"Come on Tony, when's this big pay off coming you promised us?"

Poor play from Elliott. The only thing I will say in his defence was that no-one else was making any effort to get in position to receive a pass from him (Trybull in particular was completely static) so he didn't have an easy option on.

David Lowe.

Evans/Trybull in CM Christ almighty. The City lad at CB. There's absolutely no thought, planning or tactics to any of this is there? It's simply a case of giving players a bit of playing time on a rota basis to keep them happy. I.e. "The Tony Tombola".

I know you can make reasonable alterations to an initial proposal but surely you wouldn't be able to sneak an application through on the basis it was a visually pleasing one storey building then after it's passed say "hang on could we make it two?" Or obtain initial approval for a build based on one set of specifications and then replace them with different specifications entirely. There's no mention of size of the new facility in the proposal whatsoever other than it will be "larger" than the existing STC, elsewhere it mentions "same scale". The only concrete thing to go on are the specifications of the proposed facilities in the new combined facility which appear to be exactly the same as those in the existing STC so unless everything is at least twice the size. on two floors..... Can't see how the Planning Committee can form any sort of view without knowing the exact dimensions and elevation of the new build really.

"Well he would wouldn't he"

OK thanks. That doesn't seem to be the case in the plans submitted which seem to contain a specification for the new combined training centre identical to the existing STC. It also runs against the tone of the spiel of the proposal which is along the lines of the new facility being built out of natural materials and less of an eyesore for local residents etc. And you can't get round the fact we'd lose a lot of full size outdoor pitches, As far as I can see 5 out of nine outdoor grass pitches and our only outdoor artificial floodlit pitch. If I've misinterpreted the plans I'm happy to be corrected.

I'm not sure how having the Juniors queueing up to use the facilities behind the Seniors would meet Academy requirements anyhow tbh den. The Cat 1 requirements posted on here by Stuart the other day appear to show the need for the youngsters to have their own facilities available for their own exclusive use whenever they want them Of course we've heard nothing whatsoever from the Club about how this could possibly work and meet existing requirements. The approach adopted by Waggott has been to see if they can get planning permission for 170 houses and if they can happy days, they'll then turn their thoughts to a training centre. At that point it will no doubt not be possible to meet the requirements on the one site and we will doubtless be treated to a hard luck story of 'we did all we could but were beaten by the regulations'.

I tend to agree with this. A few hundred fans lying in front of the bulldozers when they arrive would be visually effective but it's too late by then. I was thinking that what would be beneficial would be a hearts and minds campaign of the local community, leafletting the houses and having a sympathetic discussion with the local residents on the door step. Do they want the existing character of the area spoilt? Do they want another 170 houses on the doorstep in addition to the already sprawling development? It's the complete opposite of what Jack Walker would have wanted and in breach of the covenant he or the owner before him imposed on the use of the site.(supposedly) How do you object? Will it be written objections only or will there be an actual meeting where it can be discussed? Even if it's only written objections, 5,000 written objections from local residents and Rovers fans should slow the Council up a bit.

Don't be taken in by the spin, according to the plans it seems all they would be doing, if it went ahead at all, would be to duplicate the existing senior training centre with an identical facility on the junior site and we would lose most of our outdoor pitches and our only outside floodlit artificial pitch. 6 out of 10 full size pitches lost in total by the looks of it. Nothing would be significantly improved from what it is now and all the teams would have to compete for the facilities on the smaller site making me think the next step in the plan would be to scrap or downgrade the Academy.

Thanks for providing these. What a crock of absolute shite. Beautifully drawn plans of the proposed housing development and a red/white oblong where the new combined training centre might be! How can anyone be taken in by this? So to cut though all the crap and hype about it being a new "state of the art" facility all that is happening here (if it happens at all) is that they're faithfully duplicating ("same scale") the existing senior training centre on the existing JTC site and we lose the additional facility for the Academy lads. In terms of pitches we lose the 5 full size outdoor pitches and one artificial full size outdoor pitch with floodlighting at the STC and a hundred metre running track. Currently no outdoor floodlit pitch at the JTC. And for all the talk of there being six pitches at the existing JTC if you look closely it appears only 4 of those are fullsize and 2 or 3 are half-size or less. So to summarise: One new facility almost identical in size and specification to the existing STC, 5 outdoor pitches and one outdoor artificial pitch with floodlights and a stretch of running track lost. No separate facilities for Juniors and Seniors. No outdoor artificial floodlit pitch. Seemingly no classrooms which is a requirement for Cat 1 Academy Status. I'm speechless, it's worse than I thought. I assumed that at least if we were going to lose pitches and the separate facilities they might try and build something that was significantly better than the originals, not just bloody scrap one and duplicate the other! No wonder they wanted to try and push it through on the sly. Jack must be spinning.

