With those, or similar as our home and change kit, we’d have no need for a third kit... can’t see us playing Feyenoord any time soon.

I like the red trim, and though it’s not wholly traditional, the two white sleeves.

Agree with this. He was much improved yesterday, but still a long way to go to prove he has anything much to offer long term, discounting the fee.

Out of contract in the summer. In fact he’s still on a scholars contract and they haven’t tied him down to a pro-deal! I’m hearing Burnley is the likely destination...

Exactly this. Every error Raya makes is down to attempting to do things he is not naturally good at or that he doesn’t possess the physical attributes to do effectively. If he was encouraged/allowed to keep goal in his 6 yard box he would be fine. Mowbray coming out in the press claiming he wants a “commanding goalkeeper”... well, you would be better off signing one than trying to turn Raya into one. Though I’d suggest a far better investment would be a goalkeeper coach who has actually played football who can mentor Raya and get him playing to his obvious strengths.

To be fair he’s banged them in consistently for the U23s. Seems to get on the end of crosses well enough. If Brereton had set Dack up on Tuesday as Nuttall did, people would be raving about it. A bit like ‘that disallowed goal’... which is approaching the realms of ‘that tackle’.

Bringing Armstrong in for Conway immediately changes our shape and unbalances us. Against Derby Conway played on the right hand side of a 4 in midfield... Armstrong will never offer that. Wingers in, wide strikers out!

There seems to be an acceptance, sometimes more grudging than others, that Venky’s aren’t going anywhere soon. I’m asked on an almost weekly basis ‘but what can we do?’... Well, you can get behind this. The more innovative and creative ways there are to keep the message alive the better in my eyes. And aside from that it should be entertaining!

Still don’t believe this was a Mowbray signing. If it was it’s a sackable offence. If the plan is a long term one, why did we only sign a 19 year old to a 2 and a half year contract? If by some miracle he does anything next year and suddenly becomes hot property he’ll be going in to his final year. While I don’t think this will be a worry it’s pretty illogical.

Closest we will play to a 4-4-2 while Dack is here, and it was a joy to watch. We played with two wingers playing as wingers, and our best two central midfielders and we turn in a performance like that. Rothwell was absolutely superb, needs to start every game... in fact that midfield 4 does, maybe give Chapman a run too. Play that system and Conway could still have a place in the squad next season. Lenihan defending like a proper defender tonight, he can play a bit too. Get another proper centre half alongside him (stick a bid in for Jake Cooper from Millwall) and I’d be happy with that. Nuttall head and shoulders above Brereton. May not possess masses of ability but positively influences games. Not perfect by Mowbray though, dropping Nyambe and putting Bennett at full back is a bad call.

7/2 for us to concede in the first 15 mins...

Team I’d start: Raya Nyambe Lenihan Magloire Williams Chapman Travis Rodwell Rothwell Graham Butterworth subs: Leutweiler, Bell, Nuttall, Doyle, Buckley, Davenport, Conway Team I expect so see: Raya Lenihan Mulgrew Williams Bennett Smallwood Evans Bell **This void is deliberate** Armstrong Dack Graham

I think he’s also quite lazy and greedy. Might be better more central, but I don’t think so.

Today was the straw that broke the camels back for me. Has to go. If it wasn’t for Raya we’d have lost 3-0, which would have reflected the game more accurately. The lad has the makings of a good keeper, if he is allowed to keep goal in his 6 years box. He doesn’t have the physical attributes to be a “commanding keeper” yet he’s expected to do so to cover for our centre backs failings. He also doesn’t have a coach at the required level to work with. Nyambe, like Raya, has been used as a scapegoat by Mowbray. I think he’s doing extremely well since he must be the most isolated full back I have ever seen. He’s expected to operate up and down that right hand side, never gets any defensive help from Armstrong or Evans/Smallwood. I’d be putting in a transfer request if I was him... and being subbed off for Brereton and Bennett dropping in there is an insult to the lad. Travis seems to have got worse the more he has settled in to the team. He’s still infinitely better than Evans or Smallwood, but he seems to be stifled. Mowbray seems to want 2 midfielders who never stray beyond the centre circle in either direction. Those two jokers he started with today offered absolutely nothing. Rothwell looked to make things happen, but I expect he will only have that drummed out of him given a run of games. Bennett, Smallwood, Mulgrew, Bell, Williams, Evans and Armstrong are all crap. So is Brereton, so let not pretend his signing is anything than an absolute disaster for a minute longer. If Mowbray wants to take responsibility for wasting 7 million on him, that’s a sackable offence on its own. Rodwell won England caps as a midfielder. Reed has been a standout this season. Yet they can’t dislodge the least dynamic duo, who offer fuck all at either end of the pitch I have ever witnessed? Dack needs a heavy fine and if we had anyone resembling a proper captain, a bollocking/good hiding. He will probably get a paid holiday and a cuddle. Shite.

The words I’ve heard used, from a club employee, where “looking worse for wear”

I’d be amazed if three of Bennett, Smallwood, Evans, Mulgrew don’t start the first game of next season. What I think we will get - Bauer now seems viable as he will be free. 2 on loan, 2 “for the future” and a striker.

You also need some help from the players in front of you. Ours don’t generally get that.

Rather than discussing the merits of Hughes, Wagner or Jakanovic, we would be better debating Glenn Roeder, Adrian Heath and Brian Little judging by Venky’s track record. For that reason... Mowbray in. It’s not difficult to see where our issues stem from.

