Miller11

So me stating that we need to kick on is unrealistic? Because I don’t. I’m not going to be grateful, or even content just because we have reversed a ludicrous, self inflicted, avoidable and disgraceful period of decline that saw us in the worst position in my lifetime. Of course we should be trying to progress. I do prescribe to notion we should be putting all our efforts into an instant promotion. It’s well within the realms of possibility and the rewards would address the absolute shambolic state of our finances. Don’t confuse what I want and think with expectation though, I expect nothing but rank incompetence from Venky’s. Yes, I will take any opportunity to put the boot into the owners... I’d like to do it repeatedly and physically if I could! Their entire tenure has been an unmitigated disaster. I detest them. As for Gallagher, I think he’s overrated. We’ve tried him, didn’t work out, and I’d sooner sign a cheaper option from the lower leagues. Be happy to be proved wrong though. As for ‘scandalmongering’ care to elaborate how I’ve done that?

Definitely a more deflated feeling on this board today! Not at all enthused about the prospect of Gallagher. Don’t think he’s ever going to be near prolific, thought he was average at best when we last had him. At best it’s a sideways step for us when we really need to be pushing on. Best case scenario, the fat idiot Venky has a champagne and sniff induced rush of blood to the wallet in the next couple of hours decides a selfie of him and Assombalonga would look good next to the one of him and Akon, regardless of what Mowbray thinks. Worst case would be nobody, but in 6 months these last couple of days being reimagined as a valiant battle against all odds by Steve Waggott to get the deal over the line... I can hear it now when we are no further on... “You can’t knock Venky’s. We tried to sign Assombalonga in January, and he got Boro/Derby/Bristol city promoted!”

Make what you will of it... heard from someone within the club that Mowbray wanted Brereton in the U23 squad last week but Waggot stopped it as ‘It wouldn’t look good’.

Shearer was on 10 x the wage of some of our first team players when he signed.

There are a lot of posts here making a fundamental error. Common sense and logic don’t often figure into our transfer activity. Admittedly Mowbray has been somewhat of a steadying influence, but the Brereton deal is as baffling as any transfer over the course of the past 8 years. Our purchases have, and will continue to be dictated by Balaji’s whims, FFP restrictions, agent influence, the strength of the global battery chicken market, and probably dozens of other unfathomable reasons, as well as the manager of the days personal preferences to varying degrees at any one time. If this means we make a signing of the calibre of Assombalonga, for me this is one of the very few moments of genuine excitement I’ll have had at a signing in years. Maybe foolhardy, but then what’s new? On the flip side it could prove to be the catalyst of a decent promotion push. Consider how much they have gambled with the future of the club... this could prove to be one of their better bets.

Convinced Madon must have a direct line to Balaji... have you been ringing him for a chat?

Superb today. No criticism of any player is warranted. Our quieter players were solid 7s and plenty of excellent displays. Each of the 11 must keep their shirt for now... with Nyambe and Mulgrew pushing them, Rothwell again looking impressive, Chapman seemingly on his way in, and Nuttall proving decent back up for Graham, playoffs need to be seen as a realistic target. I was worried Hull were going to hurt us in wide areas before kick off. They like to soak up pressure and move the ball out wide and counter quickly. We absolutely nullified their threat, and both Armstrong and Reed were superb. They abandoned this tactic almost completely in the second half, such was our dominance. I think Travis coming in has allowed Reed to keep occupying the wide areas and not have to drift inside so much. The interchanging between AA and HR was great to see too. So for all my (and others) moaning of a lack of width, we absolutely nailed it today. Almost looked like 2 flat banks of 4 at times. How well does Rodwell read the game by the way!

