Miller11

I’m certainly willing to give it a try Glen! As a starting point, I’ll get the interview you and I did 18 months or so ago up on our new platform, and on Spotify too. With some of the recent comments cropping up it seems like there are people that need a little reminder of just how dysfunctional things were, and remain, under Venky’s.

Suppose this is as good a place as any to put this… That supposedly terrible goalkeeper who Mowbray was right to sell and Venky’s were astute business people for getting £3 million for has been called up for Spain. One of our youth products who certainly hasn’t struggled with the step up.

Mowbray Watch from the Derby game…

It’ll be very interesting to see what Mowbray goes with. There’s a definite argument to be made for going to a back 4, but personally I feel that the positioning of our forward players has been the issue lately rather than the number of defenders. As much as I wish it wasn’t the case, Dack looks a way off being ready to start games. A lot would also rest on whether Nyambe is fit or not. Ideally: Kaminski Lenihan Van Hecke Wharton Nyambe Giles Buckley Travis Rothwell Dolan Gallagher Otherwise: Kaminski Lenihan Van Hecke Wharton Pickering Buckley Travis Rothwell Dolan Gallagher Giles Lenihan isn’t ideal at right back, but neither is JRC at wing back. If we end up back at Gallagher marking corner flags out wide again I’ll despair. It shouldn’t take much to tactically outwit Paul Ince. 3 points is a must.

I don’t know how it came across on TV, but in Ewood I don’t think you could not get the impression that something went on at half time. As the first half progressed it descended into farce. It was a bit like it used to be back in the Kean days. Some players looked bemused, some looked pissed off, some exasperated. Travis was visibly not happy, I thought we might have another Batty/Le Saux moment with Lenihan and JRC, and it looked as though Johnson and Rothwell decided to make their own tactical change. On top of all this the fans were (rightly) livid. I came back up to my seat a couple of minutes before the restart and we were all complaining about how all the subs were still warming up so wouldn’t be coming on. Dack never came on to the pitch at half time on Saturday, so we weren’t expecting him to be there. All of a sudden he came out to the other subs and they quickly all headed down the tunnel. Gallagher clearly only entered the fray with a minute or so notice. The second half was full of urgency and fight. It was blindingly obvious that any game plan had been thrown out and in it’s place was a dogged determination to score the goals to get back in the game by any means necessary. There seemed a lot more togetherness and encouragement between the players, as well as a very deliberate attempt to get the crowd back onside. Then there’s the melancholic Mowbray post match interview. Something out of the ordinary definitely occurred.

I can’t believe some of the posts on here over the last hour or so. We are weeks away from seeing 3 players that we have spent a combined 25 years developing walk away for absolutely nothing. Praising Venky’s transfer acumen has to be an attempt to deliberately provoke other members of this forum.

Deja Vu…

If we are to credit Mowbray for making the changes that got us out of this rut, can we criticise him for doing it 10 and a half games too late?

Can’t believe anyone is willing to credit Mowbray with salvaging that game to be honest. Only by completely binning off all his match preparation, favoured shape, and bonkers ideas did we do anything. The first half was utterly disgraceful. As bad a 45 minutes as you will see. Not one player could’ve complained at being subbed off at half time. Few players deserve a mention for varying reasons… JRC - very bad. Praying Nyambe is back on Saturday Lenihan - uncharacteristically poor first half, but a leaders performance in the second. Playing him at full back is definitely not a long term option. Pickering - Woeful. Fortunate in the extreme to last the 90. Has to be dropped for Giles. Johnson - Mowbray’s latest and stupidest in a long line of idiotic decisions. Knackered after 8 minutes, not his fault. Gallagher - well played lad. Grafted, looked like a good centre forward rather than a massive donkey stood near the corner flag doing nothing. Dolan - excellent performance, eventually. Could have had a hat trick on another day. Always positive and looking to make things happen. Khadra - greedy and ineffective. A poor man’s Harvey Elliott. Looked like a spare part and completely out of place when the other forwards were doing the business in the second half. Dack - way off match fitness, but the one player who could play that ball for the second. Lifted those around him. The players came out like men possessed second half, all credit too them. But there has to be serious lessons learned from that first 45. I hope Gallagher’s header gave Mowbray some sort of epiphany. Keep the back 5, ditch the false 9, play the strikers centrally… we might still do it!

