Figure of speech chadster

Always interesting when a really old thread is bumped to show just how many posters have long gone...

I bet it happens every break, they just got caught by a selfie doorstepper this time...

Yep, good chance we are back to the Coil season standard crowd of 10,000.

As I’ve said, these games will tell you nothing as they’ve very few ST holders, a club like Blackpool aren’t going to getting 10,000 folk buying tickets on the gate every week, feel good factor or not. Now if they don’t sell a substantial number of STs in the summer then the years away will have damaged their fanbase long term.

Thought Williams had been called up for Ireland?

Aye, the only one with any knowledge of English football out the loop for the issues that actually matter. Sounds fine and not at all telling of what’s gone on this past 8 years.

Banned again?

To be fair, there were plenty on here in January saying how fantastic Rodwell was , a 'Rolls-Royce of a centre half at this level' etc. The fact Ipswich and Hull were dreadful didn't seem to come into it. Alas, it seems Mowbray fell for it too...

This Waggott - Pasha - Owners dynamic seems very dysfunctional to me.

‘Experience and age improves players’. Yes, however for young players that often isn’t the case as they never kick on from their initial potential for a variety of reasons. Tomlinson a perfect example. That is why we cannot have another window like last summer where it is mainly just young players being brought in.

Always much lower actual crowds midweek, though the red button has exacerbated it. However, generally what did they actually expect crowds wise? We’ve now around 10,000 season ticket holders, which is at the higher end of sales since 2012, even though they are now considerably more expensive. Personally I think crowds have held up very well considering. We are a lower mid table side in the second division and we’ve suffered a near decade of stagnation, what are they seriously expecting? Nothing has improved on the pitch and in league position in those years, so why should crowds? Especially when there is little in the way of enticing offers, we are consistently months behind pretty much every club getting season tickets on sale and Ewood is a third rate experience that can’t even hold a candle to Accrington fecking Stanley! Frightening how out of touch they are.

Problem with Mowbray is, in my view, he does has an idealised system of playing in his head but either he doesn’t bring in the right players to fit the system or the ones that do fit he doesn’t trust them. So we just end up as a brittle, cautious mess with little discernible style of play. He likes ‘ball playing centre halves’, but instead of bringing in actual centre halves that can play a bit, he plays converted, weak and/or slow midfielders back there that have little defensive nous. Or he brings in the likes of Rothwell and a plethora of ‘number 10s’, but bottles their selection time and again, so back in goes the likes of Smallwood and Conway. Its obviously becoming a pattern with him, wherever he is.

We looked a decent attackibg threat yesterday, largely due to the interplay between Dack and Rothwell.

The Rothwell part was just unnecessary. All he needed to say: ‘Work in progress. Lots he needs to work on, but loads of talent’ etc etc. Just leave it there, the ‘little boy’ stuff, when you have a defence that doesn’t tackle or head a ball was below the belt for me.

Let’s hope it’s largely incentive/performance based.

BB is 20 in a few weeks. James at Swansea just turned 21. Same age as Tammy Abraham . Leeds have them sprinkled through the team. Clubs like us don’t buy ‘development players’ for big money. Too much of a risk due to the fact many young lads just don’t kick on, which is fine for Man City, a disaster for us. Name me another player being bought for big money to ‘develop’ in the U23s anywhere else in this league?

Hell of a lot of players at 19/20 are making a name for themselves in this league and are regular starters. Very few clubs at this level, if any, are spending big money on ‘development projects’ that aren’t getting a sniff of pitch time for the first team, that’s normally the operation of clubs like Man City. Beyond bizarre signing whichever way you dress it up.

‘Rothwell’s like a little boy out there’ Amazing comment that. Can’t say I’ve been seeing much ‘big boy’ defending from the likes of Williams and Mulgrew

Neil Yardley on comms summed up the Rovers set up perfectly for me. When Rothwell got taken out by an horrendous tackle, our players didn’t bat an eyelid and just ambled back into position. Yardley: ’Most sides would’ve been backing up their team mate, getting in his face. Far too soft this lot’. Follows on from the naive nonsense kicking the ball out last week. This is pro football and we are in an relentless league. Need to get real.

it’s getting to the stage where Raya is making a goal costing ricket every other game.

Yes it does take time to bed in youngsters. That's why it is absolutely vital that the transfer policy this summer must focus on bringing in some experienced pros, otherwise we will be perennially in development limbo waiting for 'potential' to mature (or not, as some young lads just don't), whilst the likes of Dack, Mulgrew, Graham either leave or end up over the hill, weakening the 11 and you are constantly spinning your wheels.

Villa? Aye, they were chanting for his head from memory.

I’m fine with finishing mid table, considering the haphazard recruitment we couldn’t have achieved much more. Biggest summer in a long time coming up. Could make or break the next few years.

We’ve somehow got though to mid March with one experienced striker. The (surprising) robustness of Graham has saved Mowbray’s bacon, as recruitment at the top end of the pitch has been as bizarre as centre half.