Another Mowbray led appointment judging by his background. Nothing has changed, has it?

Another Mowbray led appointment judging by his background. Nothing has changed, has it?

We can go only off where we are now and our view of things at the present. Yes things might change with signings and luck, but those are only possibles. As it stands, for the reasons above, I think we will be in deep deep trouble.

I've been running through things in my mind and to be perfectly honest I'm struggling to find these 3 or 4 sides worse than us who we can be confident of finishing above at this moment in time. Middlesbrough - play off challengers under Warnock Hull - unknown entity. Bit of a basket case but momentum from promotion. Huddersfield - poor last season yet still in and around us. Have recruited heavily and to me have a stronger squad on paper. Barnsley - top 6 last season Sheff Utd - PL last season, parachute excuse and have appointed a top manager Forest - poor last season but with a full summer under Hughton expect that to change quickly. Derby - bit unknown. Inexperienced manager and poor last season, problems off the pitch yet still a reasonable looking squad of players. Stoke - decent looking squad and expect them to be solid under O'Neill West Brom - parachute excuse and have appointed a good manager Birmingham - expect them to improve under Bowyer - always seem to do enough to at least survive Coventry - may struggle but returning home to the Ricoh which will probably deliver a bounce and seem to have done some reasonable recruitment. Peterborough - may struggle but a solidly run club with good recruitment and a plan to improve and grow Luton - outdid us last season Reading - outdid us last season and nearly made the play-offs Bristol City - expect to be a different beast altogether with Pearson putting his stamp on them Bournemouth - still a very strong looking squad with investment going in Cardiff - McCarthy made a mockery of Mowbray with his performance last season and expect similar this Swansea - top 6 last two seasons QPR - outdid us last season and improved over the last couple of years under Warburton. Fulham - parachute excuse, good squad and good manager just appointed. Millwall - solid, organised, well run and outdid us last season under a decent manager. Preston - very much an unknown under their new manager. Could end up going horribly wrong for them, I expect them to struggle, but they have a knack of finishing above us so can't really be confident of that changing Blackpool - upward momentum, unity, will be a big step up but they are all pulling together with a clued up owner. So yeah, other than perhaps the 3 promoted clubs (hoping they find the step up too much) and maybe hoping that someone like PNE struggle under a rookie manager I'm stuck.

I wonder what "operational and internal issues" we have that prevent us sending a team of kids up to Gateshead? Not enough players? Not enough kit? Can't afford the coach fare?

One of my questions to the Club is why we weren't offered refunds for missed games in 2019/20 - apparently because the Club couldn't afford it - yet the Club is refunding/discounting fans for missed games in 2020/21, at much greater expense. What's the difference? On the above logic I Follow access alone was sufficient compensation for the 4 missed games in 2019/20 - when fans had bought tickets well before Covid had even been heard of, yet is not sufficient compensation for games missed in 2020/21 - when fans were well aware of the risks when buying.

Simple - he'll just refuse or pretend there's no option and 'offer' I Follow instead. He did that last season and got away with it.

A cock and bull story that has been repeated on here nonetheless. I see no evidence of the club doing anything proactive whether that be on players, tickets, merchandise so I have extreme doubts with the suggestion that there is a highest paid player deal sat on the table gathering dust. Of course it helps protect those at the Club from criticism the more people believe that they've done their bit and the issue lies with the player not signing it, rather than the more uncomfortable alternative which is we are such a dysfunctional basket case that we've sat and done nothing for the last 12 months (which all the evidence points towards). I would also see a big difference between Lenihan and Armstrong. Indeed Armstrong and just about everyone else at the club. An Armstrong could and should be netting the Club £20 million. A Lenihan will never do that. Armstrong is younger, with pace and a better injury record and most importantly scores goals, which makes him harder to replace and better placed to command a once in a blue moon bumper fee. I completely agree the deal should have been done 12 months ago minimum. So who takes responsibility for this or do we just cart on as we are? I simply cannot accept that we lose Armstrong and possibly league status/FFP compliance because of our own ineptitude and then the people responsible get to remain in place. You seem to be of the view that whatever it is that we have done has been 'right' by FFP whereas Derby/Sheffield Wednesday have done wrong and we are now in a stronger position because of it. I think that is nonsense as we are in a shambolic state heading into the season. Derby will be starting the season next to us, and despite FFP breaches have not had a points deduction and if I were putting money on it now I'd expect them to finish above us. Sheffield Wednesday's points deduction that led to their relegation was nothing to do with overspending, but was down to dodgy accounting and attempts to mislead the league over it. I'm not sure how offering Armstrong a deal reflective of his importance would lead to that here. I think we are mismanaged from top to bottom. It staggers me that smaller clubs - Preston, Millwall, Luton, Barnsley to name a few - can outperform us in this division without FFP trouble, without needing to offload 15 players and make drastic cutbacks. Those are stable clubs. We are not, and having an underachieving manager and his buddy running the show does not mean stability.

