Seen it many times over the years, lets sell x player for mega money and reinvest in the squad, it never, ever works. Shearer, Duff, Bentley, Santa Cruz, Jones, Rhodes, when all these were sold for big money we became a poorer team the year after and struggled. For the club to progress we must keep Dack.

Been interesting listening to Mowbray so far. Acknowledged his loyalty to current players may be a bit of a weakness. Wanted to give the the promoted side a go but admitted they are starting to 'feel the quality' of this league. Mentioned again, that players will be replaced and quality added. Talked about Brereton. His signing. On the back of him playing against his side a couple of years ago and having a stormer. Also said he's not blind and acknowledged he's been poor, weak on the ball etc. Asked to give him time as he genuinely believes he will come good ... Talked about wanting to sign 3 or 4 players to go straight in to the first team. Also interesting that he mentioned the lack of leaders on the pitch. Mentioned scouting Germany, and other European teams but kept coming back to Bundesliga...sounded like we were looking at the best players from Bundesliga 2. Also said summer window and maybe, if needed, Jan window to make us top 6 competitive....but hopefully it would be done in summer. Talked hypothetically about selling Dack and investing in 4 or 5 players as this is what they did at WBA. Didn't say that would definitely happen and hoped the owners would support. Mentioned nobody meeting their standards with budget available in Jan so didn't buy for sake of it. Hopes that by not wasting money if he 'asks for £10mil for a player', owners will trust him and say yes. Q&A after interval.

11 goals and 5 assists from Dack this season, isn't it? Compared with: Jack Rodwell - 1 goal 0 assists Charlie Mulgrew - 8 goals 0 assists Darragh Lenihan - 1 goal 0 assists Ryan Nyambe - 0 goals 0 assists Amari Bell - 1 goal 0 assists Derrick Williams - 0 goals 1 assist Elliott Bennet - 0 goals 3 assists Lewis Travis - 0 goals 0 assists Corry Evans - 0 goals 0 asists Richie Smallwood - 0 goals 1 assist Harrison Reed - 3 goals 5 assists Joe Rothwell - 0 goals 1 assist Adam Armstrong - 4 goals 3 assists Ben Brereton 0 goals 1 assist Danny Graham - 10 goals 3 assists Joe Nuttall - 2 goals 0 assists But yeah, let's get rid of by far our most impressive goalscorer and creator (whilst our joint best creator in Reed goes back to Southampton) and build around players who rarely score or assist, let alone do both at once. What could go wrong?

If he really told McGinn (who Villa fans rave about) that he would be behind Smallwood in the pecking order, that’s more than just ‘being loyal to the lads that got us up’ but a real flaw in Mowbray’s methods. You should be constantly looking to improve your side and if that means players that did a job at a lower level are moved aside, then so be it. It’s a ruthless business.

Just when you get a bit mad with the guy he comes out and shuts us all up by saying all the right things! ?... Too be fair, we were never going to go up this year so giving lads a chance from last season I can understand, for a team full of players playing league one football last season, bar this recent run we haven’t done too bad. If he’s true to his word and gets ruthless in the summer with the lads not good enough to be here, and then replaces them, Then I’ll be expecting a good season next year.. Can we not just end this season now?! ? This summer is going too be massive for us it really is, I’m nervous already.

Think Mowbray is one of the best managers we’ve had, lovely guy and very knowledgeable, knows the game inside out, obviously doesn’t always get it right, very loyal this season to the players who got us up but realises we need new blood next season. A shame a lot of posters on here don’t want to give him time, luckily they don’t make the decisions. He knows what he wants next season and I hope he gets the backing, and let’s go for it next season with him in charge.

Yep, Tony also needs to be dissuaded from the notion that we could sell Dack, bring 3/4 players in and the side would be better as a whole. Never works, managers always think they are a genius in the transfer market and can offload the best player, get jiggy in the transfer market and pull a few rabbits out of hats but it rarely works and usually ends in disaster. EIT may quote Gordon Lee selling Tony Field at me at this point but its the exception that proves the rule. The way to be successful is to get Dack back to his best and add more good players round him.

Im not doubting that we need to strengthen. But look at @DE. and his excellent and well researched point as to how reliant we are on Dack (and Graham) for goals. Cashing in on him would be the opposite of strengthening. Quite a few of the other players on that list are his signings and have barely contributed at all. I dont think people realise how impressive his stats are in an average team, and how important he is to us. If the choice was Dack or the Dack proceeds in Mowbrays hands id choose the former everytime and that isnt necessarily just a slight on Mowbrays recruitment. The whole sell your best player and buy half a new team idea rarely works as well in practice as it does in theory.

