JHRover

You're brave if going with a midfield of Travis, Davenport and Buckley who between them have a handful of senior first team appearances. Davenport not exactly pulling up any trees in the reserves, Buckley only just had a cameo in the team.

Those 2 wins at the end were dead rubbers against Rotherham away (who had pulled off the great escape under Warnock) and Reading at home (going nowhere). The reality is that Lambert and Mowbray are very similar in terms of their CVs. People tend to like Mowbray more because he dragged us out of League One and comes across better in his interviews in terms of being a more friendly persona and more accessible to fans. The difference of course being that Lambert at the time had the ability to walk out of here when he was mucked around by the owners and get another Championship job, whereas Mowbray was in last chance career saloon when he came here, so is less able to chuck his toys out of the pram when faced with issues with the owners. I don't think Mowbray has done anything Lambert couldn't have done if he had been here and don't think we would have been relegated had Lambert been here for a full season instead of Coyle/Mowbray. Even Lambert appears to have begun to stop the rot at Ipswich with some impressive draws recently. Being hard to beat is the cornerstone of any side going anywhere which is why I'm so disappointed at the ease with which we concede and are swept aside by poor teams.

Downing is a League One player. A good pro who was reliable for us last season in League One but that's his level and good luck to him. He wants to play football and has ended up with Doncaster Rovers. Previously at Walsall and MK Dons. There's a difference between him being around the place to step in when we're short on numbers and not let us down and then him being a competent Championship CB for 180-270 minutes a week. Of course it was lunacy to allow him to leave on loan given the lack of experienced alternatives but that's another argument. Ideally we'd have 2-3 proper Championship CBs.

I don't think LB will be changed after giving Williams a new deal, him making the breakthrough to the Ireland squad and Bell being signed by Mowbray only 12 months ago. I don't think RB will be significantly changed as Mowbray will keep Nyambe there with someone else filling in as and when. I can see 1 new CB being signed, probably to replace Rodwell/Downing when their contracts expire. I can see another 2-3 midfielders. One to replace Reed, one to replace Conway. I can see a new CF however I can't see significant funds being spent on that area as Venkys will expect Graham, Brereton, Armstrong and Nuttall to all be sufficient for the job. So there's probably 5 new players with the same going out again. Wages wise we'll probably stand still.

If memory serves me correctly a goalkeeper was the first position we were linked with strengthening last summer. Strong rumours linking us with Frank Fielding. When that didn't materialise nothing else was heard about that position. A bit like after we missed out on Bauer that was the end of the centre back pursuit.

Selling Dack is a no for me. We've seen what happens with this mob when we sell a star player with a view to reinvesting the proceeds. It doesn't happen and we end up even weaker. Even if we could reinvest the proceeds I'm not confident in adequately replacing him even with more than ten million. IF Venkys came up with a budget like last summer that Should be enough to get the necessary business done with some shrewd signings. If it's less than last year or they start inserting caveats or drop the budget late on in the summer unexpectedly then it will be doomed to fail.

I'd be actively looking to offload: Gladwin (out of contract), Hart (inexplicably given an extension recently but certainly not a first team contender), Nuttall (season long loan or sale if the opportunity arises), Williams (sale), Conway (release), Leutwiler (release), Samuel (sale or season long loan). I wouldn't have a particularly strong view on Smallwood - if he wants to play every week then I'd move him on, if he's happy to accept that he isn't going to be in the team every week he might be ok on the bench. Rodwell - if a deal can be done that is sensible then I wouldn't be against him staying. Reed - looks like he's being phased out as he won't be here next season. Big shame as his versatility and energy has been important to us this season but I doubt our ambitions align with his and our budget won't stretch to buying him outright. Dack - clearly the aim should be to keep and build around but once again we're seeing the foundations being laid for a sale with the manager suggesting he might sell to raise funds - I don't trust them on that front. Bennett - probably similar story to Smallwood. Good pro to have around and useful at times but we probably need to move away from him being 1st name on the teamsheet every week - probably the least likely to be moved out. Lenihan - another one like Dack we should be retaining and building around but another one who the money men might fancy selling off for a few million. Mulgrew - probably the toughest decision of the lot as to what we do there but Mowbray is going to have to do something or it will cost him his job. He will either need to replace him or find a way of defending much better with him.

There's a video on Instragram of Dack, Williams and their girlfriends in Dubai.

PNE are run properly - we aren't. I'd bet that their owner and board will have a budget ready for the summer and a plan for what players they will be going for. We won't have a clue until our lot fly out to India and Madame finds time to speak to them.

