Tony Mowbray Discussion

[Paul Mani]

This ‘style of play’ argument is mental. He basically says that most teams who go up have £109m to spend and the best players to play a possession based style. Whilst, those who do not have the cash or the best players employ a more direct game, getting the ball into big strikers and playing off them...ringing any bells?

IF THATS TRUE TONE THEN WHY THE FUCK DIDNT YOU REPLACE DG WITH AN UPGRADE TARGET MAN AND CRACK THE FUCK ON!

For what it’s worth, I don’t think he’s got a clue what he’s talking about. He’s trying to be clever and take the piss. It’s a charade for the owners to get himself and his boys another year.

He never takes any responsibility and has become the guy whose telling you it’s raining whilst pissing on your back.

[matt83]

Mowbray is a bit of a thicko and he’s also arrogant. A deadly combination.

He’s also deluded with our style of play. It’s every bit as awful as anything we played under big Sam just a different type of bad and certainly without the results to justify it. 

[Mattyblue]

He isn’t fit to chew Sam’s discarded gum.

[Roverthechimp]

15 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

All about framing his discussions with the owners in the summer. Move it away from any talk of promotion and move it towards ‘development’ (though not sure who’s ‘developed’, so that’s another failing, surely?)

Totally transparent but it will probably do the job in his Pune meeting.

TM - just think what SG and BB will be worth considering how AA and BDs values increased.

Venkys - wow, contract extension Mr Mowbray.

Anyone with any football knowledge - My Brain hurts...

 

[Stuart]

6 hours ago, Southside Rover said:

No the club local to me where I live these days is Rushden & Diamonds.

They had their own Jack Walker in the shape of Max Griggs who founded Dr Martens boots.

He had a vision to reach the football league and was everything you want in a chairman, like Jack Walker.

They reach the old division 2 and were pushing for the play offs but Max couldn't afford to bank roll it anymore. So he gave it debt free to the fans.

The fans were not able to run it, released the top earners to bigger clubs to reduce the wage bill and then several relegation followed. 

Then the club stabilised for a few years and started to show shoots of recovery until it was taken over by a poorer version of Venkys. The club was soon dissolved and launched an AFC club a year later. Its been successful but hard honest work by the locals. They don't entertain the thought of a buyer, everything is voted on by the members. A similar model to Wimbledon yes. 

As I say, will they be league 1, I doubt it but do they have a club they have a connection to that they are part of, can be passionate about and feel they matter, absolutely. I read the threads on here and just think rather than watching rugby or another local team or even walking dogs instead, an AFC club would give a lot of fans what they want and miss but also impact the current regime that's driving fans away in their droves.

Also maintains that connection and affinity to the club we've followed for years.

Are Venkys going anywhere? Not likely. Is that patronising, dishonest dinosaur going anywhere? Feeling less and less likely so how far does it have to go. Just not healthy

Excellent post.

Venkys leaving and giving the club to fans debt free is extremely unlikely in my view as I think they would put it into admin first. If they did though we would follow a similar path to R&D.

I’d like to think that fans would rally round and we would get 15,000 fans prepared to pay £350-£400 each. So about £3.5m excluding sponsorship (5000 x high priced). Ignoring any running costs (volunteers?) and tax (maybe find a way for sponsorship income to cover that), 18 players on 2 year contracts for £7m for 52 weeks a year means a flat rate contract 20k per year.

Factor back in tax and costs and you can probably half that. Still not bad and you’d have to set up a pay structure.

These are the kinds of calculations that people at the club are probably making right now but there are two big problems with that (which are somewhat related).

First, Venkys are billionaire business owners who could solve our problems in an instant but choose to put in the absolute minimum, so these costs are a manufactured problem. The second is that fans have been and continue to be treated with utter contempt. A third lesser problem is the ‘brand’ of football from Mowbray - it’s not about entertainment through playing nice looking passes and keeping hold of the ball, it’s about winning football matches.

