14 hours ago, matt83 said:

A legend?!?! Jesus wept. A relegation, a division 3 promotion and mid table championship finishes never cracking the top 10 while being allowed to run the club at a £20 million loss every season. Swipes at fans and inciting fan on fan altercations. That’s a very low bar for legend status. At best he’s the leader of some peculiar cult following.   

6 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

 

Jesus wept indeed. A quick google search shows me that city ran to a 130 million pound loss 19/20. Do the fans blame pep for that? Do they even care as the owners have to pick up the tab. 

I don't need to explain why we run to a loss im sure you know why yourself. But how the heck can you blame Mowbray for that. Insane 🤣🤣🤣

14 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

"Previous work?"

2 pretty poor and one very poor finish in my book.

Delighted with this season however. Completely the opposite of what I expected and I've always said if we go up I don't mind who's in charge, be it Kean, Coyle or now Mowbray.

No matter what happens on the pitch I'll never forgive him and Waggott for attempting to flog off part of Brockhall though.

 

Agree with selling Brockhall. But does the manager of the football team on the pitch. Really have the authority and the remit to try and sell the training ground. That lies solely with the owners and maybe they tasked waggot for doing it. 

Listen I don't have the answers and I think the truth is none of us know goes on behind closed doors at Ewood. 

I'm also not piping up now on the back of a few good results. I just feel like all in all he's done a good enough job(last season excluded). 

3 hours ago, Wheelton Blue said:

It's not a myth, it's fact.

15th, 10th, 15th finishes shows no progression. Therefore, a waste.

Everything else - FFP and Covid for example - is just excuses.

As I've said elsewhere, however, it would be churlish not to praise him for this season thus far. He's far surpassed my expectations.

 

15 to 10 is progress. If we had of continued in that fashion we would have finished 5th the following season. 

We didn't and I have freely admitted he should have gone after last season. But he didn't, as said maybe his previous work gave him enough credit in the bank to have one last shot this season 

8 hours ago, Wheelton Blue said:

Absolutely, long may it continue,

Let's be honest though, Mowbray is lucky to still be employed after wasting at least 2 seasons, and there's always the likelihood that he'll revert to type at some point.

However, it would be churlish not to praise him at the current time. 4th place is way beyond what most of us thought he was capable of.

The best thing to do is enjoy the ride while it lasts.

Wasting 2 seasons is a myth that some churn out. Normally the very people who have backed themselves into such an anti Mowbray corner they can no longer give him credit for anything, be it good transfer business or and excellent start to this season. This is how I see it and I know and have spoke to many others who agree. (not on this board) 

Season 1 (half season). A team that coyle had all but relegated. Chalked up points with an awful squad and took it to the last day only to go down on GD. Gallant effort but not his fault. 

Season 2 - automatic promotion. Job done. 

Season 3 - very good first season back. Never in danger of going down or not good enough to challenge to go up. Mid table. Happy enough 

Season 4. Overhaul of the squad begins, mulgrew etc out, again. Mid table but slightly better points total (progress none the less) 

Season 5. Big squad assembled. Expectations rose to play offs bare minimum. Decent start but hit a horrific death spiral. The infamous 2 in 17 was simply not good enough and he should have walked / left at the end of the season. 

Season 6. Major cuts to the playing squad due to ffp and the covid pandemic hitting income. All fans still pee'd off his still here. Maybe he had enough credit in the bank with the owners to give it one last go. 

Great start to the season. Flirting with the playoffs and looking stronger game by game (TBC) 

6 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Maybe take Ben off to save a red and his legs for Saturday. Do we have a sticker on the bench or is it Dolan up top with khadera on

Butterworth the only other option 

36 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

of the three contract rebels,lenihan is the easiest replaceable,i don`t think we`de miss him that much,tbh he`s a bit of a bombscare,i.e there is always a mistake in him somewhere along the line

Have you seen our record without him

1 hour ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

I think we have to take things like size of fee/importance of player into account when judging his transfer record. Nobody was bothered with Sparky signing the Berners, Vogels and Rigters of this world because because when we needed to spend the budget on a new striker, he always delivered in spades.

 

This actually makes it a tricky task to judge Mowbray's record. There are some players who were brought as (relatively) low cost loans, but need to be judged as pretty important failures because they filled important roles and didn't cut the mustard (e.g. Walton, Douglas). Others have eventually paid dividends, but only in time and there's an argument that the eventual Brilliant success of Ayala and Brereton has come 12 months too late for a promotion push. So even looking at Brereton as an investment which has paid off, it's not as simple as just saying that he's been a great signing because of the time that we've needed to wait for him to get to that level.

 

At the same time, trying to take everything together, I really don't think that Mowbray's transfer record is something to hold against him. Quite the opposite actually. There are the obvious examples of Dack, Armstrong, Kaminski et al, but there are plenty of others that you'd have as successes given either how much we paid, or what we needed at a certain point in time. Whilst we wouldn't take any of them now, the likes of Smallwood, P. Downing, Samuel, Nuttall, Payne & Antonsson all played significant roles in getting us up first time and were signed for buttons. More recently, there have been others who were low-risk signings who improved us whilst admittedly not doing it consistently enough to be classed as a Dack/Armstrong level success (e.g. Holtby, Rothwell, 1st. season S. Downing). A handful of these low-risk signings haven't worked out, for whatever reason, but the success of Dolan should eventually make up for a dozen Sam Harts. 

 

Ultimately, I think the case against Mowbray as manager begins and ends with his ability to get the most out of the players available to him. The squad we had last year was, according to plenty on here (myself included) was good enough to finish in the top 6 - so the issue for me isn't really recruitment, even if it's that is bit of a complex picture. The squad was also made up of plenty of young players & academy graduates, so neither is the issue that Mowbray doesn't trust youth as others have suggested elsewhere. For me it just boils down to not getting the results that we should get consistently enough, most else is just noise. 

