More than happy to give you an interview Joe - though I may not be able to give you the sort of content you are after.

Absolutely. A proper flat 4 in midfield. Bollocks to accommodating Armstrong with this wide forward nonsense. I’d have said Downing ahead of Chapman, but either would do just fine for me. Walton Nyambe Tosin Williams Cunningham Chapman Travis Johnson Rothwell Dack Graham Not a chance, but I’d love that lineup on Saturday.

What did he do?

Bennett is taking some time off twitter after the nonsense following the Charlton match. Got that from the horses mouth.

Think it could definitely be a factor. I remember reading some of those features they did where they ask players questions. Lots of his team mates said Nyambe was very quiet, and a few were taking the mickey. Nyambe said at weekends he likes spending time with his family and going to Church. Kind of got the impression he wasn’t so much one of “the lads”.

I think we all have a tendency to overestimate how much the money they put into Rovers ultimately means to them. Yes, they are sinking cash into a bottomless pit, but it’s not like they will be making any sacrifices... Balaji won’t be considering flogging a roller to make sure the guys in the ticket office get paid. While we have a football club losing money hand over fist, one whim away from oblivion, they have a 99.9% share in a football club - to the value of about 180 million quid. As part of their wider business portfolio, and sat alongside their other billions worth of assets, not only is it not a big deal... it makes sense for them to carry on as they are. “Pulling the plug would not only be catastrophic for us, but wipe the money they have “invested” so far off their net worth.

Seems a very poor decision seeing as he should be nowhere near the team if Mowbray bothered to pick our strongest 11

Done well to con Sam Allardyce and Giovanni Trapattoni into being a regular fixture in their premier league and international sides then... not to mention winning Irish player of the year while doing so. Better goals to games ratio than Tugay, and of course Brereton.

Keith Andrews was a far, far superior player to Bennett!

Bloody hell, that’s slim pickings. I'm not overly enamoured with Lenihan’s on field leadership and communication qualities. He is remembered for bollocking Raya once, where he was also culpable. Just shows how meek they all were last season. Got to be Johnson for me. Looks the part early doors. Downing would probably be higher on my list than some of the others there too. Fully expect Mowbray will give it to Bennett though.

I wouldn’t either. Sat deep in a 5 man midfield he’d do a good job. Doesn’t fit our system, but I think his attributes suit that role far better than centre half. Think he found his to centre back for us due to our 9 year neglect of the defence. Nobody really knew where he played when we signed him.

Are you listening Tony?

I asked my North End mate if he can do a job at centre back... ”He can do, but he’s wasted there”

He sounds like he’s on the verge of losing it completely with some of that. We have been in football a long, long time. We see the deficiencies and where we need to strengthen. It is not as easy as getting somebody who is better than someone who is in our team who some people might want to move out of the team and someone else come in. How much do they cost? Where are the free transfers that are better than the players we have in our team and how much wages do they cost. Everybody has a name and says 'why don't you and get him?' Well if I phoned up about him and they are saying he is £20million and we can't afford him so we have to move onto the next one. And if we phone up about him and they say he is £10million well we can't afford him. Why don't we swap Tyler Magloire for the centre half at Rochdale, whoever he is, and stick him in our team and see how we get on? "You have to find players who you feel are better at doing the job. And I know people might say 'I could be better than him' I can feel it, I don't read social media or the newspapers but I can feel by the angles of the questions then you have probably been reading that. And if people have been asking those questions well it isn't that easy. "It is tough to find people who are better than the ones you have got for the money that is in your budget to improve your football team. We can all just sign players but is anybody any better? Are they going to improve? That is the job and that is how hard it is. "Let's see how we go and trust the players and try and make them better and improve them. They are good lads, they want to work hard, they want to improve and they want to get better, they want a winning team and so do I.”

Agree, unless they are of real quality. Defenders an absolute priority though, and I’d rather have a solid centre half than a fantastic attacker at this moment.

Bloody hell... knew it was bad, but they’re some shocking stats!

