JHRover

Venkys would sooner see Ewood empty next season and be well out of pocket on ticket income and risk alienating thousands of those who remain than get rid of their mate who they like. He's their man and nothing else matters. They trust him, like him and will ignore everything else. The only good side to it is they won't turn around and force sales if their buddy is in the manager's seat as they won't want to show weakness or let him down. Unfortunately any player with ambition will look to get out of here if Mowbray remains.

And now time for the bi-annual stuff that we can't afford to change manager and coaching staff, shouldn't question how the club is run, should be grateful for Venkys or that surviving in the Championship is an accomplishment, or we'd be Bury without them.

Whatever the result tonight we are still in trouble and will be until we win a game or limp our way there through draws. A Rotherham win puts them 5 behind with 2 in hand and still to play us at their place. Scary. A draw still closes the gap to 7 with 2 in hand and still to play us at home. A defeat for Rotherham puts Cov a mere 2 points behind us and still only leaves us 8 clear with Rotherham having games in hand and still to play us. In short it's in our hands but we need to win one somewhere along the way which should do the trick. Fail to do so and we deserve relegation as it will be 1 win in 20.

Mowbray once again managing to insult, criticise or degrade multiple people or clubs in a single interview Suggests Ayala is our main CB. He isn't, never has been and likely never will be. What about Lenihan? Includes a dig at Harwood Bellis suggesting we'd be much better off with Ayala playing rather than him. Includes a dig at other clubs suggesting their training isn't as intense as ours. Might have a point yet he's got to the Prem with his last two clubs and both are well above us now so perhaps their training methods would be worth looking at.

I've been impressed with Derek Adams since his Plymouth days. But he isn't from Blackburn nor did he used to play for or manage us so probably rules him out. He'd also cost some sort of compensation which probably means a no from Venkys Still think Chris Wilder is the one and that he would come here if the right offer was made - control over transfers, allowed his own coaching staff and left to get on with the job. Didn't exactly have it easy with the owners at Sheff Utd. Someone in the Championship will get him soon. Why can't it be us?

What has been unprecedented about this season and why is that an excuse for poor performance? Everyone has been in the same boat. Its just a convenient excuse. To their credit Venkys could have forced sales or cut costs last summer due to the pandemic but didn't. So there's nothing in the excuse book about that. The only excuses Mowbray can have are empty stadia and busier fixture lists. He's lucky on both counts. Empty stadia ought to affect us less with our 10,000 a week 2/3 empty ground than the titans like Bristol City with their 30000 a week crowds or whatever Mowbray reckons they get. He's also been able to assemble his own squad over 3 years leading into the pandemic whilst others have had no time or scope to prepare and are still dealing with others legacies.

I dont think so. I think its code for him drifting through the next couple of months, then wrapping the fools around his and Waggott's little fingers with his excuses and fairy tales. Or if they tell him there's no money he can walk away and leave someone else to pick up the mess. For Venkys I fully expect they'll stick rather than twist. A bloke they like, who won't make demands of them, who has another year to run on his deal. I can't envisage them sacking him and his staff and risking another Lambert scenario by bringing in someone else and a new team who will expect cash to spend. Easier to just leave things be

Up to Xmas/January the argument around Mowbray might have been that whilst we were struggling and drifting along and that he might not have the tools in his locker to get us to the promised land that at least he had done a good job, put us on a solid footing, built up a good squad that he had underachieving, and that we were in a better state on and off the pitch than he found us. Personally I think the last 4-5 months have gradually chipped away at that. We look at results - 1 win in 15 and counting and hurtling towards the bottom 3 so we are now worrying about Rotherham United's fixtures over the last 8 games = relegation battle. Granted not quite as bad as when he found us, but we are heading that way. Still 4 points short of the tally Coyle and Mowbray cobbled together in the awful 2016-17 season. If we don't get at least 5 more points from our final 5 fixtures it is something he should be ashamed of. We look at performances - from where I'm sitting with a couple of exceptions the stuff served up since November has been atrocious and some of the worst stuff I have ever watched. We look at the situation with the squad - up to early this season there was an argument that Mowbray had put together a good squad packed with talent and that had the capability to push onwards and upwards with some real assets on the books to protect the club. I now look at it and the impending mass exodus and ask myself whether we are really much better off than the first summer he turned up. We've one biggie in Armstrong but then again we won't get what we should for him because he's only got a year left. Other than that? If we were to go down then I would rather have the squad of 2017 with Bennett, Smallwood, Mulgrew, Conway and Graham and a fit Dack than what we will likely have this summer. Progress? So we've shifted from a position where he had done a lot of good and progressed us in numerous ways, but was probably underachieving given resources and time, to now facing possible crisis both in results and personnel. Mowbray leaving has shifted from something many of us felt was needed to enable progression and upward movement, to now something that might be essential to enable survival.

