I'd get Mark Hughes back as manager if Mowbray bolloxes this up

Glenn Hoddle, Walter Smith,  Martin O'Neill, 

22 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Who would you have gone for out of interest? 

Just looking on Wiki and Ossie Ardiles was the only non-British/Irish manager in the Premier League that season....and he got sacked. None of the British ones stand out as someone that I'd have brought in - maybe Keegan? So you're probably looking at being one of the first clubs to 'risk' bringing a foreign manager in. Not sure who was available that we might have gone for at the time. I see Wenger was mentioned somewhere on here - but that's one that's easy with hindsight. I'd not have been happy with him at the time - unlike a lot of the players that have been mentioned on here.

True.  Can't think of too many names from the UK at that time.

Walter Smith, Ruud Gullit or Glenn Hoddle maybe.  Graeme Souness but his stock was rock bottom after Liverpool.

And the piece de resistance Big Ron. 

Another 0-0 I would say

1 hour ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

Yes that was the real kicker for me when he joined Newcastle so soon after. If he'd have just gone of and completely retired i could accept that, but no

 

I bet like most things in football it probably came down to money. Maybe he wanted to renegotiate his contract for a big pay raise after winning the league, but Walker well renowned for being stubborn when it came to salaries 🤷‍♂️ 

There's definitely more to it than he has ever said.  Apparently he said he decided to step down long before he did and felt no conflicting emotions.  To me it doesn;t add up.

I have a theory he fell out with Walker about the Geoff Thomas deal in 1992 and got the hump.

My other theory is Dalglish cant handle pressure and bails out when he feels it.  His sides were prone to choking.  The FA Cup Final 1988, the final day of the 1989 season, the 1990 FA Cup semi final against Palace.  With Blackburn he almost blew missing the playoffs in 1992, and then almost threw the league away in 1995 from a strong position.  Maybe he couldn't face humiliation in Europe or the pressure of trying to repeat the success.

He informed the club the Friday after the title win he was stepping down.  Jeez. At least enjoy it for a while.

1 hour ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

Absolutely! I Can't even think about what might have been if we'd have brought in a quality high profile manager to replace Dalglish!  Total fairyvtale thinking but what if we'd have nabbed Arsen Wenger at that stage before he went to Arsenal, how different would the prem be now if that had happened 🤯

Realistically I'm not sure who we could have hired though!!?? Jack Walker was making some odd/poor decisions around that time

There's a another question to ponder over! 

Personally I felt very let down by Dalglish for just suddenly quitting like he did

The premier league in general was going through such a big transition at that time with the influx of foreign players and managers having a big influence on our game

 

I read Dalglish's book (have yet to read My Liverpool Home), which is a poor book. Very little insight or behind the scenes stories in it, just a  quick gloss over summary of the title win.

His explanations to why he stood down make little sense to me.  He wanted no more day to day stuff he said yet took the Newcastle job.  Apparently later on he confessed he wanted to go back to Liverpool but that makes no sense either as Roy Evans was doing well at Liverpool and there was no vacancy or potential vacancy. 

It was a bizarre decision. 

What kind of funds are there for new players in the two scenarios?  Going up and staying in the graveyard?

29 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

Tony Mowbray will travel to India to meet owners Venky’s to discuss his long-term future in the summer as the manager today marks five years in the job.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/19941645.blackburn-rovers-tony-mowbray-set-venkys-contract-talks/

Couldn;t do it over Zoom no?  Gretta Thunberg will not be happy.

36 minutes ago, rog of the rovers said:

If you had a time machine, you'd not only strengthen with those names mentioned, but fly to Madeira and influence a young Cristiano Ronaldo, then hop a flight to Argentina and speak with Mr and Mrs Messi.

They'd both be about 8 at the time 😆

The Zidane talk is a great story, but I always feel that in 95/96 we'd have been not many places higher than we actually were, Zidane would have got a move to European giant within 12 months, especially post Euro 96.

Graeme Le Saux and Jason Wilcox injuries, Alan Shearer's influence and power in regards to the return of Mike Newell, David Batty's lack of trust in Ray Harford, squad depth stretched thin in a European campaign, numerous things went against us in 95/96.

Paul Gascoigne was available that summer and Ferdinand.  Both would have been attainable. Kanchelskis also.

Steve Bruce would have filled the Tony Gale role for a year.   Its an absolute head scratcher how nobody was brought in.

49 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Remember shearer being booed throughout when we played Newcastle in a 2-1 loss. He scores both goals and did a sign to the rovers fans I think it was an fa cup tie.  Shearer would be worth 150 million today

Don't get the booing.  Be like Man Utd fans booing Dennis Law or Celtic fans booing Henrik Larsson.

There should be a statue of Shearer outside the ground.

1 hour ago, K-Hod said:

I think he’s saying that because you call the club ‘Blackburn’ and not ‘us’ ‘we’ or ‘Rovers’ he’s not sure if you’re actually a fan….

Right.

Anyway...

14 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Disrespectful to say the championship winning team was a one man team. Flowers, Hendry, Le Saux, Sherwood and Sutton were all in PFA team of the year. Interestingly, Flowers made more appearances in the PFA team of the year than Schmeichel.

Also disrespectful to the club to say "Shearer made Blackburn". 

I didn't say they were.  I said they were labelled as a one man team.  But Shearer was by far the main driver for the success of the team since the  promotion in 1992.

Yes Walker's money was huge but Walker's money did little after Shearer and Kenny left. 

At the time Alan Shearer would have been the only member of the title winning team to get into the United team of that season.  I am not being disrespectful to the team but that is the truth. 

