How many other 16 year olds has he gone public about? Phillips is undoubtedly a player with huge potential but I don't think it's right that Mowbray is already bigging him up to the world and his wife. In my view the lad needs to be able to develop without the pressure of the first team manager heaping huge praise on him.

I have seen him play three times now and he does look like an excellent prospect but in my view he needs protecting from the pariahs and vultures that might see him as a cash cow. I have actually spoken to his mother at games a couple of times and she seems grounded about him. There will be clubs monitoring him right now and as we have seen under these owners they do like to sell players. How do you mean they are keeping him 'incentivised'?

It's almost like Mowbray is putting the young man in the shop window. He has been quoted twice in recent days eulogising about him.

But how many see them or are even aware of them? The displays in the corner of the JW and DE have gone. They were seen by lots of Rovers supporters and visitors. Now there is just a sign reading Away Ticket Sales. Also many of the bricks that people paid for behind the BE are in such a state of disrepair that soon they will be damaged irreparably. I will applaud the club when they really start to consider the lifeblood of this club, the fans.

Just noticed this topic has reached page 666..........

You can add cowardly to the list. Covid has been a blessing for Waggott as he hides behind it and fails in the most basic of his duties to avoid difficult questions. FOW.

And Championship clubs weren't queuing up to sign the players we have taken on loan. You used the word hope - is that not how to describe the loanees we have taken?

I don't disagree but why give the lad another year. This is Mowbray at his best, committing the club to money that could be spent elsewhere.

I'm surprised that people are surprised that we are no better off player wise after the window closed. Our club is becoming breeding ground for PL clubs and what really irks me is that I don't believe that these kids are any better than our own. It's been another lazy window. Take Burke for instance. You don't go in for players in the last day of the window if they have been scouted properly. It's more a case of poring through lists of players at the last minute and sticking a pin in it. God only knows where Mowbray is going to fit them into a system as three of them look so similar to me. This window should have been an opportunity to balance up the squad, now it looks more unbalanced than ever. And I still think Mowbray will get a new deal. Now let the relegation battle begin.

That is likely to be that the Rags can sell the tickets they previously gave away for free. We have a stadium that is two thirds empty and no chance of selling out.

And yet Mowbray hangs his hat on Lenihan who can't pass water. Mowbray confuses the life out of us, what must it be like to play for him. He has had a go at most styles of play, different formations and tactics in his time here and we still don't have an identity. He is an oddball of a manager.

The towel thing came from Tranmere when Dave Challlinor had a huge throw. At the exchange of team sheets John Aldridge told the opposition manager that the towels were there and they could use them too. They never did it away from Prenton Park though.

Towels can be used but it's the home side that should be initiating their use. West Brom were sneaky last week and didn't mention it was their intention to put them out around the pitch. I'm sure Rovers would have objected had they known beforehand. The referee thought what West Brom did was permissible and allowed them to carry on. I think that the referees will be receiving a memo this week reminding them. West Brom tried to circumvent the towel thing yesterday by asking supporters for items of clothing. That also needs clearing up.

I didn't think so. Travis naively tried to step up to play him offside and got it wrong. It seemed that is what Lenihan and Ayala thought too as they appeared to be bollocking him.

Mowbray has (again) changed our style of play. From his nonsense possession based play we seem to move the ball forward a lot quicker which suits more of the players we have. Last season we were well in front on the possession stats but this season not so and in my view we seem to be a lot more physical. I think this adds credence to the view that last season was wasted given the players we had and the style of play Mowbray imposed on them.

I agree with the consensus that it's a good, hard earned point. Although there were no 9/10 performances I thought there enough 6's and 7's to get us the point. Gallagher seemed a different proposition in the middle to what we have seen for too long on the wing. For the first half hour I thought he was our best player but faded and ultimately disappeared as Mowbray shunted him wide in favour of Dolan. The two loanees looked way out of their depth and not really ready for Championship football particularly against physical teams like Middlesbrough. Personally I thought Kaminski looked suspect throughout and his distribution was poor. A special word however for the referee. After seeing awful performance the night before at Leyland I thought would be a while before I would see one as bad. How wrong I was. The new tolerance they are showing has simply led to huge inconsistencies when judging and punishing foul play. Today the referee looked like he was struggling with what is it isn't a foul and angered both sets of players, officials and fans. I know from personal experience that takes some doing.

A decent summary. Phillips is with the first team squad in Middlesbrough. I didn't realise it was Gambles first game at that level - he gave a mature, assured performance.

He wasn't with the under 23's tonight.

I wonder if he has paid for his season ticket?

It is up to Mowbray of course but I have very little faith in his judgement. We have two first choice centre halves, one, on Mowbrays admission, needs to be wrapped in cotton wool and is already on two yellow cards. Wharton is a few weeks away yet so for me it really needs somebody like Carter to stay and be ready when required. And if Mowbray is going to play his three at the back we need three decent centre backs and cover too.

I can't come anywhere near to agreeing with this. Carter has been our best player in the last two games and gives options across two defensive positions. So we sign a kid on loan from Brighton who nobody knows anything about and loan out our most promising defender? That sounds like the perverse logic that reverberates around the Ewood hierarchy.

We are fast becoming a crèche for Premier League clubs. Didn't the woman Venky mention 'leasing players' in her opening gambit when they darkened our door. We are a football club built on sand.

From a personal perspective I have found some of Mowbrays football awful to watch but in truth that could apply to a few of managers I have seen over the decades but the key words are some of his football.

Does anybody know who exactly is responsible for the extortionate pricing and poor service? I would have thought pricing and staffing was down to Sodexho.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/breaking-premier-league-statement-clubs-24830195 The PL has issued a statement that the clubs will not release players for international duty where their countries are playing in a red list country. I wonder how this might effect us if Brereton is called up by Chile.