DE.

Dack came in unusually early, 27th June with a £750k outlay. That summer Whittingham came in on 13th June, Smallwood on the 20th and Gladwin arrived on the 28th so we appear to have been well prepared and I assume we had these targets in mind very early on with budget already agreed. In comparison this season we only made one signing in June, Rothwell on the 22nd, and wouldn't make another signing until Kasey Palmer joined on loan on July 30th. The rest of our signings all came in August with the season either just about to begin or already underway, suggesting a very different approach.

In fairness we are still in the very early stages of VAR. I think in the next few years there will be a huge improvement in the technology and how it's integrated into the game, but in the process there are going to be some bumps in the road. It's easy to say "it should have been tested more before putting it into big matches", but at some point you have to put it out there on the big stage to see where the issues lie. It's not going to be the same as trying it out in random minor leagues. You aren't going to get the same type of reaction to a worldwide televised VAR decision in a big match that you'd get in a non-televised, barely viewed League Two match. Most big sports have a form of video refereeing and it has ultimately been a positive, and I think eventually that will be the case in football too. The game was so late to the party though that change is difficult and the system will require some continuous tweaking before being largely accepted and appreciated.

Lambert definitely has an ego, but then most managers do so I'm not necessarily going to hold that against him. Based on his post-Rovers career I wouldn't want him here in place of Mowbray... ideally I'd want better than both! Unlikely with the current ownership though. I think the likes of Mowbray and Lambert are the best we can hope for.

Oh I agree completely, he's neither a very bad or very good manager, just somewhere in the middle depending on circumstances. I just see a lot of people rip into his tenure here like he was another Coyle, which he clearly wasn't. He took a poor team and made them average. I'm still not sure why he gets such ire on here in all honesty. Because he decided he didn't want to work with Venky's? Can't really blame him for that! The positive reaction from the Ipswich fans towards him is pretty baffling and amusing though. He hasn't achieved anything there but a few nice words and it's all good. Maybe if Mick had sucked up to them a little more he'd still be in a job too. That said it's hard to praise fans who chant that you're a paedophile. Allardyce is a far better manager than Lambert so I agree with you on that, but as far as Wolves are concerned, much like us he wasn't really there long enough to get going and this time was pretty much forced out rather than walking. I think it's really hard to seriously judge his tenure with us or Wolves based on such a short time span. He did OK but we never saw how he would have developed either club long term. My guess is it would have been more of the same, mid-table to lower mid-table finishes with fairly poor football on display, but that's more or less what we get now too. It feels like he gets a hard time on here for what was a very brief stay with average results.

When Venky's first rocked up their utter destruction of our club was and I think in some ways still is unique. With that said you're right that there are a ton of dodgy foreign owners around nowadays who are doing just as much if not more damage to other clubs. You can add Ipswich into that who owe Marcus Evans £95m and are heading to L1 on the back of one of their worst ever seasons. In regards to keeping the current staff employed, sure, but how many lost their jobs due to Venky's absolute negligence bombing us out of the PL and then doing the same when they cost us our Championship status with the hiring of Coyle? Not to mention all of the businesses affected by Rovers' lower fanbase and general match day activity. These victims tend to be forgotten about these days and I'd wager there are plenty of them. Of course you always run the risk of seeing this happen if your business heavily relies on a football club being in a certain division, but when that club is dismantled so thoughtlessly in the way ours has been the owners must take some of the blame for that too. Also in 15-16 we were for some reason relying on emergency loans which still makes me uneasy. Why did this happen and what guarantee is there that it couldn't happen again? The last couple of years have been relatively smooth sailing as far as the owners and the club is concerned, but we had a period of that under Bowyer before it all came crashing down. I don't think I'll ever have confidence in Venky's, as I can't help but feel based on their past history that another disaster is just around the corner.

Overall Lambert had a possible 87 points to gain with us. He managed 38. Comparatively in the last 87 available to Mowbray he's taken 35. So I don't think Lambert did as bad of a job with Rovers as people make out, especially considering he was parachuted in mid-season whilst Mowbray has been here nearly two and a half years. Granted this season we have just come up from L1, but I wouldn't say we have a significantly weaker squad than the one Lambert was working with. In fact it's probably slightly better. Lambert's career has certainly gone on a dive since leaving us though. He did OK with Wolves but then took two doomed posts at Stoke and Ipswich which have, imo, done some major damage to his stock.

