Rooney was a physical beast for his age he was footballs answer to Mike Tyson so coupled with the talent he was ready. Jones looked like a 30 year playing with the kids also and Hanley was built for it at a young age. All this makes a massive difference so that is what will decide if/when Phillips is truly ready. If he hasn't the physical side of it yet he'll struggle like countless others despite whatever talent he has on the ball. I think Van Hecke last season was a good yard stick because of his raw aggression. A couple of years older than Phillips though.

That'll upset Waggots coffee cup crew. He's a salesman, a middleman, if they throw down a new mix of grass seed he'll say it's a brand new pitch, that sort of thing.

He's a corporate salesman giving it the corporate patter with zero substance or acknowledgement, it's what they do so nobody should be surprised. The VH HQ finance dept (Babu) is calling the shots they've no idea how things role in Blackburn or football they are still looking at it like another processing plant. He isn't rocking any boats either he's just here for his wages.

He'd brought his scoring up a division with Hudds hadn't he ? Either way we were an ailing second tier side supposedly looking for promotion so he was a good signing if a little overpriced at the time. The kind of signing that would have got us back up if we were managed and recruiting like a well run club. Also we ended up in the 3rd tier after we sold him.

Waggot is the guy running the corner shop across the road from the supermarket happy because some will still pay 50p more for a loaf of bread. There is no bigger picture with this guy as long as he can pay the bills a year at a time he's making a nice wage.

We aren't beating Sheff Utd off for any players money wise, hopefully the JDT factor might swing it. As long he tells them they'll be in the team if they train hard enough and aren't coming as back up or to learn off Scott Wharton for 6 months !

I think the step up over the last few years and last seasons early form has got a few down there a bit over excited. Risk v reward paid off last season in terms of us not fighting relegation after the youthful wage slashing revolution. However the post 2nd place slump and the 0-7 home beating should be serving as massive red flags. The squad now is significantly weaker than it was then. They are going down a very rocky road if they don't allow some quality and experience to be brought in.

100% this. There's a lot of hindsight going on now but the contracts were a slow burning clustfook going back years and we SHOULD have finished in the top 6 with the players we had.

The deals have gone on the table 2 years ago low balling more like, that is what has started this rot off in the first place. The key is to get these things done before players become desirable for other clubs and quite clearly there have been poor judgement calls from the manager and CEO. Along the lines of they'll never be much better than they are so the limit is about 7 grand. Meanwhile those players and their agents are looking at Ayala and co on 15 grand. That was the time to find middle ground and get a deal or two done at least but once side has pulled the drawbridge up and the other has taken offence. Then we muddle on whilst they leave it at a stalemate, all of a sudden we are doing well and the contracts are ticking down. Club starts getting twitchy and tries to re- engage but interest has been garnered elsewhere, heads are being turned and beyond are top line wages plus signing on fees and long contracts are being promised elsewhere. Too late is the cry, you've fiddled about with your balls in your pocket waiting for us to come crawling but it's not happening. All this isn't helped by rumours of the manager and his pal advising take the bigger money elsewhere, suspecting they were off as well. Thoroughly unprofessional stuff but not surprising in the slightest and this is all on Waggots watch.

I'll quite happily take that car crash chance i don't really understand the mentality of not ready particularly after the last decade. We were more ready than at any other time under this ownership and whenever or if ever we go up again there'll be carnage at times. We are so far behind a lot of others now being ready isn't really to bother about just take that chance if it comes along however it does. One season up there sorts the finances providing there is no more skullduggery and there actually is a plan. Being a yo yo club for a few years is fine by me there is more chance of getting back established building up that way. Just hoping to do a Burnley ain't going to happen here, it could have done if it started 5 years ago like it should have.

So it was said a while before we hit the top 2. I think what we can all take from this is nobody comes out smelling of roses in our eyes, not the players nor the club. Like you say it should never have got to this point not with all 3 of them anyway. The lack of strong decisive leadership and authority to make decisions is the root cause yet again, hopefully the new set up irons this out.

To say he'd happily have sold all 3 at Christmas after they'd played key parts in getting us into automatic promotion places speaks volumes of the brains and ambition. Who in their right mind would have even considered that at that point unless the baliffs were knocking. Clowns.

