Laugh? No. Care? No. Ever since the football community turned its back on us when we were pleading for help against our horrendous owners and their stooge manager, my attitude towards other football clubs has been 'get to fuck'.

Can I just say I love rovers literally more than anything in life with exception of my one and only child. I would miss the champions league final if I was playing for rovers and they reached the final to be at the birth of my daughter. Lenihan has absolutely done the right thing

It was a joke Stuart..... But just to be clear, there is not one iota of criticism from me towards the lad for skipping the game. Nor would there have been had it been the playoff final at Wembley he missed. It’s not like Joe Root planning the birth of his child in the middle of the cricket season and missing captaining England for it, Lenihan planned for this to be off-season it would appear, so nothing to do with his commitment to Rovers. You don’t get a second chance to be present at the birth of your first child, it’s only football for goodness sake.

What are the FA going to do about that ! I think the initials are a clue.

I may need to alter my prediction.

As well as playing a false 9, we also play a false 1 in the nets, a false 3 at left back, a false 7 on the right wing and any number of other false numbers wherever the square pegs are being pushed into round holes. Even Mr Mowbray could be deemed a false manager..

On the flip side, he's spunked £12m on two non-entities who he tries to shoe-horn into the squad (when he's not isolating one of them), completely unbalancing the side. This has also completely shafted us with FFP. He also has a L1 footballer as our Captain and fits him into the starting XI any way he can. Is the club in a better state than when he took over? Undoubtedly. Has he taken the club as far as he can? Almost certainly.

I used to think he was a man of integrity before he brought in Waggott as his boss, now I'm not having it. Neither can I reconcile the actions of a man who gives contract extensions out to players who haven't featured all season as being those of someone with integrity. He's mugging off the Club for the benefit of himself and his coaching staff and his favourite core of players imo.

Luke Brennan signs new two year deal. Great news https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2020/july/brennan-pens-pro-deal/

Well what's wrong with getting behind your club !?

Bloody hell... I’d hope they would! Expecting anyone to miss the birth of their child for their work is bonkers.

The horrible thing is, it doesn't hurt any more. It is like we are still in the Covid football shut down. It was so obvious from the moment the teams were announced we were going to lose. Irrespective of injuries, there is a Rovers eleven and five subs who could have beaten Barnsley. Mowbray didn't get anywhere near picking them or selecting the tactics to do it.

Who would buy a season ticket right now? No idea when we can return and being asked to give your money to a club that will hand it straight to Smallwood and Sam Hart.

In fairness at least one parent should be there.

1. The concept of progress and improvement now does somewhat hang in the balance. We are 4 points behind last seasons points tally, with 6 difficult games to go including the top 2, Cardiff and Milwall. If we was to finish on the same or even less points than last season, would that cause any doubts as to whether youd want him to stay? 2. You regularly mention this European scouting network. Firstly I feel that you are under delusions of grandeur in terms of it all clicking into place and our summer will just be first of all a normal one considering the pandemic (example A being Wigan) and also that we are going to go and sign numerous players from the continent to improve us. But presuming that it is all systems go, why does that have to stop with Mowbray? The scouting network surely doesnt stop in his head. 3. You mention his signings which are a mixed bag but in terms of progress, it doesnt look good. Firstly, obviously we have lost Raya, with his faults sure, signed a goalkeeper no better who this summer has gone. So this summer to last summer, we are down an asset. We spent that money and a bit more on possibly our biggest owner who is absolute shite and a total liability on our wage bill. We cant get rid and hes of no use. Throw in Johnson, another high earning non contributor and weve got 2 big earning failures and of course a hole instead of an asset in goal. Holtby is a good addition for another season who has mainly been used wrongly, Adarabioyo has been good but will go back and leave a hole, and Downing again has been a good signing might get another year but even post lockdown his influence is waning. Are we even in a better position compared to last summer in terms of this seasons recruitment? Not sure we are at all. 4. The 4 you mentioned are all key, but is Rankin Costello a symbol of success on Mowbrays behalf? An assist for a fifth goal at Sheffield Wednesday his sole contribution to date. Buckley has only really had one good game. Chapman has been totally wasted. Davenport has also rotted away and the less said about Brereton the better. Not sure that area really is a qualified success either. 5. You are constantly defending the club for its policy (inconsistently applied in Bell's case) of dithering and waiting regarding budgets. Do you agree that with any lingering play off hopes now gone, the budget should be agreed NOW between our incompetent owners and the manager to ensure that we can be proactive?

