Tony Mowbray

[Mattyblue]

@SuperBrfc

The owners are completely to blame, as manager wise, they can nip in the bud all you outline and remove them, long before it becomes as stale and shambolic as it has here.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Mattyblue

[Leonard Venkhater]

4 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

My apologies, problem with Aliases you get people mixed up.

OUT loud n clear 🙂

I was going to say..I have had several on-line conversations with DR and he has never come over as pro Mowbray.

[booth]

35 minutes ago, darrenrover said:

The final 'coup de grace' should have been promptly administered after the Stoke debacle, when someone in the JW Lower shouted the question of Mowbray, that he clearly heard: "What will you be doing at the end of the season Tony?"

His reply was "Fucking Off".

Some would say he had already fucked off at Christmas.

[RevidgeBlue]

15 minutes ago, booth said:

Some would say he had already fucked off at Christmas.

2018.

[matt83]

I think the Lord Acton quote "All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” could apply to Mowbray. He’s been the king of his own fiefdom for 5 long tedious years now. During which at times some of his loyal subjects have almost deified him for nothing more than mediocrity.

During his unchallenged reign he’s had hopeless owners, spineless local media, his mate that he hired as his boss, an ape apathetic fanbase ground down by 12 years of misery. His ego and self importance has grown and grown to the point ewood is barely big enough to fit his big head in. Now some of the lowly peasants have revolted in the most minuscule way and he just can’t handle it. Toys firmly out of the pram.

His long time coming departure can’t come a day too soon. 

Edited April 21, 2022 by matt83

[lraC]

29 minutes ago, matt83 said:

The thing is this outburst isn’t out of character it’s just the people who have been blind to his obnoxious sulking personality can now see it. If anything has come out of his recent interviews and behaviour it is at least everyone can now see what a few have been saying for years in the face of all this decent honourable bloke tripe. 

In some ways you have to wonder if he actually wanted the sack. As we all know, being a football manager is different than working in the real world. Imagine working as long as Berg did and getting paid what he did. Mowbray may well have wanted a substantial pay off, having had enough a while back.

[RevidgeBlue]

43 minutes ago, SuperBrfc said:

The owners are hugely to blame for our problems. However, Mowbray isn't some kind of innocent victim in all of this who has been held back due to the size of the budgets made available to him. He has brought a lot of this upon himself and there is a particular tendency of his that needs highlighting here. This tendency to turn down golden opportunities that come before him.

He set the tone for this in 2018, it's not just based on this January alone. He can talk the talk when it suits, but when presented with a chance to back his talk he wilts and hides and is shown up to be a bluffer.

2018 - Mowbray has a chance to win the L1 title but turns it down.

2018 - Mowbray tells us himself, that the owners want to fund an immediate promotion to the Premier League on the back of coming up from L1. Mowbray turns down the opportunity and says he had to "calm them down". Why? Who in their right mind says no when the owners are willing to get their cheque book out? Especially these owners, you never know when that chance might arise again. Take the damn opportunity!

The owners are sold a "slow build" and a journey that can be done cheaper instead. Despite this, significant money is spent on Armstrong, Brereton and Gallagher due to their potential resale value. This suggests that money was available if they were to ask for it. Notice how hardly anything has been spent on permanent signings since those three deals. Balaji strikes me as the type to say "ok, you didn't want it when I offered, have it your way now, work with the budget that has been set".

2019 - Mowbray tells the fans at one of the Consultation Meetings that he knows our defenders aren't good enough and that "defenders are coming".

2019 - It's summer time and we have the chance to sign Patrick Bauer on a free. Mowbray messes the deal up by telling Bauer he will have to wait his turn behind Nesta and Cannavaro in our backline. Defenders that he previously suggested weren't good enough (not Nesta and Cannavaro, obviously).

When Bauer doesn't sign for us, we are lied to and told he wanted £40k a week in wages. He signs for Preston days later. £1m is spent on a loan fee for Tosin. A patch up job which would leave us back at square one the following summer. The point is, they gave him £1m for a loanee. Presumably, he sold the merits of signing Tosin to Balaji or Suhail and convinced them. He asked and they paid the fee.

2020/21- At the end of one of the transfer windows Mowbray tells us "we had money left over in the budget, but we chose not to spend it". He CHOSE not to.

