Tony Mowbray

[JHRover]

His results from January to May 2022 warranted the sack. At any proactive club he would have been in the hope it would salvage our season, but in good old Venky fashion he was allowed to stink the place out and derail our best promotion shot in a decade after obviously losing the dressing room.

Wonder what the chances are of Mark Venus turning up as hybrid assistant manager / director of football so he can be both Mowbray's assistant, boss and contract negotiator all in one?

Also on a completely unrelated subject I wonder if the Academy of Light can be developed for housing and all condensed onto one much smaller site?

[LDRover]

Our team never had an identity in all the time he was here. That's as much as I need to say really.

[JacknOry]

Not the worst appoitnment considering who is available right now - probably safe from relegation this season with him at the helm. Would definitely bin him off and go for someone else longterm once he does establish you back in this division though. For all the reasons others have pointed out. 

[Upside Down]

11 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

Not the worst appoitnment considering who is available right now - probably safe from relegation this season with him at the helm. Would definitely bin him off and go for someone else longterm once he does establish you back in this division though. For all the reasons others have pointed out. 

That's what should have been done here. Give him a season to get you anchored in this division then bin him off for someone decent.

[JacknOry]

6 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

That's what should have been done here. Give him a season to get you anchored in this division then bin him off for someone decent.

Exactly, would be remembered more fondly too. He did a lot of good for us which is often forgotten. Got us straight back up at first attempt and then re-established us. Should have gone around that time though when it was clear he is not the kind of manager that kicks on from mid table. 

[Gav]

@mackemlad

You will find that on here Mowbray was vilified and in some quarters hated by posters, but back in the real world, Ewood Park and stadia around the country, you'd never hear a Mowbray out chant, fans recognised the job he'd done, working for the worst owners in football, but many also acknowledged he'd out stayed his welcome and wanted him gone. That isn't the managers fault, thats the owners fault for not sacking him, but they don't like paying up contracts, so they kept him on, bonkers right......?

Mowbray got us promoted out of league 1 at the first attempt, something you lads can probably relate to, even with big gates and a decent budget its not easy, but we made it at the first attempt. We then spent a number of seasons treading water in Championship, which we'll continue to do with our budget, you need pots of cash to get out of this league and we'd don't have any compared to Premiership yo yo clubs.

Along the way we saw players like Harvey Elliot on loan, a regular starter for Liverpool now, we say Tosin Adarabioyo a regular in Fulham side and a quality defender, we saw Van Hecke last season who will go on to bigger and better things, Harrison Read now playing in Premiership for Fulham, all on loan and out of our budget sadly.

On the transfer side of things, give Mowbray a few quid and he's usually excellent in transfer market. Bradley Dack was his first real purchase, probably the best player at the club, but suffered 2 acl injuries, £15m player all day if he hadn't been injured, bought him for £750k. Adam Armstrong bought for under £2m, sold for almost £20m with addons. Ben Brereton bought for £7m with addons and will probably be sold for £20m, Rothwell was bought for peanuts, mismanaged his contract and walked out for free, a £10m midfielder all day long in the current climate.

Alex Neill certainly has something about him, but loyalty clearly isn't his strong point, but you'll do ok with Mowbray, he'll steady the ship and have you safe this season. If the owner can find a few quid he'll bring in some quality too I'm sure, as our transfers for a fee clearly show.

But like most clubs in this league, you'll never make the next step up unless you spend big, money talks in this league and most clubs simply don't have enough to sustain a challenge for 40+ games of a gruelling championship season, but I wish you luck.

Anyway back to Blackburn Rovers where our new manager has just announced he wants 4 transfer windows, including the current one, to make a difference, back to treading water it is.....

Edited August 31, 2022 by Gav

[47er]

Tbf, the views on here on Mowbray are not representative of Rovers fans overall.

For some reason most are generally more appreciative of what Mowbray did here.

So, if that cheers you up---great!

[JacknOry]

Summed up

First 2.5 years, did a good job.

Second 2.5 years he should not have been here. 

[arbitro]

I see he has already started with his 'working class' patronising nonsense. 

One of my biggest irritations with him was how he over complicated and over thought things. Lots of his decisions weren't what the majority of us expected and quite often one substitution would end up with several on field positional changes. His interviews invariably grated as he often talked up opponents pre and post match and his talk of a journey. And if he brings Venus then check the training ground deeds 😂.

Despite all the criticism of him he has somehow got a two year deal.

[SAFCfaninpeace]

12 minutes ago, 47er said:

Tbf, the views on here on Mowbray are not representative of Rovers fans overall.

For some reason most are generally more appreciative of what Mowbray did here.

