JHRover

Mowbray's latest comments seem to be at odds with those previously where he said he was calm and relaxed about his contractual situation, that it didn't make any difference to him and his approach and that the time for discussing it was at the end of the season when he'd get on a plane to India. Now its a case that he wanted an offer in January and is seemingly hurt by the failure of the owners to make him an offer and that now the season is over he's off because of this? Typical Mowbray ambiguity and mixed messages. Of course there's a small chance that he's got the message through that he isn't getting an offer having previously held hopes and an expectation this would come. That is what would normally be expected and maybe now he's throwing his toys out of his pram whilst he still has a platform and some relevance to command an audience. Then again maybe the opposite is true and the silence continues from India and even he's had enough of waiting. The lack of communication from the club only points to one thing. Uncertainty and no authority. It is the easiest thing in the world to release a short website statement as they did yesterday with Rothwell and Johnson. Their failure to even do that tells me they haven't a clue what is going on and dare not announce his departure because as far as they know he might yet stay, which would be the ultimate embarrassment. I still maintain my belief that once the penny drops with the clowns in India that he's off not only will they be astonished at this (I think they just assume staff will sit around and wait for them indefinitely) that they will then come with some sort of increased offer and budget to keep Mowbray here and he won't be able to say no. In the meantime they are going to squander any window of opportunity for us to recruit a decent manager, and then when we are faced with pre-season and a huge amount of recruitment at short notice and are churning through the names on the managerial scrapheap the Tony fan club will be explaining how we can't ever expect for better than him and how we should have kept him for the rest of his days.

Mowbray left West Brom of his own accord following relegation when they had finished bottom and were miles off staying up. His successor was Roberto Di Matteo, who led them to automatic promotion the following season. West Brom then went on to enjoy about 8 years in a row in the PL. Mowbray went to Celtic and despite being popular from his playing days is now considered something of a joke figure there after being sacked during his first season with them miles behind Rangers. He was succeeded by Neil Lennon who went on to win everything in his first managerial job. Mowbray went to Middlesbrough, and after two promotion pushes followed by alarming collapses (see us this season) he was eventually sacked in 2013 after a poor run with the club looking over its shoulder at the relegation zone. He was succeed by Aitor Karanka in his first managerial job, who soon after took Middlesbrough to the play-offs and then automatic promotion. Mowbray went to Coventry, and after one season looking like promotion contenders followed by an alarming drop off (see us this season) he walked away in 2016 with them bottom of League One and winless all season. 6 months later they appointed Mark Robins who has led them to the League Trophy and 2 promotions and are now established in the Championship. So one narrative that I won't be falling for is that the only way is down after he's led us to the giddy heights of 8th. Of course these owners could quite easily squander this opportunity and wreck the club again, but that risk will always be there until they beggar off.

If FFP and money is such an issue you'd think they'd want to sell as many as possible.

The club should already know who or what it wants and have lined people up. If you know what you want and have the determination to get it then you don't need to interview various random names. Those linked with the job so far suggest a scattergun approach as they are all very different in style, background, track record. We already know what managers offer before the interview. Anyone who bothers to come to one wants a job so will tell us what we want to hear. Of course any manager is going to agree to use our academy, so this developer-of-young-players thing will only be tested in time and if the players are good enough and not to the detriment of results. Any decent manager should be interviewing us. Not the other way around. He needs to know if we can be trusted and deliver what he needs to succeed.

I agree. Ainsworth has done very well with Wycombe. My point was that in doing so there is nothing in the stats that points to the football or style you seem to crave or require from a candidate for the Rovers job. His side are the oldest and bottom for things like possession and passes. You appear quite happy to ignore that and appoint him regardless in the hope he does a u turn and adopts a completely different approach here (or you aren't actually that bothered about style in the first place) Either way it seems quite pointless discussing the styles of certain managers when you are then willing to disregard it anyway and appoint someone at odds with that style.

A bit of join the dots here. Carvalhal was plucked from relative obscurity to join Sheffield Wednesday after Chansiri took over and started throwing big money around to try and get promoted. Did a decent job - in two full seasons got into the play-offs both times including the final one year. Also involved at Sheffield Wednesday around that time was Paul Senior, who as we all know had a short spell here at the time Mowbray arrived. One of Carvalhal's signings at Sheff Wed was Lucas Joao, who joined us on loan whilst Senior was here (our only January signing despite staring relegation in the face) Joao has since joined Reading, another club with strange goings on including remote foreign owners and odd transfer business and seemingly up to their eyeballs in FFP issues after heavy spending. Reading are on the look out for a new manager and Carvalhal was 'linked' to them. Now he's 'linked' to us. Seems to me that us, Sheff Wed and Reading have quite a lot in common. All recently taken over by foreign owners who appear to be clueless and completely out of sync with what the clubs need and want. All have had similar issues financially and with FFP. Similar names and faces turn up at each.

It's Sunday so that means another round of Nixon gossip. Looks like whoever is representing Carvalhal is doing their best to get him a move to England. Been 'linked' with us, Dingles and Reading recently. Think he's a good manager and would happily take him here but would prefer Farke. Carvalhal also spent big at Wednesday so would be surprised if that happened.

Ah right, so you're factoring in budgets now then? So when I suggested Mick McCarthy based on his record at Ipswich on a shoestring you rejected that based on his style of play. Yet you would now happily take a manager with a similar style and excuse that because he's had a limited budget. Makes sense. A decent manager will adapt his style and approach to best fit the players and conditions of the job. I'm getting tired of people being categorised like this. I'm only interested in results and accomplishments.

Yet you have seen the stats on Wycombe and the players in their squad after 10 years under Ainsworth and think his style is suitable?

