JHRover

Another one who won't have paid for a ticket in years along with Dunn, Myers etc. Earning a living out of the game distorts perceptions.

Myers applies double standards. If it was his beloved Everton struggling with horrendous form he'd be keen to see a change, and if there was the opportunity of a far better manager coming in he'd jump. Then little old Rovers are supposed to accept their lot in life and trust good old Tony to plod on forever.

Our Match Sponsor today is the Rovers Community Trust. They are also the Sponsors of the Family Stand and took the advertising space the club tried selling on the Jack Walker stand windows when the ground was shut. Here is the problem. Commercial and corporate development is non existent, to the extent we are relying on the Community Trust to sponsor the club. It is embarrassing. But that's what happens when you neglect this important part of the club and treat fans and partners with contempt. Get rid of Waggott and pay a top drawer Commercial director to increase income.

How about a starter from the club to evidence their intentions before cracking on with this Brockhall project? If the owners and club management are so keen to improve the club, facilities and modernise things then lets see some FFP exempt investment into these facilities that doesn't rely upon selling off acres of prime land for housing. A new or refurbished Riverside should convince people. Or how about a deep clean of Ewood to get rid of the filth that has built up over the last decade. Or how about we see if this major pitch project actually happens without needing to sell off players or assets to fund it. I'm sure if I saw some more sustained and wider efforts to improve the club I might believe a corner had been turned. But when it goes from one extreme to the other it rightly gives rise to suspicion. A club that can't even be bothered to clean it's own stadium yet will spend millions building a new training complex that isn't even needed is suspect.

Can't be right. Ipswich in League One and a Town club millions in debt. Nobody would buy such a club, so they would have us believe. Evans is walking away from £100 million in loans to Ipswich. That's what Venkys would have to do with their £200 million.

If you believe that, you'll believe anything. Talk about trying to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted. He talks about being sorry for the fans finding out via the Ribble Valley planning website in Friday night and that he didn't expect it to appear so soon. Then says he is experienced in large developments and the sensitivities of these at football clubs. Surely with that experience he would have been wary of the risk of this leaking and done something about it? I dont believe much of what he comes out with. I think he speaks with a forked tongue. The only part that I welcome is that he says the Cat 1 academy is essential. The £2 million pitch refurb will not happen, that i am confident about. Perhaps someone could measure the size of Everton's Finch Farm compared to the academy at Brockhall and contrast.

I dont understand this suggestion or theory that Venkys are effectively being held to ransom by Waggott threatening to leave immediately if Mowbray gets potted. It seems to be reminiscent of the rogue Shaw period where they are unable to act due to an employee being untouchable. Remember that Waggott only arrived in late 2017. So who was doing all these essential jobs of his before then?

For what its worth i heard last week that both are going in the summer. Trouble is the summer is a long way off with our results and position. I still think Mowbray is under the misapprehension that our owners closely monitor results and are prepared to act when they aren't good enough and that means he's on thin ice. I'm not sure that is true. Not now he's ensconced himself with the top dogs in India. They've shown before that they'll sit back and watch the club burn and fans rebel rather than remove someone they like. And lets remember that Coyle got to wreak havoc until February 2017 despite sitting in the bottom 3 all season. They did nothing.

Jokanovic had a poor record at Fulham in his first half season. Did enough to keep them up and then the next season got them up through the play offs. Cowley's record is unbelievable. If he hadn't been at Huddersfield I would have doubts about him stepping up in size and division to the Championship. But he's now had that experience of managing at this level at a sinking ship and kept them up in poor circumstances, inheriting a right mess from Wagner and Siewert He's low risk, potentially huge rewards and would offer something different. Having squandered the opportunity to get McCarthy, Warnock and Pearson in the last 12 months I think Cowley ticks most boxes for us right now. If it doesn't work, let him go and try someone else after next season. We don't have to give the next manager 3-4 years to deliver "stability". Much sooner Cowley with his experience and record than a rookie like Johnson or someone like Pulis.

That's what my money is on unless something drastic happens. Venkys will put their liking of their manager before the fans and ticket sales. Waggott will accuse people of disloyalty before telling us all about what a small club we are with hardly any fans.

