JHRover

Deary me. Where to begin. I may have got it wrong on the undersoil heating. But I'd still like to know why if we had the undersoil heating on for as long as has been claimed did we need frost covers at Ewood too? Do you seriously expect the CEO, club or head groundsman to go on the website and say that the reason the game was off was because we haven't looked after the pitch properly over the last few years? That would probably be curtains for Waggott. This is about as diplomatic as they can put it without saying the game was called off due to our poor pitch. They haven't said what they intend to do about it in the short or long term. They've said it will be 'renovated' in the summer which could mean anything from a complete rip up and relay through to a reseed and some nice weather for a few weeks. The reason I said "we can be absolutely certain" in relation to Waggott's claims of an upcoming renovation is because the club has done the bare minimum renovation work on a relatively miniscule budget now for many years. That's the main reason we are in this mess. It's been a ticking time bomb that was always going to come back and bite us eventually. There's a reason clubs spend hundreds of thousands or even millions on their pitches and it isn't because they want to chuck money away, it's because it is needed in times like these. Given the way Waggott has run the club since his arrival anyone seriously expecting a six or seven figure sum to be spent on ripping up the Ewood pitch and relaying it is going to be very disappointed. It would cost seven figures to install a Desso pitch which would solve the issue, which is what Sheffield Wednesday installed to overcome Hillsborough flooding and what Tranmere have had at Prenton Park enabling them to overcome poor weather. Trev isn't my mate. I've spoken to him on a handful of occasions in my life whilst I've been at Ewood. I know that after nearly 40 years at the club he's good at his job and does his best, and somehow or other has managed to maintain a very good standard pitch for the vast majority of those years until recently? Very little of the reasons provided by the club actually stand up to much strutiny: 1) Wet and wintry conditions over Xmas and the New Year - yet those haven't destroyed the pitches at Morecambe, Tranmere, Accrington, Bolton etc. 2) Just a 4 week turnaround between the end of last season and the start of this - correct - but what about the other 23 Championship clubs who had the same time constraints? None of them have had to call games off due to their pitch. Also - why didn't they bring forward works to April and get cracking through May and June when we had no games and fantastic weather? Plenty of time then. As an extreme example Man City relaid their pitch once the season was suspended in March and got it sorted quickly. 3) The drainage into the River Darwen - again as above if we had installed a Desso pitch, for example, the drainage would be much better - as done at Charlton and Sheff Wed where realisation hit home they needed to take drastic and expensive action to remedy it.

Amazing how Mowbray somehow manages to make basic elements of football and management out to be special unique qualities and virtues that only he is able to deliver. - Trying to improve and get higher in the league - Bringing better players in than those who depart - Trying to tie good players down to long term contracts Does he think these are unique concepts that he has come up with? I think every manager in the world would aim to do the same. "Every team is super organised and fit". I don't think we are. That's a big part of the issue. I agree that Mowbray probably feels under pressure of some sorts and so he should. He's been well backed, had plenty of time and there is little evidence of any progress. There's something wrong if he isn't feeling some heat or scrutiny. Sadly that will almost entirely be local from fans and to a lesser degree local media rather than in the club hierarchy. I suspect his predecessors have also felt pressure at times when they've been struggling, not knowing what the loons in Pune are going to do. Unfortunately the setup here is a long way from conventional and he's probably bomb proof, the only spanner in the works might be mysterious Pasha but by all accounts he's nowhere to be seen and hasn't since early last year. Probably too late for that now as Mowbray has his feet under the table in India. If it's in the hands of 'Madame' then he probably doesn't realise how safe he really is. I've no problem with him reminding people that we are Blackburn Rovers and with our history we should be looking to get back to the Premier League. That doesn't translate into arrogance or expecting a god given right to be there, but we've just as much right as anyone else and we are not a little club punching above our weight here.

There's also the outdoor 3g pitch at Brockhall that surely could be used as an emergency alternative?

More a case of Mowbray making it known that he is aware of the contract situation and doing his best but it is out of his hands.

