Agreed. It's like when people wanted Bentley back, then got their wish and he was rubbish. Nostalgia clouding rational judgement I'm afraid. As far as Maddison goes, I wouldn't mind him on a free but also think it's valid to point out that he's 26 and still in League 1. He had a £2.5m release clause and if nobody felt that was worth activating then that says something. It's not like WBA or any of the other teams supposedly interested in him couldn't have afforded that.

There's no chance of us getting into the playoffs with the current manager in charge. I don't think he's ever had us in the top six, even briefly, has he? Our form is far too volitile under Mowbray. His inability to stop us from collapsing after a poor result will mean we forever stay in mid-table at best. Mentally he just isn't able to keep the squad at the level required. We need a no-nonsense winner in charge of the team before we can seriously think about promotion. It's exactly the same issue we had with Bowyer.

I just finished watching both days of New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 14. Jeez that was a slog... roughly 10 hours. I can't say I paid full attention to everything as it was sometimes in the background whilst I was doing other stuff, but as far as the standouts... Both of Liger's retirement matches were really good. Honestly I didn't recognise half of the "legends" as I've never really gotten into historical Japanese wrestling, but nonetheless they did a great job of putting the finishing touches to Liger's career. Going out on his back for both matches was a mark of respect from Liger - although I wouldn't have expected anything less. An absolutely class act. I didn't realise he's still "only" 55... it feels like he's been around forever. Quite the final entrance as well! Both of Jon Moxley's matches on the shows were really solid. He looks like a totally different person since leaving WWE. Ospreay/Takahashi was fantastic, but that's almost guaranteed when Will Ospreay is involved. Good to see him not trying to kill himself for once mind. Hiromu Takahashi looks like an absolute star and I'm guessing he'll be pretty big in the next few years. White/Naito was good but I didn't think the ref bump was necessary and the match could probably have been a bit shorter. Naito's knee injury angle was obviously playing into his match on day two against Okada so made sense. Okada/Ibushi was excellent, although it was kind of obvious Okada was going to win to set up the match against Naito on day two. This match went just under 40 minutes so one hell of an effort from both guys. I'm not sold on Ibushi's look if I'm honest but he's a hell of a worker nonetheless. Ibushi/White from day two was another really good match with an excellent story told with Gedo getting involved to give Ibushi an out for losing. I assume his double loss over the two days will factor into a storyline that plays out leading up to next year's Wrestle Kingdom. I probably won't keep up with NJPW so I'll have to wait until next year to find out how they went forward with this. Jericho/Tanahashi was superb. What can you say about Chris Jericho? Still incredible despite his age. I didn't expect Tanahashi to tap but it shows how much respect he and NJPW have for Jericho, and I imagine they'll have a rematch at some point. Interesting that the AEW championship was spotlighted for this match. Relations between NJPW and AEW have been publicly rocky since the Bucks and Omega departed for AEW, but hopefully this signals a thawing of tensions. It would be really cool to see some of the NJPW stars appearing for AEW. Okada/Naito lived up to the hype and produced an outstanding main event. I remember a couple years ago watching Naito lose to Okada at WK12 and wondering if NJPW dropped the ball as Naito seemed so incredibly popular at the time - but I guess they knew what they were doing as it made for a great storyline for this main event, and Naito became the first person to hold the IWGP Intercontinental & Heavyweight titles. The post-match attack by KENTA was a nice touch which sets up future storylines going forward. Only four major complaints from me - the event was too long and had too many multi-tag matches which weren't anything special. The english commentary team were often annoying and I wasn't a big fan of them - no choice but to listen in English however as otherwise I'd have no idea what the context of the storylines were. Finally NJPW simply has too many false finishes and kickouts from finishers. It's a very common NJPW complaint though and at this point I don't think they're going to stop doing it. Overall an enjoyable event but finding ten hours of time to watch it isn't easy. Wrestlemania is long enough but somehow New Japan went even further. How long before we have a 24 hour event? I can only watch so much before I begin losing concentration. The big matches drew me back into watching but I totally zoned out of a lot of the undercard stuff.

I'm more worried about where our squad will be by that point in all honesty. If FFP really is a problem and we have to start selling our better players to keep our heads above water, we could end up back where we were in 15/16 with a rapidly worsening team and all money from sales disappearing into the FFP void. Selling Dack for whatever price, whether it's £500k or £5m or even £10m may help us stave off FFP but the loss of such a key player with no means of bringing in a worthy replacement could mean another exit from the Championship causing a much bigger financial headache. Of course right now it's impossible to predict the future. Who knows where we'll be by that point, or who will be in charge. If it's still Mowbray then I think the above concerns will be valid, if it's somebody else then it depends who's in the manager's chair and what kind of support he has. We also have no idea how Dack will perform upon his return so for all we know there may not even be any interest in his services. One thing that's been a common theme of Venky's tenure is that the sale of better players never leads to bringing in suitable replacements. They are pretty much always worse, sometimes hugely so. We haven't had to sell any of our best players in some time so I suppose it's easy to forget how bad we have been at replacing good players since Venky's arrived.