There seems to be a lot of debate on the January window thread around this, but I’m not sure it’s getting to the root of the issues. Below is a table showing all our defensive ingoings and outgoings since that look took over. Pascal Chimbonda Inherited Released Martin Olsson Inherited £4,000,000 Chris Samba Inherited £11,000,000 Ryan Nelsen Inherited Released Gael Givet Inherited Released Michel Salgado Inherited Released Phil Jones Inherited £17,000,000 Grant Hanley Inherited £5,500,000 Gavin Gunning Inherited Nominal Zurab Khizanishvili Inherited Released Myles Anderson Nominal Released Bruno Ribiero Free Free Scott Dann £5,500,000 £2,600,000 Adam Henley Youth Released Marcus Olsson Free £700,000 Bradley Orr Nominal Released Nuno Henrique Nominal Free Karim Rekic Loan Loan End Ryan Edwards Youth Released Anthony O'Connor Youth Free Jack O'Connell Youth £300,000 Todd Kane Loan Loan End Matthew Killgallon Free Released Tommy Spurr Free Free Yann Songo'o Free Free Michael Keane Loan Loan End Shane Duffy £400,000 £4,000,000 Alex Baptiste Loan Loan End Doneil Henry Loan Loan End Elliott Ward Free Released Gordon Greer Free Released Derrick Williams £250,000 Still Here Charlie Mulgrew Free Still Here Wes Brown Free Released Stephen Hendrie Loan Loan End Tommie Hoban Loan Loan End Paul Downing Undisclosed Loaned Out Paul Caddis Free Released Sam Hart Undisclosed Loaned Out Amari Bell £300,000 Still Here Jack Rodwell Free Still Here TOTALS £ 6,450,000.00 £ 45,100,000.00 This list obviously doesn’t include Wharton, Grayson, Lenihan or Nyambe. None of whom cost us anything. The figures above are as accurate as I could find in these days of undisclosed fees... I’d confidently predict we paid nowhere near £350,000 combined for Hart and Downing. In my opinion this shows that failing to address our defensive frailties is an issue that has existed long before Tony Mowbray. If you take Scott Dann out of the equation our net spend in 8 years on our defence is utterly pathetic. And let’s not forget Dann was signed in silly season when they first took over. I remember when they sacked Allardyce, that woman came out with some sort of tripe about how he couldn’t improve our “young skilful players”, and I’m pretty sure they have also been quoted as saying something along the lines of “We like exciting, young attacking players”. For their entire wretched tenure we have had a make do and mend approach to our defence. I know Rodwell has looked decent the last few games (that makes me wonder how good he might be in his actual position), but he’s just the latest in a fairly long string of players stuck in our back four who are in reality being played out of position. It’s took a long time for Travis to get a real crack in a midfield spot, whereas Nyambe and Lenihan, and before them the likes of Hanley (and to a lesser degree Henley) were pretty quickly blooded in the first team, often out of necessity. And there are defenders out there. We could have spent a fraction of what we did on Brereton in the summer and got Ezri Konsa from Charlton. We were heavily linked with Bauer, but apparently couldn’t come to terms on a fee. Other championship sides are picking up decent frees this window. I think it’s worth remembering who those silly contractual issues that sprung up in their early days involved: Nelsen, Salgado, Givet, Andrews and Roberts... three defenders and at the time our two most maligned and least fashionable players. Whether it is their own stupidity, some advice they are taking, or some other inexplicable reason, Venky’s seem to have a real issue with signing defenders, particularly for any financial outlay.

Richard Witshge needs to be included in the worst conversation for West Ham away

Best Rovers 4 - 2 Derby (1992 play off semi) Rovers 1 - 0 Sheff Wed (final day 92-93 season, purely because this was the last time I stood on the terraces at Ewood) Rovers 1 - 0 Newcastle (VE day) Burnley 0 - 2 Rovers (2000, first derby for me) Rovers 3-1 Leeds (Boxing Day 1992) Honorable mention to Rovers 1 - 0 Newcastle in 97/98... didn’t know it at the time but the last game I went to with my late Grandfather Worst Rovers 1-2 Burnley (2013-14) West Ham 2-0 Rovers (94-95... also helped forge a lifelong hatred of Richard Witschge... soon forgave West Ham though) Rovers 0-1 Spartak Moscow (95-96 I was absolutely gutted at this one... such high expectations) Rovers 0-1 Wigan (The culmination of the Kean debacle) Rovers 1-1 Blackpool (2014-15 - not entirely sure why this was the day, but this was where my boycott started. Something just snapped and the straw which broke the camels back came here) Honorable mentions to Ince away at Wigan and to Rovers 7-1 Norwich... the only home game I missed in a decade, and my brothers first ever game (on my season ticket)... what a game to miss!

