Jon Dahl Tomasson - Officially No Longer Our Head Coach

[Gamst]

12 hours ago, booth said:

Luton also spent years gradually building up to that point too. With two very good Championship strikers in their squad.

We finished outside the playoffs on goal difference last season. You can’t then set expectations at mid-table and expect anyone to take you seriously. It’s reasonable for a newly promoted club to aim for survival or mid table with the aim of then progressing in subsequent seasons. Waggot’s statement suggested mid-table mediocrity is our actual long-term strategy. This is never going to motivate your staff to succeed. Utterly flawed strategy from management sets the tone. 

[tomphil]

7 minutes ago, Waggy76 said:

That is what I cannot get my head round , bad owners don't hang around for 13years , in which time they have dismantled a well run premier league football club to the laughing stock it is today . WHY are they still in situ ??

There is a reason and it is not for the Love of Blackburn Rovers !!

I think the Indian authorities finally started asking the same question.

[Waggy76]

2 minutes ago, tomphil said:

I think the Indian authorities finally started asking the same question.

I live in hope !!!

[Mercer]

Agree JDT has not been backed but the big worry for me is he has no plan B and shows no flexibility.  IMO, his 'support' teams all need clearing out. 

Broughton has done little to suggest to me he is a good DOF.

Just where the feck do our recruitment department scout and what 'diamonds' have they unearthed?

Lowe, Johnson and Benson, all seemingly 'unsackable', IMO, bring nothing to the party and live life on easy street.  We have huge goalie issues and is it any wonder when our goalie and set piece coach has never kicked a professional football in his life?  Okay, Kaminski said some nice words about Benson but from what I saw on match days, Raya had little respect for him and wanted away to develop under a quality coach.  Also, presumably, as goalie coach, he 'signed-off' on the signing of Walton, Pears and Leo!!!

Some go on about how wonderful our fitness and medical department are!  Really?  We seem to sign players who aren't fit and are carrying injuries, we pick up a big number of injuries (largely muscle) and it takes ages to get players fit again.  We also have players 'fatigued' and need resting - for goodness sake these are professional athletes.

We are in a reet mess and whether we get new owners or not there needs to be a huge clear out if we are to move forward. 

 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Mercer

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, JHRover said:

All questions only the scum in India can answer.

agreed on the first point. 

1 hour ago, JHRover said:

But I think to argue that there is nobody in the world with the desire or means to buy this club, given what we have witnessed elsewhere, is pushing the limits of believability.

I don't know who would be interested in the club was to be for sale tomorrow. I hope we would have 4 or 5 good potential owners who could see the club potential

 

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

this shower just aren’t interested in selling, and of course the perennial question remains - why?

100%

1 hour ago, J*B said:

I’d be pretty confident that if we went into admin and ended up in league two, with the right *LOCAL* owner we’d be back as a Championship club within 5 years, with 17K ST holders and there would be a huge feel good factor around the club. 

fair enough. 

I guess the local bit would be from Lancashire Area and hopefully a Rovers fan. 

[J*B]

Doesn’t have to be from Lancashire and doesn’t have to be a Rovers fan, but does have to understand the area, culture and mindset of Blackburn as a place. 

[rigger]

6 minutes ago, J*B said:

Doesn’t have to be from Lancashire and doesn’t have to be a Rovers fan, but does have to understand the area, culture and mindset of Blackburn as a place. 

Another John Williams ?

[JHRover]

I looked at Hull with envy last night. 

A couple of years ago beset with problems. Unpopular owner cutting costs, ridiculous ticketing policies, dwindling support.

A takeover comes, now they're investing, attendances up to 20,000 a week, reasonable prices, proper sponsorship. A united club looking to the future.

Other than perhaps 15,000 fans like Preston or Bolton I task anyone to tell me why we couldn't follow their path to the future. 

[chaddyrovers]

50 minutes ago, J*B said:

Doesn’t have to be from Lancashire and doesn’t have to be a Rovers fan, but does have to understand the area, culture and mindset of Blackburn as a place. 

fair enough. 

 

[joey_big_nose]

Well.... I have been a big fan of JDT. For four reasons really - 1) he seems like a genuinely nice bloke well respected by everyone, 2) he sets up to play very very attacking attractive technical football which when it works is a total joy, 3) he gets a lot out of players, particularly young ones, who have performed until recently better than we would expect 4) there was a sense that he was in control of our performances and slowly improving the team, and had a bit of nous about him.

