arbitro

But you can't just have a mass clear out after promotion because some players might be deemed not good enough. Of course a club will need to strengthen its squad but this is done gradually. For most promoted clubs from any league the objective must be consolidation before kicking on. A two year deal is about right and gives benefits to both parties.

Before last week I doubt if any of us could give any kind of appraisal on Smallwood (or even heard of him) but now we have detailed analysis of him and a high number of fans have already written him off. Step forward the new Jason Lowe, Keith Andrews, Jason Wilcox et al.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/blackburn-stoke-steven-nzonzi-juventus-10632679

I just hope he hasn't got the Murphy attitude of I'm too good for this league. League One is physical and most clubs play with intensity and a bad attitude will stand out like a sore thumb. He certainly has ability though and harnessed correctly could be the difference between winning and losing.

I have faith in Mowbray and under our ridiculous circumstances is absolutely the best we could hope for but there are far too many variables in football to simply say he has to win eight of the first ten games. Given the numerous past lies and broken promises from the Indians the chances are they will do it again. We will be lucky if an honourable man like Mowbray is still here after ten games.

That is some ask. I don't believe that would be asked of any manager anywhere with the threat of the sack if they didn't do it. Targets like that in football have never made any sense to me. What if he won 7, drew 1 and lost 2, would you still sack him?

I once heard a comedian say he went to the Wailing Wall and couldn't get near it for Burnley fans. I guess that is now us.

I don't know where they sat. I saw them outside the ground about 2.10 pm.

I don't want to say but he was with his son and daughter and his son was proudly wearing his Rovers shirt.

From the content and tone of his interview I will be surprised if he is here next season. He moved sharply across the pitch today at the end of the game and disappeared down the tunnel. As a slight aside I had a conversation with a manager outside Griffin Park after the game and he told me himself that the job was between him and Coil and the serial loser got it.

Maybe we would but that doesn't make it right what Huddersfield did.

I don't think anybody is disagreeing with you. What Huddersfield did was wrong, they broke the rules and should be punished. That is what the majority of people are saying.

In the recent past we have had a situation with similarities. Kean picked an under strength team at Cardiff in the League Cup Quarter Final and Rovers fans were enraged by this. I recall this board going into meltdown. To be fair this was compounded by his stupid 'forfeit' comment. In my opinion it's exactly the same principle that fans pay good money and should be given the strongest team available on the day. With eight days between games Huddersfield have no excuse for not playing the nucleus of players who won at Wolves. They will receive a token fine with a suspended threat not to do it again from a weak EFL Board.

What really irks me about Huddersfields multi changed team is that they have another league game next weekend which will be quickly followed by their first leg play off. Surely they would have played a weakened team only days before that game to rest players. If they play another shadow team next weekend some of their regular first team players won't have played for two weeks. I really hope it backfires on them and their Klopp wannabe manager.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-4447532/Joey-Barton-banned-football-18-months.html Barton banned for 18 months. He admitted placing 1200 bets on football matches with an average of £150 per bet.

Given their indifferent form over the last few weeks Huddersfield need some momentum to take into the play-offs and making wholesale changes and coasting for their last two games could well backfire on them. I am nervously excited about the next couple of weeks but hand on heart I can't see us having enough about us to get the results we need. However this is Rovers and history tells us to expect the unexpected.

The players that are under contract will allegedly take a pay cut, I heard that one in three staff will lose their jobs but I would be amazed if the likes of Cheston and Senior will be affected financially. It would be interesting to know how many staff we employed pre Indians to how many there will be next season if we go down.

Well done in getting some time with the Sports Minister. I think any opportunity to air our plight should be taken and I hope she realises the damage that has been caused not just to our club. We have to keep chipping away and hopefully the longer game will be somebody in power actually takes some action to prevent this type of owner ever being able to buy a football club ever again.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4421510/Championship-relegation-battle-analysed.html

Has the Barnsley keeper morphed into Steele?

Following on from the Barnsley debacle I don't think we will get above three points from our remaining games. In all honesty I felt our chance of staying up disappeared when Mulgrew and Lenihan picked up their injuries at Reading. At such a crucial time any team would struggle without their two best and possibly most influential players in really important positions and such inadequate replacements.

Unlike Saturday Barnsley must have stopped running and grafting tonight. Either that or Wigan don't have as many 'bottlers' in their side. We should do away with blue and white and play in yellow with these cowards.

An article worth reading (apologies if it's already been posted). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/coventry-city/11448162/Tony-Mowbray-vows-to-reignite-Coventry-City-with-passion-honesty-and-a-blend-of-romance-and-realism.html

And once again that would say far more about the people running the show/owners/associates than Mowbray.

I'm not sure what people were expecting but this appointment pretty much fits the profile that Blackburn Rovers 2017 have created. First and foremost he will be cheap and for that they have got an experienced guy who can set up teams defensively. I don't think the next fifteen games will be pretty and relegation will be very much in the balance to the end of the season. For what it's worth I have just had a conversation with somebody who knows him well and has done for a long time. He praised his honesty and diligence and feels he can eke enough points from our remaining fixtures to keep us up.