JHRover

The club and owners are responsible. If our best players decide not to stay that tells us all we need to know. Normally academy products who are first team regulars/captains would want to stay. They aren't getting PL interest so their alternative will be some other second division club. Why would anyone with ambition want to stay here with this setup?

Only disappointing thing in watching Newcastle get pasted is that they are putting Burnley up a position in the process.

Normally one I'd be eager to go to but I'm just not going to make the effort or take time off work to watch more of Mowbray Rovers. I'll save my money and watch it in the pub instead.

14,110 the official gate yesterday. Let's say that means 10,000 home fans. So with 'approaching' 7000 season tickets sold they reckon at least 3000 home match tickets sold. Really?

Maybe those who would voice their unhappiness are the 2000+ who no longer go. I'm sure Waggo and Mowbray would be quite happy if only 1500 of their biggest fans were left rattling around Ewood. No dissenting voices and 100% support. Just because there aren't people left being vocal about things doesn't mean people are happy with the current manager. I'm one of them - I've wanted Mowbray out for nearly 2 years and spurts of 3 or 4 wins or being 9th in the second division won't change that. I stick to my guns and opinions - he needs to prove me wrong and he hasn't done - results like today and Luton merely prove me right. The only surprise really has been the demolition of Cardiff but these things happen from time to time. That doesn't mean I will spend my time shouting and bawling at him because I know it is futile when the CEO is his chum and the owners don't watch, listen or care. I think a lot of others know this which is why they've either given up going and funding it or still go but sit quietly and watch it unfold.

It's a zombie club. Lights on but nobody home. Ewood is a morgue and it is getting worse with falling gates. The whole operation needs refreshing and restarting, otherwise what little life is left in it will be gone. That means owners, board and management.

He thinks he's a managerial goliath alongside Guardiola, Klopp and Tuchel, who knows it all and clubs are lucky to have him. He seems to think that the problem is other people not being able to understand his greatness and his bright ideas in football.

A few weeks ago it was 6th, then still 6th, then 8th, now 9th. Out of interest what position or run of form would you say is the tipping point? Of course clubs and executives who know what they are doing don't base a manager's position on 'oh well, we're 9th so everything is fine'. They look at a whole range of measures including team performances, results, trajectory, development, growth, improvement. Here they don't though. Not at Mowbray Rovers where he has god-like status, cannot be questioned and is the only manager who could ever work here. I'd be surprised if the owners had a clue who we had been playing, let alone how we have done. Waggott will be happy no matter what as long as his mate is in place. There's no chanting towards Mowbray because people just can't be bothered anymore. It's pointless. He's got the club stitched up and the people who go to Ewood know it won't make a blind bit of difference.

I've seen and heard some baffling things in my time going watching Rovers but the latest, that a draw against Coventry at home is a point gained or one we would have been happy with before kick off, perhaps tops the lot. This is Coventry who Mowbray left consigned to relegation to League Two, who were playing in that division when we were in League One, who have had no serious cash to spend and no stadium to play in, and now we with our 'stability' and substantial spending and losses over the last 4 years are looking on them as a decent side? When did that happen? As far the game. Boring. Same old Mowbray Rovers. You can change season and change players but the same manager, same routine and same excuses. We're back to needing 3 to win a game, Mowbray's speciality. 4 points chucked away against that noisy lot and Luton that we had in our hands from good individual quality. Today Rothwell got us the two goals through individual determination and quality, I thought we were lucky to be 2-0 up but you have to seize it when it comes and the performance in the second half just symptomatic of a side with no idea how to approach the game or how to manage a 2-0 lead. The second half I found to be a depressing affair, an air of inevitability to their equaliser, and after that Ewood seemed flat and defeated. Lets just hope that these points we are squandering don't end up relegating us, anyone who thinks we aren't in for a relegation scrap I think needs to brace themselves.

People on here tipping Burns for the first team in the Championship and then we send him to the Northern Premier League despite being short on numbers. Brings things into perspective.

What about the two massive car parks, BRIC and derelict land adjoining Bolton Road where the church used to be? Quite a substantial package of land there and all of it could be built on if the right wheels were greased. The charlatans owning and running Rovers will draw the line at nothing, in my opinion, and nothing should be ruled out. A quick glance at Waggott's 'resume' sets alarm bells off. Consultancy work at Southend and Gillingham associated with developments and property? Not very reassuring.

Maybe Waggott want's to build our new training ground in Burnley. I'm sure there would still be folk saying what a good idea it was.

The irony of labelling serial promotion winners as dinosaurs when we are managed by a bloke last relevant in football about 12 years ago. I was in Dublin at the weekend. One of the lads in our group a Newcastle fan and when I told him Mowbray was our manager he couldn't even believe he was still working in football. Genuine reaction of when I told him he couldn't believe he was still going. He should be consigned to history along with the likes of Iain Dowie, Andy Boothroyd not running this club from top to bottom. I'll have a bet now with you that assuming McCarthy and Warnock stay the full seasons they will both finish above Rovers.

You've spent the last 18 months telling me that managers like Hughton, McCarthy and Warnock are dinosaurs and you wouldn't want them or their style of play near Ewood. Now you're saying you'd be happy to win 1-0 through an own goal and don't care how we win.

If I were a Newcastle fan and the first step the new owners took was to appoint Frank Lampard as manager I'd be very underwhelmed.