Exactly how I feel . We were mocked endlessly

To be fair mate when him and his missus planned this (assuming it was planned of course....) they would have factored into their plans that late June/early July would be free of football commitments so in that sense normal thinking re play-offs goes out of the window.

By the end of this season, Tony Mowbray will have managed Rovers for 170 games. 115 as a Championship club and 55 as a League One side. Including cup competitions. His stand alone Championship record will stand at around 35% win rate or 1.3 points per game, which is just a shade better than Paul Lambert's 1.27 points per game. I, along with many others I'm sure, felt the Lambert era was generally underwhelming, which is unfortunately what the Mowbray (Championship) era is becoming. Now we are on target for our best points haul and finish since 2014/15 where we finished 9th with 67 points. (14/15 was the light blue kit year, the Liverpool FA Cup QF, Gestede and Rhodes both scoring 20+ goals) so its perhaps not as gloomy or as bad as it has been in recent years, but the disappointment is palpable. 2020/21 will be the season that either maintains or ends the Mowbray era. I've always thought highly of TM as a person, his stories and passion for football, the town and the history of the club are there for all to see. I believe in his integrity and his genuine honest character (compared to a lot of managers) and would love to see him do well, there is however, a strong sense of apathy setting in, amongst the fanbase and the players, this is what concerns me the most. The Premier League still feels a long way off, perhaps it always will.

I am not trolling. The point I'm trying to make is we are, IMO, only very marginally better off than when Mowbray 'entered the building' some three and a half years ago. Under Mowbray's management: We got relegated - as he said in Blues Bar in Feb. last year, he was brought in to keep us up but failed IMO, we've played, in the main, awful football - we've no identity Our squad, IMO, is threadbare in key areas, with the odd exception devoid of quality and woefully unbalanced IMO, he's spunked some £20million+ (when wages are added in) up the wall on two non firing strikers - the club's financial position is a mess and this folly has made it even worse We are, IMO, light years away from being automatic promotion contenders and still not seriously contending for a top 6 stop IMO, Coyle was a disaster and had to go - in fact he should never have been appointed. I honestly believe we've had three and a half miserable and wasted years under Mowbray. Just what is the point of this man?!?!

It doesnt hurt anymore when we lose and it doesnt feel that good when we win either cos you know it ultimately counts for nothing because theres a performance like this waiting round the corner. Hypothetically we could win our next games against leeds, cardiff and west Brom , that should get fans absolutely bouncing but we all know we'll turn up at Luton with bennet in goal, danny graham at wing back with Walton as false 9. It's a horrible feeling to not really feel, atleast with Steve Kean there was anger, right now it's just "meh" at every result.

It's frustrating that Mowbray continues to persist with the wide striker role it evidently doesn't work as they never score goals. Holtby has played for top clubs with top managers and for my knowledge never been played in a false 9 role. Why does Mowbray think he knows better keep playing him there? The whole team is imbalanced, this is due to the 6 transfer windows Mowbray has had. In actual fact he has hamstrung the next manager. The next manager will have no out and out wingers and no money, with a completely messed up side.

Think Leeds might be tempted to.

Rothwell is a shadow of the player he was. Travis is good defensively but used to make surging runs. Gallagher and Brereton are either strikers or we should have bought wingers. Bennett while I respect the man should definitely not be at left back or in the team. It took the injury to dack to allow Mowbray to free Armstrong. Johnson is past it and davenport should be either playing in his position or at left back. Finally no intention of returning season ticket money yet Mowbray hands out extended contracts to players who haven’t played for us for twelve months. To justify this he included one in the squad( Smallwood) and plays the other( mulgrew). Easy money. Technically inept, can’t spend money, can’t organise a team and to keep the players onside hands out my non refundable season ticket money. All disfunctional but with no real oversight not surprising.