We'll do well if we get £5 million from the owners full stop. Out of that we need 7-8 decent players all on relatively low wages. Unless Mowbray and his new scouting system are going to be pulling rabbits out of the hat or unless Venkys suddenly significantly increase the kitty we're in difficulties. it will be the loan market again but we've seen before that is usually a case of get who comes available as and when the big clubs are prepared to allow it. You can't really plan properly with it, you just have to strike when the opportunity arises. I suspect we'll get more references to selling Dack beginning to appear in Mowbray's comments. The logic will be we're going to just go out and get £15 million for him and then we'll be able to spend all that on new players. Realistically even if the first one happened the chances of Venkys pumping the full amount back in are remote. I don't buy it after what happened with Rhodes and co. I very much doubt Mowbray has any idea what, if any, money will be made available and won't find up until his appointment in India in May.

Strange business there. They axed Bowyer and all his staff - McPhillips, Short, Grant - with Lambert, Irvine, Kelly and the GK coach all lined up and ready to come in. A very impressive array of coaches with a wealth of experience and Rovers connections too. Then Lambert throws in the towel yet apparently the other 3 were going to stay on. Coyle gets parachuted in and has a long history of bringing with him his own mates so obvious Irvine and Kelly's days were numbered, despite the Telegraph claiming Irvine was consulted on who should be the next manager. Likewise Warnock would have brought with him Blackwell and Jepson had he ended up getting the job as he was close to doing. Then Kelly resigns to join Rosler at Fleetwood and Irvine went too conveniently creating vacancies for Coyle's pals who all had to be paid up a few months later as relegation loomed. Then Mowbray comes in and has to work with existing staff but is later able to bring in Venus.

I don't think Waggott's appointment has got anything to do with appeasing supporters or keeping them in the loop. It's more to do with the fact that Cheston was struggling to cope with running the operation on his own and my belief is Mowbray told the owners that additional support was essential and so recommended someone who he had worked with recently who was looking for a job. Waggott's role at the club seems to be almost entirely to try and increase revenues whilst cutting costs and I suspect that will be the sole criteria he is judged on. Clearly keeping supporters happy and buying stuff contributes towards that. Unfortunately in his 12 months or so at the club he has jacked prices of tickets up and closed another home area down, and publicly admitted falling short of his sales target. I eagerly await news of next years season ticket information but the mere fact we're already playing catch up to many Championship clubs on the sales window is just further evidence of the dysfunctional nature of the operation here. Any club or CEO so concerned about income and crowds would be moving heaven and earth to get such an important element of income on sale asap, yet no doubt when we do get news in April or May and we've missed 3 months of potential sales that rivals have enjoyed it will be a question of commitment of the fans, rather than any acceptance that Rovers' own performance is well short of what is needed.

I've no problem with it, I think it could do the players some good. Of course I'd prefer it if Mowbray was taking them all away together on a warm weather training camp to work on our failings but it seems our budget doesn't stretch to those sort of things. If Mowbray has given them time off its entirely predictable that someone like Dack would take the opportunity to go off to Dubai with his bird.

But we don't need to get them on sale yet, nothing to worry about

They really just don't get it do they? Put prices up, put season tickets on sale late, shut home areas, move people around, move kick offs away from 3pm, surcharges, database only tickets, red button tv games, dreadful atmosphere at Ewood and mind-numbingly dull football. There you go - I've come up with just 10 reasons why crowds may be poor that could all quickly be reversed by Rovers if they were so bothered about it. Yet here we are, nothing happening, groundhog day stuff. It will be the same dull stuff against Stoke in a few weeks.

I worry that we're witnessing the signs of the manager 'losing the plot'. If we look back at Mowbray's career for whatever reason things have unravelled in spectacular fashion after positive starts at all his clubs in England - WBA, Boro, Coventry - all around about the point he's at here e.g. 2-3 years in. At all those clubs he was liked and respected by fans for being nice and honest but many reports read similar to what we're seeing here. I hope I'm wrong and I dearly hope he turns this around but our shocking form is now being picked up by the national broadcasters. When you're entering 1 win in 10 territory and 7 defeat in 9 which we are approaching it becomes a major concern and more than a blip. I wasn't fooled by an average performance against a dismal Wigan team which thankfully we got the win from. We're a mess in most aspects of football - selection, tactics, fitness, organisation and goalscoring. I'd suggest anyone who merely wants to ignore the next 8 games as being irrelevant and judge Mowbray purely from the summer onwards is barking up the wrong tree.

The only 3 that went to India and bowed down before Madame and then recieved funds. Which is why the worry if we do have to change manager because the next one will have to fly out and kneel at her feet for any sort of transfer kitty.

I don't like Mowbray's body language on the touchline. Quite often when the opposition score Mowbray goes and sits down in his seat for a few minutes. I want the manager to be shouting and screaming at players. Compare to Bruce/Agnew/Clemence who spend the entire game issuing instructions and making adjustments to their team. Their response to conceding against us was to go and get a 3rd to finish us off. Our response to conceding is for heads to drop and the manager to go and have a sulk.

