Summer transfer window 2021.

[neophox]

Remember the days when we met Barcelona for the last friendly encounter ahead of the season...sadly now its Bolton Wanderers...

Edited July 20, 2021 by neophox

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, blue_n_white99 said:

Why, we never even threatened the play offs, every season under him except League 1 promotion has closed with a whimper

I didn't expect promotion in the first season after our league 1 promotion. I think our first season back in this league was the promotion to build the squad we need to get promotion by signing a proper centre back, left footed winger and centre forward. But we went big on Brereton and not look at signing a proper centre back. They were a couple of players we should have signed them like Konsa and Osborn

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

 

Do you think Venkys are suddenly going to change and start taking enough of an interest to put in a business plan? No, so needlessly pissing money entails a dysfunctional mess.

 

Thats where me and you disagree that the owners interest in the club. I think Balaji is very interesting in the club but the one thing Venkys lack for the entire of the ownership is proper plan from Footballing people who have their relevant experience even now. They are experience footballing people who would advised them properly and run us properly. Do I expect this to happen under Venkys? No I don't. But Venkys will continue to fund the club without running it to its full potential and have more fans back

[1864roverite]

No it’s perfectly believable as BRFC is just a ship treading the water line and the next ripple that comes along is going to sink it

 

[Admiral Nelsen]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

To be fair, he said giving his the season after promotion was fair enough. We all pretty much agree on that. 

I think most give him cr dot for League 1. I totally agree it's not straight forward to get out of that league, regardless of squad or budget. 

The thing is though his level is top league 1 to mid table championship. Nothing to suggest otherwise 

 

Fair enough, and sadly I think you're completely right about mid-table Championship being his ceiling (at least with a realistic squad for us to assemble given where we're at). It might've been a bit unfair of me to target that post specifically, but there are a few posts on here which I think are far too broad brush in their criticism. 

I guess my position is that Mowbray is in some ways a pretty competent manager at this level, but at the same time has some significant flaws which over time have become more and more apparent (last year especially). He has without doubt outstayed his usefulness and should have been replaced before now. At the same time I find it a bit frustrating that balanced assessments of his time here are far outweighed by posts making him out to be a manager without any redeeming qualities - all the more so considering we have a recent history of having managers who fit that description perfectly. 

[roversfan99]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

I didn't expect promotion in the first season after our league 1 promotion. I think our first season back in this league was the promotion to build the squad we need to get promotion by signing a proper centre back, left footed winger and centre forward. But we went big on Brereton and not look at signing a proper centre back. They were a couple of players we should have signed them like Konsa and Osborn

Thats where me and you disagree that the owners interest in the club. I think Balaji is very interesting in the club but the one thing Venkys lack for the entire of the ownership is proper plan from Footballing people who have their relevant experience even now. They are experience footballing people who would advised them properly and run us properly. Do I expect this to happen under Venkys? No I don't. But Venkys will continue to fund the club without running it to its full potential and have more fans back

If he or any of them cared, they would strive to get the correct expertise in place, but they dont care. Hence us being a dysfunctional mess.

[DE.]

49 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

The thing is though his level is top league 1 to mid table championship. Nothing to suggest otherwise. That's the danger now. To be honest though, I don't think he will relegate us and people saying that is hyperbole, but we deserve better 

Honestly if Armstrong goes - and with Dack injured and no budget/ability to replace either of them - I think Mowbray could end up relegating us. It would be a very sad end to things and pretty much render his League 1 promotion moot as all it achieved was further debt and hopelessness before dropping back to the same division he got us out of.

I hope I'm wrong but I'm more pessimistic about this season than any other since TM took charge. He was clearly a busted flush last season. The players know it. We're in big trouble imo.

[Mercer]

19 minutes ago, neophox said:

Only 3000 season tickets sold... shows our clubs demise... poor. I cant believe Mowbray is still our manager.

TBH, I'm staggered it's that high!

[LDRover]

The problem is, whichever way the season ticket sales go, it can be spun to suit the management.

High sales is validation of the job he is doing. Low sales adds more weight to the small club theory Mowbray wants to peddle to lower expectations and fit in with his lack of ability.

What a shit show.

[Admiral Nelsen]

34 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Sorry, it was blatantly obvious he was out of his depth in our first season back in the Championship imo when we embarked on a run not too dissimilar to the 2 wins in seventeen this season.

The ideal time to have sacked him would have been with ten or twelve games to go of that season and given a new manager time to assess the squad.

Instead we clung onto him and two and a half years later this is is the mess we're in as a consequence.

 

It wasn't at all blatantly obvious. There was a run in February and March that was very poor, no question, but that run was sandwiched by two four game wining streaks. Coupled with a strong first half of the season, what reason did we have at that point to think it was the bad run which was a sign of things to come, and not the other parts of the season which went well?

