No, but they will pretend we are close to one to justify no spending whilst convincing people they want to but can't.

Herein lies the problem. Of course professional footballers have to give it 100% every game, but imagine being in the dressing room every day of every week and having to sit and listen to Mowbray. I mean he drives me mad and I only get to see his pre and post match interviews and even then I usually avoid them. But if you are a player and you have to sit there listening to his drivel it must eventually wear you down. The buck starts and stops with the manager - he is responsible for results, he signs the players, coaches them, picks them, substitutes them - at no club in the world do the players take the blame when results are poor - the manager does. Bottom of the table since January = nothing else matters. Not interested in Owen Coyle, 2017, promotion or even the first half of this season - all in the past and immaterial now. Over the last 15-20 games it has been unacceptable. I was thinking at half time how many of these lads haven't been mucked around one way or another this season by this manager. Take off those he has specifically targeted for public criticism, those he has suddenly dropped and made a scapegoat of, those he has played out of position, those he has baffled with his muddled tactics and there can't be many left thinking he knows what he is doing or wanting to work with him much longer. I think the Derby game was the one. That team, performance, behaviour from the manager and form and appearance since then - words were had and I think permanent damage done. I don't think the players aren't trying but it is very difficult when the player-manager relationship is ruined. A CEO or owners with any interest would have terminated Mowbray's employment after that Derby game or at the very least would have their ears to the ground with senior players listening to their gripes and issues and act accordingly. Not here though. I still think the most likely course of action is a new deal for Mowbray and wholesale changes to the playing squad. I think Venkys would rather keep Mowbray and replace the whole squad than vice versa.

Compare Lee Bowyer's comments following Birmingham's hammering by Blackpool today - admits full responsibility and basically says that he'd understand and accept the sack if the Club decided to do it. Meanwhile Mowbray still can't accept any responsibility for our bottom of the table form. We've had the usual 'young players' nonsense and another jibe at the fans. The young lads thing isn't supported by the evidence, yet the media gang Mowbray protectors will not look at that. Our average age at kick off today was just over 25 and that of the whole Championship was under 26. So slightly below the average. It's a lie, myth that Mowbray consciously and deliberately pushes out at every opportunity. Why? Because for starters it is an attempt to convince people into thinking that he is overseeing some long term gradual build with young lads making progress - the reality is that most of these people are now at the peak of their careers and are seasoned professionals. It is also an attempt to shift blame away from himself and onto the players - almost bullying - by blaming our miserable form on them for being too young or naïve to understand what is needed and that they need to learn. Of course that further reduces his responsibility. I can't wait until he is gone. I fully expect a humiliation against PNE on Monday on TV. The trouble is that if he goes before the end of the season and a caretaker does well they'll use that as justification to keep the caretaker long term, which can't be allowed to happen. Almost as important as Mowbray going is the removal of his staff, the players need new voices and ideas not the same old.

There's absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe Dunn would do anything at a coaching level at this club. It is worth remembering that Mowbray got rid of him very quickly after taking over. Once again pure laziness suggesting people with a local or playing connection as management/coaching suggestions with little reason other than some mythical 'understanding' of the Club, as though Ainsworth being born in Blackburn but having had no involvement or exposure to Rovers for decades is going to make him a good manager any more than any other option in the lower leagues.

We don't know what Rovers have offered but we do know it isn't good enough to keep academy products here, who would rather head off elsewhere and take that risk than stay here where they have been since childhood and are central pillars of the team. That tells a story - whatever we have offered is rubbish. I'll never forget the bull5shit that Mowbray propagated when Patrick Bauer didn't come here, supposedly demanding £40,000 a week to leave Charlton. Then the next window he turns up at PNE who have a smaller wage bill than us. Then the excuse was that they were guaranteeing him first team football whereas we weren't. Absolute nonsense because there are no guarantees of anything in football and any player has to earn and keep his place in the team. Nobody will pay Lenihan £50k a week, but plenty will pay him a lot more than Waggott has been offering. Millions and millions down the drain whilst our club captain heads off to a rival. This one is on the owners and Club. It is a disastrous development as is Nyambe leaving for a club supposedly walking a FFP tightrope and focused on developing home grown players and we are waving two of those off for nothing to rival clubs. Shame on them, but they've made their bed and we will have to suffer the consequences. Hope Waggott feels good about himself when he talks about his 'wage structure' - we are losing nearly £20 million a year and Ayala/Gallagher are top earners so there clearly isn't much of a structure - I just hope someone questions him about the millions lost in asset value and potential future sales.

