Looking at the squad arriving at preseason training is giving me July/August 2016 vibes.... Of course there's no Kaminski, Brereton, Gallagher or Dack from the pictures I've seen, but crikey, I think we're a real relegation threat with this squad. So much youth, so little experience, injury prone players, players who have underperformed at this level... I know the season is still a ways away, so the panic button isn't being pushed just yet...but wow, we need reinforcements, and fast!

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2021/june/Rovers-to-start-with-Swansea-/

Renewed mine yesterday. As I said in my post a few days back, I bought one last year so really had no decision to make this year, given the benefit of the ''discount'' ''We've got a life sentence'' is what I said to my dad

Not a slight on any of the comments already given or defending the club for their pricing structure. But as a business owner myself, its hard to quantify certain consumer expectations, whilst feeling the pennies going up elsewhere. For example I spoke with a customer last week about a slight price increase and got a bit of a rant back, whilst on the same day, I paid £1.30 for a litre of petrol, £4.25 for a pint of Estrella at a pub, plus nearly £5.00 for a sandwich/drink at lunchtime. All of which lasted me a combined 15 minutes!! 😂 Prices going up dramatically across the board, the COVID effects on this are only truly starting to surface now and will do forever more I'd have thought. Renewed last year, so duty bound to again and with the 'discount' an easy choice.

Ahead of the fixtures being announced next week: A thread, based on the fixtures released today by the Premier League for Burnley What we can safely assume: 7th August 2021 - Opening Round of fixtures - Home (as Burnley are at home 14th August, meaning Rovers likely away) 26th December 2021 - Boxing Day - Away (Burnley home) 1st January 2022 - New Years Day - Home (Burnley away) 14-18th April 2022 - Easter Weekend - Home and Away (this has been the trend in recent years, with Good Friday and Easter Monday - Burnley away) 7th/8th May 2022 - Last Fixture of the season - Away (Burnley home) 29th May 2022 - Playoff Final - Wembley (For those optimists! 😁)

Been enjoying the data stuff put out by Andy and Joe. Makes interesting reading. I'm a big fan and follower of baseball, who've been the forerunners of this data driven approach for nearly 20 years now and have seen how it has impacted the game over there, for the players, the front offices (Director of Football/Scouting etc in football terms) and the general fan. Its impact will be felt forever more in baseball terms, and whilst not wholly embraced by the supporters....is now the standard in the sport, has lead to a generation of players who play to the 'Moneyball' standards. Ironically, Brandon Beane and the Oakland A's (the team shown to first use the new approach in the film Moneyball (well worth a watch)) haven't actually won the World Series since the 1980s. And their statistical approach has been copied and pasted throughout the league.....its easier to run a Moneyball operation, when you have the resources/attache/cash to back up the data! That said, there has been push back against the data from large swathes of the supporter base and ex-players/pundits a like, notably Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz. I do often wonder at what point do the general fan get put off by the data driven approach? and the endless stream of statistics that are shown? Particularly niche stats like xG At what point does the general fan have to acknowledge that statistics are here to stay? Yet the need to counterbalance that with the more traditional 'eye test'? Also, baseball has seen a rise in general managers coming from the top universities, where they have studied economics, business studies or finance and financial analysis. I wonder how long it may be before we see one of the big clubs (or small clubs for that matter) hire an Oxbridge/London School of Economics graduate to run the data department at a football club? I'm sure this has probably already happened! The next 25 years of football will undoubtedly see more stats, more interest in the stats and more new fans approving of new methods to find players and to run their teams.......The Old School vs. New School battle is just beginning. Personally, I think the stats data will win through and just as we look back at the days of drinking/poor diets/poor training regimes, we'll wonder how clubs used to send a middle aged bloke to Colchester v Scunthorpe on a wet Tuesday in February... to watch one game of a left back, who looked decent on the night and was then signed for x amount of pounds.... Maybe scouts will be replaced by data analysts? who knows....

New website?

This was just a quick throwing together of a list, the intention was for people to make their own lists and share, see link above. Judging the shirt in isolation, I don't like that shade of blue and the black sponsorship would have been nicer in our more traditional red. Also talking in isolation, the Princes Trust home shirt was beautiful, but will forever be associated with the disastrous last season in the Premier League and him who shan't be named!

AFC Fylde away is the first preseason game on 10th July. They play in white, so would expect the new away shirt to be in action by then at the very latest. As said above, with the Umbro deal running until 30th June, I wouldn't expect any Macron releases until 1st July at the earliest. Bit of fun for everyone in the meantime https://tiermaker.com/create/blackburn-rovers-shirts-1985-2020-247365

What we expected. Interestingly, Macron will be the kit supplier for our 150th Anniversary, the 2025-26 season. I was disappointed that Umbro didn't come up with a 25th Year Anniversary kit for the Premier League winning team in 2019/20, but I suppose we did get the pinstripes/red shorts combination for the League One campaign. Looking forward to seeing what they come up with. Personally think this past season, Macron had some good kits See Millwall and Armenia Bielefeld to name just a few. Looking forward to seeing what they come up with. A simple Blue/White halved home, with the same in Red/Black away, and they'll be off to a flying start

Retained list released https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2021/may/rovers-confirm-retain-list/ No surprises I don't think

Always felt Armstrong back to Newcastle would be a likely option. A £10m plus Dwight Gayle may do a job for all parties? That article seems to suggest a 40% sell on fee to Newcastle! So even a £25m sale would only realistically give us £15m to spend on a new players

Interested to see how the appointment at Deepdale goes. My footballing memory bank makes me feel like I've seen the "number two steps forward to lead the team temporarily until the end of the season.....does a decent job......gets the full time gig......then struggles the year afterwards...." before, and it doesn't usually end in much success. Paul Gallagher in as 1st Team Coach also screams a bit of fan appeasement. Will be intrigued to see what happens.............................no doubt we'll finish just behind them as per usual!! 😄 20 of the 2021/22 Championship teams are now sorted, looking like it'll be a strong league next season...Perenial yo-yo clubs like West Brom and Fulham back, plus the three who miss out in the playoffs. Combined with fresh starts for Bristol City, Cardiff City, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United.

