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

[arbitro]

46 minutes ago, TimmyJimmy said:

Here's a firecracker in your hen house - maybe TM staying is the best thing! Think Curbishley and Charlton. 96 until 06 I think and a few years before that in a joint role. Two promotions and a solid Premiership position when he left. Didn't do anything later at West Ham.

Success at Charlton was put down to his longevity at the club where year on year he got the internals right and brought through the players he wanted. 

Not putting TM in same class as Ferguson but the same applied to him. Nearly sacked, survived and improved over the years once he had knocked the club into shape and his image. Chalk and cheese obviously but the principle holds.

Maybe, just maybe TM staying would be a good thing, especially when you look at the possible replacements and how long it would take them to refashion the team.

Boom! Just saying 🙂

Mowbray is going to have to refashion the team as we stand to lose around the players from the squad. From that perspective alone surely a new manager could bring in a good number of new players who fit his style and way of thinking. 

[Gav]

2 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

thats the most optimistic quote ive` ever read🤣,you  have to score goals to win a football match and since tony has reverted back to type we don`t look like scoring ever

Do you follow our results? We scored 3 just over a week ago?

Here's the match report:

 https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/12567194/blackburn-3-1-derby-championship-highlights

[simongarnerisgod]

5 minutes ago, rigger said:

The worst part is, we have looked like scoring, on plenty of occasions, but we haven't put the ball in the net.

not signing a proper centre forward in january was a shocking piece of mismanagement,injuries and tiredness happen at every club,they do the sensible thing and get reinforcements in

[rigger]

5 minutes ago, Gav said:

Do you follow our results? We scored 3 just over a week ago?

Here's the match report:

 https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/12567194/blackburn-3-1-derby-championship-highlights

So that is 6 goals in our last 15 games, are you happy with that ?

[simongarnerisgod]

5 minutes ago, Gav said:

Do you follow our results? We scored 3 just over a week ago?

Here's the match report:

 https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/12567194/blackburn-3-1-derby-championship-highlights

aye,then what does pep mowbray do for the reading match,goes back to the same formation from the first half of the derby game,i know you adore and respect him but you`ve got to admit he`s a poor manager who patently does`nt listen to anyone around him

[roverandout]

1 hour ago, TimmyJimmy said:

Here's a firecracker in your hen house - maybe TM staying is the best thing! Think Curbishley and Charlton. 96 until 06 I think and a few years before that in a joint role. Two promotions and a solid Premiership position when he left. Didn't do anything later at West Ham.

Success at Charlton was put down to his longevity at the club where year on year he got the internals right and brought through the players he wanted. 

Not putting TM in same class as Ferguson but the same applied to him. Nearly sacked, survived and improved over the years once he had knocked the club into shape and his image. Chalk and cheese obviously but the principle holds.

Maybe, just maybe TM staying would be a good thing, especially when you look at the possible replacements and how long it would take them to refashion the team.

Boom! Just saying 🙂

Those managers had some form of success 

[alcd]

On 25/03/2022 at 12:52, Gav said:

I'd wager Diaz and Dolan, but lets not split hairs, you're point is a valid one.

Several clubs in this league are filled with loan players, its the modern way for clubs with a limited budget, which we are. When the 3 stooges took over the club they vowed to get the wage bill under control and sacked some great players as a result. Here we are 11yrs later and its another broken promise.

The buck stops with the billionaire owners, we're in the loan market because they've failed to get wages under control, simple as that for me. The managers are given a budget to work to and they do just that, its the owners that set that budget.

The club have brought in well over £20m by selling Armstrong and the training ground, they need to put some of that money into the managers hand to buy some replacements, but I won't hold my breath.....

Transferring the training ground to another Venkys company did not generate any more funds. I'm get tired of pointing that out. The Armstrong money was no more than £10m after paying off Newcastle. 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

1 hour ago, simongarnerisgod said:

not signing a proper centre forward in january was a shocking piece of mismanagement,injuries and tiredness happen at every club,they do the sensible thing and get reinforcements in

Not signing one last summer was pathetic, not signing one in January was pure neglect (from the board) and total incompetence (from the manager) 

Edited March 26, 2022 by Armchair supporter supremo

[Armchair supporter supremo]

25 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Those managers had some form of success 

I always found charlton under curbishley to be the most depressing ambitionless club though, even in the prem

[tomphil]

3 hours ago, alcd said:

Transferring the training ground to another Venkys company did not generate any more funds. I'm get tired of pointing that out. The Armstrong money was no more than £10m after paying off Newcastle. 