5 hours to go on transfer deadline day. Things are hectic. Mowbray’s had to spend the morning training midfielders to masquerade as full backs and strikers to stop getting in the box and stay out wide where they belong. He’s also had to find time to publicly ridicule a promising young player and keep the fans happy with another completely inconsistent and incoherent press conference, not to mention checking in on Ben Gladwin’s progress. Waggott will be on the phone to India. He’s currently number 47 in the queue. They should be pleased. He’s freed up literally hundreds of pounds a week by allowing Magloire to go out on loan, and those special boots will pay for themselves. He’s got more important things to be doing than pissing about asking if we can please get signoff to borrow a defender, those viewing platforms don’t erect themselves. He isn’t wasting his time though, while on hold he’s sending texts, WhatsApps, Facebook messages, Instagram and snapchats to Jack Rodwell to see if he fancies a kickabout in Fulham on Saturday. He even swiped right on tinder. He is almost ready to consider the possibility he is being ghosted... but it’s probably worth trying bebo and MySpace first. On tip of that, neither of them have had any dinner yet. They aren’t going to consider that Sodexo muck, especially at £7 for a hot dog... and Northcote no longer offer a discount, so it’s either send Bob Coar to Leavers or go for a drive out somewhere. Suhail is at his desk playing minesweeper.

These are the questions I submitted prior to the consultation meeting: Could you outline the process that Tony has to go through to get a transfer green-lighted? Who decides what we will pay for a player and negotiates? Is Tony given a budget to spend as he sees fit, or does he identify targets and leave the issue of fees to thers? If so, who? Do the owners offer opinion on what they feel we need as a team? Do they suggest players or veto suggestions? From what has been reported previously, there seems a lot of back and forth between Ewood and Pune, which could make the transfer process somewhat convoluted. Could a situation arise where we sign a player for more than Tony would value them at, or even sign a player Tony doesn’t necessarily want? Do the club/owners have an aversion to signing defenders? Since Venky’s took over we have recouped circa £45 million on selling defenders, whereas we have only spent around £6.5 million on defenders during that period (85% of which went on one player) There is a perception that we have a “make do and mend” approach to the defence, often with players playing out of position at the back There seems a willingness to spend money in other areas when it is apparent to most that our defence has been something of an Achilles heel for years now. We have had a high turnover of players in defensive positions, but we have invariably replaced players we have sold for decent sums with free or nominal fee transfers When Venky’s first came along they spoke about their preference for “exciting, young, attacking players” – the transfer history during their tenure supports this, but does this extend to an unwillingness to sanction spending on defensive players? Are the board/management team regularly set objectives by Venky’s? How often are these reviewed? On pitch – what are the expectations? What was there reaction to our recent poor run of form? How aware of they and are they interested? Commercially – Are they aware of attendance levels, do they have any desire to improve this? Would the board need to seek approval for any radical changes to ticket pricing or other incentives aimed at improving gates? How accountable or the senior staff at the club, and how deeply do the Venky’s scrutinise what goes on at the club? While it currently makes sense for Venky’s to continue to subsidise the running of the club and convert sums loaned to shares, the long term implications are worrying. They cannot keep doing this indefinitely. What is the long term plan to prevent the club haemorrhaging money? Realistically, increasing revenue (promotion) or severely cutting costs seem the only viable ways to achieve this – is there any immediate pressure to do either? What is Venky’s motivation for continued ownership? There can’t be any major benefit to their other business interests, despite murmurings after they initially took over no apparent attempts have been made for them to branch into UK markets. In fact, their brand image has undeniably suffered in the UK. Steve Gibson recently proposed a measure to allow greater transparency of club accounts, this was rejected by Championship clubs. What are your thoughts on this, and more generally the role of the EFL in such matters? Sadly a number of former players have passed away recently with no acknowledgement from the club. While I don’t think it is realistic to honour each and every former player with a minutes silence, failure to put anything in the programme, or mention a few words over the PA at the next match seems somewhat disrespectful, and has irked fans on social media. Please could the club look into ensuring at least a mention is made when such sad events happen. They answered the ones about Transfer process, Finances and Venky’s objective setting pretty comprehensively. The deceased players wasn’t addressed (perhaps due to time issues). The one about defenders was pre-empted and referred back to. It wasn’t answered as methodically as the others, but obviously everyone’s heard what Mowbray had to say about the defence. While they didn’t address the more specific points they reiterated all signings were Mowbray’s and were very convincing in their insistence we would sign defenders. After the event a group of people were talking with Mowbray and I was involved. We got even more of his impassioned promises that defenders were coming. That’s when he made the comments about wanting better than Bauer. His words were “We tried to sign him last year, now he’s on a free his agent thinks he’s worth 40/50 grand a week. He’s been playing in league one. We need bigger and better. We need someone who’s going to come straight in and improve the starting 11”. I said something off the cuff “We should go for Jake Cooper from Millwall”, to which he replied “Yeah, players like that. He could be one we are looking at”. Aside from this there was some general discussion about the defence not being good enough, he was borderline ridiculing them for being scared/unable to head a ball. With Waggott, I’d mentioned during the main part of the Q&A that I was one of the remaining boycotters. He said “we need you to come back” and asked for ideas to get more people through the door. At the end I spoke to him one to one and told him that I was on the verge of buying a season ticket, but he had to understand the nonsense we had been through (he said ‘I know, I know’). He knew who I was and felt it would be a “positive statement for the club if you do come back”. I told him I doubted some of what he’d said, but I’d take him at his word, and that I felt for the first time in a long time we had people at the club being allowed to get on with their job, who valued the fans opinions and were working in our best interests. I thanked him for this but said that the proof would be in the transfer business we carried out. He reiterated that defenders were coming, and that we would be making signings to push the top 6. He raves about Rankin-Costello a bit too.

