Lancashire Telegraph

[Tom]

13 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

We all have opinions on what Mowbray should do and my first one is to ask Mark Venus what exactly he offers the club besides a jarring reminder of Paul Lambert?

He seems to evade any of the criticism.

Some serious mental gymnastics going on to absolve TM there. Why should the assistant manager be singled out? And the fairly low profile coach that is MV gives a ‘jarring reminder of Paul Lambert’, how exactly?

Players, Venus, who next to blame apart from, ya know, the manager? The PA announcer? Groundsman?

Remember when John Jenson was here for a while and got sacked as number 2 to absolve Kean of the Blame!

[philipl]

Will be interesting to see when the LT editorial line goes against Mowbray.

[rigger]

4 hours ago, philipl said:

Will be interesting to see when the LT editorial line goes against Mowbray.

The day after he leaves 

[Hasta]

Nearly 8 years since that front page. Still irks that Cryer wouldn't put his name to it, but we now know why looking at his anti-Rovers stance on Twitter.

However had we acted then, the outcome we have endured since was still avoidable. 

[Stuart]

The legacy of Kean lives on.

He is the yardstick by which all Venkys managers are judged. “Well he’s not as bad as Kean”. Nobody ever will be ever again.

It was a wrecking ball that just kept on swinging through our beloved club.

Sadly that means that poor managers now get a free pass - even more so if they have a nice guy persona. We deserve better.

Nobody is guaranteed top flight football, nobody ‘deserves’ it, or has any divine right, but we do have a right to expect that the guy in the dugout is doing everything in his power to make that the aim. We should also be able to expect that the club should hold them to account for that aim. This is the constitution of any professional football club.

Talking about teams like Preston - local rivals no less - as though they are miles ahead of us and the best we can hope to do is to try to compete with them is not in that constitution.

The LT are complete no hopers when it comes to holding the club to account to that tacit ‘tribal contract’. They care only about the advertising revenue because nobody is prepared to pay for news any more in the ad-supported, data-selling, Internet age. So we can all blame ourselves for that. Why would the local rag side with the people when it makes its money out of local business?

PL football covered an awful lot of cracks and was the proverbial self-licking lollipop. Generating crowds and income and news stories and entertainment and pride.

Now look where we are.

[Pedro]

Saddest stat is that Kean is the only manager to have us in the automatic promotion spots and he had us in the top 6 longer than all of the following managers put together.

 

That's how shit we've been.

[Mattyblue]

‘We have more attacking talent than I can ever remember from a Rovers squad and that is testimony to Mowbray’s signings.

There have been flashes and signs of progression and I trust Mowbray to find more consistency. Considering what he has rescued the club from, I believe he deserves the chance to see this project through.

Kelvin Wilkins ‘

 

Kelvin is about 11 years old then, I take it?

Edited October 30, 2019 by Mattyblue

[Stuart]

Even if we have attacking talent, we have a manager who doesn’t know how to use it. Nay, goes out of his way to nullify it.

Edited October 30, 2019 by Stuart

[Mattyblue]

Purely by accident I have found that I have personally received a lot of criticism for this column over the years.

Unlike Tony Mowbray I cannot hold back the deluge by picking up a defiant win.

By no means am I asking for your sympathy nor your lenience. I always, 100 per cent, stand by what I say and that will not be diluted by other people’s views.

I’m here to be shot at and whether you are a Shearer-esque sharp-shooter, or a Stokesian blank-firer, you are entitled to do so.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/quicktest/18019450.the-unexpected-drama-follow-rovers/

 

He’s definitely not bothered though 

Edited November 7, 2019 by Mattyblue

[K-Hod]

He's so not bothered, he wrote an article about not being bothered.

Has anyone got a flotation device? I'm drowning in irony over here.....

[AllRoverAsia]

He posts some great Rovers photos on Facebook, lots of oldies, so I now give him some leeway when reading the LT.

Its a game of opinions and his are less right-wing than some on here.

[tomphil]

2 hours ago, K-Hod said:

He's so not bothered, he wrote an article about not being bothered.

Has anyone got a flotation device? I'm drowning in irony over here.....

The irony of these 'not bothered' column writing types is hilarious, Smith certainly isn't alone in that. Egos like eggshells ?

Edited November 7, 2019 by tomphil

[JacknOry]

So not bothered he created an account here to tell us he aint bothered before then writing an article about how unbothered he is.

[tomphil]

On 30/10/2019 at 19:47, Mattyblue said:

‘We have more attacking talent than I can ever remember from a Rovers squad and that is testimony to Mowbray’s signings.

There have been flashes and signs of progression and I trust Mowbray to find more consistency. Considering what he has rescued the club from, I believe he deserves the chance to see this project through.

Kelvin Wilkins ‘

 

Kelvin is about 11 years old then, I take it?

Even if he doesn't go back that far Rhodes, Cairney, Marshall, Gestede, King, Conway !

Come on that's a fair old pool of attacking talent so to say we have more now is beyond daft. No point counting Chapman and Brereton, Samuel also doesn't come into the equation.

 

[Herbie6590]

31 minutes ago, tomphil said:

The irony of these 'not bothered' column writing types is hilarious, Smith certainly isn't alone in that. Egos like eggshells ?

*hides behind sofa* ?

[tomphil]

Just now, Herbie6590 said:

*hides behind sofa* ?

Screenshotting !   But i'm not bothered, so not bothered i might write a post about it.... ?

 

[4,000 Holes]

4 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

He posts some great Rovers photos on Facebook, lots of oldies, so I now give him some leeway when reading the LT.

Its a game of opinions and his are less right-wing than some on here.

Simon is a thoroughly respected commentator on the Rovers from the fanzine's perspective. Massively grateful that he went to the effort of getting quotes from the likes of Terry Gennoe, Mick Rathbone, Mick Speight and other teammates for his wonderful 2000-word tribute to Kevin Stonehouse in Issue 97 earlier this season. This was followed up by another brilliant piece about John Lowey last month.

[MarkBRFC]

Doesn't mean he doesn't talk shit in the LET though.

[LDRover]

6 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

He posts some great Rovers photos on Facebook, lots of oldies, so I now give him some leeway when reading the LT.

Its a game of opinions and his are less right-wing than some on here.

Smithy is a good lad and his devotion to BRFC over the past 40 years should not be doubted. Not saying I agree with all he says mind you but he's a good egg.

[JacknOry]

Doesnt matter, he's obviously not bothered if people dont agree with him.

[tomphil]

His opinions and he's entitled to them just as some are to disagree.

He has the platform there though to say his bit to a huge audience with the safety net of no direct replies.

When he has a pop at fans or comes out with stuff that's a bit 'superfan' . Or goes against what others feel is actually happening he's fair game. 

I'm sure he knows that.

[DE.]

If you want to write publicly about football then you need thick skin. There will always be somebody who disagrees with you.

[lraC]

Just now, DE. said:

If you want to write publicly about football then you need thick skin. There will always be somebody who disagrees with you.

No there won't. 

[arbitro]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

If you want to write publicly about football then you need thick skin. There will always be somebody who disagrees with you.

That applies to anybody in the public eye who voices an opinion. If you are a sensitive soul then you are in the wrong game.

[JacknOry]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

That applies to anybody in the public eye who voices an opinion. If you are a sensitive soul then you are in the wrong game.

Exactly, you don't see many columnists coming out and writing articles about sections of people that have the gall to disagree with them. The guy needs some thick skin. He obviously is bothered despite claiming he isn't.

Edited November 8, 2019 by JacknOry