I've never watched Being the Elite but this made me laugh. I might have to give it a retrospective viewing.

Yeah, super classy from AEW. It was a good show as well.

Not to mention new contracts for the likes of Mulgrew and Smallwood which turned out to be very costly as within a year of each we wanted them gone but couldn't find anybody to pay their ridiculous wages. I'd put Evans in the same category tbh.

I think there's a difference between losing the dressing room and the players feeling like they can pick and choose when they put the effort in. I'd say we're at the latter rather than the former, and have been for most of Mowbray's tenure. There have been plenty of times over the past couple of years when people have said TM has lost the dressing room. Inevitably soon after that we would go on another upswing in form, proving that not to be the case. I imagine it'll be the same this time. The players will go up a gear as and when they feel like they have pushed their luck as far as it can go. Much like the Bowyer years, the motivation simply isn't there to try and perform at 100% in every match. The manager doesn't instil that in the players, and I would argue doesn't recruit players with that mindset either. Everything at Ewood is far too comfortable for all involved.

The Rovers FB groups are awful tbh. Teeming with superfans who, in their desperation to absolve Venky's/Waggott/Mowbray of all responsibility and show themselves to be the most loyal hardcore fans of all, ironically support hurting the club they are supposed to cherish.

But then went back to the HSH well again after arguably two straight failures in Lambert and Coyle. Doesn't paint the decision makers in a very good light!

Just highlights the incredible dysfunction that still exists at the club. I still don't think the owners have learned much, if anything, and I don't think they really want to either.

I just don't get why the players seem to like him so much when he regularly throws half of them under the bus when things start going badly. Even if a manager was doing that to my colleagues rather than me I'd be riled and never be able to trust that person, let alone if I was the one being apportioned blame for my manager's terrible choice of strategy, personnel, etc. Is it just that they want an easy, comfortable life and Mowbray gives them that? If so then we've got problems as players with ambition wouldn't be having that at all.

Out of curiosity do we know if Warnock was an HSH client around this time? If not then it's curious that Cheston went through the effort of lining him up, only for somebody (Suhail?) to undermine him and parachute in the cheap option, and HSH client, instead. Why would Cheston even bother interviewing a manager outside of that agency if Venky's won't employ a manager who isn't a part of it? I can only assume a lack of communication or knowledge on the part of the Ewood employees about the Venky's/HSH connection. But then I wonder how anybody could work in such a position without knowing about that?

Regression has set in now in spite of Mowbray being backed and not having to sell any of our better players. At this point the longer the owners leave it the worse it'll become. Unfortunately Berg and Appleton aside they have a history of making managerial changes far too late. Even Coyle who was sacked at light-speed by Venky standards still departed at least two months too late (he obviously should never have been appointed to begin with but that's another story).

Got to hope these performances and results are pushing him closer to the edge. I doubt it - would be shocked if he resigned or got sacked, but it's literally all we have left to hope for. Unless you really enjoy the battle to finish on the fringes of the top half. Sadly I didn't enjoy our goal or care when they scored to go back ahead. Mowbray has completely sucked the fun out of following Rovers.

Another high scoring first half from Rovers.

This tends to be the way it goes. A run of prolonged poor form with numerous TM favourites playing badly. He finally drops the undroppables, we get some results and there are claims TM has finally "learned his lesson" - only for him to revert back to type within a month or two.

As I've often seen said, the worst part about wrestling is often wrestling fans themselves. Unfortunately you can say that about most things, from football to star wars to computer gaming to water polo. Anything that has a hardcore fandom seems to have a loud toxic element who ruin things for everyone else.

I can understand reluctance to remove TM, as it was only in 2016 the clowns at the helm appointed Coyle and bombed us out of the division. What I can't understand is the suggestion we are progressing or improving under Mowbray. Parts of the squad are better, but performances and league position remain as they always have been. We're playing as badly now as we were last season during the 9 losses out of 11 run. The manager is still playing players out of position with no good reason. He still hasn't sorted out defence after nearly 4 years. We still choke pathetically every time the playoffs is in sight. We're stagnating and regression will inevitably happen, as it did under GB. Problem is by the time we make the change it'll be too late, as it always is under the current regime, and there's every chance they'll just make the situation worse with whatever they do next. Venky's are still the root cause of our problems, as they have been since the day they darkened Ewood's doors. TM is just a symptom.

If they are still having the wool pulled over their eyes by employees after owning the club for 10 years then they are clearly the problem, not Mowbray or Waggott. They either don't care enough or don't have the necessary skills to be in charge of a football club. Either way it spells continued mediocrity at best for Rovers.

Luke Harper/Brodie Lee has died. WTF. The guy was only 41.

Draw is still an awful result. Need to win.

I bet you could count on one hand the amount of times TM has made a sub unrelated to injury before the 60th minute during his entire tenure here.

Very very rare we come from behind to win. Christmas miracle needed - us coming from behind to win or Mowbray getting the boot, I'd welcome either.

Anyone picked up FM21? Am still on FM18 at the moment and wondering whether it's worth the upgrade. Have read some conflicting reviews and general consensus seems to be that the UI is awful.

Have a good Christmas everyone. Take care of yourselves and stay safe.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2020/december/dacks-back--and-hes-here-to-stay/ Signed up to summer 2023.

Great news.

TNA from 2005-2007 was fantastic. Christian Cage, LAX, Sting, Abyss, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, Sonjay Dutt, Amazing Red, Monty Brown, Gail Kim, Awesome Kong... loved that era. Storylines were simple but mostly solid, the matches were great and it was the perfect balance of older stars and younger talent. 2008 was okay too, but starting to wane a little, then it gradually went more and more downhill. Overall I enjoyed Mox as champ tbh. His matches against Brodie Lee & Darby Allin were good, and I really liked the build to his match with MJF (although the match itself was so-so). The Eddie Kingston feud came a bit out of nowhere and there was no way Kingston was winning, but they still had some very entertaining segments and the matches they had were fine. The build with Omega was a little underwhelming, felt kinda rushed to get it on the Winter is Coming edition of Dynamite. I would have liked it to have had a longer build. I think my biggest gripe with Moxley's reign is that it never felt like he had a really strong opponent who could genuinely beat him until Omega, and then that got rushed a bit. No offence to Brodie Lee, Darby Allin, Eddie Kingston or MJF... but none of them were ever going to beat Mox for the title. AEW is still kinda lacking that star power at the top of the card at the moment. You've got Jericho, Mox, Cody and Omega and... that's kinda it. Cody obviously can't challenge for the title either, so he's out as far as a program for the main title goes. They're trying to build new stars but it takes time and nobody else is really there yet.