Miller11

I expect a few on here will be heading down to check this out. Anyone lucky enough to get a pair of Blackburns today?

Funnily enough I was thinking Jake Roberts. He’s very close to DDP, so there’s an in. He seems to be over his demons, but given his previous it’d be a big risk. One of the greatest on the mic of all time though, and something that would get people talking and tuning in.

Caught up today with Dynamite - here’s my thoughts: The arena looks great. Superb production values. On a personal note, I loved seeing Tony Schiavone back on commentary - and considering he’s been on a near 20 year hiatus he did great! JR adds legitimacy, and is still fantastic. I haven’t been a fan of Excalibur thus far, but he did ok on here. I really liked the fact they talked about WCW and acknowledged the world outside their own “universe”, and really the only issues I had with the commentary was the expectation of too much prior knowledge of the AEW product so far. This might be a result of me watching the broadcast on ITV player (more on that later). Cody V Guevara Cody’s entrance was great and he’s just an absolute superstar. Guevara was a bit sloppy at times but good overall. I thought the Brandi spot was silly, there was no real payoff to it. For me this was a good match, and a great way to open the first broadcast. There were too many false finishes. Once again an inside cradle is seen as a more effective move than a really vicious looking inverted superplex. Schiavone doing in ring interviews post match- yes please!! Real shame Cody didn’t get a word or two in before the Jericho run in... now this is where the crowd become problematic - Jericho, being a heel, gets a big face pop. I get that people are excited to see him, being as he’s one of the few legitimate stars they have, but if they had allowed Cody to cut an impassioned promo having won, Jericho might’ve got the right reaction. *It appears that the ITV player broadcast has cut out a big chunk here - this may have effected the next segment. Pissed off to have missed MJF too. SCU promo This again seemed to presume knowledge of a tag tournament. Love SCU, but I didn’t really get this. Lucha bros interrupt and descends to brawl. Meh. Hangman Page v PAC Bit annoyed PAC has robbed Dave Mastiff’s bastard moniker, not that WWE would ever let him use it. Really good match, strongest in ring performances of the night. Good ending with Hebner playing his part well. The timing on the finish was spot on, and this was proper heel V face. Both are going to be big players going forward. Nayla v Riho Nice recap video as Britt Baker is out for commentary - she shouldn’t have bothered though as she was awful... but far from the biggest problem here. Sloppy and disjointed match throughout. Some good ideas, but execution an issue. Nayla is more than twice the size of Riho... if Riho is going to overcome Nayla it needed to be a long build, seeing her overcome the odds. All they have achieved here is to bury their top female star, and their entire division. I can’t see Riho getting over to anywhere near the level needed to carry the women’s division. Ridiculous booking. Really bugged me how a little shove to the face floored Riho longer than any of the big moves got during the match and necessitated a save from Omega. Stupid. Another post match interview broken up, and the least said about that powerbomb the better. Main event Said it before, not a fan of Omega or the Bucks. Plenty of dives, superkicks and Omega’s daft poses. Moxley and Omega’s brawl was sloppy and low budget... Omega moves like a cat, but can’t make a punch look legitimate. The glass table break looked shit, but at least it took them out of the action - because seeing them return after that would’ve been really stupid. I thought the Bucks dragged LAX down to their level... seeing them stood round waiting for moves to land on them and seeing them overselling is just sad. The Bucks are great at doing wrestling moves, they are not good at having wrestling matches in my opinion. But along comes Jericho to save the day! Masterclass. Minimal involvement but every little move he makes means something (both here and in the earlier beatdown). Despite the early cheers he got, he cemented himself as undeniably a heel here. Until his involvement there was no psychology, rhyme or reason. Showed why he is their main man. While the match itself wasn’t anything to shout about, the ending was phenomenal. What a fantastic way to end their debut show! Battle lines drawn between clearly defined heels and faces. Jake Haeger looked a beast! Having seen a bit of him since leaving WWE (notably on the short lived 5 star) what I will say is GET THE MAN A MANAGER! Drawing similarities to Brock is lazy, but he would benefit massively from a strong mouth piece... the ideal man for the job (Cornette) will never happen, so it’ll take some thinking outside the box. Could be immense for them. All in all this was a strong show, better than I expected, and it left me wanting to watch again. My big concerns are where they go with the women’s division now, as well as the impending doom I feel knowing Janela, Orange Cassidy and some of the other jokes they have employed will inevitably appear in the coming weeks. They’ve got good backing, and some great talents... hopefully egos and in jokes won’t be allowed to spoil things as they have a real opportunity here.