We can be absolutely certain that if Waggott is behind the 'renovation' it will be a cheap and cheerful patch up job like every other summer and he'll be relying on nice weather and 2 months of no football more than anything else to sort it. Sharpe could really set the cat among the pigeons by ringing up Andy Holt and asking him how much Stanley have spent on their pitch the last 4 years. That would hammer things home I'm sure when compared to Rovers. Sharpe could also wind it up by asking Waggott whether the new pitch or new Riverside stand will get priority. Neither likely to happen for a very long time. The only way any serious work will be done is if the owners are shamed into action or Mowbray brings it up as a big problem. I hope Mowbray won't even be here by then but if he is i hope he will have bigger things on his plate than the state of the pitch and will be clinging to his job. He's not going to start making additional demands stretching into 7 figure investments. I've spoken to Trevor Wilkin a few times and I've no doubt he works his socks off and has always done his best. Approaching 40 years at the club is some effort. Same goes for many others who work hard but unfortunately when you have owners who couldn't give a stuff and bullshitters in the boardroom there's only one way things end up.

I agree that the reason names like Hughes and Ainsworth are on the tips of tongues is because of their past connections to Blackburn, and without those I very much doubt that either would be high on suggested names. Hughes might be a busted flush, as his record now over 3-4 years suggests he is, or he might have just been unfortunate and bringing him back into management might be a masterstroke for someone. Either way if the criteria is PL experience and a couple of sackings in the last 3 years then there's plenty more on that list. Alan Pardew fits that bill just the same but I expect would be rubbished as an option. I don't think we need to bring emotion into the equation and I don't think we need a unifying force in the dugout. Infact I'd say the fanbase is pretty united right now, going off what I read the substantial majority either want Mowbray gone or are just short of that in realising he's out of ideas and we probably need a change. Even those who publicly still back Mowbray would be quickly won over if the club made a swift and logical change, as they still live in fear of the 'who else would they appoint' line which would go out the window if a Lambert-esque fast appointment of a decent CV happened. Appoint someone sensible and show some ambition, whether that be a Blackburn lad or someone from a far away land who has hardly even heard of us before matters not to me - what matters is that a proper process takes place and a sensible, calculated decision is made. Making your decision based on someone being born in the town, or wanting to give a chance to Jonno or try to recreate the Hughes days of old is more likely to result in a slippery slope. I'd like to think a multi-million pound professional organisation would put more thought into it's most important appointment than "he's from Blackburn and a nice bloke so we'll give it him". I'd expect a more thorough thought process from amateur outfits.

I think this is as much accident or law of averages rather than some grand design on the manager's part. I just think that having been in place now for 4 years and had 8 transfer windows at it, working our way through loads of defenders and midfielders sooner or later there will be a downturn in numbers conceded. It is quite clear that Mowbray doesn't take defending seriously or if he does is incapable of organizing a defence. Persist with things long enough or shuffle personnel countless times and eventually there will be stats that suggest improvement is being delivered. In the end our league position, points total and number of wins all show progress isn't being made, and even if we end up ever so slightly higher or with a few more points than last year I don't feel that represents sufficient progress given the time he has had and fair wind behind him. Other managers have done far, far better in far less time with more difficult conditions.

Despite being yards away from the Trent and concerns about the game tonight Forest managed to overcome the conditions to play Middlesbrough and their pitch didn't look bad. Amazing how these other clubs can overcome geography and the weather in ways Rovers can't.

