JHRover

We sold Tom Cairney to bottom half Fulham for £3 million. He's now the best player in the league. When the sales start it's a case of take whatever gets offered as long as the deal is done quickly. Forget £15 million Premier League bids for Dack. This lot will sell him to Stoke or Bristol City for £5 million.

Went to Accy Stanley at lunchtime today. Made a late decision to go on as they were playing top of the league Ipswich and I fancied the game. Kick off at 12 noon. Made a decision at 11:15am to go, quick change, set off at 11:30, parked up across from the ground for free at 11:45, bought a ticket for cash by the turnstiles, sat where I wanted. Decent home crowd on of more than 2,000 which is over double what Stanley were getting a couple of years ago. The whole ground has been improved drastically over the last couple of years. New stand on one side, everything smartened up, investment into the pitch, loads of local companies sponsoring them. Good win, Good atmosphere, home 15 minutes after the full time whistle. If I'd have wanted I could have gone in the bar and enjoyed beer for £1 a pint and had a natter with their fans and staff in a friendly environment. No price hikes for making a late decision. No membership needed. No £30 tickets. No car parking charges or parking wardens out trying to catch people. No £8 beer and pie 'deals'. Bowland real ale,Herefordshire cider on rather than overpriced rubbish. Once again from a cost, convenience and overall relaxed enjoyable few hours out perpective Stanley are beating us hands down. Why? They've an owner who cares and wants them to grow and prosper. We've owners who couldn't care less, have neglected the club and their employees have other 'targets' to deliver on.

Of course it should. This is a poor quality and wide open division where clubs without major funding are able to succeed. Most of the division have the ability to at least sneak a play off position. The difference between survival (50 points) and play offs (70 points) can be bridged over a 46 match season. If you are managing in this league and aren't personally gunning for the play-offs each season (and by that promotion) then you're in the wrong business because it is there for the taking. If PNE and QPR can be up there fighting then anyone in this league can. Likewise if Burnley and Bournemouth can be established in the top division then anyone in the Championship can (with proper management). With Mowbray I think he is now going to backtrack and wriggle out of his own proclaimed ambitions. In the summer of 2018 all his talk was of needing 3-4 windows to build a squad capable. Well he's had summer 18, January 19, summer 19 since promotion so at most he's got January to complete his jigsaw. He's said numerous times last season and before this that the aim was play-offs but only last week after his India trip and his comments following that there were suggestions he was moving away from that, trying to downplay expectations this season and turn attention towards more long term issues which include shuffling staff around and bleating on about growing and building again. Personally from what I've seen during our time back in the Championship I've set my expectations quite low and said in August I would shake hands on 21st and survival. Why? Because I genuinely believe we are at serious risk of sliding into a relegation scrap with a disorganised team and manager who doesn't know what to do with it. Am I happy with that? Certainly not but it seems some others are.

The evidence is mounting that we can't defend well regardless of the personnel. In my view it is management and coaching deficiencies. Mowbray has made scapegoats of Raya and Mulgrew yet both are now playing regularly at rival clubs with better defences than us. I believe both were offloaded for financial reasons and were replaced with low cost loans rather than permanent signings to build around On that basis I'm struggling to take the club's claims of promotion aims seriously.

Just an extra one on Mulgrew that Meadows made me aware of on Twitter. Mulgrew has made 99 league appearances at Rovers. What odds on 100 meaning a bonus, wage rise or contract extension, hence the rapid exit before that milestone was reached?

At a club with serious ambitions and a determination to achieve those ambitions the first choice is on the structure. Traditional manager or 'head coach' with a director of football above him. Either way can work, but a decision needs to be made and then every effort to make that structure work needs to made. In our position with clueless owners on the other side of the world I firmly believe our best and probably only chance of putting in place a winning structure is with a director of football with a track record of expertise in that position elsewhere leading the operation, acting as the link between owners and team. That person would be given a target, run with a budget, request extra funds, hire and fire coaches, sanction transfers in conjunction with his chosen head coach. The old school manager running everything can still work - Dyche at Burnley - but it is becoming less common - and even he works with a Sporting Director to delegate work out. They also have owners and a board in the local area who know a bit about football. One thing is for sure you do not 'advertise' the position of manager. At any given time the powers that be should have a rough list of individuals in mind to approach in the event a replacement is needed. The minute a decision is made to make a change those people are contacted and things go from there. Sitting around waiting for applicants and then working out which to offer interviews for is amateurish stuff but seemingly not far off what we were doing after Lambert quit and Cheston was talking to the likes of Russell Slade and Warren Joyce. There is no room for sentiment in this game. We've had good out of Mowbray in bouncing us straight back and stabilising us last season. He's had a good salary, 2.5 years of employment and has rebuilt his reputation at a time when he was finished at this level before we gave him a chance. So the events of 2017-18 and even 2018-19 really shouldn't count for much other than concerning league form going back to November/December last year. I think it is quite clear now that the decision to release Mulgrew was a last minute attempt to free up funds on wages so we could bring in a couple on deadline day. The move clearly wasn't on the horizon even as we kicked off v Charlton and Mulgrew was captain. In the end we got Cunningham on loan who is now out for the season whilst Mulgrew has just kept a clean sheet for Wigan - i think time will show this to be another poor decision in a long line of poor decisions made here. Correct. Chapman has in the main been poor in the u23s. I'm not going to speculate on potential reasons why. In the end it doesn't matter. Fact is it is another signing made by this manager that hasn't yet worked out and hasn't seen any meaningful contribution to the team. Another waste.