2021 - Days before the new season starts Mowbray is asked whether the top 6 is a realistic aim for this season.

His response: "Ha. Listen, we've got a very young side and my role is to educate them on football and to help them to develop and become better footballers and to help them to become better human beings".

2022 - January. 2nd in the league. No strikers signed. No signings made with promotion in mind. Mowbray tells us he was offered Premier League strikers but turned them down. His own words. HE turned them down.

Notice a pattern here? Mowbray turning down chance after chance because he is not a winner, he's a bottler. He has never been interested in taking Rovers back to the Premier League. That has never been the aim. He was spooked by the owners suddenly wanting a double promotion in 2018 and talked them out of it. He was spooked by our position in January 2022 and has said and done nothing since to suggest otherwise. He does not want the expectation, hence his agent labelling us as being entitled and it being "frightening". You've seen nothing yet, Honeyman.

Since our collapse post January we have heard him defiantly say the following:

"I don't regret not buying a striker"

"It hasn't crossed my mind one iota" (promotion that is, despite our position in Jan)

"They are an extraordinarily young side and they've never been the top end of the league before. Maybe the pressure has got to them".

Are you telling me that £10m to spend would make any difference when placed in the hands of such an individual? Not a chance, for me. He doesn't want it. Waggott doesn't want it. They were on the scrapheap before turning up here. Mid table suits them down to the ground. No pressure, no expectation, no spotlight, no scrutiny, just develop and sell on young players. That's the height of their ambition.

These owners are the perfect shield for them as the football world knows they are clueless. Watch him dine out on the "they didn't let me sell Rothwell" line, as if he would have stormed the play offs had he received that money. It's all fluff, a pretence. Him and Waggott are more than happy with the budget situation as it keeps expectation low.

Mowbray is on record as saying he wants to keep working in football so that he can put his kids through Uni (nothing wrong with that). That's exactly what he has been doing here for five years here. He was on his way to Chesterfield before Rovers came in, yet I'm expected to believe that he still wants to manage in the Premier League and that he can take Rovers there. He's been stringing us along.

If the owners had any sense they wouldn't waste another penny on him. Get Farke in and give him a bit to spend. For that to happen though, they would need to cut the snakes out of the equation and that's something that I can't see happening.

Good post particularly the bit about putting his kids through Uni etc which he let slip in an interview a few years ago and it's pretty obvious that eking his time out until the bitter end for financial reasons has been his only real target since.

For what it's worth I've heard rumours he's retiring at the end of the season so I suspect he's met his financial targets and is comfortable with his position in that respect.

Imo It's been a dire "journey" for us in the meantime though  whilst he's feathered his nest and given numerous of his pals a helping hand up and in my opinion he leaves the Club in a dreadful state.

[darrenrover]

6 minutes ago, matt83 said:

I think the Lord Acton quote "All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” could apply to Mowbray. He’s been the king of his own fiefdom for 5 long tedious years now. During which at times some of his loyal subjects have almost deified him for nothing more than mediocrity.

During his unchallenged reign he’s had hopeless owners, spineless local media, his mate that he hired as his boss, an ape apathetic fanbase ground down by 12 years of misery. His ego and self importance has grown and grown to the point ewood is barely big enough to fit his big head in. Now some of the lowly peasants have revolted in the most minuscule way and he just can’t handle it. Toys firmly out of the pram.

His long time coming departure can’t come a day too soon. 

Hear, here Matt, well said.

[RevidgeBlue]

5 minutes ago, lraC said:

In some ways you have to wonder if he actually wanted the sack. As we all know, being a football manager is different than working in the real world. Imagine working as long as Berg did and getting paid what he did. Mowbray may well have wanted a substantial pay off, having had enough a while back.

Seemed that way 12-15 months ago but no matter what he tried the owners wouldn't pot him.

[darrenrover]

2 minutes ago, SuperBrfc said:

It's the lack of respect for the club and the fans, the lack of honesty and the arrogance that has ended any positive thoughts I might have had about him previously.

Imagine if in January he had said something like:

"We find ourselves in a great position but we need to keep it going. There's more to come from these lads. We will be doing everything we can to get this club back into the Premier League. It's not going to be easy but we're going to give it our best shot. The fans have had it tough for a number of years and they've stuck by the club and it would be special if we could do this for the fans, the players and everybody connected to the football club".