 

Clearly in retrospect we would have been better off replacing him with someone better before now, but there's no point pretending that this was obvious in 2019 when it simply wasn't. 

[blue_n_white99]

16 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

I didn't expect promotion in the first season after our league 1 promotion. I think our first season back in this league was the promotion to build the squad we need to get promotion by signing a proper centre back, left footed winger and centre forward. But we went big on Brereton and not look at signing a proper centre back. They were a couple of players we should have signed them like Konsa and Osborn

I didn't say I expected promotion, I said we never even threatened to make the play offs, a big difference

[chaddyrovers]

22 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

If he or any of them cared, they would strive to get the correct expertise in place, but they dont care. Hence us being a dysfunctional mess.

Well thats your opinion but you don't know what they cared about. Rest of it is guess work Roversfan99. 

If they didn't care they would have sold the club or shut the doors not keep investing over 20 million pounds per season. 

anyway this issue has nothing to do with Transfers does it?

6 minutes ago, blue_n_white99 said:

I didn't say I expected promotion, I said we never even threatened to make the play offs, a big difference

I didn't expect that either. 

Edited July 20, 2021 by chaddyrovers

[RevidgeBlue]

2 minutes ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

It wasn't at all blatantly obvious. There was a run in February and March that was very poor, no question, but that run was sandwiched by two four game wining streaks. Coupled with a strong first half of the season, what reason did we have at that point to think it was the bad run which was a sign of things to come, and not the other parts of the season which went well?

 

Clearly in retrospect we would have been better off replacing him with someone better before now, but there's no point pretending that this was obvious in 2019 when it simply wasn't. 

Of course it was. It was obvious as soon as we were promoted that Mowbray and Waggott were completely out of their depth at Championship level.

We had the debacle of that summer's transfer window when we unsuccessfully low balled Clubs all summer for players to no effect before seemingly panicking at the last minute, going back cap in hand to the owners for more money then chucking telephone numbers at BB and the midfielder from QPR (Freeman was it?) In the winter window the only signing was Chapman who he  barely ever played the first time he was here and who he's completely ignored since his return. 

The results on the pitch were completely unsatisfactory too, I seem to remember we had a run of eight losses in twelve which bizarrely was punctuatefd by four wins in the middle without which we'd have been in serious trouble.

It wasn't just the results on the pitch though, everything about the Coventrio screams that they're uncomfortable and completely out of their depth at Championship level. I remember Mowbray coming out with a quote in the press to the effect that it was ok signing players from Gillingham but it was a different matter getting players out of Championship Clubs.

The former is the level they should be operating at and they no doubt soon will be unless we dispense with them all sharpish.

[TheRoversReturn]

42 minutes ago, neophox said:

Remember the days when we met Barcelona for the last friendly encounter ahead of the season...sadly now its Bolton Wanderers...

#RoversRewind: Rovers vs Barcelona 12/08/2001

[RevidgeBlue]

43 minutes ago, Mercer said:

TBH, I'm staggered it's that high!

It was always likely that the hardy souls who renewed last year would do so again to take advantage of the discount I'd have thought.

3,000 is only 500 "normal" renewals so it could hardly be a more damning indictment of Mowbray and Waggott although there'll probably be a bit of a last minute spurt before the claim your own seat deadline.

[toogs]

1 hour ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

It wasn't at all blatantly obvious. There was a run in February and March that was very poor, no question, but that run was sandwiched by two four game wining streaks. Coupled with a strong first half of the season, what reason did we have at that point to think it was the bad run which was a sign of things to come, and not the other parts of the season which went well?

 

Clearly in retrospect we would have been better off replacing him with someone better before now, but there's no point pretending that this was obvious in 2019 when it simply wasn't. 

It really was obvious to some of us. 
 

I went to the PNE away game that season and what I saw that day convinced me Mowbray wasn’t up to it. 
 

From team selection, to what went on on the pitch to his comments afterwards. A Shameful display of football management. Nothing has happened since that has convinced me otherwise. 

[davulsukur]

2 hours ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

I agree that last season was unacceptably poor, and I too worry about next season, but I'm not having what you've said in the highlighted section. The idea that getting rid of a manager who had just got us promoted with 90 odd points would have been the actions of an 'ambitious club' is complete madness in my view.

 

I think generally we're all in danger of rewriting history a little bit with his first 2 years or so. We're falling over examples which show that being a big club with a decent budget is no guarantee of promotion in that league, and our first season back had some genuinely promising spells in it. Mowbray earned his popularity at that point, as much as he has earned is unpopularity since. 

 

It would have been incredibly harsh and initially we wouldn't have come out of it without criticism. Hindsight obviously has helped on this one but Mowbray is never, ever taking us to where we need to be. We all knew this the day he walked through the door, based on his failings at other clubs.

Fair enough, give him the next season but ultimately, what was the point in the end? 