Wigan no frills or nonsense about fancy systems or styles. Just very difficult to beat at home and win most of their games there. Apparently they were certainties for the drop or so some were saying before the season started. We're subsidising Mulgrew to be there.

They have consistently spent more on their pitch over the last few years than we have. We've done the bare minimum to maintain our ground, they've improved theirs.

I thought the performance today was better than it has been at home this season to date. It was refreshing to see a couple of goals at the Darwen End in the first half of a game (a rarity under Mowbray when you can usually put money on a 0 for us at HT). It was good to see a positive reaction to falling behind early on, albeit as a result of their defensive error. At the time I thought it looked like a penalty but believe the replay suggests it wasn't so clear cut. Either way it was about the 3rd or 4th time in the first 10 minutes that their player had beaten ours and we'd ended up fouling. Huddersfield skilled in the art of winning free kicks by falling over after minimal contact. Presumably part of the 'Cowley effect'. Not nice to see but it will reap its rewards with these lamentable officials. I fear we are too decent and honest and don't try similar tricks ourselves in games. In the end a poor and disappointing result against a side with the worst or one of the worst away records in England and in the bottom 3 of the division. In any circumstances you need to be beating them, but having scored twice, done the hard work in recovering from a goal behind to concede in the manner we did and only get a point is extremely disappointing. I'm afraid 'playing good stuff' and having possession and a couple of decent chances against a side like Huddersfield at home doesn't constitute success in my book. I want to see us at the least banging the door down in those last 20 minutes to get a winner yet there wasn't enough there. We don't look in any shape or form like a 'win at all costs' team which you need to be in these sort of games if you are going to get anywhere. Baffling substitutions as ever but I've given up trying to see the logic now. I firmly believe Mowbray is simply trying to keep everyone happy with game time. Results elsewhere do us no favours. Stoke on a revival (as they were always going to do). Luton hammered Bristol City. Reading won. Brentford an astonishing comeback win we can only dream of seeing. Need wins quickly or we'll be down there by Christmas.

They're all missing the point. There's still no acceptance or recognition that the club's actions over the last few years is probably the single biggest factor in the falling numbers at Ewood. All about self preservation and turning responsibility over to the fans for not being committed enough.

From where I sit the dugout is in a direct line of sight with the BBE goal so I tend to see most of what happens.

Well the manager here can run the team, appoint people to senior positions and fly around the world to India during the international break when he should be sorting out the team on the training ground. His assistant hasn't got enough to do being assistant manager of a Championship club and is now going to be combining that job with another vague position that elsewhere people are paid good money to do on a full time basis.

I think it would be another needless gamble with our Championship status just to take the cheap and easy option.

Why wasn't this structure introduced 12 months ago or even in the summer? Why is Venus still assistant manager if he is moving elsewhere? Backing of the owners should be results dependent. At no club should the manager be able to appoint directors or heads of department. Mowbray has now done it twice, appointing his mates on each occasion. What this really means is that another layer of protection has been added to Mowbray's position at a time when I think he should be under intense scrutiny.

Then it should be Venus moving from one to the other, not doing both, and Johnson could become joint assistant manager or similar rather than 'development coach' or whatever he is. On that subject I've never seen Johnson stand up off the bench once this season since he took the job on.

As ever this fixture will need to attract a sizeable number of the non-regulars to get a large following on. You can always bank on a regular 1000-1500 who go to numerous away games but then there's the others who in seasons gone by turn up for a day out at Preston mainly just for the day out and crack. Lot of them at Rangers for the friendly this summer too. A lot of those followers tend to move in packs and a snowball effect develops when people hear there are a lot going. Same in reverse if there isnt the build up or anticipation plenty wont bother. Last season's horror show wont have helped but nonetheless this should be by some distance the most popular away match of the season. Anything under 4000 is dreadful and very worrying.