Mark Robins seems to have managed alright under SISU

To be completely honest if we go back to 2017 I would happily have taken Warburton, Pearson, Rowett, Davies, Hasselbaink over Mowbray, and possibly also Adkins, Freedman and McLeish. All of them were in a better place cv wise than Mowbray who had just left Coventry in ruins and had been in the running for 4th division Chesterfield job (and missed out on it for Gary Caldwell) That is the benefit Mowbray has had from us. There's nothing to say any of those other names couldnt' have done just what he has given 5 years, the squad he inherited and healthy backing. Of course over the passage of time most of that lot have taken jobs and failed at them or have been out of work meaning their CVs have taken a hammering, whilst Mowbray's has been rehabilitated because he's signed up for and put up with Venkys.

I think Mowbray is playing the Venky game here. Quite obvious he and others have been kept in the dark by India for some time. Quite obvious what happens if he doesn't renew his contract very soon. Goes without saying that unless they do something at their end he's not going to be here. All the rest of the talk is just pointless. The assumption would be that they are fed up with him, planning on a change and have held talks with alternatives, because that is what responsible club owners would do. But here it is more likely, on balance, that India don't have any such plan, that they aren't remotely interested in Mowbray's contract situation and will only deal with such things at a time that suits them. So I imagine the latest performance from Mowbray is just a public reminder to the owners that unless they move to get this sorted then inevitably he will be off and they will have to find someone else to do it. If I was betting on this I'd expect a couple of weeks of silence after the Birmingham game with Mowbray going on holiday and then at some stage after that, once they've blown any window of opportunity to get a decent new manager in, that Mowbray is announced signing a new deal to stay on, some sort of 'statement' from the owners and maybe even a half decent transfer kitty in an effort to persuade him to stay.

One thing the 'local' media are good at doing is putting the dampener on expectations and hopes of ambition. Why? Well that's the easy part - poo poo suggestions and possibilities, particularly those that are likely to be bold, ambitious, expensive ones, but at the same time leave it open ended with 'not currently' 'expected' etc. to allow for backtracking or to cover if by some chance it does happen. Hardly need a textbook on Rovers' recent history to predict that a decent manager won't come here because they usually don't. Quite an accomplishment here to smash expectations to smithereens so much that an unemployed bloke recently sacked after a horror run at Norwich is seen as unattainable. Reality is if we got our act together and sorted ourselves out this is probably the best club and level he is going to get. Of course the local media won't come with any actual news or information because they don't have any and actually putting something out there is the hard part.

Our problem isn't and has never been whether decent managers would come here. Our problem is the owners and management who can quite easily cock up any situation and I expect will do so again here. Decent options will be ignored or overlooked due to incompetence and corner cutting. As for that article on Farke it tells us absolutely nothing. No sources, no quotes, 'understood', 'impossible to rule out'. Meaningless stuff but at least it gets clicks and subscribers.

Personally I wouldn't go near Hughes unless he brought with him Bowen and Neidzwicki who are now at Wimbledon. He'd be better than many of the names linked but I think his best days are behind him.

No, but I'd draw the line at having the p1ss taken out of me whilst expecting me to pay top end prices for the privilege. I think we can safely say that is the case here and there's much more to this than merely picking a manager that might not be everyone's choice

Yep. I don't see certainty or clarity. I see a bloke who deep down would want to stay but there has clearly been some sort of break down in communications or relations and together with his contract situation he has no choice. I'm bracing myself for a new contract. I think after his relative tantrum announcing he's off that word will have got back to India and they'll offer him cash to stay. There are only two potential positives to this. One is if it avoids Woodgate, Adkins, Johnson or Venus then its better the devil you know. The other is it might force them to cough up a reasonable budget to help him rebuild the squad. Shame I won't be there to see it.

Surprising efficiency here for a club that is usually last minute on these things. Decent looking fixture nonetheless

Suppose we'll just have to wait until Sunday for the latest 'update' from Nixon. Sunday = Rovers rumour day. Coincidentally that is the day his stuff appears in The Sun and we all need to click on their website or buy a copy to see what he has to say. Nothing happens between Monday and Saturday but then we all need to queue up and buy The Sun to read his latest theories.

I am fascinated by Rich Sharpe's references to Woodgate in his article. I find it bizarre that he would go out of his way to make specific reference to Woodgate, dedicating far more space in his article to him than others of far greater calibre such as Farke. He admits that he is at long odds and that he doesnt even know if Woodgate would be interested, but that he looks better value than those at shorter odds. Why? Where has this come from? Someone must have dropped his name in as a contender for Sharpe to publish this. Sharpe does not do this unless someone has primed him for it.

Maybe the meeting was Mowbray telling Waggott what needs to go in his interview and long awaited press release, asking him what he is and isn't allowed to say ahead of his eventual sit down with Rich Sharpe. Maybe Waggott is waiting for direction and instructions from the lowly manager to tell him what needs to happen next.

I'd rather keep Mowbray or have the return of Bowyer or Lambert than Woodgate or similar. At least the above have shown they can keep our heads above water as a minimum which Woodgate wouldn't do.

I'll believe it when I see pen to paper and an announcement. Until then I'll take these stories with a large pinch of salt, as it wouldn't surprise me if this is just a bone thrown to the supporters who want to know what the hell is happening and it is season ticket renewal time.

Since the only people running the club for the last 5 years were Middlesbrough based Mowbray and his mates and a clueless biscuit salesman who thought Owen Coyle was a better option than Neil Warnock.

Rich Sharpe won't nail his colours to a mast or give the nod to a name unless it is one he has heard or has been primed for. The fact that there are the Boro connections to go with it screams a Venky appointment.