Couldn't agree more. I think we are very fortunate to have Mowbray as manager at this point in our history. He's not perfect - no manager is. He will make mistakes - every manager does. However, for a club in our position I believe he is a perfect fit. We need this type of manager who can oversee the whole operation and put the building blocks in place to restore the foundations which we need. As you say, it won't be easy, because of the size of the budgets of some of the clubs in the Championship - you only have to look at the income of the relegated clubs to see how much at a disadvantage we are. We can't live in the past. We are where we are and the only way we will get back to the top flight - and I remember the quarter of a century it took to get back after the 65-66 relegation - is by shrewd management, patience and a little bit of luck.

No, the obvious and best option is strengthen without cashing in on Dack.

It's not a case of what level can dack reach (although I definitely agree regards top half) it's more what we will lose when he's gone. It's possible something is already lined up. Either way your only as good as the team around you. You improve the team and dack will shine. He is real quality at our level and very hard to replace

If tony posed as a fan and came on here posting that he'd get jumped on by a few ? He has exactly the same concerns and wants the same things as the average fan it seems, somebody put him in charge quick !

Guy asked why we play converted midfielders as CB. When would we sign some proper centre halves. TM basically said watch this space. He talked about not having any big blood and thunder centre backs and they were looking at that. He likes Lennihan, admits that Mulgrew and Rodwell aren't great backs to the wall defenders but bring other attributes. Sounds like he will play Mulgrew against teams that sit back. Another big lad for the more direct teams. -ideally. Also indicated he thinks we are a bit weak mentally. Keeps saying that he will have to make some tough decisions about this core group. Admits they won't get us up as it stands. Better players will arrive in summer. Targeting 25-28 year olds 'men' to go straight in. Definitely looking at a forward. Big, physical and fast (and they are all expensive) As expected - very honest guy. Also mentioned that Brereton will get some games with the 23s when the time is right. Aware of lack of confidence.

Print your ticket at home. A great option, if you have access to a printer. https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2019/february/print--home/

We've just spent £7m on a 19 year old who we only watched once at most. He isn't even good enough to get in the team. Think about that before you judge him on the size of his budget. Mowbray also said he didn't spend all the available budget because he didn't want to. Most of the clubs around us would love to have that luxury. We were 4th or 5th in the league on net spend in the summer. Mowbray failed to strengthen when he should have, and when he had the money too. He said it was because he 'liked the group' and he wanted to stay loyal. Nonsense. He works for BRFC, his job is to do the best for the club not for his pals in the squad. There are no guarantees he will get the chance to spend in the summer if Venky's do a predictable volte-face. Mowbray's complacency is staggering. He's being paid a lot of money to run a professional football club and he's acting like he's running a Sunday League team. The defence is fine > The defence is shit We've no foreign scouts > We're targeting foreign players in the summer Every time he opens his mouth there is a contradiction. I've no doubt he's a lovely man and is conscientious, but that isn't a reason to pay him a lot of money. I've seen little in the way of progression in the way we play in the two years he's been here. We still have the same failings, and if anything the defence is getting worse and the attack no better. I think his recruitment is lazy and amateurish.

Personally, I'm delighted they've blocked the red button. When it was announced that games could be screened in midweek everyone said it would lower attendances and I believe it has been detrimental to attendances for those games. For me the main way to get attendances up is to get schools coming back and giving tickets to kids for free in large numbers - we have enough empty stands to use for this to be done. Capturing the next generation and building on the family orientation of the club is the way that I believe we will increase attendances in the long run. As Mattyblue said, and I agree with him, we have about 12,000 in terms of home support and it's going to be difficult to shift that without Premier League football. Let's not forget that thirty years ago - with the club in a similar position to today - the home average was under 9,000.

He's talking about frequency of viewing not angle of view.

Lancs police Twitter confirms PNE (and Leeds?) kick off times moved at clubs request. Lies from the club then? Thought we were past all that. No thought for those who work on Saturday mornings. No thought for those whose kids play football on Saturday mornings. We've had 20 years of full Darwen Ends at 3.00 or 7.45. Can't think of another club that does this. Family club my @rse. Caley out.

It's heartening that all the things that Mowbray has criticised himself for are all the things the more discerning poster on here has been criticising him for. We won't name names (I'm just too classy) but the non-thinking types that defend everything Mowbray does and says will need to reflect long and hard this morning on the hurt and upset they have caused to quality posters by doing awful things like attaching 'laughing emojis' to quality posts. It must be very sobering experience for them. They are in my thoughts.

Seems your theory about BB not being a Mowbray signing but a project from Balaji has proven to be incorrect. What's worse is that Mowbray saw him have one good game and spent £7m on him.

