If Tony goes...

[Scotland1]

Just now, Mashed Potatoes said:

With the best will in the world how likely do you think it is that either of those two would find working for Venkys an attractive proposition ?

Very attractive little attention on you, good squad and plenty of wages and funds shown in the last 18months. 

Dont think you can blame he owners since we’ve come back up to be honest

[Amo]

Nigel Pearson, Martin O'Neill, Chris Coleman, Roberto Di Matteo, Chris Hughton, David Moyes, Mark Hughes.

Any one of those would do. Not too fussed, we need a change. Mowbray's lost the plot and the rot has set in.

[Mashed Potatoes]

Just now, Scotland1 said:

Very attractive little attention on you, good squad and plenty of wages and funds shown in the last 18months. 

Dont think you can blame he owners since we’ve come back up to be honest

But maybe the funds have now been spent and in any case does the manager have the say as to how they are spent ? Additionally what sort of wage are Venkys prepared to commit to a manager and his team ?

As I have said before anyone anyone any good will have a choice as to where they work ( I suspect the likes of Hughton and Moyes are waiting on much better jobs than us ) and Venkys standing in the game is very poor - hence Lambert only coming to us with a get-out clause in his contract

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, Mashed Potatoes said:

But maybe the funds have now been spent and in any case does the manager have the say as to how they are spent ? Additionally what sort of wage are Venkys prepared to commit to a manager and his team ?

As I have said before anyone anyone any good will have a choice as to where they work ( I suspect the likes of Hughton and Moyes are waiting on much better jobs than us ) and Venkys standing in the game is very poor - hence Lambert only coming to us with a get-out clause in his contract

To be honest with you if Hughes and Moyes are waiting for another Premier League job I think they'll have a long wait.

[Mercer]

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

To be honest with you if Hughes and Moyes are waiting for another Premier League job I think they'll have a long wait.

I wouldn't want Moyes anywhere near our club.  IMO, he is nowhere near as good a manager as he thinks he is.  I know a number of Everton supporters who were glad to see the back of him - they thought he was negative and indecisive.  Big Sam pulled off a miracle and kept Sunderland up - I think Moyes was found sadly wanting the season after.

Although Hughes would be a big improvement, I would question whether he would still have the necessary fire in his belly to make the impact here as he did before.

I think we need to find another Danny Cowley who has made a dramatic impact at Huddersfield in just a few short weeks.  Youngish, hungry, dynamic and innovative.

Edited October 23, 2019 by Mercer

[Pedro]

1 hour ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Don’t think our squad is top 6 actually, mainly due to a howling defence and strikers that don’t score. We have two top 6 players in dack and holtby, sadly travis has fell off a cliff performance wise

Without Graham looking fit and firing, I agree. We actually look like a strikerless side. The shots on target stats back that up too.

 

Time for radical change. Someone who can see and do the blatantly obvious.

 

 

[jim mk2]

What's Big Sam doing these days ?

He must be bored playing golf every day on the Costa Brava.

Venky's could be forgiven for alot if they brought him back

[chaddyrovers]

28 minutes ago, Mercer said:

 

I think we need to find another Danny Cowley who has made a dramatic impact at Huddersfield in just a few short weeks.  Youngish, hungry, dynamic and innovative.

Who is???

You mention this but dont name names. Why? 

1 hour ago, Amo said:

Nigel Pearson, Martin O'Neill, Chris Coleman, Roberto Di Matteo, Chris Hughton, David Moyes, Mark Hughes.

Any one of those would do. Not too fussed, we need a change. Mowbray's lost the plot and the rot has set in.

Has Hughes ever worked without Mark Bowen? 

Coleman not for me after recommending Kean for a job here. 

O'Neil, Moyes, Di Matteo no for me. Di Matteo couldnt even get a job in Scotland. 

 

[Scotland1]

@J*B can we get sparky added to the poll?

[MCMC1875]

@J*B can we get "None of the above" added to the poll?

[Amo]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

Coleman not for me after recommending Kean for a job here.  

That seems rather petty, Chaddy. To blame Coleman for Kean's tenure here.

[JeffRover]

Gareth Ainsworth would be a good shout for many reasons in my opinion:

- Relatively Young, hungry and desperate to succeed

- Has 380 games in management at unfashionable clubs, with a win rate of above 40%

- Has a promotion on his CV

- Is currently flying high in League One, not many places below us in the pyramid after spending no money and gets the most possible out of his resources

- A Blackburn lad and Rovers fan. He would be willing to come here.

Brentford took Dean Smith from Walsall so I don't know why this couldn't work also.

[Sparks Rover]

Just now, Amo said:

That seems rather petty, Chaddy. To blame Coleman for Kean's tenure here.

They are good mates, that’s enough for me to disqualify Coleman 

[Amo]

6 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

They are good mates, that’s enough for me to disqualify Coleman 

Meh. Football is one big jobs for the boys, gay daisy-chain. 

