That's were his priorities have always lied, keep fit and get paid by a midtable championship club. Manage yourself around your internationals. Sooner he's gone the better his injury record isn't going to get any better as he gets older now and we are signing players just to cover his absence. Enough.

Katie Price has a lot to answer for when you see shows like that. She made it cool for a generation of young girls to aspire to fake tits, potty mouths and the barbie lifestyle, thrown in a celeb BF or two if you can find them. As it goes that Olivia at least seems to have a sense of humour and doesn't take herself too seriously. Hearts in the right place when it comes to him by the looks of it. He seems like a nice lad a bit naive but he lives in a whole different world to the rest of us. Any lad who says he prefers fish and chips mooching across a shitty Blackpool beach to flouncing around posh eateries in Dubai is alright with me !

He was said to have no symptoms so isn't the isolation a bit less ? Doesn't say much for our testing procedures though and god knows how many it might have been passed to on the way over there. Just shows what we are up against but the world will have to find a way to live with it.

A lot will say similar about Brentford i bet, clubs are usually where they are on merit and deserve to be there. We all expect the name Blackburn Rovers to be amongst the leading lights at least in the Championship. For me though these days it's more to do with the backing and facilities we have compared to Luton etc not just the name. That winning mentality being drilled into the players is the most important thing it can get any club a long way installed into the right players.

Has he moved into politics ? On the 'opposition' bench ?

Yes there's been talk of 3 year plans and stuff after the great reset - relegation - so we are in the later stages of that now. Covid has come along and thrown a huge monumental spanner in but i don't think it can be blamed for everything. The progress though is there to see in terms of signings and pasting some teams we often struggle against. Similar patterns are still there in terms of weaknesses though and muddling about with line ups which many rightly feel is this managers achiles heel. Maybe there'd have been more signings or some big fees spent again if it wasn't for covid that must have made a difference to the budget. I'm not comfy with that though with Mowbray he works better under tighter constraints as we've seen. Also as PhilipL has mentioned the current situation can benefit Rovers a bit more than other clubs although it's hard for everyone. We rely on almost completely on owner funding all the time so the lack of income will impact much bigger turnovers worse you'd assume. Credit to Vs for standing firm on all that but it just adds to the weight of the managers backing. Somehow though i expect the 3 year plan will suddenly turn to a 5 year one in the near future when Steve & Tony get to spinning their yarns. Probably when we are in the middle of a one win in 8 run with a near full squad in Feb !!!

I'm not sure Downing will be on a lot less if any to be honest as didn't he turn down the first offer ? Sounds a bit like he has his price and TM has said we can't go any higher at the min but if there's enough left after the window we'll come back. Other targets fell through and they maybe saved a month or twos wage which made it doable to make him another offer.

That's their 3 points its replaced Wigan away as the annual surrender for us. Although we could be heading there stronger than we've ever been in recent years. Could be a big statement a win there.

If we'd strengthened the defense further, brought in a good back up keeper and a goalscoring central striker or able bodied target man i'd be expecting top 2. Not taking into account covid and a glut of injuries but as it is i think it's good enough to be knocking on the top 6 door finally. Still too many weak areas to be talking top 2 imo including the mentality at times.

It was after last lockdown but not going into this season apparently or at least not the twice a week it was. Utterly ridiculous given the circumstances no idea who's to blame but it really lies at the EFL's door again. Closely followed by the clubs themselves it's not rocket science to have the brains to keep implementing it whilst it's still rife.

So the first thing that should've happened was everyone who works at the club and lives in the BB area should've been tested. Regularly. Maybe they have but doubt it i think the fact a lot of the football staff and players live all over the place it'll be the same at most clubs. Plus the chances of them all doing as they are told is slim knowing footballers. That's before they start mixing it with other teams and all the rest that goes with games. The EPL should have kept the twice a week testing rules it's gross incompetence to drop it if they have.

Lack of investment ? He's just bought them a new training ground. Underwrites probably their biggest wage bill ever. And is seeing them through covid. And people say our fans moan ?

We proved it plenty as well when we came down as have a few others. Some of these clubs with bigger budgets will have players they don't really want. Many of who might not want to be there just sat on big contracts going through the motions. Also still paying off others and paying back borrowings. Too simplistic to pin it all on that given all the variables that go into it.

