Didn’t know that. Bit of a nonsense if a player with grandparents of four different nationalities could do a tour of friendlies.

In days gone by, more cynical England managers have played these players in meaningless friendlies to keep the players from doing this, just in case they perform in future. Chris Sutton was taken the piss out of when it came to England, and was only given one appearance, and Ben isn’t fit to wrap gorilla tape around the aging aglets of Chris Sutton’s shoelaces.

I really hope if he does then it doesn’t go badly for him. South American football fans are fervent and ruthless. If a bit of booing from a couple of Rovers fans managed to upset him then he’s in for a world of pain if he doesn’t perform.

It is alleged that Mowbray selected Waggott. What then? If a manager ingratiates himself to the point that fans will trust him no matter what, and in parallel the FF endorse Waggott’s pricing and other initiatives, then why wouldn’t Venkys? In any event, who exactly would do the firing of either of them and how? By fax? It took Singh and then Senior to make changes previously and before then Shaw/Agnew - at least the latter had to face the shame of their actions/inactions locally (my God, right now they seem like saner times). Singh was only ever a temporary advisor and Paul Senior resigned so if Senior had dug his heels in who would have removed him? It seems patently obvious that Venkys are not running the club but want to do everything by proxy. How likely are we to see them employ someone above Waggott? I’d suggest not, so it appears we are stuck with Mowbray (man of dignity and honour) and Waggott (a man who has by his own admission already “done everything we can”) until they see fit to leave. Yes Venkys could change, much in the way a leopard could change its spots, and decide to get more involved. Desai could travel over and personally remove them both, but in the meantime we are watching the club suffer while thousands of fans have walked away. And somehow Mowbray and Waggott are still held harmless!

All this talk about Hodgson and how terrible he was (even people preferring Mowbray to him - eh?) should remind people of what the true ebb and flow of football looks like. You make bad decisions and things go badly but then you make good decisions and things get better. Venkys’ club is just a series of bad decisions and does not fit into the normal good times and bad times that one would normally associate with being a football supporter. All that said, after Eriksson reneged on his agreement with us and Hodgson came in, some of the football we played was the best I’ve ever seen from us. We were the best team in the country again for a while and then it went pear shaped. Yes, bad decisions were made in recruitment. Many would make the top 10 all-time worst signings! Hodgson was a coach and knows how to manage a team. The bad eggs that came in destroyed what he was trying to do and Sherwood was allegedly lead antagonist in the dressing room. Before he came we had a team of leaders. Afterwards we had only “rubber dinghy men”. Good managers build a team of captains, Dalglish, Souness and Hughes followed the same blueprint, sadly we now have to look back at 1999 as still part of the good old days. Jeez these threads are depressing. Like watching a Rovers compilation on the big screen of Tugay and Jansen et al, and then having to watch the kind of crap that we do.

You call them excuses, I call them legitimate complaints. If your boss gave you a poor performance rating (impacting your bonus and career prospects) but you had been physically prevented by your boss from doing your job for long spells, would you be happy if your mates just said “excuses”? Rothwell has been held back by this manager, and he’s not alone. It would be interesting to look back at the Josh King threads of old. We would see very similar discussions. Rovers under Mowbray: “Labore et Labore et give the ball to Armstrong”. The worst thing in this pissing contest of Arma vs Rothwell is that we will probably end up losing both and still be stuck with Mowbray.

Most of our players don’t consistently perform, and that’s because they aren’t consistently played. As long as Mowbray is here players like Rothwell will come and go and won’t achieve their potential. Dolan will be next; any desire to get forward and be imaginative will be coached out of him. We are set up to try to get the best out of one player. A strategy which made that player look good, and who probably really enjoyed his season, but ultimately a strategy which took a club with play-off ambitions to 15th, ending with a run of three wins in five to help erase fans’ memories as they ease into the Summer just as the pubs open. Get those shirts bought lads and get behind Tony and the boys.

I’m not a bad person, I’m not a bad supporter. I care whole-heartedly about this town and about this club but enough’s enough. We are being taken advantage of and being taken for fools by the current incumbents. After two desperately disappointing seasons, following the previous 8 years of humiliation, the circus rumbles on with an even lower standard and with even lower targets. If we choose to, there is the potential for a silent, non-confrontational, low time-investment, low cost protest that carries a symbolic financial impact, the length of which is determined by Waggott or whoever makes the decisions. The premise is as follows: Next season’s shirt is not a fashion statement or a collector’s item, it will be a symbol of support for the existing management team. Buy a ST if you want to but wear an old Rovers shirts until there is a change of manager. Who’s on board? Does anybody actually care enough to NOT fork out £50+ for a cheaply made replica shirt? I urge fans who are about to walk away to instead reconsider, be here to support the team but join in with a simple protest. If we cannot unite behind such a simple idea then we are a fanbase lost, and have become mere spectators. It only hurts the club for as long as Waggott stands by and does nothing. It’s on him/them, not us. It’s even arguable that it only hurts the sponsor depending on what commercial arrangement you believe. #oldshirtsontilmowbraysgone

“commercially, this is an excellent deal for the club” Translation: we’ll buy them cheaper and sell them for more. Wonder if they’ll ever do anything that is “excellent for fans “.

