RevidgeBlue

Sorry, it was blatantly obvious he was out of his depth in our first season back in the Championship imo when we embarked on a run not too dissimilar to the 2 wins in seventeen this season. The ideal time to have sacked him would have been with ten or twelve games to go of that season and given a new manager time to assess the squad. Instead we clung onto him and two and a half years later this is is the mess we're in as a consequence.

I'm probably in the same boat. Have had a season ticket for many years up to last season. Had every intention of renewing last season had prices been frozen or there been a marginal increase as a gesture of solidarity to the Club until Waggott whacked prices for the Riverside up by 25% for a season when no-one could attend. For that reason I was out. Haven't had a thing from the Club trying to get me back in the fold. I find that unbelievable. Can only assume Waggott doesn't particularly want home fans in the ground.

Eighteen (?) days away from the opening fixture, no kit, no signings, and a head of recruitment only appointed the other day. If the first few games go pear shaped what's the betting Mowbray blames the fact that any new signings we might make haven't had time to integrate in the same way he blamed the registration ban for not having made any signings? It's all self inflicted!

Either some people have difficulty comprehending what I've posted or simply don't want to take it on board. In my view they are basically well intentioned, have been badly advised over the years and continue to be badly advised. BUT and it's a big BUT - that doesn't really matter - they have to run the Club properly and can't just put blind faith in the people they engage to run BRFC on their behalf then sit idly back whilst those people run the Club into the ground.

Wow, that must have been hard for you to type. Another good post. Not sure things will get any better until the Coventrio (4cov?) are unceremoniously despatched though. Gav will no doubt steam in at this point and say nothing will change until the owners leave but first things first.

Good post, as a point of order though, whilst Waggott is either out of his depth or running us into the ground deliberately for some unknown reason, he didn't join us until December of the League 1 season I don't think.

Great stuff JH. Someone like Mark Hughes would at least sweep away this "How can we possibly hope to compete" mentality and raise expectation levels within the Club although I would say he himself has a bit to do to prove his own best days managerially aren't behind him.

When they're not doing well or not featuring they're never Mowbray signings!

Ought to get the chance. Mowbray bloody well signed him.

Wouldn't we all? (Apart from Mowbray that is.) And don't forget said Reed clone wouldn't have Corry or Richie to learn his trade from this time round. We'll more likely end up with another useless crablike Trybull/Evans/Lowe type.

Mowbray likes having a bloated squad but doesn't seem to appreciate the need to bring in players who can go straight into and improve the starting X1.

We have Travis, Davenport and Johnson already. I'd say we were far more in need of a more creative type. A more consistent version of Holtby as it were.

Elliott scored seven goals last season so unless he scored seven times in one goal victories I'm not sure how you can make out a case we would have been relegated without him. Meanwhile, in terms of our long term development the previously impressive Dolan was denied game time. Comparisons of our loan business inwith Berkovic are also well wide of the mark imo. He was a seasoned professional and a top top player not the young lads we're getting now who their parent Clubs want to farm out for experience. It's been said on here and I've also said it many times before, loan business should be the cherry on top of the icing on top of the cake. We haven't even got a cake (or a decent baker) but seem to be making loan business the cornerstone of our transfer activity recently. We need to build a TEAM over two or three seasons not a random collection of individuals chucked together from scratch every 12 months because they're available.

Shows how bad our Commercial Dep is when we're behind Barnsley and Luton in terms of revenue. Although if Venky's are also pumping in £15 -£20m annually to cover losses does that not mean we are around 3rd or 4th in the table in terms of operating budget?

Don't think it's any secret Honeyman is ex SEM is it? Might not have a formal contract to advise the Club any more but the agency being run by this bloke still seem to be our first port of call for transfers.

Course they were "badly advised", they were advised to replace Allardyce with Kean which prompted the eventual departures of Williams and Finn in protest.

Is that the extent of your ambition for the Club?

Yep. Only way to progress long term for me.

That link didn't work for me. Pretty irrelevant now and may be splitting hairs but they didn't sack Williams, Goodman and Finn, they negotiated their own departures after what happened to Allardyce.

I think the badly advised argument initially arose in opposition to the stupid accusations in the early days that they weren't the real owners or that there was some form of criminality or money laundering going on on behalf of either themselves or someone else. After ten years and in excess of £200m losses and counting I'm of the view they are well intentioned. That doesn't however mean they are or have been good owners. You can engage whoever you like to run the Club on your behalf but you have to be savvy and engaged enough to realise when things are going wrong and step in quickly and decisively to nip things in the bud.

It surely isn't in dispute that they HAVE been badly advised over the years by people just out for their own ends. The current situation is worse than it's ever been for me with the charlatans running operations on the ground and the Club into the ground. It's up to Venky's as owners to keep a close enough eye on it to realise when things are going wrong and take swift and decisive action whenever needed and in general they have never done this. Mowbray's record last season, conduct and demeanour spoke for themselves. Abysmal. What does Waggott have to do to get sacked as well? Raises the season ticket prices during a pandemic and decimates the fan base by 75%, the underhanded Brockhall scheme they had to do a U turn on, the contractual situation with the players, promising a brand new pitch and not delivering, no kit to start the season with. The Coventrio should have been gone long ago. Until the owners start dealing with nonsense like this decisively then they won't get and don't deserve much sympathy but let's not pretend they haven't been and still aren't being badly advised.

Was just wondering who my starting X1 would be today and I came up with Kaminski Nyambe Lenihan Ayala/Wharton Pickering Davenport Travis A N Other Dolan Armstrong Brereton Not too bad in terms of that particular line up but I think we desperately need a creative midfielder, I think we'll be screwed if Armstrong goes and todays subs show what a catastrophic mess we're in in terms of the squad.

Think it's extremely optimistic to think we could make three or four quality signings out of any Armstrong money at the sort of levels being mentioned and that's even if all the net proceeds were reinvested. I hope the owners hold firm and he goes nowhere unless the bidding gets somewhere near the £20m they want.

"Here's how recruitment works at this Club John". "Give a player an offer for a fraction of what he wants at the start of the window which has no chance whatsoever of being accepted. Then after a while leak our purported interest in him to make it look like we're doing something. Then wait until we eventually get gazumped by a Club offering the player what he wants then go public with a sob story about how we "did all we could" but couldn't compete with a bigger Club etc etc". "Then wait until right at the end of the transfer window and see what crumbs are left on the cheap from the Premier League loan table irrespective of whether they are the players we need the most in the positions that need filling the most". "Easiest 100k p.a. you'll ever earn mate. Should do you a treat for the next 2-3 years until retirement".

It does feel very different this time round though. The end of a cycle caused by Mowbray's calamitous mismanagement of (as you say) very generous backing. Yet for some reason they won't can the guy that's fooked everything up for us.