The interesting part about this for me is that even though the Saudis are the majority owners, with 80% of Newcastle, they are in business with Staveley and the Reubens who each own 10%. The public front of the deal ever since the start has been Staveley - she was the one at St James' Park watching games, she has been the one at the ground this week shaking hands with the fans and doing TV interviews. If the Saudis were so bothered about getting into football they could have bought any club in the world, at any time, yet have done nothing whilst rival regional powers Abu Dhabi and Qatar have taken over Man City and PSG and before those takeovers were increasing their involvement in the sport through lucrative sponsorship deals with Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, sponsoring Barcelona etc. It looks to me as though they have been sold a 'project' by Staveley who was on the lookout for serious cash to bankroll her plans. The Saudis could have just cut her out of the equation, bought the whole lot from Mike Ashley and done everything on their own terms, yet are preferring to do it as part of a group. I don't know what that means but it is clearly a different arrangement to the takeovers at City and PSG. The Saudis are a long way behind on their involvement in the sport. Maybe they've seen the positive publicity it has had for those other powers and fancy a bit of the same, but again I wonder why they are doing it in conjunction with others. The one at Man City was very much driven by the Abu Dhabi group - from the word go they owned the lot and made entirely their own decisions and appointments and followed their global plan with the City Football Group - buying or setting up other clubs around the world. It will be interesting to see how things go but I'm not sure it is going to be so simple as just blowing everyone out of the water and appointing Zidane or Conte as manager. To begin with I don't think the PL or UEFA will allow it.

Wish he'd buy us and send this lot packing.

Ah right. So being under an embargo might have stopped us signing a full back from Lincoln? Thank the lord we didn't! We were under an embargo. It was released early on in the summer. You know this, let's not pretend it didn't happen. Speaking of "more financially sensible" in our future dealings you can't be comfortable that the people running it are the same who authorised contracts for Gladwin, Smallwood, Hart and Leutwiler because it was nice.

They probably don't realise it but the way Ashley has run them has probably been what has attracted the Saudi consortium to them. The fact that he has them established in the Premier League but on a stable and manageable footing, not much debt, no big losses and with obvious potential there will make them a lot more attractive than say had he bankrolled them to massive losses every year.

We went into an embargo didn't we? What difference would an embargo have made to our summer transfer business? With or without we would still have been able to sign all the loans.

One thing I don't really get is why the Saudis have done this as part of a consortium. I get that Staveley might be the broker who sorted the deal out and brought the Saudis to the table but don't really get the involvement of the Reubens. They are each billionaires in their own right who could have bought the club alone if they had wanted to. So why would either of them want to do it in tandem with others? For the Saudis they certainly don't need anything off the Reubens. The Reubens will be playing second fiddle to the Saudis with their minor shareholding. Just seems a strange way to do it for people with a bottomless pit of cash who can do whatever they want.

One of the reasons I want Mowbray and Waggott out of the club as soon as possible is that they have overseen this outrageous situation on contracts and wages. Let it not be forgotten, as much as they would like to erase everything before this season, that they authorised contract extensions for Graham, Leutwiler, Samuel, Smallwood and Downing in the summer of 2020 for no reason other than they wanted to be nice and for the lads to finish the season off together. How nice. I'd have had no particular issue with that decision if those players were integral to our season and we were relying on them to help us finish strongly. But when push came to shove they barely featured or were limited to a few sub appearances. Beyond that there was no intention of keeping them past the end of the season and all were released that summer (except Downing who was mucked around before we finally offered him a new deal months later). Fast forward a little over 12 months and all of a sudden I am supposed to accept or sympathise with the claim that we cannot afford to pay the likes of Nyambe more than he is on? Well I'm afraid I don't. What an absolute pigs ear these charlatans have made of things. Plenty of cash sloshing around to be nice to Smallwood and Gladwin but not enough to pay Nyambe the going rate for a now senior Championship RB. I think the only thing that annoys me more than the above is the amount of Rovers supporters who just instantly leap to a position of believing the Waggott excuses - that these players or their agents are making unreasonable demands that poor old Rovers simply can't comply with and that they are doing their bit to 'protect' the club and owners from such greed. Another one that annoys me are the FFP brigade, who spend every opportunity reminding us about how constrained we are by these rules, how we are close to the limits, how the poor owners can't put more in to sign new players. Yet allowing assets like Nyambe to run their contracts down is just about the worst thing you can do if concerned by FFP. We've put the hard yards and investment into him, got him to a stage where he would be worth millions, then shot ourrselves in the foot by allowing him to go for nothing. On top of that we then have to replace him with no money - we all know it will be another teenager on loan. It's nonsense, yet so many just believe it. Just like people believed the bullshit from Mowbray about Patrick Bauer's agent demanding £40,000 a week to come here and wanting guaranteed starts. Lies lies lies as proven by him soon after joining thrifty PNE. Sooner we are rid of these charlatans the better.

16 points from a possible 33 this season is less than 50% of available points collected. Over a full season at that rate you would be looking at mid-60s points wise which will almost certainly be short of finishing 6th. Not a bad return and should be well inside the top half with it but not really anything to be shouting about. Let me repeat that finishing 6th is not the holy grail or benchmark. It would be nice to actually finish in the top 6 but it doesn't in itself represent an accomplishment unless you get through the play-offs and win promotion or you use it as a springboard to go again and one better after that.

I wonder if the old 'but Player X won't want to move up to the North' tale will appear in the case of Newcastle. I frequently hear how players don't want to move 'up Norf' to join Rovers yet I think we will see once again that when the offer is right, the money is right and the project is right then players will move anywhere and certainly a couple of hours drive up the road. Our problem of course isn't location or players not fancying a drive up here but that we don't pay enough and nobody with ambition would want to come here. Of course for the excuse makers at Ewood it is easier to run with the 'location' one.

They'll wait until Reading are mathematically safe in mid-table before imposing it in March like they did with Birmingham.