JHRover

I don't doubt Mowbray is feeling the heat. He knows he is under pressure from the fans and probably feels under pressure from Venkys. That, of course, doesn't mean that they themselves are planning on getting rid of him. We all know these people don't understand football and attach a great deal to nice people who they trust. In the past the club and results have come 2nd to that. So this is Mowbray feeling the pressure but it will probably require approval from Madame for him to be potted and as Kean sussed out if she likes you then you're as safe as houses. If Mowbray expects fans to be happy with less than 40% possession at home to the bottom club, constantly conceding at 2 per game or having barely any attempts on goal he's got a strange view on things. Results are all that matters but anyone who watches football regularly knows there are big problems here and it would be negligent for him or the team to pretend otherwise and delusional for supporters to believe otherwise.

Mowbray has been in this position before - at Celtic, Middlesbrough and Coventry - when the fans are turning or have turned and he shows no sign of turning it around. He will know the signs. It isnt unfamiliar territory. Perhaps that's just his management style. Mourinho does similar albeit on a much more successful scale. Popular and successful for a couple of years before it unravels.

A lot of weight attached to this concept of Mowbray setting the top 6 as a target and raising expectations of the fans. Absolute nonsense. First off every club at this level should aim for the top 6. Being in or close to the top 6 of this division is not an achievement. Getting promoted is. Whether that target was announced by Mowbray in private or via loudspeaker on an open top bus matters not. The reality is he is failing to deliver on that target. I think the biggest problem on Saturday was being comprehensively outplayed by the bottom club at home. That was why the fans were unhappy. And it has been dreadful almost all season. Oh and Mowbray shouldn't be setting targets. That is the owners and boards job and Mowbray has to find a way to deliver. Just another example of the circus that is Blackburn Rovers.

Depends what phase Venkys are up to with their build it up and sell it off routine. Mowbray has to date managed to get funds out of them on the basis he is investing it into assets to grow in value and get their money back down the line. Other than Dack he's failed with just about all of them. Only a matter of time before Venkys instigate a round of sales and naturally Dack will be number 1 on the list. I expect a Cairney style departure. I don't think he'll push for a move as I think he is genuinely happy here but if Venkys want a sale he'll be sent on his way even perhaps for a knock down fee to a rival club. If someone came along with £5-6 million cash upfront that would probably do the trick. All depends what mindset they are in. If it's an attitude of keep our assets then other clubs will really struggle to get anywhere. If it is firesale attitude e.g. 2015-16 then anyone and everyone will be up for grabs.

Waggott is chief executive of the club and apparently in control of ticketing and pricing. Numbers through the turnstiles are dropping rapidly. That means his policies have failed. Nobody really cares about numbers turning up because it's all about life on easy street.

Mowbray succeeded in convincing people that our defensive woes last season were down to Raya and Mulgrew. So with that in mind I suspect he will know all about Raya's many weaknesses and will have a plan to exploit those. Or we'll just be the same as usual and have 1 shot on target.

Much longer? I've checked and it was 9 games. Hardly half a season. We did enough to survive. Bowyer was a welcome breath of decency, normality, honesty. But i think by that point most people were just completely fed up with the chronic instability and chaos and liked Bowyer and trusted him which was why the fans welcomed his appointment when it happened. I embraced that decision. I appreciated what he had done and recognised we needed someone trustworthy in the dugout and it worked for 2 years. I don't believe there was a strong clamour for his appointment. If we'd have sent him back to the u21s and brought in an external manager I'm sure people would have accepted it. My point remains - I don't think Venkys were following some grand plan in handing the reigns to Bowyer. They were just glad someone at the club managed to step forward and get a grip on things and then when he went out to India they took a liking to him like they did with Mowbray. That's how these people operate. They don't follow results, track records, performances, overall plans. They just want someone running it who they trust who will make the effort to go out and tell them how great they are and how lucky the club is to have them and do things their way and be grateful for the chance to do it. Hence no quality sought after manager gets employed here because they don't need the hassle.

