JHRover

Yes we do need to keep going over it like a broken record. And I will keep on going on about it until I give up with the Club or he clears off. I wish I didn't have to and wish I could look forward with optimism under a trustworthy group of people but after the shenanigans and failure of the last 12 months that can't happen. Just because the idiots who run this Club want to look after their mate and take the cheap and easy route in life doesn't mean supporters, particularly those who are being asked to cough up their hard earned cash every year, should accept it. Mowbray runs the Club and has his tentacles into the boardroom, owners, coaching and recruitment. That is unacceptable and it influences or controls every facet of the Club.

Agree As bad as things are here I expect that Mowbray could sort out new deals for him and his 'team' via Waggott without even needing Venky approval to do so. I think the biggest fear they have is Mowbray beggaring off with his entourage and them being left to find someone else who will dance to their tune and massage their egos whilst running the club however they want it.

I'm not sure why you have suddenly become obsessed with the '25 man squad rules'. You never seemed to be bothered about them before the last couple of weeks. Is this the latest excuse for doing little/no transfer business? As i see it the following count towards our 25 man squad limit: Kaminski, Pears, Nyambe, Johnson, Wharton, Lenihan, Ayala, Armstrong, Rothwell, Gallagher, Brereton, Davenport, Dack (not likely to be fit to play), Travis, Harry Chapman (inexplicable) and new boy Harry Pickering. That's 16 players who come in above the 21 year old age category. Others such as JRC, Buckley, Dolan, Carter, Butterworth are aged 21 or under and so are exempt from the squad limit. As I've said before - we are well short of the limit, but even if we weren't that doesn't mean that we just go with what we have and hope for the best. You offload players who aren't up to it or aren't in the plans and replace them. I'm sorry but we will have do agree to disagree on Davenport. The fact that you are referring to one game before Christmas last year as evidence of Davenport's abilities speaks volumes. In 3 years I can count on one hand the number of times he's impressed. If we had done the sensible thing and got shut of this manager and brought in someone else then I might have confidence that these players like Davenport and Chapman might come good or be given a fresh start. But we are still lumbered with the same old manager who has shown little interest in giving either a serious run in the team. So why does that suddenly change now?

Who on earth do they have designing these things?

Southend are now in the Conference not League Two. Not sure if that makes any difference to their kick off.

Of course the other very important difference with Souness and Hughes was that for the duration of their tenures they worked under able board members who would have to approve these things and would keep them in check and not allow things to get out of control. Here however.....

Davenport hasn't been fit enough or good enough to be given a run in the team in the 3 years he's been at the Club. He's made 25 appearances, most of them off the bench, in 3 years. You want to rely on him? What has suddenly changed to make him a trusted, reliable Championship quality player? The same goes for Harry Chapman. Just because they are here doesn't mean they are good enough or that we shouldn't strive to improve on them.

Maybe. That's ignoring the 3 years £15 million investment that Mowbray had before then and substantial wages he was allowed to dish out. Also ignoring the shambles Warnock inherited in 2020 compared to the freedom and stability Mowbray enjoyed. Warnock didn't need to reach the play offs to make a laughing stock of Mowbray and his slow build drivel.

They got a lot closer than us, spending less money, and he only took over a little over a year ago. Year 5 of Mowbray and we're regressing.

McCarthy is at Cardiff because they sacked Harris after a dreadful run. They will also sack McCarthy should they struggle or go on a dreadful run. That's why there's no point comparing us to other clubs. Mowbray is unsackable and has been able to appoint his mates as CEO, assistant manager/head of football and now head of recruitment. You know it is outrageous. I wish you'd just admit it.

I'd normally be happy and encouraged with the appointment of a Director of Football. By its very description a Director of Football should sit at the top of the football structure, be accountable to the owners or board, and have the ability to make changes to playing and coaching staff. I suspect there's zero prospect of this mon ever looking to get rid of Mowbray and even less chance of the owners taking his advice before Mowbray's. For that reason alone this is a sham. Appointed on Mowbray's say so and unable to do the job as it should be done makes it rather pointless other than to con people into believing things are happening and to bolster Mowbray's position.

Probably not as concerning if the manager in question is actually doing a good job. Which the current one isn't. But when Hughes did that it was 15 years ago. Times have changed and rarely are managers given such power and freedom nowadays. There's an old saying in football that no man is bigger than the Club. I don't think that applies here. I think Mowbray is bigger than the Club now.

The Club. Owners/board. He's Head of Recruitment and should be here independently of the manager/head coach. What happens when, hopefully soon, the manager departs? The Club needs an overarching strategy bigger than the current manager.

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.