Tony Mowbray

[DeeCee]

13 minutes ago, StHelensRover said:

I'm not a fan of the revisionism that Mowbray was some complete donkey and I'm not interested in nonsense conspiracy theories about how he didn't want to get promoted. We spent several years not really going anywhere in the championship under him but we would have spent several years not really going anywhere under Pep Guardiola or Arne Slot. It's not the manager or 'head coach' that is the ceiling for this club, but he's an easy scapegoat. He made some poor signings during his tenure and there was a couple of horrific runs where I expected us to part company, but I don't understand the vitriol towards him, as if he were some kind of double-agent.

People seem to brush over the fact he got us out of League One at the first time of asking, as though we had a god-given right because we were a big fish in a small pond. Forest, Leeds, the Sheffield clubs, Charlton, Bolton currently, and so on. All 'big' clubs that rotted or are rotting in that shite division for years and couldn't get out, with bigger crowds than we manage. We bounced straight out of it and we are very fortunate. He gets a lot of credit for that. Given how these lot run the club, who knows where we could have been now if we didn't come straight back. He was good enough to get us out of that division but not quite good enough to get us out of this one, not accounting for the fact we are run like a lower league club by our overlords 

Shouldn't really have been relegated tbh, that's on Mowbray as well.

[roversfan99]

It isnt. Very little of the blame goes to him. Mostly on Venkys, a large chunk on Coyle.

[Tomphil2]

3 hours ago, StHelensRover said:

I'm not a fan of the revisionism that Mowbray was some complete donkey and I'm not interested in nonsense conspiracy theories about how he didn't want to get promoted. We spent several years not really going anywhere in the championship under him but we would have spent several years not really going anywhere under Pep Guardiola or Arne Slot. It's not the manager or 'head coach' that is the ceiling for this club, but he's an easy scapegoat. He made some poor signings during his tenure and there was a couple of horrific runs where I expected us to part company, but I don't understand the vitriol towards him, as if he were some kind of double-agent.

People seem to brush over the fact he got us out of League One at the first time of asking, as though we had a god-given right because we were a big fish in a small pond. Forest, Leeds, the Sheffield clubs, Charlton, Bolton currently, and so on. All 'big' clubs that rotted or are rotting in that shite division for years and couldn't get out, with bigger crowds than we manage. We bounced straight out of it and we are very fortunate. He gets a lot of credit for that. Given how these lot run the club, who knows where we could have been now if we didn't come straight back. He was good enough to get us out of that division but not quite good enough to get us out of this one, not accounting for the fact we are run like a lower league club by our overlords 

Yes they all have to work for the loons but JDT blew away that 'nobody would've done better' theory very quickly.

Before he was shafted with the budget of course.

[B16Rover]

Probably fake news but 

 

 

[Upside Down]

16 minutes ago, B16Rover said:

Probably fake news but 

 

 

Bradley Johnson false 9.

[DE.]

Gally on the right wing. 

[metalrover]

The pot calling the kettle black

[Tomphil2]

Mowbrays very system of developing players involves playing them out of position and moving them around trying to make systems fit them and vice versa.

After watching his methods for 5 years it was very obvious.

AA, Dack, Buckley, Giles, Gallagher to name just a few, sometimes it worked sometimes not and was often detrimental to the team itself.

He even said he wasn't that bothered about results or league position as long as he felt individuals were developing and presumably increasing in value by gaining appearances and proving flexibility. He did bring in some big fees and should have had a few more big sales if it wasn't for various factors.

End of the day that was his remit from the owners, not promotion but i guess at Sunderland and Brum that was on the agenda unlike the mid table target here.

[RevidgeBlue]

3 hours ago, DE. said:

Gally on the right wing. 

Or right back.

[smiller14]

I still have nightmares of Swansea away vs 10 men where Buckley played as a false 9 by himself as Giles whipped in crosses to nobody. 

[iSeeRed]

Just reminiscing on some of these bold decisions Mowbray was addicted to making.  Wonder which players he'll play out of position the next time round? Anyone for De Neve as false nine?

[booth]

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/19898505.tony-mowbray-explains-blackburn-rovers-didnt-sign-striker/
 

“We had opportunities, there were No.9s out there and the really interesting thing is that clubs are phoning us and asking if we want to take this player, Premier League clubs.

“They have to fit into the way we play, why would we sign a Premier League centre forward if we don’t play with a centre forward at this moment, and he can’t do the running of a wide striker, doesn’t chase full backs, so we’d be playing with nine men rather than 10 out of possession?

“Why when we’re doing so well at the moment would we throw that away and do something totally different?

“We tried to recruit players to fit the system.”


What a massive cock up that was.

 

[B16Rover]

10 minutes ago, iSeeRed said:

Just reminiscing on some of these bold decisions Mowbray was addicted to making.  Wonder which players he'll play out of position the next time round? Anyone for De Neve as false nine?

Defends would struggle to match the pace of a front two of De Neve and Kargbo.  Plus, if we start them both central it gives them more time to think before they run off the pitch 

[M_B]

On 30/08/2025 at 17:56, roversfan99 said:

It isnt. Very little of the blame goes to him. Mostly on Venkys, a large chunk on Coyle.