He wasn't going to become a great manager overnight. At the end of that season, at the absolute latest he should have been replaced but that is just testament to the lack of ambition Rovers show these days. 

He's now been kept in charge so long, he's about to have us regressing to the point where we were when he first arrived.

[Gav]

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

TBH, I'm staggered it's that high!

I think that comment just goes to show you don't understand the fan base Mercer.

Thanks to Jack we'll always have a health fan base, even before Jack came in we punched above our weight on the fan front from time to time. The numbers maybe dwindling, people are sick of Venkys, but they'll return if those rats do the right thing and bugger off. 

 

[JHRover]

November 2019 was the turning point for me. 

Up to then promotion and a season back in the Championship fine.

Events at Deepdale that day told me all I needed to know. Since then it has been wasting time and money.

[Gav]

25 minutes ago, JHRover said:

November 2019 was the turning point for me. 

Up to then promotion and a season back in the Championship fine.

Events at Deepdale that day told me all I needed to know. Since then it has been wasting time and money.

Took me a while I must admit, but after Premiership survival at Wolves under that scumbag Kean, I felt that summer would be a turning point, it wasn’t and from that moment on I knew these owners are either thick or crooked, probably both. 

Badly advised my arse, after 10yrs of decline how can fans be so gullible? I guess a healthy bank balance helps……

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by Gav

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

23 minutes ago, Gav said:

I think that comment just goes to show you don't understand the fan base Mercer.

Thanks to Jack we'll always have a health fan base, even before Jack came in we punched above our weight on the fan front from time to time. The numbers maybe dwindling, people are sick of Venkys, but they'll return if those rats do the right thing and bugger off. 

 

50% of the fans that have bailed out will never come back no matter what. People find better, less stressful, things to do.

[Mercer]

2 hours ago, neophox said:

Only 3000 season tickets sold... shows our clubs demise... poor. I cant believe Mowbray is still our manager.

 

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

TBH, I'm staggered it's that high!

 

29 minutes ago, Gav said:

I think that comment just goes to show you don't understand the fan base Mercer.

Thanks to Jack we'll always have a health fan base, even before Jack came in we punched above our weight on the fan front from time to time. The numbers maybe dwindling, people are sick of Venkys, but they'll return if those rats do the right thing and bugger off. 

 

 

4 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

50% of the fans that have bailed out will never come back no matter what. People find better, less stressful, things to do.

I think Tyrone is right.

What we have now Gav is totally different to anything that I've encountered I would say in getting on for 60 years in supporting Rovers.  I'd estimate that only 1 in 5 of my Rovers' connections (family, friends, colleagues, clients) are taking a season ticket this time.  Never known apathy like this.  I think it extends beyond Venky's - people I speak with have come to despise Waggott and Mowbray because, IMO, they are equally guilty of destroying our club and they are only in it for themselves.  I think enormous damage has been done and sadly, it might not be rectified in my life time.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, Mercer said:

 

 

 

I think Tyrone is right.

What we have now Gav is totally different to anything that I've encountered I would say in getting on for 60 years in supporting Rovers.  I'd estimate that only 1 in 5 of my Rovers' connections (family, friends, colleagues, clients) are taking a season ticket this time.  Never known apathy like this.  I think it extends beyond Venky's - people I speak with have come to despise Waggott and Mowbray because, IMO, they are equally guilty of destroying our club and they are only in it for themselves.  I think enormous damage has been done and sadly, it might not be rectified in my life time.

I’ve seen it before at other clubs I’ve been involved with, both football and rugby league. Once they’ve taken their ball home that’s where it stays. There’s plenty more things to do on a Saturday afternoon these days. It’ll take something extra ordinary to get people who stopped going 5 or 6 years ago to come back again. Most of the walk aways have probably lost interest in football completely.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

14 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

50% of the fans that have bailed out will never come back no matter what. People find better, less stressful, things to do.

And some of those fans will come on here having a go at the owners for not putting in more money 🙄

While the fan base declines as "rovers till I die" fans disappear - nobody seems to consider the worse case scenario. The owners may decide enough is enough and withdraw its annual support forcing a mass scaling back of the club, they dont necessarily have to sell, they could just let the club and its dwindling fan base slowly die.

[Ewood Ace]

2 minutes ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

they dont necessarily have to sell, they could just let the club and its dwindling fan base slowly die.

Some might say that is what they have been doing for the last decade.

[gumboots]

I'm one of them. I no longer enjoy watching football much I watch odd games on TV and I like watching Clitheroe because its full on effort from both teams involved. But nowadays give me rugby over football any day. My daughter wants to take her little lad to a Rovers game and normally I'd go with her but I don't think, this season, we'll bother. I haven't fallen out of love with Rovers as a concept, but Rovers as they are now..... no thanks

Edited July 20, 2021 by gumboots