For me we should be looking for a minimum of £22 million for Armstrong in today's market. Young, fast, English, goals, good injury record - very, very valuable. The problem we have is the ticking time bomb of his contract meaning realistically we only have until the summer to sell or get him tied down. Beyond the summer it becomes a rapidly diminishing valuation for someone in the last year of his contract. Personally I think players such as him and Dack are essential if we have promotion aspirations and should be central to our plans. I wouldn't want to lose him and certainly wouldn't have any confidence in Venkys allowing proceeds back into the club or squad or indeed Mowbray doing much of use with the money. Of course there also has to be an acceptance that we aren't going anywhere fast under this setup and young quality players like Armstrong aren't going to waste away their careers flailing around in the middle of the division at clubs that can't even keep their pitch up to scratch. On that basis if a Premier League club offered big money his departure would be justified, especially now as we head to another finish of 10th-15th despite his incredible scoring run. What wouldn't be justified is a low price sale to a Championship rival like we've had with most recent departures from here - Raya, Cairney, Duffy, Hanley, Olsson etc. IF we were to get a good chunk of money the priority is to fire the existing coaching staff and spend big on a top management team with a big bonus to get us up in the next 2 years along with half of the money to strengthen the squad come the summer. On the contrary Venkys are likely to see Mowbray as a genius if they land a windfall from Armstrong and give him another contract and a few scraps to spend on a replacement. Any news on the CB that Mowbray reckoned was coming? Course not its just more BS to keep the fans quiet.

The straw that broke the camel's back for me was the horror show at Preston in October 2019. Our inept management of that game and complete collapse told me all I needed to know about this manager and his team. We had something of a recovery after that so the hysteria died down a bit but also numerous other calamitous performances and results including somehow losing to 10 men Birmingham in the Cup in January. Then Covid came along and I was content to just leave things stable for the time being, the view being that ensuring survival was the most crucial thing. We had our usual giddy spell after beating Bristol City after the restart to get people looking at the top 6 followed by the usual collapse back into mid table. in the end as more time has passed it has become clear that whilst Mowbray has done good at this club and in many ways is ideal to keep things steady and ticking along he simply doesn't have what it takes to get us out of this league. You could probably apply that to every element of the football club - not being to the level required to lead us back to the top flight - but management and coaching staff are the central issue and need upgrading for there to be any chance of promotion. If you are happy to just bobble along and not do anything but watch as the same old mistakes are made every year then we won't ever get promoted. I want promotion and I think the club needs it.

So we sit alongside illustrious peers Blackpool, Crawley, Carlisle and Lincoln as the only League games to be postponed due to the bad weather. The only one in the Championship and I'll hazard a guess we will be the only one this season. Despite horrible weather and storms affecting a large part of Northern England they've managed to overcome it at Derby, Rotherham, Doncaster, Crewe, Tranmere and Morecambe to name a few. To be honest I'm absolutely disgusted and fuming about it. Not surprised because I've been expecting something like this to happen for a while given the running of the club. You're hitting a low ebb when people involved with the likes of Preston and Accy Stanley are calling us tinpot for not being able to get the game on. I'd never admit it to rivals but between fellow Rovers fans I think that is what we have become. Tinpot. All thanks to our negligent owners and their regime.

My message to Waggott - if we can't afford to sort the pitch out can you take a wage cut to fund it instead?

Cast your minds back to last summer when Mowbray decided to hand out contract extensions like confetti to squad players for no reason other than they were nice lads. A quick, extremely conservative estimate on those costs based on 4 weeks of extensions: Sam Hart - £2000 a week = £8000 total Jayson Leutwiler- £2000 a week = £8000 total Richie Smallwood = £5000 a week = £20,000 total Dominic Samuel = £4000 a week = £16,000 total Danny Graham = £10,000 a week = £40,000 total Six months contract for Ben Gladwin to use Brockhall @ £2k per week = £26,000 Private jet to Cardiff for a dead rubber match = £30,000. Fag packet calculations = £150,000 for nothing. Probably a lot more in reality. Maybe that money should have gone to the ground staff and maintenance staff to sort Ewood out. Shambles. At least we did the right thing by the players though.

