If there is one positive in all this it is the uniting of the fan base or certainly on here. Seemed pretty toxic when I joined 6 weeks or so ago but don't think I've seen anything like it for a few weeks as just about everyone on here is in agreement.

Makes no difference to the situation unfortunately and I think like others have suggested, money talks and the drying up of season ticket funds might be enough in the Summer to wake the owners up. Maybe TM talking about loans and frees is a sign he doesn't expect any funds because ticket sales will be low whilst he remains in place.

In everyday business when things run poorly a 3rd party expert comes in to run the rule over what's been going on and advises of changes and where its gone wrong. How I'd love for that right now. Someone brutal and honest like Roy Keane giving an opinion on what has developed, so long as the owners would actually take notice and do something with it.

Tugay no brainer, class act throughout.

Samba, Pederson,  Duff and Freidel.

Then Santa Cruz, Henchoz and Nelson.

I think Berg deserves a place but perhaps his short stint as manager tarnished his legacy.

I did also rate Givet for his bravery no nonsense style and the Yak although maybe not his best days with us but was a beast of a forward.

If non England and we consider UK Robbie Savage was an entertainer. Horrible to play against but great to have in your team.

Our only hope is the players frankly turn around and say fuck off Tony to which a hurting father feels he cannot go on and finally does what's right for all involved.

The next chapter will be who is next but I'm prepared to live that trauma just to see this chapter end.

It's like a bad novel you have to read to pass your exams. You can't bear to read or hear another word but not seeing it through is not an option to get the answers you need at the exam. 

I've never experienced Japanese water torture but could there be a modern day alternative not yet realised? TM press conferences....

I can only imagine what the owners must think after a few days of him in India each summer. No wonder they don't come over and I imagine there chickens make more sense!

I don't even get the high intensity argument. Does it really take a professional till April playing a condensed season with 2 to 3 games a week before they realise high intensity would tail off without the luxury of a second string team as good as the first team?

Then I have to agree with the comments that we've just had an international break where even those called up didn't play a lot of football if at all.

To top it off, I'm not sure I would compare our game to high intensity. Is passing back and sideways with no penetration just to keep possession regarded high intensity? 

I like many call it dross. Call me nostalgic but given what we've done this year I'd rather get Graham out of retirement for the last few games and see if Tyrhys could get on his knockdowns, recall Charlie from his old firm party and see if he can chip in with some much needed goals from set pieces.

A long shot but hopefully Mr Harvey will put in a good word at Sunderland and Croney Mowbray will fancy a shorter commute. After all, he has league 1 promotion on his CV!

Id literally take anything just to hear something different and a chance of seeing something different. You cant even make out Tony's face on my dartboard anymore.....

This man is ruining my life. might sound extreme but literally every word just itches my shit. 

I can't put into words how angry I am with how this croney has been allowed to get away with this for so long. Friends in high places I get but this has gone on for far too long, there are no shoots of recovery, it's a new excuse every week and yet nothing is done about it.

I want to hear the squad is in on their day off to go back over what they worked on all week in the build up to this game. The fact its this usual run of excuses just tells me we head in blind and hence we come out the way we do. I read before he doesn't work on set pieces and yet again it's the difference. We create nothing from ours and concede the match winner from one.

Calling for the honourable man to do his thing is wasted, calling for the club to do it seems wasted, it really is as depressing as it gets being passionate about something you cannot control or effect. Sounds crazy but I genuinely believe the right Manager would get a tune out of this group and yet at this rate we will never know as it will be broken and disbanded maybe even a division lower by time we ever get the change that is so clear to everyone.

Nicky Butt left United today. Always had a solid reputation with developing younger players, a winner as a player, local to the area albeit lacking experience. 

Certainly the statement reads like there is something lined up on the horizon...

3 hours ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Did you endorse him for any of the listed skills 🤣

I don't know the stats but over the last 12 months or so I think we often win or draw with JRC in the team. It's not something I particularly look for but just something I've noticed.

I'm not against Nyambe, I like him as a player too but just seeing some of the comments about JRC I thought I'd mention.  Not disagreeing about the injuries but there's not many of the squad you wouldn't say have missed a chunk of game time would you? With the exception of Kaminski, Lenihan, Dolan, Rothwell and Armstrong I think most have had decent stints out at least one, most more.  I've left off Bell as he's the one player I think is completely out of place in the league we are in

7 hours ago, Ulrich said:

Travel to the UK from India, is actually possible at present, according to the government website. 14 days quarantine is required, so he could actually be here. Please Pasha sack them all ASAP 👍

Even if he couldn't enter the UK, so long as the phones are working that's all we need. Sack him by carrier pigeon for all I care, just get the goon out before he does any more damage e.g leaving the rest of the squad sidelined for next season

Brereton has ability, he shows it in glimpses and was a really good player for England at youth level before we signed him. Some time has passed and we've not seen it consistently but in the same way we talk about Nyambe and Travis there is a common denominator in all of this hence the title of the thread.