[JHRover]

1 hour ago, Amo said:

Nigel Pearson, Martin O'Neill, Chris Coleman, Roberto Di Matteo, Chris Hughton, David Moyes, Mark Hughes.

Any one of those would do. Not too fussed, we need a change. Mowbray's lost the plot and the rot has set in.

Interesting selections there.

Pearson -  no nonsense, excellent record in this League with Leicester, ticks numerous boxes, available. However - an odd bloke who seems to fall out with people, poor/strange spells recently in Belgium and at Derby. Just cannot see him working with Venkys. Would at best 'do a Lambert' and walk.

O'Neill - once upon a time I would have loved him at Rovers and a top manager in his day but now late 60s and no longer with his trusted team of Robertson and Walford. Hasn't really done it at club level for 7-8 years.

Coleman - never rated him - very poor record in club management with reputation enhanced by a good tournament with Wales fired on by Bale and Ramsey. I'd avoid completely.

Di Matteo - very good at West Brom in this League but struggled at Villa. Still an impressive CV and worth a shot with a vast network of contacts but would cost heavily.

Hughton - ticks every box and the ideal option but is too clever to come and work for us. Will have his pick of clubs so why bother coming here.

Moyes and Hughes in similar bracket to each other - vast experience and quality managers in their day however both now finished in the top flight and so will likely need to drop to the Championship to rebuild their careers. Doubt Hughes' ego could handle that and certainly not back at Rovers. He's also lost his two best mates at Reading so that tells me Hughes isnt looking for a job. Never managed at this level so a bit of an unknown.

Moyes has but many years ago. Perhaps a gamble worth taking but would cost.

I'd rather we looked at people like McCarthy or Michael O'Neill or went abroad. Big thing for me is it needs a new management team not just manager. Expecting a new manager to work with existing staff just to avoid making changes is only going to end one way.

[Sparks Rover]

Just now, Amo said:

Meh. Football is one big jobs for the boys, gay daisy-chain. 

Yeah and I’d rather have someone who isn’t bessie mates with the biggest shyte to walk through our doors 

[Paul Mani]

3 hours ago, DE. said:

Do you mean afford in the monetary sense or in terms of the impact it would have on the club in general?

Both tbh. Massive overhauls are rarely a good idea. They cost a fortune and very rarely bare fruit. In any case I don’t think we need one. Improve the defence, get the strikers firing and settle on formula that works.

[DE.]

Just now, Paul Mani said:

Both tbh. Massive overhauls are rarely a good idea. They cost a fortune and very rarely bare fruit. In any case I don’t think we need one. Improve the defence, get the strikers firing and settle on formula that works.

I don't necessarily disagree, but at the same time there are some very concerning stats going back a number of years which suggest something is fundamentally broken at a core level of the club. At the very least we need to fix this, even if it isn't through a total overhaul. 

[Paul Mani]

3 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

We dont want consistency with the current set up, its grown stagnant, we need a new way of thinking.

I cant agree with the sentence "The first XI is good enough to challenge for the top 6 imo" something I disagreed with to @JoeH albeit I think he said top 10. Its a myth that our team is as good as people say, albeit that is very much down to the managers recruitment.

Looking at it, Walton is to be quite generous, a bottom 6 quality goalkeeper. I can see why he didnt even maintain his number 1 shirt for the full season at Wigan last year. Defensively, at centre backs we are no better, the 2 that played yesterday are certainly not top half quality, and Lenihan isnt much better plus is constantly injured. A repeated area of neglect at the club. Cunningham I think you could argue is top 6 quality but is unfortunately a write off with injury, leaving Bell and Bennett at full back who I would argue in their respective positions are bottom 3 quality, really poor. Nyambe is a little better but I suspect will be dropped shortly for Bell.

In midfield, I think people at times slightly overstate Travis' ability. A very good prospect and a key player but hes not a patch on genuine top 6 central midfielders of his ilk, Kalvin Phillips, Ben Pearson etc. Maybe in time he will get there and stamp his authority more on games. Johnson has been a huge disappointment, seemingly has fallen well away from  his Norwich days. Downing for all of his technical ability I don't think stamps his authority on games enough or has enough tangible impact. Holtby could potentially be of that quality, but obviously we have only seen him have one start for us, but he needs to return as soon as possible. Rothwell is an enigma in terms of the usage of him, has to be playing games but not sure we have seen enough to be sure he is top 6 quality, but that may be more down to the manager.

Up top, Dack as a 10 is certainly top 6 level, you look at his numbers. With Graham seemingly written off, Gallagher, Brereton and Samuel would probably not get in any other team in the division, and Armstrong flatters to deceive 9 times out of 10.

I understand some of your points but it’s very much written in the moment. I’ll bet you didn’t harbour half of those opinions just before kick off against Luton as we set out to achieve a third straight Clean sheet and victory with a host of seemingly winnable fixtures in front of us.

At that point, many were lauding the keeper and defence whilst eulogising over the signing of Holtby. Confident in the knowledge that we were making fine progress. 
 