Groundhog day stuff again. I was bored to tears watching that yesterday. So predictable in every aspect. I agree we played quite well, but once again it means absolutely nothing as time, after time, after time, we got into a decent position or were on top in the game but failed to seriously test the Wednesday GK. Not quick enough, decisive enough or ruthless enough when we get on top or into a good position. Its always the same - take another touch, find another pass, go backwards when on the edge of their area. A lack of decent balls into the danger area. There was an occasion in the second half when a Wednesday player tried his luck from the half way line seeing Raya off his line. He missed the target but it wasn't far off and was closer to a goal than we'd had all day until that point. Just by having someone in midfield with an eye on the opposition goal and with the balls to try something like that. Likewise when they brought on Nuhiu i said to my mate that he would immediately cause problems for our defence and lo and behold within a couple of minutes he's nodding in their 2nd goal. To be totally honest I find the performances and football to be extremely dull and predictable. People talk about a nice passing game but it is utterly pointless if there's no end product. Meanwhile Wednesday can turn up and score 4 without really doing very much due to our inability to defend properly. We have no identity. We aren't defensively strong, infact we're one of the worst in the league, we are wasteful in attack. I'm fed up with it. Another 8 games to go - if things don't pick up during those games then I'd personally be reviewing the operation and potentially making a change at the end of it. But we're a club that doesnt even have the foresight to get tickets on sale early so I doubt there's anyone with any interest in such important matters as that.

I often hear people bemoan our location in a 'small' town like Blackburn with its relatively low incomes and large ethnic minorities who traditionally haven't gone to football matches. But that neglects the 'greater' Blackburn area with the same population again - Chorley, Leyland, Bamber Bridge, Clitheroe, Whalley, Haslingden, Accy, Ossy, Rishton, Harwood, even Lancaster - all areas with traditionally large numbers of Rovers supporters living in them, all within 20-30 minutes drive of Ewood. People who have either never lived in Blackburn or haven't for many years and almost certainly wouldn't return given the way Blackburn has gone in recent years. Suicide to ignore these areas. As before it is either bone idleness or some strange 'agreement' they have with rival clubs to not encroach on 'their' territory. Mental.

Tonight's game has been moved from Leek to Stoke's training ground and kick off is at 6:30 not 7:00, I was looking forward to going down to Leek but sounds like the rain has put that in doubt.

The sensory room has been there for years. Not sure if it has recently been improved or not. The Fosters Fanzone was done during the Myers days. Contactless payment is something that has been in place at rival clubs for years, we're only just getting round to it. Fylde had it before us. As you say, relatively minor things. What we need to do is reach out over the long run to different groups in society. There's more to it than sending players into primary schools or running a few promotions on tickets. It's a multi-year gradual build where you have to engrain loyalty to the club and habits into the minds of people who either haven't done it before or haven't done it for a long time. Waggott's comments that the club 'had done all they could' were alarming, particularly given he has only been here for just over 12 months. If he genuinely feels he's done all he can and exhausted all possibilities in the space of 12 months then that is concerning. The fact that he's now re-opening the Blackburn Upper tier for free tickets suggests the opposite - that there are other options available in an attempt to boost crowds and grow a fanbase. I've done it to death before but I've seen no evidence whatsoever that the club has made any serious attempts to entice fans to the club from outside BWDBC boundaries. Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Rossendale, South Ribble - nothing. No promotions, no travel, no posters, no school visits. Very foolish in my opinion given the large and I expect increasing percentage of our fanbase that live in these areas and have moved out of Blackburn. PNE ran coaches to Ewood last week from Leyland. I'd love Waggott to tell me why Rovers don't operate coaches to Ewood from these areas which are every bit as much Blackburn as they are Preston.

He's been at Barrow since January, and has just had his loan extended. Barrow were talking about making it permanent but I don't think it has been yet. Tomlinson joined Mansfield in January. Made a handful of appearances since.

You would think that purely by law of averages sooner or later in a season people like Smallwood and Evans would grab a couple of goals. Even if it's off their backside from a corner or a ridiculous deflection. If you're one of XI on the pitch 46 games a season I would expect every player bar the GK to score at some stage or other, even if it is just once by fluke. That we've numerous midfielders, some who claim to be attack minded (Bennett, Rothwell) and yet all have a big 0 next to them in March suggests a big problem for me. As you say, it has been going on for a long time now. When we go back to the Lowe/Williamson Axis with about 3 goals between them in 5 years.

Still no season ticket news nor any suggestion there will be anytime soon. Meanwhile down at Forest folk are queuing outside their ticket office this morning to get their renewals in. Norwich have shifted more than 20,000. Numerous others have got them on sale, many 'without knowing what league they will be in'. Meanwhile nothing from Ewood and I'd be surprised if there was anything before May. Then Waggott and co. have the brass neck to complain about the number of people buying.