He probably said you have to dislodge Smallwood. Modern players want to be told how great they are, not told they aren’t good enough and despite anything they’ve done so far they need to prove it all over again. Mowbray seems like an honest man in a dishonest industry. All very noble but unlikely to make us successful. I’m with Rev. It’s no use saying that the squad needs improving three weeks after you told us all you had money and didn’t need to spend it. Particularly when everyone else could see the opposite. We were crying out for a proper defender. You loaned out the only one we had and didn’t replace him.

Presumably because the stadium manager and/or Waggott would prefer 7500 Preston fans less tanked up at 12pm than 3pm. Easier to manage. Feck the home fans. Though we used to have 20 years of full Darwen Ends a few times a season with no problem. Sums up the small time operation down there theee days.

Yeah they need time to gel give him until January. Rinse and repeat

It is good. They should just get like gigs and add a barcode in an email to save printing.

Not if there's any Lemon Drizzle cake left! Lovely with a Cuppa.

Or Tony if you wheel out Conway on the wing, Bennett at right back and several other square peg round hole changes we are asking to get beat anyway !

They are all in agreement with Tony this morning yet have blatantly disagreed and taken opposite views to the one's of us saying the same things TM did last night for the past few months ? Maybe some pennies will finally drop and they'll realise majorities are very rarely wrong and there'll be MB harmony from here on in.....

Blackburn Hawks sent a representative and the club mascot to my granddaughters school a couple of weeks ago and wooed the kids with a presentation about the club and ice hockey in general. They offered the school 250 (I think) tickets for an upcoming game at a pound per ticket for both adults and kids. I believe the uptake has been good. For the life in me I don't know why Rovers aren't tapping into this too.

But more than 5000 doesn’t require an early kick off as we now know. The club just fancies a supposed quieter couple of hours with a dinnertime match, even though it will inconvenience a substantial numbers of OUR fans, you know the ones that turn up week in week out. It really does beggar belief and I hope it will be raised by the Fans Forum.

Almost every one of those Chelsea managers won a major trophy, all within a year of getting the job. Leeds have achieved nothing yet but their managerial chaos didn't relegate them to League One like it did with us. I agree, in an ideal world you'd keep a manager for several years and some clubs seem to chop and change for the sake of it, but I don't agree that a manager should be awarded more time in some sort of principled stance to make a point about giving him time. If results are unacceptable or faith is lost then the manager has to go. The problem is that we are too reliant on our manager. Even before Venkys we had a very traditional old school manager/chairman set up with John Williams running the club and old school Souness, Hughes and Allardyce left to get on with the job of managing the team. Clearly it worked for us at the time, but we were very reliant on those big personalities and lived in fear of them leaving as replacing them would be such a big ask. Allardyce was clearly the ideal man for Rovers when he was here, and I wish he had been kept, but I also don't accept that his sacking immediately signified the end of the world - if we'd have conducted a proper recruitment process for his replacement rather than appoint his bib and cone man we could have progressed as a club. Under Venkys our managers - until Lambert all of them very inexperienced and arguably not qualified for a club of this size - have held far too much sway and influence. As much as I respect and appreciate the job Mowbray has done - my concern is that we're now in a position where we are utterly reliant on him in terms of keeping the owners on the straight and narrow and holding the club together - we are completely unprepared for a scenario in which we might have to part ways with him. That isnt me for one minute saying I want him to go any time soon - but it is a fact he will do at some point and we need to be prepared for that. Other clubs meanwhile have structures that enable a swift managerial change without much disruption to the club and team.

I’m sure you’re capable of posting without having a dig at other posters. Go on, I dare you....

Some interesting stuffing Mowbray and reassuring to hear that he acknowledges some points that the more grounded, realistic posters on here have been saying. What irks me a little though is why some of the players who he says now aren't good enough got new contracts. Surely they should have proved themselves at Championship level first. The real stumbling block to a rebuild of the squad could well be our esteemed owners. Now Mowbray has gone public he has done so will the knowledge and confidence of financial backing. Thanks to those who attended and took the trouble to post updates.

Perhaps we are approaching the Lambert/Rhodes stage here. Minimal January activity, manager starts looking at cashing in on the star man to raise funds for multiple needed quality players to kick on next season. I'm afraid we then get to the problem which is Venkys agreeing to reinvest the money into the squad. Seems Mowbray has more faith in them than I do on that one.

You only have to look at how Rothwell has been treated. He is a playmaker and real game changer. But even when Dack is injured he still can’t get a look in. Mowbray has favourites and that’s that. Anyone else might get a few minutes on rotation.

