Stuart

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18831726.rovers-duo-self-isolating-mowbray-delivers-team-news-update/ Isolating due to symptoms. Are we saving money on testing nowadays? I thought football was meant to be in a bubble. If they’ve been in contact with other players then everyone is at risk! It’s getting worse and worse. Thank goodness results don’t matter.

‘Twas a millimetre when he kicked it.

Wonder why Rovers can’t stream U23 games (and even U18s). I certainly won’t be subscribing to BT Sports but would have dropped a fiver to iFollow to watch.

Choice between a bad tackle or no tackle at all (and a goal). We are so lucky to have him in the side.

Did he? (dum diddy do)

Ah ok. When you said “I would go with” I thought you meant you not Mowbray. But yes, I did miss the disclaimer.

What is it about Pears that you would pick him ahead of Stergiakis or even Eastham? The manager should be saying to all of the reserve keepers that the number two spot is there to be challenged for - then when they get there the number one spot is to be challenged for. Plus, by his own admission Pears isn’t ready.

I’m guessing it was pure good luck. Right place right time. I imagine he was the stand out candidate during interviews.

I was thinking similarly. But more like Paul Ince. An air of professionalism and the aura of an ex top flight player running things goes a long way at a lower level. Somebody will take a punt on him though. Undecided if I’d want it to be us. Could well see him replacing Dyche at Burnley - especially if they were relegated.

I’m not convinced that Lambert, Irvine and Kelly were cheap.

I’ll attempt a response. We keep being told that Venkys are different now than they were then but as soon as a change in manager is talked about it’s back to “...but Venkys!”. The very fact they have given Mowbray nearly four years should suggest that they are taking different advice from the stupidity of six managers in three years. People don’t want to hear it but Paul Lambert and his team were an excellent signing. With no money he brought in key players that we relied on for an awful long time afterwards. He should have been allowed to reinvest the Rhodes money. We cannot keep having the same debate time and time again every time the realisation hits home that Mowbray can’t take us to the next level that “we won’t get anyone better”. If Venkys were to replace Mowbray with another Owen Coyle then this current regime is a complete facade anyway. With BCD continuing indefinitely that would be the switching off point for even more fans. At some point we need to make the change. The worry is that this will happen too late - and of course the next manager will get the blame. We used to be a club who were perennial play-off chasers not satisfied with midtable and another season. That is what Venkys have done to us - gratitude for mediocrity. They get away with it because fans don’t demand more. The second division record books show Mowbray as a poor man’s Bobby Saxton. We need a Don Mackay, and a change from a middling team to genuine challengers.

At the time £7m was still a lot of money. The difference was that when it didn’t work it was dealt with. Managers didn’t (and still don’t) have time to wait for an investment to work out - except if Venkys like them. Brereton has just about reached the level, still fleetingly, that he should have been at the time he joined. According to transfermarkt .com Brereton is worth £2.25m in the current climate. That’s not even in the top 100 Championship players. Our £7m has to be paid back on the pitch.

Spot on. I’d also add what happens going forward? At what point do we look to “protect our investment” by offering him a new contract? And what criteria would he need to meet to justify one? Is he on low enough wages so as to make it an easy decision? Doesn’t he still have any potential to repay the investment? How much are we likely to recoup? So many questions and having a few decent games against poor teams seems to forgive a lot. Time now Brereton won’t have many suitors with offers above a couple of million. It’s arguable his development has gone backwards during his time here from where he was at Forest. I’d actually be interested to see how he would do here under a decent manager. He has certainly bulked up, with some psychological help could he be turned into Kevin Davies type target man and become more effective? The £7m price tag may well come back and bite us a second time.

Fully agree. His methods are not cut out for the Championship and his refusal to address the on-going issues in defence is a big factor. His rotation policy and favouritism for certain players doesn’t help either. We have been very fortunate to have played the three de facto bottom teams in our opening fixtures or things would look very grim indeed. Even Forest who we nearly took a point from are “fourth bottom”. When a manager has so much autonomy he needs to do a few things: first, have a clear ethos and direction, second, set high standards and be ruthless in cutting player from the team, third, a regular freshening up of the back room team when methods stop delivering. On the face of it we don’t have clear direction, we have “progress”. As long as there appears to be progress then that’ll do. We don’t have high standards - anywhere in this organisation - if you say the right things and try hard you will be persevered with. If you have ambitions and standards of your own you will be seen as a threat. Our back room team has stagnated, with only the addition of Damien Johnson as the tech guy to measure how badly we are doing. Mowbray needs a CEO on his case, questioning the recruitment failures, the rotation policy, demanding answers, pushing a time frame for improvement, even looking at alternative managers who could come in. We have a dwindling fanbase and a hole in the finances to worry about. Does anyone think Waggott is doing that? All I can see is the fans being blamed for not simply accepting all this and paying their money. Mind you, if we did have any of the above then he would have been gone by now. Mowbray is the wrong guy to have this much power over the club. His nice guy jumpers-for-goalposts ethos isn’t enough. An injury to Armstrong and we are in trouble. How, after all these windows and all these attackers can we still be so reliant on one player?

