But you want a midfielder, say Knight for example. Opening day, assume him, Wharton, Rankin Costello, Travis, Buckley and Szmodics are all fit, Garrett doesn't get a sniff of the squad, not factoring in Brierley. So from his persepctive, surely a loan spell elsewhere will give him a much bigger chance of gaining that experience he needs? Same with Leonard, cant get a game with no strikers available, add presumably a new striker if not 2 and Gallagher, will he make the squad? How does he develop? I wouldn't want Ayala to stay because he can't stay fit enough to justify a decent wage. But not only does your plan to keep all these youngsters hinder their chances of getting much football, but how does this fit in with us genuinely going to the play offs? Shedding all of the experience, you dont mind Kaminski going, Ayala, Dack all departing an already young side that has collapsed 2 years in a row. Examples are good and bad on both sides. Markanday has not had a sniff, others didnt go out. Carter and Wharton did and really pushed on.

Dont get this, lose experience, replacing with youth. We may disagree on the type of midfielder but we both agree that we need one in. Add to Travis, Wharton, Buckley, Rankin Costello, Szmodics and maybe Brierley, how many games is Garrett going to realistically play? Get him to try and play regularly and well in League 1 and re-evaluate. Questions over quality and also how much he will play. Likewise Leonard, he hasn't played despite us not having strikers. Is he going to play anything other than the odd cameo if he stays? Get him scoring in League 1 if he is up to it. Id sell Vale, nowhere near and never will be. Phillips is the most complex, the closest to the team but again, how often will he play? Ideally he would go and prove that he can play 40 games a season for 90 minutes as he has had issues cramping up in many games. Get someone with experience which we need and let Ayala go.

I see. So every other team has no money but you think Tomasson is telling fibs when he mentioned loans and frees as a way of a negotiation tactic? Stoke have shedded a few more of the remaining big earners so I wouldn't be surprised to see a bit more scope for them financially. Also, not surprised that Blackpool seemingly dont want Bowyer. Would be a strange appointment.

You said it was the choice of Waggott, when it is specifically on record that it was the owners. And again, allowing contracts to expire rather than selling has nothing to do with Covid.

Inter were superb in that first half and blew AC Milan away with some superb football. I don't like how BT who have some real experts on Italian Football revert back to Crouch, Gerrard etc who cant compare with the sort of knowledge and insight. Its the predictable crap, focus on (and interviews with) a couple of players each with relevance to England and/or the Premier League. I occassionally watch Serie A on BT Sports and when I do I think it is very well presented. Napoli have been a joy to watch when I have seen them but missed Oshimen for the first leg of the quarter and rushed him back for the second.

He has made mistakes in big games so maybe he is just not a top level player at this moment.

Well yeah, he naturally provokes the most conversation as he is English. Had I said Kjaer for example, not really relevant to most. Seen Tomori a few times and he always has errors in him, sometimes covered by his pace, but not convinced. Mind you, that Milan side has done well to get to the Champions League Semi Final as it is extremely limited. Missed Leao tonight who has always stood out when I have watched them.

Would have to be no. Had we sold him as we should have last summer, even for a profit of £1.5m ish, then yes, but our owners are to blame for that not happening.

Inter are ripping AC Milan apart, Tomori and co having a woeful game.

We still had Graham then to be fair and Armstrong who was developing as a really top scorer at that level. In 2020, we barely spent anything, just signing Kaminski and then Pears for a nominal fee. And the summer after, when our main scorer was sold, he wasn't able to reinvest any on a replacement, which was when his relationship with Venkys seemed to sour slightly, he complained a few times about not being able to reinvest and then profit on another asset. We still had Brereton who himself then could have been sold in the same summer as Mowbray left, but the owners went into stubborn mode. So we had 2 goalscorers, admittedly one developing slightly later into one, and nothing available since to buy anyone to replace either, due to a mixture of the owners unwillingness to reinvest, and them allowing one of those goalscorers to run his deal down. Either way though, we digress. Still can't fathom how people despise Mowbray so much, just a decent Championship manager who had run his course, did a pretty good job here but far from perfect and glad we have got Tomasson now. Does he warrant creating a thread about his new team questioning whether that "wanker" will get promoted? Can't understand it.

There is indeed. I personally have no real opinion on who I prefer to go up. I think if Coventry don't go up, they may be picked off definitely for Gyokeres and perhaps Hamer, so that will set them back, Boro will lose Giles and Archer but look well set up to go again especially considering their rise under Carrick, as do Luton who have maintained this level for 2 years yet probably don't have stand out players to the extent that Prem teams will come sniffing for them. Sunderland perhaps the hardest to judge really, an overachievement to make the top 6, Diallo will go back but Stewart will be back fit. So maybe Boro or Luton would be the bigger threats next season to push for promotion.

