Just now, RevidgeBlue said:

Just on Armstrong, I may be in a minority but I don't think it's worth letting him go for much less than £20m if it's true that New castle have a quite ridiculous 40% sell on clause. If we sold him for £10m the Club would only see £6m of it - might as well keep him for the season.

Wonder who agreed to a ludicrous clause like that (as if I need to ask). It's like with the loanees, as if we've still been developing someone else's player for them even though to all intents and purposes we signed him permanently!

40% of future profit over and above the original fee i believe it is.

The real balls up here is not getting an improved deal in front of him last summer.

2 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Not sure how bothered he would be. Mo money, mo problems for Mowbray. Although from his comments anything above relegation next season would be seen as a positive. That's the ambition of the club right now. Tried aiming for promotion, didn't like the pressure. 

Didn't have any pressure as far as i can see he just got what he asked for and experimented with it. It didn't work, they've chosen to accept his 55 excuses why not and not attach any responsibility to him.

Him and Swag have now sold them yet another plan, another transition  (downgrade) and are getting the time and clearance to carry on.  Iv'e always said he's on an absolute blinding number here and he knows it.

I just can't understand those who still buy into it all.

51 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Looks as if we are going into an embargo! 

Suits Mowbray down to a T.

Doesn't have to perform and has something else to blame.

It does seem like last time they are happy to sleepwalk into it.  It does open up possibilities for the number crunchers who don't really give a toss about how the team does.

Seeing as it happened before under similar circumstances then if it does happen again i'd suggest the problem lies higher up the food chain. I'm sure Mowbray would love more money to waste but to be honest i doubt he's bothered too much either way.

He still gets paid and as you say the excuses come gift wrapped and ready made at Rovers.

Unless we really are desperately in need of an outside cash injection i doubt these owners would let AA go for 8 million. 

The other side of the coin though is he'll be offered double his money probably and will leave for nothing next summer. So they might well be being strongly advised to grab what they can. 

Rothwell or someone might well get sacrificed just to get the money for a better deal for AA.  Is that really worth it though as it'll only be to keep him for a season at most on better terms.

Then we've lost both.

Most likely outcome to this is probably a late sale or one in Jan for an undisclosed amount. Meaning we'll get about 9 million !

Shades of Rhodes in all this......

Mowbray and/or HSH will have someone lined up just waiting for it to be ticked off by Pune.

There's no way they are bringing in a new HoR that won't be told what to do by the manager.  Why did the last one who may or may not have been responsible for getting in some good young talent bolt off to a lower division club ?

Has anyone in a position to ask or find out bothered to do so ?  Far too much to ask the local propaganda reporters i suppose.

I'm not sure about turning up drunk i don't think even he was that dumb. He was a known piss head though probably post games there's plenty evidence out there. Him and Coleman were a legendary nightime double act once over. Bad habits don't die out overnight.

I know for a fact from eye witness of his late night boozing at Ewood.  Perhaps he was just lonely though, away from home, no dog, no friends etc !

Also that 'well respected' coach was on the scrapheap i do believe until Allardyce ( or someone close to Rovers )  threw him a bone.

They've spent money setting up this scouting players by screen and data approach. Probably employed extra staff as well so they'll just not want to pay scouts and scouting expenses i bet.

Plus certain people probably get more control over signings this way. 

I don't begrudge Mowbray his holidays and a total break from it all for a few weeks. The last 12 months will have been a slog for everybody in football so back to a proper summer break then real pre season should do everybody good. 

However we keep being told all the plans are in place and the wheels grinding with the recruitment dept. The recruitment dept that has no head of recruitment.

So yeah a typical Rovers summer where many things will be being left to chance and just hoping for the best.

As for Waggot i'm not even going to go there the guys snake oil job over the training ground has left me sick in regards to him.

3 hours ago, JoeH said:

Against some teams I think it does. Wycombe's, Coventry's, Birmingham's, Huddersfield's this season for example. But against sides above us, with more knowhow and game plan, I think we have to be more counter based personally.

I agree the counter attack game seems to suit this squad as does the higher tempo get in the faces stuff. To me that's how a young vibrant team should be used to get the best effect as it's making the most of the young energy levels.  Difficult to play like that every game twice a week obviously but if it becomes drilled into them they'll get used to it.

That's the way to get up this division imo as iv'e never known an average side turn into a total football side overnight and prosper. Just doesn't happen it tends to be teams with strong squads who've maybe come down a season or two before that get their act together and football their way back up. 

In truth though as you've pointed out being able to do different things is the best way but can lead to over complication in our case. I just think the core style should be higher tempo slightly more aggressive pressing game. Then if you have to go away to top teams or even at home against one and sit back a bit and keep the ball so be it. 

Odd teams aside i don't think the gap between 80% of the division is that big at all, that's why it's so competitive and unpredictable at times. Select the strongest side that gels and apply yourselves properly and anybody can beat anybody. That's the mentality we should have not this being happy playing keep ball and losing by the odd goal that's crept in as an excuse for possession football.

7 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

Bennett?

Both of them.

On the strength of his stint here guaranteeing him x amount of games from the beginning of the season shouldn't be a problem.

That might swing it in Rovers favor but knowing this lot they'll just say we'll take you back if you don't get fixed up elsewhere son.  Then wait all summer for him until he gets fixed up elsewhere.

Same with Elliot probably.

2 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

I don't care about all that.  A clogger🤣  from the man who constantly slags AA, I'm not taking your views on forwards seriously.  How can anyone be less skilful than Brereton?  Gallagher is a cart horse.

Fletcher has outscored both of them...in a lot less games than SG.  And has 3 times as many goals as BB...roughly the same number of games and at a higher level.....