I, and I hope others, knew this point would come sooner or later. Investing everything into Mowbray's hands, just because he comes across as a nice man or did a decent job 3 years ago, was a disaster waiting to happen with this ownership. We were always going to hit the buffers or unravel, because that's what all teams do sooner or later. Everything that has happened here has been on Mowbray's say-so or suggestion, not because the owners have suddenly changed their ways. They still don't get what football manager is and how results and performances have always decided the position of a manager, not individual qualities or trust. What a sorry, sorry, mess. We were always going to hit this point sooner or later. Mowbray won't walk unless his position becomes untenable. That would only happen if we ended up like Coventry when he gave up there. As long as we're outside the bottom 3 he won't be under sufficient scrutiny to throw in the towel. He's got the owners on side, just like Kean managed to do very quickly. We know how that works - go to India, have a few cups of tea at the bungalow, tell them how brilliant they are and ask them for some money and tell them you'll sort it all out without the need for them to do anything. The benefit is we get stability and money going into the transfer kitty but the downside is underachieving or failing managers being untouchable. I had hoped this had changed with mystery man Pasha there to act as a buffer but it seems not. Mowbray's not going to give this job up easily. Who can blame him. Its the best job he could hope for. The onus shouldn't be on him to walk. It should be the club thanking him and parting ways in an orderly fashion.

Cowley brothers. Now. Deal until summer 2022. Crack on. Let's reassess into next season and extend contracts then if we are making progress. We need fresh eyes and voices and energy in the dugout. Available, affordable, quickly improved failing Huddersfield last season. No time now for rookies or caretaker coaches.

I see we are back to injuries being the excuse for some for these results. 11 out apparently. We need to get them back apparently. Of course we couldn't have predicted that Ayala, Williams, Holtby would spend swathes of the season out injured. And Trybull was in and out even when fit. And we signed 2 CBs in January to cope with it.

I've been thinking it for months that an Armstrong sale in the summer saves Mowbray's bacon with the owners. They'll be wondering why we haven't been promoted and why Mowbray wants more money for the transfer window in the summer. If he can flog Armstrong for good money then he'll be able to fall back on that and show them how his dealings have delivered them a tidy profit and ask for a slice to spend in the summer.

Sickening. Not even a whiff of the bloke being on his way out. Instead all the talk about Saturday now being a huge game. Correct. Saturday is a huge game. But for all the wrong reasons. That doesn't mean he should be here to oversee it. If the people running this club had a clue they would already have had the feelers out over the last couple of weeks and would remove him and his mates and make a swift appointment. Cardiff and Bristol City did it in a matter of a couple of days.

So maximum 2 acres per pitch. There are only 5 pitches on the academy, space for a sixth where the car park is. Never get 9 or 10 pitches on it.

That's still far too big. 1 football pitch is roughly 1 acre. There's no way there's 19 acres on each site.

I can only assume that the 19000 figure should be square metres rather than acres. Thats the only explanation that makes any sense. Not off to a good start with this exciting project are they? News leaked from fans and forced to hastily release a statement Nobody putting their name to it Manager denying any involvement Inadequate site to accommodate what is needed. Company instructed to prepare plans can't even distinguish between square metres and acres. Maybe that explains why they think they can get it all on one site. They might have measured everything in inches. I'm sure we are in good hands...

The same document states the senior training centre is 19,140 acres. A mistake made twice in the same document? Odd.

They've made a rod for their backs by mentioning the indoor pitch being built down there. That will be the expectation now. If that can't be built then not even the imbeciles on Facebook will be able to claim that its anything but a drastic downscale of the operation.

I'm not a planning expert. But I would think that if 6 floodlight pylons would be refused due the above concerns then constructing a 50ft+ tall indoor training pitch might be difficult to get through.

https://www.ribblevalley.gov.uk/planningApplication25634 The club sought planning permission in 2015 to construct floodlight pylons on the academy site. They sought this because it is one of the requirements of a Category A academy. The application was refused because the light overspill and reflection would cause increased visibility of the training ground, cause harm to nearby residential properties through noise and light disturbance. Also concerns about the impact upon ecology and protected species. This was why the floodlit pitch was then built at the senior site instead. So I wonder how they are going to get around this with their "all in one" complex down at the bottom?

You'd think the owners would value that and realise having sold Jones, Hanley and co already that there's value to our academy. But no, they're a plotting to downgrade it. Unless Venkys aren't in on the plot and its being pushed by others.

It seems likely to me that the 3 promoted clubs will go straight back down. Last time that happened? Wycombe need a miracle despite a good win last night. Rotherham are still in there despite a very good run over January. I still think Sheffield Wednesday will be just about OK. Big Club would be enjoyable but they've a nasty habit of surviving by fine margins and expect they will do it again.

Only 8 of the other 23 clubs have picked up less points than we have this season, we are 2/3 of the way through it. It would have been 7 had Millwall not got a late equaliser at Luton Town. We need to drop this act of misfortune that we are just on a bad run or suffering through luck/injuries. Over a majority of the season we've shown that we are mid-table. We've gone no nearer the top 6 than Millwall, Luton or Barnsley. Mowbray needs to go because of that alone. It's quite simple. Either we are much better than our results and position suggest, in which case he needs to go for not achieving what he should, or we aren't better than our position suggests, in which case what the hell has 3 years of slow build been for?