He was far from a MOTD player. MGP had the Premier League record for most distance covered in a game for a long long time. His impact, on the surface, seemed to dip when Warnock arrived at LB. However Warnock was in all honestly a liability at full back (watch the DVD Season reviews), yet was able to get away with a lot of it due to the amazing defensive work that both MGP and ironically Mokoena did in covering him. That Welsh bully from Cardiff was (apparently) disgusting and relentless towards MGP the season he was resurrecting his career at Ewood. Didn't help he was also made "fan" scapegoat #1 for about 3 years. MGP was a loyal, outstanding footballer for our football club, and this quote tells you all you need to know... Morten Gamst Pedersen (May, 2011),: "The eleven who are so lucky that they get the honor to represent the proud blue and white shirt with the beautiful red rose will fight as if it was about life. For that is what it is all about, the life of the club in our hearts! Blackburn Rovers are not lucky because they have good players on the team, good players are lucky because they play for Blackburn Rovers. COYB!" Rant over...

Selling Raya would be up there with the most stupid decisions this club has made in 10 years! Quote me on this!

Love that the commentators keep having to mention Blackburn Rovers when they are trotting out the FA Cup records. It must really be sticking in their craw.

How good has sterling become now? He's definitely world-class. 50 goals in two seasons as as a wide player. Phenomenal

Don't dismiss Brentford. Owners have money and the dinky new stadium at Kew Bridge will more than double their gate receipts and commercial income. Selling Raya is an absolute NO from me. He needs better coaching and above all, better defenders in front of him.

So why did you post about them on a message board?

Too sentimental mate, cost us a load of points last season

Went on Charlton’s website to see how many tickets they got for Wembley (the life I lead ay!) I noticed they do a Valley Express to every home game. They do 8 routes (just two are pasted below). They generally get similar gates to us, yet realise that their particular neck of the woods has changed demographically, with much of their fanbase now outside of south east London and in Kent and Sussex - with coaches having pick ups throughout. Rovers need to wake up to where more and more of our fanbase reside - and it isn’t within the borders of Blackburn.

Annoyed me intensely that the stupid commentator referred to us as Blackburn and not Blackburn Rovers. There is one hell of a difference between the two. Also he couldn't pronounce Bury correctly. Glad City didn't set a new record of 7. They could only equal us and Bury. Guardiola has improved him wonderfully. Most other managers could not have. City would not be as good as this under most other managers.

Dislike. The kind of short-termism that saw us meekly surrender to bids for Cairney. Would be gutted tbh. He’s had a rocky patch but at times he’s been unbeatable. And has years and years on his side. Will be playing for a far bigger club than Brentford in a few years time and I’m sure most will agree that strengthening a divisional rival is never a good idea even if you don’t think he’s as good as I do.

Plenty of mention for the famous Blackburn Rovers...how I wish to see the old Blue n Whites in an FA Cup Final before I shuffle off this mortal coil.A burning desire indeed. Plaudits to Citeh and to the battered but not down Watford fans.

Third piece of silverware, well done Rovers Ladies!

I've had a go at Raya a few times but if he improves his game in a few areas he could be a top top keeper. We may regret it if we sell him.

Pederson would walk into this team. Really struggling to understand why anyone would dislike him. He always speaks highly of the club and put in some excellent performances. He did tail off towards the end but from start to finish he was a good successful signing and one that I enjoyed watching. Some of his goals where outstanding. When was the last time we saw someone score goals of his quality

This is completely fair enough & I know I'm guilty of it. Thing is though, the branch of social psychology which the halo effect comes from also finds the opposite mechanism to be true - the 'forked tail' effect, whereby people who have a negative opinion of someone or something allow that view to spill over into viewing other aspects of them negatively. Trying to be reflexive about it, I know I've been overly defensive of TM when it comes to some of the individual decisions that he has made because I think overall he's been great. I also think TM critics have at times been guilty of the reverse though; don't like some aspect of his management, and that has spilled over into over-reactions about things which are either unrelated or not that important. This is a really good case in point. I personally think it's a good thing that TM is the sort of manager which looks after players in Gladwin's position, but I know full well that if TM had decided to let him go as we all expected, I'd be backing him (in fact I'd probably not even give it a seconds thought). Equally, fans may think rightly or wrongly that TM has been too loyal in his selection of his favourites, and the fact that he's is keeping on Gladwin is demonstrative of why we always be hamstrung with Mowbray in charge because of his blind-spots (even though keeping on in injured player for a few months before letting them go has little bearing on how loyal he has been to players who actually get on the pitch, and doesn't point at all to how the rest of the summer is going to go recruitment-wise). Would TM have got the credit for being ruthless for letting Gladwin go (or Conway & the Canadian for that matter)? I doubt it. This obviously gets 10 times worse on a message board where people get even more entrenched in their positions, but I think the irrationality can be found across the piece, not just those of us who get starry eyed about the manager.

