You mention being brave in the transfer market but ruthlessness has always been an achilles heel. Even recently hes dishing out temporary extensions for crap players like Samuel, Smallwood and Hart who are useless, useless and unused and useless and ineligible when we are amidst the economic tightenings of a pandemic. Last year he offered extensions to basically everyone and hes already given Bell an extension. We have to be especially efficient with our resources at this time and he isnt. Our squad is so imbalanced, 7 or 8 players are good enough and the rest arent. I dont swallow this about us having lower half resources as if we are overachieving in the top half as that isnt a true reflection. Just looking at the wage budgets is flawed for numerous reasons: - There are teams with far larger wage budgets because they have recently been relegated, so essentially a chunk of their wage budget is useless waste on Premier League wages, for example Stoke have Mame Diouf etc, Swansea have Routledge, Dyer etc. Its not as if its all an asset to the manager. - Further proof of a limited correlation between league position is that there are teams with much less wage expenditure right up there and performing better than us. Brentford and Preston have much more efficient recruitment, Sheffield United got promoted spending less on wages and Millwall were much higher and this season are on the same points. - Our wage budget I think will have gone up proportionally more than most with the additions of Johnson, Gallagher, Downing, Holtby, Adarabioyo, Cunningham and Walton. We will only know for sure when the next accounts are published. - A big way in which Mowbray has been lucky is the net spend available to him of over 10m since we came up. Not many teams can boast that but it has not been spent well. - No sales have been forced to halt our progress. Raya was the only sale and Mowbray was clearly happy to cut ties with a player he publically criticised and dropped for the inadequate sub keeper he signed. I am not Mowbray out consistently because I am aware that even if we could and had interested and logical owners, it wouldnt be an easy decision. Hes borderline either way. I just look at our squad and its consistent imbalances and I dont see Mowbray getting us into that top 6 before the promising core is broken up and we start all over. I feel its important to point out that in terms of resources he has plenty but it has not been used very efficiently.

Hate Leeds with a passion. No one had ever heard of them until the mid 60s and up until then, they hadn’t won a bean. For a city of 700k they have, in the main, greatly under achieved. Teams like Rovers, Bolton and Huddersfield easily eclipse them on the record attendance front and in their support, they have hordes of knuckle dragging neanderthals, intent on hooliganism. I can’t think of anything good to say about them. Wan*ers.

Yep, fuck him, same with Moyes and the rest of the shithouses who crawled out of the woodwork. What happened in that darkest of dark times should NEVER be forgotten.

I agree. The lack of any pressure on the manager means that losing doesn’t matter. Obviously we will slide down, and eventually out of, the division but it doesn’t make any difference to anyone running the club. Any change seems totally reliant on Mowbray doing the decent thing - but why would he? We all laughed when Kean talked about dew on the grass because he was so despised but if Mowbray made the same comment half of our fans would agree with him because his image as a “football statesman”. Mowbray is the second longest serving Championship manager behind Lee Johnson. In my view it’s because of the “little old Blackburn Rovers” ideology that the current regime have installed. Doing nothing to increase footfall while having Venkys foot the bill for losses means this can be peddled as a reason why we are “lucky to be in the Championship thanks to Mowbray”. How many of our fans will soon only ever know us as a midtable second tier side who shouldn’t expect any better? Rovers have ALWAYS been striving for success, now we strive for mediocrity disguised as survival (while having wealthy owners). Worst of all, as soon as the cash does dry up, Waggott and Mowbray will be long gone with fans left to pick up the pieces. I want us to get back to being one of those clubs where “managers live and die by results”. Which is pretty much every other club. Let’s hope our next owners actually give a shit about being successful because when they don’t then eventually nobody will.

Nail, hammer, head. We're on the road to nowhere and if he was still here in ten years time we'd still be on the same road or have fallen off the road into the ditch at the side some years previously. It's the futility and pointlessness of plodding on with Mowbray that depresses me.

Lambert left because the money he was promised to rebuild the side never materialised. He gave Venkys the option, give him the money promised when he signed, or he'd walk, they didn't deliver and he walked, fair play to the man I say.