Look where the initial idea comes from. I hardly think you can accuse that poster/blogger/tweeter of having that particular agenda! He’s never slow to criticise any anti-Venky talk. I’ve heard similar talk about Davenport. I see Jim voicing the same thing as pretty strong corroberation. I’ll be the first to admit I view Venky’s with absolute suspicion and believe the worst of them readily. He doesn’t. Personally I think not being suspicious of Venky’s is at best extremely naive. It would only take a couple of minutes to identify dozens of suspect transfers that have been made over the last 8 years that benefitted certain individuals rather than the team. I suppose it comes down to this with Brereton... if you believe that Mowbray was given 7 million to do with as he pleased, and instead of addressing a threadbare and below par back line, he spunked 7 million on a player he doesn’t rate enough to play in his natural position, if at all, then surely he deserves all the criticism he is currently getting and some.

There is one constant in our dramatic fall over the better part of the last decade. It’s not on the pitch or in the dugout, it’s four and a half thousand miles away. Problems have a root cause.

The “Venky’s have learned from their mistakes” rhetoric has addled some minds... what possible hope can anyone have that any replacement for Mowbray would be anything other than an absolute joke? Which of the 7 appointments they have made give you any confidence they would employ any one of the names mentioned above? They stumbled across a likeable but limited trier, who replaced a previously unemployable dingle, who replaced a spineless spent force, who replaced a well meaning out of his depth youth coach, who replaced a well connected novice coach, who replaced a misguided attempt to appease the fans, who replaced their beloved Steve fucking Kean. Each and every one of their appointments has been met by, at best, scratching of heads, and at worst near mutiny. We can all come up with fantasies of who would get the job... and that’s exactly what they’d be. Mowbray has been adequate in his tenure so far. He looks as though he’s going to start slipping below that level. In my opinion he is worthy of faint praise for modest successes. He’s not the biggest issue. I’ve said plenty of times he has taken too much credit for last years achievements, but now I think he is shouldering too much of the blame for the shit state of our squad. Yes, our lack of formation and tactical identity is on him, as is his misplaced loyalty to players who helped get us promoted (and relegated in the first place now I come to mention it). But you cannot possibly tell me that Mowbray was given a 7 million budget to do what he pleases with and spunked it all on Brereton? There is something decidedly iffy about that deal, and indeed our whole transfer policy which seems to have a complete make do and mend approach towards the defence - something I keep banging on about, but has been the case since the Rao’s rocked up. I also very much doubt he turned up at Brockhall on his first day and went “hey, these academy coaches are the best I’ve ever seen... let’s get them working with the first team!”. Mowbray has his failings for sure, but the club remains a basket case. As has been proven since the days of Kean, managerial issues are the tip of the iceberg.

Balaji has remembered he owns a football club in which he has very little interest and decided to give a local kid a nice experience in a pretty well publicised act of philanthropy. Nothing to see here.

That’s exactly what’s happened. No intention whatsoever to sign him apparently. This is what Balaji had to say... “We, as supporters of sport, especially football, want to help young Indian talent. "Our Academy at Blackburn Rovers is one of the finest Category One Academies in the UK. "This training stint will definitely help Aniket to develop technically as a player, which will in turn contribute to the improvement of his performances on the pitch. "We want to support young talented footballers in the best way possible to help improve the Indian national team’s performances and FIFA ranking on the world stage.” Not really bothered either way. No skin of our noses, but no benefit for us either. It barely registers on the scale of silly Venky decisions. What is interesting though is how readily Balaji will pass comment on this, considering they have all been mercifully silent on all things Rovers over the last few years. Appears he cares more about this little vanity project than the mess he has made of our club.

Doesn’t really require any hindsight, and the anomaly that was the now seemingly very distant purple patch we had in January never really masked the fact our defence isn’t up to it. This is nothing fresh though, it’s been an issue throughout the entire Venky era. Scott Dann (a panic buy resulting from NZonzi having to start as a centre back) aside, there has been a complete reluctance to sign defenders for anything above a nominal fee. Evidently in January it was mistakenly decided we weren’t in dire need of reinforcements in that area, so much so that we loaned out players leaving us woefully inadequate in terms of cover. Mowbray is now publicly stating that we need actual centre backs who can actually perform the basic duties required in that position. Surely he knew this all along though, so rather than lamenting the fact this glaringly obvious weekness wasn’t addressed, we should be asking why.

I am beginning to doubt Raya, who I did think had the makings of a top keeper. I think a major reason for this is our goalkeeper coach. Ben Benson is 28 years old and was promoted from academy coach. Now, academy players need to be taught things like footwork, starting position, hand shape, technique etc. Raya should be well beyond these basics and these should be second nature. As an established first team keeper he needs coaching on playing to his strengths... he can’t deal with crosses very well, but then again, neither could Brad Friedel, so he stayed on his line rather than coming flapping. His distribution is poor, so why on earth does he attempt to launch counters with quick kicks that seem to invariably go to the opposition or out of touch. Raya needs an old head who has been there and done it... I’m not suggesting we are going to get a world class keeper coach... Bobby Mimms was a good un, and while we might not get anyone quite on his level I’m pretty sure we can get someone who has actually played at pro level. Anyone can knock a few balls into him in a pre-match warm up, he needs some wisdom imparting, not the stuff the FA give you in a folder when you take your coaching badges.