Just now, BlackburnEnd75 said:

Source for these Bauer quotes?

After the meeting closed Mowbray chatted with a group of fans... 

Patrick Bauer was mentioned as a potential signing and Mowbray said something along the lines of “We bid for him last summer, but now he’s on a free his agent thinks he’s worth 40-50 grand a week. He’s playing in league one. We want bigger, better players to come straight into the defence”. I mentioned Jake Cooper from Millwall and Mowbray said he could be a target. He was asked about Wharton and said he is not ready for Championship football yet.

Few other points that might be on the Radio Lancs broadcast...

Mowbray spoke about the possibility of doing some part exchange deals, as well as mentioning he wouldn’t be averse to bringing in proven quality, older players on frees and big wages from PL teams who could bring a bit of quality and help younger players.

Waggott rates Rankin-Costello and Butterworth... so I’d presume Mowbray does too.

Just now, OnePhilT said:

I think Mowbray liked Bauer. Last night, and again based on @Miller11's post here, it sounds as though Mowbray now believes that Bauer won't be good enough for our target next season - whatever that may be.

That was my feeling.

After the meeting closed Mowbray chatted with a group of fans... 

Patrick Bauer was mentioned as a potential signing and Mowbray said something along the lines of “We bid for him last summer, but now he’s on a free his agent thinks he’s worth 40-50 grand a week. He’s playing in league one. We want bigger, better players to come straight into the defence”. I mentioned Jake Cooper from Millwall and Mowbray said he could be a target. He was asked about Wharton and said he is not ready for Championship football yet.

The main points I’d take away from this meeting are as follows:

There seemed to be a lot fewer attendees this time round.Not many questions/challenges from the floor (I think only 6 people from the floor asked anything, which was very different from previous meetings I’ve attended.

Waggott came across well. Didn’t necessarily agree with everything he said, but he made a good case for what he said. Happy to acknowledge and take things on board and appears to value supporters. Very commercially driven and would like facilities such as a hotel, conference centre etc to open up new revenue streams. Believes price is the main factor in attendances, but seems to be looking for a magical way of increasing gates without drastically cutting prices. Seems to understand football, but is very business orientated. Thanked me for challenging things and seemed genuinely interested in what would get me to break my boycott.

Expect ST prices to remain the same. There was disappointment from Waggott that they hadn’t been able to release details yet.

Mowbray wants a crack at promotion.

Rangers away pre-season (not official, but I expect it)

Many questions were answered pre-emptively... mainly around the defence and transfers.

The Suhail issue was probably made bigger by those at the top table. They went to great lengths to stress how much they valued what he does. I pointed out I thought him being more visible would set minds at rest as a lot of mistrust still exists due to past Venky appointments. There was some worry he would get abuse, and the “that’s not his role” argument. It was all quite defensive.

Any questions about Venky’s were answered with the usual lines... it’s clear they aren’t going anywhere any time soon, and the subsidies will keep rolling in. No further clue as to what their motivation is though. 

Nothing revolutionary, quite an easy evening for the management team.

Is anyone else on here attending?

8 hours ago, Stuart said:

Stolen from Facebook but clubs/manufacturers really need to let their fans get involved in designing kits.

You won’t please everyone but I think all of these are great - particularly how the sponsor is integrated into the design.

We are definitely overdue a black/red halved away kit.

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.

Just now, JacknOry said:

I know DG and Dack are competing for top scorer but we really should be putting BB up front for the remainder of the season to see if he can build on this. 

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.

1 hour ago, matt83 said:

Satisfying outcome. Bolton were as poor as I’ve ever seen. Luca Connell looks like he has some promise if plundering a relegated side. The rest looked like they’d never played.

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...

8 hours ago, JacknOry said:

I think perhaps people have been a bit too circumspect with him to be honest. How many times does it have to happen before somebody has a go at him for it? He keeps making the same mistakes - how many goals have been down to him in the last few months? 

I think he has the potential to be a really good keeper. His shotstopping is as good as anyones but something has to be done to cut out all these mistakes. He is not a tall keeper so I would be telling him to not bother coming for balls like that and to just stay on his line. Friedel knew he was pretty bad at coming for crosses so just wouldnt do it.

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.

Just now, Pedro said:

Quite a few woeful finishers tbh Stuart.  Nuttall is the standout worst though. Even when he 'places it', he can be three or four yards wide.  Certainly not a natural finisher.  

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

Just now, DE. said:

He's also quite a poor finisher. If he wasn't he'd be near Graham as top scorer, but he doesn't take many of his chances. You get what you pay for though.

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

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

So Dack turned up and was sent home for not ‘being in the right frame of mind’, I believe.

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.

2 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

One of the things I learnt regarding full back play is that you have to be looking over your shoulder constantly. This means every couple of seconds when the opposition have the ball. That way you don't get ambushed on the back post.

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.

21 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Seems somewhat convenient that a player who has coincidentally missed the entire season through injury is now being touted as not a TM signing.

Same sort of thing ihas been mooted about BB even though TM himself has said exactly the opposite. Seems as though there is an agenda from some quarters to blame the owners for any signngs that have been flops.

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.