1 hour ago, rovers11 said:

Whoever it ends up being, it sounds like it's gonna be a left field appointment and a big gamble. Why am I not surprised. 

Every time a Championship club appoints a manager it’s a gamble. There are so many confounding factors that it’s almost impossible to predict whether a particular individual has a chance of success. 
 

Sometimes everything comes together, sometimes it doesn’t. Even Coyle has a promotion to the PL under his belt. 

Just now, Admiral Nelsen said:

I'm very much in the TM has been amazing for Rovers camp, I agree with basically all of your points, and also think that plenty of posters on here have been harsh in the extreme on players that broadly have contributed well for us.

That said, I think it's totally fair to point out that this window can be at best described as a gamble. Centre half was clearly the position which needed improving. Collectively Tosin and using Williams as CB might make the world of difference, but if they don't work out then we have to say we look very exposed in the area which cost us from going for the top 6 last year.

Totally agree that his job since taking over has been very good, and and suggestion of getting rid of him (or that we'll be in a relegation battle) is ridiculous. I actually think 70% of our business is good/promising. But I'd be lying if I wasn't concerned about failing to sign a proven centre half.

I take your point but every signing is a gamble. Who would have thought that Sanchez would be so poor at Man Utd? Who would have thought that Samba and Nelsen would do so well for us? They, at least, deserve the chance to show what they can do. 

Just now, JHRover said:

Why?

Because if we’d carried on with the disastrous cycle of terrible manager after terrible manager, making dire signings, we’d probably have been in League 2 or worse and even more financially screwed than we are now. It’s less than three years since Coyle was starting Hope Akpan in centre mid.

Amazing how quickly people forget. 

Just now, RovingRover said:

Easily one of the most humiliating days I have ever experienced as a Blackburn Rovers fan trying to get information out with regards to the clubs deals.

To say it was a shambles would be an understatement.

Why would they be prioritising informing you about the potential deals? No offence, but I’m pretty sure most fans would prefer that they tried to focus on getting signings across the line. 

You obviously feel differently but I found it more humiliating when we appointed Coyle, and were subsequently relegated into League 1. 

4 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

Mulgrew's exit, although cheered on by some here could have a real impact on squad morale, as Glenn suggests above.  Mulgrew has been a key fixture in the squad for three years and his leaving under these circumstances is worrying.  

So should we keep him just because he has mates in the dressing room? 

His legs have gone.  

I think last night was a good example of what Mowbray is trying to do here, and I agree with his approach. 

The first priority should be to avoid defeat. We didn’t defend well as a team last night, mainly because midfield had an off day and couldn’t keep hold of anything, and Armstrong can’t do that either. But in and around the box we defended superbly. 

It reminds me of when Hughes took over - he also prioritised making sure we didn’t lose. Once the team developed that discipline and got used to being absolutely stubborn, that’s when he focussed on our attacking threat and we became a great team. 

Last season we didn’t have to have that discipline (and conceded a lot as a result) because it was so much easier to score, but if we carried on like that in the Championship we’d be bottom three. 

Fact is, we’ve lost one game after some tough fixtures, and no one will fancy playing us. With a little luck we could easily have had more points and aside from Bristol City last twenty, we’ve held our own against everyone. 

Corrected. 

TM’s first team selection, at Burton, drew 1-1:

Steele

Nyambe - Lenihan - Mulgrew - Williams

Conway - Guthrie - Lowe - Feeney

Graham - Emnes

Subs: Gallagher, Joao, Stokes, Tomlinson, Brown, Mahoney, Raya. 

Interesting that the defence is almost the same. Midfield now unrecognisable and filled with so much more quality. 

The other thing to enjoy is how much more TM is getting from the players he kept. Graham, Mulgrew, Lenihan have all improved under him. Even Conway, who gets stick but takes the pressure off the defence coming in towards the end of a tight game, does his job well.

Oh, and hands up who misses Conor Mahoney?

44 minutes ago, CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber said:

He gave it away with one minute left hence my comment. The 'at times' part was ignored in your response and I stand by it. One of his better games though so I should maybe I should have recognised that, however overall he's been poor a lot more than he's been good in a Rovers shirt. 

Yes, but you were commenting on his performance in this match, when he was (in my opinion and those of many others) a class apart last night. To label a player 'a disgrace at times' for making one mistake at the end of an otherwise impressive performance (when we were pushing for a win in the last few minutes) seems ridiculous. If you think making the odd mistake qualifies as 'disgraceful' you must have pretty high standards. 

Evans seems to attract a lot of this type of hysterical criticism for some reason, despite being the most composed player we have on the ball. He doesn't do anything spectacular but does all the hard, boring stuff that no one else can do as well as he can. 

Those figures are meaningless because of the likely resale value of Dack, Lenihan, Armstrong etc. Something seriously crazy would have to happen for those to fail to make £15 million plus if we sold up. 

We desperately need a talisman up front. Dragging strikers up from League 1 or signing Championship rejects won’t get us promoted. We’ve tried that with Brown / Samuel etc and it doesn’t work. Look at Brereton’s record for the England youth teams - convinced he’ll be quality given the care and attention Mowbray will provide. 