Something like that would have brought a sense of optimism and shown an honest attempt to succeed. Everybody could get behind that as it would show an honest intent. If the manager and the players gave it everything but we fell away I could live with that. I can accept honest endeavour which falls short due to a lack of quality or due to not having the finances that others do.

But this arrogant, defiant garbage that Mowbray has shown? Never. I can't accept that. Not once has he personally talked about promotion, about wanting to go up, about wanting the play offs. That says it all. He's tried to pass it off on to the players with all this "they" stuff, while shrugging his shoulders himself. "The lads have an opportunity", "they could make it special". He's pissed about with the side, as good as thrown our chance away, yet his response is to be arrogant and swear at the fans (as has been said on here after the Stoke game). Have some shame.

This isn't just about promotion. As I highlighted in my previous post, he has been disrespecting the club for a number of years and taking us for mugs.

You should have spoken to Travis, Wharton and Brereton on Monday evening.......they were all seething but definitely and wholeheartedly committed, hence their anger and frustration!

[SuperBrfc]

31 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

@SuperBrfc

The owners are completely to blame, as manager wise, they can nip in the bud all you outline and remove them, long before it becomes as stale and shambolic as it has here.

Yes, I agree. They could and should have ended this long ago.

My argument is against the idea that he would have performed better with a bigger budget. There are examples where he has chosen not to spend in the past, and his shoulder shrugging ways along with his press conferences suggest he's not arsed where we finish.

[lraC]

2 minutes ago, darrenrover said:

You should have spoken to Travis, Wharton and Brereton on Monday evening.......they were all seething but definitely and wholeheartedly committed, hence their anger and frustration!

The harmony in the camp has obviously gone. I know you weren’t prepared to push too much when speaking to a family member of one of the players recently, but clearly this is from the horses mouths.

[roversfan99]

Whilst I certainly don't subscribe to the idea/conspiracy that Mowbray is purposely avoiding promotion to ensure that he can stay in the job and top up his personal finances. For one, any promotion would incur a new contract and a considerable rise regardless of whether he stayed for the full term of that contract.

As has been said, it all comes down to one focus of blame, our absent owners. We will never thrive with them. The fact that it could be said that anytime money becomes available, you have to take advantage because you don't know when that will happen again sums up how over 10 years on, we are still absent of any coherent plan from the owners. They don't give a shit.

When Mowbray has mentioned calming the owners down, it has always seemed like a kiss arsing, self preservation exercise. Bowyer used to also say how great they were too and he stayed for ages.

[roverandout]

15 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Whilst I certainly don't subscribe to the idea/conspiracy that Mowbray is purposely avoiding promotion to ensure that he can stay in the job and top up his personal finances. For one, any promotion would incur a new contract and a considerable rise regardless of whether he stayed for the full term of that contract.

As has been said, it all comes down to one focus of blame, our absent owners. We will never thrive with them. The fact that it could be said that anytime money becomes available, you have to take advantage because you don't know when that will happen again sums up how over 10 years on, we are still absent of any coherent plan from the owners. They don't give a shit.

When Mowbray has mentioned calming the owners down, it has always seemed like a kiss arsing, self preservation exercise. Bowyer used to also say how great they were too and he stayed for ages.

Bowyer used to piss me off with his clap clap everytime a pass went astray. Pally with the players.  Sulking up to the owners.  Mowbray Is doing the same 

[tomphil]

3 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Bowyer used to piss me off with his clap clap everytime a pass went astray. Pally with the players.  Sulking up to the owners.  Mowbray Is doing the same 

Yep when they lose their way there is always the same pattern, bad luck, bad refs, losing to budgets instead of a team, motionless and motivationless on the touchline then clapping an 89th min ball into touch.

The final coupe de grace - fans fault, expect too much etc etc

It's the long goodbye.

[lraC]

18 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Bowyer used to piss me off with his clap clap everytime a pass went astray. Pally with the players.  Sulking up to the owners.  Mowbray Is doing the same 

I’m not too sure Mowbray is pally with the players. From what Darrenrover has said about Wharton, Travis and Brereton they certainly don’t seem to be.