I didn’t mean to suggest you were merely doing club PR... although there’s plenty on twitter and Facebook who do. But I think some of the points you make are similar to claims they will make. Was meant at a pop at the club rather than you. I’m as annoyed as anyone about the situation we find ourselves in, due in no small part that it was my questions and pressing that led to Mowbray’s “defenders are coming” speech. I also had discussions with both Mowbray and Waggott about my concerns at the end of the consultation meeting - I walked out of there more happy with things than I had been since they took over. I went on record with these thoughts. I new feel duped. Completely agree that their model is flawed by the way, and I’ve no idea why defenders aren’t considered as part of it (Ezri Konsa was a player I banged on about last summer). But they clearly have delusions of running the club like some sort of battery chicken farm, with rearing players much more important than winning games of football. Brereton will need a hell of a season this year to get near being worth what we paid for him, and him, Rothwell and Nyambe all struggle for game time behind players with literally no sale value. We might be in a better position than we were, but we are still miles away from being a normally functioning club in my opinion.

A lot of that is exactly what Mowbray and Waggott will come out with to placate any dissenters amongst the supporters. Doesn’t was with me though. We have spent more on Dominic Samuel than any defender in 7 years. We have regularly played midfielders in the back four since they potted Allardyce. Money is readily available to spend on “young attacking players”... best part of £15 million quid either unable to nudge ahead of Danny Graham or accommodated out wide. We’ve had Lenihan (who Mowbray not so long ago said fancied himself as a midfielder) and Nyambe (still younger than Whatton and chucked in when he was younger than Brereton) come through the youth ranks... I suppose there was Henley as well, but his career has fallen off a cliff. Magloire looked miles off last season and was only called upon due to utter desperation... we are hardly spoiled for choice with these young defensive graduates, and we flogged the best one who is now playing in the premier league for a pittance. I genuinely believed Mowbray’s “defenders are coming speech”. He clearly meant it. I can’t believe the backtracking is merely a change of heart. Is it really so difficult to believe Venky’s are meddling in transfer business and aren’t giving Mowbray free reign? Personally I can’t believe anyone would give them the benefit of the doubt for even a second. People like to paint any cynicism or questioning of their actions is baseless, paranoid and negative. In reality their track record of farcical decisions and habitual lies is more than enough grounds for concern. Of course Mowbray and Waggott aren’t going to come out and admit this. They’d lose their jobs. Instead they will peddle the usual 4 phrases that it seems they are contractually obligated to do whenever they mention the owners... “Supportive, passionate, knowledgeable and humble” then Cheston will chirp in with “you are lucky to have them”.

Don’t be ridiculous!

Pretty sure Waggott stated at the last consultation meeting that they get subsidies/grants of £2 million towards this. So finding the million they need to put towards it is an absolute no brainier.

Doesn’t fill me with excitement, but bang average is better than completely useless.

Having sat there and seen and heard Mowbray make the infamous “defenders are coming” speech, I too cannot believe he has made an about turn without something behind the scenes happening. If he didn’t select Bennett over Nyambe I don’t think there’s be any decent argument that he wasn’t desperate to sort out the defence but is being hamstrung. That quote will be getting brought up a lot over the next few weeks I imagine, and I guarantee it will at the next consultation meeting.

I’m bringing this thread back. Was going to edit, but seems pointless as the figures remain the same with Adarabioyo in on loan, Downing off on a free and God knows what’s happening with Rodwell. Nothing will please me more than a barrage of comments full of ridicule and I told you so’s if the 9 year trend is bucked in the next 50 hours. Can’t see it happening though.