TM would often have games where we’d fire out the blocks, pressing hard etc… such displays would then disappear for a good while. Fitness? Mentality? Tactical nous? Who knows, it would never last.

The second tier is totally different now in the era of parachutes. If you don’t have them you can’t ‘expect’ to be competing for the play offs as a ‘minimum requirement’. Of course you can still make them, a couple of non-parachute clubs do every season, but with a middling budget everything needs to click into place - very good manager, good, motivated crop of players and a well run football club that does everything it can to get the best team on the pitch it’s resources allow. Do we have all that?

It certainly is because of the promotion, the fanbase got spooked by L1, so he did deserve our gratitude for a swift exit from a division you can easily get stranded in. However, I don’t think the goodwill that came from that ever did dry up towards him, despite years of mediocrity, he had Ewood eating out of his hands until, perhaps, the last month or so (and he wasn’t exactly turned on then either) - which is all very strange and not something we’d seen before with a manager (or will see again)

I am very ambitious, this is Blackburn Rovers. Sitting in fifth with ten to go says it’s possible. But you still need to be realistic when you look at our resources and how the club is administered - I don’t have much in the way of expectation, not because I don’t have ambition for the grand old institution of BRFC, but because I don’t have any expectation of the conveyor belt of incompetents that have somehow ended up owning and running it for a decade.

Ultimately, no, as either way we’d still be kicking off in August in this division. But to have a top 6 finish for the first time since a calamitous PL relegation over a decade ago shouldn’t be sniffed at, it would be a clear sign of progress.

You can have two opposing thoughts at once. I’d be gutted if we finished 7th, but I would still appreciate the job JDT has done in both league and cup with these players, budget and shambolic club set-up.

Very perceptive Chadster. You’ve come a long way from when you used to refuse to accept that managers might not be telling the whole truth to the media… 😁

I don’t venture to the badlands of the ‘We Did Warn You’ politics threads, but I presume it’s being commented on heavily in there…

It’s the Championship, nowt between the non-parachute clubs, so any of them can unexpectedly drop points at any time.

If Swansea would’ve scored (we were 7th at the time, by the way, not 17th) he’d have got both barrels, I’m in NO1 and you know when a crowd is about to turn. I never sensed that in the TM era…

Initial remit, certainly. But still treading water by year 3, 4? Don’t think a re-established Championship club (and fanbase) buying teenagers for £7million should’ve been satisfied in mid to lower table every season, but most seemed to be. Don’t disagree that he’d get flak, the ground was very close to turning only a few weeks ago against Swansea. End of the day TM was given a free pass that no manager before or since did/will get.

Interesting how TM was allowed to tread water for five years with little to no fan discontent, yet JDT will be in for it after one season? (And that’s with every chance that in that one season he betters TM’s *best* league finish and far better cup performances). The strange phenomenon of Teflon Tony strikes again…

That’s football, especially in this division when there’s little to separate the non parachute clubs quality wise. The players at this level are inconsistent, that’s why they are in this league. Poor performance, but we’d just won five, that’s the Championship. But now it means he’s under orders from the owners to de-motivate the players to not go up? A title winning player and manager, no less? Doesn’t take much for this palace to re-lose the plot…

All these years watching football and folk are still taking a blind bit of notice of whatever platitudes managers come out with when a microphone is thrust in their faces minutes before KO. If you honestly think a winner and highly competitive professional like JDT is actually de-motivating (a team that had just won 5 on the bounce by the way) his players day in day out by telling them they aren’t up to it… well, not a lot else to really say.

On the flip side, his pre game presser was talking about how we aren’t favourites but of course we’ll be going for it. Which is fair enough. Either way, take it with a pinch of salt. Public interviews mean bugger all.

Emperor’s new clothes, the last fad was how having a load of possession was a sign of what a great side you were…

The XG-isation of football fans these past few years is such a strange phenomenon. So many have lost their ability to use their eyes to judge footballers and teams. We are *bottom* of the XG league as we eye up an outside chance of automatic promotion… say no more.

You will often get a minimal allocation that you can return, but additional you need to pay for up front. Prime example being JW taking the smaller one for Celtic as he didn’t want to risk not selling out the larger one (and thousands ergo missed out).

All forums are obscure (ask most Rovers fans about this place and see what reaction you get!), but it is their main one…

Very optimistic fans considering they’ve been shite all season apart from giving a hiding to a TM side in the midst of a death cycle… https://oatcakefanzine.proboards.com/thread/307913/stoke-city-blackburn-rovers

So? If the club thought it was a fair price it was a fair price, especially if the player’s head had turned (which it had). *And would there buggery have been ‘demonstrations at Ewood’ 😁

Hmm, a load of Championship cloggers in your side instead of Xavi, Iniesta et al might be a bit of an issue then. Pound Shop Peps all over the place these days…

Loads of PL wins from Scots though, ay @roverandout 😁

Birdy will be putting one on from the Fox & Hounds. I imagine some of the Darwen boozers will be too?

Cracking David Brent corporate away day vibes