Fundamentally, that’s true. But it still wouldn’t kill the powers that be to improve the match day experience. When this is inferior to that at Accy Stanley, questions need to be asked.

He’s not the finished article though - I don’t see the point in developing players to this level and cashing in cheap. He might never improve, but 3m or something token now for a long term academy prospect isn’t even covering a years cost of the project.

No surprise with our lost decade.

What's sadly laughable is that the released players from Swansea who are deemed not good enough for them, would actually look like a decent summer recruitment for us. Olsson, Fer, Narsaigh, Routledge and Bony. All 5 would probably improve our 18. Crazy league we play in.

*Sigh*. OK, 90s aside, as we won’t be filling coaches from Stroud anytime soon. Im taking about our core, still extant support, the support that was largely concentrated in the town of Blackburn. A decent percentage of that core is now in Chorley borough, South Ribble, Ribble Valley, Preston and so on. Yes, we’ve always had support in those areas, but due to demographic change in Blackburn, it is becoming an ever larger percentage.

There has. This bloke was signed by Warnock at Bury where he played 37 games. I actually refereed him when he played for East Bengal in a pre season tournament at Leicester. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaichung_Bhutia

One of Bowyer’s best habits was to get players who had JUST been promoted to the PL, but not necessarily good enough FOR the PL. In one season: Cairney, Evans, Rudy, Conway. Think we should try applying the same ideas. Another reason I’d love Hanley back.

Selling Raya now will turn into a disaster.

I thought last year giving him a new deal was purely sentimental based on this season giving a new one would be crazy. He had one half decent performance at home to Sheffield Wednesday other than that his main contribution was taking minutes that should have been given to Rothwell and if he is here next season he will be taking minutes from Chapman.

Well I’d want at least 6 million plus a HUGE sell on clause because I think a few years from now Raya will be an absolute star. This would be almost on par with selling Cairney too Fulham in terms of stupidity for me.. Raya is nowhere near the finished article yet and when he is we won’t be fielding bids from Brentford that’s for sure!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/18/marcelo-bielsa-play-off-leeds-championship A good article on a very enjoyable human being.

I'd get Routledge if possible. Always liked him.

If the manager and chief exec state their ambition is promotion and then go to the owners who say, “no we won’t give you the budget” then the pair of them don’t get a free pass. In fact, their positions become untenable. If they put up with not being backed then they are complicit and ultimately just taking the coin and managing fans expectations. If the manager states his aim is promotion and then signs players (or enters into talks with out of contract players) who are inferior to that aim but carries on regardless then he is culpable. Your scenario would sound like he was trying to put pressure on or blame Venkys. I’m kind of cool with that but if they call his bluff then he would have to walk. However, it is too simplistic to say Venkys will need to give Mowbray a huge war chest or he cannot be judged and the owners are to blame (for a lack of commitment to promotion). There is a middle ground between spending millions on PL or Top 6 players and only using frees and loans. Sadly, Mowbray May have already thrown away his opportunity gambling on Ben Brereton coming good. Not likely when he doesn’t pick him to start football matches. From their perspective they backed him last Summer and he squandered the money. I’d be wanting a return on that investment first because 60 points should cost £10m. Whichever way you look at it, any failure to go up is Mowbray’s. He has been backed with money and hasn’t spent it wisely and now wants more to satisfy him own ambitions - suggesting that Venkys are holding him back. (Assuming your analysis is correct).

Suggested that earlier in the season. No way is Bauer the commanding leader/beast we need.

I disliked the hype he got - I called him a Match of the Day player. Scored a few crackers every season, which got on tv (when we had our obligatory 20 second highlights at the end of MOTD) and glossed over what a limited player he was.

I’ll definitely be watching the nations league. Was half tempted to go but need to pick my battles for sporting trips plus it’s in coimbra (euro 2004 place) and maybe Porto for the final. So not too fussed about the former again. I reckon that nations league will be taken increasingly seriously as the years go by. Qualifiers are now a joke for the top sides (hesitantly consider England to be one currently) so a format where the dregs play the dregs and best teams play the best teams is all good for me. As for women’s football don’t want to go all Andy gray and Richard Keys but I’m not interested whatsoever. Every game I’ve watched the standard has been appalling. They could win a clean sweep or lose every game 10-0 I couldn’t care less.

For me, the only way this makes sense (us apparently entertaining enquiries for Raya) is that we've sounded out a couple of experienced goalkeepers and we've found out that someone that's a definite upgrade is available and keen to join us. Mowbray goes over to India to see what funds he'll have to work with and in the meantime has opened tentative talks with Brentford, knowing that any decent funds from Venky's would enable him to sign this upgrade and displace Raya (who he's openly criticised despite backing him as his number 1). Just spitballing.

