Just a shame it looks like he’s playing against a bunch of 16yo lads. He really should have gone out on loan. He may have failed Mowbray but Mowbray has also failed him.

Which is a very worrying stage for fans to get to.

We can find 13 games last season where we were bottom. Mowbray goes on winning streaks and losing streaks and we end up midtable. That’s the problem.

Thanks Chris

Don’t disagree with any of that.

Good find. Not just the 70 point target but the confidence that Venkys would spend if we were in reach of the play-offs in January (we were). How did this turn into “only if we sell Dack or Evans”? Maybe the first three words of the fourth paragraph are a clue...

The only way I could see TM walking would be a finish lower than 15th. Even then I wouldn’t bet on it. Anything above 15th can be spun as progress. “Especially with our injuries and FFP”. I agree we aren’t a normal club and I’d be astonished if Venkys decided to replace him in the Summer. What a life.

Let’s not Matty

Very upsetting. So sad to see Tony like that. Must be so difficult for his family but also very difficult for him to hear that he is not the same person. I imagine it’s everyone’s worst fear: losing their faculties. A stark reminder that when all’s said and done, it really is only a game. Heartbreaking.

Yeah, got to keep that pitch fit for the Dog and Duck games rather than the professionals. Too much trouble to open up Ewood in an evening.

Who the hell keeps moving these U23 games to weekday lunchtimes? FFS. Is it a cost saving gig or what?

The Portuguese link though Chaddy...

I’m just hoping that those “representing BRFCS” don’t shout down other people “representing BRFCS” in front of the rest of the attendees.

I think we need to be bringing in players better than those we have. But we need a manager prepared to do that instead of getting players worse than we have a challenging them to overtake his favourites. Trouble is when they do, Mowbray himself will stand in their way and defend his loyal charges. The danger with bringing in inferior players is that this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy and we end up not improving anything, as forced-fringe players come and go. We need to constantly be upgrading. £15m should have allowed that.

We don’t continue for though. The only consistent under Mowbray is our inconsistency. Even with our best team he can’t stop tinkering. So it’s still no from me.

No, it didn’t happen, which is good. But he was then first sub for whomever came off first, and ended up as number 10? He has hardly been marginalised. If you take away the L1 record then what do you have? A manager punching well above his weight who would have been replaced at any other club. I get that being promoted from L1 at the first attempt is a success but this is negated by the fact he was brought in to prevent relegation and didn’t. I get that it sounds churlish you dismiss it but we just aren’t ruthless enough and we have a similar bloke now in the dugout, so we have a similar team on the pitch, so we are a midtable side haemorrhaging money who can’t attract fans back so the die hards have to suffer and take up the slack. While thanking Venkys for funding their cock up, while thanking Mowbray for managing his cock ups, and championing mediocrity. We need the money that PL football brings. It’s that simple and it’s that cold. How long until our debt is £200m? Our next embargo? Bolton double relegation or Bury extinction? We don’t have the luxury of time.

You keep talking about the situation as though we have no money. This is the paradox that Venkys bring to the equation. But ignoring the fact that if they wanted and were not being directed otherwise they could get around FFP or even pay for the consequences... FFP only seems to be a barrier to Rovers, and it’s a problem brought about by poor spending by Mowbray. We are in this situation because of him. He has gambled our future and lost. Why does he get to carry on? Probably because he waxes lyrical about the natural order of things, talks about Rovers as though they are plucky lower league team who are lucky to be a top 10 side. His lack of ambition, lack of abilities in recruitment and selection, and his parochialism are holding us back. Much like you defended Bowyer with the exact same argument as we peaked, plateaued and then fell, you are doing the same with Mowbray. Both nice chaps who you could enjoy a cup of tea and a chat with, I’m sure, but football managers need to be one-eyed, success-hungry bastards with coaches of a certain standing. I can’t believe that we have to scramble around when a fraction of the money Mowbray has wasted could have brought in a Wagner or a Farke or a Dyche. “No magic wand”, is just painfully condescending. Nobody expects top flight football as a right but it is where we need to be. Bookending Rovers may suit the historian angle but I want us to have long term prospects, and without a short term fix to our loss-making and utter reliance on the Raos, we may well not have one.

Win 9, draw 5, lose 2? That sounds totally implausible.

The worst part of this saga is that we will almost certainly sign Walton as number one in the Summer. If he does well on loan, Fisher will replace Leutwiler. Ben likes this

Amazing what one season in the PL can do. The fact they can afford to have Gestede on the bench and we can’t afford a single January signing says it all. Can’t for the life of me understand why we spent £12m on Brereton and Gallagher when someone like Gestede could surely have been in our price range.

Lest we get misty eyed, the time and space of League One made stars of Bennett, Smallwood and Bell and turned Dack into Messi. Gladwin has found his level. Good luck to him.

Sky left out 4 or 5 good chances for Rovers out of the highlights then. And they have seriously massaged the stats...

Under Mowbray, no, and definitely not this season. And definitely not when Bennett is our best alternative number 10. And not while we waste money on potential and then destroy it by doing things like playing Bennett at number 10. And not while FFP means we can’t spend on players we do need, on free or even loan.

Remind me, is that the stage before or after “stability”?