JHRover

Cynical hat on again but I see that they've just announced John Buckley has signed a "long term" deal. If I didn't know better I'd say this announcement ties in with the increasing pressure and scrutiny on Mowbray from the fans.

When we get a new manager we need to stop him going to India. It seems all those who do whilst they might get some extra cash also make themselves bulletproof. Mowbray is no fool. He realised this was his first job after relegation. Now he's covered all around. I doubt even Pasha would risk rocking the boat now.

Why does signing 3 players represent them showing faith in Mowbray? Two of those vaunted signings are short term loans. Without knowing the financial details behind those deals we cannot say exactly what 'commitment' they made in January but let's not make out like they flashed the cash to back their man. He was given licence to wheel and deal, sending a few out on loan including Harry Chapman and bringing a couple of teenagers in until the end of the season. Net spend there probably not much if anything. The Pickering one is unusual but I'm not sure it represents them showing faith in Mowbray in particular. Nor does it stop Mowbray being fired. If he's that good a young prospect then any manager would look forward to working with him upon his arrival.

Additional salary for what? Mowbray becomes 'Sporting Director' or 'General Manager', Venus becomes 'Head Coach' with Lowe/Johnson as his assistants. Carry on as you were with a new 'project' but at same cost and same faces just with different titles. That will keep the heat off for another 12 months or so. They just love a shuffle and a few new job titles without actually changing anything.

Yes. I've been wondering about something like this during the course of this season. I certainly think they will shuffle the pack to try and maintain the status quo but perhaps with different job titles in place. It was a similar weird arrangement at Coventry if I remember correctly when Mowbray took Venus with him there but Venus wasn't assistant manager, instead he was director of football and on the board. This in turn led to all sorts of accusations from Coventry supporters as to what he was up to. Not the sort of thing you expect to see happen - a manager appointing his mate to the board - yet Mowbray has a record behind him of doing that. I certainly think that something you mention will be the outcome - I think there is zero prospect of Lowe, Benson or Johnson being sacked off, and in a desperate attempt to avoid making wholesale changes or upsetting the apple cart it is much more likely they will attempt something like the above, with Tony going 'upstairs' effectively as general manager of the club whilst the coaches operate downstairs. Hope your suspicions are wrong because it will be a disaster waiting to happen and it suggests unhealthy levels of power and influence here for the manager once again. It needs a clear out and rebuild with new ideas, faces and voices. Sadly in the cut throat industry of competitive Championship football coaches and nice men lose their jobs from time to time when targets aren't met. The club shouldn't be held back or resist ever making changes just to avoid making painful decisions.

There are only two ways Mowbray goes. First that he chucks in the towel and walks. Highly unlikely unless we go on a run of unprecedented bad results like Coventry did in 2016. With this squad of players that isn't going to happen. Mowbray has everything here set up in his favour. It might be a different story if there were interfering owners or directors making him squirm but no such prospect here. The other way is if Pasha applies pressure in India for a change. Not likely. It took 6 months of unrest and poor results before someone did something about Coyle. Mowbray will have a lot more credit in the bank than that. The key will be when it is season ticket renewal time. Without changes they will collapse through the floor and maybe, just maybe, the owners will take notice at that point.

At other clubs he would be on very thin ice if he was still here, but chances are that owners elsewhere would have made a change by now. By the law of averages we will win a couple soon. Our squad is too good and this division too bad for that not to happen even if Mowbray completely loses the plot. When it happens that won't be evidence of him turning things around, making progress or learning, nor will it vindicate not sacking him or not making a change, nor will being 'only' x number of points off the top six. A quick look at the table will tell you that we are barely any better off than Preston, Millwall and Barnsley in the table. After close to 30 games for me that should be a sackable offence in itself.

For now. Until the budgets are cut and sales begin. Like with Bowyer. Then it might be a slippery slope especially if Venkys lose faith in his project but stop short of potting him.

I genuinely think Venkys are quite happy lolloping about at this level indefinitely as long as it doesn't cause them any aggravation. The £10-20 million a year thing seems to be quite manageable at their end and of greater importance is having a nice bloke telling them things they want to hear rather than someone they might not take a shine to telling them things they don't want to hear. He ticks every box for them except the one that really matters for a football manager. He's diplomatic, a politician, a spokesman, will work with what they give him and plod around indefinitely. He'll also ensure a string of wins from time to time to keep us clear of trouble with a squad good enough to do it.

