JHRover

http://mauveandyellowarmy.net/ Interesting read on the ongoings at Cardiff.

The top 6 is 'wide open' at the moment but that's kind of the whole point in having a play-off system so it keeps the mid-table sides in with a chance of doing something. We've been down this road before. Come March and April it will be worth looking at how close it is.

Just watched that Mowbray interview through and I'm surprised at how forlorn and beaten he looks. Talk about looking and sounding totally fed up. He appears to be a beaten man. He's been similar to this before and bounced back from it but this time he looks worse. I almost feel sorry for him, but then I remember that he has been very well paid for the last 5 years and could walk away to a cushy lifestyle any time he wants if this is too much for him, but no he would prefer to hang on. Mowbray's time was up 18 months ago IMO and it is hard to get past that, but the lowlife that are above him in the chain of command have left him out to dry. He should have been potted and replaced many months ago and the club able to move forward, but instead the cowards have just left us to rot.

As I recall it Bristol City appointed Gary Johnson whilst in League One. He did a good job for a while, got them to the Championship but was then sacked. Later on in his career he returned to Yeovil and performed a miracle in getting them to the Championship but they were relegaed after 1 season. He hasn't been back and has since managed Cheltenham and Torquay in League Two/Conference. The point being that there are many, many examples of League One and Two managers who have done well at small clubs with low expectations but haven't ever moved up and succeeded in the top two divisions. Maybe Ainsworth will one day but surely if he was such a good option then a club bigger than Wycombe would have made a move for him by now? I'm still waiting to hear what sets him aside from say John Coleman, Ryan Lowe, Darrell Clarke, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Nigel Clough, Michael Appleton or Karl Robinson - all of whom have very impressive records at small clubs in the lower leagues but not above. Just because Ainsworth was born in Blackburn? Is that really the sum total of analysis? In the last 10 years or so Hughton has won automatic promotion twice to the Premier League as well as had two play-off campaigns. He also kept Norwich and Brighton in the Premier League. Mick McCarthy had Wolves in the Premier League, Ipswich challenging for the play-offs, managed Ireland and rapidly turned Cardiff around. Even now his record at Cardiff is better than Mowbray's here in the Championship.

Of course he's not concerned by 8 wins in 34. He isn't judged and his future not determined by results so what difference does it make? He gets to carry on, good salary to boot, He's surrounded himself with chums and sychophants who think the sun shines out of his backside. He seems to think he is doing us a favour by gracing us with his genius and that he should be spending his time preparing Real Madrid for El Classico not that he's a run of the mill lower league manager. There isn't ambition here because if there was he would have been sacked last season. His reminder of the owners 'investment' only serves to show everyone what a dysfunctional mess this club is. Because anywhere else in the Football League a £20 million a year investment would see progress, improvement, growth not decay.

Passion and enthusiasm only gets you so far in this game. Plus just by being from the town doesn't automatically mean he would be any more passionate than anyone else about the job. I'd hope there was more going into the search than appointing someone because they are passionate or enthusiastic about it. I'd qualify on that basis. I just find the obsession with him bizarre. We should ignore his Blackburn connections and focus purely on his CV. Close to 10 years at Wycombe Wanderers, 9 spent in Leagues One and Two. Plenty of other options in that category. Not the worst contender and he's done well there but by no means a stand out candidate - there are many lower division managers who have overachieved or done well - Gary Johnson did it with Yeovil - maybe there's a reason why no bigger club has taken him on.

If we're looking at League One managers then I'm not sure why Ainsworth should be ahead of Ryan Lowe. Did a good job at Bury in terrible conditions, got Plymouth out of League Two at the first time of asking and now has them sat top of League One. It seems to me that there is too much heart over head going into the Ainsworth one. If he didn't have a connection to Blackburn he would barely be mentioned. For me if we are serious as a club we need to be going all out for Chris Wilder and Alan Knill whilst available. It is going to be galling watching another Championship club get him in and do well from it whilst we drift along with St Tony. If Wilder not keen or too expensive then I'd be ok with Alex Neil who overachieved for 3 years at Preston and went much closer to the playoffs than Mowbray ever has here.