The problem is that assuming Mowbray leaves, which needs to happen now for all concerned, I don't think we will be much further along than we were before he arrived, other than we won't be staring down the barrel of relegation to League One (yet). His time in charge has been a clear improvement on that of his immediate predecessor, but there has always been and will always be that potential cliff edge of when he departs. Because that is going to happen sooner rather than later in the modern day world of the Championship and when it does the foolishness of our policy will become clear. The owners have learned nothing because they've once again allowed the manager to become the central figure at the club around whom all revolves, they've allowed him to appoint the CEO and all the staff and determine the strategy of the Club. Once he goes it all risks collapsing very quickly under these owners. That doesn't mean we should just offer him a job for life to avoid that scenario, because we might as well give up and go home if we are thinking along those lines - where results and performance are secondary to fear of making a change - no point in any of this if you are in that boat. But the reality will be that we won't really have a squad of players. Once we lose all the loanees and out of contract players we are going to be short on proven quality of any significant value. Other than Brereton, who will have to be sold, and some value in Kaminski, Wharton, Travis and yes Gallagher, there isn't going to be much else in the investment portfolio. Whoever is in charge is going to have to work very quickly and very effectively to build a squad capable of competing in this division. That could and should be an opportunity for someone, particularly at a club with no big earners and with millions coming in from Armstrong and Brereton sales, but here the money will disappear and confusion will reign. We've still got Venkys and shadow man running the show, the same people who put us in the position Mowbray inherited in 2017 and I see little to no evidence anything has changed other than they stumbled across a competent manager who was willing to play it their way to get a job here. So no - I don't think the Club is going to be in much of a better position on or off the field and probably won't be until we are rid of these rancid owners. We might not be on the cusp of League One but we will be if they don't deal with this summer properly including appointing a proper manager, backing him with some money and letting him get on with the job.

The people running Premier Inn, Wetherspoons and Hampton by Hilton have a different view as all have spent money opening hotels in Blackburn in the last few years. Are they wrong to do so?

Lambert's appointment suggested a plan was in place. That was the first and only time we have been able to say that about a managerial appointment here in the last 12 years. The embarrassing rejection of Neil Warnock to appoint hapless Coyle and then bringing Mowbray off the scrapheap to save us were not plans but signs of a club without a clue what it was doing. In the end Mowbray has worked out for them, luckily, but the simple cold hard fact of things is that we are yet to better Gary Bowyer's efforts but are now 8 years on and £100 million+ down. Its gone stale and its time for a change for all concerned. No shame in that it is just how football works. Mowbray should count himself lucky he's had this long at it because he wouldn't have had this time at any other Football League club. Unfortunately for us we have owners who don't care about the fans, don't care about promotion, don't care about what the players want or what is best for the club. They just want someone in place they like who won't rock the boat or call them out, getting results and keeping things ticking over is an added bonus and they've got all that in abundance with Mowbray who will blame anyone and anything for performance other than the owners and himself. He's also subdued most of the fanbase with him and his mate in the boardroom handling all that side of things. As I say they will just expect him to cart on and gratefully accept whatever it is they decide to do without question which is what has happened for the last 5 years.

