Get in! I can’t think of a more apathetic from a Radio Lancs commentator though to a goal though!

I voted yes- I enjoy going to the football on a Saturday and have an excellent view in the Blackburn End. 

I’ve also noticed comments about Norwich and Bristol City already selling a good few for next year. With all due respect, both have far bigger catchment areas than us, and both could be in the Premier League. We’re a small town that’s more than likely going to be in the same league for 19/20. 

10 minutes ago, AshleyClifford said:

The money owed to the parent company, as this is the legal term that must be used; Has no period for repayment and has no interest. The liability will grow and grow.

The loss during this last period was budgeted for, decision were made to extend contracts sign various players for transfer fees- the loss will not have surprised anyone within the club or Venkys.

 The basic running of the club is around 6m, this fixed costs such as facilities and academy and before salaries. Salary’s will be at £18.5m - so we need a turnover of £24.5 to break even, I suspect we are nearer 19m. So really we should be operating with a wage bill of 11-12m. However would fans be happy ? Could we compete? Could we atract and retain decent players ? 

 

 

No- they tried that at the end of Bowyer’s period, bring in a load of cheap players who must have been on next  nothing. The result? We struggled and Bowyer got sacked.  The only club I’ve heard of making a profit away from the top flight is Walsall- I’ve no doubt there’s a few other tinpot outfits that do too.

Most football clubs will never make a profit outside the top flight, due to wage demands etc.,unless a completely different business model is adopted, meaning the incorporation of something like house rentals is placed under a club’s name, meaning tenants’ rents go directly into the club’s cash flow . I think that’s what Millwall are trying to do with their stadium redevelopment, and maybe Brentford. Don’t quote me on that though!

Would it be such a daft idea for Venky’s to put a couple of million into detached properties around England, and rent them out? They could use the money earnt to begin cutting the club’s debt (if that’s even legal). 

20 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Football is littered with enough ‘money is no guarantee of success’ stories to make a legal case difficult I’s expect.

Or maybe they are happy with a loss-making enterprise? Tax deductible?

Luckily we have honourable owners and an honourable manager so we shouldn’t worry. Our future is in good hands.

Maybe it comes down to the sheer embarrassment of what’s happened, that they feel they have to put it right. I once spoke to an Indian chap at a Tube station, who’d emigrated to London; he was embarrassed about what they’d done to us. It was on the relegation day at Brentford, after the game. 

I also wonder about the dirty agent deals that have happened too, and whether much of that was legal. 

Not to compare the two, but how much Uncle Jack spend over the course of his ownership? Surely it can’t too dissimilar to what these clowns have spaffed up the wall, taking out the fact Jack would have spent more in today’s game. 

Christ, can you imagine if they’d have given Allaradyce £250 million to spend, alongside some of the TV money? I feel sick about where we’d probably be sat now. Instead, we’ve enjoyed away days at Walsall, Southend and Oldham. How someone hasn’t taken those ‘advisors’ to court yet, from Venky’s, is unbelievable! 

Mowbray’s job was to keep us up this year, nothing more, nothing less. He’s done that: Should he address the defensive situation in summer (and give Derek Williams to a club in League 1), we’ll progress. If he doesn’t, he be out of a job, because we’ll be in a relegation battle. 

Another one and now it’s the keeper’s fault? Dear God! 

Marking at fault according to Radio Lancs for this goal. Mowbray has to spend summer buying a new back line, because regardless of how good we are going forward, we can’t defend. Annoyed isn’t the word right now! Even if we had back line that was half decent, we’d probably be in the top half. 

Just now, Tugay's Right Foot said:

Nyambe’s graft is such a contrast to Williams so far.

I’d argue he’s been our best defender recently. 

Derek Williams again at fault according to Radio Lancs; the man HAS to go in summer. 

5 hours ago, Tom said:

Darren Moore sacked with West Brom in 4th

Everything that’s wrong with modern football now, and probably society.

Whatever happened to being given time? Saying that, they’re currently sat fourth- he didn’t exactly need time to turn things round did he? They were already in a bloody good position! 

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

Sorry but that default response from fans is getting very boring.

Managers get sacked every other month. Amazingly those clubs ALL manage to bring in replacements. Some do better some do worse.

