Sounds like this lad has some good physical attributes. Big and quick. Bit worried Mowbray may quickly brand him a “boy”, so hopefully we go for a “man” as well... a no nonsense, been there, done that Championship centre half. Not holding my breath though.

No, they are the ones who have to green light transfers. As if they have any knowledge whatsoever about players. They won’t spend on defenders, but believe there is resale value in attacking players, so sanction silly spending on them. We can only speculate as to who is telling them this, but it’s more than likely someone with a history with SEM.

I get the feeling that Mowbray and his team at Ewood and Brockhall do work very hard in identifying targets. I also get the feeling a lot of these never come to fruition because of the whims of our cretinous owners.

Some good names in that lot. Jackson Irvine is a very good midfielder, if we are going to continue to stockpile in that position at least make it a good un! To be honest, all our efforts need to be concentrated on goalkeepers at the moment. Shouldn’t be worrying about anything else until that’s sorted.

No, not a legend... definitely a term bandied about too freely. A couple of legends come about every generation, if we are lucky. Samba was an excellent player and had cult hero status, not in the legend bracket.

I’d agree with you completely in normal circumstances, but at the time Venky’s, Kean and Anderson were at the height of their demolition job on the club. So the circumstances were as far as possible from normal.

If Venky’s decided to pull the plug tomorrow, there would be plenty of people saying “you can’t blame them, they have propped us up long enough, look how much they have invested, blah blah” and it would all be the fault of the stay away fans.

Funnily enough I was doing a bit of digging into him the other day. No links to the usual agencies, which possibly contributed to his swift exit. His CV is quite interesting... part football, part “leadership roles”

Here’s how I see it playing out... By the end of this week, a couple of the out of contract players will have left. It will be reported that we are still in discussions with a couple of them. dEfEnDeRs ArE cOmInG. Next week the rumour mill will start, we will be linked with dozens of players, one of whom will definitely be Ronan Curtis. Then fans will start speculating about who we should sign, tweeting asking everyone with so much as a blog on Twitter if there is “Anything on Marcus Maddison to Rovers?” and it’s quickly accepted he is a target. Week two - few slightly more concrete links. Tony tells us we have irons in the fire, people chirp up about the overseas scouting network. Dominic Samuel signs for Barnsley. Week three - we “miss out” on Marcus Maddison and people start getting restless. But don’t worry, talks with Downing are ongoing. Week four - Another interview from Mowbray. It’s difficult. People are valuing their players too high. We might have to find a gem within our squad and polish them up. Ps. We might have to sell someone. Week five - everyone getting a bit frantic is told to be patient by the Rovers Twitterati. Loads of time left. It doesn’t matter that we have rotated all the youth goalkeepers in friendlies, the European scouting network is hard at work. Besides Dack/Evans/Davenport/Chapman will be like a new signing! And it’s definitely Brereton’s year. Week six - Mowbray and his ardent followers point out that we don’t need defenders... we’ve got loads! If anything we have too many centre backs with Lenihan, Williams, Mulgrew, Carter, Magloire, Wharton... even Nyambe can play there! Left backs? Where are we going to find one as good as Joe Rankin Costello?! Anyway, Bell is good back up, and Downing will be signing later this week. Week seven - Nyambe is sold for £1.75 million plus add ons. For all the uproar, there are as many people claiming this is an amazingly shrewd bit of business by Mowbray as Nyambe was personally and completely liable for 87% of our goals conceded last season and provided zero goals or assists, and Bennett is actually a better full back. Anyway, we can reinvest the money. No news on Downing, but Leutweiler has signed a one year deal. The day before the season starts we announce the signing of a goalkeeper nobody has ever seen or heard of on a free. After a quick look on Wikipedia loads of people are suddenly convinced he is miles better than Raya, and know beyond any shadow of a doubt he commands his box well. The modern keeper. We start the first game with a back four of Bennett, Lenihan, Williams and Bell and concede several goals. It’s ok though, our defence isn’t bad, it’s individual errors. Instead of putting the ball in an open net from 6 yards out, Brereton puts it out for a throw. Because people were shouting so loud at their ifollow screens he heard them, and he couldn’t see properly for the tears in his eyes. The day before the window shuts we loan in a generic midfielder from a mid table premier league team and stave off bids for Armstrong. Downing signs for Rotherham because how can we compete with teams like that? With 14 minutes to go we bring in Marcus Forss on loan with a pre agreed fee of £9 million. Obviously we pay that in January... but really it’s only about 300 quid cos add ons, structured and flex. Cue the “Men... character... frustrating... ripped jeans... polish them up... Nyambe is shit” interview from Mowbray and the “it takes years to implement a European scouting network... We’ve actually improved the squad... it could be worse, look at Bolton” comments from a large section of the fan base.

