That's exactly what's happened isn't it? The owners don't want to sell, Mowbray does and he's trying to ease him out of the door by manipulating opinion against him. We all know Rothwell hasn't signed a new deal, it's no secret. However despite that the Club stance all January has firmly (and correctly imo) been no-one is leaving. That's how it should stay. We shouldn't perform a U turn with 36-48 hours left of the window.

Why do you want him gone if you don't think (and I agree) there's time to get a decent replacement in? Do we at least all agree it would be an unmitigated disaster if Rothwell were allowed to leave and wasn't replaced? (Regardless of the reason).

Surely it would be infinitely more risky letting him go and not adequately replacing him?

I usually agree with you but completely disagree on this The owners were imo 100% correct to stipulate that no-one would be leaving this window and that shouldn't change just because there's been some last minute interest in Rothwell. In fact especially since it's so last minute. They should be presenting a United front on this, and Mowbray shouldn't be undermining the message. All that crap about he only ever moved twice during his career etc etc. If say Everton rang this morning and offered him 6x his salary to take over there he'd WANT to be in situ by Monday. However if the owners said "sorry mate you've got a vital job to do here for 4 months first" he'd have to suck it up and take it.

Well, if you take Mowbray at his word (ha!) and Rothwell won't be leaving unless replacements come in first, he might have to. In which case, what was the point in hanging him out to dry in the media and alienating the fan base against him.

The original article you posted appeared to be a twitter feed with a black background under the heading F1 sources. It was that I was referring to.

Doesn't matter what we offer if the players won't sign them. It's results that count. Same with failed attempts to sign players. No prizes for that.

Definitely not. That's a completely different excerpt to the one you originally posted that I commented on which said "plotting a move for"! Your amended version still doesn't say we've made a bid anyhow. Mildly encouraging though if there's any truth in it.

No we seemingly think we can leave it until the last minute and players will automatically take what we offer.

That does NOT say we've made any form of approach

Having reflected on this overnight I am even more of the view that Mowbray is completely out of order on this one. We cocked up initially by not attending to the players Contracts at the appropriate time, but, given our position in the League and what's at stake, the owners quite correctly imo decided not to compound the error and stipulated that no-one was leaving this month under any circumstances. Mowbray completely undermined that stance with his interview. He's hung Rothwell out to dry and alienated the fan base against him. We don't even know Rothwell has refused to play, but Mowbray has created the impression that might be the case when it may not even have happened. It's not Rothwell's fault either if other Club's leave it late to make a bid for him. Mowbray could have stuck with the "he's injured" line and by Tuesday the whole thing would have been forgotten and the entire story would have been next week's chip paper. If I was the other two I'd be fuming as well. They probably haven't followed through with any attempt to leave this month because they took the Club at their word that no-one would be allowed to leave this month. Now, as soon as there's a bit of interest in Rothwell, Mowbray performs a complete U turn, hangs the player out to dry and seems to be doing his best to go against the owners wishes and force the player out of the door. They'll be wondering why they didn't attempt to force the issue as well. The Club should be sticking to the stance they've taken throughout the window of no sales. Not performing a last minute U turn when it's too late to bring suitable replacements in.

There's a lot of presumption in there. Rothwell could have said "X and Y want me and I'll earn 6x my salary so I'd like the chance to speak to them. In the meantime however I'll continue to give 100%." Where is this presumption that Rothwell refused to play coming from as that's not the impression I got from the TM's interview. Apologies if this has been specifically stated elsewhere.

So just to clarify then, going from TM's interview, it wasn't Rothwell who was feigning a non existent injury or refused to play today, it was the managers decision not to select him or even ask him to travel with the team because he was annoyed JR asked to be able to speak to other Clubs. That's fair enough if the manager thinks he's not in the right frame of mind until the window has shut but if that's what's happened then any criticism about Rothwell's unavailability today should be directed towards the manager not the player.

There was plenty of commitment on show today but precious little quality. What was needed was a moment of magic or two from somewhere to make the difference..

Nothing as fickle as the football fan. On Monday it was "Best midfielder in the League, end of any promotion bid if we sell him". Now he announces he wants to talk to other Clubs it's "Sell him, he's rubbish anyway, never rated him."

Good on the owners if that's their stance. We aren't going to be able to adequately replace Rothwell at such short notice and we can't afford another Armstrong scenario where he isn't replaced. If Rothwell isn't sold he'll have to continue to perform if he still wants a move in summer. One good performance from him and all this furore will be next week's chip paper.

Always wanted to go to Kenilworth Rd with it being such a quaint little relic of the past and was watching from the home area today due to the unavailability of tickets in the away end. Loved the ground, not so keen on the performance, which laid bare our lack of depth. Think we need a striker, right winger and central midfielder or it'll be a push to make the play offs playing so poorly. Agree we improved a bit after HT when Butterworth came on for Gallagher. Thought the only player to do himself justice today was Buckley and the manager bizarrely took him off after which we went worse again. Escaped with a point but will have to play much much better than that.

He was terrible. Like a fish out of water on the right wing. A bit better when he moved to LB.

Today's dismal affair at Luton showed we can ill afford to do without Rothwell.

Well, apart from the fact he thought Markanday would be a loan. He generally only reports the Club stance on things after any news has broken elsewhere.

Bit harsh on Elliott. I'd say he's at least as good in his position as Van Hecke is in his but he clearly lost interest after Christmas last season. And who can blame him with the way things went? I don't think even the manager himself thought he was going to survive, everyone was going through the motions.

I would agree it would have been a shocking window given the position we're in if nothing else happens but I think we're working on a couple (not the target of massive bid I alluded to) so let's see what happens before passing judgment. I've no idea on the identity of the other two before anyone asks but think one is a keeper.

Another great result tonight, everyone apart from Fulham seems to be falling over themselves to hand it to us on a plate. Come on Rovers. 12 wins as quickly as possible!

Feel for the lad. Mowbray signed him and has never given him a chance.

Give over. He'd have to get the Club's take on it before commenting. Can't rule out the possibility there's been additional interest in Rothwell but I'd be amazed if he's not still a Rover by Tuesday morning. My guess, Mowbray comes out in the Press after the game tomorrow, confirms JR was injured, confirms that there's been plenty of interest in JR but that he's never asked for a move and he's going nowhere this month.