arbitro

Aside from Conway, Downing and him that's injured I don't think there are any more out of contract. And the way he was bigging Conway up last week it wouldn't surprise me if he got offered a deal. Last weeks announcement that we spent over £400k on agents fees included players who signed new deals. And if we have to pay some of the current ones up that will cost us dearly. However you view it Mowbray has put Rovers in a poor position with his dealings. As far as new contracts go Mowbray has painted the club into a corner.

And his analysis is good. For too long our play has been predictable and far to easy to play against. To many of our players need a few touches before they have decided on their next pass which invariably is square or backwards. They got away with it in League One but now against better players they are found wanting. We have regressed this season primarily down to Mowbrays loyalty stance for which we will be paying for a long time. His stubbornness is holding us back and I can't honestly see us progressing with him here. The old adage of 'taking the club as far as he can' has never applied more.

The highlighted sentence is what is really concerning me. We are stuck with the players you mention (and others) who Mowbray naively gave new, improved contracts to and Dack aside none of them have any saleable value and are unlikely to earn what we are paying them elsewhere. I think we need up to eight new players which will give us a bloated squad with potentially a huge wage bill. The knock on effect will be that no youngsters will get near the first team. I can see some of his old guard being paid off. Overriding that though I simply don't trust Mowbray to pretty much build a new team. His record in the transfer market is poor, borne out by so many regular starters since he came were already here. And he has spent around £10m. He has to go for me now.

Mowbray has gone public twice in recent weeks about Rothwell not tracking back and insulted the player by calling him a little boy. He used Bennett and Conway as examples of getting back to help defensively. So (in true Mowbray "I know best" fashion) yesterday he played Rothwell out wide and Bennett as number ten. At times Mowbray is a walking, talking contradiction with his ramblings. After an hour yesterday there was a summit between Mowbray, Venus and Lowe and I fully expected a change of shape with two positive changes. On 73 minutes he goes like for like with Travis for Smallwood and on 77 minutes Brereton for Nyambe. When I saw the board go up I thought we'd go to three at the back but Bennett went to full back and I still don't know where Brereton was supposed to be playing. As far as I'm concerned it's another example of the absolute fear with which Mowbray manages.

My daughter and granddaughters Next Generation tickets were in the JW Upper. I thought all these were going to be in the Blackburn End upper tier.

Mowbray is insulting our intelligence if he thinks we really believe Dack was injured. I heard he was late reporting for the team meeting and told to go. Mowbray reverted to type today with the Evans/Smallwood axis which frankly was poor. Evans is a coward of a footballer as he takes the easy option nearly every time he passes the ball. Smallwood simply isn't good enough. Alone with Bennett they contributed the square root of nothing. If those three are better than Reed I'll plait blancmange. Rothwell promised much but delivered little but the three shots we had in the first half were all from him. Games are invariably won or lost in midfield and our sorry bunch must be the worst in the Championship. The quality of our crossing is shocking. I can't recall anything of note in the last few games. Hit the first man, too low, too high or over hit. Danny Graham looked exasperated today. The body language of several players at the final whistle wasn't good and I can't see us getting above three points for the rest of the season as Mowbray looks pretty clueless on the touchline.

And then will he play some of the kids? Them goalposts must be worn away now as they get shifted every few days.

The triangles and round the corner passes are great to watch. And at a guess they have half a team of foreigners who didn't cost a lot. Aligned with some very good coaching and a system that suits the players. I believe these are the main ingredients for promotion from this league.

Do they call it the curse of the OK magazine (or something like that). In all honesty though who really cares. It's about time he put a performance in and put all his focus on progressing his career.

They have them now. They were sent to the schools for distribution.

They haven't been told anything Stuart. In fairness that could be poor communication from the school.

He is still harping on about fine margins and mentioning three 1-0 successive home defeats as if they have turned into moral victories. Also the players whose poor form contributed to the awful run are being trusted to win games now.

My daughter and granddaughter applied and were told they were successful but as of yesterday evening they hadn't got the tickets. I don't know if it's down to the school or Rovers but either way it seems poor.