While 1) and 2) are still true 3) I think has gone into reverse where players we know are good are performing well below their level, and 4)  any sense of control seems to have gone out the window completely.  Defensively we have been absolutely shambolic. 

Unless you have parachute money you are not getting out of the Championship through passing possession football. You will get out through being organised and hard to beat, and having a cutting edge. If you can do that while playing an attractive style - great. But if you can't defend then you are going nowhere. The priority always has to be defensive solidarity.

What frustrates me is everyone knows the fixture list before the season starts. Everyone can see that the number of games in December is incredibly intense. Everyone also knows how small the squad is. And that's before we had the ever growing injury list since October, and the experience of huge losses on the road since Sheffield Wednesday. That we don't have a clear idea how to batten down the hatches and grind out results and stem the flow of goals is totally unacceptable. 

I accept we have an issue up front with no proven strikers. But our midfield and defence are both decent by championship standards. We are performing well below expectation in my view. 

Should we sack him? No, not unless we look genuinely relegation threatened. But that could only be a month or two away if our results continue. And I think we should be thinking about who our next manager will be as unless we have a major upturn I doubt JDT will be here next season.

Edited December 30, 2023 by joey_big_nose

[tomphil]

Wasn't it mentioned that Benson recommended Leo ? 

[Sweaty Gussets]

Lots of navel gazing going on.

We are a team with some key players struggling for form, and dealing with a horrendous injury crisis to an already inadequate squad.

JDT won 6 out of 8 recently. I presume he had nous then, and his tAcTicS weren't an issue. I presume he didn't just get lucky for a full season last year when he finished in the highest league position of anyone in the last 10 years. 

We've now lot 7 out of 8. Clubs in the Championship have these kind of runs on a regular basis. It's that type of league.

Hopefully the people at Ewood aren't as knee-jerk as some of the more excitable supporters in our fan base. 

It'll be a miracle if we make the top 6, and equally unlikely that we'll go down.

A finish in the other 17 places is par for the course. We are a bottom 3 team in budget after all.

Time for a bit of realism, and a bit of patience. 

 

 

[chaddyrovers]

29 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Wasn't it mentioned that Benson recommended Leo ? 

No it's was our recruitment department who recommended Wahlstedt we sign as Kaminski replacement. 

Benson was asked his opinion tho

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23778799.blackburn-rovers-broughton-wahlstedt-brereton-deals/

Edited December 30, 2023 by chaddyrovers

[tomphil]

We watch with our eyes not our sentimental leanings that kind of attitude got us 2 years more of Mowbray than we needed.

The table doesn't lie, results don't lie and neither do performances and yes there were issues for all to see in the winning run. We got away with a bit from having more players available obviously and a few on form.

To be honest we probably just over achieved for a spell like a lot of teams do in this league and i think what we've seen recently was always going to happen. Both good and bad teams now have our number i'm afraid.

If you cannot play the way you want too because of absentees then you have to change it up even if it's more negative sometimes. There has been no sign of that we continue in te same vein whatever the team selection and we continue to make it so easy for teams to run us over, without in a lot of cases them having to even play well.

Imo we've been poorer as a whole unit most of this season than we were last.

Obviously we've lost players and brought others in but instead of perhaps trying to cover our clear weaknesses it seems JDT has seen fit to try and move the project forward. On the pitch regardless of us not being able to cope due to lack of quality and signing players to fit his system.

It's a bit of an odd way to go about things when results are so bad and the goals against column is abysmal.

Remember this is the guy who said at the beginning of the season he'd rather will 4-3 every week than 1-0 or 0-0.

Edited December 30, 2023 by tomphil

[joey_big_nose]

7 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Lots of navel gazing going on.

We are a team with some key players struggling for form, and dealing with a horrendous injury crisis to an already inadequate squad.

JDT won 6 out of 8 recently. I presume he had nous then, and his tAcTicS weren't an issue. I presume he didn't just get lucky for a full season last year when he finished in the highest league position of anyone in the last 10 years. 

We've now lot 7 out of 8. Clubs in the Championship have these kind of runs on a regular basis. It's that type of league.

Hopefully the people at Ewood aren't as knee-jerk as some of the more excitable supporters in our fan base. 

It'll be a miracle if we make the top 6, and equally unlikely that we'll go down.

A finish in the other 17 places is par for the course. We are a bottom 3 team in budget after all.

Time for a bit of realism, and a bit of patience. 

