the last 4 years since we comfortably got promoted. His transfer record is fairly good, he has spent between 15m-20m, we got not far off that for Armstrong and a Brereton sale will go well past that, Gallagher is his worst signing for value.

I think I would hold no ill will towards him and if he ever came back he would deserve applause rather than any ill will. What about everyone else?

[DeeCee]

Generous 6+/10 should have done better. 

[K-Hod]

Would probably go with a 6 too.

Coyle left him with a lot to do in the relegation season and to go down on GD was particularly gut wrenching. The PNE home game where we threw away a two goal lead stung and ultimately cost us.

I also felt like we could have been more adventurous in other games and saved ourselves before then too.

The league one promotion season was a great one tbh. Though I would have preferred us going up as champions obviously! It seemed like that season, we just about did enough, in terms of Dack, Mulgrew, Dack, Graham and Raya pulling us out of the brown stuff on a lot of occasions! In fairness, clubs with bigger fan bases than ours have struggled and continue to struggle to get out of that league, so credit where it has been due!

We seemed to then plateau until this season, where we over achieved to get to second place. Saying that though, for us to fall away from play off contention, having looked strong for automatic promotion, goes down as being unforgivable in my book.

[simongarnerisgod]

he`s a stellar chap,very likeable but a frustrating manager and a very tacticianh,he`s never got the best out of a good squad of players though ironically his recruitment has been very good

id`e give him a 5/10,we should have annihilated league one with a record points total,such was our squad quality,the defenders are coming was a shambles,defenders should have been coming but we got two strikers,one we massively overpaid for and the other took 3 seasons to get going,the harrison reed debacle is another sore point for me,massively mistreated the lad shoving him out wide and the raya saga followed up by signing the worst goalkeeper iv`e ever seen(thankfully on loan)

i don`t bear him any illwill,he`s  1000% better than kean and a proper manager compared to clown coyle,i just have never liked his football philosophy,i can count the amount of times on one hand we`ve gone out and really attacked the opposition,to me football is about scoring goals and attacking,the best form of defence is attack

 

[joey_big_nose]

I think it's a bit early for this. Should wait until it is clearer where we will finish.

[alcd]

6/10 for me. He's been bailed out by having three massively successful goalscoring signings. Dack's goals and assists got us out of L1 and established midtable in the Championship. He would also have brought in a large transfer fee before his first injury. Armstrong's goals kept relegation at arms length last season and brought in large fee despite having only 12 months left. Finally Brereton was an expensive gamble that eventually paid off and will no doubt depart for a large fee this summer. Virtually all the other permanent signings have been generally underwhelming apart from Kaminski and occasional contributions from Smallwood, Johnson and Downing. Loan signings have been hit and miss as you would probably expect. Player development has been fairly good with Nyambe, Travis and possibly Buckley becoming established regulars (tombola permitting). Team selection and tactics has been erratic bordering on crass at times. Overall he lacks drive and ambition which reflects in performances.

[rigger]

5 out of 10, for me. In my eyes he lost 2 points with his statements to the media.

[Ossydave]

I think a 6 is fair enough, if he leaves in the summer as you say. It's edging towards a 5 at present mind...

[Oldgregg86]

5 mr average and his score reflects that

[booth]

Probably a nice bloke in real life. If he could curb his penchant for strange tactics, and get teams to play for a full game/season he'd be brilliant. It's obvious he is able to put a team together that can compete when he's not experimenting. It's a shame he's soured himself against some fans with some of the things he's said and his inability to shoulder some of the blame himself.

I'd stretch to a 7 as anyone who can put up with Venkys for 5 years deserves an extra point.

I'm feeling generous today.

[Hannoverover]

Looking objectively:

League position: relegation zone to 6th place

Playing squad: completely rebuilt squad which is younger and has a much higher value (I'm ignoring contract statuses here)

Club has a completely different feel to it than when he took over. As he's promised multiple times, the club is in a much better position.

Right now I would give him an 8/10. In 6 weeks probably a different score.

[OsloRover]

Good topic.

Although this spring has obviously been a big disappointment I’m sure most of us would have taken a top 10 finish before the season started, with all the usual gloom on here. It is progress, but slower than many of us would like. Overall I think the club is better off now than when he came in.

