Seems fairly widely accepted our wage cap is around £15k p.w. but it seems that we were prepared to pay Armstrong a lot more than that to sign a new deal so I doubt it's completely inflexible.

Not sure the bonus is weighing that heavily in his thinking. If Rovers have any sense he'll probably have to sign a new deal to be eligible for it anyhow. By now, he's probably thinking he's better leaving his options until nearer the end of the season. Unless it looks like we're going up automatically the bonus isn't guaranteed and if we don't go up then he'd probably be able to get a better deal financially elsewhere. If however we are looking likely to go up its unlikely he'd get a better deal anywhere else.

I think the point is more that Bournemouth have been playing silly buggers to try and unsettle us and the player but haven't offered anything like the £2.5 m sum they are reported to have done. Either way, as a few of us have insisted all along, none of the three are going anywhere (bar a completely nonsensical bid) and that's exactly the way it should be.

No chance for me. Whether he wants a new deal or not or whether the current situation is keeping him on his toes is debatable, but it seems to be working just fine as it is. Why risk rocking the boat. Plus why on earth would you want to keep him if we don't get promoted? The only way it should even be a conversation is if we do go up. I could accept under those circumstances he'd earned a crack at managing us in the PL but even then I think we could do a lot better. This season has been much better (not difficult) but let's not forget what went before, plus if we don't go up we still face the prospect of Rothwell, Lenihan, and Nyambe walking for nothing in summer then Kaminsky and Travis next summer due to the failings of management.

Well, we certainly seem to have played a blinder in trying to convince everyone that money is tight, my only reservation would be over the competence and ability of those on the ground at Ewood to get the necessary deals done in time.

If we get twelve wins it doesn't matter what WBA, Boro, QPR or Forest do. Hopefully not Bournemouth either. That's how we've got to approach it. Then the others can knock themselves out!

We definitely still need as a minimum decent back up for Brereton, Travis and Kaminsky imo. Arguably also a loan to cover the Poveda/Markanday injuries.

One thing that worries me is the possibility of Ismael and Parker getting the sack and new men coming in and getting their teams firing. We could do with them both floundering for another month or so at least so we can build up an unassailable lead on them.

Not sure how this season's loss would be at previous levels having lost eleven players from the squad in the summer and even if that were correct there is still the safety net of a Brereton sale in summer should we fail to go up. Would get £15m for him even on a bad day surely.

That was indeed Gerald Ashby (now deceased). Something definitely not right about that decision and rumours subsequently after his retirement pointed to him having an allegiance to Manchester United if I can put it that way

Is Elliott fit to play yet?

The budget had to be slashed at the time due to Mowbray and Waggott leading us into severe FFP problems. There should be a lot more leeway given the owners bailed us out yet again with the accounting exercise on Brockhall and subsequently with the Armstrong money hitting the accounts during the current FFP cycle so agree wholeheartedly about the need for a calculated gamble on going up over the next few days.

Or too late then if things don't go to plan we don't have time to sort out an alternative.

🙂 👍

Thanks for those stats. Quite interesting. Didn't quite answer my query about where he is on the list of managers who have managed us for the most games though. Do I take it from that that by the end of the season he will have managed us for more games than anyone apart from Middleton and Marshall? Didn't Bob Crompton manage us over 2 separate and lengthy periods? Let's not pretend he's better than Kendall either, Kendall was only here 2 seasons and didn't have any of the massive financial backing Mowbray has had.

Fairly meaningless stat, where is he on the all time list of longest serving managers? I'd guesstimate in my 51 years of supporting the Club only Bob Saxton has been in the hot seat longer. All that said, I hope Mowbray can add a further 12 wins to the tally before the end of the season.

Hmm........ Paul Durkin wasn't so great when he disallowed a vital last minute equaliser for us at Old Trafford from Tim Sherwood!

Slow day on the transfer front then? Only 5 more days to go, have to pull our fingers out otherwise it'll be yet another extremely disappointing window given the position we're in.

Even better stat on Talksport this morning was Woy will be the 6th manager they've had since they last kept a clean sheet in the Premier League!

No he isn't, that was the only decent game he's had in months. He's massive physically and generally won't even put himself about a bit to trouble the opposition. Stealing a living like Evans, Bennett and multiple others earlier in Venky's tenure.

Why are people making excuses after one decent game for Gallagher who's been abysmal since he rejoined the Club? It's because we've had countless players like Gallagher over the years who haven't performed that we've had eleven dismal seasons. Thankfully players other than him have finally started performing and as a result we're doing much better. But let's not give him any plaudits.

Anyway, back to Rovers. Need to be targeting 12 wins from the last 18 games imo. Allows for 6 slip ups, and we'll probably have a draw or two along the way anyway. Should be comfortably good enough for second, bish bash bosh, get the bubbly out, happy days.

It's not much better in the Premier League imo and the officials operating the VAR are even worse. What about that penalty Liverpool were awarded Sunday?

Vaguely remember Groves. Didn't he have a big afro perm? How could I have forgotten 'Arry played for them as well?

Gallagher's still crap though despite a 7.5/10 performance the other night. Are we really going to deify centre forwards when they score a goal now?