Again, I feel like what he said has been twisted out of context. No way did he turn down millions to push on, although even if that was the case, the main issue then would be with the bizarre running of the club from the owners, as if it is normal to have a now or never investment because they are moderately interested. He was sticking up for Venkys regularly when his stock was high, whether that was because he was told to whilst there was goodwill around the club, or whether he was thinking of his own long term job security, I am not sure why. He (in my opinion wrongly) said that he had turned down strikers on loan from Premier League sides in that January as we at the time wasn't playing with an out and out striker. It was working brilliantly at the time, but it was still short sighted. But either way, that wouldn't have left Tomasson with a striker. Obafemi was seemingly a potential part of any Armstrong deal, and the Maja deal was a loan deal. So he had no money in either of the 2 windows following Armstrong's sale to buy a striker which Tomasson could have then inherited. A striker he had bought and we had then sold at a massive profit, on top of being able to sell Brereton if we were run normally.

Well he signed Armstrong, then was not allowed to reinvest any of the money, he wanted Obafemi and Maja. The other goalscorer he signed, the owners wouldn't allow us to sell and reinvest the considerable funds when he left, so not really by choice. We could have sold and signed a striker or 2. But either way, not a cunt.

A glamour tie at home to Wolves in front of a few thousand if it isn't too much of an inconvenience to them. Welcome to Venkys owned Blackburn Rovers.

It isn't even a Mowbray v Tomasson debate as I haven't seen one person on this messageboard who would pick Mowbray out of the 2. It is calling Mowbray a cunt or making out that he is this horrible man and/or a terrible manager that doesn't sit right with me. These quotes have obviously been taken out of context, as I said, no way did he turn down literally millions of pounds to spend on the team. In the days following promotion when his stock was high, he regularly bigged up the owners, whether that was an attempt to strengthen his position, whether he had someone in his ear saying this is a time to try and get the fans back on side, whatever it was, those now out of context quotes weren't the only example of him waxing lyrical about the owners, around the time that he regularly flew to India when the season finished. If indeed Venkys do run the club based on random spurts of excitement and interest, which is quite possibly likely or even generous, then that is the sole problem. He is what he is, a decent Championship manager who did his best for us and kept a steady ship during a spell where ultimately, not helped by at the end seemingly a silence from India, it got to the stage where a fresh start was good for all concerned.

That last sentence seemingly is nonsense. I know his word is hardly gospel but he specifically said that the owners had initially given the green light to fund a necessary pitch revamp, but then decided against it down the line due to financial reasons. FFP is a thing and the owners you consider to be amongst the very best in the division have massively limited and hindered us with their stupidity in refusing to accept bids for players whose contracts are running down.

I think those quotes have been taken out of context, no way did he have millions to spend and turned it down. If that is the way they run the club, based on sporadic levels of interest, then its pointless even getting caught up in quotes from people underneath. It shows where the problems start and end. He said every week that we were over achieving and not expecting play offs. To me, its just managerial spiel, nothing to work myself up over. But certainly the quotes between the 2 people arent different enough to warrant either of them to be called a "cunt."

He has spent all season saying how we are over achieving by being in the top 6 and that we weren't expected to be there.

Tomasson is here to line his pockets, he isnt here for love of the club.

Again, I don't get too caught up in every word a manager said, they all follow the same script. He was probably saying things to try and reflect well back in India which in turn improves his job security. No way did he have loads of money on the table and said no. Conversely, he also said some nice things about our players here: https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/23510587.sunderland-tony-mowbray-admits-middlesbrough-blackburn-surprise/

Not sure, I am not sure if we can play with a possession style or have the players to do so. The talk is about whether the current possession style a season in is showing a tangible improvment in regards to results and it doesnt seem to be, but obviously things aren't as clear cut and the summer will see an overhaul of players anyway.

How we look is subjective, results are objective and they haven't improved over the course of the development of our passing "style."

Says so much about everyone else in our attack that hasn't had the quality to score either.

The irony! Mowbray misused Giles, but stop living in the past! Point being, in both seasons whether it came from having the autonomy to sell and reinvest or just through owner investment/competent admin, our managers in the last 2 seasons weren't helped by those above. Both managers still can be criticised for decisions made after, but equally both have valid excuses/reasons to point at those above them and suggest that they have been handicapped. No idea on style, I don't really care how we play as long as it leads to good results. We don't yet know if possession football will do that.

Exactly, City. Point being, do we have the players to be able to both dominate possession and convert that into wins? Until that happens, that question remains. Playing possession football does not always work and thus far, it hasn't improved our results.