The key here is not to knee jerk imo. I feared for the manager as soon as he said that we were hoping for a top 6 finish. I don’t know how many managers come up from league 1, finish mid table and then go up the season after. He needed a big injection of cash in the summer rather than a couple of million net spend. Now he’ll end up throwing himself on his sword. I would give Johnson a chance.

[benhben]

52 minutes ago, JeffRover said:

Gareth Ainsworth would be a good shout for many reasons in my opinion:

- Relatively Young, hungry and desperate to succeed

- Has 380 games in management at unfashionable clubs, with a win rate of above 40%

- Has a promotion on his CV

- Is currently flying high in League One, not many places below us in the pyramid after spending no money and gets the most possible out of his resources

- A Blackburn lad and Rovers fan. He would be willing to come here.

Brentford took Dean Smith from Walsall so I don't know why this couldn't work also.

This

[Paul Mani]

Just now, DE. said:

I don't necessarily disagree, but at the same time there are some very concerning stats going back a number of years which suggest something is fundamentally broken at a core level of the club. At the very least we need to fix this, even if it isn't through a total overhaul. 

What is it that you think is fundamentally broken? 

[DE.]

Just now, Paul Mani said:

What is it that you think is fundamentally broken? 

Not sure, but the fact we haven't come from behind to beat an opponent in the Championship since October 2014 is absolutely damning. Similarly I believe we haven't come from behind to win in any league match in something like two years - last time was during the L1 campaign. 

We have a topic on here talking about character because it's so obvious we have none, and I think that's been the case for a lot longer than just Mowbray's tenure. It's been pretty much a staple of the club since Venky's arrived and put Steve Kean in charge. Whatever is broken may not be fixable - it may just be that the owners' apathy and neglect trickles through the entire club and has a knock on effect which can sometimes be stifled but never completely erased. If so then we can swap managers over and over and the result will ultimately be the same. We have to hope that isn't the case though - as Venky's don't appear to be going anywhere - so instead we can only rely on finding a massive overachiever with enough determination and courage to overpower the curse the owners have put on the club. Would be some luck finding that guy though, especially with our so called "board" leading the search, and chances are that person's characteristics would cause another Lambert-like departure when they realised the scale of the mountain they would need to climb to achieve anything worthwhile here.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, Paul Mani said:

What is it that you think is fundamentally broken? 

What line of work are you in Paul ? I used to work in engineering. Not a massive place, about 100 employees. The Managing Director was a dick but he was there every day and knew everything about everybody in the place. He'd know what you had for your tea last night when you'd forgotten ! 

If he'd have been an absentee owner the place would have kept going no problem but the productivity would have took a hit. By how much would depend on how motivated the foremen were. A good foreman would have a better effect than a bad one. It'd still be a up hill struggle no matter who was supposed to be trying to run the show.The fitters would still be performing but the welders would be taking the piss. The self motivated guys would be doing their best but the skivers would be picking their horses in the toilets for an hour a day. After a while the grafters would say to themselves - " What's the point, when nobody else cares ? ". Then they get brought down to the lazy guys level.

That's what you've got at Rovers, no hands on direction from the top. Managers have come and gone, players have come and gone. The malaise at the club has been there ever since they fired Big Sam, appointed The Snake, and decided to leave things in his hands.

" A fish rots from the head ".

Edited October 23, 2019 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Can I just add that at every other club in the Football League at some point today the manager would have been quietly invited for a chat with the chairman. " What the blank was that all about last night Tony?  There seems to be causes for concern recently, what's going on ? Don't bullshit me, give it me straight . "

Do you think that conversation took place today at Ewood ?

[arbitro]

23 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

I understand some of your points but it’s very much written in the moment. I’ll bet you didn’t harbour half of those opinions just before kick off against Luton as we set out to achieve a third straight Clean sheet and victory with a host of seemingly winnable fixtures in front of us.

At that point, many were lauding the keeper and defence whilst eulogising over the signing of Holtby. Confident in the knowledge that we were making fine progress. 
 

The key here is not to knee jerk imo. I feared for the manager as soon as he said that we were hoping for a top 6 finish. I don’t know how many managers come up from league 1, finish mid table and then go up the season after. He needed a big injection of cash in the summer rather than a couple of million net spend. Now he’ll end up throwing himself on his sword. I would give Johnson a chance.

We have been a ticking time bomb since the summer with Mowbrays reluctance to bring in the type of defenders that we have lacked in his tenure. We were always going to be an injury or two away from becoming a poor team. 

Also I think a lot of the players are simply not able to deliver the quick passing game that Mowbray craves. His excuse this week of having a few different styles of play was frankly nonsense or even if we do we are inept at most of them. It's completely different doing drills on the training pitch to carrying it out in an intense Championship match.

My personal feeling is that Mowbray has over complicated things and expects players to do something that is quite alien to most of them. I sincerely hope I'm wrong but the writing is on the wall and if the warning signs are ignored we could well be relegated.