My view is that the contract situation with Mowbray is just the same as with all the players. That is that Venkys have done nothing about it, given no indication and have left everything to drift. I don't believe Venkys have approved or discussed any contract extensions and that is why so many haven't renewed. The club is unable to afford these deals on its own steam and needs owner approval, which hasn't come. Unlike the players, who will numerous options from elsewhere and won't wait for Rovers to sort it out, Mowbray will not have any better offer and will sit and wait for as long as it takes for Venkys to wake up. I'm pretty confident that if he wants to be here then he will be.

In other news in the Championship West Brom can be beaten even though they have parachute cash We were lucky to play Swansea when we did as they are turning a corner. Same for Forest. Preston don't throw a lead away against Coventry and don't settle for a point against them because they've had a good start to the season.

At a normal club the CEO is in place on merit and is judged by the owners on performance, including results and team performance. Naturally therefore the CEO would keep a close eye on things and ensure that the manager was performing to a particular standard and if targets were being missed or performances not good enough then consideration would be given to making a change, either brought about by the CEO or one instructed by the owners and carried out by the CEO. In circumstances where the players were fed up, disillusioned, not hitting their potential or looking for moves away then the manager would be on borrowed time. In circumstances where large swathes of the fanbase were fed up, disillusioned, attendances plummeting or people considering not renewing then the manager would be on borrowed time. Flip all that on its head at Venky Rovers. Mowbray is bulletproof because the cretins in Pune like him. He has consolidated his position by appointing his chum to the position of CEO who thinks he is god's gift and will never attempt to remove him or be able to. So instead we sit back and watch as our players' heads drop, inevitably look to move elsewhere, attendances collapse and people get completely fed up. But hey, at least Tony gets to carry on. That's the most important thing eh?

Not a chance that we are going to entice Robins, Critchley or Lowe from their existing clubs where they are making good progress and have sensible clubs behind them. Plus we don't pay compensation so that rules out any manager in work.

Its just so typical and predictable isn't it? Hammer Cardiff, move into the top 6, things are looking pretty good all round. 2 weeks later, shambolic defeats to Huddersfield, Blackpool and QPR and shambolic draw against Coventry. Back into mid table (for now), chopping and changing, absences, injuries, mysterious decisions, right back to square one. This could be 2019, 2020, 2021. It is all a blur. Same process, same manager, same outcome.

I can't bring myself to read the transcript of his post match interview. But I have seen the headline. Apparently, he had a game plan tonight, and it was to go and frustrate QPR because 'they are such a good side'. This is a manager who has 4.5 years in sole charge of this club, healthy backing, and until this summer has never been forced to sell anyone, yet he considers QPR to be such a good side that our strategy is supposedly to frustrate them. I didn't see much evidence of that, unless Kaminski wasting time on every goal kick counts, and it didn't work, because we lost. This is also such a great QPR side that was struggling for results themselves and not far off us in the table. What a horrific waste of time and money the last 4 years have been if the manager running it still looks enviously upon the likes of QPR, who have had less time and money than he has had to burn through, and even then can't even grind out a bore draw. Last week it was 'oh well, we're still 9th in the table'. I'm guessing the next rung down the ladder will be 'oh well, we're still in the top half' Look at the side below us on GD - Forest - who 3 weeks ago sacked their manager and were winless bottom of the table. Things can change very quickly at this level and we are setting out on another death spiral. The penny dropped a long time ago for many of us but there are still some people who can't see it yet. It will come.