Appears to have been dropped. Lambert hinted at him being loaned out in this window. He’s got 4 goals in 20 appearances so far, but it appears Lambert doesn’t fancy him. I’d have him at Rovers all day long.

If we don’t invest in some proper defenders this window, serious questions need to be asked of our recruitment policy. Not loans, not ones for the future, not emergency back up, not converted midfielders. Proper defenders. The reluctance to pay anything more than a nominal fee for a defender is really coming back to bite us at this moment in time. It’s blindingly obvious we need to strengthen this area, and failure to do so could prove disastrous... also makes the Brereton signing seem all the more ludicrous!

This formation/system is a new one... I always moan that too much is expected of our full backs... well, today they seem expected to cover the centre back position, as well as full back and the wing... despite Bennett and Reed seemingly being deployed as wing backs? Don’t think this is gonna take off! if we switched to a proper flat back 4, I think we will be pretty comfortable. Despite scoring two Newcastle are pretty dire! Only looked dangerous due to this silly system.

Yep. And it’s time he showed something.

Not a strong Newcastle line up. Should have a real chance to progress here. Feels a bit like last chance saloon for Brereton here... a performance could kick start his Rovers career, a bad un could pretty much resign him to the outer fringes for the season.

Loyalty is all well and good, until it becomes sentimental and detrimental. Look at what happened when we made it to the Premier league first season. Speedie and Sellars went straight away... not to mention Garner. Price hardly got a kick, and Wright was soon upgraded. Kenny recognised the need to continuously improve, later Harford showed too much loyalty. A couple of decent loans coming in will help us stand still. If there is a genuine desire for us to kick on, we need some players who will come in and contribute regularly. I suspect there are some pretty stringent financial constraints imposed by Venky’s, and there isn’t much that would convince me Brereton was their man, but as well as this Mowbray seems to not want rock the boat. If I were Rodwell I’d not be best pleased with those comments.

Watched the first hour or so, listened to 20 odd minutes on Radio Lancs. still 0-0 at this point. By the time I got from the car and got my phone out I had a message to tell me it was 2-0! What I did see was pretty shocking stuff. I often think we as supporters have more faith in the players ability than Mowbray does. We Didn’t look like scoring, lacked any ingenuity in the final third, and at times seemed fearful of putting a ball into the box. It wasn’t patient build up stuff, it looked more bereft of ideas... or players being way too cautious. We are crying out for some effective wide players to help offer an attacking threat as well as protecting the full backs adequately, and just giving us a bit of balance. At the start of the game I’d have said a centre half too, but Lenihan and Rodwell were a pleasant surprise today. Wouldn’t say no to bringing in that big lad they had at the back (although for all I know he might have cost them two goals!) Thought Nuttall put a real shift in... something Brereton has failed to do in any of his appearances, even when we’ve been crying out for it. Yes, he might lack a bit of quality, but a bit of hard graft can go a long way. I can see the great Brereton debate becoming the great Brereton v Nuttall debate. Like our own localised version of Brexit!

Don’t forget he’s been mentioned to Venky’s before... except they thought sending one of their trusted chicken factory workers to tap Raul up instead. It’s a funny one this window. I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up significantly weaker at the end of it, ie. Dack-less. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if they spent like drunken sailors either... Still not overly convinced our set up and transfer policy is going to provide us with what we need on the pitch... and from what he’s said in interviews, I’m not sure Mowbray is either.

