RevidgeBlue

Here's hoping. Apart from the point about his demeanour you could drive a bus through the holes in what he says there - everyone expects instant results - he's been here 4 years - we have a young team that will only get better - most of the decent ones probably won't be here next year and the rest weren't our players to begin with - didn't get enough players into the box - don't pair fooking Evans and Trybull together in CM then! They get a nose bleed if they cross the half way line let alone get in the box. - The working class hero thing is wearing exceptionally thin. He will be (or at least ought to be) a very wealthy man after a long career in football and its insulting and patronising to suggest that everyone from Blackburn is working class or can't aspire to anything beyond that. - Re the reference to Souness- which one of our players steam into challenges like him? With the possible exceptions of Travis and Davenport our lot couldn't tackle a fish supper!

Fair enough, I've now watched the video in full and it doesn't come across quite as badly as made out. I think the overall point about him not being bothered by the result is still a valid one though. His demeanour was extremely odd in the circumstances, it wasn't that of a man on a run of one point out of twenty one, or a man who was desperate to save his job. He appeared cool as a cucumber and going purely off that you'd think that either he knows he's gone already or that he is completely safe thanks to his relationship with the owners and Waggott. Results dictate it ought to be the former but I wouldn't like to bet on it. The problem is that if he's effectively given up and is already looking forward to spending more time with his family, we still need to eke out another eleven or twelve points to be completely safe.

He's gone from saying "If I ever feel like I've become a burden to the Club I'll walk away" (when he never thought it would happen) to "If the owners feel like I've become a burden it's up to them to get rid of me." You wouldn't really expect anyone to walk out without a pay off in this day and age. However by claiming he would do something that no normal person would do in an effort to portray himself as a beacon of integrity, then not doing it when push came to shove - that has painted him in a very poor light for me.

Yes. imo he's been trying to keep himself in employment for a couple of years with this slow build, long term plan, we're on a journey nonsense. Now it seems that even he has twigged that he can't pull that off any longer and is basically just pleading to be paid off every time he opens his mouth. As for the manager of Blackburn Rovers saying he isn't bothered by a defeat, quite unforgiveable, especially when you're on a run of one point from twenty one. Have a bit more respect for the Club and the fans!

Sorry Gav, Mowbray's nearly as bad, been here 4 years and now he's trying to con anyone who'll listen into believing it would take another 5 years to get the recruitment right. 9 years! He's practically begging the owners to pay him off every interview he gives now as well with all this "If it's felt I've become a burden it's up to the Club to replace me" crap. A manager of genuine integrity would also be speaking out strongly against the Brockhall scheme because irrespective of whether certain individuals or the Club will make money out of it, it seems to be extremely detrimental to the football side of things.

Don't do it. It hurts misjudging something so completely.

It did at the start of December. This latest run is just slightly more noticeable.

Doubt he'll say too much. Although if one of our own youngsters had have done that TM would never stop going on about it and said player would be blackmailed for 6 months.

How did Trybull get a free kick there after Dolan gave him the ball and he lost it? Terrible player.

Spot on. "I never lose the ball because I never pass it more than 2 yards" Yet various managers over the years appear to have rated him. A complete mystery to me. Same with Jason Lowe when he was here.

"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.