So this summer we signed: Edun, already injured Van Hecke, already injured Khadra, already injured Poveda, wasn't injured but is now Clarkson, fit. Good stuff. That's how you replace 12 players. And 4 of this lot are loans so will definitely need replacing again next year even if they get over their injuries.

You may have a point there. Ah well, Ayala to start and probably get injured it is.

Hmm should be back roughly in time to get in Wharton's way then. Cool.

I don't think it's ever even his fault in his own head. Therein lies the problem, he doesn't see what he's fucking up, so he keeps repeating the same mistakes. A shame. If he had the capacity to learn from them he might be a good manager.

It was a dive, cheating, yes, agree. And I've always hated it, it's a scourge on the game. But... I've, only in the last couple of years or so I think, become one of those fans who has come to accept it as part of the game. Not because I want to, but it's been around so long now and the authorities have done next to nothing about it. At this point, if other sides are going to do it - and they are - I'd hate for us to lose out to their cheating...so, with gritted teeth, I don't exactly want us to do it but I'm willing to take what comes our way. Especially with how many legit penalties we don't get. But again, I really don't like it being part of the game. I've said this for years, but all games should be watched back after, and ALL dives that weren't caught during the game be mandatorily punished with a yellow card. Any resulting in a penalty, punished with a red. The amount of diving would drastically reduce, quickly, as the suspensions totted up.

Gallagher was absolutely wet in the air on Saturday. You could have swapped him with Tom Thumb and the number of headers won wouldn't have changed.

Balaji has his own money, but I'd be beyond amazed if he has 'spunk 20 million up the wall every year and it not be an issue' kind of money. It's clear that the additional financing for the club comes from the ultimate parent company, Venkys, as well as the other companies they own and their land deals. Balaji isn't getting his hands on that money without the agreement of the others, in particular Mrs Desai. I can fully believe that Balaji has been tasked with the majority of the 'management' (for want of a better word) of the project. He will be the one most expected to put in time and keep an eye on things (again, only insomuch as any of them bother to do that), feed back to the others when relevant, and will get the most blame from the others when things go wrong, or credit when it goes well (hah). It's always been his pet project. But I'm in no doubt that major decisions and in particular, large funding decisions, will have to be approved by all of them as we have always heard before. Even if they give what he says extra weight. They're not going to let him siphon this 200 million they've put in, from a major company, without weighing in on those decisions.

Aye, if they knew what a gem they'd bought, they'd have polished it and paid for its proper maintenance, seeing its value soar as the market inflated. Instead, they've cut parts off it to sell, tacking bits of plastic on in place, and given it to the care of shysters and clowns, costing a fortune every year.

Has a bit of cheek claiming referees need to be accountable. Considering he seems to be unaccountable himself, never offers to take responsibility for shocking runs of form or admits any errors in decision making, and as you say, suggested in the very same interview that it doesn't matter what people who don't do his job think. In that case why does it matter what anyone else thinks about referees?

It's exempt from FFP calculations.

True, we play with three forwards though who could all be liabilities, and you could add Rothwell to that at times, we can't stick them all up top on set pieces, and people do need to cover others so attackers can end up in our box in open play. But definitely Dolan, of all of them due to his height and inexperience, should be the last man we see in our own box

Wow, yeh. This one actually caught me out in the moment, I thought it was probably a penalty. The speed of it and the picture quality I had may have been contributors, but now I can see the booking was fully deserved.

I expect it was very much 'used in anger' after that game...

Decent chance he will always be plagued with ankle niggles now, that's certainly how it's gone for me since a much more minor ankle injury when I was 20. But he has top professionals to help him recover, and I foolishly didn't even go to physio. I've never played for more than about 3 months straight ever since, but I wouldn't say it robbed me of any ability. My first touch etc is far better than it was then. I'm sure he will get back to at least where he was, the issue will be whether he can stay fit and improve.

Anyone else that would have brought Butterworth on for Gallagher? His pace on the break instead of Gally lumbering around in his worst performance in the shirt would have seen us through IMO.

Possible explanations for why we have underperformed, thrown away points etc for a few years now, and rational conclusions as to what we should do about it. 1. Mowbray has misspent the budget. Ok, fire him. 2. Mowbray does most things fine but doesn't make good tactical choices, substitutions, and/or he over-rotates the squad. Ok, fire him. 3. The owners didn't trust him to spend money on a striker again this summer. Ahhh. Then fire him. 4. The squad doesn't have enough quality/depth. He signed most of them and has had years to assemble the team he wants, with at least a moderate Championship budget and minimal pressure to sell players. Fire him. 5. It's the players on the pitch who actually put the ball in the net or stop it going on. He can't be held responsible for them failing and conceding late goals on the day. He signed most of them, trains them, motivates them, picks the team. This has been happening for ages, it's not just a blip on the day. FIRE HIM. 6. The referees are against us. I hear this a lot, like after the Luton game where the ref should have sent our captain off after about 10 minutes, and incorrectly disallowed a Luton goal. The refs are terrible at this level, but it often cuts both ways. I do feel we get the worst of it more often, but I'm biased, and I've felt that way through my entire time as a Rovers supporter. Now is no different. Fire him. 7. He's just unlucky. We have 'dominated' so many games and not come away with points when we should have. Wow, that's really unlucky, because this has been happening for ages. Napoleon said something like I'd rather have lucky generals than skilled ones. I don't want such an 'unlucky' manager either. FIRE HIM!! 8. It's the fans' fault with their negativity. Loads of the fans are still happy clapping. The fans that are negative are negative because they've had to watch us miss opportunities to progress time after time. They've had enough of this manager, and even if it's the fans' fault (it isn't) then it's not changing any time soon without major improvements on the pitch and in club strategy. Mowbray's defenders sometimes say he doesn't kick the ball on the pitch. Well neither do we. It's easier to replace one man than thousands of fans. Fire. Him. Now.

Just look at that goals for column. 18 goals in 4 games, averaging 4.5 goals a game! Anyone know how old Harry Leonard and Harrison Wood are? I see they've scored the lion's share of the goals so far.

Time can continue to be added on in extra time.

Gallagher decent, Nyambe never once given more than a mediocre performance. I can see how you might hold one of those opinions, but not both.

Honestly, I don't think Nyambe's heart has been fully in it for a while now. Can't say I totally blame him, the manager has been a joke with him. If I were him, and not a Rovers fan, I'd have put in a transfer request a while ago.

Imagine all the game time he's going to get when Poveda and Khadra are match fit......

Standard.

Exfuckingscuse him?!?

I was going to ask actually, since we have some very seasoned fans on here, can anybody remember us having a manager as bad at protecting a lead? In my time (Kenny onwards) there's never been a manager who had me consistently still feeling uncomfortable at 2 goals up. Surrendering a 2 goal lead used to be considered unforgivable. Now the fanbase just gives a collective shrug. That's how much expectations and standards have changed here.

Oh cool, he is proud of the exact thing we failed to do today. Terrific.