Out of interest would you support John Coleman, Paul Tisdale or Paul Hurst as manager? All those have impressive records in Leagues One and Two on limited budgets. Or is it just because Ainsworth is from Blackburn?

If every caretaker that had a decent 3-4 games in charge got the job permanently then it would happen in 80% of cases. More often than not the caretaker oversees an improvement. It doesn't mean he should automatically get the job full time. As much as I liked Bowyer he got the job here through being the easy and obvious choice and calm head amidst absolute chaos brought upon the club by the owners. He did a good job until the owners ruined it by selling everyone and providing no funds to him or Lambert. There has to be more to it than 'oh well he's a nice bloke and we won a couple of games when he was caretaker so he can have the job'. It's this approach that will almost certainly see Johnson next in line. Appointing a manager and staff at this level requires far more than taking the easiest and cheapest option. I thought they'd worked that out when we impressively brought in Lambert, Irvine and Kelly but recent events show that not to be the case.

It took Ainsworth about 5 years to get Wycombe out of League Two. Think Venkys or Rovers fans would stick with him that long here?

No you previously said that Hughton performs worse without Calderwood as his assistant. I'm not sure what that is based on or even if it is correct given he got Brighton promoted and kept them in the Premier League two years running with Trollope as his assistant. I've already said style of play is irrelevant Our performances this season under Mowbray have been some of the most dull, uninspiring, clueless displays I can remember in my life following Rovers. It is an insult to suggest we should exclude good managers from this club on the basis of style when we are performing as we are under a manager that claims to favour positive football. So what if he turned down Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke? Stoke are and were well behind us in the table, Sheffield Wednesday are apparently about to get nailed with Ffp sanctions whereas we have, apparently, built a solid base and are Ffp compliant. We should sell ourselves as a club to good.managers. Not sit back and expect managers to sell themselves to us. If we had vision and foresight we would know that McCarthy's spell with Ireland ends at the latest in June following the Euros and possibly before then if they don't qualify. Even if Mowbray goes nowhere soon we should be making plans for a future without him and getting an agreement in place asap. Garcia is Oscar Garcia. Ex Brighton and Watford. Available for an ambitious club. Warnock would come if we made him a good enough offer and promised him freedom to get on with it. We won't offer him that though. You seem keen on two people one of whom has never been a manager and the other who has spent 7 years at Wycombe Wanderers, mainly in League Two. No reason to think either could handle this job in the Championship.

Interesting that you don't want Hughton or McCarthy due to their styles of play yet you would be keen on Karanka or O'Neill who both had similar approaches in their previous jobs at Middlesbrough and Northern Ireland. Pearson is a head case who wouldnt work with Venkys. He would be gone quicker than Lambert. For me it would have to be: Hughton, Karanka, Carvalhal, Garcia, McCarthy (end of season), Stendel, Stam, Warnock. Plenty of options. All gettable.

I'm not absolutely sure that it was his choice. But that's a different story. I believe that his stubborn persistence with Gallagher at the expense of Graham is either him trying to keep the owners happy or is the owners insisting on his inclusion to protect their investment.

Mowbray a lucky man tonight. That 3rd goal saves his blushes and likely sees the circus carry on for a few more weeks. Obvious to anyone watching that game that we are a team in big trouble with a manager out of ideas. A competent executive structure would be highly alarmed by this afternoon, Waggott will be toasting the win knowing him and his mate are safe a while longer.

