DE.

Which is fine but there was zero evidence to suggest that was possible under Mowbray based on his Championship finishes with us (22nd, 15th, 11th, 15th) which combined with regular death spirals and baffling squad selections made the idea of Mowbray being best for Rovers' ambition quite bizarre. There are very few people who were predicting we'd do well this season. There may have been a few but most were accepting we'd do well to get a top half finish. The emergence of Diaz as a goalscoring machine, one of the primary drivers for our success, was simply unfathomable before this season started. We're also only in December and there is a lot riding on what happens during the January window - mainly in terms of potentially selling players who haven't committed to new contracts. So there's little point anybody declaring themselves sages who knew that they were right all along just yet. If we end the season in the playoffs then fair enough, I think everybody would have to hold their hands up and say Mowbray did a great job this season whether we got promoted or not.

You could tell Cook was losing the plot once he started going after journalists and fans. It rarely ends well, unless you work at Rovers!

https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/524076/it-won’t-happen-but-would-be-happy-with-tony-mowbray/

Cook given the boot after Ipswich drew 0-0 with Barrow today. https://www.itfc.co.uk/news/2021/december/paul-cook-relieved-of-duties-at-ipswich-town/

Great result. As it stands we're 5 points clear of Stoke in 7th. Joint 4th best GD in the division despite that 7-0 drubbing, otherwise we'd be 3rd best behind only Fulham and Bournemouth.

I don't necessarily have major concern over replacing Nyambe. Whilst I don't think it would be as easy or as cheap as some make out, Mowbray generally knows how to bring in a player that is suitable for the league we're in (keeping in mind the likes of Bell and Smallwood arrived when we were in League 1). His ability to deploy said players correctly is another story, and the obvious concern is that the owners never seem very keen on spending much money on defence. Certainly in terms of transfer fees. Overall though when you look at the replacements for Walton (Kaminski), Mulgrew/Williams (Ayala) and Bell (Pickering) there hasn't been any downgrade in those positions. Granted in the cases of Walton and Bell it would have been difficult to downgrade, but still. What's disappointing for me is that the weaknesses we're talking about in Nyambe's game are basically the exact same ones we were talking about when he first broke into the team. There doesn't seem to have been any signficant improvement in those areas over the years, and whether you blame coaching or the player himself for that it's still a shame as Nyambe has all the physical attributes to be an excellent RB/RWB.

Yeah it was Champ Manager until around 2004, then there was a split between the publishing company (Eidos) and Sports Interactive. The publishing company kept producing Champ Manager for a few years using a new engine, whilst Sports Interactive renamed their game to Football Manager using the original engine and have stayed strong ever since.

QPR being 3rd in the division says it all. Nothing to fear!

I've found that, as far as information on the screens is concerned, over time you adapt to what is useful and what isn't. Eventually you just automatically ignore the stuff that isn't important and can just go straight to the parts that actually matter. Particularly when it comes to stuff like player attributes.

To be fair just because it's said every season doesn't mean it wasn't true each of those years. I'd say there's a really good argument for it this year though. As for being a damning indictment of the other managers, as always it's dependent on a variety of factors including budget, injuries, etc. For some probably yes, for others probably not. Although I'd judge that more in terms of a top six finish than promotion. Top two spots are being increasingly monopolised by the parachute clubs and the playoffs is a lottery.

It'll be interesting to see how Dack is slotted back into the team. We're currently doing pretty well without him. I suppose if Rothwell goes in January there's a place for him there, but he and Rothwell are quite different players so it'd probably require some rejigging of our shape which would make me nervous under the current manager.

In the relegation season a lot of damage had been done by the time Mowbray arrived, and honestly we were a bit unlucky to be relegated with 51 points. I've never held that against Mowbray. Automatic promotion from League 1 was fine by me. Would have been nice to win it and settling for 2nd showed something about Mowbray's personality imo, but there have been some big clubs stuck down there for a while now so I'm just happy we escaped at the first time of asking. Since then it's just been... average. I've never had a sense we're building to something identifiable on the pitch or within the squad. This season has been a pleasant surprise but doesn't feel like it was part of some kind of masterplan. More like a combination of Mowbray being restricted by the squad available to him and the league arguably being the weakest in terms of quality than it has been for a number of years. I know it gets said every season but when you look at the teams between 4th and 18th this season it really does feel like everybody is at the same low bar of quality. It feels like any team that gets lucky on the injury front and gets some momentum behind them has a shot of top six this year.

I'd mostly remember Mowbray's tenure as one of frustration and missed opportunities after the League 1 promotion. Very similar to how I remember Bowyer's time at the club.

Didn;t see that... oh well, one less team for us to worry about.

It's definitely a more even league this year in the sense there are a lot of teams at a very similar level, with the top two breaking away (although Bournemouth are wobbling a little recently) and the bottom six being some way below the general standard of the divison. From 4th down there are no outstanding sides, and even WBA are significantly underperforming relative to their budget. Their gamble on Ismael not really paying off yet. I've said we have a team capable of the top six from early on in the season. That's not saying we're great, it's just an observation that the rest of the division is very, very average. Any side able to maintain consistently and have good luck with injuries has a chance of top six this season.

He stepped in as caretaker when Wilder left, so assume it's more that than Heckingbottom being given the role permanently. Who knows, though. Not to dissimilar to us giving Bowyer the job back in the day.

Can't imagine we'll ever be able to seriously rely on JRC. Decent player but his injury record is ridiculous and probably not going to get much better as he ages.

But if we fail to get into the playoffs in both seasons that will also tell a story. Having a regular goalscorer is a key component to success, but as we saw with Bowyer it's only one part of a larger puzzle.

Yeah not surprising, They were one of the worst teams we've played this season so far, and are hugely underperforming this season.

QPR's result isn't a total disaster as it does push Hudds further below us. Somehow we're within 3 points of the mighty WBA and their parachute payments...

With the ridiculousness of the Chile situation factored in as well I'm not sure there's ever been anything quite like this.

So it's not even December and he literally needs 4 goals to get to the mythical 20? Crazy.

Sometimes you can just tell from the opening minutes whether the opponents are up for it or not - Posh are 100% not. I feel sorry for the few hardy fans of theirs that attended - the Peterborough players are basically giving them the middle finger here and saying they can't be arsed. Great for us though. Could definitely bag another two or three in the second half as I can't see them suddenly getting motivated at this point, and even if we take our foot off the gas somewhat there are still goals to be had here.

Famous last words but I can't see Posh coming back into the game. They've had the appearance of a team wanting to get right back on the bus and go home since the opening minutes.

Like clockwork 😅