There is nothing entertaining about losing, it’s a necessary evil and the ratio of wins to losses will determine to an extent whether you can blag a great performance despite a defeat. Too many and it gets old, which is why being a football manager is such a precarious and high turnover job.

I could stomach the penny pinching and the excuses and cutting our cloth if it was an honest set up where the owners genuinely had little cash but were doing everything they could to get what they could and give it to Rovers. Personally I’d support an AFC Rovers like that.

Trying to pretend we are AFC Rovers now with our crap pitch, grubby stadium and schemes to rip up the academy complex while “someone” at the club is taking out £300k. No, sorry, not accepting that as a pauper’s reality.

[den9112]

I had a very long and interesting conversation yesterday with a well known ex football league chairman. He only retired a season or so ago so is still on the ball with what is happening on what is going on in the football world, eventually the conversation led to rovers current situation, (he as no connection with rovers but knows and his friends with some of our current set up) and without going in to to much he came out with three  comments that sum our situation up. 

1 SW  is just a puppet and the strings are pulled by TM although Waggot is genuinely a decent guy blah , blah blah 

2  TM as had a good squad with support from owners but does not know how to set them up simple as that 

3 owners letting them get away with it.

Obviously plenty more was discussed and that i need to keep to myself but let's say TM would and should have been sacked a long time ago ...

[Mattyblue]

3 minutes ago, den9112 said:

I had a very long and interesting conversation yesterday with a well known ex football league chairman. He only retired a season or so ago so is still on the ball with what is happening on what is going on in the football world, eventually the conversation led to rovers current situation, (he as no connection with rovers but knows and his friends with some of our current set up) and without going in to to much he came out with three  comments that sum our situation up. 

1 SW  is just a puppet and the strings are pulled by TM although Waggot is genuinely a decent guy blah , blah blah 

2  TM as had a good squad with support from owners but does not know how to set them up simple as that 

3 owners letting them get away with it.

Obviously plenty more was discussed and that i need to keep to myself but let's say TM would and should have been sacked a long time ago ...

Seems about right. Looks fairly clear that if you put the hard yards in with these owners, ‘gain their trust’ etc then you are set fair for as long as you fancy it. TM obviously cannily worked that out early on.

Totally wrong set up for Championship football, but we all know that.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Mattyblue

[tomphil]

He must be referring to parachute money with his 100 million line so he's basically saying only clubs with that get promoted.  White flag waver.

This is on the back of saying you have to dominate possession and the ball to get promoted. Iv'e been banging on ever since he changed system it's no good for a club like us or the players he has and signs. How many average sides suddenly change style and football their way out of this league ?

Non, so yes you need money to sign better to players to do that, he's right there. So why in the name of almighty god did he just decide on a whim to try it here ???

You need to mix it up, be strong aggressive and in the face to prosper in this div without the luxuries a big relegated club might have. If he'd done some of that after lockdown last season when we'd nothing to lose we might have landed in the play offs. He'd no frigging intention of it though he bottled it, nothing is clearer now he's been stringing it along as long as he can.

The Coventry job was too big for this faker as was Boro so why do we expect something out of the ordinary here ?   He's more suited to somewhere like Chesterfield he can't handle the remotest bit of ambition or expectation. Yet it seems him and his mates are being allowed to dumb down Rovers to a level THEY are comfortable with.

Someone needs to get in the owners ears and quick.

Edited April 16, 2021 by tomphil

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Just now, den9112 said:

owners letting them get away with it.

How do you mean? That could be interpreted a few ways. 

[den9112]

10 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

owners letting them get away with it.

Not my words ,but i took it as they are not that interested as owners of a football club.

[OldEwoodBlue]

I think success, and whether that is promotion or winning the PL or the CL, starts with the manager's mentality.

i.e. If Zidane says I'm really not bothered if we win the Champions League, I just want to develop players, that there is zero chance his players will perform anywhere near the standard expected, regardless if they are good enough.

What hope is there if the team go out onto the pitch with "it doesn't matter" ringing in their ears.

9th or 17th lads... just enjoy yourselves and try to compete.