 

 

Being condescending doesn't do you many favours. We all pay our money, watch the games, and have the capability to form our own opinions. Yours is no more valid or insightful than anyone else's. I suggest you accept that you have your own opinion, others will have theirs, and personally attacking or belittling other people for being different to your own view achieves nothing. 

It's easy enough to state your views from your own perspective without bringing "excitable supporters" "navel gazing" etc into the conversation. No one reads that and think it adds any greater value to your commentary, it only diminishes what you are trying to say.

[Sweaty Gussets]

9 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Being condescending doesn't do you many favours. We all pay our money, watch the games, and have the capability to form our own opinions. Yours is no more valid or insightful than anyone else's. I suggest you accept that you have your own opinion, others will have theirs, and personally attacking or belittling other people for being different to your own view achieves nothing. 

It's easy enough to state your views from your own perspective without bringing "excitable supporters" "navel gazing" etc into the conversation. No one reads that and think it adds any greater value to your commentary, it only diminishes what you are trying to say.

Looks like a nerve has been touched. 

[MarkBRFC]

41 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

 

Hopefully the people at Ewood aren't as knee-jerk as some of the more excitable supporters in our fan base. 

 

 

5 years of Mowbray horror runs will tell you the answer to that.

[joey_big_nose]

8 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Looks like a nerve has been touched. 

Theres very little as pathetic as trying to antagonise people on message boards.... One day you'll grow out of it and look back and be disappointed with yourself.

[Mattyblue]

One thing about this very strange football club that helps managers is that they are given a contract and that’s that. So these poor runs have a chance to be turned round. He may well have been potted this morning at a Birmingham or a Watford or a Millwall etc.
 

What doesn’t help managers here is everything else.

[Hasta]

1 hour ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Looks like a nerve has been touched. 

It really doesn’t. It’s a very calm and rational post.

Edited December 30, 2023 by Hasta

[booth]

6 hours ago, Gamst said:

We finished outside the playoffs on goal difference last season. You can’t then set expectations at mid-table and expect anyone to take you seriously. It’s reasonable for a newly promoted club to aim for survival or mid table with the aim of then progressing in subsequent seasons. Waggot’s statement suggested mid-table mediocrity is our actual long-term strategy. This is never going to motivate your staff to succeed. Utterly flawed strategy from management sets the tone. 

Yep, then did nothing to build on it when what we needed to do so was obvious.

Waggott knew the cutbacks were coming too, yet allowed everyone to believe we had a "project". Any other CEO would have prepared for it accordingly. He's an absolute chancer.

[booth]

3 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

While 1) and 2) are still true 3) I think has gone into reverse where players we know are good are performing well below their level

Which players?

[joey_big_nose]

8 minutes ago, booth said:

Which players?

Over the last couple of months Hyam, Carter, Travis, Pickering, Brittain, Moran are well below their level in my opinion. Obviously fatigue and injuries are a big part of it, but - in my view - we have left those fatigued and out of form players too exposed and worsened their decline.

[booth]

1 minute ago, joey_big_nose said:

Over the last couple of months Hyam, Carter, Travis, Pickering, Brittain, Moran are well below their level in my opinion. Obviously fatigue and injuries are a big part of it, but - in my view - we have left those fatigued and out of form players too exposed and worsened their decline.

There's no way Hyam is fit. He's been rushed back due to lack of options.

Carter is over-rated in my opinion. Not a kid any more but still making schoolboy errors.

Brittain had a few good matches when he joined. He has the odd decent game going forward but he's an awful fullback.

Aside from the odd decent game where he gets stuck in, Pickering is a poor fullback and has been since Mowbray was here. People seem to have buried their head in the sand over this for some reason. Maybe it's because we're never going to get anyone better.

Moran is a young lad out of form and I suspect fatigued from not being used to so many minutes. When he first came into the team he struggled but then got up to speed and looked great. But I'm not surprised he's ran out of steam as he only turned 20 in October. I think he's also missing JRC and Dolan as his decline seems to have coincided with their absences.

We didn't have the best squad at the beginning and now with injuries/fitness issues it's showing us up for what we are. A lower mid-table club.

[Craigman]

We are not meant to dream anymore, since the Venky's came in, we have just gone backwards, nothing will change until they have gone, JDT has done brilliantly with what he has, playing a young squad, we need experience, although that doesn't necessarily bring success. Venky's don't want promotion, and the board certainly don't. No ambition apart from the manager.