Fair to say they've gotten on our nerves the last few years but that's the six fingered influence stoked it up on their side. Sad to see them in the mire though and it's a strange situation but just shows how finely balanced some smaller clubs finances are. Both them and Bolton were in good ownership for years until not very long ago. You just cannot help but think one day in the not too distant it'll be our turn. That's why we desperately need a trip to the land of milk and honey no matter how brief and painful it may be. And that's why the likes of 'i haven't got the balls to go for it' Mowbray boil my piss.

At last I've finally got the Tony M masterplan! No scintilla of a clue as to player recruitment/tactics/team selection/corporate structure or any of that shit? Compliant,dozy faraway owners who don't give a toss and will continue to bankroll you, seemingly endlessly? Then just wait for all the the teams above you to go into administration! It might take a while, but hey, we've got plenty of that, and I think those dozy arseholes in Pune will welcome a long term, well thought out plan. I'm 67 years old, I've been watching and supporting the Rovers since the late fifties. And I'm bloody depressed.

All magnificent players playing with other magnificent players. Our players are not good enough to make that system work. he has tried it with Dack numerous times, Holtby now and while they are both good players, the rest of the team does not have the nous to play it. Would love to see Liverpool, Barca or Man City pull it off with SG and BB on the wings.

The lad was Prestons best player on the park at Ewood ... think he scored then did a gymnastics celebration just like Write Philips did ... plays in the hole and captain of PNE Youth ...

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere, but Brennan has ended up signing another deal with Rovers

In November 2018, Whelan sold Wigan Athletic to Hong Kong based International Entertainment Corporation and then there was a further change of ownership, a few weeks ago, when Next Leader Fund took control. That’s two changes of ownership in eighteen months. The fit and proper test still working wonders then..and just look at the names of the buyers. Faceless non entities. Not local, no connections to Wigan, just more piggies thinking they can get their snouts in the trough.

coyle did the simple thing,played gallagher as proper c/f and got crosses and service to him,nothing complicated,don`t want to praise him but it`s an illustration on why you should put players in their proper positions and make them aware of their jobs

No, Rev, what I'm saying is that the cost of paying up two years of a contract for the manager and his staff is going to have to be taken into consideration. Personally, at the moment, I'm more than happy for him to stay for next season - which is likely to be another difficult one with the games between September and December likely to be behind closed doors and, who knows, the whole thing may end being behind closed doors. I suspect, like many clubs, the Rovers simply want to survive intact during the period of this pandemic.

Of course he wouldn't but we don't have any characters with his winning attitude and tough mentality. I always remember when Roy was ROI assistant and Robbie Keane's wife had just given birth and they asked Roy if he was available and his response was Why wouldn’t he be? He didn’t have the baby. Unless he’s breastfeeding he should be all right.

an endangered species

I know him. Not gettimg overly excited. Good feet but lightweight. I'm surprised we took him. Not sure he's any better than what we have. Now there is a lad playing for Preston U18s, a Rovers fan called Coulton....I'd be pleased if we signed him. Scotland U17. Leftie, going to be a good one.

Rothwell is an interesting one, we only signed him for £100k so will make a profit if we sell, but the exciting scoring player of the end of last season seems to have been coached out of existence. The same seems to have happened to Travis's box to box game as well. It seems you have to fit Tony's midfielder blueprint or else it is coached out of you.