It will be interesting if Bolton cannot fulfil their remaining fixtures. I think their record would be expunged by the EFL which would distort the league and surely affect the integrity of the competition. Meanwhile the EFL issue a pretty generic statement but no word from Shaun Harvey (who is leaving at the end of the season). I can't help thinking that there will be others who face massive financial woes in the coming seasons.

Excellent point.

Hook, line and sinker Andy. Not only did he wind Morelos up but Kent (who will be banned tomorrow) and Halliday too. Brown will be directly involved in three Rangers players being suspended - that takes some doing. Even when Morelos was walking off Brown was still antagonising him by laughing pretty much in his face. Morelos reminds me so much of El Hadj Diouf with his mannerisms and suspect temperament.

He'll get a gig on Sky for a period and then another club will fall for his flannel. He'll get a decent contract, get sacked after less than a year and walk out of the door with lots of money. Rinse and repeat. That isn't particular to McLaren through as lots of ' managers' are on this round-a-bout.

At least Mowbray has expanded his scouting network to Scotland. I hear we are looking at a centre half from Rhyl and a keeper from Wrexham ?.

What would be your tipping point?

I'm leaning towards go and the main reason is really nothing to do with Mowbray. I just don't trust the Indians, Waggott or Cheston to bring in anybody who could take us any further than Mowbray has us. I wouldn't trust them to make a jelly. Another huge concern is Mowbray having to virtually rebuild the squad. Given his overall record (not just at Rovers) I have major doubts about his ability to do this.

I don't disagree but surely Mowbray would have known this from the scouting reports before signing him. As far as I'm concerned it's another sad indictment of Mowbrays ad hoc transfer dealings.

Anybody who passed Walsalls ground on the M6 yesterday might have noticed a big sign advertising their early bird offer for season tickets.

I spoke to a player yesterday on the way back from Villa (please don't ask who because I'm not saying and frankly couldn't care less if anybody doesn't believe me). Amongst other things I mentioned that there were murmerings amongst some supporters about Mowbray and he genuinely looked surprised. We spoke about how mistakes costing us goals and I said it was the same players making them and they still kept their place. Whilst he didn't verbally agree his facial expression and wry smile told me he agreed. If the players are aware of this then I can't see how this is conducive to a good team spirit and players being "onside".

Another slow start which has become the norm meant that pretty much we had given ourselves a mountain to climb and in truth I reckon most of us envisaged a drubbing. A combination of poor finishing and slack play meant we went in at half-time only one down when in reality Villa should have been out of sight. Bennett was as poor as I have seen him in this period and I was amazed he came out for the second half as he was getting close to red card. It was the change of Bennett for Reed which I thought swung the game our way. We changed to a diamond and suddenly took control of the midfield when previously McGinn had the freedom of Villa Park. Quite simply Mowbray got his selection and tactics wrong here. Brereton and Rothwell looked decent as we ran at Villa and suddenly they looked shaky. Armstrong missed a dolly but his overall game I thought was poor. Dack and Graham were starved of decent service and Dacks frustration was apparent as he dropped deeper and deeper. I thought Lenihan looked rusty early on but got better. A real source of frustration and anger to me occurred late on when we were looking to equalise. We got a free kick midway in our own half and I expected the centre halves to go up and Raya to launch it into the Villa box. Instead Lenihan knocked it back to Mulgrew and twenty or so passes later without really crossing the halfway line the ball was back with Raga. This and the unwillingness to cross the ball during this period was baffling and bloody annoying. The bottom line however is that its another defeat and Mowbray has to feel under pressure now as more and more questions are being asked of his tactics and team selection.

It's almost defeatist to say things like that and I hope the decision makers at Ewood don't adopt the same mentality (although it seems they have). I don't believe Rovers have done enough over the recent past to attract new support. The lack of initiatives is worrying and it seems too many executives at Ewood have accepted our ten thousand fans as a fait accompli and want to bleed them instead of getting out onto the coal face. There have been dozens of suggestions recently some of which might fly but it seems the club are in a comfort zone.