As there is at every single club in the country. It's not exclusive to Rovers.

To be honest the bloke to me comes across as very insecure and a bit of narcissist. I've never known a football manager to so often bring up what a great honourable guy he is, what an honest guy he is, what great values he has and what great way he lives his life. Whose he trying to convince?

We have played 4-3-3 more or less ever since the return from lockdown. That is 33 games of football and in those 33 games we have just 43 points. The 4-3-3 has brought little to no improvement as it does not suit the group of players that we have.

The difference with them though is that they were that they were managing a club on the brink of bankruptcy before Fergus McCann saved them. Mowbray inherited a good side from Strachan and was very well backed financially. To this day there can't have been many if indeed any in Scottish football who have earnt the wages that Celtic were paying for Robbie Keane.

They wouldn't, the bloke is one of the worst if not the worst manager in their entire history.

You were very confident though that Warnock would take Middlesbrough down, yet he managed to guide them to 17th in the end. Also that 'old man' has taken his side from heading for relegation to above the Teeside Messiah in the space of 6 months. If he's a 'has been' what does that make the Teeside Messiah?

Tony is that you? Only it's a list of his favourite excuses and not one criticism of him. The only thing you forgot to add is that we are on a journey. Your right he is thinking long term but it's not the long term future of the club he is thinking of but his own long term future and he knows he is on a cushy well paid number here that is adding very nicely to his retirement fund.

Nyambe, Elliott and Armstrong have been our three stand our players this season, the rest have been average at best. Brereton has improved on previous years but is still well short of being a £7 Million player.

It's my opinion, that is sort of the idea of a message board. Derby had some excellent teams going back a few years but you could always get at them at the back, if they'd had a quality centre back they would have give up. Keogh even when he's playing decently always has a massive error in him.

Never rated him always the weak link and if they had signed a better centre half then they would have got promoted. Then of course against 10 man QPR he singlehandedly did cost them promotion.

This is their final season of parachute payments.

I hope not always been a poor defender. When Derby had some good sides a few years back he was always the weak link.

I said Allan probably will be but I'm not so sure that Mikel would be. Given that he was a free agent in the middle of a pandemic who had cancelled his contract in Turkey due to Covid concerns and also given how Stoke have been trying to trim their wage bill the last couple of years.

Dear god what utter nonsense. Get a competent manager in and with the squad we have we could compete with most teams in this division.

Brentford never spend all of what they bring in they usually end the window with a healthy profit. The thing for Brentford is that every year they have to replace their best players before they even get on to improving on what they already have. Mowbray never has to do that because he is never forced to sell his best players and he's always given money to improve on what he already has. Also had Brentford had the £7 Million that was spent on Brereton and £5 Million on Gallagher they would have spent that on players who by now would be worth more than what they paid unlike Mowbray who spent it on two players who weren't worth it and are now worth significantly less than what we paid. And that is because Brentford have a plan to their recruitment rather than the scattergun approach that Mowbray has. Also Brentford have just spent £71 Million on a new stadium.

Of course Norwich, Bournemouth and Watford do I never said they don't so I don't know why you said I don't accept that they do. But it is always the case that the 3 relegated clubs have the biggest budgets, once upon a time that was us and as we know only to well that does not automatically mean success. Stoke do probably have a wage bill slightly bigger than us but they have trimmed it down a lot over the last few years after doing the same as us and misusing their parachute payments. Swansea have hugely trimmed their wage bill since relegations. The only big wage they have is Ayew who they have been unable to shift of the wage bill. They have a very small squad made up mainly of cheap signings, freebies and loans. Since they were relegated the most they have spent on a player is £3 Million and in the last 3 seasons they have spent just £8 Million on players, with the current manager spending about £2.5 Million in his two years in charge. Brentford do not have massive budgets, what they spend they make through sells, what Mowbray get's to spend is given to him by the owners.

As we know only to well.

I've no idea what they are on, it is pure speculation but if you want to speculate let's do so. Given that Fletcher and Obi Mikel were free agents in the middle of a pandemic it is entirely possible that they may have lowered their demands especially when you look at Stoke's more modest spending over the last couple of seasons. Allen signed a new contract when they were in the Championship, so whilst he is probably one of their higher paid players he probably won't be on crazy Premiership wages. As for Vokes and Ince they are probably well paid which is why Stoke are struggling to move them on, both have been fringe players for them under O'Neill. What a sad comment that epitomises how Mowbray has lowered fans into believing his guff and excepting mid table mediocrity.

Speculation we have no idea what their wages are.

And yet when O'Neill came in they were bottom of the league. The likes of Ince, Vokes, Afobe, Woods, Etebo, Lindsay who that money was spent have either been moved on rarely used as they weren't what O'Neill wanted. Yet by spending just £2 Million O'Neill has taken Stoke from bottom of the league to top 6 contenders. Close but it was £13 Million. Joe Allen: Stoke City sign Liverpool midfielder in £13m transfer - BBC Sport

But none of those were signed by Hughes.

That wasn't the question I asked and your wager would be spectacularly wrong.

And how many of those players that £90 Million was spent on are still at Stoke? Not many I would wager.

He really is unbelievable. He appears to have forgotten the £7 Million he spent on Brereton, the £5 Million on Gallagher, the wonderkid on loan from Liverpool, the Germany international central midfielder and the England international who played for Liverpool that he spent the last of his budget on. He also seems to have forgotten that when Stoke brought O'Neill in they were bottom of the league. The thing is despite O'Neill spending just £2 Million in his time at Stoke he hasn't targeted any slow build and in 12 months he has taken them from bottom of the league to top 6 contenders. ‘Credit’ – Tony Mowbray looks enviously at Stoke City transfers and backing - Stoke-on-Trent Live (stokesentinel.co.uk)

On the plus side the pitch should hopefully prove to be a bit of a leveller on Tuesday night as on a good pitch Swansea would play us off the park.