?? Superb site to partner with, and kudos for knocking back the vape companies and bookies!

I was talking hypothetically Chaddy. As I’ve said before I am not advocating getting rid of Mowbray at this point, and I have zero confidence of a competent replacement. Like I said, not many of those types of Manager about, although Joey Barton seems to be doing ok (except for assaulting opposition managers). To be clear, I am in no way, shape or form advocating we get him. As for how long Mowbray will be here... could be days, could be years. Lunatics tend to be unpredictable.

If we were to have a change of manager, I wouldn’t necessarily be wanting someone young and hungry. I think we are crying out for a Souness type... someone to drag us kicking and screaming out of the league. I know they are a bit of a dying breed, and it might be a very short term appointment... not to mention the fact that anyone like that and Venky’s wouldn’t be at all compatible.

Might have got a like on this if you’d called us Rovers! Rhodes can definitely do a very good job at this level, but he needs to be in a team playing to his strengths. Gestede exactly the same - when you put crosses in the box for him you knew he was going to get on the end of 9/10 of them. We really ought to have been promoted with them two firing like they were. I’m concerned we are going to look back on this current period as another missed opportunity to get promoted if we don’t find a more coherent way of playing and a more effective way of getting results pretty quickly. Plenty of talk about a work in progress - but how long can we build before we expect to do something. The similarities between now and those Bowyer days are there, and it won’t be long before this squad is dismantled if we don’t see some success.

But Mowbray seems to have a very odd way of picking his team. Players nailed on to start every game: Bennett, Cunningham, Armstrong, Lenihan, Dack Players who will start games except in extreme circumstances: Downing, Williams, Gallagher Expendable regular starters: *this is usually where the tombola approach starts Travis, Johnson, Graham Players who might get minutes when the fan base demands it: Rothwell, Chapman, Adarabioyo, Brereton Players who will get minutes when there is little other option: Nyambe, Smallwood, Bell Players who will get a bit of game time fairly inexplicably and at random times seemingly out of nowhere because Mowbray rates them, even if nobody else does: Evans, Samuel Mowbray seems to work his way down this list, shoehorning people in to fit his favoured formation.

Mowbray needs to start picking a team rather than 11 players.

Don’t give Mowbray ideas!

I actually think Bennett on the wing in front of Nyambe would be decent, though I’d prefer Rothwell there

I think being unbalanced has been a big issue for a long time. Laughable reading his comments about how he likes his wide players to do their bit defensively in the telegraph today - Armstrong offers nothing defensively. Tough job being a full back in this side.

Walton Nyambe Tosin Williams Cunningham Rothwell Holtby Travis Downing Dack Graham I’d go with that. I predict Mowbray will go with: Walton Tosin Lenihan Williams Cunningham Bennett Travis Downing Dack Gallagher Armstrong No discernible shape or style, and plenty of chopping and changing after about 12 minutes

Not sure if I’m exactly right, but I think you are thinking of a game at Ewood where Marker scored? I think it was round Christmas in the season after we won the league.

@Exiled in Toronto Don’t forget Derby were pretty free spending that season too.

Nicky Marker!

Nobody told Leicester 4-4-2 was dead when they won the Prem

What I wouldn’t give for a Super Atko in midfield now. Mimms May Moran Hendry Wright Price Atkins Cowans Sellars Newell Speedie Would any of our current crop make the team over anyone who played in that Playoff final? Not for me.

Fair enough. I wonder, if Venky’s are as serious about promotion as we are led to believe, how long they will give him to deliver? For the record, as much as Mowbray can get on my nerves, I’m not calling for his head. I think his job is more complicated by Venky’s than we give him credit for and I dread to think who those idiots would appoint next. More likely to be John Gregory than Chris Hughton. I do think our current situation, plodding along in the middle of the Championship while haemorrhaging money, can’t continue indefinitely. I’d like to see a bit more urgency in trying to sort out our medium term future. A promotion (followed by some sensible decision making, HA!!) would do this.

Complaining over the manner in which a blatantly offside goal was correctly ruled out is some serious deflection tactic. We lost because we were shit.

