roversfan99

He said in the podcast that its a team effort to decide on certain selection issues and gave an example of Brittain coming off after an hour at Sunderland. That shouldnt come down to anyone but the manager/head coach. The information should be given to him, ie the sports scientists etc could say he only has an hour in him or you risk injury. But it should be solely down to Ismael to decide from there. You swallow all of the facets of "modern football" and never question any of it. You dont have the capability to question it, or choose not to. "Do I have a problem" with using academy graduates? Obviously not, thats such a warped question where you clearly have missed my point. There shouldnt be targets of minutes that graduates need to play. It should again be totally down to Ismael who he chooses. If the players are deemed to be ready to play, its in his best interests to play them. This rigid target means that he could feel obliged to play them regardless to hit that target at the cost of results IF they arent ready/arent good enough and sometimes, the academy will hit dry spells. Problem is, we arent a normal club, and beyond that in football in general, there are many ways that football is supposedly involving in a way that is illogical/nonsensical. Not every change is good. You mention the Tomasson situation. As time went on, there was never any thought to change the style even when results massively dipped as the budget was cut. That is actually a great example of having such a setup can be counterproductive. Higher ups shouldnt be telling the head coach "how they want to play." You have never told me how having people above the head coach telling him how to play is a symptom of modern day football that is a positive, that is to the betterment of teams. You just say thats how it is or reference other teams that do it. I think its a bad change to football. You see so many teams in the football league trying to play a form of this deluded idea of "how football should be played" to appease higher ups when they clearly arent capable of doing it.

So Gestede and others get involved in team selection? Chuck in him telling us what style we should be playing and how many minutes graduates should be playing. Please can anyone tell me how this is a logical thing to do? What a mess and a ridiculous 'football club' we support these days.

We also have a number of other key players who have said that they havent been offered a new deal so it sums it up. Players willing to sit down who are critical to the team yet absolutely nothing forthcoming.

"Twists and turns" are back.

From what I have seen, Preston fans will be happy to get rid of Riis and Woodman.

So you did believe Suhail?

They made a lot of changes yesterday (with a strong squad they still won) but I wonder if they will go stronger to try and build momentum.

He is a great talent but that would be a big ask.

Another really good win, first half we were shite, second half much better and once we went 2-1 up Watford didnt look like really scoring. Take it to the final day, very much a long shot but see what happens. Fair play to Ismael, deserved his criticism for a shocking first 7 (?) games but we have been much better in the last 4 and he deserves praise. Overall his points return isnt very good and we probably wont make the top 6 and at a normal club youd be thinking, well at least we have seen much more positives signs going into next season. Here, with the club built so shoddily, maybe not so much. Dolan leaving, Tronstad/Travis/Brittain all at risk of going without funds to replace them. Performance wise, Cantwell finally showed up and looked so much better. Dolan has really come on and it is criminal that he will definitely leave. We need attacking reinforcements as we all know, Hedges again poor and should be let go. Ohashi struggled but nice ball for the first. Tronstad excellent again, deserved player of the season as most beside @RevidgeBlue will agree. Hyam and Batth also very good again.

The fact that you have to go back 6 and 7 years tells you everything.

Its not about Mowbray, a decent Championship manager who did a good if unremarkable job, or Gallagher who for some reason youve mentioned who was an average Championship striker here. My issue is even now, there is a constant deflection away from the owners. You are going back years and years having manipulated it as if he turned down millions and millions further to spend, and as if a club full of aging players being promoted from League 1 was the opportunity of a lifetime. They will have to put money in. If they dont, because the club like basically all clubs at this level doesnt have income that matches expenses, then we wont be able to pay liabilities and thats when administration is on the horizon. If they do, would that be seen as them getting their "enthusiasm" back in your eyes? There has only been one season where that was avoided and that was due to the one off sale of Wharton. For some reason, you keep talking about them "pumping in money" as if they have done it for any other reason than because they have had to. It hasnt been as a result of ambition or spending loads on players.

It was definitely all Mowbray's fault. When the owners have to raise some share capital to offset the 2025 loss, will you consider them to have regained their enthusiasm? As for some reason, you see that standard and unavoidable step as them pumping money in and mistake it for enthusiasm.

