I think Chapman was the one he openly took a risk on. I seem to remember TM saying so at the time. Even if he didn’t then people can change and the point is that his integrity is seemingly intact because when any issues like this do raise their heads he’s not prepared to accept them.

It’s not a myth mate because ‘budget’ refers to fees plus wages. It’s everything combined. And our ‘budget’ is mid to lower table.

You make a fantastic point Rev. I agree with all the similarities too. The difference you raised re the signings are interesting. I remember Bowyer getting slaughtered for some of his signings and not often lauded until he left. I wonder whether one day there will be fans saying “I wish we could find another Dack!” Or “Remember when we had Dack, Armstrong, Rothwell, Holtby, Downing, Travis, Lenihan and Nyambe in one team!? I wish we had that now!”. I wouldn’t be surprised to see 3 of those playing in the Premiership soon. To add to your point about the similarities the coaches and lads talk about TM now just like Shorty etc used to talk about GB. I know that they love him and respect him and I think he TM (as was GB) is a very solid manager with the right work ethics and morals. People on here saying he’s sly and trying to keep himself in a job are so far wide of the mark. But, I share your concerns about whether TM (like GB) has the magic dust to galvanise a mid table team on a mid table budget and do what Alex Neil has done, what Chris Wilder has done, what Ollie did with Blackpool or dare I say it Dyche with Burnley. There’s nothing about TM which says he will. The foreign market is his last chance for us imo. The whole thing is at risk of getting stale. Let him have the summer to bring in affordable, better quality foreign players and hopefully fully integrate a Buckley, JRC, Butterworth etc. If that doesn’t work then for me Mowbray is all out of ideas working within the budget he has. You won’t find me whining or kicking and screaming about a thoroughly good manager but sooner or later his time will run out!

We also finished on the highest total ever for a Championship club to get relegated in spite of the mess Coyle left us in.

I’m not sure what he’ll do. But that’s what I’d do! ??

I’d play 442. Back 5 picks itself, then... Bennett Travis Downing JRC Gallagher Armstrong Leut, Williams, Davenport, Buckley, Chapman, Brereton, Graham

I for one am weirdly curious and excited for the rest of the season. Not because I think I’m going to be blinded by Tika taka style entertainment or because I think we’ll go roaring into the playoffs (those hopes were all but gone when Dack collapsed against Wigan and confirmed with the subsequent injuries to Evans, Holtby and Rothwell). No, I’m excited to see the development of our young players over the next 16 games or whatever. Our position in the league and injuries have inadvertently created an almost perfect climate for them. We aren’t going down and will potentially be out of the playoff race by March. Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis and Arma are flying. The improvement in those four grows week on week. I want to see JRC, Buckley and Davenport play 10 games before the end of the season. I wouldn’t even be adverse to Hilton playing a couple back end or Butterworth if he can get fit. They will be so much better for it in the long run. Let them get upto speed and let’s see what they’ve got to offer. To get one or two of these playing well and fully integrated into the first team would be brilliant for the club and reduce the volume of transfers needed in the summer. Also grows our assets and provides potential for sustainability. Get the young lads played I say. We’ll never have a better chance to have a look at them!

I’ve said all the way through that SG and BB have not impacted our team enough for the outlay. I actually made that point to Mowbray at the meeting. He agreed that they had not (pretty obvious) and claimed that they wouldn’t be doing that again and would be looking at making “a couple of £2-3m signings” in the future. Primarily in the European market. The BB, SG thing is made even worse because in spite of £11m being a moderate/good expenditure on fees (in the champ) we can not afford to have them fail when in truth, we have to over achieve in order to get to the PL. SG was reportedly on £24k at Southampton and took a wage drop to come to us. Neither him or BB will be on anywhere near as much as many in the Champ imo. I back Mowbray because he has been a good manager for us. But I do worry if he has what it takes to make us overachieve enough to get out of that league.

Hallelujah ??

Absolutely agree. We need every cash signing to exceed expectations and their value.