I think we are at cross purposes here. No I don't know what the wage budget is. I do know that in allowing senior players like Evans, Bennett, Mulgrew, Williams, Bell, Downing and Holtby all to leave that we will have cut the wage bill by a significant amount. The point I was making was that I'm fairly sure no other club will have achieved such a drastic cut in wages in one swoop. Surely having done so there would be scope to increase Armstrong's pay rather than believe this cock and bull story that they were considering selling Rothwell to generate the funds to pay Armstrong more. Very noble having this wage cap. Unfortunately if the direct result of it is that we continue to lose prized assets on the cheap then rather than be a good thing at managing costs it actually costs us money. If the requirement to keep Armstrong is to increase or break the cap by a few grand a week but in doing so command £20 million for him rather than £8 million then it is worth doing. Anyone with any sense knows this. I'm not sure what you are going on about with Graham, Samuel and Smallwood. My initial point was that last summer Mowbray was allowed to give them each extra month contract extensions, along with Leutwiler and Downing. This was in the middle of a pandemic and Mowbray's reason was that he wanted them all to finish the season together after the re-start. Bless. Still, an extra 4 weeks a piece for those 5 players probably cost the club another couple of hundred grand. The fact that those players were barely used and then weren't retained after the end of the season makes it all the more baffling and pointless. Mowbray doesn't have a formation or style of play and certainly doesn't recruit players to fit in with one. I've already covered the Evans and Holtby departures - I agree that neither played enough to really justify new deals - but they then need replacing. You are making a hell of a lot of assumptions about the young players and their abilities.

Its not an idealistic dream. Its sensible management for a club at this level, especially one whinging about income all the time. But when run by clowns like we have I agree it seems too much to ask.

Being a club of our size is about maximising income from player sales, then sensibly reinvesting the proceeds in replacements likely to repeat the trick and either get you promoted or increase in individual value. See Brentford who have done alright out of it. Being a club of our size is not about allowing contracts to run down, meaning we lose out on millions then pocketing the cash and hoping a kid steps into the void.

I can't think of any reason why the owners would run the club the way they do, why they would be happy to flush away £20 million a year yet persist with mediocrity but hey ho, that's exactly what they do. So I'd say allowing Armstrong to go or not being arsed to give him a new deal is small fry on their list of misdemeanours. There's actually not much difference with Marshall - he was another asset that was allowed to run his contract down, we were told time after time the club was trying to keep him (despite selling everyone else) and then when he went to Wolves he spilled the beans on the reality of the situation. Mowbray's already used the embargo as his excuse for no business done to date. I think he's grateful for it.

I'm not sure what is a 'nonsensical conspiracy' about not believing that they've made Armstrong a reasonable contract offer. Of course they are going to claim they have. No club in history has ever let their best player go without at least telling their fans that they tried to keep him. Flip it the other way around - exactly what has the club done over the course of the last 6 months that makes you believe that there is a juicy expensive contract extension sat waiting on the table for Armstrong to sign? Is it the fact that they can't even do the absolute basics of running a club without prior approval from India? Can't even sort out tickets or shirts let alone complex contract talks. Or that Mowbray wanted to keep several of those out of contract yet failed to do so? Not really a conspiracy theory. I just think the people down there are liars and will say anything to cover their own arses and avoid grief from the fans. I fully expect a Ben Marshall scenario where he ends up admitting that there were never any talks or offer made on a new deal. Was that a conspiracy too or did that really happen?

Why not use the wages freed up from the 15 other players that have all gone and not been replaced? Why not dip into the slush fund we had when Mowbray wanted to give Smallwood, Samuel and Graham new deals last summer?

Latest 'update' on the smooth the path to transfer project is that allegedly Armstrong still has an offer on the table that would make him the club's highest paid player. This is an interesting development. I wonder who has recently added the info about him being highest paid player into the equation? it hasn't been mentioned before.... They really must think we were born yesterday.

If this was unusual territory for us then I might believe that it was down to Covid supply delays or issues with switching to a new manufacturer. But given we are always among the last to release new kits, even when we've been stuck with Umbro for years, that we often turn up for pre season games wearing kits from the year before, given we are late with everything else including ticket sales then I'll file it in the tray with self inflicted issues Maybe not something that causes concern to most, after all whats a new kit and a few weeks of delay? Well its pounds through the tills so quite important actually. Also says something about the setup and image of the club, which you can't put a price on.