Things are too cosy at Rovers. Imagine if Williams had just kept on backing Ince game after game, defeat after defeat, relegation and beyond. Don’t worry though, Waggott won’t even be thinking about it. He is probably too busy working out how much he can increase next season’s ticket prices by and whether scrapping the early bird offer would still see the diehards renew, while setting ambitious targets for ST sales.

Boring? I define boring as something that’s repetitive, just like your ability to bang on about Mowbray needing to be removed. So, who would you replace him with? You can’t just talk on about getting rid of him, and not expect to be questioned about his replacement.  

What did you really expect this season? The title after going unbeaten all season? Promotion via the play offs? You’re living in a fantasy land if you are. Our job this season was to survive.

With regards to season ticket sales- Waggott’s clearly been brought in to try and cut the losses, whilst keeping the team competitive. Again, you’re living on planet fantasy if you think Venky’s are just going to allow him to cut season ticket prices.

You’ve also got to think about the financial fair play situation. If we cut season ticket prices, the playing budget untimately will get cut. The chances of this club bringing in similar attendances to the when we were in the top flight are minimal. Why? Because we’re in the Championship.

Your average walk in- who last paid out for a season ticket when we were in the top flight- isn’t going to purchase one when you’re up against teams  like Rotherham and Wigan, on a cold Wednesday night at home, when they can keep eye on it with Sky’s red button. The next time we’ll get big league crowds is on a return to the top flight, when big teams turn up. Just look the Liverpool and United FA Cup games...

You can talk about trying to “entice the fans” as much as you want. The fact the average walk in didn’t purchase one, when they’d have been given one for free the following season, if we’d been promoted under Bowyer, says an awful lot. 

1 minute ago, Stuart said:

I’m telling you it wouldn’t have mattered who the ref was, we’d have lost.

We are a League One team playing in the Championship and the manager has now lost the players. How many different positions were players asked to play in. Bennett has about three, same with Reed. Armstrong had two. Williams had at least two. Nyambe had two.

All this chopping and changing is doing nothing for team understanding.

Who do we replace Mowbray with then? 

Our owners are about as incompetent as it gets one they look for a new manager. 

8 minutes ago, tugayislegend said:

Absolute rubbish! Sorry, bowyer had Rhodes, gestede, king, Cairney, dann, Hanley + more.

We can't compete with Boro/stoke/forest/ their wage budgets will be MORE than DOUBLE ours! It is so hard to bring in any talented established players because they will already be on more than 20k a week!! This is key when it comes to recruitment. 

Villa lost 1 million pound a week last season, look it up, as did wolves last year!!

Our goal for this season is to stay up. Looks like we will do that. If TM doesn't bring in any defenders in summer then call for his head! 

What wigan and Rotherham would give to be in our position! We have to be content with mid table, and build SLOWLY over the next 3 years, yes 2-3 years at least.

 

 

Thank the Lord of someone talking sense! 

Just now, Stuart said:

Mowbray changed the course of the game. Stop looking for excuses.

We barely create chances but we concede most of the few the opposition create.

This has been going on all season and Mowbray has no idea what to do to change it. He couldn’t stop the rot that Coyle started and now he can’t stop the one of his own making.

He didn’t think we needed defenders in January and even got rid of the one spare one that we had.

1 point out of 21...

You’re not telling me the ref had an impact on that game though? He was absolutely appalling today. 

18 minutes ago, Tom Stinny said:

What they had was that nastiness to win at all costs. Unfortunately our great saviour doesn't have that. End of the day no one cares how you win. Just that you win.

 

If Rovers had been 1-0 and wasting time I would have applauded them for it. You don't get paid stupid money to be nice and you don't charge supporters an entry fee to watch manners and class. 

It wasn’t just the time wasting though. From recollection:

- Nuttall taking the ball fairly off a PNE defender and being through, before the ref blew up

-The goal that was disallowed after a fair challenge 

-Armstrong clearly being obstructed down the wing during the last 10 minutes- how the linesman didn’t see that right in front of him  

That was just a handful too in the second half. What ever happened at half time with ref has changed the course of the game. He blew for nothing in the first half. 

To show I’m being completely unbiased, the PNE player’s red was over the top too. 

3 minutes ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

At this moment in time - more pi**ed with the abysmal referee than I am TM.