It'll take until the accounts come out to really know but i'm of the opinion it was just covering money already put in for running costs.

Go out into facebook and twitter land and there are still people thinking there'll be a 16 million summer war chest for Mowbray.

Not that he'd even spend it if there was.

[Gav]

11 minutes ago, tomphil said:

It'll take until the accounts come out to really know but i'm of the opinion it was just covering money already put in for running costs.

We have billionaire owners, but only 1 brain cell between the 3 of them.

Jack would have found a way to make us more competitive, even with FFP, these idiots couldn't care less.

[tomphil]

4 minutes ago, Gav said:

We have billionaire owners, but only 1 brain cell between the 3 of them.

Jack would have found a way to make us more competitive, even with FFP, these idiots couldn't care less.

Billionare owners who employ poundshop people to run and manage the club.

Jack would've employed better.

[chaddyrovers]

interesting debate and topic posted by @roversfan99. 

I would give Tony Mowbray a overall 7 for his time in charge. 

I don't blame for the relegation to league 1 and the blame for me should be lay at the door of Owen Coyle and the person who selected him to become Rovers manager, 

Tony Mowbray deserved huge credit for getting us promoted from league 1 at the first time of asking whilst we have seen clubs like Sunderland, Charlton, Leeds, Sheffield United struggled to get out of league 1 or currently have struggled to get out of league. I enjoyed the season and Mowbray did change his tactics and game plan after 2 games into the season. 

I also have enjoyed this season and the way we have played overall even tho in recent games and weeks we have struggled to win and score goals. I enjoyed the wins against Swansea and Cardiff cos of how we played and press from the front. Since going to 3 at the back I enjoyed the wins and how solid we have been at the back until recent weeks and games. I still think we need to go back to playing 4-2-3-1 and get Dack into that 10 role with either Brereton or Gallagher up front if we want a playoff place

I was very disappointed and angry about Tony Mowbray failure to get us at least a playoff place last season given the backing he had in that season and the amount of players he had at his choice and disposal but I think that's makes him over think the game plan and tactics. Mowbray should have been replace last summer. 

The first 2 season back in Championship was good enough but maybe we should have done better at times and maybe get a playoff place

His transfer record is a mixed one. Done brilliant with signings like Dack, Armstrong, Kaminski but poor ones like Gallagher when a centre defender should have been priority after the 1st season back in the championship. Still think he should have done this after we get promote and look to replace Mulgrew long term. His loan signings have been mixed with players like Antonsson, Reed, Tosin and Harwood-Bellis been good, but players like Palmer and Trybull have been poor ones 

Think he done good bringing in young players from academy like Travis, Buckley and Wharton to becoming key players for club and the future 

[TimmyJimmy]

6 hours ago, rigger said:

Forget what has happened elsewhere, do you think Mowbray staying, is a good thing for the Rovers . Boom! just asking. 

No 🙂

 

[Upside Down]

9 hours ago, Mike E said:

Exactly that. He's basically done a Souness.

But a league lower.

And started with a relegation.

And didn't win a trophy.

Or place us in the top 6 of the league we were promoted (back) to.

So nothing like Souness then.

Or Howard Kendall for that matter.

[rigger]

4 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

So nothing like Souness then.

Or Howard Kendall for that matter.

I think there was a touch of irony in Mike E's post

[lraC]

8 hours ago, rigger said:

I think there was a touch of irony in Mike E's post

It’s a what have the Romans done for us gag.

[Ulrich]

19 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

aye,then what does pep mowbray do for the reading match,goes back to the same formation from the first half of the derby game,i know you adore and respect him but you`ve got to admit he`s a poor manager who patently does`nt listen to anyone around him

I dunno why, but I get the impression he's one of those people who turns left as he's sure he's right, but all and sundry are telling him to turn right.

[Guest]

59 minutes ago, Ulrich said:

I dunno why, but I get the impression he's one of those people who turns left as he's sure he's right, but all and sundry are telling him to turn right.