I got the impression as did others, that some players turned on him at half time in the Derby match. Johnson certainly eluded to that on Twitter and there were strong rumors of that in Jacks kitchen, after the Blackpool game.

[booth]

1 hour ago, SuperBrfc said:

If the owners had any sense they wouldn't waste another penny on him. Get Farke in and give him a bit to spend. For that to happen though, they would need to cut the snakes out of the equation and that's something that I can't see happening.

Before the season began there was a theory being knocked around that Venkys had decided they weren't going to spend another penny on him but they didn't want to pay him compensation, so they were just seeing out his contract. It seemed like they just cut him off from spending. Maybe it was just a coincidence that he only had another season left on his contract when that happened.

It's certainly no way to manage or run a club.

[ben_the_beast]

9 hours ago, Mellor Rover said:

Also, the backed financially comments. Forget the Arma/BBD/Gallagher fees, as these were one offs agreed with the thought they'd at least make their money back on them.

The last 6 window's we've spent what? Must be less than 2 million?

It's because we're in a cycle. I'm fairly certain if a fair wind blows and a manager who sucks up to the owners comes along the money will be there again. Mowbray spaffed his lot up the wall in 2 seasons with the above mentioned transfers and some crazy contracts. We've had to downgrade to not fall foul of ffp. 

I'm certain that after the money saving season we've had if Mowbray was looking like the messiah he's painted himself as then he'd have decent money again in the summer. We can point to recent transfer windows as an argument we're not being backed, but that's like looking at form in isolated stints rather than ongoing trends. It can be skewed to suit an agenda. Not that, that is what you're doing, but Mowbray has been backed. He just blew his load all in one go. 

[ben_the_beast]

Mowbray is a man with a very fragile ego. He can't take criticism. He takes no accountability. Our owners are like parents who pander to this as they also don't hold him accountable. I think Mowbray genuinely does think he's an hounable guy, but a fragile ego can make you blind. And when it comes to the actual business of football. He's not very good. There are worse than him, but he's definitely below average. All exasperated by owners who never hold anybody to account and allow things to rot. If he flies to India he'll have a new contract. My hope is they ghost each other. He's arrogant enough to think he deserves better. They're spineless enough to avoid upsetting him.

[tomphil]

They are daft enough to keep someone on whilst they put their kids through Uni i'm sure of it.  That kind of thing along with the integrity, teetotal, nice guy stuff probably resonates more with them than football results.

[Miller11]

5 minutes ago, ben_the_beast said:

Mowbray is a man with a very fragile ego. He can't take criticism. He takes no accountability. Our owners are like parents who pander to this as they also don't hold him accountable. I think Mowbray genuinely does think he's an hounable guy, but a fragile ego can make you blind. And when it comes to the actual business of football. He's not very good. There are worse than him, but he's definitely below average. All exasperated by owners who never hold anybody to account and allow things to rot. If he flies to India he'll have a new contract. My hope is they ghost each other. He's arrogant enough to think he deserves better. They're spineless enough to avoid upsetting him.

Sticking with the parent analogy…

Venky’s have had their “baby” for nearly 12 years now. They send it off to a really shit boarding school with incompetent and negligent teachers. They don’t even see it in the holidays.

The are widely praised by outsiders for paying the school fees, but the kids shoes are full of holes and it’s not properly fed or looked after.

[Craigman]

I wonder if Balaji’s son might be ready to take Waggots job? Then bring in a new team?

[roverandout]

1 hour ago, lraC said:

I’m not too sure Mowbray is pally with the players. From what Darrenrover has said about Wharton, Travis and Brereton they certainly don’t seem to be.

I got the impression as did others, that some players turned on him at half time in the Derby match. Johnson certainly eluded to that on Twitter and there were strong rumors of that in Jacks kitchen, after the Blackpool game.

What I mean is offering them new contracts when they serve little purpose

[Paul Mellelieu]

3 hours ago, darrenrover said:

You should have spoken to Travis, Wharton and Brereton on Monday evening.......they were all seething but definitely and wholeheartedly committed, hence their anger and frustration!

What did they say?

[tomphil]

44 minutes ago, Craigman said:

I wonder if Balaji’s son might be ready to take Waggots job? Then bring in a new team?

I wonder what he knows about running a football club !