And in recent times that covers the likes of Kean, Berg, Appleton, Bowyer, Coyle and now TM. Most with a nice guy persona and non have really driven us forwards. Sorry but i couldn't care less what staff etc think of a manager he's there to do a job with the first team not pass the time of day with everybody. Lambert comes across as a bit of a twat and his style was pragmatic but show me a nice guy and i'll show you losers or stability at best. Show me an arrogant angry arsehole and often you'll find a very driven winner.

He was promised the Rhodes money and as much again on top i think that's why he did a lot of whinging. The plan he pitched to them would have cost 20 million but apparently that's what they promised him. I don't think he's anything special but we don't know what he'd have done with real backing. In the end though he did the right thing by all parties so he has my respect for that.

To be fair, a lot of fans (me included) saw the arrival of Lambert as a sign of a club behaving professionally again. He was appointed quickly with a highly regarded coach like Irvine alongside. He did still have a decent reputation at the time and it looked like a fresh start after years of highly dubious appointments, a revolving door and then a promotion within of Bowyer and his staff done on the cheap. It didn’t work out, and neither did the ‘new dawn’ last with Coyle next to rock up.

A couple of things don’t sit right with me. Whilst I fundamentally agree that Venky’s are more than capable of appointing someone worse, I don’t think it’s a good idea to just plod along with Mowbray and hope for the best. No manager should be ‘unsackable’, as we all know! What are we measuring success against? Surely if he doesn’t meet his targets, then he should be relieved of his duties? Any considerations re FFP or having no money to spend can largely be placed at the manager’s door, in my view. How can anyone have the gall to complain about money, when they’ve spent £12 Million on two strikers that haven’t delivered enough? Not to mention short term fixes (loans) at the back and in goal. ‘Defenders are coming’ * *=only valid for twelve months....

If Mowbray played the best team possible in every game, everyone in the correct position and no room for deadwood like bennett, Del, Gallagher.....I think we would be at least 10 points better off. This squad can get promoted with the right manager. He has to go, we need to progress quickly.

Moonwalking Mowbray.

Bit like you using them, Liverpool and Barca as an example of why we should use the False 9

Chaddy dear boy, I was comparing the body language, enthusiasm and mental altertness of Pep with, IMO, a moribund Mowbray. I think it's pretty obvious why our players don't seem fired-up for many of our games. As for wage bill, Sheff U and Chris Wilder did pretty well on very limited resources. Face up to it lad, we have, IMO, a manager taking us nowhere and I hate every minute of being on the road to nowhere.

You get what you pay for. Leeds were mucking about with Christiansen and Heckingbottom not long ago. Then their owner quickly learned that the road out of this division is to get the right manager and back him. Bielsa brought with him an array of his coaching staff who cost an arm and a leg but the results have followed. Lesson to be learned = don't try to do things on the cheap. Don't appoint a loser like Coyle over a winner like Warnock just because he costs less. Don't force the manager to work with staff already at the club who might not be up to the job.

I think this thread has been hijacked by journalists and novelists. I've never seen so much typing per post, page after page. I can't be arsed reading it.

I hope you are right Chaddy. Sadly, none of us know what is around the corner. Enjoy each day as if it were your last!

I just really hope you meant aversion. Or that's a very niche fetish. To each their own though.

Even deadwood like Gally and Bennett could contribute if they were played in the correct positions and used correctly. Sure neither should be starting but Bennett would be a great impact sub for shoring up games with his energy. A half decent manager might get Gally to put himself about and be a pain for defenders. And if played centrally with a bit of coaching in the physical side of the game, who knows, he might even get a few goals. But yeah, players not out of position, a system everyone knows, a regular and best first 11 with everyone knowing their role. All of this would easily see us as you say 10 points better off. And this is what irritates me. The needless nature of the way TM hampers the team and makes things harder for himself. It's beyond odd.