As mentioned a few posts above, Coyle got a tune from Gallagher, through the middle. Everyone knows strikers live off confidence, how as a striker do you feel when the Manager picks you to play on the wing. Gallagher is not a winger and never will be and his confidence as a striker must be shot. He proved he can score goals during the loan season and he was younger and less experienced. 

Both have a long way to go to be top championship players but with time and the right approach...

In my opinion both can do a job if given a consistent run in the right position and the right system but to get that confidence they need a fresh face at the top that gives that clean slate.

Of course we will never know unless something changes at the top.

6 hours ago, LeftWinger said:

These figures are slightly skewed due to Mowbray getting a season in League One, but these are the win percentages of all Venky's permanent appointments:

Mowbray - 41.3%

Lambert - 36.4%

Bowyer - 35.9%

Coyle - 29.7%

Kean - 28.4%

Appleton - 26.7%

Berg - 10%

Some absolute shockers there. Mowbray's win percentage actually drops to 36% when you take out the League One campaign, so he's in the Lambert/Bowyer territory.

Not backing TM in any way but worth noting he's got a squad that's come back up, the others were in the opposite direction. You could argue better quality coming from Prem compared to League 1 but you could also argue momentum was with the team after promotion when the others were dealing with a slide.

Either way another poor start although Brentford were very well organised and getting back in numbers, credit for the subs at half time but its too late.

I saw someone saying they were a curse that whenever they watch Rovers on tele they lose, truth is its just that we regularly do lose and on Sky its almost guaranteed 

Another attempt to find his best eleven.....

To me it sounds like the end, that was a defeated man giving that interview and he made the comment that he's made aware of the content on social media.

Even if Mowbray was capable, this team just isn't playing anymore. Possession yes and I understand the point he makes but sideways and backwards passes will win nothing, eventually playing back to Kaminski to hoof back to the opposition or more likely out for a throw.

I still think Bernd Storck would be my shout as an outsider. Realistic as in not a mega money coup but unrealistic that we are likely to uncover a German managing in the far reaches of Eastern Europe even if he has managed national teams in the past.

I don't like the idea of Pulis, I think Strachan and Hughes are just to long out of the mix and at this point in the season I think it might be a short term appointment to just stop the rot and inject some positivity with a view to extending at the end of the season if it went well. At the end of the season its more likely there will be a bigger pool of candidates to explore although obviously it would be better to start now to hit the ground running from the off next season.

My other thought is a bit out there but Keane as Manager with Duff as Assistant? Duff knows the club, could play good cop, Keane with his demanding nature playing bad cop and giving this whole squad a bit of a shake up.

My worry would be it lacks Managerial experience and I'm not sure a young squad needs a Keane rollicking unless as youngsters they looked up to him based on what he achieved as a player. Its a shame we've drifted as we have else it might have been a bit safer to try...

Cowley brothers would be my 3rd choice if the above was a non starter and probably most likeliest of the 3.

Although what's Ronaldinho doing these days lol 😆

Either way, the blue and white bunting is out and I'm sure when morning time breaks in India and the Rovers bus pulls up at Ewood, a bright sun will rise and the grey clouds will part

32 minutes ago, Tom said:

Is it legal to be working in excess of 70 hours a week? Has the EWTD gone out of the window now we’ve left?

Arrest me. If Mowbray does 12hrs a day and then there on a Saturday he's probably about the same so if it's illegal you may have stumbled across a way of finally getting him out

2 minutes ago, Southside Rover said:

Just needed a break from the negativity 😴

And I said I work 17hrs not sit on a forum for 17hrs

3 hours ago, yoda's brother said:

have you noticed somebody missing over the last few pages ? he must be on his 7 hour rest or has found the faceache group were he can mingle with likeminded people.

 

mowbray out ffs

Just needed a break from the negativity 😴

3 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

My advice would be work a bit less in that case. I used to work daft hours until I realised it wasn't doing me any good mentally.

