Aye, DoF should never be done as 'incumbent manager moves to DoF role'. It just undermines the authority of the new manager, as the guy previously running the ship is still hanging around and has some (what often seem poorly defined) powers. There is less confusion and split loyalties when someone comes from outside with a clearly strictly DoF brief.

He does have a tendency to ramble about pointless tangents, so I was clinging to this hope also. He just waffles so much it's hard to tell what he really intends, and whether comments match his actual 'strategies' or are random brain farts he had during an interview.

Yeh, it's not, because the LT write confusingly. But on reflection (and after not finding old quotes matching on google) I think it is from now. I think they were just recalling it as a time he was out of work before and how it affected him. They need a much better editor.

No I didn't miss it. Did you miss this bit preceding the quote? Mowbray has been with Rovers since February 2017, replacing Owen Coyle in the hotseat. He had been without a club since leaving Coventry City six months earlier, and asked about missing the day-to-day involvement, he said: “Give me a few weeks and I’ll be craving organising something, or planning something, or preparing a session. “I hope to be in football management still for a long time because it’s what I do." Now I could be wrong, because the LT does write sloppy articles, but sounds to me like they're quoting him from after he left Coventry. Edit - yeh they may be new comments actually as I can't find them as old quotes on Google, it was how they read to me though. Nonetheless that isn't him confirming he will only do management, he's just expressing a 'hope' as he phrased it, and there is little reason to be rambling about a DoF's bright sides if he isn't interested. Nothing would surprise me with him, he's been caught saying words that don't match reality before. Maybe he wants to DoF for a year instead of taking a full break from the game, then go back to management, who knows. All I know is I'm concerned at the prospect of him sticking around.

Unless you're referring to an older interview or some quotes are missing, no, he didn't say that. What he said was: "All the other stuff, directors of football, I don't know, I've never done that. Maybe for a thought, it would be nice to be involved in football but not have the pressure to win on Saturday. "Obviously you want to win but it's not your fault, it's the manager's fault." Which is clearly speculating on the positives of being a DoF.

I'm really, really not liking that he is now fantasising in public about what being a Director of Football would be like. Fuck off Mowbray - if you're doing that, do it elsewhere.

I don't buy the arguments I've seen made about the manager and the contract rebels not wanting to agree anything before our league status was decided. That's what promotion wage rise clauses are for.

A fuller version of that quote: "My intention was loan players and out of contract players (won't play). "My vision is that 10, 12, 20 managers will be in the stand at Birmingham thinking they might apply for this job. They will want to watch these players and make opinions." I could be wrong, but it's crossed my mind that he could be acting spitefully in a way here. Mostly because every other season, when our season has been finished well ahead of time (usually much earlier than this) he has taken almost no advantage of that fact to blood players who could be our future, or even to drop the ones who are leaving. Suddenly he is leaving (even less reason for him to care about our future) and now we are going to focus on players who will still be here (inevitably including some youth players)? This, combined with how he immediately goes on to talk about the watching managers and who they'll want to see, makes me think that rather than looking to our club's future, he wants prospective managers to see the shell of a squad they're inheriting, which may well be accompanied with a defeat, to put the better ones off. Why, you might ask? A touch of spite at not being asked to stay on or even communicated with, and to preserve his legacy, as if we get some dosser next people will say 'see? should have kept Mowbray'. As I said, I could be wrong, I'm not stating this as fact before anyone jumps down my throat with 'conspiracy theory' shouts, as yes, it is just a theory. I just think it's suspicious he's never dropped several players before who wouldn't be here next season, once our season was effectively over, added to those remarks.

Say what you like but it's a hell of a coincidence. Less than a week after Mowbray says he is going, a contract rebel who we have repeatedly said on here doesn't get what he deserves under Mowbray, wants to sit down and talk again. Put whatever spin on it you like, but that's suspicious as hell to me and I think tells the story.

Haha! It is when you 'wonder' about it too. I heard Lenihan, Nyambe and Rothwell turned up to training today, so I guess they're signing new contracts then! Oh sorry, I mean, I wonder...

Nixon hinting at things, whatever next? It's his whole game. Drop vague hints about things to drum up attention and boost readership and his own 'relevance'. The long chat is probably just because Tony and Swag spent time blubbing their love for each other and patting themselves on the back for how great they've been, how unfairly judged they are etc etc. If they're more professional than that, it will have just been discussions about where the club and perhaps them as individuals might go next.

It says Mowbray had a long chat with the Chief Exec yesterday, that's all. So people are overreacting to it.

I came here to say basically the same thing, though in my heart I knew it had already been said.

Do you think Bournemouth thought they'd be a mid table Prem club (for a bit) back when they were in what was it, the 4th tier? Time changes stature. If clubs like that can do it, the mighty Blackburn Rovers can. But it will need the right hands at the wheel. Ideally different owners, but we might get away with a lucky CEO and manager appointment at some stage. We weren't miles off the first stage (promotion) this season under the plodder that is Mowbray. The right manager would have gotten us over the line.

Uhh think it was February 2017 mate.

Yeh that's exactly where we should be hearing it first confirmed, from his missus.

Nah I'd seriously rather keep Mowbray than get Woodgate to replace him. Both are the wrong choice though of course.

Moreover he played him in the wrong position most of the time, and persisted with the fantasy that he was going to start smashing shots in from the right despite all evidence to the contrary. That's the main reason Giles didn't work out better.

He was poor when he started playing for us. He was just starting to look good when he got injured. I think he looked a handful upon his return from injury, short-lived as it was. I'd consider loaning him again, depends what other options we have. Probably the only one of the loanees we should be able to get again. Very fair point. It would need to be a kinder loan contract from our perspective this time.

Sorry JH, I often enjoy your posts, but that isn't anywhere near as conclusive as you seem to think it is. Mowbray never pretended he had been made a contract offer. He always said it hadn't happened and wasn't a priority as far as he was concerned. The players, on the other hand, he and Waggott repeatedly said offers had been made. The players haven't signed, which suggests the offers weren't great (a £1 p/w improvement would still be an improved offer btw), but there is absolutely nothing so far to suggest they weren't made at all. If you insist that these offers haven't been made, when there is precisely zero proof they haven't, then yes, you are indulging in conspiracy theories. That doesn't mean you're wrong, but a conspiracy theory it is indeed, until proven. If an agent comes out after the player leaves and says 'actually my client wasn't offered a new contract', or the player says the same, then you have a leg to stand on. Until then, it's speculation at best, and any triumphalism is premature. Meanwhile, some other contracts have been extended (Kaminski, Gally), and these weren't even mentioned in public beforehand as far as I'm aware, which kills the notion that the owners have turned off the taps to the extent that new contracts can't be signed.

Fixed it for you.

Considered him, as I remembered him being a steady Prem forward at one point. Looking at his goals record though, I think it was much more about him being Beattie's partner...has to go behind Derbs and Gally but maybe ahead of Joe Garner. Anthony Pilkington too...in fact in my head it was him that got done for stealing, but now you mention Walters that seems like the right one. Pilkington more of a winger though perhaps? But pretty good goal record for a winger.

Jesus christ, we even fuck up the easy stuff these days don't we?

Aye but did he mean West Brom or Burnley?

Bloody glad of it I am too!