Next Manager

[blueboy3333]

Just now, jim mk2 said:

 Rangers would beat Rovers. And it ain't pub football, it's better than the Championship.

It really isn't. 

[Oldgregg86]

I always thought Chris Coleman was over rated but after watching the Sunderland documentary I wouldn't mind him. Sometimes it just clicks at a club. We have some good players here and I think he could get a tune out of them with his enthusiasm, energy and charisma

He's currently in China and an ex Rover. 

There is far better out there but it would be an improvement on Tony and should of made the vote list imo

[Sparks Rover]

1 hour ago, jim mk2 said:

 Rangers would beat Rovers. And it ain't pub football, it's better than the Championship.

Gerrard would not lower himself to come to Ewood and Rovers is not a step-up from Rangers. 

 

Rubbish 

[SBlue]

Look at us. Look at the owners. Look at the squad. Get a grip of who we are now.

You're talking about the legendary England and Liverpool captain who’s at Glasgow bleeding Rangers. They’re still an absolutely huge behemoth of a club.

I’m sure he’d far prefer trying his hand at the Europa League again, don’t you?

If you think he’s coming to anyone like a Blackburn Rovers next, then of course I’m glad that you’re enjoying your Sunday session, but let me remind you that it’s very rude to be on your phone in the pub.

Edited April 7, 2019 by S8 & Blue

[Stuart]

Just now, S8 & Blue said:

Look at us. Look at the owners. Look at the squad. Get a grip of who we are now.

You're talking about the legendary England and Liverpool captain who’s at Glasgow bleeding Rangers. They’re still an absolutely huge behemoth of a club.

I’m sure he’d far prefer trying his hand at the Europa League again, don’t you?

If you think he’s coming to anyone like a Blackburn Rovers next, then of course I’m glad that you’re enjoying your Sunday session, but let me remind you that it’s very rude to be on your phone in the pub.

People would have said the exact same about Dalglish. It comes down t the ambition of the club.

(So he won’t be coming anywhere near us).

[gumboots]

Difference in class of owner to start with! 

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, Oldgregg86 said:

I always thought Chris Coleman was over rated but after watching the Sunderland documentary I wouldn't mind him. Sometimes it just clicks at a club. We have some good players here and I think he could get a tune out of them with his enthusiasm, energy and charisma

He's currently in China and an ex Rover. 

There is far better out there but it would be an improvement on Tony and should of made the vote list imo

I'd go with that we need someone a bit fresher and a bit more bold or maybe ambitious. Spot on about the 'click' bit Souness was prime example of that it now needs someone to drive it forwards and give it some fresh ideas and for gods sake just move away from the two defensive mids sitting back football we've had flung upon us ever since Corry frigging Evans somehow parachuted into BRFC to earn good money from a lifetime of mediocrity.

Surely some manager somewhere must be able to see beyond that and have the balls to implement it and stick with it even if we lose a few.

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by tomphil

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

6 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

 Rangers would beat Rovers. And it ain't pub football, it's better than the Championship.

Gerrard would not lower himself to come to Ewood and Rovers is not a step-up from Rangers. 

 

Name me a team who wouldn't beat Rovers at the moment ? My first go - Err Bradford.

[Vinjay]

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Name me a team who wouldn't beat Rovers at the moment ? My first go - Err Bradford.

Considering Ipswich Town's victory at Bolton Wanderers it will be interesting to see what happens in the Ewood fixture with Bolton soon. Don't think a victory would say an awful lot but a defeat sure as hell would. I doubt Bolton are going to win each of their games between then and now.

Edited April 7, 2019 by Vinjay17

[blueboy3333]

I'd actually take a manager from Next at this point. 

[JPTSwindon]

Lincoln managers (Cowley) brothers.

If not either Hughes or Johnson as they know the club.

 

[JHRover]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I am convinced that our best and probably only route to any success at this level or above whilst we have these clueless absentee owners is to adopt a head coach and director of football style structure. It seems a lot of people are uncomfortable with such a structure and prefer the old school approach of the entire club being in the hands of the manager but I don't think that approach can work here unless Venkys concede power which after 8 years seems unlikely.

The sporting director or director of football would be headhunted and tasked by the owners to oversee the  entire football operation, working alongside the CEO and Finance Director. That man would be given an overall target e.g. to get to the Premier League and would be given a budget each year and control over the operation, with the ability to hire and fire as he deems necessary in pursuit of that end goal. This person would need to be someone who has worked in such a position preferably in similar circumstances at a high level English or European club before and knows what the job is about. Someone with clear credentials who knows the job and has the contacts to recruit accordingly. In terms of transfers the owners would effectively have no involvement in this other than to sanction budgets and expenditure and perhaps increase funding upon request should it be required.

It would put a stop to this nonsense of the manager jumping onto a plane 2-3 times a year to go and meet the owners, the nonsense of him having to go and prove himself and build up trust and 'teach' them as it seems Mowbray has spent time doing.