What an absolute shambles. The people owning and running the club should be thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed of themselves. The people I feel sorry for are the ground staff and players. The ground staff do the best they can with the resources they are given. It is clear the owners and directors have cut corners and costs and now it comes home to roost. The players have joined this club presumably thinking they are joining a professional and serious operation hoping to get to the Premier League. Yet a stadium and pitch barely maintained, no undersoil heating and blocked drains getting games called off. Its like amateur hour. I don't believe the volume of rain has been unprecedented and alone has caused the postponement. Neglect of facilities and corner cutting has exacerbated the problem significantly. Curious how for 25 years after Ewood was rebuilt the rain never caused a postponement and yet during the Venky malaise the pitch is a disgrace and can't cope with heavy showers. We need owners who care and take pride in the club. It embarrasses me. Anyone else noticed the Frost covers laid out alongside the Ewood pitch recently? Looks like they've given up on the undersoil heating. Presumably it costs too much or they haven't bothered maintaining it so instead are using sheets to stop the pitch becoming frozen. The frost covers were donated by the 100 Club to help the academy at Brockhall. It seems these covers have been requisitioned and moved to Ewood Park. Not a problem? Well it means the Brockhall pitches aren't covered from frost so the team won't train on there. This is the reason the team have trained on Ewood recently as it is the only unfrozen grass pitch. This is the reason the pitch has rapidly deteriorated into the mess it is because in addition to games it has been used for training. What an absolute shambles. Venkys, Waggott and Mowbray out asap.

12 years on from then and pretty much everything can be applied to Rovers Well backed in the transfer market, liked as a person by most who encounter him, good intentions, yet all the same problems - bizarre tactics and subs, Tinkering Tony, head in hands on the subs bench, unable to handle big pressure games (when we get close to the top.6). A leopard doesn't change his spots and this is history repeating itself.

Mowbray's initial target was to keep us up. That's what he was appointed to do, that was the task he was given when he got the job. I am confident that he didn't get the job based on his ability to get us out of League One or because he told them we were doomed but he would sort it out in years to come. He got it because he told them he would keep us in the Championship and it was all hands to the pump in doing that. It seems one of the reasons he got the gig was because he agreed to work with existing coaching staff in Lowe, Dunn and Benson (always a bad sign that a club would impose coaches on a manager to save a few quid rather than have enough faith in the manager to select his own staff and back him on those decisions). Mowbray failed to achieve his target, we were relegated. Do I blame him for relegation? Not at all, we were close to staying up, we had decent form over that spell of games and the cause of relegation was what happened before he arrived. Still I expect he told them he could do it and he didn't so target missed. Something happened in the summer of 2017 where he quickly went off to India, had words with the head honchos and got what he wanted - a long term contract, Paul Senior down the road, Mark Venus in as his assistant and in the process effectively secured complete control over the club on a day to day basis and also a good chunk of backing from the owners. Quite impressive for a handful of meetings. The result was that we went into League One with one of the most expensive and talent laden squads that League has ever seen. Promotion was the requirement and it was achieved. Job done. It was a success, but not an overachievement in any measure. Comparisons to Sunderland and Ipswich are no more relevant than comparisons to Wigan, Bolton, Wolves, Norwich and many others who bounced straight back. Mowbray gets a promotion on his CV, an improved contract and retains control over the club, earning himself bucket loads of respect and patience from the fans to crack on and do it his way. He claims he has advised the owners to not spend heavily in search of promotion and instead follow the slow build approach of assembling a quality laden squad over a few years which will allegedly stand us in better stead. A couple of mid-table finishes without ever seriously even threatening the top 6 never mind any higher. Not great but not bad. By now it is clear the slow build isn't delivering, we just limp along going around in circles. The problem for me isn't so much that we aren't in the top 6 this season. It's that at no point in the last 3 years have we ever gone close to establishing ourselves in there and if anything now we are moving further away from it the longer Mowbray is in charge. Remember previously he relied so heavily on the dressing room he inherited - Graham, Mulgrew, Bennett, Conway, Evans - and the more we move on from such players the further away we seem to get. I've seen nothing, absolutely nothing, in the last 18 months to make me thing there is any real point in handing him another season to repeat the same mistakes. This isn't a bloke who is going to suddenly change his ways or his habits or his beliefs. There is an incredible level of negativity and narrow mindedness knocking about online from people who seem to think Mowbray is some sort of messiah who knows it all and no other manager could ever deliver what he can or that there are scant alternatives out there. Actually for clued up and ambitious clubs there are many, many, many options out there, more than you could possibly get through discussions with all options, yet the attitude at this club is just 'can't do' rather than 'can do'. Think small rather than think big. Find reasons why we can't do things rather than reasons we can. We can't compete, we can't afford a new pitch, we can't expect better, we can't get a better manager or coaching staff. Repeat endlessly and convince yourselves it is the truth.