That Mowbray interview concerns me. First off the appointment of Venus as 'Head of Football Operations'. I suspect this has been the case for some time now given he has been involved in transfer negotiations on new signings but we are only just getting confirmation of it. Concerning for me. Firstly there's no doubt this position has been created by Mowbray and Venus was the only contender for it. How on earth he can be both assistant manager of a Championship club AND Head of Football Operations at that same club is anyone's guess. How will he have the time to do two full time jobs? One office based overseeing all football activity and the other training ground based coaching the players. Is he actually now both Mowbray's assistant and his boss? Mowbray has now clearly appointed both the Chief Executive and Head of Football Operations, both men being his close friends from previous jobs. Venus was installed in an executive capacity at Coventry whilst Mowbray was there but wasnt assistant manager. I'd like an example of any other club with such an odd structure in place. To me it seems that this India visit is Mowbray feeling pressure of sorts after a poor start to the season yet it is clear all he has to do is sweet talk the owners about 'plans' for the future and they'll happily let him carry on. I'd much rather he and Venus didn't bother with the long haul flights to India, appointing themselves to extra jobs and spent all their working time on the training ground addressing the mess that is our performances and results. Sadly it seems he is more firmly entrenched than ever before so the likelihood of results determining his future continues to diminish.

Makes me laugh at the automatic 'hard luck' angle that the media are spinning to these injuries as though the gods have turned on us and it was entirely freak circumstances that has seen Cunningham and Lenihan pick up injuries. Not having it. A look a Lenihan's career to date shows a mid term injury is never far away. Injuries are frequent particularly when playing 3 games a week in the Championship. Only a fool would bet on him being available for a full season. Mowbray/Rovers mental transfer approach is now going to bite us big style. Meanwhile his captain up until the Fulham game plays down at Wigan presumably whilst we contribute to his wages. Just annoys me the number of people who buy the hard luck tales of woe rather than analysing our business and asking what the hell we've been doing.

Sounds to all intents and purposes Venus is already doing that job - negotiating contracts etc.

Another tale of Venkys apparently wanting or being able to spend substantial amounts but then circumstances ensure that they don't. We've had these stories since the day they arrived about warchests and huge money. In the end they'll trot out every excuse going to ensure it doesn't get spent. Waggott is at it still, claiming Ffp rules are stopping owners like Venkys from spending. Sounds great but then when you ask questions such as why they don't think outside the box like Derby or spend anything tidying up Ewood which doesn't come under Ffp calculations Waggott has no answer.

He thinks they are a 'huge club' and implies we are doing well to just try and compete with them so probably yeah.

You would think Hughes, with his vast Premier League experience, playing days at Barcelona and Bayern, and international management experience, would be able to get a job abroad somewhere in Spain or Germany. I always thought that would be his next step in his career rather than dropping down to the Championship. Hughes never really struck me as someone who lived for management and couldn't stop. People like Hodgson and Warnock come across as types who just love the job and lifestyle of management and carry on as long as they can whereas Hughes I never got that impression. The bloke who less than 10 years ago was the next big thing, tipped to replace Ferguson at United now linked with backwaters like Reading in the Championship. Bet that hurts. He walked out on Rovers and Fulham claiming he was ambitious.

Would expect Eddie Niedzwicki. Glyn Hodges usually follows him around but he's managing Wimbledon at the moment. With Bowen being Director of Football at Reading Hughes was always going to be heavily linked to that job when it came available. Don't see there being much more to it than people joining the dots. The fact Bowen took a job on his own at Reading suggests to me that he wasnt expecting to be assisting Hughes again any time soon. In the past he's waited and kept himself unemployed until Hughes was back managing. Personally would be surprised if Hughes took the Reading job. Would be a come down for a bloke who has nearly 15 years of continuous Premier League management behind him. Never managed in the Championship either. Suspect they'd have to pay him very well to put what is left of his damaged reputation on the line at a struggling Championship side. I think he'd keep them up no problem but not sure he'd have enough to get them promoted.

I agree. Shame our manager doesn't. He thinks Middlesbrough and Stoke are 'huge clubs' so small wonder there's an air of mediocrity around the place.

Yes, but only if done properly - e.g. we appoint a competent individual who has been sourced on the basis of a track record elsewhere who is empowered to make decisions with a budget handed down - not if it is another agent, pundit, family friend or other snake oil salesmen who can talk the talk but not deliver like we've had doing it before.