That’s a really good point. Having said that I think there could be some gems available on frees. I expect a lot of players who have made up bloated squads to be off, but players with a future to stick around.

I think ‘stale’ sums things up perfectly. I can’t see promotion any time soon under Mowbray. Unfortunately I can see a tightening of the belts coming. The dismantling of the current squad, cashing in on our playing assets and in doing so, relegation becoming a distinct possibility. Mowbray failing to tow the party line, if this were to happen, would be the most sure fire way of getting himself sacked. I think the question you pose is one a lot of fans will be asking themselves, but I doubt Venky’s give a toss. Plans, long or short term are at best vague. We are at the mercy of the whims of the idiots.

That would explain what him and David Lowe were fighting over... Lucky for Jones Mowbray didn’t get involved! He’d have killed him!

Well done Luton. They wanted it more. Notice the people complaining about their “gamesmanship” are the same ones who celebrate Lewis Travis’s “shithousery” the loudest. Anyone else see Bennett with Jones at the end? Take it they are pals from their Brighton days, but he seemed to be celebrating more with Bennett than any of his own players. Comical really. Didn’t see this dangerous Ben Brereton some others seem to have done. I saw a bad striker never getting ahead of a full back and waiting for a pull back on the edge of the box quite often. Woeful player, I’d give him away. This brand of “possession football” is shit. When the majority of possession is on the edge of your own box it’s as ineffective as it is boring. On more than one occasion we went from the edge of their box back to Walton in three passes. Carter had a tough time, but there seems to be an expectation on our centre backs to be Beckenbaueresque. Wish they would concentrate on defending. Mowbray looked kind of spent tonight. Looked about 20 years older than that first game against Burton where he was barking out instructions. Tonight just about summed our season up. Our improvement year on year is three points. That will be enough for some fans, and probably won’t even register with Venky’s. God knows what this summer will bring.

Shame Mowbray hasn’t been particularly bothered about picking his “strongest 11” in the previous 45 games... tonight might have meant something.

Just catching up on the last 24 hours or so of this thread, and it almost perfectly encapsulates our club under Venky’s. The expectation that Mowbray and Waggott should manage up is interesting. In an ideal world, this is exactly what you’d expect, and you’d want dialogue between them and the Venky’s to be a two way process... Unfortunately, Venky’s want slavish obedience as an absolute minimum, and ideally sycophancy. They value this far more than actual competence within a role. As a result, any time we’ve had people in the boardroom or dugout that aren’t just pitifully grateful to be there, they have lasted five minutes. @Mashed Potatoesmentioning the likes of Hunt is spot on. Look what happened when John Williams dared question them. Lambert quickly realised the situation and wasn’t having it... Time after time this happens. The choice is pretty simple, kowtow or go. To find someone in either a director or manager role at Ewood who has the right skill set, experience, ability, personality and style to start managing up to people so utterly convinced of their own superiority is a billion to one shot.