It can be put as simply as this September 2020: Maybe Rovers can push that extra step and gatecrash the top 6. May 2021: I hope we can avoid relegation next year

The recent videos of Pickering and Carter back at the training ground, getting to know some of the players/coaches is for me the biggest indicator yet, that Mowbray is going nowhere. At least we can all temper our expectations this summer if that is going to be the case! Also, giving those who wish to vote with their feet/wallet (re tickets, merchandise etc) all the ammunition they'll need.

For me it has all the ominous feelings of the Reading home game back in 2016 (the year before relegation to League One) where many of that side were gone by the start (and or end) of the disastrous campaign that followed. Rovers 3-1 Reading - 8/5/16 (Bennett, Graham and Jackson with the goals for Rovers) Lambert (gone by start) GK - Steele (dropped/never returned from mid season 16/17) RB - Marshall (gone mid season) CB - Hanley (gone by start) CB - Duffy (gone soon after start) LB - Kilgallon (gone by start) MID - Lenihan (defender by middle/end of next campaign) MID - Lowe (remained) MID - Jordi Gomez (gone by start) ATT - Bennett (remained) ATT - Graham (remained, in fact signed permanent after this game) ATT - Grimes (gone by start) Subs used Jackson (gone by start) Conway (remained) Evans (remained) Meaning of that squad of 14 players, 6 players were gone by the transfer deadline that followed, with 2 more gone by mid season and one out of favour, meaning 64% of the team that played that day and the manager were changed/replaced by the fateful day at Brentford a year later. Fast forward to Saturday Last Rovers games for: Harwood-Bellis? Bell? Johnson? Armstrong? Elliott? Douglas? Bennett? Evans? Downing? Mowbray? Plus Trybull, Holtby, Branthwaite - all likely to miss out completely

To be fair to Mowbray, I think he's doing the right thing not playing a full team of youngsters against Rotherham, in regards to the integrity of the league. Ironic isn't it though, that Huddersfield are ones who should benefit, after many Rovers fans felt let down by their weakened team against Birmingham back in 2017. The home game against Blues should be a chance to say farewell to some long servants (Bennett, Evans, Johnson, Downing etc) whilst also maybe blooding a couple of deserving youngsters (Pike, McBride, Butterworth etc)

Haven't you already seen the kits @JoeH? 👀 Cracking efforts if they're anything close to that...

I think Umbro have been very mixed since they returned in 16/17 16/17 - Solid home, nice navy away kit, teamwear Red shirt showed no imagination. 7/10 17/18 - Unmemorable home, classic away kit - the best in this era of Umbro (IMO) 8/10 18/19 - Not a huge fan of the pale home blue, standard yellow/navy combination in the away, not helped by the sponsors. 5/10 19/20 - Weakest year for kits with that Grey effort, home shirt better, but still not the correct shade of blue, teamwear navy third shouldn't really have been necessary, particularly when mixed and matched with the home shorts and white socks. 4/10 20/21 - Obviously not seen too many in the flesh, probably the best home shirt in the recent Umbro era, away shirt has nice detailing, neither going to go down as all time greats. 7/10

If it is true, I think they can make some nice kits. Miles better with the logo they use these days, rather than using the ''macron'' text

Has Tony Mowbray already had his chance to rebuild the club? Has he been given time? Has he been supported through long stretches without victories? Has he been encouraged and respected by the fanbase? Has he had the chance to buy his own players? Has he tried to introduce a style and a culture? Has he been able/encouraged to promote the youth players he feels are good enough? Has he had to adapt to a changing market, division, expectations? Has he had the backing of the board and senior managers? If any of the answers above were NO, then I'd be willing to stand by him and give him more time. He's had three and a half seasons in the Championship. Lets be brutally honest, we're right back where we were when he took over.

150 Championship games up for Mowbray P150 W51 D42 L57 Pts 195

Is this him saying..... either spend £100m and we'll get promoted, if not, then leave me alone to ''develop a culture'' and along the way we might finish 16th, we might finish 9th. Its probably both brutally honest in what the Championship has and is becoming, yet at the same time, so self defeating and uninspiring. Mowbray seems to be challenging the last vestiges of enthusiasm from a beleaguered fanbase.

Just giving my spreadsheet an update! 🤓 Interesting that now Tony Mowbray's win percentage is below that of Gary Bowyer, even if you include the League One campaign, which usually skews the data when comparing Rovers managers in recent times. Mowbray 37.5% win rate Bowyer 37.9% win rate Another interesting stat is that Mowbray will be stranded on 199 league games in charge of the Rovers if he leaves at the end of the season.

Looking closer at the recent collapses Comparison Rovers (20/21) vs Hull City (19/20) After 26 games, both teams were 8th with 39 points After 30 games, both teams still had 39 points, Rovers were 12th, Hull 14th After 32 games, both teams had 40 points, Rovers and Hull both 15th position After 33 games, Rovers still have 40 points and are 15th, Hull had 41 points and were 15th What happened next Hull lost games 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38 to remain on 41 points, by which point they slipped into the drop zone Rovers have Millwall away (34), Swansea home (35), Brentford home (36), Bristol City home (37) and Norwich away (38) Hull drew game 39 and won game 40, leaving them on 45 points and 19th place. Rovers have Wycombe away (39) and Bournemouth home (40). Hull then lost their last six to finish bottom