The guy knows what management is about and does his job, he cares for the players (maybe at the expense of the club sometimes), and his transfer record is pretty good overall. It could be much worse, and it has been at times under Venkys as you all know.

On the flip side, his media handling and touchline demeanor leaves a lot to be desired. As does some of his much debated tactical choices, so points will have to be deducted there.

Like many others I think 6/10 is the right score.

 

[roverandout]

14 minutes ago, Hannoverover said:

Looking objectively:

League position: relegation zone to 6th place

Playing squad: completely rebuilt squad which is younger and has a much higher value (I'm ignoring contract statuses here)

Club has a completely different feel to it than when he took over. As he's promised multiple times, the club is in a much better position.

Right now I would give him an 8/10. In 6 weeks probably a different score.

Really? 8? That should be reserved for someone who has us consistently challenging for the playoffs not a manager who finishes bottom half every season and has a 1 off promotion push

[OldEwoodBlue]

2 out of 10.

Got us relegated when it was easier to stay up. Most of the points he dropped were for the exact same reasons as today.

We were promoted in spite of him because of our Championship squad. In fact that was probably his worst season in context. He wasn't interested in coming top. Unforgiveable.

Since then its just been mey boring, same old mistakes. Same old drivel. Stopped watching his pressers 3 years ago. Not a single thing learned in all this time. Nice enough bloke. Crap manager.

 

[tomphil]

It's a real mixed bag as we've had relegation, promotion, consolidation, stagnation then one top 6 push, so far.

Got to be around a 6.9 from me all things considered depending on this seasons finish but i can't see it rising if he stays any longer.

His failure to address weaknesses in certain positions has cost us time and again and it ain't all down to not having backing.

Edited March 23, 2022 by tomphil

[Hannoverover]

53 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Really? 8? That should be reserved for someone who has us consistently challenging for the playoffs not a manager who finishes bottom half every season and has a 1 off promotion push

If you ignore our current horrible run of form I think play off position deserves an 8. If our form continues and we end up mid table, it'll probably be closer to a 6. Promotion via the play offs would be a 9? 10? Definitely not expecting that to happen though. Let's see what happens after the international break

[DE.]

Objectively around 6 is probably right. 

Personally I'm closer to a 3 or a 4 though. Aside from the second half of our L1 campaign and the odd month or two here and there per season I've found Mowbray's tenure to be dull, frustrating and baffling in equal measures. Defenders are coming, Brockhall, accusing the fans of thinking it's 1995, encouraging arguments on the terraces, making every opponent out to be superior, death spirals, players out of position (in particular strikers on the f'ing wing), throwing players under the bus unfairly, admitting to letting the dressing room police itself, stupid quotes such as not looking at the league table, refusing to ever take responsibility for anything bad, record bad runs, a record home defeat... well anyway, I've said many times that I look forward to him leaving and I stand by that. I don't find Mowbray's Rovers very enjoyable to follow. Appreciate others seemingly do, but I just don't believe that this manager will ever achieve anything for us in the Championship beyond mid-table. We've seen smaller clubs on smaller budgets get playoff shots in the time we've been in this division, so why should we accept mid table as our ceiling? I want a manager at the helm that I have some faith in. Mowbray simply doesn't learn from his mistakes and it's obvious at this point he is too stubborn to change. 

Does that mean I trust Venky's to find a better manager? No. It's Venky's. It still wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if TM is offered a new contract even if we drop out of the playoff spots. In fact that is exactly what I expect to happen. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by DE.

[Silas]

Agree with the 6 consensus. 

If he got us in the playoffs this season I'd up it to a 7.5 regardless of what happened in them. 

But, if we didn't go up, no new contract, if we did, 1 year contract only.

If we got relegated, no chance I'd want him spearheading the bounceback. By that stage, don't think he'd even have the energy. 

He seems about a decade older than his actual age. 

[roverandout]

38 minutes ago, Hannoverover said:

If you ignore our current horrible run of form I think play off position deserves an 8. If our form continues and we end up mid table, it'll probably be closer to a 6. Promotion via the play offs would be a 9? 10? Definitely not expecting that to happen though. Let's see what happens after the international break

Agree but over the 5 years he's a 6 at most

[JHRover]

Its a tough one really, because I accept that he has done good at the club and there are numerous positives to his management. 