No better time to blood the youngsters than a game like this, particularly with no crowd. Let’s be honest, Mowbray making wholesale changes, or playing clearly weakened sides is nothing new, so any talk of preserving integrity isn’t applicable. No need for sentiment in an empty stadium either. I’d like to see Hilton, Magloire, Carter, Davenport, Buckley, Vale, JRC and Chapman all get near to 90 minutes. We’re going to need some of these to be regularly involved next season.

Friedel never came for crosses... but then again he had defenders who would head a ball in front of him. Anyway, we will have to agree to disagree on that. I think he was worth a lot more. And his stop gap replacement has been massively inferior.

Surely if he’s a very good player he’s worth significantly more than 3 million? We spent 7 million on a bag of shit a few months prior... Brentford got a fantastic deal.

Spot on. We are victims of complacency and mass dumbing down. Too many people just happily lap it up.

Mowbray seemingly wasn’t under any pressure to sell Raya. He wanted shut, or at the very least saw him as expendable, we got a pathetic amount for him and failed to bring in a better replacement for whatever reason. Before anyone says “but Raya wanted to go” that is absolutely no defence for anyone at the club... If players are seeing Brentford as a step up from Rovers that’s absolutely damning of the entire management setup and ownership. Mowbray isn’t our biggest issue, but I’d replace him with Pearson in a heartbeat. Sadly it’s never happening.

What a strange day! Plenty of sublime, plenty of ridiculous. Called the Brereton goal early on in this thread and won a nice little bet. I think a lot of the praise he is getting today shows just how low a bar he set for himself. There was improvement, but there was also still some comically poor play. I was really impressed with Gallaghers goal today - what a ball from Chapman (who up until that point I thought was turning in a horrific cameo). Love a bit of proper wing play. Things came off for Rothwell today. Reading stood off him and he punished them. When he gets closed down quick he runs out of ideas. Promising stuff though. Their first was sublime. What a free kick that is! No blame for Walton there. I’d actually be really happy if we went for it with these youngsters. And I mean really went for it. Regular game time for Carter, Buckley, JRC, Wharton, Davenport... Put a massive show of faith in them and built our team around them. They have all played a lot of football with each other, so any bedding in should be relatively pain free. I’m sure we’d get the odd hammering, but long term it could work. There would also be some relief of the financial burden, and it would be exciting! Still need to invest in a good keeper though.

The man is an absolute cunt. Obviously. No denying that. But I wish people would stop pretending Venky’s are an innocent party in this massive mess we have been in for a decade.

I don’t use the word lightly, but in the last few weeks I’ve seen Venky’s described as “Our guardian angels”, comments such as “John Williams was running us into the ground”, “Venky’s have done as much, if not more for us than Jack Walker”. I’m more than happy to be as divided as possible from anyone peddling such garbage. Such garbage seems to get the likes rolling in, which I think is the prime motivation for some... either that, a retweet or fantasies of a job offer.

A large section of our support are complicit in the dumbing down and ever declining ambition. Every day you see people claiming we should be ever so grateful to Venky’s because “we could easily become the next Bury/Bolton/Wigan/Sunderland”... Bury?!?! We are Blackburn fucking Rovers, and our own fans are comparing us to Bury! We could easily have become the next Wolves, Sheffield United, Leicester or Burnley. Why is that considered a pipe dream for Blackburn Rovers? Why is this never mentioned? We have a CEO, or whatever Waggotts title is, who sees Preston and Brentford as teams we should be aspiring to be like. No doubt there will be people who think this view is one of entitlement - not at all. I don’t think we are entitled to be in the Premier League, but I do think the club is entitled to be treated with proper attention and respect. And yes, I came along after the tough times Of the 70’s and 80’s, but so did Jack Walker’s influence and legacy, which has been pissed all over. The current mess we are in is akin to that idiot who pissed and snorted away his entire lottery win and ended up back on the dole. I’m fairly indifferent to Mowbray, it doesn’t look like he will ever make us into genuine promotion contenders, but he’s just a symptom of Venky’s horrendous reign.

It’s like Elizabeth Fritzl saying the same of her father.