Yes, they are called 'mis-matchers' in NLP terms, and whilst it is unusual for a senior manager to display this behavioural tic, it is not unheard of where the management are subject to rigid and unreasonable conditions that render them effectively meaningless. There is an old theory from Psychology called 'Learned Helplessness' (Seligman) that goes further, suggesting that where individuals feel there is no hope of change, combined with a loss of autonomy, they essentially give up.

So, Mowbray is a mis-matcher, and the long-suffering Rovers support suffers from Learned Helplessness. Oh, and those arseholes on Twatter and Farcebook definitely have succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome..

 

[MarkBRFC]

I'd probably give Mowbray a 5 or so.

Breath of fresh air when he first come in, but I think a lot of that can be down to following Coyle. I don't blame him solely for the relegation, but as said previously 2 points adrift with 15 games to go, I personally think he should have got us out of it. So that's one strike there.

League one after an uninspiring start he changed it around and got Danny Graham involved which saved our season and secured a pretty comfortable promotion in the end. Whilst of course promotion is the aim, you don't get to see your side win many league titles, so it was poor just to laugh that off like we were better than that. There's a reason the 75 title winning team still gets talked about to this day. That was the first sign for me of Mowbray not really being a winner and being a "just enough will do" manager.

18-19 again started well, a bit inconsistent but found ourselves a couple of points outside the play offs after a superb January. Clear as day a centre half was needed in that window as we only had Rodwell and Downing as back up to Lenihan and Mulgrew (who was slowly losing his form). Not only did he not bother sorting it out, he let Downing go out on loan on deadline day. What followed was a Lenihan injury in the first game after the window shut and 9 defeats in 11 games that destroyed a promising season. "Defenders are coming"

19-20 started with a bizarre transfer window of promising defenders only to sign Tosin on loan, who was decent don't get me wrong, but nowhere near enough to what we needed. In his own words "we sold our goalie to buy Sam Gallagher" which again was another odd decision. Even odder that he had no plan to replace Raya and settled for another loan who was bang average at his absolute best. Our captain Charlie Mulgrew played the first game, had a stinker and was promptly sent on loan only playing one more time for us over the next two years before leaving on a free. The first game against Charlton was the end for me with Mowbray, a dreadful performance with Gallagher bumbling around up top replacing our player of the year the season before, Rothwell left on the bench despite a brilliant end to the previous season, and despite being 2-1 down at home to a side just promoted, he sends on John Buckley for the last 10 minutes leaving our £7m striker sat on the bench. The season as a whole went as expected, plodding on until getting in a good position, before not knowing how to cope with dacks unfortunate injury. Covid disrupted the season and we finished in mid table never really threatening anything.

20-21 looked great on paper, a big squad packed with talent. Strange season being behind closed doors but a great start, followed by more inconsistency with Mowbray not having a clue of his best 11 ended with us a few points outside the play offs as usual in January. 2 wins in 17 followed and we finished 15th for the second time in 3 years. Cracking "journey" so far.

This season I think most feared the worst. A promising but inconsistent start saw us in 10th before playing Fulham at Ewood, a record home defeat had me close to giving up entirely. Somehow that result galvanised everyone and the next 2 months were incredible and gave the feeling that something special could be happening. However as we all know, January was crying out for one solid striking addition to push us over the edge. Mowbray didn't bother because "we don't play that way" and of course just like two years ago with the defender situation it came back to bite him like we all knew it would. A club record 5 games without a goal followed, with only 6 been scored in total since the new year. Now of course we could find a bit of form that still makes us finish in the top 6, which all things being considered would be a fantastic achievement and would probably bump up his score a bit. I will be amazed if that happens though and feel another 11th place finish coming on, which would be a total failure to where we were at Christmas.

Player wise he's been hit and miss, Armstrong, Dack, Kaminski and Diaz eventually have been great signings that will all end up in profit for the club, there have been howlers too like Gallagher, selling Raya for peanuts, getting Harrison Reed in and telling him to learn off Smallwood and Evans.

Travis, Buckley Wharton and Nyambe have all come through in his time and become important players, a shame one will leave for nothing in the summer.

So, barring a promotion this season, my main memories of Mowbray will be a great night at Doncaster, a brilliant two months in 2021, long ridiculous losing runs that never seem to end, a record home defeat, and a record run without scoring a goal.