The question facing any of our 'senior' players - Lenihan, Nyambe, Travis, Rothwell, Brereton - is going to be why would they want to stay here? I mean it is a decent club with nice facilities but other than that? It's not as though it is a club with ambition, or any sort of strategy other than limping from one season to the next. It isn't a club that will make changes when results are abysmal like they have been at numerous stages over the last 2 years. The priority appears to be ensuring St Tony and his chums remain in employment than ensuring the club progresses. We could all see that Mowbray had thrown in the towel last season and was expecting the sack. I expect the players were fed up too and deep down would have welcomed fresh ideas. But no - return to Brockhall and it is the same old lot again and now repeating the same old mistakes. I've said it before - if I had a choice I wouldn't want to be associated with this club so if football was my career and I was ambitious I'd be looking for a rapid route out of here rather than floating around listening to Mowbray and Waggott's book of excuses and reasons why we can't do better. I think Mowbray also knows that the route to securing his power at the club is by having a collection of younger players around him who he can bend to his way of doing things. A look at our squad now we can see that the majority are either graduates of our academy that Mowbray gave debuts to or are players Mowbray gave a Championship opportunity to in bringing them here. This will ensure the majority of these lads stay on side and don't step out of line.

With respect everything you have said is based on the words of Mowbray/Waggott, employees of Venkys who of course are going to concoct a narrative that paints them and the owners in a positive light and shifts responsibility away. Talk about a 'wage structure' yet it is a shame there wasn't such an eagerness to protect the club's wage bill when Ben Gladwin was being paid to be injured or when they were dishing out extensions for squad players last summer. They'll tell people what they want to hear. Just a shame there's such a readiness to accept what they come out with. Of course there's unlikely to be bids for Nyambe at this stage - suitors will just bypass Rovers and offer him and his agent a deal for the summer

Which is why I think in time we will see an attraction to the 'bang' that Bolton and Wigan went through. A couple of years of misery and chaos but after that a clean slate, new owners and hope. We can all see the inevitably of a slide back to League One under this setup, but all the while the club is shrinking and crumbling with the same names over the door.

You can't use FFP as an excuse or as the boogeyman for our difficulties and issues and then at the same time allow first team academy products to walk away for nothing for failing to sort their contracts out. The two are incompatible. If FFP is a genuine concern or problem then when you have assets on your hands you make sure they retain their value so that if sold you can smash FFP into the long grass for a while. Mowbray likes his Brentford comparisons. When was the last time they let two, three or four of their prized assets walk away for nothing/knock down fees due to contractual issues?

The trap that the players are the villains of the piece for demanding too much, or that poor Rovers are being constrained by factors beyond their control and that Mowbray and co. are looking after the club by not sorting new deals out. In reality the polar opposite is happening - they are jeopardizing the club by risking and allowing our prized assets to leave for nothing. Take a look at our summer transfer business this year. You really seriously think this mob are capable of replacing Nyambe, Lenihan and Rothwell with better on the same money? You really think they will even be allowed to spend similar money? Fees received? They are leaving on free transfers so we won't get any fees to reinvest, but even if we did it will disappear like the Armstrong cash under the guise of FFP compliance. Convenient how FFP issues always come along as the sales start. Mowbray is a crafty operator I'll give him that. Quite clear which way he is steering the ship now it has become obvious that there won't be new contracts for these players. So the latest strategy is to play on supporters emotions - mention the club and financial danger in the same sentence and many fans will just roll with whatever as long as the club stays in business. Lower than a snakes belly but he'll go as low as it takes to absolve himself and his cronies of blame in the eyes of supporters. The same group of people who gave Ben Gladwin a contract for nothing and have squandered funds in needless contracts and deals. Of course the elephant in the room is that losing prized assets for nothing actually causes more financial damage than it does agreeing to pay them more then selling them 12 months later or getting promoted - but we don't want to talk about that. One question for you Chaddy whilst you are on your FFP obsession - does it not infuriate you that we are (supposedly) under extreme FFP restrictions and looking like losing prized assets for nothing because we can't pay them more when only 12 months or so ago this manager and his mates were dishing out contract extensions to Samuel, Leutwiler and Smallwood? You think that is acceptable?

Mowbray will have no problems getting himself and Venus new contracts. I really am starting to detest him. I hoped this point would not come but it has. Pretty obvious which way this is going. Players come and go but this oaf remains. I note the article claims that Rovers are doing all they can - is this fact, opinion or what Mowbray says? Because I don't believe him. Chaddy - you're falling right into their trap. If FFP is the issue here then how do you propose we replace these players with no money and no space on the wage bill?