Thats an honest assessment from an honest manger, he understands and feels the frustration the same as the rest of us do. We haven't had honesty since those ******* took us over, its always been about self preservation from Agnew to Shaw, from Coyle to ***t to Singh. What he's doing here is calling himself and the players out, we're not good enough to make the play offs, thats been clear for 2 seasons and he has to improve us or leave. But in the clamber to replace Mowbray, have a think about the possible replacements - Can you find 1 manager willing to come who can build a Championship promotion side with no money? Warnock was the man, we had him and then lost him, another catastrophic decision, but you'll not find many more out there. The last decision before Mowbray and Waggot relegated us, be careful what you wish for.

Hiya Chaddy, can you leave the moderating to the moderating team please? Ta.

Maybe we should spend money in the right places then... How are those £12m strikers going (+ their wages)? I’m not even sure what you’re arguing.

Can they play left back?

The one's i'm on about get their generals in the dressing room and get their allies on side. Those types most of the players will run through brick walls for although some end up detesting them. As a fan who cares as long as you aren't turning in insipid performances all the time. Most of the players clearly play for Tony as they did Gaz hell some even did for King rat but do they run through brick walls for him ? Do they bust a gut every game in pursuit of a goal or target set by the manager and club ? Not that you'd notice. The team reflects the manager - honest triers who follow his instructions but all too often neither party shows the real desire to go that extra yard. When they don't there's a set of rehashable excuses and a casual shrug of the shoulders, a why do today what will wait till tomorrow attitude it strikes me as. Not enough urgency in simple terms.

Pulis is from the same cesspit stable, as Kean and Coyle...Pulis spoke out for his mate, Keano, at the time like a good company man.

I don't think he understands or admits that he's causing it to a great extent though.

The Isley Brothers - This Old Heart Of Mine(Is Weak For You)

" Ask not for whom the bell tolls ".

I think he inserted the get out clause as he was doubtful from the start that Venkys would come up with the goods and so needed an insurance policy. By the time he'd sold Rhodes, had no money in January and it was becoming clear they weren't going to back him in the summer either he realised what he was up against and got out whilst his reputation was still relatively intact. And it worked for him because a few months later he got the Wolves job. I agree his stock has fallen massively and he's going to be finished if he doesn't get Ipswich back up quickly but I'll never believe he was to blame over Venkys. Not when we look at the rest of the shenanigans that have gone on here. Lambert had a decent reputation to protect and had the sense to ensure he could get out quickly if they didn't deliver. And like with pretty much everything else in their time here they didn't deliver. All talk, no action. Only difference is that all the other managers they've had have been grateful to be in the job and wouldn't have got any other Championship position, so they put up with being mucked around.

Great post. If you get the right manager in with a workable budget it's amazing what you can do and how quickly you can do it. No need for long term plans, slow builds, directors of football, the right structure in the Boardroom etc etc As for Chaddy's view on Leeds, not much point turning up on Saturday then he? I bet Mowbray will also get his excuses in early and spend plenty of time before the game eulogising about Leeds as well

If Mowbray is still in charge I think you will be looking at a drop in crowds.

Don't then ?

word from my mole at brockhall is that mowbray will definately call it a day after the final game,in his words "i cant get anything out of most of them,i tell them what to do on the training pitch and they do the opposite on match day",mrs m has also stopped making the famed lemon drizzle cake,as tony won`t agree to have an extension on their house,he`s been cutting a disillusioned figure in the last fortnight

Crap manager? I am critical of various things but thats really harsh.

I agree with you. His tenure was by no means as bad as some like to make out. Some like to revise history because they didn't like the bloke or the fact he walked out. It might not have been riveting to watch but I could see clear evidence of a way of playing, improved fitness and defensive improvements. Clearly once word got out that he was on his way and we were safe from relegation the end of the season was going through the motions time. As usual though personalities rub off. Seems the order of the day with the owners and down at Ewood/Brockhall is to have someone who is a nice bloke. Such a body on reception likes him because he makes her a brew and has a natter on a Monday morning and the owners like him because he goes to India and tells them how fantastic they are. No matter if results are crap. Give me a win at all costs bloke any day.