The promotion from League One was 'job done' but I'm at the point now where 4 years later it is time to consign that to history. It was good to get straight back up, it wasn't a foregone conclusion but then again with that squad and resource it should and needed to happen.

But he can't keep on living off that promotion. It wasn't Accy Stanley he was hauling to the Championship on a shoestring. He was well backed and equipped to do it.

Serious clubs applaud the accomplishment, respect him for it, then look to the future. Not keep on harking on about a promotion 4 years ago or how bad things were under Coyle as a reason to let him continue indefinitely.

Another element of being a serious club is having a prospective view and approach - looking forward to the future - where do we want to be and how are we going to get there - rather than a retrospective view of where were we 5 years ago and just because we are in a better state then we have to be happy with how things are.

There are traits in Mowbray that I appreciate. Apart from his odd touchline wobbler he generally conducts himself well and is by no means the worst person to have representing the club, even if he does talk garbage from time to time. He seems to be respected by most people who come here. He will tolerate working for Venkys which must not be easy at times.

We saw early last season and the first half of this season that he has the ability to craft a good side and go on good runs of form. Sadly we've also seen the dark side to it in the second half of last season and this - horrendous - nothing less than catastrophic.

So really I'd give it a 6 out of 10. Some good, but also a lot of bad.

People say we're drastically better off than when he arrived - but after the upcoming summer exodus and sale of Brereton I'm not sure we really are. We'll have a few assets under contract - Kaminski, Travis, a few others but not much. The squad will need drastic work doing to it again just to remain competitive. So again looking to the future there has to be criticism of some form towards the manager for arriving again at a point where we have so much work to do and not much to do it with.

The manner of our collapse this season - astonishing by any measure - is unforgivable and unforgettable and forget 2017-2021 and all that went on there. He has to pay the price for January, February and March because it has been nothing short of a dereliction of management from him and his team including Waggott. 

The fact that he has done this multiple times before - Middlesbrough twice and to less extreme levels Coventry and Rovers last season - tells us that he cannot and will not learn from this. So looking forward to the future and planning ahead it is clear that he isn't going to be able to get past that. Even if by some miracle we get to the same position this Christmas the chances are he will just repeat it again. 

 

[AspRover]

Coyle relegated us, I honestly don't hold that one against Mowbray (though I respect those on here who do), he got us to a point where we'd have stayed up any of the previous 10 seasons or something ridiculous.

First full season got promotion, brought in some players I've enjoyed watching and has over the following seasons kept us up, cemented us as mid table and then this season we've been in play off contention. On paper it looks very good.

However. Having built a team that (almost) is a promotion contender built around a core of home-grown talent he's blowing it. It really is self sabotage at this point. We're going to look back on this season in the same way as the Rhodes/Guestede/King season of 'that was our chance, how did we not take it'.

7/10. 6/10 if and when we finish 7th or lower, 8/10 if we make the playoffs and have a good showing. Still would not renew contract.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I’d give him 5. He should have been gone long ago. We’ve been treading water for 3 seasons.

[jim mk2]

Tony's natural position with Rovers is mid-table so he gets a middle of the road 5 out of 10 from me. As his teacher might have said, "could do better". 

This is subject to revision of course; a play-off place would put him at 6; a play-off final place 7 and promotion 9

 

[47er]

Yes agree with Jim. 5 out of 10. Not the imagination or tactical ability to make the most of a squad.

If you are happy to jog along every season in the Championship and finish about halfway, Tony is your man.

[Upside Down]

6. He has brought some much needed stability but when it comes to the big games and getting results when it really matters then he hasn't got the bottle.

He's got a long proven track record of doing really well up to Christmas then blowing it in the new year. Ultimately that is not good enough. 

He doesn't deserve any ill will but he has not earned a place amongst the managerial legends at this club despite his long tenure. 

Ultimately he will be somewhat anonymous in the annals of Rovers history, just one more in a long line of managerial mediocrity that has come to be the hallmark of the Venkys reign.