I am of the belief that the situation at Rovers is actually a very simple and easy one to understand, that everything that happens flows directly from it and that there is an awful lot of delusion when it comes to the owners and any sort of plan. Start from the point that any major decisions involving owner investment have to be approved by Madame and her husband in India and that they will only do this when it suits them, which almost certainly requires the incumbent manager to wait for his chance to meet them at their convenience in their backyard in India. We know this. This has been the case since day 1 and has never changed. Reptile Kean knew this which is why one of the first things he did to establish his position was to go there, and he kept on going there on a relatively frequent basis. He went directly to the source of power and money and it worked for him - he became unsackable and was relatively well backed financially and was given control enabling him to carry out his schemes. That was only broken when a third party was brought into the equation - Shebby Singh - which upset the apple cart and seemingly blocked the direct line Kean had to India. Neither Henning Berg nor Michael Appleton had the time or opportunity to do what Kean did and go to India, both appointed by middle men based in Blackburn. Neither got any proper backing from the owners because neither persuaded them to do it and both lasted a matter of weeks. Gary Bowyer also knew that he needed to go to them and so after securing survival in 2013 the first thing he did was go to India to seek 'clarity' coming back with a long term contract and licence to rebuild and overhaul the squad. He did a good job at it but he knew what he needed to do to get there. In 2015 he didn't get his summit meeting. Who knows why but this is around the time mystery man Pasha starts to be noticed around the place. The budget is cut under the guise of FFP - Cairney and Gestede sold and hardly anything reinvested and after months of speculation he is finally sacked mid-season. My interpretation of that is there was a scheme to replace him for quite some time that took the top owners a long time to authorise. Lambert arrives and throws a spanner in the works because he is the first and to date only one who doesn't need the stress of it. He can go elsewhere and work so basically calls their bluff, setting his demands out publicly and when the owners in India stay silent and inert he walks. Coyle comes along thanks to his friends in low places and again gets little to no financial backing, has to sell some assets and doesn't get the chance to meet the owners in India. Doesn't last long although long enough to relegate us. Again it seems a long time went by waiting for authorisation to fire to arrive from India. Mowbray's first summer and he knows what he needs to do - get to India ASAP - he does that and despite a mediocre CV and recent relegation he comes back with a long term deal and good financial backing - able to swiftly sign relative League One big hitters such as Dack and retain his Championship squad at considerable expense. The following summer after promotion he goes to India and comes back with cash again to spend on Armstrong and Brereton. The summer after Gallagher. Mowbray seems happy and comfortable knowing what is happening. Since Mowbray last went to India he has taken on more of a disillusioned and unhappy appearance, the budget has clearly been slashed and we are now set to go over another precipice of uncertainty and a massive rebuild in the summer, something that has been building to a head now for 18 months and nothing has been done about it. I think the people out there who think that Venkys have a plan - that they are following results and performances, are fed up with Mowbray, are just waiting for his contract to expire before bringing in a new or better manager - are in for a shock. They just don't care. I don't believe they have any interest in Mowbray's contractual situation or what is happening on the ground at Ewood. I think there are only two ways this pans out from here, and it ultimately rests on what Mowbray wants to do himself. This is the only unknown to me. If Mowbray wants to stay as our manager beyond this season I think he will be able to. If he gets on a plane to India he will be. He isn't going to go to that effort and trouble if he doesn't want to be here and Venkys won't take him there if they don't want him here. If he gets out there and round a table with the owners and talks to them there is no doubt they will give him a deal and some sort of budget to rebuild the squad and a fresh remit to go again. The unknown element here is whether he throws in the towel and walks. He clearly doesn't enjoy being here and he's obviously lost the dressing room and most of the fanbase although many won't admit it. We don't know the ins and outs of whether he has been mucked around by the owners recently but I think it is safe to assume he has going by his conduct and what the club has done over the last 18 months. So he might just walk. If he does that then anything could happen. But it won't be pretty I'm certain of that. Paying compensation for a manager isn't going to happen and I think the rest depends on who has the ear of the owners and whether someone can worm their way in with them. I'm convinced they are likely to give it to Venus or Johnson to keep the rest of the staff happy and in jobs and incur minimum expense or hassle. If they do that I think my season ticket will be cancelled.

There's a theme of complete cluelessness that rears its head especially when either we have a man sent off or the opposition do. Any change in a game that is forced upon us - whether that be a man advantage, disadvantage, injury or going behind - and the ineptitude becomes clear. He has no plan for how to deal with it and even in circumstances where it should be to our advantage like at Sheffield United he bottles it because he doesn't know what to do. Sign of a poor manager is one that can't or won't take advantage of in game developments or doesn't have a plan for them.

Which clubs has he been CEO of and what appointments has he been responsible for? Steve Kean has been the manager of 4 clubs it doesn't make him a competent manager. What has he done in 4.5 years as CEO to have earned confidence?

So that's recently League Two Coventry and bankrupt Derby who have both put Fulham to the sword in the last week When we played them it was supposed to be mission impossible because they spent so much money and have some good players.

The problem is that none of Waggott, Pasha or Silvestre are fit to lead a managerial search. Christiansen is managing the Panama national team and Struber is at New York City so neither will be targeted by Venky cheapskates.