Problem is even if we did sign some hidden gems from foreign lower leagues I have zero faith in Mowbray or his staff improving them or integrating them into the team in a useful manner. I'm kind of resigned to almost every signing we make regressing and struggling to have an impact due to the manager and his baffling philosophy. I only hope that some of the players Mowbray has signed and will sign actually have untapped potential which is realised under a new manager. It's Venky's we're talking about here though so the "new manager" would probably be Iain Dowie or someone equally ridiculous.

It's a bit of a disaster for Dack tbh. This was his time to move, if he was ever going to do it. Assuming we extend his contract to 2022 and opt not to sell him before then (not sure there would be much point if we're only going to get £5m for him) then he'll be, what, 28 and a half by the end? That's very late to get a move to the Premier League for a player who has never played there and recently recovered from a serious injury. At that point I think his best and only shot would be moving to a Championship club with aspirations of promotion. Certainly no guarantee there and if that club doesn't get there quickly he'll soon be 30, at the tail end of his career and very unlikely to make the step up to the PL by that point.

Yep, this is the reality. Mowbray hasn't signed a single permanent player other than Downing who has improved us in the Championship - and Downing is a 35 year old with a very limited long term future here. I'm not sure the concern of Smallwood returning if Evans departs is warranted. Smallwood hasn't even been on the bench for our league matches. He's so far down the pecking order that realistically even if we did sell Evans it'd take a significant injury crisis for him to appear. I think he will be gone in the summer, maybe even this month, and a total irrelevence as far as selling Evans is concerned. I'd say at the very least you've got Johnson, Bennett and Davenport ahead of Smallwood in terms of replacements. Downing could also play there, as could Buckley or even Tosin at a push (isn't he a DM too?). What we need to do is invest in defence ASAP. It'd be difficult if we had to pull Bennett or Tosin out of defence as we have very few alternatives and many injury-prone players.

In fairness I remember a lot of people being very uneasy with the fee we were playing for Gallagher. I don't think many thought he'd turn out this bad but it wasn't a piece of transfer business everyone - on here at least - was on board with. Far from it. As far as whether the team now is better than the team we went down with - yes, it is but I'd only say marginally. Simply by virtue of Lowe being nowhere near the club we're in a significantly better position in midfield at least. I'd say defensively we're not a whole lot better. Lenihan, Williams and Nyambe were already here in 16/17. Tosin is a loan so not our player. Bell is awful. Walton is worse than Raya. Bennett is a piss poor right back and again was already here when Mowbray arrived. Mowbray has failed massively in regards to improving the defence. Midfield is definitely better. Don't think many would argue that. Up front we're still relying on Graham, who's now three years older and less effective. We've wasted £12m on Gallagher and Brereton who look far from the finished article. I understand that Emnes and Joao were loans but in terms of present impact (and long term losses) they are an improvement on Gallagher/Brereton IMV. I would include Samuel but firstly he's crap and secondly Mowbray seems to see him as a wide midfielder. So overall 1/3 areas of the team improved, with the other two no better and in fact I would argue the attack might be worse as it stands. Mowbray's transfer business was good in League 1 but look at the budget he had compared to everybody else. We were able to go out and buy one of the best players in the entire league. We had the money to afford the likes of Smallwood, Armstrong, Antonsson and Samuel who had all been playing a level higher the season previous. Mowbray himself repeatedly said that season it would be embarrassing if we didn't get promoted with the resources we had available, and I'm sure I remember him saying he'd walk if he didn't get us up. In terms of the Championship I think his transfer business is very poor. I'm not sure he's brought in a single permanent signing that's improved us and has actually been extremely negligent with the budget spending so much on two misfiring strikers that we are now looking at FFP sanctions. I wouldn't trust the bloke with another penny.

They are all theoretically winnable games as every one of those teams has been inconsistent form-wise. Problem is when we're circling down one of Mowbray's death spirals we're extremely consistent form-wise in failing to win. So it depends how long this latest disaster-run lasts. Without Dack I can see it stretching on for as long if not longer than last year's February-March catastrophe.

Ain't that the truth.