Was he ever really here for the long haul though ? Very much another of Balajis mates throwing up another cheap name who was on the dung pile but had a promotion on his CV. Verdict was we'll have a look at each other there's nothing to lose we get a few months cheap management again whilst those behind the scenes line up players to sell. He gets his name back in management, a few quid and ready made excuses as to why it didn't work out. That's the way these lot work it would have been exactly the same with Mowbray had we stayed up. He'd probably have got no money and till October the following season then got shunted out in favour of another low end gamble if we were floundering. Relegation put a different more desperate angle on it and promotion straight away gave him untouchable status pretty quickly.

I wouldn't say TM is severely restricted my point is more with the squad we have i don't think we are under achieving. PNE squad on paper you say is more balanced and it is but playing devils advocate the aren't doing any better than we are. I think what is frustrating for me and where i do agree with you on TM Wigan and Barnsley are indicative of how we perform get close to the play offs then baffling team selection and a loss. Where i do give TM benefit of the doubt is rebuilding the club behind the scenes with data analysis revamping the scouting ( lets see if that bares fruit ). Until we have owners that are budget pro active eg start targeting summer signings in January getting them lined up knowing what money you have i don't see McCarthy Pulis and all the other has been managers mentioned doing any better.

Over the years, I've spoken to a lot of people who work/worked at Rovers, and Paul Lambert was easily the most detested and disliked manager by the staff we've ever* had, easily. Not to mention his "style" football rivalled paint drying for riveting enjoyment.

Just same old spin & crap from TM .. Just waffle to keep his job ... Everybody knows this Team and the management team are on easy street .. The LT Photo the other day of Mowbray sat on his ass 0n the wall with his coaching staff in the dug out summed it all up ... Barnsley 2 Blackburn 0

Absolutely. This is my sense as well. He took a similar tone several months ago about the time of the home fixture against Barnsley. I think he knows he is losing the fans now because there is so little belief in any method or pattern of play. After 3 years there are still too many no-shows with square pegs in round holes/polished turds( choose your own description!) Any notion of a long term, slow build project is hardly supported by the number of replacements that are required this summer and in so many key positions. Despite loyal fans' fervent hopes and willingness to herald any flashes of improvement in Brereton and Gallagher, they are both down there with O'Mara, Chris Brown and our whole back catalogue of shit strikers. If this were a normal club, we would agree It needs a catalyst and a new broom (Gordon Lee/Souness/Mackay)....but you know the rest....

Hopefully it is Hummel and not Adidas, Nike or Puma. Hummel would actually put some thought into the design unlike the others (especially Adidas) as they knock out pretty much the same design for everyone bar the major teams.

We are standing still at best. When you stand still most of the other teams are moving forward. So one day you find yourself going out of the league through the back door. It's only a matter of time.

Mowbray in today's LT: "We’re a long way from where I want us to be" “We can all be disappointed but are we moving in the right direction? I hope so" Think it gets worse by the day! Three and a half years in situ and we are a "long way" from where he wants us to be. Sounds like Mowbray himself doesn't know - "are we are moving in the right direction?" So depressing in the middle of summer on a day when it's p1ssing down. IMO, he simply has to go or the landscape will be unchanged, at best, in another three and a half years!

Based on Venky's track record, Mowbray probably has the highest approval rating of any manager they've hired, due in part to the "stability" he's brought to the club, and the personality cult manufactured by the PR department of this avuncular safe pair of hands. Currently, we are a middling Championship side that's flirting with the playoffs but never following through. Fans would generally prefer to stick with Uncle Tony and hope he stumbles on the magic formula to mount a promotion push than risk Venky's playing Russian Roulette. That seems to be the long and short of it, imo.

Order ! Orderrrrr ! Let the honorable gentleman have his say ?

That's what managers do. Our guy looks like he's waiting for the next bus.

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

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..

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?

After this season and Tony's baffling team selections, Constant square pegs in round holes. Players like Bennett, Bretherton, Holtby, Gally, Johnson, no goalie, I wont be bothering renewing my season ticket. I have had enough..