Preston must be the biggest cheats I have seen at Rovers for years. Deliberate obstruction, feigning injury, time wasting - they had everything.

Bang on there- the ref was absolutely appalling. Something happened at half time, because we went from everything being allowed to go, to absolutely nothing. 

Preston have had one decent chance today and scored from it. That goal was the fault of Williams, who my honest opinion, should never play for the club again. He is absolutely appalling. 

Raya error I hear?

I’m sorry, but this is embarrassing. I have absolutely no words. When you consider the utter shite state that recently promoted clubs are in compared us, I have absolutely no words. When you consider the the utter shite state that we were in when Mowbray took over, this is up there with one of the worst polls I’ve ever seen on here. 

8 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Yes, we're a slow team all right, which is why Rothwell made such a difference when we came on , a fast player  who takes the ball past people.

Getting defenders to defend properly shouldn't be that difficult for Mowbray, who was a rugged, old school defender in his day. But he seems to be incapable of doing it. I don't think he really knows how to set up a team properly.

Have to disagree about Sam. Loved him to bits; the day he was sacked I knew as a club we were doomed to relegation. But that's another debate

It’s a bizarre one alright! Mark Venus, his right hand man, isn’t exactly short of experience either is he? 

Agreed- the team wasn’t up to playing pretty football, with the money drying up. I started watching Rovers under Souness though, being the age I am. Up until that point, I only knew that we could play football to entertain. 

4 hours ago, blueboy3333 said:

If you think Lenihan or Mulgrew should go then I question your judgement.

And Williams is a better defender than Bell IMO. 

Raya needs serious competition. He has cost us more goals than he's saved this season. 

Williams is an absolute liability. I still can’t get over how Downing left on loan and that joker managed to stay. 

I agree about Raya though. A proper keeping coach would help too. 

7 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Howard Kendall and Sam Allardyce knew how to set up defences with largely players they inherited. It's a skill that our present manager doesn't have. 

Would agree with that about Mowbray after what I saw against Reading. I’ve got a season ticket too, before anyone comments ?. 

The big difference between Allardyce and Mowbray is that we commit more men forward. Allardyce basically had 10 men defending for 80 minutes of the game, where as Mowbray likes to commit men forward, and rightly so, in order to give us the best chance of scoring. Allardyce’s brand wasn’t half crap to watch too. I refused to renew my season ticket after his first full year in charge.

Mowbray’s biggest downfall is the way he organises the team to defend. We never man mark, unless it’s a set piece. It’s all zonal marking. Those goals on Weds night, and ones previous to that, show our back line to be very lax in the way they pick oppositions players up. They need to be bang, smack next to them, not close them. 

The other issue we’ve got is pace. Mulgrew and Rodwell, albeit it  technically gifted, are ridiculously slow. I’d be looking to move those to next to Lewis Travis in a deep lying midfield role, and investing some younger lads to sit alongside Lenihan. 

To contradict my last point though- we probably could sign some decent, younger defenders, but unless Mowbray tells them to be breathing down there neck, when we’re on the back foot, we are absolutely goosed! 

Today’s the first time I’ve watched us defend off the ball when we’re in danger under Mowbray. 

After watching those two goals conceded today, I’m convinced it’s the way we’re set up to defend. 

Look back at the build up to both goals- on both occasions, the back line is zonal marking. They’re nowhere near any of the Reading lads, meaning they get free roam and do whatever they want.

Everytime they came forward, that was the case though. The back line doesn’t seem be bother picking anyone up, unless it’s a set piece.

7 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Wigan and Rotherham should not be teams we are considering our peers.

Keep on thinking small.

In reality though, they are after many years of ownership mismanagement. 

4 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

Hilarious how people turn up keener to have a pop at other fans rather than mourning a really poor defeat. 

Dont we all support the same club? Aren’t you annoyed we got slapped after being 2-0 up?

Course I’m annoyed. It’s just annoying that people seem to turn up and moan about Mowbray everytime we lose. It’s one defeat and it’s something along the lines of : “I don’t think he’a got it in him to take us back up.” The more annoying thing is, we’re not even meant to be challenging for promotion this season, yet- because of Mowbray’s management- we have been. 

Raya made a mistake. Raya needs a decent mentor behind him, to improve his decision making. He’s still a young lad and developing though. There are others at fault though too for today’s defeat.