A website that just gives players random values?

Valued by who?

I dont get how it has dropped considering he has played loads of games and done well at Championship level.

Im not sure many if any Championship clubs would give a wide man who has scored one solitary goal and set up only 2 having played the majority of games in a season a new deal. Shows our lack of ambition. "Not that type of player" though apparently.

The 5 loans. Beck, ACD, Dennis, Woodrow and Sanderson.

He wasnt playing under JDT with Carter, Hyam and Wharton all ahead of him. Im not sure why that would have suddenly changed. He has played loads at Championship level, an amount to which theres nothing to suggest he would have matched here. And on lots more money.

It was an absolutely ludicrous decision but he changed it at half time and we actually won that game. He doesnt warrant a particularly strong opinion either way fron what I can see, 3 years on. Did a lot of good things including some very shrewd signings but also some peculiar things and it all middled out to a good job done overall, but not remarkable by any means. If you are looking for people to direct anger and hate at, Venkys are the people but even beyond that, there are a lot of people ahead of Mowbray in that particular queue.

It definitely shouldnt have been an "easy" road to the top 6. The side we came up with was far too good for league 1 but was aging and had only just over a million spent on it in League 1 since going down. Yes we spent £10m that summer and £5 the summer on 3 players after but that wasnt enough to turn the core of what was nowhere near a top 5 challenging squad into one where getting there should have been easy. No doubting though that he made mistakes along the way, and strangely it was the season in which the owners went full on Venkys (sell our best player, reinvest nothing, refuse to spend in Jan, refuse to even allow autocracy to sell and reinvest) that we came closest. He was a solid manager but not one capable like say a Bielsa of getting a team well beyond the sum of its parts. To not be willing to "forgive" him even if you felt he grossly underachieved from a footballing perspective again seems a bit strong and personal.

I dont know why you keep suggesting that they were prepared to hand over funds previously but arent now. The court case might have intensified their desperation to cut costs, but they havent willingly put forward funds for a long time. Its not the same being willing to invest as it is merely raising share capital to offset the losses, which is all theyve been doing. Which they have to do to avoid administration etc. Its just a coincedence that we happened to have one season where the Wharton sale meant that we didnt have a loss to offset. In the 2025 accounts despite the Szmodics sale there will be a loss that they will need to offset, theres no way around it. But either way, your arguments are all muddled. Mowbray was a big part of our current issues earlier. How can he be if the thing that has changed is the court case.

Before breaking down this, I still again cant get my head around why anyone would detest him 3 seasons after his departure, and would still take such great pleasure in him losing his job even now at West Brom. Its one thing thinking he did a bad job but "detest?" We finished 15th, 11th, 15th and 8th in his 4 seasons after promotion. Is that "disastrous?" I dont understand how he has in any way caused the mess we are in now. Are you blaming him for the owners having shown no interest year in year out? Are you blaming him for us still being unable to get key players to sign new deals, mainly players that have come in since he left? Is the court case down to him?

Detest. Incredible that after all of these years and especially after what has happened to him personally, youd think that hate would have subsided and would have been replaced with apathy. He did a good job, and he grew publically frustrated with their lack of investment/contract issues (common themes) towards the end. He was here too long, but he then went to Sunderland and did really well. Not worked at West Brom, always seemed strange to see him rush back so soon after recovering from serious illness. If you start implying that Mowbray was the limiting factor (or any one individual) RATHER than Venkys, then you have a warped take on things. They did put some money in, he did standard managerial spiel of lowering expectations, all managers do it, Ranieri was going on about survival three quarters in their title winning season at Leicester. Its been twisted as if they were willing to spend millions and millions extra and Mowbray wouldnt allow it. And it isnt a reason for the current day mess as even if we had, those players would no longer be here either on frees or for sales than would never be reinvested.

How do you know whose agent was at Ewood? The club clearly publicised the Hyam extension earlier and more loudly than usual off the back of the public interviews. The spin has at least worked with one.

Which podcast showed that he played whatever players he was told to?