The difficulty for a new manager to compared to the job Mowbray had is that under Coyle he had pieced together a squad filled with cheap shite on short term contracts and substandard loans. At the end of the season much of that crap (Brown, Greer, Byrne, Hendrie etc) plus a few longer term shit players like Lowe and Akpan all were due to be out if contract. Even if a new manager came in Mowbray has signed loads of sub par players on long term contracts that it is so hard to rebuild. Mulgrew, Bell, Williams and Bennett were given extensions, so theyll be sticking around, Johnson, Gallagher, Brereton, Rothwell etc are all sat on decent contracts im sure and I bet Mowbray is already pushing deals over the line for our out of contract rag tag bunch. Big money players meant as promising assets are now sat taking a considerable wage as costly liabilities. A further problem is the fact that a normal club would now be planning for next season. With our disinterested owners no budgets will be discussed until the end of the season, if in any possible with Mowbray in India. Any competent free agents perfect for us in these economic circumstances will go elsewhere and we will again lag behind. Theres also a good chance now that we might actually finish on less points than last season. The season is again over with plenty of games to spare. Considering that weve signed 3 expensive loans this season, 3 big earners on frees and of course a 5m signing who is now probably our biggest earner, and we are no nearer to getting a successful way to get this totally imbalanced squad to work efficiently. I am struggling to see any reasons why we should continue with the current manager. He has wasted our money and our squad is still all over the place. His recent use of an experimental system to terrible effect shows that he is no closer to piecing things together. @chaddyrovers what is your methodology behind thinking that we are going in the right direction considering how his squad is so imbalanced and so strewn with financial liabilities. He may even be unable to claim progress this season. As it is, its so frustrating that we know our owners dont give a shit, no thought will be given regarding budgets etc for at least a month, we will try and fail to play catch up with a limited budget and our squad will still be full of shite next year.

Surely nobody takes Mercer seriously? He’s been a wind up merchant since he first joined and kept telling us how much of a fantastic club Burnley were...

Whilst I agree with much of this post.... In your post I quoted, you said Coyle would be a better option, then, in this post, you go on to say that Coyle was a disaster and had to go. You can’t have it both ways. You were also posting about winning money betting on Barnsley. You can surely see how that could wind people up in the aftermath of a loss?

Pointless having him around. Absolutely no faith in him to score goals. Anyone who does is deluded

Living in the Past - Jethro Tull

Shocking display today but we strangely should have been ahead by a couple long before Barnsley’s goal. Whilst some are saying it was a red card for BB, I’ve watched the highlights back and that particular incident a good few times and I don’t see it. Stupid, petulant foul? Yes. Dangerous play of any sort? No. Seen those sorts of frustrated/dirty/cynical tackles many a time but rarely seen a red come out for them. I think it’s poor of Mowbray not to come out and say as much, and was expecting him to blame the ref for a bad decision if I’m honest. From the sounds of it, he won’t appeal. However, I think he should. I would be, personally. Still think it’s a really poor decision, however silly Ben was for giving the referee a decision to make.

Joe Rothwell..... A player who I’ve loved to hate pretty much for the last two seasons. Good grief, he’s been an passenger for these last two games, yet seems to avoid any criticisms. He looks a million dollars, yet rarely produces anything of note! Other names already mentioned also deserve their poor performances being highlighted, but I hope others have finally seen the light, not good enough!

Do you agree that the false 9, wide striker experiment needs to be put in the bin and kept there?

I’m not exactly sure what the relationship was between Mowbray and Waggott was before his time at rovers. But I do wonder how many clubs have had a manager that’s effectively appointed the chairman. It all seems a little too cosy for my liking. Of all the disappointments on the pitch and incompetence from the very top it’s bizarre things like that that grind me down bit by bit.

I think he will have better offers than us sadly. He looks an excellent player comfortably the best player on the pitch both times we have played them this season.

mowbray would have said to douglas "you`re to flighty and play to far up the pitch,forget all that attacking stuff,similarly to clayton "sorry ronnie,you`re not developed enough to play in the first team, and you don`t listen to me enough"

I'm 68 and this shower of shit have ruined a decade of my life BUT I got to see Bryan Douglas grace Ewood Park so feck them all, Mowbray, Waffott included.

Not disagreeing with what Coyle got out of Gallagher compared to Mowbray but I thought the player also looked a lot more lithe willing and athletic during his first spell here. He looks to have filled out substantially and doesn't look to have the same enthusiasm to me as he did first time round. This should have been obvious if we'd scouted him properly at Birmingham. Not that I'd have re - signed him personally even on the basis of his first spell here. Maybe at a push if he'd been out of contract and free.

But not in the Boardroom I fear.

Suspect theres more chance of Sam Hart being number 1 on the opening day of next season.