This thread suddenly got awfully quiet!

Pushed? He left because of... dignity and stuff.

You’re comparing lemons and pears.

Depends on whether “give him until x” means he should walk or if it’s the point when the fan in question does. Our walk away numbers will only really be known once lockdown is over but we are heading for an all time low. Of course that isn’t all Mowbray’s fault but considering we are now talking about a reduction of the hardcore we need to start looking like promotion candidates and not play-off pretenders. Same-old-same-old won’t see the masses racing back.

Good point. Hopefully he has just changed his name again. Where are you @Bigdoggsteel?

I take it back. I must have missed that magical moment. You are right, no progress since August 2018 does sound right to be fair.

It’s early days and Reading may well not stay at the top end for the whole season but aside from a spell of a few hours due to a lunch time kick off, Mowbray has had is in the top six for one weekend during the last three seasons - only a few weeks ago. That fact alone “counts” in some quarters as progress. We need to be challenging and not simply hovering around because other teams don’t capitalise. The only teams we have beaten this season occupy the bottom three places in the league - barring a club with 12 points deducted. We are going nowhere. Yet no changes are made to the back room staff - everyone is doing their best. Effort is regarded as more important than ability. He doesn’t even make changes at half time when things aren’t going in the right direction! Arte labor supra

Imagine stumbling on owners who are: - Rich heirs to a money-making business - Easily fooled - Listen to poor advice over and over - Don’t understand football - Don’t bring in credible football experts to run the club on their behalf (in fact despatched with the ones the already had due to poor advice) - Accept mediocrity as long as you are a nice person and have good excuses - Appoint your recommendation for your own boss - Remain completely absent from the club and even the country - Cover the financial losses that this approach yields every season - Put no pressure on you to get results Who would walk away from all of that...? Fans.

Interesting isn’t it. It doesn’t appear to have been clocked yet by many but there is no longer such a thing as a ‘home’ game. Referees will favour the Southern team, the traditionally bigger team, the most recently PL side and the current higher placed team. In just about that order. Home ‘advantage’ counts for nothing. BCD has put referees in a bubble, a safe space, a corruptible position - and not even necessarily consciously. There is no longer any pressure on referees to react; crowd-management is no longer part of their remit. Recent last man red-cards-turned-to-silent-yellows are just one example. Meanwhile Rovers under Mowbray continue to be Rovers under Mowbray. WDL and cannot do it when the weight of expectation rises even slightly above midtable mediocrity. His recruitment is about as random and luck-induced as his starting line-ups. Too many changes and now a Pear-named keeper to add to the list of pear-shaped ones that he and Benson have had so far. The cast keeps changing but the producer, director and script-writers remain, and between them keep churning out the same tired but earthy soap opera that appeases the masses, in between cups of tea. This season was being billed as our shot but will soon be re-branded (as fast as a Tier 4 lockdown) as a rebuilding season as the goalposts move so much you’d think they were starting a striker warm up session by the JW stand. Too many changes mean players go from hero one week to zero a fortnight later. Williams non-tackle just about sums up how toothless we can be. Yet some players walk on water no matter how much their form ebbs and flows. Same old. We go again.

That season we finished 6th but it preceded a terrible time with relegation the following year. Let’s hope we get the former and we can worry about the latter at a later date. That said, the PL is turning into a basket case!

Brereton did will today but you look at the team today and you would miss Holtby before you missed him. Great result in awful conditions against 10 men (which can sometimes make things difficult). Back within points of the play off places. We have the makings of a decent squad this season. We need to break out of the habit of winning a few and losing a few and get some momentum. We need to win when we are playing badly, and beat teams at both ends of the table. No more false dawns and gloating because our perennial performers have a rare good performance or score a rare goal. Consistency, form and momentum.