DE.

This, pretty much. It's obviously possible but would need a significant change in mentality from the players and coaching staff which I just don't think is realistic. I think we'll do our usual of having good and bad periods of form culminating in another mid-table finish.

Smallwood - Sunderland obviously feel they have better options, and if they get promoted will probably be looking for better than Smallwood long-term. Probably figure they can wait until the summer when he's on a free to decide whether he's still worth a punt. Chapman - the fact even League 1 teams only want him as backup is obviously not a good sign. Although if he had confidence in his abilities you'd think he'd take the chance and believe he could force his way into the first team for some regular playing time. Brereton - should have been loaned out, can't understand why he's still here. Mulgrew - if we're planning to use him then fair enough, if not then surely any of his significant wages off the books would have been worthwhile. Can only assume we think we can do a better deal in the summer when he'll be available to play for anyone, but his wages will be a stumbling block no matter what - plus six months older and likely having barely played during that time.

Problem is mate we really needed some signings with Dack, Rothwell and Evans all being out for a while, not to mention the rebuilding job that's unquestionably going to be needed in the summer. I don't really care what other clubs are doing, I just know that we needed reinforcements and for the second January in a row we didn't get it. We're a Lenihan injury away from huge problems at the back alone, never mind how thin on the ground we are across the rest of the pitch. We really have to hope some of the youngsters can step up, as I think we're going to need them now.

All we know for sure is that we're on the threshold, as per the last fans forum. It's obvious Venky's had no grip on the FFP situation a few years ago as they let us walk right into an embargo and then instigated a fire-sale of our squad to get back out, which we're really only just recovering from. My guess is that one of Waggott's tasks is handling FFP regulations in relation to transfers so that Venky's don't have to concern themselves with it. SG being bought for £5m seems to have used up any wiggle room we had in regards to budget/FFP, as since then it's been essentially one in one out with Raya's sale seeming to go mostly towards Tosin's loan fee/wages and Mulgrew's temporary departure allowing Cunningham to come in. No sales or loans out this window evidently means nobody can come in either. I imagine the Atsu nonsense was us trying to do a deal on the super cheap hoping Newcastle were desperate for him to get game time and were prepared to let us pay little to none of his wages to make it happen. Not too dissimilar to the derisory offer we put in for Reed when we tried to bring him back.

Official word from Vince is that there was a difference in opinion in the direction the company should go, but that seems unlikely to me. Not saying it wasn't a problem but there's no way that alone would cause immediate termination. To risk wiping a billion off the company's price just because of a disagreement over direction seems ridiculous to me, even for Vince. Something serious must have gone down - need big Dave on the case pronto to get this investigated.

Considering the manager is their choice and they already watched him throw £7m down the toilet a year and a half ago I'm pretty sure they have to take some of the blame...

Some interesting goings on at WWE right now to say the list. They've fired both the CFO and CRO, who were effectively co-Presidents and the highest ranking people in the company besides Vince himself. Both sacked with immediate effect, no transition period, no gardening leave, just straight up gone. Goes without saying that's highly unusual. Their accounts forecast investors call is on 6th Feb which suggests it's going to be bad news to say the least. https://finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/wwe-executive-exits-spook-analysts-143700718.html 1 billion knocked off the company's price in the immediate aftermath of the news breaking. They've got their Saudi deal and the monster TV deals as a financial cushion, but all other metrics are trending negatively and have been for some time. Attendence, gate receipts, merch, ratings, WWE Network subscriber count... pretty much everything is trending downwards and has been for a while. If not for their lucrative TV/Saudi deals this company would be in some major trouble. Meanwhile the XFL starts in a couple of weeks, meaning Vince will be juggling his time between two huge projects... fair to say investors are spooked and rightfully so!

I think the two go hand-in-hand. It would be tough for players with speed and creatviity to be motivated in Bowyer's teams because we were so slow and cumbersome. Effective at times but never the type of team likely to take the game to the opposition or give them a battering. Very similar to where we are now, unquestionably. I've said for some time there are a lot of parallels between Bowyer and Mowbray, although I think Bowyer was far better at recruiting until the taps were turned off.

When we were pushing for the playoffs in the 13/14 season we brought in Tom Cairney, Rudy Gestede and Craig Conway during the January window. Hard to imagine us ever doing business like that nowadays.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/17401247.rovers-owners-prepared-spend-january-says-boss/ Can throw in some quotes from this one too.

Oops, I've been so caught up in the excitement that one slipped my mind!

Nobody in. Nobody out.

I certainly appreciate Dack's optimism and I'm sure he wants to be back as soon as possible - time isn't on his side as far as getting a move to a PL club is concerned - but rushing back from that type of injury would be the worst thing he could do. I really hope we aren't in a position next season where we have to risk bringing him into the fold early, as I can only see that ending badly.

You aren't wrong, but just for once it would be nice to have a manager who simply tells it like it is. Granted these managers would likely not come in the first place or be gone in six months Lambert-style, but it's been nearly a decade of this shit now and it's really, really getting old.

Sadly you're right, although I still don't think we'll see much of Brereton anyway. Most likely it'll be Gallagher directly replacing Rothwell, with Arma or Graham taking the striker position. This is problematic in of itself as Gallagher can't really play that position well either. Very few of the strikers Mowbray have signed can, which begs the question of why he keeps doing it.

