That’s what you won’t forgive him for? For my it’s defending the slimy toad who pretended he was a manager. The when the coast was clear “Venkys were coming after you!”

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17485120.rovers-boss-considers-rayas-position-after-sticky-patch/ Classic Mowbray. Hammer the lad in public before a game - and then he’ll still play him. Why? Because he’s undroppable with our number two being an impersonator and our best third choice is out on loan. Similar story with our defence.

#homefansmatter

That first link is a brilliant bit of bridge-building PR. Felt like Blackpool fans had taken control of the media department.

Interesting that you bring Big Sam into it. What Allardyce did - and Mowbray hasn’t (yet?) - is make sure that he had the right people around his, all doing their jobs. Mowbray has his right hand man and has been loyal to the guy who has been around the club the longest since Venkys rocked up. He needs to sort out his backroom team and projects like Brezza will take care of themselves.

Bit late to the party but Lambert brought in Graham. Coyle just made his loan permanent.

I remember Wigan being worse.

Thank... I think.

Being a football fan requires no investment. It’s a pastime so I imagine it’s actually quite enjoyable. Once you start going to live games, paying money and investing emotionally in your team it becomes something more. Do that long enough and... ...well, you’re pretty much doomed.

I’ve no real beef with Bolton. They have some good fans and they see themselves as Lancastrians and hate United. I sympathise, even though not many fans in general sympathised with our plight, in that they are owned by someone who doesn’t have the football team’s best interests at heart. It’s not right that the league allow these things to happen in the first place. If rumours I’ve heard are true then the EFL too are complicit. That said, it’s not right - as a club - that they are allowed to get away with these kinds of tricks. Yes, ultimately the staff and fans would suffer most from relegation but then so would Rotherham or Reading fans. As it happens they are almost certainly down anyway but if by some fluke they were to stay up, it would be a travesty. It’s also not right for the EFL to get involved in massaging any takeover through. If Bolton were to go bust - perish the thought - the ripple effect would see a conference side make it into League Two and be hugely boosted. This should be an organic change, not a synthetic one. The fact that the EFL are meant to be smoothing the way though means that they want to sweep this under the carpet before any uncomfortable questions are aimed in their direction.

Money talks. Opportunity knocks. I wish Waggott cared as much about filling the ground with Rovers fans as he does about filling it with Leeds, PNE and the like. #homefansmatter

You have to say, Waggott’s 12pm strategy has worked this time. Loads of away fans turning up for the novelty. Sadly, he doesn’t care about home advantage so this is going to be like another Ewood Park away match. #homefansmatter 1-3 Boos around the ground. Waggott Out

Think bigger. Exposure, potential advertising or even a new buyer...

Lamentably, I have to concur with you final para. Has Mowbray peaked? Or can he change alter style to help us get to the next step: play-off hopefuls? Footballers of any quality are egotists and Mowbray has all but admitted he can’t handle them. Managing a Smallwood or a Bennett is easy but they don’t win you Championship games. Something has to change.

He obviously hasn’t. He’s talking like there wasn’t one! Comments like these don’t help Mowbray’s cause one bit. He sounds desperate and delusional. Meanwhile after the January window shut he said the following: “The balance of course is the better we do and the closer we are to touching the top six you have to keep the faith with the group,” he said. “There is the argument of course to say ‘why don’t you improve the group?’ You can have the perception of what might improve the group but it’s not just about talent, it’s about character, personality and driven individuals that can lead the team forward. “You might get a technically better footballer but he might not have the personality and the drive for what I feel is my job which is to have faith in this group. But hopefully I will know the moment I need to strengthen. That process has already started.” https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17402104.what-mowbray-has-learned-from-the-january-transfer-window/ Read that again: “hopefully I will know the moment I need to strengthen.” Bit of a concern that he didn’t know then when most right-thinking fans could see the glaring weaknesses in defence. Our shop window form in January has probably both saved us and killed us this season. A false four (games) - with the last game in December and first game in February being hammerings. Our form since the window closed of W0D1L5. And we had money to spend!

Thing is, although we can all scoff, they only need to get this exercise right once and they have a bloody large potential fanbase! A club will manage to produce a sub-continental star one day.

Rovers training or trial for a trial...?

Someone remind me... this is where Steve K**n went, right? http://www.ekathimerini.com/238295/article/ekathimerini/sports/ofi-crete-is-relegated-for-match-fixing

So does Johnson know how to play Brezza and Mowbray doesn’t? Or are the opposition just so inferior they make him look good?

It really has been slim pickings. I’d be tempted to scrap the awards this season.

There’s only one player who has got me out of my seat this season but Mowbray won’t play him.

His tactics and team selections have been questionable for some time - even last season - but he got the results so it was fairly quiet. Now that results are disappearing the noises will start. Managers always have and always will be judged on results - from fans if not owners/boardrooms. When the latter fail act things get much worse in the stands. Mowbray absolutely has to do something different. And by different, I mean more than just swapping the starting line up around.

I think @Parsonblue has nailed it. Mowbray seems so keen to buy players for the future that he seems to have take his eye off the now. Its no coincidence that our form has fallen off a cliff since the window closed. The better players in the team must also feel that we should have strengthened and have either lost a little faith or now feel Mowbray has signed-off on this season so they will too.

Simple stuff Chris, use it to laugh WITH someone who makes a funny joke, NOT when you want to laugh AT their opinion that you disagree with. You have some cheek complaining about someone doing this to you when you are the worst offender. WITH - NOT - AT

18,000 empty seats say our ticketing strategy is wrong.