Adkins was on 'the list' when Mowbray got the job and he fits all the recent criteria we've had when appointing our last 3 managers: Available, historic promotion to the Prem, happy to get a Championship job, once promising career now in its latter stages. I agree he's likely to be up there on the list this time around. Not keen myself. I think he's probably a marginally better manager than Mowbray but not much and he's another with 'footballing principles' and all about the positivity to the point of delusion.

Exactly this. A mid term plan and forward thinking. We aren't going up. So what's the point in going through the motions for the next 4 months and then making a change? If a change needs to be made, which most people seem to think it does, then that should be made quickly and decisively with a plan in place. Likewise if a replacement is available now who ticks the boxes you don't sit around for months waiting and then that man gets signed up elsewhere leaving us without that option. Sadly we've owners who won't even think about Rovers until May when people turn up on their doorstep and they have a spare hour to talk about it. So there can't be a plan of any form. Remember the Venky motto. Always tomorrow, never today. Apply that to investment, improvement, promotion, changes. In football the proactive and bold succeed. Those who just make excuses and try to buy more time end up getting nowhere.

I don't know about anyone else but I must have spent hours over the last few weeks thinking, talking and posting about the situation and the route forward. Anyone reckon our owners or incredibly well paid CEO have given the subject a seconds thought?

I hope we get a deal with Kappa, Hummel, Under Armour, Macron or maybe Puma. Adidas, Nike and Umbro are as dull as anything. Last decade we seem to have just followed Umbro around - going right back to 2007 with only a couple of seasons with Nike (who inherited the Umbro deal when they bought them out). About time we go and get a manufacturer that makes more of an effort and provides a good range of stuff at some sort of reasonable price.

Much of that may be true. I would point out that the KPMG audit was only conducted in mid-2017 after the self-inflicted relegation to the third division and almost 7 years into the Venky era, so there was nothing stopping them investing in the pitch between 2010 and 2017 including whilst we were still in the Premier League. They didn't do it then and haven't done since not because the owners can't afford it but because they simply don't care and won't spend money on the facilities unless it is essential. They could invest in a nice pitch, just like everyone else in the Championship manages, just like they could spend some money getting Ewood cleaned and weeds removed. But sat in a palace in Pune you don't see such issues whereas we have to sit in it and drive past it. Now that their mate Mowbray is kicking up a fuss about it something might happen, but he'll know better than to cause trouble with the owners about it and instead have a moan in the Telegraph and with Waggott but not with the people who matter. The whole club reeks of short termism, corner cutting, cost cutting and bare minimum. Eventually in life such an approach comes back to bite you.

The scary thing is I think Mowbray and certainly Waggott are of the same mentality. There seems to be an attitude down there that we are lucky to have Mowbray here and that we should consider ourselves grateful. I can't remember the exact quote but Waggott said something in one of the Q and A sessions about being able to keep Mowbray here and it alarmed me. Then there's the bizarre decision to commission a large flag of Mowbray that club staff wave before kick off. Again it seems almost akin to cult that Mowbray is some sort of legend here that we are lucky to have. Of course the fact we rescued him from the wilderness by giving him a Championship job when nobody else would doesn't come into it. I don't actively dislike the bloke but he frustrates the hell out of me and the longer him and Waggott hang around the more that will turn. It has been a mutually beneficial arrangement for all concerned now for coming up on 4 years. He's recovered his reputation, had a promotion and four years of income from us. He's steadied the ship, grown a few assets and put us back where we were before the insane Coyle appointment and fire sale. Most experienced spectators can see where this is going and it seems pointless to me to drag it out for months more. Of course sooner or later we will have another little purple patch. Not because Mowbray turns it around or improves but just because that's how he works and leave things long enough we'll hit some form again. Most wouldn't get the time but he will.

