If that's the case, it's very odd that Mowbray said we don't have a scout who covers Europe. I dunno, maybe he means we don't have a dedicated European scout and instead we sometimes have some of our domestic scouts keep an eye on a couple of leagues or so.

Highlights from the u-18s 2-2 draw if you can stand to give Manure any web traffic: https://www.manutd.com/en/videos/detail/under-18s-highlights-blackburn-rovers-2-man-united-2-23-february-2019

Oh right, do you know where the article is about that? I saw this article recently: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17437465.mowbray-plans-to-bring-in-european-scouting-network-at-rovers/ And it worried me to see that he said we don't have a scout who covers Europe (not sure how we can look seriously at Bundesliga 2 without one?), as I assumed that would have been part of the scout system restructuring process we undertook last year. I'm astonished it wasn't. In fact I had assumed that was the whole point, as surely we already scout the UK plenty.

You heard something, or inferring?

To be fair, we seem to do it whether we shut up shop or not.

I think I missed something, how do we know that?

The LT were saying Buckley is contracted til summer 2020 (well, they say 18 months) and is in contract talks. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17447564.rovers-keen-to-secure-long-term-futures-of-their-prospects/

I didn't know there was fuss? First I've heard of him.

I don't want any of Mrs Mowbray's drizzle, thanks. I think Rothwell has been eating her drizzle though, and Tony has found out.

That was precisely what I thought when I read it, identifying the same two players too. Those comments pissed me off today.

Mercer should never be used as a benchmark for predictive success. Also that's 7 points with more than a quarter of the season left.

It also sounded like Magloire was at fault for one of their goals. Maybe we shouldn't be in such a rush to include him in the first team?

Jesus...any chance he was joking? That's completely unacceptable in this day and age, especially for a player who looks unfit.

Sounds from the LT updates like Butterworth has missed a lot of chances. I don't remember his goal record being very prolific, so he seems like a player who causes a lot of problems but isn't the most consistent finisher?

Dack said he eats a fry up on match day? Where was that?

If you mean coaching staff that was pretty much my point. If you meant playing staff, potentially they can be limited in being able to take it in, but professional footballers at this level should be capable of learning it. If they're not, TM needs to stop with the quotes suggesting they don't need replacing. For what it's worth I do also think a couple of them need replacing. But I'm also suspecting they haven't been coached completely right. There should be frustration from TM if we've been trying to drill positional sense in for 2 years and this is what we get. Instead he showed no intention of signing replacements so I don't think this is the issue.

I forgot to add a bit to my post. I meant to also add "We're giving you a healthy budget, go and fix the defence." I don't care if we pay over the odds in this area anymore. Defenders don't cost the earth and it is our major, major achilles heel. I also don't care if they're our 4th or 5th on a list because there are far more than 4 or 5 defenders out there who can improve us. I only care if they're better than what we've got. TM said Arma was his 3rd or 4th choice. Besides Chaddy, yes TM said that but he was talking about attackers and midfielders. His comments made it very clear he wasn't looking for defenders. This is one of the most worrying things about him by far - failing to think he needs to strengthen our weakest area.

It can be your manager's fault in a way, yes, for not addressing it. I've been a team coach at my workplace and been able to get serious improvements from people by highlighting weaknesses in their performance and working on those with them. That's the entire point of a management and coaching infrastructure. An awful lot of the errors I've seen when conceding our goals are positional errors. For me, that can at least partially be coached.

Another potential song for Chappers... 'Na na na na na na na na Chapman' (the old Batman tv show theme for the younger members)

I'm somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd options. If it were up to me, I'd have a chat with Tony and ask him, "Do you intend to extensively strengthen our defence this summer?". If the answer was no or he showed some hesitancy about that, I'd part ways but let him see it out until or maybe just before the end of the season whilst lining someone else up. The problem isn't so much our league position or even the 4 straight defeats. These things can happen. The problem is the string of bizarre decisions (many of them repeating over and over), an inability to learn, complacency and an apparent lack of ambition.

We need to fix this rot before we can afford to do that (with Brereton and the u-23s anyway, unless we have some better than our first team).

We had 53% possession at half time according to the stats I saw. They're now showing 49%.

Did he though? I'm at work so not seen it, but I'd rather have 11 men and roll the dice on being 2-0 down than have 10 men when we've already been trash.

With some Rovers performances, my eyes feel like they're there already.

I'm sorry....that you're very wrong and can't see sense, blueboy3333.