I heard that we will have a behind closed doors game v Wigan this weekend

Quite astonishing that it seems some people are willing to just erase last season. I fully understand that some are desperate to get back to watching live football at Ewood (I dearly wish I was one myself). I'm not sure why that means that the slate should be wiped clean. It is almost incomprehensible that Mowbray is still the manager of this club. His performance and body language last season, never mind the results of the team, clearly demonstrated that he had lost the dressing room and was ready for the sack. Because he's surrounded himself with sympathisers and sycophants at the club and the 'inner circle' he'll have a small army of people working away to eradicate last season and, of course, criticism or doubts about him moving forward. Should he be here? No Does he deserve to be here? No Yet we have to put up with it because of the joke owners and joke structure we have here. After 4 years most of us know how this is going to unfold and are bored stiff of the same old story. It's hard to have any optimism when you know the setup isn't good enough and also know that it won't be changed regardless. No HOPE.

I can see it now. End of the season, relegation, Mowbray's excuses about late recruitment, relying too heavily on loans, too many kids, transfer embargo. Of course all without any admission that responsibility for all the above lies either in India or the corridors of Ewood/Brockhall. I've no doubts they will try and sweeten the Armstrong deal by begging for a kid on loan in return. Saves them the hassle of finding someone else or spending any of the money. A bit like selling your multi million mansion at a knock down price but getting discounted rent on an apartment for 12 months in return. At least you've somewhere to live but you'll be in a mess when that arrangement comes to an end.

I'm not an expert in these sort of things. If I was maybe I could find a job on £300,000 a year. But I do know that the vast majority of other Championship clubs have all complied with whatever requirements the EFL set, including filing their accounts on time and providing the information required to satisfy the authorities that they were compliant. Last time I checked the whole country has had to deal with Covid issues so unless I'm missing something I don't know why, yet again, this club seems to have had a harder time in dealing with these things. A bit like our invisible new kit. Yet most other clubs seem to have found theirs somewhere. If anyone can explain the above then maybe I'll review my opinion which is that we are just run by a collection of con men, shysters, liars and incompetents who have no place at a Championship football club. They will tell us anything and come up with every excuse in the book for their failures.

So who takes responsibility for that?

I've already made my judgment. I've seen enough already and won't be sucked in by them again - this is how they keep going indefinitely - by large scale turnover in players - self-inflicted - that leaves people craving 'stability' and constantly awarding them more time to oversee the changes. I think I said we would only sign either a loan or free in defence. Which is what happened. I also predicted that we would be left short in defence, and lo and behold ended up borrowing a couple of teenagers to see us through the second half of the season. I thought Ayala was a decent signing. That doesn't mean I would have given him a 3 year deal and that was also before the club started crying poverty and put prices up by 25% to cover losses.

Spot on. We will lose money every year in this division (unless we get very good at selling players for big profits). But the scale of our losses are drastically increased through poor ownership and management. Ignoring player sales it does not cost the best part of £20 million a year to finish mid-table or bottom half. Preston, Barnsley, Millwall, Luton - and others - all finish mid-table or higher without losses remotely near ours. Yes we have a bigger stadium and nicer training ground/Cat A academy. Those things do not cost so much more to fund. Competent and interested ownership would quickly be able to reduce losses and increase income. Sadly that requires more imagination than Waggott putting £50 on everyone's season tickets and selling a couple of new t-shirts in the shop. It requires a root and branch overhaul of the entire operation.

Yes - completely at odds with the wailing and whinging from Mowbray and Waggott about financial hardship. So skint that we have to squeeze more and more out of disillusioned fans, yet enough room on the budget to hand out a 3 year deal to Ayala. Same goes for Smallwood, Samuel, Leutwiler and Graham who were needlessly given contract extensions in the midst of a pandemic for no reason. Another 5 figure sum down the drain. The two sides to Rovers these days. Always find the money from somewhere if certain people want it but then the basics like looking after your support and stadium are neglected.

I posted a letter to the Club last week, requesting a response before the end of the month otherwise I would not be getting a season ticket. This covered all my various issues and concerns around the running of the Club whilst trying to ignore Mowbray bashing and getting on to the owners. I'll post it on here at some point. I had two missed calls on my phone yesterday morning from two different mobile numbers. I couldn't answer as I was busy at work and no message was left. I half suspect that at least one of those was someone from the Club calling me. I'm not ringing back numbers that haven't left me messages so lets see if anything else happens.