How long do you give him though Chaddy? Personally I don’t think we will be challenging this season, and that presents a bit of a problem. We need promotion sooner rather than later. As we saw with Rovers under Bowyer, and at plenty of other clubs at this Level, this long build of a few years towards promotion only ever really guarantees the eventual breaking up of your team if you aren’t successful. We’ve already lost Raya and only replaced with a stop gap. Cunningham and Adarabioyo are loanees, Graham and Downing (and Mulgrew) will likely retire or at least drop down levels. Johnson will be 33 so his involvement you’d think would reduce. That’s already a pretty hefty rebuilding job. Eventually Dack is going to get the opportunity to play in the Premier League, we’ve done well to hang on to him thus far. Travis will also have suitors, maybe Lenihan too. The likes of Nyambe and Rothwell would be entitled to be fed up with the way they are currently being (under)utilised and look for a move. Presumably Evans, Smallwood and Leutweiler will all be off too. We have some exciting prospects coming through, granted, but Gallagher isn’t pulling up any trees so far. As for Brereton, if we were to try and sell him in January we’d be having the pants down if anyone who offered half a million for him. The rebuilding job we’d have on our hands next summer will be at best significant and at worst an almost complete overhaul. FFP and questionable transfer strategy (for which I think Venky’s should take more blame) mean that while we may not be at promotion or bust levels of urgency quite yet, it isn’t far off.

I’m sick of all this bollocks an all... “There’s huge frustration and huge disappointment in what is a really quiet dressing room," he revealed to iFollow Rovers. Surprise surprise, it’s a quiet dressing room. For all the talk of “character” we lack players with any bottle. They will be all day round feeling sorry for themselves - the same reaction is plain to see every time we concede. Bennett has done his usual disappointed tweet... that’s about as much of a reaction as we ever see, while we get an entire week spoiled. You and your beloved senior pros should be dishing out some bollockings. “It was a missed opportunity for us today. We wasted it and it feels bigger than just a wasted opportunity, it feels huge. Yep. And it’s an all too familiar feeling. “Against a side who are newly promoted to this league, no disrespect to them, but if we want to be up there towards the top of this league then we need to beat teams like Luton Town. No danger of you disrespecting them is there Tony? As always we worry far more about other teams than they do about us. Maybe Lenihan warmed you about his ex youth team mate and what a danger he would be having plied his trade at such dizzying heights with Stanley and Halifax... of course he was right as he absolutely bullied Lenihan for the winner. “We had enough of the ball, but we have to be better when breaking down these sort of teams and you cannot give away soft goals like we did today. These words appear in approximately 60% of all your post match interviews. “The combination of that was our undoing and it was similar to the opening day game against Charlton. That combination has been our undoing in most games in 2019 in fact. “We have been scoring goals and winning matches, but today was really frustrating. It was an opportunity to put a good performance in, win well, push up the table and look ahead to Tuesday night," he added. The sources and manner of the goals we have scored suggest more fortune than tactical nous to be honest Tony. They’ve papered over the cracks recently. “We needed to create more chances, get behind teams more, fizz balls across the box. We didn’t do that enough and didn’t have the guile. We havent “fizzed balls across the box” in years... apart from about 3 times last season where Brereton put shots out for throw-ins. “The individually of a Rothwell was probably needed for us today, that speed and craft, which was needed today.” You are just taking the piss now. I’ll humour you... but please answer me this: If Rothwell was too ill to play, and full of a cold, coughing and spluttering, then why on earth was he at Ewood in the pissing rain and freezing cold, potentially passing on his illness to his teammates rather than say at home with the heating on?

Sick of this stupid formation. Sick of hearing Mowbray has resolved our defensive frailties. Sick of players playing out of position. Sick of decent young players being left out of the squad for chronically underperforming favourites. Sick of people trying to justify wasting millions on 2 strikers who have scored about twice in the last 2 years between them while we haven’t spent a proper fee on a defender in nearly a decade. Sick of being told to be grateful Venky’s haven’t liquidated us. Disgusted at being told we are at our natural level, plodding around the middle of the second tier and getting beat off Luton at Ewood after all that Jack Walker did for us, and elements of our fan base trying to hold those who don’t share their rose tinted views accountable, rather than the real culprits.

Seems oddly specific and a bit weird that someone would pretend to be Dack. Not saying it is, and can’t say I really know what he sounds like. Even if it is Dack, I don’t see that it reflects poorly on him in any way. I presumed the JaySP was Jay Spearing and that the voice recording was just flying round footballers WhatsApp groups and beyond.

Have you seen both versions doing the rounds? One is slightly longer than the other and starts with the guy saying “Bradley Johnson, he’s with us now” which would suggest it is a Rovers player. https://mobile.twitter.com/jackajover/status/1177317863092363264?s=12