Messageboard gold?

Bloody hell, it was only a youth game!

We have an honest workmanlike team with potential youngsters to fit into it, one flair player of note and one reliable but aging goal poacher couple with one and only one solid developing centre half. We don't need anymore workmanlike players particularly not for back up what we now need bolting onto this squad is a bit of steel, some pace wide Chapman or no Chapman and some much needed height and presence in the middle of defence. I cringe when I see names of grafters just because they are grafters. Time to think outside the box a bit, specialists in defence or midfield instead of multi-positionalists and a few more artists before the soldiers.

This is mental. I've never experienced two days of football like it. Even I felt emotional watching pochettino and I dont support spurs. Amazing. Brilliant competition this year. Amazing advert for football and the premier league

Don't want to turn this into a pile on, but this argument is such a non-starter. We have the youngest Rovers squad in aeons. Mowbray has given debuts to at least half a dozen academy graduates over the last 2 years. Others have been given key roles when they were on the periphery. Almost all of his signings have been 24 or under, several significantly under. How many other managers have we had who have got anywhere near these sorts of stats? Some of the youngsters don't play every week, but that happens with almost all players who get near the first team at 18, 19, 20. Saying Mowbray isn't prioritising youth is absolutely bizarre. The evidence almost entirely points in the opposite direction.

I'd much rather Liverpool win it than a club like City (the PL that is). They can win the Champs League too as far as I'm concerned. Their manager is great, they play exciting football and never disappoint on the big stages. Ultimately they are a proper club, with which we've had many a good game against as I was growing up. City are the epitome of what I hate about modern football.

It was nice to see a Rovers team lifting a trophy particularly by beating them. Rovers didn't play too well on the night and at times overplayed in the wrong areas but it was a game I always felt we would win. Burnley to be fair pressed high up the pitch and frustrated us for long periods (much like their first team) but the extra quality was there to be seen. Well done to Damien Johnson on a successful season. Four of his players made their first team debuts and ultimately that is what he is judged on.

My Video if anyone wants the goals x https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ftce-s4x1w

How great is it, by the way, to have four teams in the semis who all want to play football? Not a Mourinho-esque anti-football team in sight.

So Anderson saying he's no choice but to put them into Admin. Sky Sports saying they have gone into admin. High Court have given them a 2 week adjournment. I wouldn't want to see them liquidated but this has gone on long enough. Ultimately it's the tax man owed money and public services missing out on millions of pounds of tax here. Once again administration will clear the decks to a certain extent but those who suffer will be the small fry businesses and local people. Meanwhile the millionaires will be ok.

I know it's obvious and been said by numerous people on numerous threads, but Damien Johnson is doing an absolutely sterling job.

Did @AllRoverAsia really go to bed?!

Great listen thanks!

I wish Bolton well in resolving their off the pitch situation (there but for the grace of God etc.) but once they go into administration, is there anything stopping someone buying the presumably profit-making hotel once they're administration? Having a Rovers themed hotel permanently attached to their ground is making me smile for some reason.

Both legs a bit strange. No way should Liverpool have lost 3-0, should have had at least 2. Same goes for Barcelona last night. Sanchez alone should have had 2 but shot weakly and Messi needs his sights adjusted. One goal and Liverpool would probably have been out of it. However that was as brave an effort from an English team as I ever remember. The pure joy that flowed down from the stands gave me goosebumps.

Im not quite sure why so many neutrals dislike Liverpool. I agree many of their fans are painful at times but no more than Man U fans (who I find even worse and are more concerned at what Liverpool are doing than Man U), Arsenal, Chelsea Etc. They are a team who play together, fight together, have a decent quota of English players with an entertaining manager who unites the whole club. I find the style of football they play brilliant to watch. I think the season they have had they deserve a trophy. They would have won the league at a canter weeks ago if it wasnt for one of the best sides the prem has ever seen also being in the running. Amazing game. I half expected them to give up and focus on the weekend given their injuries up front and a 3-0 defecit.

Think Dack will stay because we value him higher than what any club is willing to pay.

Unreal. I love football.