At the moment 5/10 seems more than fair. He hasn't finished as high as Bowyer yet, and in my opinion Bowyer inherited a bigger mess of a club than Mowbray did. (He also kept us up.)

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by MarkBRFC

[bluebruce]

2 hours ago, MarkBRFC said:

I'd probably give Mowbray a 5 or so.

Breath of fresh air when he first come in, but I think a lot of that can be down to following Coyle. I don't blame him solely for the relegation, but as said previously 2 points adrift with 15 games to go, I personally think he should have got us out of it. So that's one strike there.

League one after an uninspiring start he changed it around and got Danny Graham involved which saved our season and secured a pretty comfortable promotion in the end. Whilst of course promotion is the aim, you don't get to see your side win many league titles, so it was poor just to laugh that off like we were better than that. There's a reason the 75 title winning team still gets talked about to this day. That was the first sign for me of Mowbray not really being a winner and being a "just enough will do" manager.

18-19 again started well, a bit inconsistent but found ourselves a couple of points outside the play offs after a superb January. Clear as day a centre half was needed in that window as we only had Rodwell and Downing as back up to Lenihan and Mulgrew (who was slowly losing his form). Not only did he not bother sorting it out, he let Downing go out on loan on deadline day. What followed was a Lenihan injury in the first game after the window shut and 9 defeats in 11 games that destroyed a promising season. "Defenders are coming"

19-20 started with a bizarre transfer window of promising defenders only to sign Tosin on loan, who was decent don't get me wrong, but nowhere near enough to what we needed. In his own words "we sold our goalie to buy Sam Gallagher" which again was another odd decision. Even odder that he had no plan to replace Raya and settled for another loan who was bang average at his absolute best. Our captain Charlie Mulgrew played the first game, had a stinker and was promptly sent on loan only playing one more time for us over the next two years before leaving on a free. The first game against Charlton was the end for me with Mowbray, a dreadful performance with Gallagher bumbling around up top replacing our player of the year the season before, Rothwell left on the bench despite a brilliant end to the previous season, and despite being 2-1 down at home to a side just promoted, he sends on John Buckley for the last 10 minutes leaving our £7m striker sat on the bench. The season as a whole went as expected, plodding on until getting in a good position, before not knowing how to cope with dacks unfortunate injury. Covid disrupted the season and we finished in mid table never really threatening anything.

20-21 looked great on paper, a big squad packed with talent. Strange season being behind closed doors but a great start, followed by more inconsistency with Mowbray not having a clue of his best 11 ended with us a few points outside the play offs as usual in January. 2 wins in 17 followed and we finished 15th for the second time in 3 years. Cracking "journey" so far.

This season I think most feared the worst. A promising but inconsistent start saw us in 10th before playing Fulham at Ewood, a record home defeat had me close to giving up entirely. Somehow that result galvanised everyone and the next 2 months were incredible and gave the feeling that something special could be happening. However as we all know, January was crying out for one solid striking addition to push us over the edge. Mowbray didn't bother because "we don't play that way" and of course just like two years ago with the defender situation it came back to bite him like we all knew it would. A club record 5 games without a goal followed, with only 6 been scored in total since the new year. Now of course we could find a bit of form that still makes us finish in the top 6, which all things being considered would be a fantastic achievement and would probably bump up his score a bit. I will be amazed if that happens though and feel another 11th place finish coming on, which would be a total failure to where we were at Christmas.

Player wise he's been hit and miss, Armstrong, Dack, Kaminski and Diaz eventually have been great signings that will all end up in profit for the club, there have been howlers too like Gallagher, selling Raya for peanuts, getting Harrison Reed in and telling him to learn off Smallwood and Evans.

Travis, Buckley Wharton and Nyambe have all come through in his time and become important players, a shame one will leave for nothing in the summer.

So, barring a promotion this season, my main memories of Mowbray will be a great night at Doncaster, a brilliant two months in 2021, long ridiculous losing runs that never seem to end, a record home defeat, and a record run without scoring a goal.

At the moment 5/10 seems more than fair. He hasn't finished as high as Bowyer yet, and in my opinion Bowyer inherited a bigger mess of a club than Mowbray did. (He also kept us up.)

