This will be a common theme with Mowbray, as it was with Bowyer. They aren’t brave or bold enough to give youngsters a run out - in their best positions. As well as being spurious given the L1 games being included, that must be well out of date. 69 games doesn’t cover two full seasons and according to transfermarkt it’s closer to double that. His 61 game Championship record is W21 D19 L21 - really very average - with a win % of 34.4. By your measure that actually makes him worse than Lambert, having had far longer and a huge budget, while Lambert had a negative budget and yet still signed our best Championship player, as well as Mowbray’s Mr. Professional.

Bennett is Mr Versatile. Rodwell has been offered a new deal. Evans is one of the preferred CM players. Smallwood is a valuable squad player who won’t complain about being on the bench. This is Mowbray’s view on life, and is why he can be so frustrating. The regular excuse of “we don’t have a squad to challenge for promotion” is pretty self-fulfilling if the manager can’t or won’t upgrade them and just brings in new players to “help them”.

DGS posted it in the no links thread.

Tomasz Kuszczak is 37 but he is just the kind of competition that Raya needs. Someone hugely experienced who, providing he was fit, would be a better one year option than Leutwiler.

We need another Lenihan or another Graham before we need another Bennett. Is this what is in Mowbray’s head? (white = sub, orange = alternative) Personally I’d say we are still well short at cb and rb. He surely can’t drop Armstrong to accommodate Downing on the left...?

Heard Dave Bassett scouted him. It takes all sor... Ok, I’ll stop now.

Should have gone to Everton.

Yes, and scored. Another one of those moments were the fans were proven right and TM wrong.

This was the EXACT argument that kept Bowyer as Rovers manager for a season-and-a-half too long. The only thing missing is “who else could we come here?” but to be fair you’ve pretty much implied that. If you assume that there are plenty of managers who could have got Rovers promoted from L1 on our budget then Mowbray becomes a very average manager indeed. Blaming Venkys (at this stage) is ironically the wrong conclusion. They probably expect more from a manager to whom they have given lots of money, a huge budget (relative to our circumstances), unlimited time and zero pressure. Maybe the switch from promotion as an aim to 60 points, late in the season, was a source of confusion for them.

This is where fans (mainly his biggest supporters) and Mowbray part intellectual ways. Those defending this move talk about moving him into a position to accommodate his age and mobility. Meanwhile, Mowbray is watching scouting videos on VHS and marvelling. Exciting this isn’t. Sensible? Possibly - time will tell.

Put the rifle down, chief. If someone buys him...

Third or fourth? Unless it was some post on here, I’d say you’ve dreamt that. We need a partner for Lenihan (maybe even a replacement), who would Bauer be behind? Mulgrew? He’s on his last legs and needs to be used sparingly. Williams? He was adequate when he was called on but no specialist. Bauer would have gone into the starting line up (once he’d built up his TM loyalty points of course). Anything else is sour grapes.

Do you mean Uncle Keith? Gonna be a bombshell for Paul to find out the truth like this.

So you don’t believe Bauer was our main CB target? I’ve not heard of any others - perhaps you can enlighten “the rest of us”?

And Venkys wouldn’t be here!

Only just seen this but we’ll done Big Dog, you’ve made poster boy for the PNE fans by making their argument for them!

Sunderland. Or Leeds away.

Cheers. Fairly even then really. It’s still a strange move. Would anyone offer/guarantee the 2019/20 version Downing more game time than the 2019/20 version of Conway? Is he worth more money? Could we have offered Conway more money but still less than Downing? I’d be amazed if we offered Downing the same or less. We had four key areas to replace/strengthen... GK: Replaced Leutweiler with Leutweiler. Will he really bring in someone above Raya now? CB: Downing needs replacing (plus Mulgrew looking tired and old at the end of last season). Main target has fallen through. CM: Reed needs replacing from a quality / contribution perspective. RW/LW: did we really need a wide man as a priority?

Yeah, just spotted it. Cheers!

I think both sides should keep their counsel until we’ve seen Bauer in the Championship. As much as I deride Mowbray, I’d still like to think that he didn’t chase Bauer for nothing.

??????

Really hope we don’t sign O’Neill. Nobody can spell his name! It’s Ryan Nelson all over again.

Be good to see Conway’s in comparison.

Kind of person who uses “cringe” as a noun. Nobbers are living the dream at the moment. They finished above Rovers last season for the want of a single goal. Let them bask in it, it’s the absolute pinnacle of modern times for them. Crest of a wave stuff. They think they are better/bigger than Rovers. Ha! They can’t claim to rub shoulders with Swindon, Oldham, Barnsley, even Blackpool. ✌?cringe✌? indeed. ??‍♂️