It looks stupid now but it didn't at the time lets be brutally honest about this. Most would have gone mad at selling one of our key players from first half of the season whilst in 2nd place or so. It made no sense at all unless there was a cast iron guarantee the money would have gone on a striker. It wouldn't have everyone knew including i suspect Mowbray himself it was just another easy excuse to make. I think he was more miffed because he didn't want to be seen to be standing in Joe's way he was a players manager first and foremost, that' how he worked. End of the day the owners were over a barrel with this one but they should have backed him with extra instead, however would he have invested in a good striker ? Very unlikely given the things he was saying and did with what he was allowed to bring in.

Now when i suggested this might be Dacks best role now coming on the back of his 2 years injured, the need to manage him in the future. And of course at the time assuming Uncle Tony would still be looking after him i got rounded on and told to get off his back. Better luck with your post, which i'm 100% in agreement with as we've seen in the past to get the best out of Dack you have to tailor your game to him. If he was as fit as he was then he'd be able to do the false 9 better than anyone we had but that might be redundant now. Interesting what happens now, hopefully JDT fits him in somewhere that suits.

Another school of thought here is the pathways into the team Broughton talked about. Well now there are 3 spots up for grabs vacated in 2 cases by former academy graduates. I don't for one min think the club through all this have been as serious as they could be about getting these 3 back on board. The only one i think was a serious contender to leave all along was Rothwell. He'll be the one who gets a lot more money than the others if Bournemouth take up their long time interest. The other two i reckon just wanted some serious commitment from the club and probably knew a long time ago it wasn't going to happen. All part o the fat controllers efforts to keep the wage bill down whilst spaffing money elsewhere on other overpaid Mowbray signings.

Good effort by them.

I think they just have certain modest targets to hit and the best way of guaranteeing it is the easiest lazy option. Put prices up and squeeze every drop out of what they can. That way even though crowds go down the same income is raked in whereas calculated gambles or speculate to accumulate carries more risk. They can't be arsed with that and protect their position, some might say it's solid business thinking. It's only a short term sticking plaster though. Every time there is an opportunity to try and drive things forward they pass it up in favour of the squeeze.

Pretty sure that relatively small shortfall is made up in other ways as well around the ground. Also the more you have attending league games the better the chance of drawing a few more of those back for cup games. Therefore taking a bit more money in those all paying for one match type games.

They like to confuse the prices for some reason i suppose someone is being paid a lot to sit there and think of these brain dead strategies. At points last season it was like every game is a different price it's bonkers they are all the same level opposition in the same league. To be fair though most of the night games were at the lowest price point i think, the rest of it was plain daft.

I absolutely dread to think what stupidity will reign when it comes to matchday prices. One game at the beginning of last season was £25 where i sit the next was £32 if i remember correct. A full 7 quid dearer for the same seat in the same league against bog standard Championship opposition. The difference ? Oh yes that was because WBA would bring 1500+ but Swansea wouldn't ! Alienating your own non season ticket fans is a great way to boost crowds obviously.

Buy low, use them, sell high, Bring through youth, polish them, use them, sell them. Academy or no academy that's the dynamics of it we were supposed to be basing our model on, although granted this Brentford talk a while back was being used as an excuse to sell the land and downgrade again. All amounts to the same thing, bringing players through then letting them go for nothing isn't sustainable in the long term.

Our model is now producing championship standard players for other clubs to snap up for free. Supported by the occasional big money Prem move ( for guys we paid millions for anyway ) Great, i'm sure Brentford are flattered we are doing so well in following their model. Meanwhile another fixed asset is probably being eyed up for 'transfer'.

We don't want to keep asking the owners for more the muppet says when pushing up prices. Then around 10 million worth of mostly home grown championship talent all probably on less than ten grand a week walk for nothing. On top of another poor season ticket uptake these are sackable offences for any CEO in any industry never mind this one. No doubt he'll be desperately trying to cover it by selling BBD behind the scenes.

That much was clear. I think he was trying to be as professional as he could but his dummy had come out. In truth he was just another self serving gravy train rider by the end. Only really interested in keeping his own nest feathered. True he could have walked but tbh it might have been a blessing at that stage.

Waggot has lost thousands of ST holders on his watch and now 3 read it again THREE of our graduate players. All for nothing, zero, zilch. This of course can be dressed up as part of the great reset but it isn't is it, it leaves the new manager instantly needing 3 key players with likely no money to bring them in. In short it's pathetic. Mowbray is gone now carry on the great reset and get rid of this bum who has done nothing in his time here except try and downgrade everything whilst pushing prices up.