I still have a feeling that Reed said or did something to piss Mowbray off. Hence his sudden bench time and now returning to Southampton with no indication he'll be back this season or next. I think we will unfortunately have to forget about this one and move forward. It seems to take Mowbray a long time to regain trust in a player after they've done something to annoy him. Look at Travis! That red card last season seemed to make him persona non grata for a long time.

Could end up being Williams with a new left back being brought in as competition for Bell. Or just have Williams cover both roles and rely on an u23 player to fill in when injuries strike.

Yeah, but they'd have to pay money to get Lambert out of his contract for a start. Then explain bringing in a manager who has relegated two clubs in his last two jobs. Even for the SFA that's a stretch imo. Much more likely to be Strachan or Moyes. Free and relatively safe appointments.

Just out-and-out revisionism. The reason we've looked much better is because we dropped Mulgrew, Smallwood and for the Derby game Evans as well - three of Tony's favourites, and we actually gave Rothwell a chance to shine along with the rarely used Travis/Reed combo in midfield against Derby. Nothing to do with an injury crisis. He's gotten it repeatedly wrong and whilst I wouldn't expect him to say so in public, I'm not convinced in his own mind he thinks he's done anything wrong either. "Facts aside we've done well". OK then.

I can't imagine Scotland would be interested in him anyway tbh. His recent managerial record doesn't exactly read well, and with the likes of Moyes available you'd think Lambert would be well down the list of potential candidates.

McLeish vacates the Scotland post... I wonder if Lambert will use this as an excuse to get out of Ipswich?

At the end of the day football is a sport that is governed by rules, and those rules should be applied as fairly and rigidly as possible, otherwise you might as well not bother having them at all. People have been conditioned since 1992 to see football as entertainment first and sport second. Personally I'm very happy to see a system implemented which is going some way to putting an end to illegal goals and cheating. It isn't perfect but it's better than what came before it. VAR is dramatic in of itself and more importantly it has a far better chance of getting the right decision as opposed to the most entertaining or biased/Old Trafford decision.

TM received plenty of praise when he got us promoted and similarly during the start of this season, not to mention when we were in reach of the playoffs at the end of January. I don't understand how anybody could expect positive reactions to losing 9 out of 11 games. Yes we've had a couple of decent wins in the last couple of games but our form between Nov/Dec and Feb/Mar was and should continue to be a big concern. If we start off next season with that kind of run we will be in huge trouble, and does anyone really think our squad is going to have the bottle for a relegation battle? I certainly don't.

Venky's have been and continue to be a virus that has made this club extremely ill. I've said this before, but it's like thanking somebody for giving you a bandage after repeatedly stabbing you in the chest. Thanks, but I'm still dying and it's your fault.

Our away form is the most obvious concern. Most goals shipped in the division which is obviously a massive warning sign even if we finish in a reasonable position this season. We've actually scored one more goal away from home (29 to 28) so we need to find a way to bring our reasonable tight home performances on the road. Conceding 26 more goals away from home with only 5 wins suggests however we are setting up outside of Ewood is not working. I think it's the biggest difference in terms of goals conceded home/away in the entire division. Even Wigan with only one away win this season have shipped 3 less goals than us on the road with a difference of 22 compared to only conceding 20 at home.

I don't think we'll see him again. Mowbray has treated him pretty badly imo, those comments about needing to learn to play CM from Evans and Smallwood were particularly embarrassing. Reminds me of when Rio Ferdinand mentioned that David Moyes wanted him and Vidic to watch Phil Jagielka to learn how to play CB. Some managers are just totally blinded when it comes to their favourites. Smallwood seems to be out of favour for now, but we've seen this before and he always ends up back in the team over more deserving players. Same with Evans.

Venky's have made Rovers more toxic than Liverpool ever were. Kean Out went global. Nothing happened. Manager ended up resigning rather than being sacked, Venky's are still here having turned down numerous alleged investment and takeover opportunities and being humiliated globally and even in their own country to some degree. Why? Because they don't want to sell and no amount of protesting or toxicity can make them sell if they don't want to. Hicks & Gilette sold cheap because RBS forced them to do so and they ran out of ways to raise capital. The Oystons were ousted because Belokon felt taken advantage of and won a huge high court settlement. Wimbledon fans had their club physically taken away from them and had to start a new one (fair play to them). Coventry, Charlton, Port Vale, Portsmouth, Bolton, Rovers... the list goes on of clubs which have been brutalised by ownership with the fans left with little choice but to watch it unfold unless another rich person comes in to temporarily "save the day". Football is in a bad, bad way and until people realise just how bad it is, it's going to keep getting worse. Something needs to be done.

