There's no smoke without fire, if it walks like a duck etc etc Too many parallels with training ground thing here and the Coventry one. At the end of the day most guys in suits in football are chancers. If there is a chance of a few more quid delivered on the back of something that might be legitimate to some then they'll be sniffing it out. Some of them are just cold hard businessmen at the end of the day, drawing a salary and looking for bonuses and percentages. Can't see Mowbray being a driving force behind it but he was happy to go along with it. Seeing as he seems to virtually run the club that's quite telling as i'm sure he had enough clout to dismiss it our of hand. I do believe though that these lot are just deluded rather than corrupt. They have some blueprints to 'build football clubs' they believe will work. They've now found a niche at Ewood with rich daft absentee ownership to put it into practice. Keep experimenting and still somehow stay on the pay role. Truth is they are self serving lower level ability operators, creating their own old boys club, better suited to hatching their plans elsewhere. We are now being dragged backwards to suit this lot when really we should have people in situ with enough guile and ambition to use what we already have and what this ownership can provide to its very best effect.

I don't hate him i just don't rate him as anything other than what he is. Even that rankles with some who can't see beyond his spiel. However i want the team to do well so that means i want him to do well and i don't care if he sticks 2 fingers up then. Surely appointing yet another of his pals is the last throw of the dice now. But saying stuff like the above, amongst the other gems he delivered last season, is the work of a sour faced bumbling twat sticking fingers up at fans whilst he's failing to acknowledge any responsibility whatsoever. A very common theme with him and something he should've been sacked for if the club was run by a correct board of directors.

Not seen if there's any details of the new fellas contract but when the word consultant is in view it usually means self employed. That would certainly appeal to these lot if he's semi retired and cheap as well as ticking the Mowbray boxes. As with managers jobs there's no point anybody applying for senior posts at Ewood. It always ends up going down the nepotism of friendly advisors route.

This is the perfect 'wind down' job though they are all on it. Other side of the coin is the longer hes been at it the more experience and contacts we should benefit from.

Only crime.... I'd howl with laughter at that normally but i think you are actually serious FFS. They've been here a decade now and look at the state of it. How many times do successful business people make the same mistakes over and over ? They are still following the same advice lines they did at the beginning through sheer ignorance. It's just the characters have changed for the umpteenth time and they've finally found a set cheaper and easier to control than the others. People can shove the naive line where the sun doesn't shine i'm afraid. They are willfully ignorant and arrogant. It tends to go hand in hand with such vast and easy wealth.

As odd as spending loads of time and money setting up a Euro scouting network post Brexit. Knowing the potential pitfalls ahead.

They came with clear remits from the board as well. What is Mowbrays ? He had one once and that was stay up but didn't manage it. Then presumably it was promotion or bust at the first attempt and he got us over the line. Since then though he's just setting his own agendas and altering them when he feels like it.

Do bears shit in the woods....

I hope Mr Park is well versed in signing loan players.

They had 12 million and countless wage stretches and loan fees to do that over the past 3 seasons. They totally 100% blew it so here we are set to scrabble about filling out half a squad with no money.

No team manager should be appointing the Head or recruitment that should be the board of directors. No team manager should be appointing his assistant as DOF and no team manager should be appointing a CEO. Welcome to the weird world of Tony Mowbrays Venky Rovers 2021.

Is he HSH or whatever they are called ?

No surprise whatsoever in this it was as predictable as the football he's coaching that he'd select an old pal. Upside is at least this fella isn't a lower league reject he has some pedigree. They've given him a title as well, what will Venus do now though ? Back to assistant manager and land officer ! Is Mowbray now giving himself the head coach title and cementing himself an even more cushy number ? As if it were possible. This appointment though could be a positive if he's allowed to do what he's paid to do. Lets hope he has a say in the next major recruitment soon.........a head coach or manager.

If Mowbray went it would have to be for a step in the right direction, plenty of options for that. Not though going over old ground and i think Appleton was suited to a certain type of club at a lower level. He was never suited to this place really. Hope he has a successful recovery.

Integrity ?

A hell of a lot of it revolves around managers and agents as well. Henley walked into Rovers Prem team, struggled at Championship level, even when fit, and is now at Chorley. Lowe was another whose bread got buttered the right side and has followed a similar path to Henley. Both should have been out on loan for at least a season or two but the staff then had other ideas. Years in the Championship now though and managers wasting money has altered the dynamic. Still a lot of it rests on the manager though and who he fancies and doesn't. It doesn't always make sense and he isn't always right.

Must be fit and available for International duty will be the first line of any contract he signs.

What when he came back looking a better stronger player ? You are tying yourself in knots you've already said - quite correctly - that some take longer than others. For those who saw him then he wasn't ready certainly not to play in the center back position where strength is an absolute must. The loans out and rough and tumble of regular football at a lower level look to have done him the world of good. Time will tell how it pans out obviously, he's had a bad set back but lets not try and write off the loans system just to suit a weak argument. Lads come on at different rates and the real reason more have been kept here over recent years is to fill out the squad whilst not costing a fortune. That didn't happen to the same degree before the trip to league one i'd say.

Loans did quite well for both in some of those cases in reality. Several of them weren't good enough to begin with for our level you could see that. Loans out all but confirmed it but got some of them noticed and got them moves. Therefore they furthered their careers and we got them off the books, handy all around i'd say. Also watching the likes of Nyambie and Raya ( who did have a loan out and came back to be number 2) early doors there was a train of thought they'd have benefited from game time elsewhere. Maybe would have been less shaky then to begin with, then there is Wharton. One who completely disproves your theory. Or at least it was looking that way.

It does make you wonder at times if he actually is a football manager or just a bloke paid thousands to clock them in and out......when they feel like it. Seniors run the dressing room, seniors make calls on the team, seniors decide how fit they are, seniors decide if they want to stay/leave and how long/when. Seniors never get called out in the press no matter how crap they might have been. Mowbray just bosses the kids around and regularly blames things on them, never the seniors. No wonder they love him. Drip.

Think the issue is they still don't understand about FFP and the clubs own income. They don't need it and just think as long as they keep piling it in it covers for everything. Everyone should be grateful and sooner or later something will just click and nothing else really matters. God only knows what spade loads of shite they get fed by those doing very nicely out of it in Blackburn. Then there's the invisible middleman on his multi continent doddle of a job. Why would any of these ever wan't their gravy train drying up ? So no one really gives a toss beyond paying the usual lip service.

Not with the Ewood pecking order, a few have had the chord cut now though so we'll see. A seasons loan somewhere would probably be better for him. We are set to be a lower mid table development team now so he'll get some chances.

The facts are Mowbray needs players like Armstrong, Dack, Travis etc and a host of young talent to pick from. Alongside high end young loaness just to maintain mid/lower midtable. Shows how tough the championship is but also shows he and his crew haven't got a scooby how to make the best of what's available to them. Just an ongoing experiment they play around with under very little inside pressure. Best job in the Championship by a long way, easy money.

Basically done on purpose then for some reason.

There are times to be positive and there are times you have to be realistic. Ignoring problems and sweeping stuff under the carpet is precisely what has lead Rovers from what they were to what they are today. At some point you have to say enough is enough and make a stand. That comes in various forms as we've read on here over the years. It is though why elements of hardcore support, some who've been with the club since the 70s/80s and seen worse times, are dropping away season on season. Football is football it kicks you in the knackers but you've always got go have a 'we go again' attitude. When you feel the piss is being taken though as it has here for most of the last decade then it's harder to stomach.