 

Fantastic summary of the Mowbray era. I personally don't count the relegation against him too much, as we had decent points returns after he came in, we just got unlucky with other teams around us doing similar. One of the highest points totals a team has gone down with, and ludicrously unlucky on the last day. But he did show a lack of ambition in some winnable games which could have got us over the line. So only a minor strike for me.

Hard to find anything to disagree with in the rest of what you said though. A few things I had almost forgotten about too. Galling how he sabotages us in daft ways pretty much every season. No manager is perfect but some of this stuff takes the piss. And he takes so very long to learn from his mistakes, when he learns at all. Infuriating man.

[Blue blood]

5 hours ago, MarkBRFC said:

I'd probably give Mowbray a 5 or so.

Breath of fresh air when he first come in, but I think a lot of that can be down to following Coyle. I don't blame him solely for the relegation, but as said previously 2 points adrift with 15 games to go, I personally think he should have got us out of it. So that's one strike there.

League one after an uninspiring start he changed it around and got Danny Graham involved which saved our season and secured a pretty comfortable promotion in the end. Whilst of course promotion is the aim, you don't get to see your side win many league titles, so it was poor just to laugh that off like we were better than that. There's a reason the 75 title winning team still gets talked about to this day. That was the first sign for me of Mowbray not really being a winner and being a "just enough will do" manager.

18-19 again started well, a bit inconsistent but found ourselves a couple of points outside the play offs after a superb January. Clear as day a centre half was needed in that window as we only had Rodwell and Downing as back up to Lenihan and Mulgrew (who was slowly losing his form). Not only did he not bother sorting it out, he let Downing go out on loan on deadline day. What followed was a Lenihan injury in the first game after the window shut and 9 defeats in 11 games that destroyed a promising season. "Defenders are coming"

19-20 started with a bizarre transfer window of promising defenders only to sign Tosin on loan, who was decent don't get me wrong, but nowhere near enough to what we needed. In his own words "we sold our goalie to buy Sam Gallagher" which again was another odd decision. Even odder that he had no plan to replace Raya and settled for another loan who was bang average at his absolute best. Our captain Charlie Mulgrew played the first game, had a stinker and was promptly sent on loan only playing one more time for us over the next two years before leaving on a free. The first game against Charlton was the end for me with Mowbray, a dreadful performance with Gallagher bumbling around up top replacing our player of the year the season before, Rothwell left on the bench despite a brilliant end to the previous season, and despite being 2-1 down at home to a side just promoted, he sends on John Buckley for the last 10 minutes leaving our £7m striker sat on the bench. The season as a whole went as expected, plodding on until getting in a good position, before not knowing how to cope with dacks unfortunate injury. Covid disrupted the season and we finished in mid table never really threatening anything.

20-21 looked great on paper, a big squad packed with talent. Strange season being behind closed doors but a great start, followed by more inconsistency with Mowbray not having a clue of his best 11 ended with us a few points outside the play offs as usual in January. 2 wins in 17 followed and we finished 15th for the second time in 3 years. Cracking "journey" so far.

This season I think most feared the worst. A promising but inconsistent start saw us in 10th before playing Fulham at Ewood, a record home defeat had me close to giving up entirely. Somehow that result galvanised everyone and the next 2 months were incredible and gave the feeling that something special could be happening. However as we all know, January was crying out for one solid striking addition to push us over the edge. Mowbray didn't bother because "we don't play that way" and of course just like two years ago with the defender situation it came back to bite him like we all knew it would. A club record 5 games without a goal followed, with only 6 been scored in total since the new year. Now of course we could find a bit of form that still makes us finish in the top 6, which all things being considered would be a fantastic achievement and would probably bump up his score a bit. I will be amazed if that happens though and feel another 11th place finish coming on, which would be a total failure to where we were at Christmas.

Player wise he's been hit and miss, Armstrong, Dack, Kaminski and Diaz eventually have been great signings that will all end up in profit for the club, there have been howlers too like Gallagher, selling Raya for peanuts, getting Harrison Reed in and telling him to learn off Smallwood and Evans.

Travis, Buckley Wharton and Nyambe have all come through in his time and become important players, a shame one will leave for nothing in the summer.

So, barring a promotion this season, my main memories of Mowbray will be a great night at Doncaster, a brilliant two months in 2021, long ridiculous losing runs that never seem to end, a record home defeat, and a record run without scoring a goal.