Huddersfield manager will be down the road soon too at this rate. Should have stuck with Cowley.

We've had 3-4 opportunities to bring him in, just like Warnock, yet the snobs think we are too good for those type and buy into the 'journey' myth. Time and time again they prove their abilities elsewhere.

I can see both Bristol City and Birmingham firing their managers imminently. Both will then have a head start on us to bring in the best options out there. Then when they do the anti-change brigade will question 'who is there who we can get?'

Just bringing this one up again. Dinosaur Mick on course to go above us tonight. Such a good job we're on a journey with a modern innovative attractive management team rather than a hoofball 'dinosaur' aint it?

Pearson needs time and a 'hands off' approach. At Leicester is paid off in incredible fashion because they stuck with him after a failed play-off campaign and left him to get on with it with trusted henchmen Shakespeare and Walsh. Where he hasn't had time or hands off approach like Derby and Watford it has blown up quickly. It 'could' work here as we have a very much 'hands off' structure however it seems that to get investment or support the manager needs to traipse off to India to talk to Mr and Mrs Desai. I somehow can't see Pearson doing that. I think it would be a bloodbath but he wouldn't cling on and hang about. He'd just walk out very quickly.

Cowley's Neil Rowett Hughes Howe Pearson Jokanovic

Another highly rated defender looking dodgy and poor at Rovers. Anyone still think this is anything other than poor coaching and management?

I haven't re-watched any of our matches this season but I think I'm going to have to re-watch last night, or at least the second half. It's like a blur. It was unlike anything that I'd ever seen in football in my life and I at least need to try and make some sense of what we were doing/trying to do. If this were a functional football club Mowbray would be in a meeting today or tomorrow explaining himself. Not at unaccountable be-your-own-boss Rovers though, apparently it is the uneducated masses who simply don't understand football. By the looks of what I've seen nobody - fans, media, players - had a clue what we were doing. Only Tony.

Of course it can. And if it does then you accept it hasn't worked out and you make another change. We don't have to stick with his replacement for a set period regardless of results. You make a decision that a change is needed. You should already have an idea of what you want. You go and get someone qualified and ready for the job. You give them the best chance to succeed. If it doesn't work you then fire them and get someone else. That's how it works in football. There are no guarantees. But confident, ambitious and clued up people minimise risks, and have the balls to admit when they've made a mistake and learn from it. With the attitude of the next man could be worse than the current one then no club would ever change manager.

Outthought and outdone by Alex Neil yet again. What's that now? 5 times in 6 games? He should have gone after the Preston embarrassment of October 2019 when Mowbray and his dithering team collapsed and chucked away a 2-0 lead at Deepdale. 16 months down the line and he's still here being outwitted by Nob Enders. Where I come from the mere prospect of losing a game to Preston was at one time inconceivable but thanks to this setup they repeatedly get the better of us thanks to clueless management, so much so that we are at best neck and neck with a clearly inferior squad of players but better managed and coached. This was all so predictable. I'm the first to accept that this is a results orientated business and on that basis was happy with our January points haul but anyone watching those games would have had concerns about our performances. I think we were fortunate to beat both Middlesbrough and Luton, were abysmal in the cup against Doncaster and bang average in the drab draw v Stoke. True to form a new month arrives with us in a reasonable position to kick on and Mowbray and his side bottle it like so many times before with pitiful performances against bang average and out of form QPR and PNE. I fully expect 1 point from 6 now v Barnsley and Forest, pressure to really mount from the fans and then a couple of wins once the play offs are gone to keep the heat off his back. I can't even begin to discuss the team and substitutions tonight. He surpassed even his own deranged track record on random decision making. I had to laugh to myself when Don Goodman began lavishing praise on Preston for their excellent tactics and performance in containing Rovers and seeing the game out. No Don. That was just a standard Ewood performance where we have shed loads of possession, do next to nothing with it and the opposition goalkeeper can have a sleep for an hour. It's only the first ten minutes and last fifteen that we apply anything remotely like pressure and even then it rarely sees us test their goalkeeper. Was the same against Luton, Stoke, Doncaster, Millwall, Barnsley, Rotherham, Middlesbrough, Sheff Wed, Forest and Cardiff. Infact this myth that we are a coiled spring of quality blowing teams away has no evidence other than a thrashing of lowly Wycombe on their first away game in their history at this level. Every other home fixture has been turgid. The Mowbray myth in full swing. What was he up to tonight? He had clearly made a decision pre-match that he was going to go and sit 10 rows back upstairs, on his own, not stand up or go to the touchline, and I didn't see him make any attempt to communicate with coaching staff or issue instructions. I've no issue with a manager sitting upstairs, or delegating to coaches to issue instructions, but it is like he is making some sort of point. He was at one stage for us a manager that spent the entire game prowling the touchline barking instructions, now he's slumped in his chair leaving it to Venus to sort out. Meanwhile in the PNE dugout you've got Neil and 3-4 other coaches including Thompson on their feet in the technical area all the game barking instructions. What do Johnson and Lowe do because they never seem to even stand up? We need a complete clear out, the sooner the better ahead of next season.

