Miller11

Simon Grayson’s pre match talk and post match summarising has been like one long pitch for the Rovers managers job next season. Watch this space.

Playing Gallagher as a forward and not a winger, and playing Buckley as a midfielder and not a centre forward worked wonders. Who’d have thought? We could’ve been celebrating promotion tonight if Mowbray had done that weeks ago. I knew we’d win tonight. Friday night is massive for us!

He’s just blamed our downfall on Khadra being unavailable. It’s whatever excuse pops into his head.

Easy scapegoat for Mr slopey shoulders

Funnily enough, his analysts are telling him Nyambe is one of the few players who hasn’t stopped trying.

It’d be fitting for Mowbray to do it tonight. He’s lost us dozens of points over the years by inexplicably doing this. We concede goals more than twice as frequently when Nyambe is off the pitch rather than on it - might as well do it tonight and completely kill off our playoff chances.

The thing is he knows this isn’t true. His analysts are supplying him with data that shows a distinct lack of effort from some. One players stats are down 75% since January.

I think we will win tonight. I’m convinced we will go into the final game with it still technically possible, needing a win and results to go in our favour and a 9 goal swing. Then people can witter on about how “we only missed out on the last day” for the next few years, with that becoming the narrative rather than the capitulation.

Just had a look. The players are parroting the same excuses as Mowbray now… young players, improvements on last year. He’s instilled mediocrity into some of them.

God only knows what damage Kean, Jerome and Venky’s would STILL be doing if it wasn’t for the fans, and particularly Glen’s activities in those early days. They’d still be here causing havoc, if the club was still in existence at all - which it probably wouldn’t be. Amazes me how people still state “we’d be screwed without Venky’s”. We will always be screwed with them. We’d be nothing more than a cautionary tale and a collection of memories if they’d have continued on as they were. It wasn’t about taking the club forward, it was about saving it. Maybe there is scope for taking it forward now, but it’s just as likely we are on the verge of another period of absolute disaster. Crisis is never far away with Venky’s.

Unfortunately I’m reliant on mine at the moment. Covid did a number on my finances and I’ve needed at times over the last few years to tide me over the worst periods. It will be cheaper for me to do it that way than the club backed direct debit, plus I can pay it off quicker. If I could get my end of June pay in I’d be ok. It’s absolutely ridiculous giving fans a 6 week window.

I’ll grudgingly renew before the deadline and stick it on my credit card for a couple of months. Number 8 is something that irks me. Bigger problem than people think and completely avoidable.

The club are slow off the mark with getting season tickets out there, never have kits available on time, drag their heels over contracts to the extent we lose players on a free, and are generally slow to react to absolutely everything. Yet they expect loyal fans to find hundreds of pounds within 6 weeks to meet deadlines they have plucked out of the air and imposed on a whim, or face a £30 penalty.

6 weeks else we get stung with a £30 penalty. So out of touch.

90% of our bookings come from stupid fouls and pullbacks in the middle third. We aren’t a dirty side, it’s just sloppy, unnecessary and undisciplined nothing fouls often caused by people being out of position and the shape being a mess.

I don’t know why anyone would think any of what you said isn’t more than plausible. - Bournemouth had bid £3.5m rising to £6m if they were promoted for JR at Christmas. - Mowbray wanted the cash at Christmas to strengthen and Venkys refused it. Pretty much confirmed. The promotion add on would be fairly standard, if a little generous. - JR has a x4 wage increase offer on the table with Bournemouth vs Rovers offer. Entirely feasible. In fact, almost certain. - The general training / coaching at Rovers is average If anything this seems a generous assessment based on the last few months. - Venus deals with the contracts but is a troublemaker Mowbray has stated the first part to be true. the second part I have no difficulty believing, considering his attendance at village council meeting trying to push through training ground sales. He seems a dick. - Venus on behalf of Mowbray is advising the out of contract players not to sign deals with any other clubs because they’re going to WBA in the summer and could offer them a better one. West Brom links/rumours are there, of course WBA would offer significantly better deals (we would if we had any sense). Obviously Venus hasn’t discussed specifics, nothing is concrete and there may be exaggeration from Venus or Rothwell Senior, but if Mowbray has a new job lined up, or even the chance of one, of course conversations like this will happen.

Sticking with the parent analogy… Venky’s have had their “baby” for nearly 12 years now. They send it off to a really shit boarding school with incompetent and negligent teachers. They don’t even see it in the holidays. The are widely praised by outsiders for paying the school fees, but the kids shoes are full of holes and it’s not properly fed or looked after.

The more I think about this the more annoyed I get. Two full internationals who have come through our academy, with 450 appearances between them, who have been here a combined 21 years, are about to walk away for nothing. It makes me almost as angry as our pathetic collapse this season. It was even more avoidable. It’s a fucking disgrace and I’m sick of people shrugging their shoulders at our mismanagement.

Me too. I can’t imagine the existence of a promotional video is going to sway anybody to buy a season ticket.

Absolutely. They sanction the occasional big money signing that fits a specific criteria, but there is no way Mowbray has ever been given a decent budget, let alone war chest to spend as he sees fit.

The wage bill this season will be about half of what it was last year having got rid of all those high earning senior players contracts last summer. We have been fortunate that we’ve had a good crop of first team standard youngsters to call upon, but our mismanagement of contracts means we are failing to implement a sound long term strategy. Its either feast or famine with wages, depending how far along we are on the old FFP cycle at any given time. The likes of Nyambe and Rothwell have suffered while Mulgrew and Smallwood benefitted.

The proposed season ticket prices were sent to India for approval and sign off ages ago. Waggott was hoping to have them on sale “before Easter”. Last week they were filming adverts for season tickets in Ewood with some hand picked fans. Wouldn't be at all surprised if they released the details this week, right at the point the fanbase is at its most disgruntled.

Cairney, Raya, Hanley, Duffy, King, Hoilett, O’Connell, Bell… Just a few of the more recent leavers where it definitely worked out well for them. At this level the finances are always going to be a big factor… the jump from 4k to 15k a week is a lot more significant than the jump from 30k - 45k.

Fair enough, we can agree to disagree on the individual players. It’s all about opinions. You have seemed to put a lot of faith in what you’ve heard coming out of the club, I really hope you are right and I am wrong, but I can’t share your enthusiasm for the near future. I know I’m cynical, but I’m absolutely dreading the prospect of this summers rebuild. I’d be dreading it even more under MowbrayX The point above which I’ve quoted used to be true, under Venky’s it’s a different matter and we can’t make that claim any more. Nowadays players who leave at or around their peak tend to go on to better things. I don’t think Nyambe, Lenihan or Rothwell will be any different.

I caught up on the game last night for some reason. All looks about right from what I saw, although I did expect Travis would score lower. Our midfield was pretty hopeless.