Whilst season tickets still represent great value as they do with probably 50% of clubs in this league Rovers are a club who've always had thousands of part timers and most of those now are potential match by match buyers. Yet this club seems to be doing all it can to discourage this in favour of a force you to buy an ST if you're bothered about value for money policy. Wrong strategy at the wrong time i'm afraid.

I've a feeling Brereton will be shipped out on loan by next Feb for a bit then..... Dominic Samuel - The Return.. you read it here first.

I'm 100% certain whoever took over DG was coming as was Mulgrew at the time. Word was Coyle was signed cheap for the sole purpose of coaching the team and nothing else although he seemed to be trying hard to get a few of his pals on the books. Christ knows who was in charge of getting players in, what does that middleman actually do again on a day to day basis when he isn't running errands between here and Pune ? I've often wondered !

Mowbray seems to see them both as wide right forwards though so not sure how it would work personally not sure they'd gel but there's only one way to find out.

Some Boro fans would love him back compared to a lot of the alternatives out there i'm sure and the majority of Rovers fans would prefer to keep him compared to the unknown Venky induced wilderness that might await. Think in Boros case he'd more likely only be someone they'd turn to if things kept going backwards rather than seeing him as a guy who could kick them on, been there done that.

Sam Gallagher would be a blessing in the old style 442 with a really good striker alongside him i said before he is a bit of a Mike Newell in terms of being mobile and grafting for a big lad. Not sure it would work with Graham but might have with Rhodes although can't see it happening as not many play that way anymore but he really should be moved across when Graham goes off. Lessons should've been learned from that last season but what we seem to have again is stubborn manager flogging something until it actually works once for he finally realises what everyone else sees and knocks it on the head. Last season his persistence with putting Dack up top and sticking BB on wide proved costly a time or two and cost points and i don't recall it actually working once, so lets hope it isn't Arma moved up top every game Graham goes off now instead lets have a little bit more horses for courses to see games out.

Same as for me if Lenihen and Wiliams are doing it then keep it that way it's a no brainer.

Whatever they are doing isn't working there should never really be less than 12/12.5k home fans on even for midtable Rovers. They won't bother though because for once a club brought a good following to boost the takings. Likely to be some dismal midweek winter home turnouts this season when big followings aren't the case.

Mowbray in .... Got it right today hopefully a few pennies are finally dropping.... Mulgrew - out Cunningham - Actual proper left back with experience - Bell isn't a left back at this level he's probably a league 1 wing back so it's time he went back there. Gallagher - Not a fan of playing strikers on the wing but SG is a guy who CAN actually play wide right striker, Samuel couldn't and neither can Brereton so after going around the houses and wasting millions he's finally got what he craved. Still needs to sort right back and more proper centre half cover but i wouldn't hold my breath.

Maybe Jack just like the climate ? Anyway it's not really as simple as that he'll have paid millions in tax down the years i'd have thought and the people he employed will have paid theirs his businesses were still over here so if he wanted to protect his personal wealth fair play to him. Virtually everyone in business i know or just even self employed grafters will take advantage of every loophole they can to slice a bit off. The fact that successive Govts totally waste billions of it through sheer incompetence or veiled corruption doesn't set a great example for the other wealthy folk. Thank god he did anyway otherwise he might not have had a spare 100 million to put back into his home town football club for everyone to enjoy we'll agree on that one !

Hopefully the manager has identified the same weakness in Bell and gives him the Nyambe treatment with Cunningham in to take his place not back him up.

Their twitter feed said upper to those asking i can see them ending up opening the lower in a flap and it ending up with about 100 in.

Boro sold around 2.5k for tomorrow so it's a pity we've had a bad start or it could have been a half decent gate. This shitty weather combined with that plus the Waggot tax will probably put a few off now but it might scrape a shade over 15k.

It's annoying but that's Tony Mowbray in a nutshell that's what he does any dialogue with fans of his previous clubs will confirm it. It worked at West Brom a decade ago but maybe he was dealing with bigger money and better quality as i think for his methods that's what you really need to be successful as maybe you can buy more adaptable players. What's ragingly clear from his time here is he isn't a horses for courses man quite the opposite although i suppose that's what he terms as modern thinking. Had to laugh when i was reading some Boro fans ranting just before Pulis left and the comment was give Mowbray 10 million and he'd get us to the Prem..... not sure he would lads but he'd fill your bench with plenty back ups !

