Courteeners - Lose Control

Frank Fielding released by Bristol City....

Thought Davenport looked very tidy. He’s probably the only midfielder at the club with actual technical ability. Echo the previous comments - he looks the type of midfielder who will drop back a few yards to show for the ball and retain it with short neat passing, equally as comfortable pinging a 50 yard ball to the winger/striker. These types can be invaluable. Look at Norwood for Sheff U this season. The team got forward as they knew he’d always pick somebody out & he’s always available as an option to give it to to retain the ball and reset the play when they’re under pressure. He’s one of their key cogs, without him I don’t think their system would’ve worked anywhere near as well as it did. Davenport wasn’t just a pretty ball player though, thought he had a bit of midfield terrier in him, pressed well and wasn’t scared of getting stuck in. Hard to tell after seeing him just once, he could end up having the same impact as Whittingham. Hopefully that’s not the case. Can we pretend he’s a new signing to make the next month or so less painful?

Mowbray said the Hart rumour is a false one. Would like to pick up an experienced keeper capable of making his presence felt on balls in to the box. Somebody of the Scott Carson/John Ruddy mould.

Can’t argue with that, prices aren’t bad at all. After focusing on younger kids the last few years, it’s good to see we’ve now also targeted the 18-25 market, good to see some long-term thinking strategy developing around the club. Think this puts us half-way to shifting some more tickets next season. As has been said, the real difference maker will be summer transfer business. Get a couple of exciting things done early on and we’ll be ahead of target with a real buzz around the club. Echo the call for a singing section - that’s a trick missed in terms of a much needed improvement to the atmosphere which is a big draw to attending Ewood in itself, maybe we’ll see something introduced next year.

Yeah me too. Defenders defend and attackers attack first and foremost, anything on top of that (when they're actually good at the initial role) is a bonus worth having though. Suppose it would add the aspect of being more dangerous in the box from set pieces, something we're okay-ish but not great at. No idea on the stats but Millwall themselves seem to score a good percentage of goals from corners, and on the flip side Sheff U seem to score a lot from corners. They've stayed in the league and got promotion from the league by 4 or 5 points respectively, so could be worth signing a player who might give you that bit extra compared to a similar player who plays the same position.

Interesting to hear Mowbray acknowledged Cooper as a possibility. Not only does he fit the bill for being the tall commanding centre back we need, he's been involved in 12 goals (6 goals, 6 assists) in this seasons Championship. None of them free kicks or penalties, just seems to be a monster in the box. We concede more goals with Mulgrew in the side, however the one down side to leaving him out of the side is goals scored. Cooper would go a long way towards resolving both of those aspects in one signing, on paper it seems like he'd certainly be worth the money, if doable.

Fair play. I do find Waggott frustrating as I don't think he quite grasps Blackburn Rovers, we're a different animal to those he's been involved with previously. But that's something that he will learn and understand from experience with us. There's no doubt he's a committed bloke that wants to do a good job for the club. Ultimately our financial and positional plight was caused by Venky's. However (without digging up old debate) we all know they were very naive in the beginning, and caused a spiral of significantly large problems due to trusting the wrong people and so on. Due to that, and it did take them a while, they do seem to have learned from mistakes in many areas. I think they've shown they're now committed to Rovers without the unwise stupidity. They've put a lot of their money in to the club, and recently have gone beyond financing us just for the maintenance - sure nobody would disagree that for a side straight out of league one, we had a very good budget and didn't have to sell any players. On top of that, they've made some sensible moves and appointments and although we are a long way off other clubs, we are getting closer to being a functional football club, and less of a circus. I'm not saying I suddenly trust and the owners, nor am I forgetting what they caused. They hold the ultimate responsibility for the decline of my football club, but things look much better at the moment due to the way they are going about their business. As you say, there's genuine commitment at the club. The staff/players at all levels seem to be pulling in the same direction without any ill-motives, so anybody still in doubt about whether to get a Season Ticket due to the current people within the club should at least give it a second thought, in my opinion.

I did think that was probably the likely option. In which case they've told a hopeful lie, they've failed to run off and cobble something together to back it up, so again they've just ignored the situation hoping it'll go away. Either way, a bizarre approach from somebody coming in to the club 1) stating a focus on improving the communication channels and community interaction at the club and 2) expecting to shift more tickets than previous.

Neil Young - Hey Hey My My (Oasis cover on their live Familiar to Millions album is well worth a listen)

Can't say I've had an in depth view, but I've seen Eredivisie highlights a fair few times this season & he's stood out. Tricky winger who can turn a full back inside out and create something, but he's also fairly physical and seems to score headers/poachers goals, with Mowbray's favour of wide strikers I'm also hoping we've got an eye on him.