At the moment 5/10 seems more than fair. He hasn't finished as high as Bowyer yet, and in my opinion Bowyer inherited a bigger mess of a club than Mowbray did. (He also kept us up.)

 

Brilliant post. Post of the Year imo. 

Few minor tweaks in my book to an exceptional summary.

Firstly the club was chronically underfunded under Coyle who well and truly made the mess even worse. With no windows to rectify it and having (one of?) the highest points totals ever for going down, whilst TM is culpable there's far too many mitigate it. In my lifetime I can't remember any manager who saved us from relegation starting as late as he did. Also there were some positive changes on that season under him so I struggle to apportion too much to blame him for that.

That said when you see Warnock pull Rotherham out of the mire in harder circumstances or some of Big Sam's escapes you realise that he's not a top tier manager. 

Secondly the Diaz situation - contraversial but I am not sure how much of a success we can count it. It's hard to factor in opportunity costs but how many clubs can wait 4 years for a transfer to come good, and one who was their entire budget at that? I've said it numerous times but that £7 million invested well giving more of a contribution in any of the last 3 previous seasons could have made a gigantic difference to our success. 

You are dead wrong about Walton. Average was aspirational for the chap. He was absymal making the swap even worse. Another negative of TM was he never once dropped him even though he clearly was in terrible form. Both aspects of this were criminal. 

Maybe it's me - you do mention it but it really grinds my gears - but a huge negative has always been that we lurch from one player recruitment crisis to another throughout his tenure. Dack wasn't properly covered in either of his two lengthy injuries (despite multiple windows) and a rediculous shortage of defenders year after year leaving us playing kids and Johnson there. Armstrong wasn't replaced. It's really poor - at least try and replace them. Substandard recruitment is one thing. Not trying is something else entirely. 

So yeah a 5 at best EXCEPT then there are his comments. Anyone whose comments could be mistaken for Kean is pretty scummy really. In near 30 years of supporting Rovers I have never ever been accused of expecting a 95 rerun. That's disgraceful for a manager to suggest it. Then there's the inciting fans to action against those who criticise the team amongst a whole load of other bull. Knocks him down at least one mark in my opinion. 

Then there's the playing players rediculously out of position. All managers do it apparently but none, utterly none not even clueless ones like Ince and Coyle would play Gally at right back or Johnson as a false 9. It's so common with him and it's beyond basic - a 12 year old Rovers fan wouldn't do these kind of mistakes. What might have been had he not been so stupid?

Factor in all of this and he gets a 4 at best. As you say "some journey"

 

[roversfan99]

Gallagher at right back was undoubtedly bizarre but it was for about 10 minutes. Johnson as a false 9 was equally bizarre but we won that game so he fixed that error.

"Inciting" fans too, nonsense. And Armstrong wasn't replaced because the owners wouldn't allow any of the proceeds to be reinvested.

[Blue blood]

14 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Gallagher at right back was undoubtedly bizarre but it was for about 10 minutes. Johnson as a false 9 was equally bizarre but we won that game so he fixed that error.

I guess if I was driving you/family members and I did two terrible and dangerous pieces of driving that you wouldn't be so sanguine if it were only moments or if we got away with and didn't crash. Likewise with these situations. It shows he can't be trusted as a manager. 

Added to which if it goes down to goal difference would we regret that first half Vs Derby? (Unlikely scenario I know.) Plus there are many instances of other poor choices of playing players out of position albeit not quite as odd as these. 

14 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

"Inciting" fans too, nonsense. And Armstrong wasn't replaced because the owners wouldn't allow any of the proceeds to be reinvested.

Nonsense? Hardly? Not sure how else you would interpret his comments.

Also worth noting on Armstrong there was no attempt to replace him even with a free transfer / loan / lower league punt. Hampered by budget, possibly. But blatantly ignored the issue too. 

[BlackburnEnd75]

I remember Paul inces last game away at Wigan. Roberts came on as a sub on the right wing and we all saw it as evidence he wasn't up to and or lost the plot. 

Mowbray has played Gally wide right since the back end of the 16/17 season (with a couple of years absent in the middle) and its barely ever worked. Factor how the signing was funded is on its own worth taking him down at least 1 mark out of 10.