Absolutely superb post. I agree with every single word. Articulated with your brain and not a blind hatred of Mowbray like most others:

17 minutes ago, booth said:

I watched it and we were better in the second half but that's not saying much considering how abysmal the first half performance was.

Are you happy with the point. Would you have took it before ko

7 minutes ago, booth said:

But we didn't dominate any part of the game, they did.

After 45 minutes 0 shots on goal or otherwise, 0 corners and 1-0 down says everything. An improvement in the second half isn't saying much. Better team? Not sure about that from what I saw.

I was at the game (not sure if you were or not). But I definitely think that we were the better team in the second half. Happy to be corrected when I see highlights. 

My point still stands though, it's a competitive league and we are in a bunch of about 10-12 teams who are pretty similar in quality terms. 

A point today is a good point 

2 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

It’s a Mowbray trait. You could count on the fingers of a Dingles hand the number of games we’ve played a full game.

Come on. In a competitive league like this both teams will have spells. We started the better, then they dominated for the rest of the half. 

Second half we were the better team, but they still created chances. You can't honestly expect an average team like us to dominate a game from start to finish. Thats a good point today. Enjoy it 

9 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Yeah he said Clarkson was good too...I'll stick with mine

Again thanks for the input. You’ve changed my mind. Bradley is “shyte”. 

16 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

No ta. Shyte

I’ll take klopps opinion over yours, but thanks for your input 

9 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Would you look at any of the Irish players?

Bazuno has looked great in qualifying. Pretty poor overall though imo 

Yeah Shane lavery in a heartbeat and hopefully Connor Bradley on loan when Nyambe goes lol

Thanks very much for this tonyoz. I really enjoyed going over it and by and large I think it is a very accurate reflection of our season so far. But (there's always a but lol) I was shocked to see Buckley so low in the scores. I personally think he's been a revelation this season. (when not playing as a false 9)

7 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Where to start with that..... can't even remember a 5 goal defeat at home in 51 years of watching us let alone 6 or 7.

Mowbray should have been sacked early 2019 we've been going backwards ever since, this is what you get when you leave a lame duck manager in situ and with the better players set to walk out for nothing soon  to boot.

This result might be a blessing in disguise.....it will look extremely odd if Venky's don't act now.

In my time supporting rovers (1989) I can't ever remember a hammering like that before. Did arsenal beat us 5-2 in the early 90s when we had 10 men. 

Absolutely disgusting performance tonight. No further comment 

7 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

The telling part will be Saturday against Sheffield United

Might be able to mask it behind a bumper away crowd. 

Looks like the cat c pricing for tonight has had zero impact. 

7 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

What's the tactic here? 

Why is Buckley upfront? Where is Dolan playing, what's going on? 

First time I've ever used this saying..... But the Tony's tumbola has really fucked up tonight 

We are actually currently over achieving this season in my opinion. I thought we were really going to struggle this year. 

Mowbray could have walked away in the summer with his head held with the job he done for us. 

But no... He's stayed in charge and its clear to see that we are going absolutely nowhere. 

The crux of the problem is the owners, we all know that. By the looks of it we are going to loose 3 of our best players for nothing and will probably sell brereton as well. 

The worst is yet to come 

When he first signed he looked really raw, very lightweight and to be honest on what I was seeing when he got on the pitch he certainly didn't deserve to be starting. 

Behind the scenes, he has clearly been working in his physique as he looks like he has massively bulked up. That along with the Chile factor has no doubt helped in his Improvement on the pitch. 

I don't think TM ever hid the fact the brereton was a 'project' signing and the owners don't seem to mind spending money on forward players. 

Some people have invested far to much time in hating TM that they can't even admit when he has got something right. Now it's cries of  mismanaged, not played enough etc etc. 

With the lack of another RB in the squad & assuming that DL, RN & JR are all missing of like to see this line up on Saturday. 

TK

Travis 

Pickering 

Ayala 

Carter 

Davenport 

Bucko

Butterworth 

Dolan

Gally

Diaz 

Massive ask for Butterworth to start considering his lack of game time, but he's gonna have to take that risk at some stage so why not Saturday when we are so low on numbers. The thought of Johnson being rushed back just donst sit well at all with me

42 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

i keep telling y`all ,is doing the team shape and tactics,tony is just the figurehead,how else can you explain this sudden change in approach,venus will be taking over the managers seat next season,tony will be off,retired or whatever

Sorry but I don't buy this at all. 

A more back to basics approach and a group of players who have started this season sweating blood for each other is all down to the TM. Let's give him credit when it's due as he has been slated for 2 years largely on this forum. 

Like everyone else, the much publicised 2 wins in 17 saw me loose my support for TM last season , I wanted him out and was miffed why it didn't happen. 

So on to a new season and SO FAR, things have definitely improved. And as long as it continues I'm more than happy to have my opinion changed. I feel that he is still lucky to be in a job, but he has also almost flipped that 2 wins in 17, as we currently stand at 2 defeats in our last 15 league games. 

19 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Credit where it's due, getting Ayala fit and limited numbers mean he has found a system that is working for us. I just hope he continues to keep it simple. 

Dare we dream?

Yep, I will regret it. But I am dreaming lol. I see so much potential in this small group of players. 

Where my thinking is now compared to the start of the season is like night and day. 

Bring Dack back into the mix and we could be on for a very good season. 

Keeping ayala fit somehow is absolutely key. Didn't Paul mcgrath play for years without training.? Let ayala do the same 

Ayala is absolutely key to us. If Buckley can add consistency to his game we have one hell of a player on our hands. He has been superb today