Definitely this. Think they will be careful about the timing though, because Mowbray and Waggott will know this will upset a lot of supporters and players, so they'll let the dust settle on this season and leave uncertainty on his future. The lack of clarity and communication with the owners just the way they operate. Think people are reading too much into the silence. They're just silent on all things and have been since before Covid. Think quite a few of our remaining players will be looking for transfers away if he gets a new deal. Think too much has gone on here for that relationship to be repaired.

I'd advise people not to sing the 'Mowbray had a dream' at games. I expect he and Waggott will be using that as evidence the fanbase are still behind him for the owners to look at.

I know you don't know I'm just baffled as to why the Club are saying 'should be' next week. Do they not even know themselves? What sort of organisation is this?

I'm most interested now in whether we can manage a bottom half finish. Only 5 points to go and if Swansea win their game in hand it will be 3. I'm already resigned to us dropping below Preston after they beat us at Deepdale. Both will be monumental achievements considering where we were in February. This manager should hang his head in shame and resign in embarrassment.

I thought that was last week? Should be? How do they not know?

Not dynamic enough?

I find it interesting that Suhail Sheikh aka Pasha has a public profile claiming responsibility for 'operations and administrative side' of Blackburn Rovers and yet according to Mowbray and Waggott he is simply the owners' representative/communications link. Which one is it? Is he hands on as he claims, in which case why is he invisible and silent and how does his job work around Waggott's?

Robins is just another average manager at this level. Look at his record. Did nothing with Huddersfield and other than that and the last couple of seasons has been a League One or Two manager. He's done very well at Coventry but if all we are looking for is someone who has done well in Leagues One and Two then the list will be a long one. John Coleman anyone? Even if we wanted him I doubt he'd leave Coventry to come here when he's got a settled job there with people who love him. That kind of says it all when we remember where Coventry were not long ago and that they are still owned by SISU but we've got Venkys to thank for that. We need to be aiming for better if the ambition is promotion.

This is all part of Mowbray's sales pitch for a new contract, I'm convinced of it. This talk about Gallagher stepping up to replace Brereton. His basis will be that having got rid of Danny Graham and following Dack's injury, it was he that oversaw Armstrong's emergence into hot property resulting in a big money sale, and following that, with no reinvestment, he has overseen Brereton's emergence into hot property which I think he will be more than happy to see sold to further justify his approach and earn credit with the owners. His next argument will be that he will be the one to oversee the development of Gallagher in much the same way. Not bothered about much else, if it works then we might have another £10 million+ player to sell in 2023 to save them some money. Problem is this lot will buy it and go with it.

This is what happens when you don't get your house in order and let contracts run down. Cheers Venkys, Waggott & Mowbray. Just hope they're gone and soon.

I'm not sure about this obsession with youth development that you seem to have. Our academy is one of the most productive in the country, as evidenced by the presence of Lenihan, Wharton, Nyambe, Travis, Buckley, JRC as cornerstones of the first team. So there's obviously nothing wrong with it as it stands. I certainly don't think it is realistic to expect MORE players in our squad to come from the academy. That is going to be very difficult to achieve. No the job of a manager is to manage the first team to get the best results possible. It is the job of the academy manager and staff to develop players to reach a level good enough for the first XI, and of course any manager will give an opportunity to academy lads if they are good enough. When Mowbray turned up here I don't think anyone thought he was a good development coach or that he was being brought in to get more from our academy. He was a 50 something unemployed manager who had been around the block in the previous 10 years and was brought in on a short term deal to firefight and get results to try and survive. 5 years on and one of the main successes of Mowbray's tenure is the number of people who have come through from the academy. Sometimes that seems to have been to the detriment of results. The point I'm making is that any manager of a club, especially a limited budget, will look to the academy and use it, and Mowbray himself, with no reputation as being a 'dynamic' coach or proficient in developing kids, has done just that to a good level For some reason you seem to equate young and inexperienced coaches for people who are more likely to use our academy than older and with a proven track record. I find it baffling that you wouldn't be excited with appointing Slaven Bilic or Daniel Farke, proven winners at this level or beyond, yet you would actively support the appointments of Damian Johnson, Ryan Mason or Jason Wilcox, none of whom have managed before and we don't even know if they are up to it.

Yeah but we put a bus on once for people 'as far away' as Clitheroe! Not long ago John Williams went after Lancaster and Fylde coast as our catchment area. This lot see heartlands like Clitheroe as distant areas.