Nope, the narrative (and history) suggests that budgets dictate league standing. My feeling is that Mowbray has been a very good manager so far for Rovers. He’s level headed, hardworking and well intentioned. He’s a good manager and works with a budget. BUT the meeting confirmed to me that the club have no intention or Ffp ability to increase the budget high enough. Therefore, imo we 100% will need to punch above our weight to go up. That means the manager will have to develop a new, innovative method of finding those gems and then be able to integrate those players quickly. Which is where I worry for Mowbray because even though he sees the need, I haven’t seen anything which suggests to me that he can deliver it. He won’t be sacked anytime soon but this summer will be the clubs first foray into the European market. If he fails in terms of exceeding our potential then the club must look for his replacement.

No it’s not. BUT the far diminished (on our part) and superior (for other team) wages do seem to be overlooked by many on here. £12m is a fairly moderate/good amount of outlay for the Championship. But our wage structure places us well in the bottom half. I wish we’d spent those fees on better players too, BUT people need to start thinking about the total budget when comparing us.

Agree with much of what you’re saying but none of the stuff highlighted. If we had done all of that we’d have been under siege and lost 0-5.

No, it’s not simple. There are lots of different reasons and I’m not saying we’re perfect or even very good. I’m saying that the people who are so disgusted about yesterday could do with looking at some of the wider context.

Interesting that you mention those two. The only two in the top six who have a similar budget to us. I think we’re very similar in squad quality and depth to PNE. There’s not a lot of difference between us and my guess is we’d finish very close to them all things being equal. I still don’t think we’ll finish far from them this season. The Brentford model is absolutely mustard. Fair play to them. They’re the exception to every rule and I’d imagine there’s clubs with far bigger budgets than us looking over admiringly at them. But there’s no similarity in quality between us and Fulham. Whilst I too am aghast at the waste around SG and BB, unless we had Brentford’s model (which goes FAR beyond just transfers and has been being built for 5+ years), then £11m wouldn’t stand a chance of us standing toe to toe with Fulham. We would’ve had to try and out work them...which I think we could’ve done and maybe won with a bit more quality on the pitch.

I agree re Johnson. I’d play Davenport too

Come off it fellas. Fulham have spent a small fortune! I thought Bryan, Cavaleiro, Hector and Reid were absolutely class! Mitrovic is prob on £100k a week there And his finish showed why. Cairney £70k? Their overall budget is probably 5x ours... It’s a different world! And yet, we dealt with them admirably and overall probably deserved a point. If we’d had Dack and any one of Rothwell, Holtby or Evans we could’ve nicked it. I think we have had a mixed bag of performances at home this season. But as fans I believe we need to set up for more attritional type performances until we get Rothwell back and then Holtby and hopefully Dack in the summer. I want to see runs for JRC and Buckley over the remainder of the season. On a separate note, I thought Nyambe, Lenihan and Travis were brilliant yesterday. Travis in particular looks more ‘complete’ than ever. One negative was Gallagher. He was dreadful. I don’t know how he lasted 70 mins out there. Having survived it, I was surprised not to see him removed but he actually did look much better coming in from the left. Great save from the keeper to deny him.

I think he was awful. Actually looked better coming off the left onto his right foot in the second half.

I thought the game was pretty even. Sure they have better players but we dealt with them pretty easily. It was always gonna be settled with a bit of luck and / or magic and their goal had both. Alternatively it Looks like Lenihan’s goal was 3yrds on but whatever. I’ve no complaints. We gave everything in terms of endeavour but just didn’t have enough quality.

Absolutely bang on.

I’d consider playing Bennett today in a midfield three or on the right of a midfield four. Or maybe even Johnson in three with Downing to the left of him and Trav to the right. I’d even be tempted to play Graham and get aerial balls into their box. It just feels like one of those blood and thunder games where we need a bit of experience. Expect us to rise to the occasion. Hope we can nick it.

If the last one was anything like this one then I can save you the job. Because they promised nothing.

Who were acting on the orders of their bosses!? ???

It’s not a matter of fact. There was a lot more to his exit and It’s pretty well documented that he was forced out and the consequent statements and legal action corroborate that. Do you honestly think Steve Kean would have walked away from the best job he ever had?

The surcharges are absolute bullshit and the guy from the working men’s club wiped the floor with Waggot on that. Waggots job security is based on the performance of all aspects of the club including the performance of the team. Are you seriously suggesting that he’d sacrifice himself for the manager? What foundation do you have of this seeing as its pretty obvious that the manager has done a decent enough job since he came to the club?