Why do you think we are about to shake the squad up? With what money? And how can you trust the man that has left us needing so much work doing on an imbalanced squad considering the poor business done since promotion? And why do you think we are a normal club? With owners interested enough to be in regular communication and making plans regarding budgets etc. Or being logical enough to not make the manager wait to fly over to India and use a video call instead?

Another very poor performance against a far superior team in which some of the same criticisms are again evident. Should have scored early on and looked better with Holtby as a 10 and Armstrong a 9. Then they just went on to totally dominate and out class us. Gallaghers miss summed him up, a pathetic way to spend 5m and high wages. Never did I expect him to score. Rothwell achieved absolutely nothing yet again. Armstrong wonder goals are the only goal threat we have. And Walton is a dismal signing, so many mistakes. And Johnson is another really poor signing, he can barely run. Dont want to see Samuel, Graham etc from now on. Nothing can be gained. Some regular starts for Rankin Costello, Chapman, Davenport, Buckley and mayve even Thompson. Mowbray has to be let go now. As it is, he is safe, the owners dont care and the budgets to plan for next year havent been considered.

Has to go. We are stagnating, not progressing. His tactical overhaul is a very confused an ineffective one. The recruitment since promotion has been really poor and he will never be able to escape the 2 big signings. There is a good chance that we will finish on less points than last season.

Conversely, as I said prior I dont swallow this about us having minimal resources compared to most other teams and I think in your analysis you have overdone that narrative again, even though of course I agree that he certainly is not a crap manager. In 2018/19, we had the 16th highest wage budget and finished 15th, so about right if it is just to be measured on that. Of course, since we have moved upwards in the table and I suspect also in the wage table with the additions of Johnson, Holtby, Gallagher, Adarabioyo, Walton and Downing. So just on wages, we arent really over or underachieving. You also have to factor in that our wage budget unlike some isnt swollen due to the unavoidable retention of Premier League players that are of no use. You also have to factor in the net spend Mowbray has had, over 10m in 2 years and no pressure to sell any key assets, giving him a head start on many other teams. Also, he took a perilous Championship side struggling against relegation and failed to keep them up, dont forget that. But if he left tomorrow his job would have to be considered a success. The club is certainly in a better position now and the trajectory following his initial failure to keep us up, which was always an uphill task, has been an upward one. Has it been as upward as it perhaps could have been, considering what hes had and spent poorly etc, thats another debate, but to call him a crap manager is not only unfair but a little disrespectful IMO. Hes done a good job that I am grateful for, Comparisons with Bowyer are incredibly difficult. He inherited Rhodes and otherwise an absolute car crash. He also had a transfer embargo to deal with towards the end and he definitely stayed on too long and he definitely underachieved with the players available. Some similar faults too, over loyalty to poor players, imbalanced teams etc. But certainly no 5m/7m strikers that he coldl bring in.

Crap manager? I am critical of various things but thats really harsh.

I have never been to any reserve/kids games, of course the young players are important but irrelevant to the topic on Mowbray staying or going. Of course we need them to come through, am I sure that those 2 mentioned will? Not yet, no I am not. The system has been done apparently to try and get us to control games more. That desire is understandable. The way in which he is attempting to do so is massively flawed to everyone but himself and you dont need a totally revolutionised and unique formation (bizarrely started 9 games before the end of the season) to do that. Firstly, the main reason as I have said that it shouldnt have even been considered is that we have 2 top quality number 10s, and one of our main prospects behind that. You dont make a formation that excludes key players. Secondly, this false 9 bollocks is totally flawed. Certainly, his collection of (all but 1) useless strikers are bad enough in their natural position, stick them out wide and they are 10x worse. To be fair, you did say that Bell was on 5k so on that point regarding signing what you guessed to be a cheaper player up for another year, surely it is a little hypocritical to then dismiss Johnson's wages as an unknown? Likewise suggesting that Adarabioyo was signed "to play" but that we were correct to imply to Bauer that he would have a fight on his hands to get into the team?