It's becoming obvious that this is a mounting problem. Wonder if Sharpe will have the guts or permission to ask TM about this, or whether it'll be glossed over as per usual?

Dack is out for 12 months I believe, so we're probably looking at closer to a November/December return for him unfortunately. We're likely to play half of next season without Dack as well as the rest of this one. That's a scary thought. Brereton doesn't even play Rothwell's position naturally so this really shouldn't be a consideration. It is because of square peg round hole syndrome but we've already seen Brereton is not effective at all playing Rothwell's role. Gallagher too, although I would guess he's now nailed on to start there in Rothwell's absence.

I'm more concerned about next season in all honesty. We'll finish somewhere around mid-table this season which some will see as a success if it's an improvement on last season, but it feels like we have a lot to do in the summer and with Mowbray and Venus at the helm again for recruitment I'm really concerned. They are not the right people for this job. If only we had proactive owners with a finger on the pulse. Three successive transfer window failures would surely not be seen as acceptable.

At the very least Brereton needed to get out on loan. The lad is regressing here at a rate of knots and I don't see that changing over the next six months. We've completely failed him by not finding him somewhere to play regularly, imo. Smallwood should have gone as well but I appreciate that may have been difficult given he doesn't seem that keen to go. Probably knows he won't get anything close to this kind of contract again. Samuel not good enough even as a sub for me, should have been moved on if at all possible. No point having him and Brereton here wasting away. To me it feels like we have a very dysfunctional transfer policy with people in charge who aren't doing anywhere close to a good job. I would argue that since we were promoted from League 1 our business has been mostly abysmal. Some decent loan signings here or there but few if any proper success stories as far as permanent transfers go. Downing and maybe Rothwell at a stretch. Can't remember if Arma was signed before we were promoted but was brought in on loan assumedly with a view to sign in L1 so I'd still count him essentially as pre-promotion transfer business. I have no faith in Mowbray and Venus anymore as far as transfer dealings as concerned. Making no comment on the footballing side of things, but they shouldn't be heading our recruitment going forward. We need better if we're going to seriously progress.

Three transfer windows in a row now (imo at least) where we've failed to strengthen where we need to strengthen and allowed the club to stagnate. Not only have we failed to bring in anybody in to boost the squad, but we've also failed to shift any deadwood. Not good at all. At the very least we need to completely overhaul the transfer process and ideally take Mowbray and Venus out of it as they have proven to be incapable. Bring in a proper DoF and let them handle things. If Mowbray doesn't like it then tough shit, he knows where the door is.

I think it's just that they both cost a lot of money (relative to what we normally pay) and neither have delivered in the way we would have wanted. Agree that their situations are wildly different though. BB not only more expensive in fee but can't even get into the squad most weeks and looks utterly bereft of confidence, to the point where he doesn't even seem to be trying when he's on the pitch. Gallagher meanwhile has been disappointing but being played out wide repeatedly obviously doesn't help when it's clearly not his favoured position or even a position his attributes lend themselves to. Just stupidity and stubbornness from TM on that one I'm afraid. At least SG is in the squad though, usually first team, and has contributed albeit not at the levels we would have hoped for considering the fee and likely considerable wages.

Didn't someone on here say Mowbray was actively trying to move a few players on ASAP? Maybe this is why.

The Ipswich job was undoubtedly a tough one but his confidence became arrogance, similar to the likes of David Moyes when he went to Man Utd, Hurst thought the methods he used to be successful at a smaller club would seamlessly transfer to a bigger club. He got rid of and/or alienated key staff left over from the McCarthy era, was never really accepted by the Ipswich players who particularly hated his assistant Chris Doig, had too much faith in lower league players making the step up without the support of more experienced players to guide them, and ended up leaving the club in a much, much worse state than he found it in. He's young so theoretically can still recover but his stock is at an all time low at this point.

Calls Rovers his "home". Injured Martin Olsson for three months during his trial with a 50/50 tackle in training. Hughes told Samba he wouldn't play until after summer 2007 despite being signed in January, but he was thrown straight into the team after he signed. Grateful to MGP for scoring the winner in his first match, as he feels it gave the manager and players confidence they could win matches with Samba in the team. Learned a lot from Ryan Nelsen. Calls him a leader and a rock. Not best friends but a lot of respect. Feels they meshed well as a defensive partnership. Says Nelsen is a great professional, whilst Samba was more laid back. Says Nelsen helped him become a leader. Says the defence with himself, Nelsen, Warnock, Ooijer/Emerton/Reid and Friedel was the best defence he ever played in. Calls Friedel a "human wall" who could stop anything, and it's no wonder nobody wanted to come to Ewood Park. Says Friedel was "definitely" underrated but it was good for Rovers as it meant he stayed, but he could have played for a top side. Says it was the same for Tugay. Thinks the level in the PL was higher during this period than it is now. Playing great was sometimes not enough to be in a top team. Says that Rovers overachieved considering the budget, with very smart people in the office signing players like himself, McCarthy, Bentley, MGP and Santa Cruz. Says the team was better than it should have been. Says that most of the players came to Rovers underrated and had something to prove. Doesn't want to be too critical of Ince, but says it was difficult and a bit scary losing Mark Hughes. Calls the following season tough. Allardyce is a coach Samba "loved". End of Part 1.

Been a massive downward spiral for him since he took the Ipswich job.