Mowbray has earnt the right to spend £8 million on a striker, but if Brereton fails then Mowbray will be gone. We won’t lose financially because of the quality of the players we’ve either developed or bought for peanuts. The fact we got Dack for £750k is scarcely believable. He’s probably one of the best footballing and financial investments we’ve ever made. 

I understand the anxiety about spending £8 million given the long list of charlatans and jokers we’ve had in charge, but in the context of having an experienced manager who has shown he can organise and motivate a team full of promising youngsters, what exactly is the alternative if we want  to give ourselves a chance of getting to the PL? 

Sometimes you have to take a risk and go for it. This is one of those times, in my opinion. 

2 minutes ago, Neal said:

See for me it's Edwards... At that price given our budget, its a big opportunity missed. Given his performance right under Mowbrays nose at Ewood... We should have snapped him up. Can't fathom why he passed on that one. 

How do you know he passed on it? Perhaps the players in question told him they weren’t interested in signing for us. 

Preston and Ipswich are both established Championship teams and are arguably more attractive than newly-promoted Rovers. 

I don’t think the window has been particularly inspiring, but some of the conjecture on here could be toned down a little. 

Perhaps potential targets would also prefer loans to see whether they would consider signing for us permanently, given that we are a newly-promoted team with a chaotic background and a recent relegation. 

SSN saying we’ve bid £4 million(!) for Luke Freeman. 

Didn't see that one coming, but refreshing not to have a signing trailed days in advance in the media. Can't really remember much about him from last season but if he turned down a contract at Man Utd to play for Oxford, that's a statement of wanting to get his down and work hard.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2018/june/rothwell-is-a-rover/

Just now, JHRover said:

http://www.my-rovers.co.uk/

It should be on this website, quite confusing that there are now 3 websites to use for Rovers.

Thanks JHRover. 

Absolutely crazy that we now have:

1. Roverstore website

2. eTicketing website

3. Rovers.co.uk

4. My Rovers.

Can anyone with access bring this up at the Fans' Forum? At the very least, there should be clear links from the Club website if they can't amalgamate everything for contractual reasons.

Slightly off topic but does anyone know how you can find out your Club Cash balance? I can't find it anywhere on the Roverstore or eticketing websites and it doesn't seem to appear when I try to pay for something from the shop online.

All assistance welcome.

On 17/10/2017 at 13:08, RV Blue said:

There are numerous different reasons why I believe that Mowbray is thick, but this is right up there. We were crying out for someone like that who would have been perfect playing next to Mulgrew (especially after Lenihan's injury), but Mowbray thought that Ward was a capable partner for Mulgrew, absolutely clueless.

 

That's absolute nonsense, Ward is our fifth choice centre half. 

1. Mulgrew

2. Lenihan - injured

3. Downing - injured

4. Wharton - injured

5. Ward

The stats tell you that we have the 3rd in terms of goals conceded in the division but only 16th on goals scored. If the strikers had done their job in several games this season we'd be in the top two. If you're 2-0 up at half time in this league, the game is over, but we always make ourselves vulnerable by failing to finish teams off.

Blame who you want for the current situation (which I personally don't believe is that bad, given we are only two points off the play offs with two games in hand) but let's not ignore the facts.

Just now, Iceman said:

again, they had the chance to bring in a manager that might get the fans excited, or at least get the fans off their back. Instead, they bring in Mowbray, probably another yes man, who wasnt allowed to bring in his own backroom staff. How does a manager take a job, and not be allowed to bring in people he is comfortable with. 

How do you know that they had that opportunity though? I doubt they had people lining up to take over a club second from bottom, with no money to spend and shambolic ownership. It would be a massive gamble for any 'up and coming' manager of promise to come here - look at what happened to Appleton. You make it sound like we could appoint anyone we wanted. Most sensible candidates would run a mile.

Clearly, that's all Venkys fault too, goes without saying. 

The bottom line is that if he keeps us up, then he'll have performed a miracle and we'll all be saying what a great job he's done. What happens after that is anyone's guess.

Just now, davulsukur said:

Wouldn't go that far. Neither Dunn or Lowe were involved in the first team.

They still watch most of the games though, and will be around Brockhall enough to know what's going on. An entirely new backroom staff would inevitably take more time to understand the deficiencies in the squad.

Just now, JHRover said:

Most worrying for me is that Rovers appear to have set their stall out to ensure that the new manager was willing to work with existing club staff. That isnt how business should be done and is a recipe for disaster. If they have decided Mowbray is the best man for the job then on their head be it, but any new manager should be given the option to bring in his own team to work with him. That's probably what ruled Adkins out because he would want to bring in Crosby alongside. It smacks of cost cutting and forcing staff upon the new manager when the new manager should select his own staff.

Playing Devil's advocate, at least Dunn and Lowe know the squad inside out, and will be able to tell him where we need to improve. We don't have the luxury of Mowbray taking five games to see where the problems are, so it might actually be a good thing. He can always bring in some staff in the Summer. 

Obviously, the motive for Venkys doing this is to minimise costs, but it might actually turn out to be in our favour.

18 month contract is odd - why not just let him have it to the end of the season and then review it? Because Venky's obviously, but still.