So Mowbray knew the players weren't going to be quite up to it but wanted to give them a go. Sorry, but in the hard world of football that doesn't work. Would he get away with that at any other Championship club ? It's been a wasted season for me

I don't think he has hit the heights of last season in terms of all round play. Possibly better opposition but his goals /assists are still impressive. Hand on heart though, I'm not convinced he's Prem quality - certainly not a top half side. £20 mil would be a no-brainer.

Have had most of the above confirmed by a friend's son who went. So the manager, who's been in football all his life and who is paid thousands of pounds a week is only just coming round to realising what was obvious to most fans in the summer and who could all have told the owners this six or seven months earlier for nothing. Marvellous. It's only 3 weeks or so ago he said he wasn't bothered we hadn't added in January because he was happy with the squad. Maybe he can an will revamp the squad in the summer, but at best it's been a wasted season. At worst it will be too difficult to rebuild in one window and next season will be a desperate struggle.

Tbf to Tony he has addressed pretty much all of our concerns. The biggest worry for me was that he couldn't see what we all could see but clearly he is well aware of the problems we have highlighted on numerous occasions. The soundbites in the LT and so on are what have created the doubt in me personally and to hear that fills me with confidence. If he can pull it off is another question but I feel like at least we're on the same page and for me , that's all I needed to give him my full backing. This summer is massive and he needs to get it right because it's one thing seeing the problems ( which up until tonight I honestly doubted) and another fixing them. Let's get to the end of the season. Get Chapman and Davenport fit, give rothwell and travis a run of games, get Ben doing something whether it's u23s, first team, weights or selling programmes. Just not wasted out wide for the odd cameo because that isn't helping him and re asses after the summer. Im relieved to that tonight. He said a few transfer windows and up to now he has delivered, highlighted what needs fixing and has set about doing it (off the pitch anyway) . It's the hope that kills you.

Ian Dury And The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

The Jam - Heatwave

Many people have annual salary reviews effective from 1 April and, if they are lucky, extra disposable income. That's when season tickets should be on sale. Also the football season is still underway. If you leave it until June/July, people are saving their disposable income for summer holidays. Also the season is over and a lot of people have switched off football. I've come to the conclusion that Rovers will never be a major force under Venkys, with or without Mowbray, despite their wealth, because they are clueless about running a football club.

The day we were sold actually. I maintain the problem was not sacking Allardyce but the choice of replacement and the refusal to remove him. Coyle instead of Warnock was just as huge of a blunder. Boy, this lot have overseen some doozies.

That's fair enough blueboy. That's your view. Others, like myself, view him differently and believe he has been very good for this club. Fortunately, at the moment it would appear he has the full support of the owners so the next couple of transfer windows will see if he can build on the work he has already done. I think the majority of supporters are behind him because they believe he is building the club on the right lines.

How do you know what he is talking about? I am sure he watched clips as well as seeing him live before spending the money. But of course because Mowbray said BB played well against his team the narrative on here has now become "Mowbray signed him after he played well against his team once". One of the most conservative managers tactically, personnel wise and transfer wise just went against everything we know of him and splashed 7 million on someone he saw play once. It doesn't really add up

i was at that game and I honestly don't remember Brereton standing out. As I recall Forest were poor on the day and we scraped a 1-0 win.

May I ask how you are in a position to judge his performance levels this season. He is already a very good Championship player in our team. Hes the key to any top 6 push and he will be incredibly difficult to replace. Id take Dack over 15 million in Mowbrays hands any day. Very rarely does that scenario work as well as youd like it to.

Firstly, you have to question how much money was available - maybe diddly-squat. He did say he'd spoken to M'boro's CEO about a couple of players but inferred way out of range financially. Can't help think his 'master plan' is to trade Dack in summer for a handful of better players given the number of times he referred to this. Referred to Downing as his fifth choice central defender and how the lad 'deserved' some game time and therefore allowed him out of loan (think it was Downing who he referred to as a diamond of a lad). It did come across that he likes to build and maintain good relationships with his players - perhaps herein lies some of Mowbray's flaws, too sentimental and not ruthless enough.

He will do or die by his summer recruitment.

Good summary from Wing Wizard Windy Miller. Would think a couple of hundred present. Came across well as the decent guy we know. Think he wanted to try and head off the Brereton issue before the Q & A session (though a very friendly audience). Mowbray thinks Brereton will be worth £10, £15, £20million in time (a bit optimistic in my opinion but he's hardly likely to say he thinks he's dropped a clanger) and he will play him in the U23's at the right time. Mentioned on a couple of occasions if he got £20million for Dack then reinvesting in 5 players who would get us up (similar to what he did at WBA). Mentioned Venus frequently and clearly relies on Venus a lot - interestingly, don't recall one mention of Lowe! Enjoyable evening but, in my book, still not the man to get us back to the PL.

Should have left it at 3 but there you go.