Waggot said Season Ticket info would be launched 'mid to late April' so he's got about 6 business hours from now. Will we add to his pile of recent 'failed to deliver so we'll just stay silent and hope it goes away' things at multiple levels, from increased concourse shelving through to the mystery restructure of the senior management team? It's acceptable to make mistakes but when you make a statement, fail to deliver on it and don't communicate anything it's amateur. A throbbing symptom of Venky's regime has been broken promises followed by no communication. Even on the more minor elements the club should be righting wrongs, but looks like they are struggling to learn from many previous lessons. Stick to your word and be open and honest on matters that directly concern the fans, it'll go a long way.

Sum 41 - The Hell Song

£5m might get you his luscious locks. Nothing more. In all seriousness Dack’s got 17 goals 9 assists (I think) this season, most of those in the league. With his age and contract time remaining, you surely can’t honestly say he’s worth £5m or less to Rovers in this market?

Picking up 2 or 3 performers from the Dutch league could be a shrewd move. It’s a league that’s started to improve again over the last couple of seasons, containing some real young talent. Most importantly for us, a lot of the better players outside of Ajax/PSV are on wages that are tiny compared to the average championship wage. Besides, I’d much rather take a calculated gamble on player from over there with a decent season/stats behind him, rather than paying the same/more of a wage on your Whittingham’s, Gladwin’s, Deulfouneso’s, Spearing’s and so on..

Really hope we don’t go for Frank Fielding again. Another smallish, average at best championship keeper. Raya is probably better. We need to bring a keeper in but not Bristol City’s third choice. So many better options out there.

Glad we didn’t fade and didn’t sit back despite a really bad first 20 mins. Stayed in the game til the end against the inevitable champions, not a bad showing. Thought Rothwell and Williams had very good games. Nice to see star man getting a cameo causing them a few problems too.

Dives like a tree being felled

Sad how most of them didn’t want Bassini, stating they’d rather just get on with the inevitable this summer as Bassini would only serve to delay it - turns out that’s probably happening just with an added ‘hope that kills you’ element!

The FA and EFL have been unfit for donkeys years now. Rules are poor. Many rules that should exist don’t. And even then many of the rules that should be enforced aren’t enforced. If something is too much effort, the English bodies won’t bother. If something needs doing outside of the larger Prem clubs, the English bodies won’t bother. As problems continue to grow and as clubs continue to suffer on a larger scale, football needs a saviour at governance level. Sad thing is with UEFA as the corrupt larger body, the FA and EFL with their selfish grip on England’s game, and the dominant influences of your Sky’s and BT’s, there’s no realistic improvement on the horizon.

Miles Kane - Taking Over

Lovely kit. Worn by our old pal Mauro Formica, second from the left!

For me he's an out and out striker. Just because his attributes are quite different to the one we're used to (Graham) doesn't mean he's more of a winger/cam - plenty of strikers in this league with similar attributes who do well, even as a lone striker (Maupay and Roofe off the top of my head). It's more a case of we need to play the football that allows him to play to the best of his ability, in order to let him and the team prosper, just like Brentford and Leeds have done with the two players mentioned. That's not to say he doesn't need to work on basic striker 101 - positioning, finishing, strength, hold up play should all be being worked on in training to improve his game. I would've signed a different type of striker in the first place, but with the type of football Mowbray has said he wants to play, and the way we lined up with Brereton on Saturday, the signing does make sense with a long term view in mind.

Agree. My view - Nyambe could be a cracking right back. Great attributes and has got better season on season. His defensive positioning and composure, his original weaknesses in my view, have drastically improved. Back up would be nice - somebody capable of coming in to do a steady job as an actual right back. Bell might make a decent wing back but he'll never be good enough to defend as a left back in a 4 at the back formation. Really think we need to sign a first choice left back as a priority this summer.

As has been said you need your strikers to match the style of play of the team. Brereton is the type to run on to balls at pace rather than planting himself with his arse to goal. We can't expect him to drop in to the side and play the Graham role. I think he'd do well at a team like Brentford who keep the ball on the ground, working it forward with a bit of trickery allowing the striker to latch on to through balls, as well as allowing quick balls inside from the wing, where the striker can take a touch inside before shooting. Maupay has done that role at Brentford this year and has scored 24 - watching highlights most of his goals do seem to come from both latching on to through balls & cutting inside after running with it/taking a few touches. We've got the players to play that way in the attacking third - yesterdays line up of Rothwell Dack and Armstrong behind Brereton for example. Mowbray's alluded to us developing that way long term so he might well turn out to be the type we need. That said, he'd add a lot more to his game if he did go and bulk up. Whilst he probably isn't as good a finisher (not now anyway), the one advantage Brereton has over most other strikers of his type is height. If he can add strength to the pace and height that he already has he'll be much more of a handful.