One thing ive never understood about football. Brentford get a new statium and the expectation will be bigger crowds, but they never sell out their current small ground, so where do these extra thousands come from? You'd think if thousands extra appeared in a bigger stadium it was because there was a waiting list for tickets in a smaller stadium, but there isnt, so how do they attract more, is it just facilities? never understood that. In any event their crowds wont be much different to our bigger crowds in this division under our current shambolic owners, their new ground is fairly small, capacity only 17k. Doubling their revenue is ambitous. If we had right structure wed double our revnue.

Don't think the Cairney comparison is accurate at all. He was sold for cheap primarily as we was going into a transfer embargo, that was the summer that a few went and the likes of Guthrie, Akpan, Koita and Delfouenso all came in. As far as we know, at the moment we are not under such restrictions. Also, Cairney had won player of the season here, he was undoubtedly at that time a strong aspect of our side, with potential, rather than a weakness with potential. Rocky patch in my opinion doesn't accurately summarise his performances over the entire season either for me. I also never have felt he is unbeatable. He definitely has a quality reflex save in him (which keeper doesnt) but his overall game is very questionable, and crucially for a goalkeeper, he makes far, far too many mistakes to be relied upon. Of course he may improve, and ideally we could have him and a quality experienced keeper at the same time, but I wouldnt be gutted to see him leave I dont think.

I have decided that I like ManUre more than ManCiteh. Says it all really.

How depressing. Another win for the human rights abusing, slave owning, blood money oil barons. Pep can do one too. Pretty much any manager in football could win a few trophies with those resources. Reckons he’s too important to wear a suit on FA Cup final day too.

I just asked what the police involvement was?

I don’t think he should have been offered a new contract as much as anything you need places free in the squad for new players or kids to come through. Look to the future now and it isn’t Craig Conway.

That’s what I mean, he’s still very raw but I believe he’ll be a top class keeper one day. I’m not against bringing another keeper in as competition who might even be better than Raya at this moment in time but don’t let the lad go and keep Leut as number two. That would be a poor move.

The process when I was active was that the referee should ask the Match Commander and Safely Officer if there were any safety issues which would effect a potential penalty shoot out. This briefing takes place 75 minutes before the game. If they have a preference then the referee should inform the managers and captains at the exchange of team sheets an hour before kick off. If there are no issues then it's the toss of a coin and the winning captain chooses. In my experience the choice was usually in front of the home fans. I always suspected that it wasn't a decision made in the interests of safety but to give the home team an advantage. I've never seen such a public show when a delegation troop onto the pitch to tell the referee where penalties should be taken from. Poor from the referee for not sorting this out privately before the match.

Think the lad Clarke at Portsmouth is more highly regarded

It does seem a stretch I admit but I'm optimistic. TM has made some decent signings, amongst some rotters, and now he knows he needs to focus on the defence and a keeper hopefully he'll find some Dack/Rothwell equivalents (yes he should've realised in January). He knows that Mulgrew was a huge issue for us defensively, given how much he played him toward the end of the season, and we looked pretty solid at the back with Lenihan and Williams in there for the last few games (quite how Williams became more reliable than Mulgrew is utterly baffling). So a centre half to slot in next to Lenihan and a keeper to push Raya for first choice could see us tighten up enough to make a run for the play-offs imo. Still don't think TM is the man to take us up but he ain't going anywhere so I'm going for a positive outlook this summer.

We did and it looked good. Sadly, I think it was symptomatic of our status at the time and that commercial sponsors didn't want to touch us. ICI Perspex, Crown Paints, HSA and AMD Processors all looked decent on our shirts.

Dowling did his stuff as needed. Hugely impressed by the Doncaster manager. His team are fit disciplined brilliantly organised and tactics spot on. He deserves a chance to work with better players.

How is someone with Scotland in the name accusing a Yorkie of being tight?

Good post. Interesting the bit in bold, and very honest. For me, the club is the shirt, the badge and the fact that it represents the town that I was born in, and still live in. It’s mine. I don’t own it but it’s mine. I want it to be as successful as it possibly can be because it represents me. There are people who I meet now who haven’t even heard of us. Thanks Venkys! Managers, players, suits, even owners come and go. There are some I love and some I hate but none of them are beyond question. If I don’t think they are doing the right thing for my club I’ll curse and I’ll moan but as long as people stay civil and we have the ignore function, for the “ad hominees”, all is well. ??

Stanley like to get the ball down and play football, Smallwood would genuinely struggle in that set up. A huge reason they are spending circa of £400k on the pitch this summer is to curb the cancellations but as much so they can play their game.