Clearly you have seen nothing of Fletcher except numbers on Wikipedia. 🙄

Watford have signed him for the Premier league, we should have told them about pinky and perky. They could have got them instead....oh wait.

No other clubs would've signed BB and SG when our lot did for the money we did on the contracts we did.  Only us.

I doubt any other manager, after getting them for such money, would then have set about pissing around with them like this one has.

Tinpot.

54 minutes ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Still got a couple of weeks to publish the accounts and get the transfer embargo lifted.

It's a sham as usual they want to be embargo'd just like they did last time when they willingly walked into it.

Opens up doors and excuses to sell players and crunch down the wage bill again whilst only getting in cheapo's.  That's why Mowbray and his clan of league 1 ability stooges remain. They used Bowyer in much the same way in the end.

Hopefully get through this season relatively unscathed then have a fresh start all around. 

So in terms of doing anything other than staying in mid/lower mid table the possession game does nothing for us.  It doesn't suit the squad the manager put together and it doesn't play to their strengths.

He's chosen a one size fits all, try to to make it work approach and although some of the stats say it wasn't a disaster the league position and subsequent happy to go nowhere mentality says it was.

God only knows what he'll come up with next but if he changes it again it's probably the right thing to do. Yet that also makes a fool of him and the crap he's trotted out the last 2 seasons. Shows it all up for the complete wasteful experiment its been.

We so so need a change of direction here but we are stuck in a Mogga muddle.

3 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

He's on holiday until the middle of this week apparently, but wasn't really conspicuous before that either.

Would be nice if the reason was they were all getting the push.

Holiday camp to holiday resort.

He seems to have disappeared from public view yet again since the training ground shambles.

Not answering the phone from the LT scribe.

1 hour ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Great memories,a good team,great players,packed stands but again hits home now much we have lost...

 

But half our fans still expect all that according to our non results based manager and his groupies.

20 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Absolute waste of time and money bringing loanees in to finish 15th.

Then back to square one at the start of each season.

The only way to genuinely progress is to develop our own youngsters.

My thoughts exactly but we are in a position now where we need these luxury players just to finish 12-15th under this manager.

Tosin the season before, Elliot and THB this season have done as much as anyone to help keep our heads above water. Not sure what it would look like without their ilk but we might well find out soon,

This experience will do him good although after the last year we've had and the knocks he's had maybe a rest would've been better.

Whilst he's with them though perish the thought a manager might know what to do with him.

4 hours ago, DE. said:

Honestly I'm at a point where I just can't get excited about new signings as long as Mowbray is in charge. Even if the signee appears impressive I already know his impact will be neutered by Mowbray's coaching and style of play, and will be lucky simply to play in his natural position. 

Whoever they are they'll just be rotated, chucked in and out, play second fiddle to favs.

If they don't look good the plethora of excuses will begin, not used to our style ( why the F sign them then ), new enviroment, away from home, injured, not Chris Sutton or Alan Shearer.

Never felt as meh towards a season for as long as i can remember. 

7 hours ago, 47er said:

Walkers don't come out well from all that has happened though?

That's more down to them not caring enough about the great mans wishes or having the desire to carry on his good work.

Regardless, everything that has happened has happened on Venkys watch.  They didn't get left owing million in hidden debt or transfer payments. They created something like a 10 million pound black hole in the first 6 months.

In a previously -5 million per season loss making entity with 30 million guaranteed income.

The buck starts and stops with them, the greedy disinterested uncaring Walkers are an afterthought by now.

The whole fact of it is THEY created this situation, not the Walkers not the fans.

Some of these kids are prattling on like the Vs are some kind of saviors of Rovers protecting us from oblivion. I know they've only known this ownership but what is it with the young generation and not accepting historical Facts ?

Has our history pre Dec 2010 now been cancelled just because it better suits the modern narrative for what they'd rather believe ?

Strange lot.

Some interesting reading in the LEP today in regards to Hemmings funding.

He's put in via share capital 13 million since last June to underwrite their running costs AND buy and refurbish their Euxton training ground.

So the club that regularly out performs us and beats us costs less to run and they've paid off a manager.

I know we have bigger running costs because of the Academy and our wage bill will dwarf theirs. Probably costing Rovers 2 million a year just for Mowbray, Venus and Waggot. Now can anyone honestly say that is money well spent ?

Before you even start on the rest of the wage bill and the stuff that's still being paid for that's long gone.  Relegation was supposed to be the big reset but these lot are still pissing venkys money up the wall. Criminally wasting what is on offer here then looking to cut back and shrink the club to cover their own failings.

We are getting upper table backing and being run by league one'rs.

Drain the swamp.

7 hours ago, JBiz said:

Stockholm syndrome, zeitgeist? Sounds like you’re the one blaming other supporters to me.

I personally wished the so called “know summats” would be a little more open minded to the idea that not everyone (including myself) wants the “nuclear” solution that just basically means; Goodbye Venky’s, sold players, academy, training facility, ground to lease back and any division… just to get shut! Aka the Wigan, the Bolton, the Bury. 

Whilst that may be the favoured route on this particular forum - I’d expect the majority of rovers fans would regard it completely out of the question.

Myself included. Why burn the last advantage Jack Left? Without an academy, or having to rent our ground, or having to attract players in 4th tier or worse?

I know the answers people will have for those questions here, but I also know those posters will be the first to point out “poor football” or players who look “alien” on the pitch.

If you think our squad, performances and football is bad now but advocate that route- I’ve got some bad news for you.

 

We could very well end up like that with them at the helm. I think that's the issues for a few, me included.

I'd much rather go down the pan without them that with them.

7 hours ago, Fraserkirky said:

Punters still arguing about how important Data is and a rehashed Harry Picketing story for the 7th time. Incredibly boring right now.
When do the signings start again??

When Boro phone Tony.