That interview is a disgrace. The entirely predictable excuses about injuries appearing when everyone knew we were short at the back and would struggle to cope with what we had. Mowbray then makes a veiled dig at people saying we should have signed more defenders saying he isn't prepared to 'stack' them up. Nobody is suggesting that. We went through the summer with Lenihan and Mulgrew as our only fit established CBs. We've done it on the cheap by trying to convert Williams into one. Added a young lad on loan and then replaced Mulgrew at CB with Cunningham at LB. Any manager with an understanding of these players would know Lenihan is a certainty to miss weeks of a season with his history. It would have been sufficient to sign two natural, experienced CBs who haven't spent their lives in the treatment room. Not one admission that his recruitment, management or coaching is in any shape or form relevant to our dire defence and results. If he couldn't address the defence last summer with what we had last season and the cash he had then he's beyond redemption and certainly doesn't deserve another shot at it. If he still believes that his transfer business in the summer was sufficient and that our struggles are down to injuries then he needs his head looking at.

Another dire performance from the u23s. Very few positives to take against a City side who have struggled this season yet played us off the park. Most worrying for me is the striking similarities in 'style' of play with the first team. Seems to me that the Mowbray 'philosophy' is entrenched in the u23s too. Sideways and backwards passing, no end product. Rubbish.

What happens if Ipswich go up on goal difference having had a walk in the park 5-0 win against Bolton or Tranmere stop up by a couple of points thanks to their walk over? It goes way beyond just the Bolton/Doncaster scenario. It impacts just every team to varying degrees but particularly those competing for promotion or survival. As I've said before - we go to Luton at the end of the season. Let's say we are 3 points above Luton with a +3 goal difference. Luton need to beat us by 2 goals to stay up. We don't fancy the risk so simply don't turn up. Precedent says they award Luton 3 points like they did with Brentford last season. We stay up on goal difference and don't get punished.

A consortium made up of the Sultan of Brunei, King of Saudi Arabia, Emir of Qatar and Bill Gates could publicly ring Venkys every day for a month to try and buy the club and they'd refuse to even answer and Rovers fans would still believe nobody was interested and Venkys are the best we can hope.for.

Looking forward to the fireworks from this one. Quite clear the League are fuming with the outcome of this 'panel' and will be pushing an appeal all the way. This will be because member clubs especially those in League One will be kicking up a fuss about it. This isnt something that can be kicked into the long grass and be left for another year like Birmingham was. It needs dealing with quickly as the competition is being affected and teams will suffer the consequences over the rest of the season.

Can't do that. Except Brighton did. And Wolves. And Villa. And QPR. And Leicester. And Bournemouth.

Bolton will survive now. Only 3 places to climb above and Southend and Wimbledon are garbage. That's before Bolton add more players in January. This outcome entirely predictable in the hands of the weak and spineless Football League. I just hope other clubs test them by kicking up a fuss or even copying Bolton and not fulfilling fixtures. Conceivably in some rare cases it could help teams to not bother turning up for crucial games and take 3 points to the other team and a suspended punishment. The League once again do nothing and hope that everything will go quiet again. Meanwhile clubs like Stanley could lose their 3rd tier status this season as a result and with it the crippling financial consequences. Bolton will be celebrating at getting off scott free for their misdemeanors. And what's the point in an 18 month suspended sentence? Do they really think there's any chance of Bolton doing it again within the next 18 months? Disgusting.

Looking forward to watching us 'trying' to 'impose ourselves' at home on a Barnsley side bottom of the league.

Enough money to give a contract to a perennially injured League One standard player who plays in a position we don't need out of sympathy/loyalty yet not enough money to keep our 15 goal set piece specialist/captain who actually plays and in a position we are short on numbers. Something doesn't smell right.

I try to imagine Mowbray's Rovers up against Cook's Wigan in a dogfight and know which one I'd back. I can't stand Cook who I think is a repulsive individual but he will battle and fight for everything and use all the dirty tricks going if needed. Meanwhile whilst weve got a stronger squad of players we have a 'nice guy' mentality and 'principles' to stick to.

Not saying he hasn't been backed with cash, but perhaps he's had his hands tied in other ways. Perhaps its just because I'm trying to convince myself that no manager would ever be so stupid as to do what we have with spending nothing on the defence and everything on the attack.