The head coach is based in the UK and spends his time coaching the squad and working with the Director of Football to recruit new players. He doesn't need to meet the owners or speak to them. The D of F can do that with Waggott and has the time during the season to go off to India to sort out budgets and update them.

The other benefit of this structure is that if results nosedive as they have here recently there need not be the massive gaping hole created should the manager be sacked. The trust, remit, plan would remain in the hands of the director, the head coach would be changed in pursuit of this should results not be good enough.

In many ways similar to what Norwich have done - they had the old school approach and it was in some ways successful for them under Lambert and Neil in getting up, but once Neil was sacked they took a step back, decided they wanted to go down this route and headhunted Webber from Huddersfield who was given a job and went out and employed Farke as head coach. Difference being that Norwich have local owners who take an interest but day to day the operation could be the same here.

We appeared to be leaning towards such a structure when Paul Senior was appointed as D of F, although the timing - mid season - and whilst a manager was already in place hardly suggested a grand plan in place and his credentials and experience were dubious at best given he had never operated in that role before despite his ludicrous claims. However this was swiftly abandoned in favour of enhancing Mowbray's powers, the result being that recruitment has been entirely at Mowbray's behest and lets be honest it seems the majority of it he has got wrong. Who has been alongside Mowbray keeping signings in check? A D of F almost certainly wouldn't have allowed the fiasco with Brereton to happen, for example.

The situation we're in now is exactly the one i was worried about months ago which I remember raising on here - the structure with Mowbray meeting the owners and having all power in his hands is fine - as long as results continue to be positive - but when things start to go wrong as they are - we are left in a precarious position. We're now terrified of making a managerial change as there's fear of who on earth Venkys will go for next and fear that the whole thing will then need rebuilding after Mowbray has gone. 

He was always going to go at some point sooner or later - whether that be tomorrow or in 4 years time - so the club should have a contingency plan in place at all times and be able to cope with such a departure - yet I doubt it does. All this nonsense with building up trust with the owners - presumably the new man whenever and whoever that might be - will have to go through the same process again of going off to India, meeting them, getting to know them etc. It is outrageous and unworkable.

These days the manager/head coach cannot be the centre of the club. Especially not with foreign ownership and a lack of expertise at director/ownership level.

So rather than just picking names of new managers out of a hat, when the time comes to bring a new man in I believe that we need to be putting in place this structure. This starts with someone going and finding a director of football who is going to take on this responsibility and letting that man deal with the owners and put his structure in place. Flowing from that would be a head coach and his staff - ideally along the lines of Wagner, Carvalhal or Jokanovic - or how about Stendel from Barnsley if they don't go up - or trust the D of F to be able to go and unearth someone from abroad who could do it.

I won't hold my breath. It will be the same old boring rubbish when Mowbray does go. It will be Pasha and Waggott going and finding someone cheap and available who is prepared to go and kneel at Madame's feet and be a nice man and the circle will start all over again.

The structure is inherently flawed and doomed to fail IMO and a quick look around rival clubs shows how far out of our depth we our with our cheap and cheerful setup.

[SBlue]

Bloody brilliant contribution @JHRover.

 

 

Shebby Singh come on down.. ?

[gumboots]

It can be as logical as you like but that's precisely why that won't happen. Why would our owners suddenly find logic to handle our club when they never have so far?

[Stuart]

Interesting idea but it’s not just about titles, it’s about talent.

You could argue that a DOF and head coach is not that dissimilar to a manager and first team coach - if both were the best at their jobs. Even in our odd set-up where the manager travels to India (although managers have often met with owners).

Yet, with things taking a turn for the worse and showing no signs of changing, there are very few calls for changing the first team coach - or assistant manager - and no signs that this is what will happen. This is because Mowbray is loyal to a fault. Mowbray keeps picking the same failing players and even now won’t bring in fresh legs. It’s not a huge stretch to think that the coaching team are still doing the same things with them on training.

I’m not convinced that we need to make huge changes in structure but we do need to break the status quo. If the coaching team remains the same over the Summer then we will have the same results from them.

Personally, I think Mowbray will walk before replacing his two right hand men. Trouble is at Venky’s Rovers there is no need to walk.

[JHRover]

1 minute ago, gumboots said:

It can be as logical as you like but that's precisely why that won't happen. Why would our owners suddenly find logic to handle our club when they never have so far?

I would hope that having lost £150 million so far and facing the prospect of losing much more to come that eventually they would be motivated to do something. The fact they don't as they keep it going every year suggests they aren't that bothered about it.

[lraC]

11 hours ago, Vinjay17 said:

Considering Ipswich Town's victory at Bolton Wanderers it will be interesting to see what happens in the Ewood fixture with Bolton soon. Don't think a victory would say an awful lot but a defeat sure as hell would. I doubt Bolton are going to win each of their games between then and now.