I think there's a few angles on it - the smaller the budget the better the manager you need if you want more than water treading. The bigger the budget you might get away with someone not great as they'll have enough at their disposal to jeep you competitive despite their flaws and cock ups. However it often needs a big man with big balls to do a big job. If you want to drive it forwards properly you need a very good manager whatever your budget. Have we ever had any real success here without employing a real good one ? If you want quality you have to go after it and pay for it, Jack knew that it was his business philosophy. Get the best staff, pay them well and expect them to do their jobs well. If they don't then shake hands, no hard feelings pay them up let them go and find better.

When it comes to the middle clutches of clubs budgets aren't always the be all and end all. We have a clutch of young players stepped/stepping up over recent years that don't really factor in that. Cheap wages, no fees, academy budget separate from 1st team etc. How many clubs of our ilk are funding a 3 mill per annum Cat 1 academy ? It's paying dividends in recent seasons so surely that gives us an advantage over a good few. As long as they get used correctly and continue to progress of course. What would it cost to recruit that back line on Sat even from the lower leagues ? Not that they are anywhere near the finished article but its providing the manager of BRFC his own talent pool to pick from Theoretically surely that adds to the budget.

Exactly. Players on thousands per week sat at home because they 'might' have been in contact with someone who might have it. Not that I'm saying it's the case here but the piss will be being taken by some. Test them then test them again a few days later. If clear get back to work sharpish. We've enough backroom staff now. Drag one away from his video screen or drone control and send them round the country PPE'd up testing our players.

I agree top 2 is a fantasy top 6 is the realistic aim. Even that is a fair jump from 12 th so personally I don't see us quite making it. Just want to have a proper go at it not just hide behind the slight improvement line. He's just got 4 from 6 in a difficult situation so the platform is still there. He's good at that kind of thing though but when it comes to putting the foot on the gas and keeping it there less so. This is I feel is very much his defining season.

If you're getting a 12th placed budget year on year and finishing around there fair enough. If teams with 15 th placed budgets are finishing above you year on year though then maybe it's time to look at what they are doing. Or even their managers. Significant progress needed this season over a marginal gain. At some point soon there'll be a strong squad to pick from. In truth the first 11 should more or less pick itself. It won't though and that's where we'll fall down if we do and that's why all eyes are on him now.

But he has to get the best 11 and some consistency. That's were people get concerned but he deserves credit for putting it together. Time will come he has to get a tune out of it and cut with the rambling and romancing.

Great to have players like Buckley on the back up coming through and being able to ease them into games like that. Personally i'd never expect an academy player cutting his teeth to be a game changer what you see from him is what he is, a raw novice finding his feet. When a manager pays a big fee for a player and puts him on a big contract then quite rightly the expectations are there. They are there to be shot at sadly for them and the manager but everyone knows the script it goes with the turf, always has. However it getting put about on social media that lads like Buckley are being talked about behind the scenes as 10 million pound players also raises unreasonable expectation levels. A bit silly and can do more harm than good imo as we see reading some comments. For the record that isn't a dig at anyone in particular. Just seeing these 10 mill and highly rated comments but so many in the past have been talked about similar only to turn out to be far far away from it. Acts as more of a red flag than anything.

That Gallagher one is a wild comparison though and maybe world class would've been a better term for the previous point. Definitely not that but as far as English strikers go Cole had proven himself top class for a number of years. You might not end up at little old Blackburn post Jack if you're a worldie but you wouldn't have been one of Man Us main strikers for a number of years if you weren't Top Class either. You pay for what you get if you know what you are doing. We got what we paid for. Fergie was a ruthless manager not much of the sentimental stuff there. When they were around 30 ish he usually moved them on.

Cole was a class striker Souness played a blinder getting him here and we paid 8 million for him and probably about 30 grand per week, massive fee and money back then. So to say he wouldn't have ended up at Blackburn if he was class is a bit wide of the mark. It obviously made sense to him beyond football reasons as well. The competition in terms of good English strikers was quite high then and he was an out and out poacher type. As we know you have to tailor your game to them.

Because he's more mature and settled that leads to being able to read the game better. He must also have a very cool character considering he's switched country as well as club.

Credit where it's due he got a tune out of them today but that's his job and this is his squad and it's a decent size now. Yet again Kaminsky looks the part very good signing. Pears as number 2 less so i hope the number 1 stays fit now.

To be fair to Pears he's still a novice but the experience of Kaminski really shows and that's what we've been missing for years. Doesn't matter he might not be a worldy but being calm and mentally solid will go a hell of a long way between the sticks.