Trippier, useless. Feck this, I'm off to bed

I think he was far better a couple of years ago and has gone downhill. He was an exceptional teenager. Mowbray got our job a couple of years ago - coincidence?

My two penneth Firstly well done to the BRFCS Podcast group, good listen, well balanced and very entertaining. Would love to be a part of an episode in the future! To put the seasons conclusions into a succinct word it would be ''progress''. Particularly from our ill fated last Championship campaign and literally as we've held our own after being promoted in the 17/18 season. If Blackburn Rovers continue to progress, I will be very happy going forward. Without wanting to go over things already said, in my opinion, there is more to be encouraged by than there has been in a long time. Stability on and off the field, a youthful side, who have gained invaluable experience and the team spirit seems to have remained as strong as last season. Obvious failings at the back need addressing, the team has been crying out for a dominant centre half since Hanley left, a new left back would also be welcomed. With Cardiff, Huddersfield, Fulham, Luton and Barnsley added to the league, I really do see next season as being as wide open as this season. A dozen or so clubs will fancy their chances, I don't see why we can't be one of those teams mounting a playoff challenge. As the players did their lap of honour at the weekend (ironically I stayed this year - as the pitch was not invaded) the song blasting over the PA system was 'Sit Down by James' a great track from the early 90s. The song has one particular lyric that really resonates with being a Rovers fan, at the end of the second verse. ''If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor...'' As a fan of nearly 30 years, days out at Wembley and Cardiff, the European nights at Ewood, the ruffling of the feathers of the big boys, the team full of internationals, Tugay, Roque, MGP, Nelsen, Big Brad, Flowers, Hendry, Sutton and Shearer..... I think as a fan base have such high expectations and we can be a bit too eager to point the finger and have knee jerk reactions to poor runs of form. (see Mowbray out thread) We're all so desperate to see these days again.... its easy to overlook the baby steps we've taken this season. The fact we finished higher than Wigan and Rotherham and were never in any serious trouble in regards to relegation. The development of Travis, Buckley, Magloire, Butterworth, Raya, the return of Armstrong and Chapman, keeping Dack and Lenihan and the late season emergence of Joe Rothwell. Perhaps the right lyric that befits my overall theme is from the Take That song 'The Flood' which simply says ''There's progress now, where there once was none..."

But he did bring Buckley, Magloire and Butterworth in for their debuts. Nyambe played plenty under Mowbray and he plays Armstrong regularly who is 21. He made Raya our number 1 at 23, which was brave. In fact many on here have critisized that and are looking for a new number 1. On Travis, you say forced circumstances, but ignore the fact he played last season and has kept his place this year. I don't get your point on Reed, in his favored position or not, he played in almost every game this season. If he actually thinks he is a "kid"in some derogatory way, then why did he play Dack, Bell and others at 23?

If there's one crumb of comfort for Bolton fans... it's that Jason Lowe is still under contract and probably not going anywhere.

Gets my vote for "Rover of the Season". How long is his contract?

HITC is a very questionable source...very, very questionable

They didn't need all season to prove that they couldn't, to be fair. Once it was apparent they couldn't, they should have been dropped.

The Clash - Last Gang in Town

In those days I recall senior squads playing these games and decent crowds, the use of Youth teams in this format a later development. Rovers have now won the Lancashire County Football Association Cup aka the Lancashire Senior Cup a total of 19 times, it's a very old Competition.

See there is a few keepers out of contract from champ, wonder if it’s worth bringing in any of Westwood, archer or Amos who all seem like fairly competent keepers to me and more reliable than raya

Well think ToMo can cross Barcelona off his European scouting trips, if they struggle at Anfield they are going to struggle on a cold rainy night at Barnsley

That’s me off social media for a while... well until 5pm on Sunday.

That fourth was stunning from Alexander Arnold

2-0 to the BLACKBURN ACES!

Wuh? So we are NOT a division higher? I'm confused.

For those watching on BT Sport. How did Glen Hoddle survive that?

Credit to Ajax for trying to play football right until the end. No shutting up shop or stifling the game, they went for it right until the end trying to counter and get the third goal. Whether it was the right thing to do, considering the result, is up for debate... but that was another great game.

