Stuart

“Mowbray feels Rovers are at a rebuilding phase” No shit Sherlock! Failure whitewashed and we start again. How many managers would love to be in Mowbray’s privileged position? Never gets the blame, losses covered, accountable only to himself. The current favourite excuse in the LT comments section is now “you can’t blame Mowbray for Covid-19”. ??‍♂️

Venkys (our billionaire owners) putting money in was the ONLY income likely to be seen this Summer. In fact, with every club struggling, it could have been the differentiator for us. As always their timing is impeccable. It’s looking instead like we will sell one of our Crown Jewels to fund loans at key positions, goalkeeper and centre back and possibly a striker. Still, such is the crazy unpredictable world of Venkys (and Mowbray) we could yet chuck another £5m at yet another number 10! Who knows!!

The only thing we need now is a manager who will play Gallagher and/or Brezza as centre forrads instead of out wide.

For what it’s worth, I agree with you. I think we did miss Dack but I’ve a feeling we’ll miss Adarabioyo more. I also think we do need an experience number one and a centre back minimum. That said, if (and it’s a big if) Wharton could step up then I think selling Dack for a cut-price £10m and re-invest some of that in a keeper then our Penniless XI (now ‘Net Minus XI’) could have a shot. But (and it’s a big but) Gallagher and Brereton need to chip in with goals along with Armstrong. And @Paul Mani if you’re happy I’m happy. ?

Sorry but neither of those answer the question. Would any players Mowbray could bring in, free or loans be better than existing players? Would it be worth sacrificing one of our big three for a new keeper? Penniless Rovers First XI Penniless Rovers Second XI Standby players - Butterworth, Vale and Magloire

Question: If it meant having to play Fisher (1) and Hilton (2), would we be better off than if we had to sell one of Armstrong, Dack or Lenihan in order to buy a new keeper?

“To replace him”. I assume not like-for-like! Then again, it could be Lenihan who leaves. Nothing would surprise me anymore.

It seems patently obvious that Dack’s injury left a huge, irreplaceable hole in our finances. Despite Venkys immense wealth.

If money is tight then Rovers need fans more than ever. They should be reaching out via the FF, Rovers Trust, forum groups. There is no communication whatsoever with fans so the inference is: we will involve you when we‘re ready. The silence is deafening. Personally I’d expect Waggott to leave before he would reach out to fans. Pride comes before a fall.

This is PRECISELY why sticking with Mowbray and his mythical slow build was the wrong course to take, and why he needed to be replaced it was too late. Promotion was, is, and must be the aim. Anything else will relegate us. Presumably some people would be okay with this? They had the chance to bring in Warnock 4 years ago, long after the so-called ‘mistakes’ and instead went with Coyle, which made Mowbray seem like a huge upgrade. They don’t have a clucking fue what it takes but will gladly pay nice men who don’t complain to run it for them. “At least they are still paying the bills” FOV