So, if that cheers you up---great!

It’ll have to do as it’s now official 🙈

https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/2022/august/tony-mowbray-appointed-head-coach

Our club announcing it after 10pm smacks of embarrassment about the appointment and awaiting the backlash. I didn’t want Alex Neil initially so have to give TM a chance to prove me wrong. Maybe he can now push Van Hecke over the line as we were being linked with him

[AllRoverAsia]

He must have one hell of an agent and PR team.

The stupidity of club owners never ceases to amaze.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Shit sticks and in Rovers case it was for 5 years.

Edited August 31, 2022 by AllRoverAsia

[Mattyblue]

He was always going to get another Championship gig. Whatever brfcs thought, the wider game (and the wider Rovers fanbase) thought he did a decent job. So of course he’d be in the frame for a club in Sunderland’s position.

All that daft talk on here about ‘he’ll never work at this level again’, ‘Hartlepool is the only local job he’d get’ was just that.

[joey_big_nose]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

He was always going to get another Championship gig. Whatever brfcs thought, the wider game (and the wider Rovers fanbase) thought he did a decent job. So of course he’d be in the frame for a club in Sunderland’s position.

All that daft talk on here about ‘he’ll never work at this level again’, ‘Hartlepool is the only local job he’d get’ was just that.

Yeah, fully agree. He could have moved on earlier from Rovers, but basically he has done a solid mid table to edge of playoffs job consistently for four seasons. While that's frustrating that is better than 60-70% of managers in the Championship achieve. So when a job opens up he looks a decent shout. On top of that he seems to be able to live with daft owners and working on a limited budget, both very regular occurrences in Championship football.

As much as I like JDT he hasn't yet shown really he is much different to Mowbray in the results he gets. He needs a season or two of course, but there is an good chance that when that time passes we are still in much the same position as Mowbray left us - mid table, flirting with the playoffs. Or he could get us up straight away, or get us relegated. Who knows. 

With football managers the old adage of "familiarity breeds contempt" particularly applies unless they are extraordinarily successful. And Mowbray was steady, not successful. If we are in much the same position with JDT I am sure there will be lots of unpleasent accusations and insinuations about Tomasson's character and habits. After the recent run of defeats you can already see that coming out to be honest on this forum (not that BRFCS is any different to any football forum for any club).

For Sunderland fans - in terms of solidifying your position in he Championship he's a good appointment. But you would have to be incredibly optimistic to think he can get you promoted.

Edited August 31, 2022 by joey_big_nose

[Blue blood]

@mackemlad@SAFCfaninpeace

All this talk of a man of integrity is also a load of bull. He is not honest. 

His biggest/best (worst?) lie was saying Rovers fans still expected 95 and Shearer and Sutton. I mean aside from being absolute bollocks, no failing manager, not even when we were in the premiership ever alluded to such a blatant lie as an excuse. 

Then there was the lie that the team had to get used to the championship despite the vast majority of the team having some significant experience of the league and us being in league 1 for one whole season. 

Or explaining a bad start to the season on adjusting to not having Danny Graham that year despite rendering Graham a bit part player the year before. 

Blaming fans for a players injury. 

All the other stuff about death spirals and idiotic playing players out of.position is true as well. 

Yeah, you've got a dud. 

[roverandout]

3 hours ago, Gav said:

@mackemlad

You will find that on here Mowbray was vilified and in some quarters hated by posters, but back in the real world, Ewood Park and stadia around the country, you'd never hear a Mowbray out chant, fans recognised the job he'd done, working for the worst owners in football, but many also acknowledged he'd out stayed his welcome and wanted him gone. That isn't the managers fault, thats the owners fault for not sacking him, but they don't like paying up contracts, so they kept him on, bonkers right......?

Mowbray got us promoted out of league 1 at the first attempt, something you lads can probably relate to, even with big gates and a decent budget its not easy, but we made it at the first attempt. We then spent a number of seasons treading water in Championship, which we'll continue to do with our budget, you need pots of cash to get out of this league and we'd don't have any compared to Premiership yo yo clubs.

Along the way we saw players like Harvey Elliot on loan, a regular starter for Liverpool now, we say Tosin Adarabioyo a regular in Fulham side and a quality defender, we saw Van Hecke last season who will go on to bigger and better things, Harrison Read now playing in Premiership for Fulham, all on loan and out of our budget sadly.