I think with Tosin they've been rooting around for some height and physical size for defence and also a bit more mobile and this is what they've turned up. Makes sense in many ways but also a massive gamble replacing an albeit struggling International and captain with a punt on a youngster who's been playing right back mostly. If this lad lives up to his billing we should be fine but it'll not be without its moments then next season he's gone, we are a million quid plus lighter and probably having to rely on another kid coming in either our own or another loan. Not really how you build a consistent defence to build a promotion team on unless of course it's a loan to buy.

But he managed to untie his hands long enough to get the Downing deal done soon enough and got them to sanction wages for a guy who was on at least 30k pwk at Boro, No matter how well he might or might not do it'll only be for a season or so and to me that's money down the drain that should've been directed into a more pressing area of then team, not for the first time under this manager so to absolve him totally is a bit of a stretch.

Be interesting to see if they use him the way he should've been being used here since last Christmas and how he handles it.

Mulgrew should have put club before country after the fall out last season and his omission from the team. He should've taken stock and sat out the Internationals this summer to have a good rest and come back fresh to stake his place in the team again maybe he wouldn't have looked shot to bits in the first game. Perhaps this played a part in the not seeing eye to eye with his boss, little sympathy for either side in this one again it's self made and something from the outside you could see coming for a while.

There is definitely a feel to this a lot of the signs are there but as usual it's getting a bit crazy in terms of speculation and theories. Tony's simply entered that 3rd season syndrome where he's lost his way a bit and his only answer is to repeat the methods he knows but try and present them as something different. Happens so many times to bang average managers in any division you only have to look at the likes of Steve Bruce who stays one step ahead of the game and keeps jumping ship before he's inevitably pushed at some point. They go in and stop the rot with their tried and trusted methods then often have a bit of a purple patch before it plateau's out then starts to go backwards. Usually that's because investment has dried up and maybe one or two key players have been sold. This seems to be going the other way the more we spend the more we the wheels seem to be ready to fall off, it takes a special kind of odd for that to happen. This is Venky world though who knows what goes on behind closed doors.

Mowbray did say a while back he'd told a few they could leave if they sorted themselves out because they might not feature as much as they'd like. Not sure he was aiming it at Mulgrew as a lot of things point to him being a main player again this season but going off the back end of last season perhaps Charlie bhoy had something in the pipeline just in case.

'Whilst big skip is away' -- part of Bennetts tweet in regards to the captaincy. Just away ? Interesting choice of words ?

When you put it like that it is a sobering thought and yes it's early season i;m convinced it'll turn around but still he's supposed to be sorting the club and moving it forwards. Behind the scenes i've no doubt he has big time but on the pitch and the unbalanced recruitment policy points to a recession at the moment yet a fortune has been spent. On the Mulgrew issue i think it's clear why he's turned to Bennett, an attempt to stop the worms turning.

True it does but it's probably the one that suits the players in this squad he's assembled best. I was think of it more as a defensive formation playing quite deep and looking for the strikers to chase down. There'd be no wingers of course but the new captain fantastic could be used to shore up the right wing with an actual right back at right back and the new left back in instead of pet pooch Bell. All about protecting the defence in this one plenty scope to liven it up second half then. I feel TM often plays the formations he does just to cater for what the opposition are doing but it rarely works so get back to basics, result over performance.

I'll be honest i'd say sod the opposition and go 442 with two banks of 4 and two putting a real shift in up front first half. We usually start on the backfoot and seem in two minds whether to attack or sit back so might as well kill it off first half keep it tight and hope to pinch something then open it up in the second. Tin hat on - Even if that means benching Dack till the second half i know he scored the other night but he disapears too often these days for my liking in the bread and butter games.

Tombola will be spinning around for this one good style and god knows what will get drawn out. Maybe this is another of those for the 'seniors' to take in hand ? Except the leader has gone ? So all eyes on the manager to come up with a winning formula, tough game at the best of times. Usual dire first half trying to keep the ball and probably go a goal behind before a rousing second half in front of an angry Blackburn end. Rovers 1 Boro 1