Haha, his persona is actually based off an anime character so you aren't far off. I believe his OG theme song is the anime's opening theme too. Only in Japan could you base a character off a cartoon, use the cartoon's opening as your theme and still get insanely over. The women do often seem kind of squeezed onto the normal Powerrr show, so maybe giving them their own spotlight will help. I had no idea their women's roster was that big to be honest, I thought they only had about six people. Cornette had that old school sound which worked well with NWA stuff, but Bennett is a better overall commentator imo. I've really enjoyed his work so far. As for Joe Galli, yeah, he's pretty good. Plays the old school JR/Schiavone play-by-play role well, and doesn't come across as annoying or naive. The only thing that bothers me slightly is that he has one eye slightly higher than the other... I didn't notice it at first but now I can't unsee it

I also noticed Jushin "Thunder" Liger has now retired. He had one hell of a career, including overcoming a brain tumour in 1996 to continue wrestling. I remember seeing him in WCW as a kid, although at the time I really had no idea who he was, I just thought he had a cool outfit. He actually wrestled Brian Pillman on the first ever WCW Nitro in 1995. Kind of a shame AEW didn't throw Liger Vs Pillman Jr out there for their first show, but I guess that might have been a little too on the nose. I can remember watching Liger briefly in TNA as well. He had a match with Samoa Joe at Bound For Glory in 2005. The match itself wasn't anything special but I thought TNA did a great job with Liger's entrance. They even used his OG theme song, and I think they might have been the only major American company that did that. WCW had their own theme for him and WWE used a theme that was similar but not the same. Anyway, it was always cool to see Liger and hopefully he gets to enjoy his retirement.

NWA is definitely back to firing on all cylinders after a rough few weeks during the Cornette controversies. Honestly though I don't think they miss him. Stu Bennett is doing a great job. I'm not really sure they need the female only show - frankly I don't think many of their women wrestlers are very good, with the exception of Thunder Rosa - but I guess nowadays it's just something you have to do.

No need for concern, he'd be dropped soon enough for "not working hard enough defensively" and be told to study Armstrong and Bennett's game to improve. Of course he'd also need the obligatory 2 weeks to a month to "settle in" and study our very complex system of play - otherwise he might start passing to his own team mates by mistake and make incisive runs that actually lead to something.

Honestly based on recent matches probably better he does that then tries to pass it out from the back.

It was similar last season wasn't it? Am sure we were something like joint top with Ipswich.

Yep, it really is an simple as Brereton just not being anywhere near the standard required and a mistake from the manager in identifying him as a target to spend £7m on. No more no less. The only time I've felt there may have been ulterior motives at play was earlier in the season when Sam Gallagher was starting no matter what, often out on the right wing, and wasn't being dropped despite repeatedly poor and ineffective performances. In that instance I did feel terms may have been given to Mowbray before signing off on Gallagher's fee - namely that he actually plays and benefits the club, unlike the £7m signing from the previous season. I still think that might be the case but with that said I still believe SG was identified and signed by TM without any input from the owners.

https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/transfer-news/signing-ben-brereton-opportunity-good-1946842 https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/17336084.mowbray-happy-patient-brereton/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45334243 https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/blackburn-rovers/news/mowbray-delighted-for-wonderful-footballer-brereton_357023.html Anyone suggesting Brereton was forced on Mowbray is talking out of their arse I'm afraid. Conspiracy theory BS. Just accept the manager made a balls up. It happens. Unfortunately for us it coincided with £7m being flushed down the toilet.

There is literally no proof of this being the case. The manager has said time and time again that he makes all the decisions and has no interference from above.

Didn't realise Meadows worked for the Birmingham Mail.

Eh? Gallagher is 24.

Unfortunately it doesn't translate to the pitch.

You could argue moving here hasn't done him any favours either tbh. He didn't do particularly well during the time Mowbray was here in 2017 and is really struggling again now.

He definitely seems to have regressed. A season in the stiffs last year won't have done him any favours for sure. I think that was probably more damaging than his Birmingham spell. The brutal truth is that the only time in his career Gallagher has scored a decent amount of goals was when he played under Owen Coyle's kamikaze tactics. As soon as Mowbray came in during 2017 Gallagher's goals dried up and he's gone downhill since then. Armstrong is a better player and had a better record when we signed him, so I'm not sure how Gallagher cost nearly three times as much.

I'm sick of Mowbray throwing our players under the bus in public to be honest. I'm not sure why he needs to go into such detail, most of this should be kept in the dressing room. Maybe one of the players should do an interview trashing Tony's stupid rotation policy and turgid footballing philosophy. I'm sure he'd appreciate that.