On the transfer side of things, give Mowbray a few quid and he's usually excellent in transfer market. Bradley Dack was his first real purchase, probably the best player at the club, but suffered 2 acl injuries, £15m player all day if he hadn't been injured, bought him for £750k. Adam Armstrong bought for under £2m, sold for almost £20m with addons. Ben Brereton bought for £7m with addons and will probably be sold for £20m, Rothwell was bought for peanuts, mismanaged his contract and walked out for free, a £10m midfielder all day long in the current climate.

Alex Neill certainly has something about him, but loyalty clearly isn't his strong point, but you'll do ok with Mowbray, he'll steady the ship and have you safe this season. If the owner can find a few quid he'll bring in some quality too I'm sure, as our transfers for a fee clearly show.

But like most clubs in this league, you'll never make the next step up unless you spend big, money talks in this league and most clubs simply don't have enough to sustain a challenge for 40+ games of a gruelling championship season, but I wish you luck.

Anyway back to Blackburn Rovers where our new manager has just announced he wants 4 transfer windows, including the current one, to make a difference, back to treading water it is.....

Explain how clubs like Huddersfield Barnsley Luton etc had at least one playoff season? I highly doubt they had mega bucks. Mowbray couldn't even see us over the line when he was actually getting things right 

[Norbert Rassragr]

To the Sunderland fans here, you can expect to not be relegated but you'll most likely see the following:

1. Talking down players and certain players being frozen out.

2. No team 'identity' in terms of playing style, despite a load of convoluted waffle.

3. Players being played in odd positions e.g. Strikers as wingers, your shortest player as a target man.

4. An awful 2nd half of a season where your team wins 2 games in about 18.

5. A lot of games where the team are hanging onto a result in the second half.

[Gav]

1 hour ago, roverandout said:

Explain how clubs like Huddersfield Barnsley Luton etc had at least one playoff season? I highly doubt they had mega bucks. Mowbray couldn't even see us over the line when he was actually getting things right 

You get nothing for making the playoffs.

[SBlue]

4 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

He must have one hell of an agent and PR team.

The stupidity of club owners never ceases .

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Shit sticks and in Rovers case it was for 5 years.

If any Sunderland fans are reading this - not everyone is so full of bile about the man that took a sinking ship and brought some pride and stability back to the club, bringing good young players through and making some great signings along the way. The views on this forum are a bit of an outlier and I think some people really wound themselves up in circles and started to bizarrely really hate the man.

He doesn't deserve that.

Tactically it didn't always work, but I reckon he'll be a good appointment for their circumstances and it would be just typical of the old bugger to take them up at the first attempt 🤣

Edited August 31, 2022 by S8 & Blue

[JacknOry]

4 hours ago, SAFCfaninpeace said:

It’ll have to do as it’s now official 🙈

https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/2022/august/tony-mowbray-appointed-head-coach

Our club announcing it after 10pm smacks of embarrassment about the appointment and awaiting the backlash. I didn’t want Alex Neil initially so have to give TM a chance to prove me wrong. Maybe he can now push Van Hecke over the line as we were being linked with him

Heck (yeah i did that) of a player if you get him. Ideally he comes back here but not sure whats going on. Think we want him permanent or something. 

[roversfan99]

14 hours ago, Mr. E said:

Hats off to Tony he must have the greatest PR manager in history. I would have thought he would have followed in the one who shall not be named's footsteps as second assistant ball boy manager in Bahrain, or wherever he ended up. 

15th, 11th, 15th and 8th definitely puts him on par with Kean.

[K-Hod]

Ultimately, he just wasn’t good enough.

The collapse in the second half of last season was absolutely unforgivable, but in reality, I think he should have gone long before that. Don’t think he will go down for me as a club legend, but I think on the whole, he did more good than bad.

[Mashed Potatoes]

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

15th, 11th, 15th and 8th definitely puts him on par with Kean.

Nonsense. He left the club in a better place than he found it. Kean did the opposite.

[tomphil]

Mowbray probably doesn't go into interviews making demands of a million quid a year 4 year contract, 20 million war chest and bringing in a dozen back room staff.

He'll initially work with what he has and work for modest money and shorter term deals that's why he'll always appeal to championship owners.  Alongside his experience and modest track record of course, then there are his connections and eye for good young loanees.

The phrase you can do better but you could do a lot worse was coined for Tony Mowbray.

[Rogerb]

1 hour ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

Nonsense. He left the club in a better place than he found it. Kean did the opposite.

Clearly a tongue in cheek response from roversfan to an earlier post

[Mashed Potatoes]

16 minutes ago, Rogerb said:

Clearly a tongue in cheek response from roversfan to an earlier post

Thanks. If so, obviously apologies to the poster I was responding to. Problem is that over the years there have actually been people who have made posts along those lines " worst manager ever" etc so you never quite know.