Utterly insane. The knockout stages have been incredible, can’t remember two semi finals being close to this weeks. Brilliant for English football too, the Europa League final could also be all English.

2-2 now 3-2 Ajax on the aggregate. This game is hotting up now, did someone switch off and go to bed?

Spurs were second best in the first leg and are second best again this time around. Hard to see them coming back into it, Ajax are playing some superb stuff.

At the clarets rate of collecting major trophies it will be roughly another 450 years before they reach our current figure! I may not be around at that time mind ???

Scott Hogan and Paul Coutts would both be worth a look.

Season review/conclusion; 1 word: frustration. Don't get me wrong, the final position was more than respectable. There were some good games too, and nice memories. A couple of exciting players were brought in, especially Rothwell, but despite all of that, the feeling I mainly come away with is frustration. Why? Well, to me, all our mistakes were absolutely avoidable and of our own making. Sometimes the circumstances well and truly get the better of you: the small squad under Hughes running out of steam with 3 cup runs in a tough league being one example of this. Or last time we got relegated - I'm no fan of Owen Clueless but selling our best players for £10 million plus and giving him only £250k would have hampered anyone. And TM probably would've kept us up if those making decisions had been halfway competent had fired Clueless even a game or two earlier. This season though I feel all our mistakes were well and truly avoidable. - The 2.5 attackers and therefore struggling. As soon as we dropped this we looked really exciting going forwards. Everyone was clamoring for Rothwell months before he was a regular in the team. Who knows what would've happened had he been played even a month or more sooner? - Likewise the Evans/Smallwood combination clearly didn't work. Again in Reid and Travis we had some better options, but often these options were overlooked. Hypothetical, but who knows how many more points we would've gained had the Evans/Smallwood axis been broken sooner? In both cases it's not an if only we had a Kante or a Messi (or more realistically whatever the Championship equivalents are!) - we had the players on the books. - Defense - we knew from the last 2 seasons that Mulgrew and Lenihen were both susceptible to injury. Yet the only other "centre back" we brought in was an equally injury prone converted midfielder. There was no way we should have got caught out with injuries in this position, it wasn't unlucky - it was inevitable given all our centre backs have a history of injuries. Insult added to literal injury in this department was letting Downing go out on loan. I'm not entirely sure he was the answer, but surely cover was better than nothing. We dropped the ball so many times on defensive cover from not buying adequate cover in 2 windows, and letting last season's cover - who performed well last season - also go out on loan. Another entirely avoidable situation. - It was probably obvious to all that we needed strengthening in defense (especially with injury prone players) and top quality cover for Graham up top, but frustratingly we had the resources to do so. 7 million of them. 7 million could well and truly have brought in enough players to ensure we had good quality cover in both of these positions. 7 million in the championship can go a long way if used wisely, as there are some cracking deals out there - the ex-Hibs midfielder now at Villa looks a snip at £2.5 mill, and the Norwich lad who was top scorer was a free transfer (and I need to get better with names too.) All this talk of needing cover and strengthening really shouldn't have been an if only, as £7 million well spent would have made a huge difference. I'd probably rate TM as 50:50 in the transfer window but even 1 or 2 more additions of good quality - say 1 striker to take the pressure off Graham, or one better quality cb - would have made a massive difference to our campaign. The money was there, and we blew it. - Many players staying in the team despite bad runs; Mulgrew, Evans, Smallwood, Bennett, Williams (at lb). Again we had options to replace them with, yet these players were allowed to go on lengthy bad runs. Hypothetical again, but who knows how we would have done if a couple of them were withdrawn till they picked up some form? Equally with younger players withdrawn and singled out after a couple of poor performances, I'm unsure as to how the favoritism of veteran players would've helped the squad moral and dynamics. Again, this was avoidable, if a player is persistently poor over a few games, withdraw them. - Finally the not getting started for the first 20 minutes. This happened so, so many times. Everyone starts slowly now and again, and sometimes the opposition out-think or outfight you. Sometimes you simply get it wrong tactics or personnel wise. But for it to happen so often with us not addressing it, suggests that we aren't really learning. That it's happened repeatedly suggests that it shouldn't be that hard to spot, and therefore address. Again a hypothetical, but had we a stronger start in a proportion of the many games we started slowly in, I wonder how many more points we would have had. In short I feel that there is a lot of potential in the squad, and despite all the - blatantly rectifiable imo - mistakes we still were comfortably mid-table. That suggests to me there is a heck of a lot of potential in this squad, and with a bit of nous we should be optimistic going forward. The caution for me is that these mistakes are all of our own making, which makes me doubt whether we will actually make good on our potential.