- The academy players obviously are important but their existence doesnt strengthen Mowbrays position. These players and the academy would still be here if Mowbray moved on. Since Travis only Buckley and Rankin Costello have been given first team minutes but not with any conviction. Is making best use out of our academy important? Of course. Does it have any relevance to whether Mowbray should stay or go? Not really. - Gallagher and Brereton are more than "dissappointing" they have massively stunted the potential of this team being a lot further down the line. Once more, Mowbray now seems infactuated with a 433 formation which involves no strikers, playing attacking midfielders as false 9's and strikers as wingers. - Who is going to take on Mulgrews wages, especially in a pandemic driven economic climate? He shouldnt have been given such a long contract. Bennett is not good enough even to be a "squad player" his experience doesnt come into any use when he still constantly gives away foul after foul and he is not a competent option in any position. Again sitting on another year contract. We have no wingers and hes not even considered there. Right back? A liability. Central midfield? Cant pass. Left back? Dont make me laugh. And Johnson is practically immobile, a really poor signing and a high earning one at that. No matter who our manager is, our transfer activity would always be hindered at times like these when weve got these players taking up high wages but not up to it on the pitch.

Bennett was one of his first signings and a big favourite from his Norwich days do dont be so sure. Indeed he signed him, Simeon Jackson and Elliott Ward all of whom he had managed previously as well as a few expensive loans, including Graham in his defence as he embraced the sale of our remaining quality player. I think his record not just at Rovers but across various jobs in different situations show that he does not have the competence. I agree that having someone who everyone around the club loves is not necessarily condusive to success but conversely Lamberts persona is in my opinion part of his tactic to try (and often succeed) to deflect attention away from what hes doing or not doing on the pitch by appearing to be ruthless, no nonsense, honest, hard hitting etc and ultimately it can have the effect of making the fans warm to him and usually direct their anger elsewhere.

Another point to add to the healthy net spend, the recent major additions to the wage bill, the lack of considerable liabilities on huge wages from Premier League seasons gone by and the lack of enforced sales is the quality of the academy that gives us a head start over most at our level. I am not saying that Mowbray has not impacted positively on their development as of course they have but to have players like Nyambe, Lenihan and Travis all as key players slightly reduces the scale of the recruitment job required, compare say to Preston, they dont even have an Under 23 team! All of these reasons are why I refuse to accept the narrative that any manager is severely restricted by the resources available to them, I have given numerous factors as to why Rovers manager has plenty to work with and really be competitive. Mowbray of course is competitive but I just feel like there is a glass ceiling he will be unable to break through, im not staunchly against him continuing but the fact that we are even discussing limited resources and he has spent 12m on 2 players who havent at all contributed and of course there has been undeniable scope to be doing better. Regarding Preston, I agree that no teams recruitment is perfect but if a new manager came into our club for example, I think it would be far more difficult not in terms of the quality players as they are similar but in terms of shaping a squad in a balanced way. Mowbray or another manager has now Johnson, Mulgrew and Bennett on huge wages well past their best, 2 useless strikers who will be nigh on impossible to shift, no professional goalkeepers under contract and no effective wide men under contract. Stockley for example was a cheap buy from the lower leagues who is an effective option (and has been better for them than our 12m strikers) from the bench and ultimately could be moved on fairly easily. Sinclair is a little bit removed from the norm and I presume their biggest earner but he would walk into our side and has a couple of goals from wide. Their squad is much more balanced both positionally and financially and they are effective at signing cheap players either from England or Ireland. Take on your point about the restriction that any new appointment would likely be agency driven rather than competence driven. Also there are certain other restrictions that will hinder any manager we have until changed, for example their disinterest leading to decisions on budgets etc being delayed leaving us behind the rest.

The thing is no team will have much money this summer, as a club with minimal budget but one touch wood not going into administration (not for one second that it is anything to be thankful of!) we would not be any less attractive than a number of other clubs. Say if the Preston, Millwall etc jobs became available. That being said, the lack of resources will be another barrier in sacking the manager anyway. The be careful what you wish for reason not to sack the manager is not a valid reason because this is stating what we would do. The owners wont be intetested enough to be considering letting Mowbray go either but no one in their right mind is saying to sack mowbray and bring in a Kean, Coyle, Berg or Appleton. If they did sack Mowbray and bring in a joker, that wouldnt be anyone getting what they asked for.