That's an impressive win for Rotherham which shows they are well up for the battle. Before tonight they were in poor form and QPR decent, having only lost 1 in 11 or something like that away from home. To fall behind and recover to a 3-1 win shows they have the fighting spirit. Their tails will now be up for a 6 pointer v Coventry on Thursday. This could go down to the wire and we certainly need another win or 3-4 draws yet. Huddersfield at home might be our saving grace as they are as bad as us right now. I wouldn't want to go to Rotherham needing anything in our final away game. What a journey we are on eh.

Rotherham turned it around, now 2-1 up. Panic stations.

I like how they normalise the summer 'review' as though it is perfectly normal, acceptable or conducive to success to simply drift through the season doing nothing, see how it unfolds and then have a think about it in the summer when the games are out of the way, the dust has settled and club defining decisions can be made thousands of miles away in a secluded bungalow between the manager and CEO trying to protect their jobs and whoever else might be involved in these things, none of whom will have the interests of the club at heart. The review and decisions ought to be happening NOW. At any other club he would either be gone already or at best would be a dead man walking with someone else being lined up NOW. At any other club there would be transfer business and budgets teed up NOW to hit the ground running on replacing the raft of players out of contract and to give us some sort of chance next season. What's the point in wasting the next 6 weeks for the review? Just because Venkys have zero interest and can't be bothered doing anything doesn't mean it is right or acceptable. But hooray QPR have scored at Rotherham so lets get the party poppers out.

There is no stat more damning of this manager and this season than the fact that Rotherham can overtake us by winning their games in hand. Unlikely yes. But possible. Pitiful

I asked him about that and pointed out Waggott's far fetched claim that the new facility would eat up all the funds and probably require Venkys to cough up extra. So with the above in mind I'm struggling to see how there can any financial benefit to the club. Unless its all bunkum of course.

Bell another one who will end up getting a new contract by default due to a lack of forward planning and ambition. Not good enough for a side wanting to progress and kick on but no doubt cheap and content to be on the bench and fill in when needed without rocking the boat so right at home here under Mowbray. I fully expect a number of those out of contract/loan in the summer to end up getting new deals. Not because they are good or anything but because the alternative - finding replacements in an admittedly tough market with a badly organised system at the club - will see us struggle to recruit alternatives on a budget. Exciting times. Benno will be another one, Jonno too.

Two of those are going down and Huddersfield are offloading their PL earners who have swallowed up all their parachute cash. We are in a dreadful position. Options on players, if invoked, will likely see players going through the motions for 12 months unhappy at the club and counting down the days to departure.

Apart from when we end up selling Armstrong to a rival club. Also I'm not aware of anyone else set to lose 15 players. So other clubs won't be doing the same. We will have a mountain to climb and a manager that shouldn't be here

Here's a hypothetical scenario. We get through to the last fortnight of the summer transfer window and Adam Armstrong is still a Rovers player. I suspect this is quite likely as any serious bids will likely be late and last minute. These sort of deals always happen late on. By that point even if we get big money for him it is going to be very difficult to replace him. Assume our summer budget is meagre otherwise. We get off to a poor start (as usual) and have a weak looking squad with the chuckle brothers as our only other attacking options. Whatever bids we get for Armstrong aren't at the level hoped or Venkys expected. Lets say £8 million rather than the £18 million they might have hoped for. Knock off Newcastle's cut and we're down to about £4 million profit on him. Poor business whichever way you want to dress it for a lad who has most boxes ticked - good scoring record, pace, age on his side, English Do we get shut at that price to recoup a few million, knowing he could walk on a free the following summer, but in doing so put our Championship status in doubt? Or do we decide that the costs of relegation to League One outweigh what money we might make on Armstrong and that we are going to prioritise survival by keeping him for the last 12 months to give us the best chance of staying in the Championship? Relegation to League One would cost the club more than they will get for Armstrong. I am sure of that.