If they were saying what I think they were, it may have something to do with some snapchat messages he allegedly sent

Again, can we PLEASE not try to find an individual to blame/scapegoat for this debacle. Putting it down to individual errors trivialises some very serious problems. As a team, we piss away points with an alarming number of late goals. If you are desperate to lay the blame at the door of a single party, look no further than Venky’s. In their entire wretched tenure, how many defenders have the sanctioned the purchase of for anything above a nominal fee of a couple of hundred grand??? The answer is ONE. Scott Dann in the very silly early days. Since then we have recouped tens of millions from the likes of Jones, Samba, Hanley, Duffy... and kicked to the curb players like Salgado and Givet. They won’t sanction spending on defenders, but they will happily impose a £7 million striker/winger/teenager on a manager who clearly doesn’t want him. All this despite our frailties at the back being blindingly obvious for all to see. If only that fat idiot had bought a copy of football manager instead of our football club.

I’d bet a significant sum of money that the first sub we see will be Smallwood.

Agree. And boy do we ask a lot of our full backs! Armstrong cut inside well and had a decent shot in the first couple of minutes... might as well have subbed him off after that. Their right back had him in his pocket from then on, and just comfortably didn’t let him cut in again. I thought Reed had a good game, and once again all his good work is done when drifting in the middle of the pitch rather than wide areas. I think we are absolutely wasting him not playing him in the centre. He is always an outlet there, unlike Evans or Smallwood. He certainly more than matches the two of them with work rate and ball winning as well. So we are left with two full backs, expected to bomb up and down the wing all game. when we did actually attack with some width we looked dangerous. Nyambe in particular got in some good positions, but we often lack a target for them in the box with Graham busy doing a lot of his good work deeper. They are always doubled up on when either attacking or defending and proper wide players would help them no end at both ends of the pitch.

Can we stop trying to pinpoint one player as the reason we dropped points yesterday. Blaming ‘individual errors’ is a lazy excuse used by managers and fans and spectators lap it up. If you have a look on any Birmingham message board, I expect there is quite a bit of talk about how they gave themselves a mountain to climb thanks to their centre half losing Graham, and there full back letting Armstrong get away from him and then ball watching. Fact of the matter is we are struggling to see games out. It’s becoming a pattern. It’s not Brereton or Raya’s fault - we need to be better collectively over 90 minutes. The system we employ plays to the strengths of Graham and Dack to the extent where we rely on them very heavily. It seems to, in Mowbray’s mind at least, necessitate playing Evans and Smallwood, both of whom I believe we have better options than but we end up playing better players out of position. It exposes our full backs to be doubled up on, and restricts the amount of balls we put into the box from wide positions. We do tend to look lost without Graham on the pitch, and if/when Dack goes, Mowbray may well have to have a rethink.

Bit of a debacle today. While it’s seemingly the done thing to try and identify a scapegoat (Raya would easily take that crown today), doing so means we don’t address the bigger issues. Our defence isn’t good enough at the moment. We have no strength in depth or competition for places, aside from our interchangeable left backs. If we get an injury it usually means a midfielder will be played out of position. Our centre backs are more renowned for their ball playing ability then their defensive attributes. We need a proper old fashioned centre back, no frills, just defends. Thing is it was blindingly obvious we needed to strengthen in this area - but when have Venky’s ever sanctioned spending on defenders? Only Scott Dann during those silly early days springs to mind. Everyone else has cost nothing/next to nothing. I heard something when Anderson’s nose was still firmly in the trough, that they wouldn’t be heavily investing in defensive players because you could get a better return on exciting, attacking players. Obviously I’m paraphrasing, and no doubt many will shoot this down as conspiracy theory... but we have raked in huge fees from defenders and never adequately reinvested in that area. The Evans and Smallwood partnership isn’t good enough. We have far better options. Reed did more in central midfield today than the two of them, despite being played on the wing. Our full backs don’t get anywhere near enough protection, especially when Armstrong is on the pitch. Graham is quality. His movement for his goal was top drawer. Sadly we create so little for him... look what happens with a dangerous ball into the box. We have an unusually wide pitch, and it’s no coincidence that we’ve always done well when we have good wingers over the years. We are far too narrow now.

I think the key bit in the poll question is ‘If Venky’s were to apologise’... Never going to happen. They would rather piss away tens of millions of pounds than apologise and admit mistakes. Their ludicrous superiority complex, total lack of humility and complete stubborn arrogance makes it unlikely I’ll ever get close to forgiving them.