You mention being brave in the transfer market but ruthlessness has always been an achilles heel. Even recently hes dishing out temporary extensions for crap players like Samuel, Smallwood and Hart who are useless, useless and unused and useless and ineligible when we are amidst the economic tightenings of a pandemic. Last year he offered extensions to basically everyone and hes already given Bell an extension. We have to be especially efficient with our resources at this time and he isnt. Our squad is so imbalanced, 7 or 8 players are good enough and the rest arent. I dont swallow this about us having lower half resources as if we are overachieving in the top half as that isnt a true reflection. Just looking at the wage budgets is flawed for numerous reasons: - There are teams with far larger wage budgets because they have recently been relegated, so essentially a chunk of their wage budget is useless waste on Premier League wages, for example Stoke have Mame Diouf etc, Swansea have Routledge, Dyer etc. Its not as if its all an asset to the manager. - Further proof of a limited correlation between league position is that there are teams with much less wage expenditure right up there and performing better than us. Brentford and Preston have much more efficient recruitment, Sheffield United got promoted spending less on wages and Millwall were much higher and this season are on the same points. - Our wage budget I think will have gone up proportionally more than most with the additions of Johnson, Gallagher, Downing, Holtby, Adarabioyo, Cunningham and Walton. We will only know for sure when the next accounts are published. - A big way in which Mowbray has been lucky is the net spend available to him of over 10m since we came up. Not many teams can boast that but it has not been spent well. - No sales have been forced to halt our progress. Raya was the only sale and Mowbray was clearly happy to cut ties with a player he publically criticised and dropped for the inadequate sub keeper he signed. I am not Mowbray out consistently because I am aware that even if we could and had interested and logical owners, it wouldnt be an easy decision. Hes borderline either way. I just look at our squad and its consistent imbalances and I dont see Mowbray getting us into that top 6 before the promising core is broken up and we start all over. I feel its important to point out that in terms of resources he has plenty but it has not been used very efficiently.

You are right to be fair there. Be mad at a manager signing poor players, using poor tactics, making the wrong subs ultimately all leading to poor results. People only notice a managers off field mannerisms, Mowbray stood there doing nothing, Coyle stood in full kit, Kean licking his lips etc when results arent going right on the pitch.

Conversely, do you have ever stop defending him? ? Agree that Guardiola is not a comparison to take seriously.

If that is the case though surely Mowbray has essentially strengthened his own position by spending so much prior and not really strengthening the squad since promotion, leaving a very imbalanced squad. He doesnt have money now mainly because of the pandemic but he has had money and has possibly wasted the chance to get much closer. We have a very competitve wage budget considering a number of those spending more (Stoke, Swansea, Cardiff, Huddersfield) are not necessarily at an advantage, they are recently relegated clubs full of high earners who arent contributing that they cant shift. Theres no way Mowbray could complain at what he has had to work with. At least 10m net spend post promotion, no key players that he wanted to keep have been sold and hes been able to add plenty of frees who wont have come cheap. The likes of Pulis and McCarthy have history for getting the best out of what they have but that wouldnt have to be the only route. Other experienced managers, a younger forward thinking manager from lower down (Ainsworth etc) or a foreign manager.(like Forest, Brentford etc have done) It all doesnt matter as we couldnt afford to sack Mowbray and he is safe with Waggott having his back.

We have spent an average of 6m a season on dismal strikers, whilst they have apparently spent 6m a season at the same time as Bielsa. They will end that 2 seasons in the Premier League, whilst we are saddled with 2 liabilities! Our wage bill must have gone up considerably looking to the 19/20 accounts, with Johnson, Downing, Holtby, Adarabioyo, Gallagher and Walton added.

Samuel not only in the team but on the right wing again?! No need for him ever to feature again. I though you were very keen on Armstrong central? Shows what we are up against in that 5 of your side currently isnt contracted into next season. Out of the 3 we could sign back up only one should.

Very true.

Cant see past a defeat to be honest. Play off hopes over so may aswell freshen things up. No false 9 and wide strikers bollocks. Armstrong with Holtby just off. Give Buckley, Chapman, Davenport a game, get Lenihan back in, dont risk Travis unless hes fit enough but if he is get him alongside Davenport. Under no circumstances should we play Bennett especially not at left back.

Mowbray bang on regarding the very poor alternative football without fans is. As he says, feels like a training exercise.