This will be on an email to Venky HQ. Another non result or performance based box ticked.

We must have some of if not the best training facilities in the country, never mind the Championship. Why then when it freezes are we seemingly unique in having to go and train on our home pitch and in doing so cause further significant damage to an already poor surface? All about the excuses. Get beat tomorrow and he'll blame the weather affecting preparations and the poor Ewood surface. All starts with a lack of investment and penny pinching. If Ewood had been maintained properly we would be able to cope with a busy schedule and training on it a few days.

Can we get a new management team and then let them decide on new contracts?

We should win as we have a stronger squad and our home record is solid against the middle or bottom sides in the division. But notwithstanding the Deepdale fixture earlier this season our record against the noisy neighbours is poor in recent years, and they will be desperate to make up for the pasting of earlier this season. Of bigger concern is whether we are embarking on yet another spiral having played quite poorly now since Christmas, having a few fortunate results and then hitting the buffers at QPR. Rebound with a win and it can be put down as an off day or blip but what we cannot afford is another spiral of 3 defeats or 5 games without a win like we often have.

The biggest frustration with Venkys is that it is clear that the money is there if they want to spend it and the costs of bankrolling the club every year is evidence of that. These guys must have serious cash to be able to keep on pumping it in 10 years on with so little going the other way in return - no major sales, no real interest in the game, local connections or even commercial benefit. My view has been and will be that the ideal outcome here is for Venkys to stay BUT put in place a proper structure to enable the club to thrive. Unfortunately whilst improvements have been made in that we now have sensible and straight people in place the structure for me still isn't there. It is still run as a corner shop operation where personal trust and friendships are more important than performances and results. The more time that passes the more it becomes clear that they aren't going to change - they aren't going to relinquish power to the UK or appoint innovative, ambitious, capable executives - they just want a manager they trust with their money and go with his recommendations on everything else which is how we've got Waggott shuffling papers around and setting ticket prices. It feels like we have half the job sorted - incredibly rich owners willing and able to keep us operating to a decent level - but still too foolish to use their resources to install a real top drawer structure that will last and enable serious inroads to be made towards promotion and survival at the top level and this bizarre arrangement where the football squad get ample resources and investment but the club and facilities get nothing. Very strange. With £15-20 million a year going in and no big sales we should be blowing the likes of Barnsley, Preston, Luton, Millwall completely out of the water and be strong contenders in this league, yet there's more to it than just throwing money in every year and 'trusting' the manager because he's a nice man. You need to know when to make ruthless decisions and back experts to carry out those decisions to keep on an upward trajectory.

Well Bournemouth have made my week with that result. I'll be honest I feared a good cup run for the dingles having scraped past MK Dons, overcome a weak Fulham and been drawn to Bournemouth at home who are managerless. Get through and it is suddenly quarter final time with no crowds, no Liverpool or Arsenal and strange things can happen. Thankfully no such problem. Funny to see quite a few clarets going mad at Dyche for his approach tonight. His record in the cups especially against lower division sides is woeful.