Imagine what Souness would say and do if Suhail Pasha knocked on his door and told him he had been summoned to Pune by the Venky’s.

One of my all time favourites. The visible decline in his health over the last 20 years has been very noticeable. The demons clearly taking their toll.

I don’t think we need to move away from the back 5, we just need to stop playing our forwards so wide, and Buckley needs to be less advanced… an attacking midfielder rather than the focal point of the attack. I’d start… . Kaminski Lenihan Van Hecke Wharton Nyambe/JRC Giles Buckley Travis Rothwell Dolan Gallagher I don’t think Gallagher deserves to start, but he’s in by default. He’d be under strict instruction to stay central and I’d sub him off the first time he went within 10 yards of either touchline. I do realise this will never happen as it negates the 10 or so wide forwards Mowbray has stockpiled and obsessed over.

There’s loads of screen grabs of the penalty doing the rounds, but I think this one is far more relevant…

Point by point… 1. I take it you are referring to the desperate substitution that totally unbalanced us? We all know Gallagher will be a wider than ever forward again on Tuesday. 2. I could certainly do with a lift after that debacle, and the shit show we’ve experienced this calendar year, and I expect I’m not alone. If the players aren’t gutted and really disappointed in themselves this evening they aren’t worth their salt… so yeah, they might need a lift too. Maybe they wouldn’t look like rabbits in headlights whenever they got near the opposition box either. 3. He’s going because he has been summoned by the stupid, arrogant twats. They expect slavish obedience, and if they demand it before the 30th of June, of course he will go. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that they will offer him another deal, but if we fail to make the playoffs it’s yet another unforgivably bad decision by them. I reckon he’s got retirement plans anyway. 4. Well according to you, they won’t get a better offer from another club anyway. Perhaps Waggott should get you to have a word with the players and tell them how lucky they are, maybe give their agents a dose of Chaddyreality too. 5. Of course it’s not guaranteed, particularly with who our moronic owners will turn to for a replacement, but I think it’s more likely than Mowbray arresting this slide in time to salvage a playoff spot. 6. I’m not going to bring anyone in. HSH are. If it had been down to me none of the managers Venky’s have appointed would get near the door. Obviously Mowbray has been their best appointment, but that’s like being the nicest guy in prison. He’s bang average. You don’t think that any of our players can do better than our club, but you don’t think our club can do better than Mowbray?

Not that I think there is any chance of it happening, but there are several arguments you could make as to why it could be positive. - We’d likely see a change in style/shape, and by do we need it! Mr Stubborn will just keep doing the same thing and expecting different results - It might give the fans a lift and the players a kick up the arse - He’s likely off at the end of the season anyway, so why not get a new man in now to assess what he might be working with? Might even be able to persuade some of the lads with contracts expiring that their future lies at Rovers. - New manager bounce would be lovely right now.

“I’m going to play Gallagher in certain games because he’s got the physicality, the speed, the power, and I’m trying to give him the game-time because you can’t score a goal if you’re sitting on the bench. I think he has to try and get into the areas between the sticks to score goals.” Well today both him and Khadra were as wide as ever. Gallagher spent most of our attacks deeper than Pickering and JRC. I don’t know who is to blame, but it doesn’t work. He HAS to change things on Tuesday, but the stubbornness will win out.

Pathetic. If we concentrated half as much on trying to put the ball in the bloody net as we did on diving and trying to con the (dreadful) ref we may have got somewhere. Gutless and clueless performance. The lack of accountability Mowbray has is a big problem. He can be as stubborn as he likes, go on shit runs, set embarrassing records. Nobody but the fans cares. To be fair to Mowbray though, he was right in wanting to offload Rothwell, but the dickheads despised to step. Nothing good will happen while they remain.