With Mark Hughes it boils down to how eager he is to return to management and repair his damaged reputation or if he is happy to relax and wait for something to come along that genuinely excites him. He's been out now for over 2 years and his last two jobs have ended in failure and the sack so the longer his absence from the game continues the more difficult it is going to be for him to get a decent job and the more likely it will become that he will be a forgotten man in management like Alan Curbishley, Alan Pardew and others. It is rare that managers come back from years out of the game and succeed. Hughes clearly has an ego which no doubt comes from his playing days and has probably served him well. It was that ego that saw him walk away from us last time around and no doubt he would have gone sooner had an offer been made. I always had the impression he thought he was destined for much bigger and better than Rovers and yet that hasn't been the case for him. He's going to have to accept that waiting for a Premier League job will likely see him never return to management. He might be fine with that, but if he's keen to get back into it then the Championship is going to be as good as it gets unless some foreign club take a punt (increasingly unlikely as time passes). I think he's deluded if he thinks he's too good for a job like Rovers. A mid-table underachieving Championship club is probably the best he's going to get. Too many folk are too negative about the offerings of Blackburn Rovers. Yes we've disinterested and clueless owners, and yes we've a bizarre structure with seemingly no investment or interest taken in the Club with any investment made just for the first team. But there are perks to this job as Mowbray is proving by still being in it despite stagnation over more than a year. Hughes would be worth a phone call but I wouldn't be getting on my hands and knees to beg him to return. It would simply be to ask him if he would like to be considered and to see if he fancied a crack at it and what his terms would be. If he wasn't keen I'd move on as the last thing we need is another Lambert scenario of someone here just to get their name back in the news before moving on after 6 months to supposedly better things. Plenty more fish in the sea. Johnson should be a no. This club needs know-how and experience and handing it to a rookie just sets us off on another 2-3 year cycle of development and learning on the job. We are underachieving with this squad and are running out of time with it. We need someone who can come in and sort it out quickly with fresh ideas, outside eyes and a new voice for the players. That also applies to the coaching staff so Venus, Lowe and co. probably need to go as well. If we wanted to go down the tried and tested route then for me it would have to be a toss up between Mick McCarthy and Nigel Pearson. Those would at the very least have us in a similar position but with potential to hit the top 6. They certainly wouldn't have us any lower than we are at present. Personally I'd rather we went on a bit more of a bold yet educated route and went for someone still up and coming but also experienced. Not a rookie but someone on an upward trajectory in the game looking for a chance to progress their careers here. Danny Cowley would fit that remit - comprehensive experience and knowledge of all leagues up to the Championship, available, done well in all his jobs and looking for that opportunity Huddersfield wouldn't give him. Failing that there are many other options out there worth looking into. For those who seem to think that a managerial change is some massive gamble that we should look to avoid the answer is simple - if it doesn't work then make another change. We don't have to stick with the next manager for 4 years regardless of results. You bring someone in, give them a target and review. The other way of doing things is that if we sell Armstrong say for £15 million then we use the bulk of those funds not to sign players or cover losses but to bring in a top, top drawer management team like Leeds did. I'm not saying someone like Bielsa would be obtainable for us but a game changing top level manager who could be lured with a massive salary and bonus and given 2 years to get us up.

The cost of a desso pitch can be 7 figures. But certainly not 3 or 4 million unless you are doing it on all the pitches we have including the training ground. To just do Ewood it would be more like £1 million. Expensive yes but that is a one off, so divide over many years and the costs come down. I wouldn't blame the ground staff. They can only work with what they are given and it is clear that isn't enough. Who'd have thought that the best owners we could hope for would cut corners on facilities. A symptom of their neglect and lack of care. Thankfully it might force the issue now People can see what a mess it is and we get a public shaming for it. Won't be long before Players are looking for a move because they are fed up of playing on a mud heap.

Need fresh ideas and different voices for the players. Promoting Mowbray's assistant doesn't deliver a clean sweep.