Sutton just another on the media bandwagon. Tread the middle ground and be careful as to who you upset. He wouldn't last very long in his line of work if he was out saying managers should be sacked. Unless he is watching Rovers with regularity, which I very much doubt, then he is no more qualified than any other randomer on the internet, and less quaified than any of us who endure Mowbray's garbage on a regular basis.

I'm not sure what your point is re. the first paragraph. Whether they are big players for our future or not is irrelevant to the point I was making, which was that their contractual situations were such that they were effectively academy deals being upgraded to senior deals, not senior deals being extended or improved which is the issue with Lenihan, Nyambe and co. Discussions were held with Bennett regarding a new deal: https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2021/may/rovers-confirm-retain-list/ So it was certainly something we were considering or wanting to do, yet off he went to Shrewsbury. I've no issue with that but it is another example of a senior player that the club has tried or considered giving a deal to and not done. Pattern emerging. There is as much evidence to support what I have said as there is to support what you have said. We come at things from different angles. You want to blindly support the party line and believe that good old Rovers are doing things properly, sensibly and that everything they do is correct. I take the polar opposite view - that the place is in crisis, run by liars and incompetents and owners who really shouldn't be here and everything stems from their neglect and mismanagement, and we are just in another phase of mayhem created by them. You might be right, I don't think you are. Keep on putting FFP spreadsheets up it won't change my opinion. My beliefs aren't conspiracy theories anymore than yours are. Infact, on the weight of evidence over the last 10 years I think you are the conspiracy theorist making out that all is well with the world at Rovers when it plainly isn't. I don't trust a word they come out with.

I know it will be in the next accounts. But for FFP purposes it would be possible to reinvest a chunk of the cash received and use the balance to reduce losses. We failed to do so. That was because we were unwilling or unable to get deals done, not because FFP rules were preventing them. If you believe what liar Waggott says we had a player ready to sign - so FFP wasn't stopping it.

We sold Adam Armstrong for £15 million and spent £100,000 on a left back. Where does that fit into your calculations? I really, really, really hope this time next year you aren't still beating this drum after we've allowed Nyambe, Lenihan and Rothwell to walk away for nothing, because if FFP was a concern those 3 would be under new contracts by now.

Since the start of 2020 - approaching 2 years ago - which senior first team players have signed new deals? Off the top of my head we have Dack (who who agreed his deal prior to getting his first serious injury) and Johnson (who I suspect had a clause in his deal for an extra 12 month extension on the same terms as his previous 2 years). Anyone else I've missed? The others like Rothwell were forced to stay when the club activated 12 month extensions. Other than that? Deals have been issued to JRC, Wharton and Buckley (who will have been on relative peanuts from their academy graduation and development into first team players) Beyond that we've by our own admission offered new terms to Amari Bell and Elliott Bennett, who turned the offers down and instead moved to Luton Town and Shrewsbury respectively. Waggott claims that we have been in discussions about new contracts with important players like Lenihan and Nyambe. Isn't it remarkable how each and every one of these players has a reason not to sign these terms supposedly being offered to them. Not a few players, or half and half, or 75%, but every player offered or in need of a new contract has failed to sign one. Remarkable. Maybe they have all been tapped up from elsewhere. Maybe they are all being greedy and making unreasonable demands. Or - how about another theory - these players aren't being greedy or unreasonable and would happily sign on here but that Venkys have turned the taps off and will not authorise them? Or alternatively that Rovers have sat and done nothing for months and months like they did with everything else and are now paying the price? So what if Nyambe wants a pay rise. I think most of us would agree it is deserved. His departure for free will cost the club a lot, lot more than a reasonable pay increase. It's a shame the idiots in charge don't see that but they will just try and replace him with a kid on loan. Now you're inventing the possibility of foreign interest in them as a reason why they are refusing to sign new deals. The lengths you will put yourself at to protect and make excuses for the proven liars running Rovers amuse me and frustrate me in equal measure.

Yes there is. Assemble a stronger squad that can cope with a couple of absences. We chose not to recruit properly in the summer. Our choice. Injuries are part of the game.