Tony Mowbray, Paul Lambert, Gary Bowyer NEVER took us even into the play offs. How about we start being a little bit more realistic and less slapped arse ?

As a kid when i first started going to watch Rovers they hadn't been in the top division for going on 20 years. It was just a pipe dream just getting in there and regular crowds of over 10 thousand were a myth to me as well. I never thought i'd see either and to be honest then it didn't really bother me. I just loved Rovers being what they were, small town team with tradition, rich history, skint owners and a great kit. That's why it's hard to take now for the likes of me because missed opportunities and just seemingly existing to carry people and keep them in jobs isn't befitting of a club like this. You're a long time dead so the saying goes and the longer you aren't trying to get into top flight again the less your realistic chances become. I just wish this ownership would wake up to this but their next appointment will tell us, have they given up ? Where they even that bothered in the first place.

I suppose given the pressure there was to bounce back first time then it's understandable that the mentality was job done, breathe and relax. You are right though it does show the character trait of Mowbray and co as a lot of managers would've said lets finish it off by winning this thing we and the club/owners/fans deserve it. Then we come to the next season and instead of saying we won't be breaking the bank but we are going to go for it. Double bounce pipping into the feel good factor and renewed owner interest and backing lets make the most of it. But no lets not lets just settle for the plod and hope to be challenging in 3/5/7 years or so.

But Mowbray himself is in the press saying i don't think Steve is a decision maker he just carries out the orders. It is though so easy at this club for everybody to keep passing the buck due to the silent detached ownership.

I doubt it's comparative to what was on offer here at the time. Many factors come into it having the biggest income doesn't mean they have the biggest budget plus they are still suffering from an overspend on crap. Our lot had gone someway to getting that down in wages terms although paying peanuts brought in monkeys. Also what external debt are Sheff W saddled with and payments on that ? Something we weren't lumbered with due to the nature of Venkys funding, that will stick in your craw but it's a fact. Here Mowbray was able to maintain a squad with a raft of players still on double figure wages even after relegation reduction clauses kicked in. He was able to offer them promised contract extensions on promotion as a nice bonus as well. Then he had room to bring in several others on loan one being from Newcastle on 19k pwk before contribution. Add in committing a fee worth around a million for the best player in the division. Then shall we mention an academy costing 3 million a season starting to churn out players to fill the squad ? Whilst i 100% there's more to it than just the budget and management ability plays a part i can't help but notice you alter your narrative to suit more than Mowbray does. When it comes to top 6 Championship it's all about budgets yet when it comes to trying to get promotion from league 1 it suddenly isn't all about budgets. Keep digging.

In an ideal world you'd assume they deal with football operations within the club and deal with all the stuff so the manager/coach can just manage the first team. In reality it's just a term and will mean different things in different clubs, here it could mean anything from sorting out car park passes to counting unsold pies.

Yep it will just be whoever the tame agents get through the door there'll be no real plan to it.

I'm sure they'd also give anything to have the biggest budget in the league and retain a mostly championship squuad for a season. Maybe they'd even appreciate our owners instead of the ones they've got.

Well i believe his wife was a registered agent so that's how he gets into football the game is infested with these suited corporate plonkers. The guy at Sunderland in the first documentary strikes me as a Senior type just trying his hand at running a football club. Clearly hadn't the first clue what he was doing yet had license to spend somebody else's money and no doubt get a cut of the action. Then we wonder why so many clubs end up falling foul of the rules.

Back to being an agents vehicle. You have to wonder yet again why the own the damn club if that's all they want. It really looks like all they want if for is to waste a certain amount of money every year whilst getting a bit back every now and again from transfers. Meanwhile some in the middle continue to make money from commissions whilst others draw wages.

As close ago as when Kilgalllon was here he said after he left that nobody knew who was doing what at Blackburn behind the scenes. If you need to know something you have to go through director of this that and the other then still get nowhere. Absolutely pathetic it still might be like that, no wonder the pay roll never comes down. How many wage drains to Venkys have on it ?

Interesting last line there.

Paul Senior was never a head of football operations really he was just a temp consultant hired to do a bit of dirty work.

This will be the one they had in the building but didn't get over the line, got some nice publicity though. Then in comes a Senior style consultant and Neil Lennon.

An 'open mind' was phrased before the Coyle and Mowbray appointments ! Dangerous wording because knowing for months TM was off they should know exactly who or at least what they want to replace him with.

Point still stands that for whatever reason we didn't get certain signings over the line despite going well down the route with them. Also he knew how it works here when fees hardly ever get reinvested but wages are often allowed to be freed up and lets not forget how he likes to alter narratives. So i find all this having two good players lined up to sign to help a promotion push 'if' Rothwell was sold all a bit of a stretch. End of the day those situations are difficult for the owners because they are damned either way. Only a top signing coming in and hitting the ground running would cover selling a star player at that point in the eyes of fans. And you can bet your last dollar had we sold Joe and brought in a couple more yet things had still fallen away Mowbray would be sat there blaming the sale of Rothwell.

What was he doing on the touchline then ?

It's an easy line to throw out for him though he was probably more miffed because he'd promised Rothwell if he played well for him he'd help him move up. That's how Mowbray seemed to pitch himself to players and fair enough but he also knows how things work at this club. He struggles to get good players signing during the windows after having them in the building but ending up settling for loanee kids instead. Then all of a sudden he has 2 good players lined up to come with the Rothwell money ? Sorry i don't buy it, at best they were another couple of loans or 500k buys who wouldn't have made much difference. The wages already in this seasons budget would have been freed up and that wouldn't have been much but as for the rest no chance. He was well aware of all this pre Armstrong sale but still did his best to help him through the door, only being true to his word i suppose. Can't blame him too much for that but on Rothwell he's just playing the room again imo, he hung his hat on the other Jan signings and they didn't work.

A DOF should be just that and nothing more. Heading up the ever expanding football operation inside the club and leaving the 1st team manager/coach to concentrate on that. Anything above, beyond or outside that is nothing to do with him he shouldn't be trying to run the whole club that's the chocolate tea pot CEO's job, a board of directors and chairmans job at a normal club.

Only at Venky owned Rovers could the assistant coach be running inside of the football operation in a dual role, i wonder if he was on a dual wage. If he's staying they should at least make him some kind of official DOF then he can step away completely from the first team day to day coaching etc. Let a new manager have the space to operate with his own men otherwise if they leave things as it they might as well promote a player into the technical area.

It's nailed on to be just a slot straight in appointment.

Venus came a while after Mowbray so their contracts probably don't run in tandem. If he is hanging around permanently though we have to wonder why and how much influence he has behind the scenes.

Mowbray spent years playing the honesty, integrity line then followed that by brainwashing everyone his way was the only way for Rovers. There was no other way nor no other man to do it and that spin has seen him through some very dodgy spells and bizarre team/sub selections at times. I'm certainly not expecting promotion on the back of a new voice, just to be competitive in the upper middle of the division and have a go. Like this season and i think he'll be looking a bit daft with his me and my way or the highway spin when someone else does ok with what is on offer at Ewood. Because for the most part he's downplayed the club and his own players at times just to keep things in line with his own agenda. It does need now though someone with a real appetite for the job and desire to do well for this club, like Tony had when he first came.

That's a real worry there's no way something won't happen with the remaining fixed asset and the potential move of the STC. At least with Vs transferring the other site it keeps these two off it or any of their pals getting their hands on it. Unless they have a spare 16/20 million.

Good riddance to him and his narrative altering boss. The hypocrisy of this moaning about travelling and where to live was embarrassing.