"Knee jerk reactions to poor runs of form" is a bit harsh imo. Under Mowbray we went on the worst run of form since the days of Steve Kean, and it only changed when TM threw his hands up, played an experimental team at Derby and found that it worked. From then on he had little choice but to keep going in that direction. He persisted for far, far too long with a system that wasn't working, possibly partially because of our strange run of good form in January which broke up an otherwise dire period between November-March. That's not just a poor run of form, it's a significant chunk of the season where we really struggled to gain points. It would be foolish to ignore this on the back of a set of wins in mostly meaningless matches, imo. I think the division will be a lot more competitive next season and I'm not sure we can afford to go on the types of bad runs we went on this season. It's up to Mowbray to work out what was going wrong during those periods and ensure we're prepared to counter that next season. He's earned the right to take that challenge on, so let's see what he comes up with. He's talking a big game right now and promoting high expectations, so hopefully he has a solid plan to fulfil that. As fans we have every right to feel expectant when the manager is talking about spending money and mounting a serious promotion challenge next season.

Yes but Liverpool have a world class young player so there surely has to be a way to criticise Mowbray for that.

Doubt the lad wouldn't have got a look in with Mowbray as his manager - far too young and inexperienced at 20 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's simple - if you are good enough you are old enough. The way Mowbray holds back our young talent is, IMO, absurd. Brererton with his 'amazing talent'. Reed is better away from our club - rarely played in his best position. Rothwell given his chance 6 months too late and only in forced circumstances. Bennett over Nyambe! Travis on verge of going out on loan until Mowbray forced to play him. You could go on and on and on. Anyhow great stuff Liverpool. They play exciting football and Klopp deserves a trophy for his refreshing approach. Will be no surprise if City slip at Brighton and let Liverpool in for the PL.

The craziest thing would be changing formation to one that excludes your best player.

Venkys are renowned for being extremely difficult if they don't want to sell. Put Dack in the right squad and he could take the Championship apart next season.

It took him fair too long to pick the right team, but he’s done that recently. Evans and Smallwood shouldn’t be starting together (or individually) ever again now, ideally at all. Need a new central midfielder to partner Travis. If we can get Reed, great, but I won’t hold my breath.

If football was played on paper rather than grass then this was a good season. We played for long spells with players who have been relegated and then performed in League One. However... This in itself is damning of our failings in recruitment this season - particularly in defensive positions. Wasting a huge war chest (by Rovers’ recent standards) on a single player who is apparently a project for the future - and yet we still need to improve those same positions (despite Mowbray’s first bit of business being to offer improved terms our existing right back). The reluctance to play certain players until late in the season, and the misguided loyalty to stick with players who have literally anchored the team has been a major cause of frustration, waiting until it was too late. We seemingly wasted a lot of time this season trying to find the right formula (I’m sure Mowbray didn’t deliberately hold us back) when had we just read the instructions on the side of the packet then we could have had a much better product. All of the ingredients were there just mixed in the wrong order and the timings were off. Even Thomas Edison got it right eventually though. In the cold light of day we remain a Championship club, and some will no doubt use the dreaded “stability” word, but then so do Wigan, and they didn’t spend anywhere near the kind of money we did. It’s arguable that they have just had two better seasons than us. Luton Town, however, who were also promoted in second place in their division last season, showed what is possible when you build on the momentum you create and ignore the bookies. 6/10 - passed but, despite a late run of marks in the final few questions of the exam paper, not enough for a distinction. Next season will be a better measure of how successful this season has been.