I expect we will survive this season after results yesterday. I am furious that there is even mention of us and relegation here in mid April with this squad. There simply has to be a coaching overhaul given the performance and results of the squad over the course of the season. We might yet hit 20 games with 1 win and earn a club record, which at this level with this squad is an absolute travesty. I expect Mowbray will eke out a couple of wins from remaining fixtures. Dire Derby present a good opportunity, as will already relegated Rotherham or already safe Birmingham by the time we play them. It would be amateurish in the extreme to allow victories in those sort of fixtures to influence Mowbray's future. Regardless of whether he is here in the summer or not I am expecting a relegation struggle next season. I may be accused of being negative but I look at the number of players out of contract/loan, the lack of forward planning, the form we have had these last 6 months, the lack of goals, ease with which we concede and lose and there needs to be a big change. Mowbray reckons we need to continue his 'style' of play. I disagree. It hasn't delivered the consistency or results we need, so this summer is an ideal time to take a different path, become harder to beat, more pragmatic and solid. Unfortunately even if they sack Mowbray it is likely to be another round of confusion and chaos whilst they wait for the favourite agents to dig up a few options on the cheap, then limited resources whilst the new man tries to build 'trust' with India. By this time the summer window has gone. No manager will be able to succeed in such conditions. Maybe if the squad was already assembled and the 'coach' was picking up and not really dealing with recruitment but I doubt that will be happening.

Games will be moved to either Friday evening, Saturday lunchtime or Saturday teatime. Clubs can decide which. Not too bothered either way but Saturday would be preferable for me.

20 goal a season strikers don't come around very often. Once again we've wasted having his goals this season, rather than building on it to mount a promotion push. Shame that the focus now we've got a 20 goal season striker on our hands isn't to offer him a bumper deal and fight to keep him but rather try to sell him to anyone who offers cash. Says a lot about our priorities as a football club. To be limping our way to survival and still not at the 50 point mark in mid-April is a travesty. What will our solution be? Why sell the leading goalscorer, keep the failing manager and battle relegation next season.

"See what the summer brings" He genuinely hasn't the foggiest has he? No idea if he'll be here, if they'll replace him, what sort of budget (if any) he'll get, which of the players he will be able to keep, if he wants to, and whether that will be done in time to prevent them moving elsewhere. A complete disgrace. My concern is that if he limps through to the summer then the dust will settle, people put the rotten run out of their minds, he sweet talks Venkys and they just give him another year because they like what they hear.

Try and try their best these folk don't they? Rovers and Brockhall ideally placed. Why don't Liverpool move their training ground to Manchester? Footballers can live in Cheshire or Manchester and be at the training ground in 30 minutes. On the M6 and A59 it would be as quick to Brockhall as Blackburn

First question the journos should be asking Waggott in the next interview is what happens to the money Venkys were supposedly putting in on top to deliver this new 'investment project' and whether they will still stump it up now to improve the existing facilities. Love to see his answer and excuses.

For a club that has 'thought small' for well over a decade the idea of having both an academy and training ground in Premier League facilities and setting in a different local authority where top class players would feel right at home is probably something they are uncomfortable with. Cut, cut, cut, local, local, local. Promote from within, recruit from northern English clubs, only attract local companies as sponsors, only make efforts to engage fans from Blackburn or Darwen. It's why Accy Stanley make more effort than we do in Hyndburn. Brockhall is one of the lasting legacies of Jack Walker's time and one of the things, along with 3/4 of Ewood, that make this club an attractive one and a PL club in waiting. This will remain the case as long as we retain them. Uncomfortable for the likes of Waggott. Of course nonentities like Waggott promoted way beyond his station used to dealing with League Two outfits probably feels out of his depth in such surroundings. I fully expect another scheme to rear it's ugly head in the future. Probably some low budget partnership deal with a school or the community trust all dressed up as us doing right by our local community rather than behaving as a Lancashire club for the wider region as we were and still are. I suppose the only safety net we have is that the lower Brockhall site cannot be developed and so has minimal value should we try to sell it. The Brockhall upper site will open a can of worms with locals

An intriguing yet very welcome development. Fascinating theorising as to how or why this has happened. Was this merely a testing the water exercise to see how fans and locals would react? Is this a precursor to the 3 stooges being booted out of the club? Is this just a start and they'll go away, let the dust settle and come back with another scheme. I must admit some concern at the last sentence and wonder what else they might try. Anyhow, never a dull moment, full of intrigue, some good news after a horrible few days and hopefully it will get better soon with the 3 stooges gone.