Agree with your summary. Scenario A and Mowbray should walk, as should Waggott. In that scenario, neither is valued by the owners and they are being expected do their jobs with both hands tied behind their backs. This is highly likely the correct scenario as Venkys have treated every manager with this kind of contempt. Some even worse. It’s almost inevitable that under these circumstances we will end up with people “happy” to operate in these circumstances. Without getting into a debate comparing their abilities and personalities, Kean, Bowyer, and evening Mowbray were/are never getting a better gig so why would they rock the boat. It was only when they fell out with fans (and possibly players) that things began to change. Tony is certainly the fans favourite of all of Venkys’ managers and he has a history of allowing the senior players a big say in how the team is run. No way will he have the same backlash. He holds the record of the worst post-war run of games of any Rovers manager. The response? A poll on here with about 90% negative rating until he won a couple of games and it went down to about 60%. Other than that? Nothing. And never, ever, any dissent in the ground. “He’s doing a good job under the circumstances”; “What do you expect when he has no money?”(cough, £12m, cough); “Who else is there?”. I’m not sure fans would even turn next season. They won’t be allowed in to begin with so if we are near the bottom then once fans are back any grumbling will be shouted down “get behind the lads”; “they need our support”; “get off Brereton’s back, it’s not his fault he cost £7m”. When fans are allowed in there will be no groups and no chanting or singing - presumably stewards will frogmarch non-compliant shouty fans out of the ground - wearing bio hazard suits and using cattle prods of course - so even less noise than before, let alone negative noise. As for accountability... to whom? Waggott? Nope Venkys? Nope Fans? Only on here, and only when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction. In the ground, “Tony, sort it out” is the kind of ‘abuse’ Mowbray is ‘subjected to’. At Rovers in 2020, Mowbray is accountable to Mowbray. That means getting his kids through university and ensuring a comfortable retirement. Nothing wrong with that, we’d all try to do the same. It’s just that football clubs require success. Success relative to their history and their fans’ expectations of course but... Venkys are allowing our history to be forgotten, while Mowbray and Waggott are busy dimming expectations by telling us what a small club we are and how we can’t compete with the big boys (like Brentford) and that we don’t have enough ‘committed’ fans. Meanwhile they “do the right thing by players” by handing out month-long extensions and operating a form-busting rotation policy and decrying naive youngsters (keeping the senior players onside and therefore the dressing room). And Scenario B - he does know his budget? Well, it’s entirely in his hands then and time is of the essence. So ? or get off the ?.

Fascinating. Boris’ government seem to change tack as soon as the political wind blows. Seems they are determined to keep the public onside and will go against their own principles to do so. Without going too off piste, it’s the same with exams. This may be the first year ever where nobody ends up disappointed with their results: ”It’s a C” ”But I worked so hard” ”Ok then, it’s an A*” Same with Covid: ”It’s not safe” ”But we’ll go out of business and you’ll lose tax revenue” ”Ok then, it’s safe”

Just like that? The decision making around this supposedly deadly virus is so inconsistent it’s untrue. Is it any wonder people have become cynical?

If there is any truth that we are still waiting to know our budget, so we can plan our recruitment strategy then... why the hell does Mowbray put up with this crap? If he does have a budget but it means we have to sell to buy then we are sat waiting for a bid to come in for Arma. Sorry but we can’t wait for this to bring in a keeper. It’s ultimatum time: back me or sack me. Cash now for a keeper, repaid when Arma goes.

We would surely have been paying Downing a one-year contract of similar value if not more.

And yet Derby, who have promotion as their aim disagree with you. We need experience and quickly. This idea that we have an indefinite amount of time to slowly build for promotion is a fallacy. There is a three year FFP cycle. Miss your chance and you have to start again. Experience in our goalkeeper department is a must. We don’t have any - on or off the field.

Indeed. PL clubs have endless resources (despite furloughing staff and letting tax payers foot the bill) and since the emergency goalkeeper loan option was removed seem to be hoovering up all of the experienced keepers leaving most Championship clubs with lads learning their trade.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53803874 Joe Hart going to Spurs sums up everything wrong with football. It’s clearly more in his interests to be a reserve reserve for a PL club than play competitive matches in the Championship. It’s a shame that coronavirus didn’t bring down the whole bloated, wasteful, arrogant empire.

Good on you mate.

This story undermines the situation at the club as we need to bring in players who won’t have the benefit of a full pre-season. Watch out for ‘hit the ground running’ stories!

Good point. Even on the pitch there isn’t much to get excited about.

We don’t even know if we will be able to watch the BCD games. The idea of listening to the radio with no crowd noise is about as enthusing as a Becks Blue shandy at a vegan BBQ. In November. In the rain. At some point, we are going to have to get used to doing normal things in less than normal circumstances. We can choose to vape knowing that it could harm our health (and potentially others around us). Much like vaping the long term effects of coronavirus on our lungs are not yet known. We should be able to go to venues (especially outdoor ones) with the same caveats.

“We” as in “the world”. The long term effects won’t be known, by definition. Lest we forget...

8. (Or 7.6) https://www.theguardian.com/football/2001/dec/30/newsstory.sport1

I’d argue we don’t know enough about it yet. It could be 20-30 years before the effects are known. Nice sidestep on the market point though.