I think it’s an unimaginative pick, but much better than I Got A Feeling by Black Eyed Peas

That looked horrific! Glad he’s seemingly okish, I think he’s great. This overhead belly to belly seems to be really in vogue at the moment, but obviously it’s risky. Saw a clip where Bron Steiner hit a beauty. Not sure it should be used on someone as large as Big E though, and I’m convinced it shouldn’t be used outside the ring.

I thought the last guy’s music choices were bad with his copy of Indie Hits 2004 being his go to CD, but it’s a lot better than the new fella with his Movie Anthems triple pack.

You can’t see anything from anyone else’s point of view. To you there is no better club than Blackburn Rovers. Fine. But these players aren’t fans. The agents will be advising them to do the best thing for their finances in the short, medium and long term. To suggest anything else is very silly.

Last summer was far too late. We’ve allowed the whole thing to drag on for far too long and not negotiated properly/at all. We’ve used Covid as an excuse and instead of engaging early and keeping our assets under contract we’ve tried to do things on the cheap. Triggering those extra years is proof of that - quite why we had that clause instead of offering a proper, secure contact in the first place, I don’t know. As usual you are repeating a little line you like… that they have been offered improved contracts that they won’t sign. Improved could mean many things. The only thing we do know with any certainty is that the improvements haven’t been enough to tempt them to sign. Bearing in mind Rothwell came from Oxford and Nyambe through the academy, they will currently be on very low wages, at best a third of what we pay Sam Gallagher. Doubling their current offers would not be an increase commensurate with their talents or status in the squad. Our offers may be competitive, but they are far more likely to be insulting. If the players were completely averse to signing new terms, we would have been aware of this for a long time, and we should’ve sold them - “the model” supposedly relies on this. However, Waggott and co clearly believe that the players are open to staying, but they seem unwilling to budge on their offers and are now stuck in a dangerous and frankly stupid bluff calling attempt. It’s now becoming pretty evident that we should’ve sold Rothwell in January. Mowbray clearly thought so. Maybe he’d even have bought a striker that everyone except him and you can see we could really do with. You also seem pretty certain that none of these players could possibly be offered a better deal than the one Rovers currently have on the table for them. Despite having no clue what those offers look like, you seem to think you know better than them and their agents what they might command.

Didn’t know about the health issues, though I’ve heard him comment several times how he considers himself very fortunate to still be alive. My first exposure to him was slightly after the Blue Bloods run (I was on a wrestling hiatus at that time), but quickly came to love Lord Steven! Seeing him and Bobby Eaton work with and against each other later was great, but I do wish I’d seen it at the time. He could be so valuable to AEW. I hope he’s put in a position where he can help some of the wrestlers work on their basics and psychology. I don’t think there is anyone on the roster who couldn’t learn a thing or two. I’m reminded of that video clip where he sits in on one of Matt Bloom’s classes at the PC and goes absolutely ballistic at the trainees for their sloppy footwork. He might clash with a certain EVP!! Perhaps the greatest all rounder of all time? He will certainly make anything he is given the highest quality. I think a commissioner run would be perfect for him here. Working closely with Tony Khan would benefit the product and give TK an invaluable learning experience. He could reign in some of his worse ideas and likely make everything make a bit more sense. Can’t ask for a more credible authority figure either.

See @JHRover’s post above. The other day you told me that not agreeing deals and losing Lenihan, Rothwell and Nyambe would not be a failing on the clubs part, but when they do sign someone up to an extension they have performed excellent work. Keeping your players tied down, and/or selling them at the opportune time is absolutely key to our reported operating model. Getting it right is bread and butter, getting it wrong is a disaster. You’d shrug it off as “just nature” if we let the grass on Ewood grow to a foot high, but praise the groundsman for painting the lines on the pitch.

It’s very good news that Travis has signed a new deal. I’m both delighted and surprised. Its not “excellent work by Rovers” though, it’s doing the fundamentals. How come you are being so effusive with your praise for this particular negotiation while absolving the club of any blame for the situation we are in with other players?