Experience is experience bit no 2 people are the same

4 hours ago, Herbie6590 said:

They might choose to walk away with a £200m loss; simply because this is as good as it is likely to get. Pumping in c.£17m p.a. to keep the business ticking over is throwing even more money into a black hole.

The only positive way out for them is promotion & a sustained spell in the PL. No other scenario gives them their money back.

 

 

Completely agree on that being the only realistic way back financially which I personally think the support financially in the transfer windows has been to build towards that whilst having one eye on investing in young players who could be sold on if we don't get there. I think for as long as they see that as feasible, they won't simply walk away 200 million short

6 hours ago, RoverInverness said:

Hi Southside, 

I generally appreciate people having different opinions. It is one of the things makes the message board a good read. I come on here most days - and have done for years - to get my fix of Rovers news. I accept you’re not a WUM for having opinions that stray quite some distance from the board consensus.

However, you have wound me up. You don’t work 17 hours a day. Don’t be silly, it makes everything else you say lack credibility. Unless you’re stitching trainers in an Indonesian sweat shop or have been illegally trafficked down to the south of England to work in a cannabis farm you ain’t usually working 17 hours a day. If you were you certainly wouldn’t have time to come on here and debate.

I don’t work 17 hours a day, but I am busy and I won’t have time to respond.

 

Who are you to tell me how many hours I work a day? Problem with forums they turn people into God's who know it all. In the week I work 17hrs a day Monday to Thursday, a shorter day Friday and then I rest at the weekend other than doing stuff around the house, being with the family etc. 

8 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Talking to southside 

 

 

What because I don't have the same opinion? Poor you, I'm so sorry I'm not a lamb to you. If it all works out for the better I'm sure you'll retrieve this post. Go with the majority it's safer and makes us feel secure baaaaaa

7 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

I'll have a look again.

Nothing wrong with (3) in principle but it's totally unrelated to (1) and (2).

We only get the sale price of the land to the developers, you do understand that dont you.

I haven't seen anything to suggest that we'll end up with anything other than a similar standard of facility than we have now only much less of them.

And Waggott even seems to suggest the project will run at a loss.

That's why you're getting stick, for defending a seemingly indefensible position.

Nothing to do with being a new poster.

Well I don't think it's unrelated as it's talked about in the same interview. Yes it's not next door and yes it doesn't create instant funds to pay for it, I get that.

Yes I understand the sale price I wouldn't expect anything else, that's generally what happens when developers by land. Not often they give a share of the profits from each roof so to speak but it's a proposal to see if there is permission, to consider the objections and with a proposed end goal in sight. I get the reaction and don't expect everyone to agree, but until any proposal is shared and assuming it is in all its detail I think its hard to say we will have a like for like but smaller facility. Didnt even seem sure how many floors it would be so it sounds very early on. 

As for indefensible, my argument is in defence of some of the accusations and comments made as in some cases I think some of it is harsh. I don't think we can call it indefensible until that detail about the whole proposal is on the table.

If people see it as indefensible then it's their opinion but that shouldn't mean anyone with a different view gets stick. Challenge my opinion fine, it's a forum but questioning if I'm Waggott in disguise, a true Rovers fan, hard of understanding etc. goes beyond that 

Just now, Butty said:

I was only pulling your leg, all I’ll say is you’ve chose the wrong time to make an account here 😂 Let’s hope Tony and Waggott are both gone soon and supporters can get back singing on the same hymn sheet before we are all back in the ground. 

Well I needed a place to vent after the last month hence I signed up. The wife is tired of hearing it but I will always give an opinion especially if its different to the general consensus as that's what forums are about. Sometimes you read things and it changes your mind as you appreciate a different view point. Sometimes it just helps see it from a different angle but it's clear this situation is too far down the road and only time and action will will change perception

3 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

If you're going to be a WUM you might as well remember what you've posted.

"I see a proposal that intends on retaining that status (Cat 1) whilst generating funds"

Your words not mine. Nothing whatsoever to do with Ewood Park.

Yeah a proposal. There were several aspects of the proposal discussed which part 1 is to change Brockhall to a smaller condensed space with a pitch that matches the Ewood pitch, part 2 to sell the land left behind for houses and part 3 was about how to get Ewood generating funds.

That was the gist 

3 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

You must be hard of understanding.

Top class indoor pitches that Mowbray CHOSE not to use during a brief spell of bad weather.

The indoor pitches that play differently to outdoor pitches? 

Again was covered in the session today to replicate the Ewood pitch but perhaps we couldn't find a negative to that.