The rest of the team were good but Shearer was on another level that pushed them to success they would not have had had the strikers been Newell and Gallacher/Sutton.

So genuinely don;t get animosity towards Shearer.

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

I’ll let you work it out.

Genuinely no idea.  If its Shearer then why do you have him in your profile pic?

15 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

I’ve no idea if I agree or not, I stop reading due to the name said poster sprinkles through all his posts.

eh?

2 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I thought he shat on us.

Why?  To be fair to him the team was going nowhere under Harford and he was in his pomp.  He could see the sinking ship that was Blackburn.  The stupid thing is Rover sold Newell at the same time.

36 minutes ago, Darrenbot said:

Jack Walker made the recent Rovers,Shearer was just one of many that helped.

Well yes it was Walker's money but Dalglish and Shearer were the ones that drove the success.  Walkers money did little after they left.  To say Shearer was just one if many is way off.  Shearer was the main man and its no coincidence they were labelled a one man team. 

Without Shearer the team would have been nowhere near the title.

How did people feel when Shearer left?  At the time I didn't blame him.  Dalglish had gone and the club was in decline and he was the best striker around.  Was surprised so many Blackburn fans booed him and took a dislike to him.  I thought that was petty and ungrateful.

The guy made Blackburn.

51 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

The other time we should have definitely spent money was in 1996 when Shearer left. I think Oliver Bierhoff was the name we were being linked with at the time. I was hoping for a big statement like a Batistuta or a Weah.....and we signed no-one.

The alarm bells were ringing when we played PNE in a friendly just after Shearer had left and we started with Ian Pearce upfront.

Yes Harford played players out of position from the start and started playing Chris Sutton as a centre back

Are Brereton Diaz and Bradley Dack the same person?  Has anyone seen them in a room together?  They are identical twins.

We could confuse the opposition by switching up their jerseys.

When is this game rescheduled for?

2 hours ago, only2garners said:

Bournemouth game off - wind damage to the ground.

Ah shite.  Was looking forward to it

15 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Hodgson signed Filan and Henchoz who were good.

Kidd signed Jansen who was excellent. He also signed a couple that had reasonable spells - McAteer, Gillespie etc.

A lot of rubbish for a lot of money elsewhere though.

Henchoz was ok I suppose but I disagree on Jansen, McAteer and Gillespie.  they were nowhere near good enough or they were past it by then anyway to challenge the top of the division.

Jansen was a good championship player but not the standard of player the club needed.  I know the League Cup goal and all but he  wasnt a top striker.

Nathan Blake etc.. 

The list of bad players is as long as Oskar Schindlers

1 hour ago, speeeeeeedie said:

Looking at that squad Rovers should have signed a central defender and a midfielder.

What about Gary Speed and Craig Short? They both went to Everton that summer. Both would have been excellent. 

Batty was fit in 95/96. It's a shame that Warhurst didn't make it back to his level after his second leg break or he would have been another gilt edged player at Rovers disposal. 

He was sold to Newcastle around Christmas time.  Why I have no idea.  But never fear Gary Flitcroft is here.

When you read the list of players they bought from 1995-1999 its a facepalm moment.

Genuinely struggling to think of any good buys.  Dahlin and Donis were crap when they came also.

What became of Graham Fenton.  I had never really heard of him and then he appeared at the end of 95-96 and scored a few goals, notably against his boyhood team Newcastle.  I think he started the following season and then seemed to disappear.

EDIT:  I actually looked it up there.  IMO the club did not make one good buy since the summer of 1994 until they were relegated.  The recruitment was absolutely shocking.  Abysmal.  They sold all the good players and wasted money on absolute duds.

Callum Davidson 1.8 million!

Roy Hodgson bought the worst.  The crap he brought in was unreal.

I always remember the pitch in 1995 around February and March.   Was in some state.  A mud bath.  There was a stage where the groundsman had pole forked the whole pitch.  Holes everywhere in it!

Games where the pitch was a state that stick out in my mind, Leeds 1-1 in Feb,  Chelsea 2-0 or 2-1 in MArch and Man City loss 3-2

I can;t get my head around Dalglish.  In his autobiography he said he resigned 5 days after winning the league.  Said Europe held no lure for him.  Bizarre.  You would imagine he would have been licking his chops at taking on the likes of Barcelona et al and making big money signings wit Rovers top of the tree in 1995.

Fergie would have seen winning the championship as the start of an empire.  Dalglish saw it as the end of a journey. A sort of 'lets jump out of the drivers seat before this goes tits up'.

I find Dalglish's book full of oddities.  Claims he wanted out of management twice then within a few months had taken another job.

I remember after the league was won thinking Blackburn are going to go onto better things.  Dalglish will sign some top players now and will be challenging for the next few years.  The squad was good and just needed a few holes to be plugged.  A defender, a midfielder and either a striker or winger.

I remember being really underwhelmed when Holmes and the really small names came in that summer. I was thinking WTF!

Another turning point came 2 years earlier.  Imagine Blackburn had signed Roy Keane.  Shearer and Keane. That would have been an incredible duo to have together.

Gazza was available.  Lars Bohinen came in the autumn.  A decent player but not good enough for where the club needed to go.  Billy McKinlay! Another dud!

We were weak at the back that year.  Sol Campbell would have been a good buy or even Steve Bruce as a stop gap as he had been released from Utd.

Harford bought Chris Coleman and I thonk Nicky Marker played CB aswell in the Champions League!!

Seriously. Nicky Marker.