Mowbray has to go. Sadly we need first team players and quickly and it seems we can’t do that without money. The only money we can get is for Armstrong. If we want to maximise the opportunity he has to go this Summer. Now if we brought in a manager we’ll could work miracles without selling Armstrong then great. But my view is that we can’t/won’t.

No. I think that if/when Armstrong leaves we will never score another goal and will be relegated in record time with the highest negative GD in history. Ask me another.

Yes, of course, it’s not Mowbray or Armstrong being selfish, it’s the other 30 people involved in the first team set up!

It’s all about opinions but come on, “flattered to deceive”. In and out of the side thanks to Mowbray’s rotation policy. Armstrong is the product of a badly skewed management style. If Rothwell had a north east accent it would be the other way around. Wor Adam is massively overrated and won’t be missed.

Barring Kaminski, all of our players are inconsistent. That’s the biggest feature of Mowbray’s tenure. The only player fans seems to think is any good is Armstrong, the only other player than our keeper who has been consistently played regardless of form.

Well I would if I was him.

What’s to explain? I’ve watched the team when Armstrong has been absent and, in my opinion, we play much more like a team. Movement, interplay, passing and movement, cohesion, body language. There are minimal stats to back this up but last season without him we beat Millwall away, drew with Swansea and narrowly lost 1-0 to Brentford. Dack was injured by Raya and Arma was then brought back in for the following game. He was then out again and we drew with Norwich. In both runs, as soon as we lost, somebody was dropped for Armstrong. Arma hogs the chances and no surprise scores the majority of our goals. IMHO, this is how Mowbray wants us to play but it could just be that Armstrong is one-eyed.

I think that question is yet another indictment of Mowbray. See Sparks’ comment. Mowbray has favourites. First it was Dack, and Armstrong was played in a position that Arma himself said didn’t suit him in order to favour Dack’s abilities. Everyone else is part of a rotation. We are likely to have one player per season of any transfer interest. This season it is Armstrong. Now, to go back to Joe’s question, I would support keeping Armstrong but only if Mowbray is replaced.

Moving the goalposts there, Joe. I would rather we sold Armstrong right now than Rothwell. If we keep Armstrong and recruit using the money we make from Rothwell then we are going to really struggle. If we keep Rothwell and strengthen using the money from Armstrong then we should be able to improve the first team. Arma is hugely overrated IMHO and his stock is artificially inflated because of his sporadic goalscoring - he is very inconsistent and has scoring gluts once teams are beaten. We are a better team when he doesn’t play. (You won’t find many stats for that but I’ve seen it with my own eyes). We need to take advantage of the situation. While Mowbray is here this is all moot mind you. Do you want another season like (or worse than) last season?

Ha, yes. It was a photo of him with what looked like a bag of pedigree chum on a shelf behind him.

Why would Armstrong go along with that idea? He can make a heck of a lot more money as a free agent with the exact argument you are making. We have to sell this Summer or plan for life without him and no money. With Mowbray in charge we may as well give Rothwell “the Armstrong role”, build the team around him and let him have 5-6 shots every game. I think it would be wrong to finance a one-season gamble (form vs injury-risk vs value) by selling another first team. Besides, even if your lowball estimate is right. £10m now or £20m next season (assuming the same kind of season - unlikely) makes no real difference in Mowbray’s hands and is irrelevant given the size of our debt. That said, £20m could go a long way in L1. But lest we forget this 29 goal striker was an ever present in an abysmal season, including capitulation towards the end, so why the need to keep him?

His stock won’t be higher than this season.

Entirely possible. Similar happened with Kean. Steve on November 22nd: “Yes, there have been discussions about a new contract, but I have told the owners that this is an inappropriate time to conclude any new contract discussions. Instead, the real issue is for me and everyone else to concentrate on the games.” https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/steve-kean-20-damning-quotes-823871

Selling Rothwell to keep Armstrong would only serve to highlight how terrible the Coventrio are at recruitment. A proper manager would sell him and buy three gems. Have we learned nothing from what happened with Dack? But then again it is Nicko. He has a tombola machine to rival Tony’s.

The only difference is that at the end of this season Mowbray no longer has a contract. It will be the biggest F you of all from Venkys to the fans if he gets another one.