Honestly I don't think the next four games will tell us anything at all. They're pretty meaningless. Our meaningful games were in february after we clawed ourselves back into a great position after a disastrous November/December, and once again we spectacularly blew it. I firmly believe Mowbray has run his race here and the summer will be as disappointing as every transfer window so far, minus the first one in summer 2017. I think next season will be more difficult and we could easily be in a relegation struggle. That said, I can't blame people for believing that Mowbray can succeed. We all want him to, after all, and it's not like our idiot owners are going to go out and get anybody better. Mowbray coming to his senses, realising his mistakes and strengthening the team smartly this summer is realistically the best possible option - albeit one I also think is highly unlikely. I've voted for him to go and remain with that vote because I think he will have us at the wrong end of the table next season, with infuriating team selections, players out of position and no real control over the dressing room. I would absolutely love for him to prove me wrong though, and I'm hoping beyond hope that he does, because otherwise we'll end up playing Venky Roulette again and I'm pretty sure Steve Kean will still be out of work by then.

I'm not sure on the finer details, but unfortunately in situations like this the brutal reality is that supporters' voices make very little difference either way. It's almost always rich men coming in to depose other rich men. It was the same at Liverpool. The "Spirit of Shankly" protest stuff was a nice story but the reality again is that Hicks & Gilette exhausted their options with the bank which subsequently pressured them into selling. This would have happened with or without protests. For fans to have real power clubs must have an allowance for fan ownership at some level. Otherwise the fans' voices mean very little, especially in the Premier League where TV money far, far outweighs any money brought in by ticket or merch sales.

Interesting that the Blackpool protest group are there saying "we're proof that supporters' voices make a difference". It's a nice rhetoric but the reality is somewhat different. The only reason the Oystons are gone is because another rich bloke took them to court and essentially forced them out. Had Belokon not done so then I imagine nothing would have changed.

Bauer seems to have developed a bit of a mythical status on here... but why is he playing in League 1 at 26 years old if he's that good? Not saying he can't make the step up but we should probably exercise some caution.

If the lad is so fragile he can't take being yelled at after making a stupid mistake he probably shouldn't be playing professional football.

We have to be realistic about who is going to leave in the summer. It's easy to suggest Mowbray is ruthless and he should get rid of Mulgrew, Smallwood, Evans, Williams, etc, but who's buying? We just gave them all sparkly new contracts so I don't think it's feasible to believe any of them will be moving on. It's unfortunate but that's the consequence of Mowbray's much discussed loyalty. The only players I can see leaving this summer are Leutwiler, Reed (loan ending), Rodwell (may decide he can get more game time elsewhere), Samuel (loan), Nuttall (loan), Downing and Conway (may stay on in some kind of coaching capacity). Other than Reed it's unlikely we are going to be moving on any regular first teamers. This will limit our wage bill and the amount of bodies we are likely to be able to bring in. The best we can realistically hope for in terms of transfers, imo, is a centre back, a centre-midfielder, a backup goalkeeper and a new striker. I'd be surprised if we get much more than that. Possibly a left back also if Mowbray decides Williams is a better option at centre back. I imagine we'll see a few more step up from the U23's next season to fill the voids left by the likes of Samuel. Nuttall and Conway. That's not necessarily a bad thing but could leave us over-reliant on youngsters should the injury-bug strike again. I don't think we'll be anywhere near strong enough to compete for a playoff spot and would instead expect another tough season where consolidation is the goal. In theory yes, bringing in a good CB, a CM on a similar level to Reed, a better striker than Brereton and somebody to push Raya for the no1 GK spot should make us stronger, but that relies on Tony not only getting every transfer spot on but also playing those players ahead of the established favourites, and in their actual positions as opposed to the usual square pegs in round holes. The manager's past history doesn't leave me feeling very optimistic in that regard.

Exactly the type of player you don't need in your team, to be honest. Unfortunately his new contract ensures we'll be enduring Evans for a while yet, with the occasional good game in amongst the nothing performances he's better known for.