Rovers went down despite Mowbray gaining a points average which would have had us 8th over the season.

Just how people can blame him isn't justified. 

[Guy N. Cognito]

1 hour ago, M_B said:

Rovers went down despite Mowbray gaining a points average which would have had us 8th over the season.

Just how people can blame him isn't justified. 

We were 3pts from safety with 15 games remaining when Mowbray took over. His job was to keep us up. He failed.

[M_B]

2 minutes ago, Guy N. Cognito said:

We were 3pts from safety with 15 games remaining when Mowbray took over. His job was to keep us up. He failed.

I know he failed, we went down, but the damage was already done, otherwise we'd have finished 8th. 

[Guy N. Cognito]

4 minutes ago, M_B said:

I know he failed, we went down, but the damage was already done, otherwise we'd have finished 8th. 

I would say that 3pts with 15 games to play leaves a fighting chance of survival. Mowbray just isn't a firefighter manager. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Guy N. Cognito

[Hasta]

14 minutes ago, Guy N. Cognito said:

We were 3pts from safety with 15 games remaining when Mowbray took over. His job was to keep us up. He failed.

Your correct in that he couldn’t get a team which was in the bottom 3 to suddenly go on a run of form better than that which over the course of a season would have been good enough to have earned a play off spot most seasons. By that measure he failed.  But that’s a massively unfair bar to set unless you have an agenda against somebody. 

The problem is Mowbray started making strange decisions and saying stupid things in the last few years he was here. I wanted him gone at the end as much as anyone. But I can also acknowledge he did a good job in those first 18 months he was here.

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Hasta

[LeftWinger]

15 minutes ago, M_B said:

I know he failed, we went down, but the damage was already done, otherwise we'd have finished 8th. 

11th, but point taken

[Guy N. Cognito]

10 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Your correct in that he couldn’t get a team which was in the bottom 3 to suddenly go on a run of form which over the course of a season would have been good enough to have earned a play off spot most seasons. By that measure he failed.  But that’s a massively unfair bar to set unless you have an agenda against somebody. 

The problem is Mowbray started making strange decisions and saying stupid things in the last few years he was here. I wanted him gone at the end as much as anyone. But I can also acknowledge he did a good job in those first 18 months he was here.

The problem is that you can't take a run of games and extrapolate it over the course of a season. We know from first-hand experience with Mowbray it doesn't work like that, as the wheels inevitably come off. But even if we did take Mowbray's initial run of form and extrapolate it, it reaches approx. 67 points, which isn't typically a playoff spot, so let's get that factoid outta the way. 

The point is that Rovers relied on Mowbray to prevent League One status before, and he failed. How exactly does that make him the answer second time of asking?

Edited 1 hour ago by Guy N. Cognito

[Tomphil2]

TM is a season long man his methods reflect that, the long plod not the short bright spark manager bounce.

If he were to come it needs to be right now before the Sheff Weds game not the end of Feb.

Edited 1 hour ago by Tomphil2

[Hasta]

13 minutes ago, Guy N. Cognito said:

The problem is that you can't take a run of games and extrapolate it over the course of a season. We know from first-hand experience with Mowbray it doesn't work like that, as the wheels inevitably come off. But even if we did take Mowbray's initial run of form and extrapolate it, it reaches approx. 67 points, which isn't typically a playoff spot, so let's get that factoid outta the way. 

The point is that Rovers relied on Mowbray to prevent League One status before, and he failed. How exactly does that make him the answer second time of asking?

 I don’t think he would save us and don’t really want him back. I never said I did. i wanted him gone for two years before he left us.

I just think he did a good job in the season he was appointed and was unlucky all the teams at the bottom also went on similar runs. That was freakish, as was going down with 51 points.

Edited 1 hour ago by Hasta

[bigbrandjohn]

I would take him. He wouldn’t take us unless he wanted a final challenge. He puts his arms around players. He got the best out of Dack and others. 
He is well respected if not by some of us. 
Anything but what we have 

 

[Tomphil2]

3 hours ago, booth said:

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/19898505.tony-mowbray-explains-blackburn-rovers-didnt-sign-striker/
 

“We had opportunities, there were No.9s out there and the really interesting thing is that clubs are phoning us and asking if we want to take this player, Premier League clubs.

“They have to fit into the way we play, why would we sign a Premier League centre forward if we don’t play with a centre forward at this moment, and he can’t do the running of a wide striker, doesn’t chase full backs, so we’d be playing with nine men rather than 10 out of possession?

“Why when we’re doing so well at the moment would we throw that away and do something totally different?

“We tried to recruit players to fit the system.”


What a massive cock up that was.

 

I moaned repeatedly through his time here we needed a big striker in the squad to throw on and cause problems when we needed a goal.

We were on the wrong end of it numerous times under him but he had a serious aversion to even having someone in the squad like that. Yet our best times under him were when we had Danny Graham.

He rarely even played Gallagher as an out and out centre forward.

[Moptop1]

No for me. I wanted him much sooner than he went. He said all the right things to to the fans. Those last two seasons were a horrible watch.