 

[den9112]

The first thing John Coleman says to his players on return from the summer break in the dressing room is we are going for promotion this season ...

[Mattyblue]

They don’t look like they are enjoying themselves, unsurprisingly, as you know, professional, first team footballers probably aren’t on board with being ‘developed’ but winning a game once every three months.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Mattyblue

[tomphil]

It's what he passes off as development that is the worrying thing.  Gallagher in various positions, BB cameo's, dropping Nyambie every now and then, Bells cameo's, rotating midfielders game in game out, Elliot or Dolan, those two moved artound varios positions. There's more...

All that just adds to the clusterfuck of no balance, no partnerships developing and long periods of no wins rocketing down the leagues.

Yet this is what he sees as development, my god these owners really are thick as pig shit. It was inevitable though that at some point Mr Integrity and his friends would start taking the piss. Once they know how it really rolls here and how far they can push it.

[Mattyblue]

I suppose Elliott and Harwood-Bellis will have got something out of playing competitive football... take it the owners aren’t aware there’s no sell on fee for loanees?

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Mowbray says Rovers have 'lots to play for' with Derby incentive | Lancashire Telegraph

“I feel that when Adam is available he gives us an extra threat in behind, extra tightness with the ball, and our expected goals goes up when he’s in the team"

Oh do fuck off. 

[tomphil]

7 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

Mowbray says Rovers have 'lots to play for' with Derby incentive | Lancashire Telegraph

“I feel that when Adam is available he gives us an extra threat in behind, extra tightness with the ball, and our expected goals goes up when he’s in the team"

Oh do fuck off. 

His mouthpiece twitter account has been DMing him again.

[gumboots]

I've noticed a distinct downturn in the standard of language on here these last few weeks. We've got through many years without directly using bad language.  What has Mowbray driven us to?

[den]

If Mowbray truly want to develop players - and I’ve no doubt he does - then the best way to do that is by playing them in a winning team isn’t it? It’s not easy to develop anyone when they’re on the losing side week in, week out. Sorry Tony, but using the idea of developing players ahead of winning games is ridiculous. You do both, don’t you? You seem to be using player development as an ax use for poor results.

As for the total dumbing down of supporters expectations from both Waggott and Mowbray, well it’s obvious that they don’t want to be judged against anyone or anything successful. Especially in the eyes of the owners.

Edited April 16, 2021 by den

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Just now, gumboots said:

I've noticed a distinct downturn in the standard of language on here these last few weeks. We've got through many years without directly using bad language.  What has Mowbray driven us to?

Does the occasional swear word offend you?

Edited April 16, 2021 by Hoochie Bloochie Mama

[Mattyblue]

From memory, pretty much all swear words were filtered out on here until a couple of years ago... even Ke*n.

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

I thought I saw a post from a Mod saying swearing was ok if it wasn't gratuitous. I'd hate to offend someone's sensibilities.

 

[imy9]

19 minutes ago, den said:

If Mowbray truly want to develop players - and I’ve no doubt he does - then the best way to do that is by playing them in a winning team isn’t it? It’s not easy to develop anyone when they’re on the losing side week in, week out. Sorry Tony, but using the idea of developing players ahead of winning games is ridiculous. You do both, don’t you? You seem to be using player development as an ax use for poor results.

As for the total dumbing down of supporters expectations from both Waggott and Mowbray, well it’s obvious that they don’t want to be judged against anyone or anything successful. Especially in the eyes of the owners.

Did they both not target top six this season or was that a dream I had?

Also this nonsense of developing players, I agree Den, you do both.

At the moment he seems to be developing players alright...the ones who play for other clubs!

[47er]

1 minute ago, imy9 said:

At the moment he seems to be developing players alright...the ones who play for other clubs!

I don't think he's even doing a very good job of that!

[broadsword]

12 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

I thought I saw a post from a Mod saying swearing was ok if it wasn't gratuitous. I'd hate to offend someone's sensibilities.

 

I just think it's a real indicator that we're being driven beyond our limits. 

God knows I've worn enough times in my life, but I only rarely do it when I'm not angry.