Because it is not a minor thing that can be brushed under the carpet! I never said that they should all be in the team, but how does these players existence justify Mowbrays position is what im saying! A new manager would still have them at his disposal, just like the supposed scouting network. There is no evidence that Mowbray would use the extended scouting network well or poorly, and there is no evidence that these youngsters will all become key under Mowbray. The only 2 that have had game time have struggled mainly out of position. So neither strengthens his position at this point. There is further irony that after the first game v Barnsley that we WON you were insistent on Mowbray being sacked. Following the humiliating defeat away leaving any slim play off hope extinguished with 6 games to go, and with many of Mowbrays flaws in plain sight, notably a lack of defensive reinforcement and a few of Mowbrays poor signings in sharp focus (Breretons petulance, Johnson barely able to move, Samuels inability to score goals etc) and you are now defending him often with illogical arguments.

And by the summer they will be gone again and we will be on the look out for more defensive sticky plasters despite blowing another 5m and big wages on a waste of space! Still none the wiser as to how the fact that he "rates" our young players listed but has yet to successfully fully integrate any (the 2 he has given game time to mainly out of position) is further evidence to keep Mowbray. Nor that our scouting network has supposedly improved.

He said at the one before that defenders are coming and yet a year on we are in exactly the same position that we were then. Judge on actions not on words. If Thompson cant even make a 20 man squad at this point with Bennett playing left back then he cant be that close.

Fair enough. Your illogical argument is summed up by listing 6 academy graduates to try and strengthen the point that Mowbray should stay, of whom only 2 have appeared in the first team, fleetingly and predominantly out of position and have struggled to hold their own, and the other 4 (2 of whom are in positions whereby we have had numerous absences) are as of yet unused. When shown how illogical an argument that is, you then suggest they arent ready. Which im not saying they are or that they should play, but how on earth is that a logical point?! IMO expecting a constructive transfer window is totally illogical considering that apart from Armstrong who we had in League 1 anyway, the transfer recruitment since promotion has not progressed us long term, with only short term signings (Reed, Adarabioyo, Downing) excelling, especially when we are in a pandemic and will likely have minimal budget to work with, compared to the very healthy budget blown to date. The squad is still horribly imbalanced and has numerous additional expensive liabilities (Gallagher, Brereton, Johnson) and non contributing wage drains (Rothwell, Chapman, Davenport) that we are lumbered with. The conversation is all moot because he wont be going anywhere, he has a cosy job with his mate Waggott and even if there was a desire to freshen up I am almost certain that we couldnt afford it.

1. So would your declaration of progress and/or your view on Mowbray continuing if we was not to beat the 60 point total from last season? 2. Why would a new manager rip up the supposed work done on widening the scope for potential new signings? To br honest this summer the idea of plucking signings from all 4 corners of the globe seems fanciful considering the current situation anyway. But theres no justification that Mowbray should stay in case a new manager doesnt for whatever reason want an enhanced scouting network. 3. Again I think you are being optimistic expecting an influx of signings but my point is long term you could argue we have actually gone backwards this season in terms of recruitment. We have added 2 big earners who we would find it impossible to shift but neither of whom are any real use. We have also lost the aforementioned keeper we had. The 2 most successful signings are a soon to be 36 year old midfielder who might contribute for another season, and a centre back who will almost certainly go back in 6 games. Recruitment in the last 12 months has a big cross on it. 4. I dont get why you are naming youngsters in your argument of Mowbray should stay. If you said Travis he certainly deserves credit for him. Buckley has played bits and bobs almost exclusively out of position and not established himself. Rankin Costello has made only 2 starts (and struggled im both) so again at this point judging Mowbray is not evidence of anything positive. Thompson cant make the 9 man bench even when all of our left backs are injured, Vale made the bench for the first time yesterday with little appetite to bring him on, and Carter has again been on the bench to make up the numbers. When a gap came available he would rather bring back Mulgrew who he has written off prior. None of these are points which enhance Mowbrays position at this time. 5. The issue about waiting for budgets is a long standing problem and you know that and constantly brush it off. "Its the way they work." Why is the start date so critical, early September, late September, early October, late October, the need for players is exactly the same regardless! And FFP or no FFP, we are going to have a very limited budget, which is why we need to steal a march on the best cheap freebies to fill the gaps, and ideally let all but Downing go from the out of contracters.

To be fair to Mowbray, I dont think its fair to give him anything but praise regarding Travis. He has consistently and quite rightly played him since he broke through and often with Evans to allow Travis to break forward. Nyambe is an interesting one. He has come on leaps and bounds this season but hes still far from the complete player and there was a long while when Bennett was shoehorned in over him which cant have helped.