Bolton have Boro at home on Tuesday and Derby away on Saturday. They could be coming to Ewood already relegated. The big questions is, will we have suffered another two defeats by then. I don't fancy us at Forest on Saturday and Derby at home could go either way.

[tomphil]

Mowbray did his job well taking us up i'm grateful for that and I've always liked the bloke for the way he comes across although like most managers when they start to lose the plot he's seriously beginning to grate.  I will say though if in the unlikely (?) event he takes us into a last ditch relegation battle or worse he should be suspended by his under carriage from the Wainwright Bridge until he confesses he has Steve Keans mobile on speed dial for advice because it would be a cock up of such epic proportions there'd be no reasonable explanation.

[lraC]

Just now, tomphil said:

Mowbray did his job well taking us up i'm grateful for that and I've always liked the bloke for the way he comes across although like most managers when they start to lose the plot he's seriously beginning to grate.  I will say though if in the unlikely (?) event he takes us into a last ditch relegation battle or worse he should be suspended by his under carriage from the Wainwright Bridge until he confesses he has Steve Keans mobile on speed dial for advice because it would be a cock up of such epic proportions there'd be no reasonable explanation.

No that I want us to, but I think we could lose all of our remaining games and still not go down. Ipswich and Bolton are already gone and I can't see Rotherham, getting 48 points from where they are. 

[Mattyblue]

Good job we beat Wigan or I think we’d be getting a little edgy with Derby and Forest as our next two games...

[tomphil]

Just now, lraC said:

No that I want us to, but I think we could lose all of our remaining games and still not go down. Ipswich and Bolton are already gone and I can't see Rotherham, getting 48 points from where they are. 

Shocking we'd have to rely on that scenario though.

I think seeing as we'll come across some others who are on the beach like our lot we'll find at least a win and a draw from somewhere.  Wonder if it'll be a tenner a ticket and 20k on Ewood last home game celebrating this wonderful season ?

There's enough going on about settling for just staying up so will they turn up ????

[Bigdoggsteel]

38 minutes ago, lraC said:

No that I want us to, but I think we could lose all of our remaining games and still not go down. Ipswich and Bolton are already gone and I can't see Rotherham, getting 48 points from where they are. 

Rotherham bet Forrest at the weekend, so I wouldn't put it past them.

I have a feeling we are going to drop right into this and end up relying on others doing us favors 

[JHRover]

1 minute ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Rotherham bet Forrest at the weekend, so I wouldn't put it past them.

I have a feeling we are going to drop right into this and end up relying on others doing us favors 

We've got one slot to avoid as Bolton and Ipswich are doomed and will not catch us from here.

There are 6 clubs from 3rd bottom upwards below us, including Birmingham who have been docked 9 points, QPR who are in as bad a run as we are, and Rotherham who have found wins very hard to come by.

If we get sucked any closer to the bottom 3 than we are currently then I am going to start to panic.

Reading/Rotherham turned us over recently, Millwall have just beat West Brom.

Some people had the deckchairs out enjoying 'consolidation' in February seemingly unaware that safety hadn't been secured and that when you get into this stage of the season teams will fight for their lives and pull wins out of the bag.

I suppose now is the time to wonder what might have been had Mowbray gone to Reading and played his best team, or if the team had shown some backbone after equalising v Reading and Rotherham rather than collapsing straight after.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, JHRover said:

We've got one slot to avoid as Bolton and Ipswich are doomed and will not catch us from here.

There are 6 clubs from 3rd bottom upwards below us, including Birmingham who have been docked 9 points, QPR who are in as bad a run as we are, and Rotherham who have found wins very hard to come by.

If we get sucked any closer to the bottom 3 than we are currently then I am going to start to panic.

Reading/Rotherham turned us over recently, Millwall have just beat West Brom.

Some people had the deckchairs out enjoying 'consolidation' in February seemingly unaware that safety hadn't been secured and that when you get into this stage of the season teams will fight for their lives and pull wins out of the bag.

I suppose now is the time to wonder what might have been had Mowbray gone to Reading and played his best team, or if the team had shown some backbone after equalising v Reading and Rotherham rather than collapsing straight after.

Ya, all true and if ever there was a bunch of players I wouldn't bet on to "fight for their lives", it's this bunch 

Hopefully we scrounge 4 points from somewhere, fast.

Where that would leave us is, quite amazingly, with less points than the Coyle season and more goals conceded. 

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by Bigdoggsteel

[lraC]

On the basis that the bookies never get it wrong, here are the latest relegation odds, taken from the Sky bet website. Rotherham 4/5, Reading 9/4, Wigan 7/1, Millwall 10/1, Birmingham 40/1, QPR, 40/1 and Rovers 500/1. For anyone really worried, £50 on that should settle the nerves.