Forgive me as I'm not on Twitter so I haven't seen a copy of the planning application the Club has submitted? Do these relate solely to the housing development or is there a specific plan of the exact training centre that is to be built as well? It seems that a great deal of thought and planning has gone into ascertaining they could squeeze 170 houses onto the STC site but from what Swag was saying this weekend it almost sounded like a case of we'll see if we're allowed to build any houses then depending on how many of them we're allowed to build we'll think about a new training centre. He also didn't appear to have the first clue as to what the net cost of a new training centre would be. Apologies if I'm wrong on that and the specifications for the new training centre are precise and set in stone.

The bit in bold about having to have a facility that is for the use of the Academy only and to be available at all times would appear to kibosh these new plans as far as Cat 1 status goes then, as didn't Swag insinuate the new facility would be one which would be of benefit to the local Community?

That's been going on for a long time, not just recently. I wish people would also stop picking up on a throw away quote he made years ago and stop expecting him to just walk out without a pay off. It isn't going to happen and you wouldn't expect any sane person to do the same either. Gone are the days where they were on a few hundred pounds a week. The owners are going to have to sack him to get him out and it's all he deserves on the basis of his performance since returning to the Championship. The most we could expect from Mowbray would be for him to approach the owners asking for a relatively dignified exit "by mutual consent" with the appropriate pay off.

This sounds very patronising but the "problem" with fans who only started supporting through the glory Jack/King Kenny years or the subsequent relatively frugal but well managed Walker Trust is that they have never seen us compete and punch above our weight at the equivalent of Championship and League 1 level in the days when we genuinely didn't have a pot to widdle in under far better managers than Mowbray. Mowbray doesn't know he's born in comparison. Most Clubs have to cut their cloth accordingly and trade players when necessary to raise finances. Our manager is simply allowed to pile players on top of more players, is never asked to sell anyone, is never asked to get rid of the dead wood and every time he blunders in the transfer market any cap in hand request for extra funding is met in the affirmative. Then the owners just inject an eight figure sum in share capital each season and on we go. What on earth makes you think he deserves another season? Given the fact that he is doing statistically worse than he did with Coyle's squad when he arrived I really don't understand it. Or do you think that 15th or so in the Championship is the best we can expect? Good job you weren't a Wycombe fan a few years ago, you'd probably have been going "Let's forget these silly notions of promotion from League 2 lads, just remember who we are." I know everyone's entitled to their opinion but blimey. If someone said "That Hitler, he wasn't so bad was he?" then that's an opinion but you wouldn't give it any weight whatsoever and you'd think the person putting it forward was extremely strange. Not that I'm comparing TM to Hitler in any way shape or form, obviously, but your opinion he should get another season, based on what we've seen from him thus far, is so wide of the mark as not to be worthy of serious consideration imo. Well done on your professional qualifications BTW. It's unfair of people to knock you on that basis but I'm sure you'd agree the most educated person in the world could hold the most insightful or the most misguided opinion on any topic.

Indeed not. Well seemingly a fully fit Dack anyhow. We struck lucky with him (credit to TM for signing him and the owners for funding it) but we wouldn't have been anywhere near promotion without him.

Mowbray seems to rate players who "hold their position" like Evans and Smallwood to the extent that proper players like Harrison Reed have to sit on the sidelines and learn how they play according to our esteemed leader. I'm sure I remember Travis being a lot more dynamic and proactive when he first burst into the side as well. He's been Mowbrayed. It'll be tragic if he ends up being Lowe/Evans/Trybull Mk 4.

Bravo sir!

Oops sorry, bloody predictive text!

Well said.

Hope Venky's don't come on here tonight to gauge fan reaction. They'll come away thinking everyone is happy enough because they're talking about barnacles!

A practical consideration that no-one seems to have mentioned anywhere is that unless we could time the sale and rebuild the new facility within a very short window indeed during the summer we'd be left with nowhere to train wouldn't we?. Back to the pre Jack days of dodging the dog turds at Pleasington playing fields

Mowbray was the one who recommended him for the role thereby making himself virtually bombproof. The owners are the ones who shouldn't have been taken in (yet again) by this clear conflict of interest.

Very dangerous bloke to have around given his involvement at Coventry.

Don't waste further money on a training facility that would involve losing pitches jeapordises Cat 1 status, and which quite simply isn't needed?