If we sign someone before the end of this season would you be critical because we should have waited?

To get promoted we have to essentially finish top of a 7 team mini league in which we are currently 3rd. Then beat 3rd over 2 games and 4th/5th over 1 game. Mathematically the chances are slim, thats not being negative. Even if that happened, we could still sign another keeper. IF McLaughlin was the target that Mowbray wanted, factoring in that hes a cheap solution to fill an impending void when money is tight, it would have made sense to sign him up on a pre contract agreement and thats a void filled with a player the manager likes for cheap. I think you are just going out of your way to defend the clubs usual sluggishness in terms of getting their ducks in a row. If we signed someone you would 100% not say "we should waited to see what division we are in" and as mattyblue points out you are very active in here and at pestering Nixon etc so you quite clearly dont believe that. I would agree though that the season will start at the start of the season. Cant argue with that.

I suspect he would cost a fee and not an insignificant one. Especially in this economic situation I dont think theres any chance of that.

Bauer was the big miss and obviously down to Mowbray implying that he wouldnt play very much. Initially we failed to get him and despite talk of various lists was unable to sign any alternative so had a season of trying to shoehorn Rodwell in at centre back and became a big problem. Then we made another play for Bauer, he went to a rival, maybe Adarabioyo is a better option but at the end of this season we are back to square one. Very much the one that got away. @neophox Walton isnt a realistic long term target. I think the only person seemingly championing McLaughlin was chaddy (has changed since he went elsewhere like) but the point is that if he was a target it is a symptom of an again sluggish way of working by Venkys that he has been allowed to slip through our fingers. Talk about not knowing what division we are in is saving face and putting a needlessly positive spin on things. Mathematically a promotion is unlikely and as @bluebruce puts brilliantly if it he did sign for cheap and then we did get promoted there is no rule saying he would be 1st choice. We will never run fully efficiently under Venkys and their backward way of working will always run us back. Maybe Mowbray should have taken the chance to talk to their cardboard cut outs making a first appearance at Ewood on Saturday.

If McLaughlin was a target (we will probably never know) then a pre contractual agreement could have been agreed so that doesnt really wash. Ultimately it would be another example of delays within the club allowing other clubs to get ahead and sign our targets.

If McLaughlin was genuinely a target, which we will never know then it is poor planning again in terms of he would have been a cheap solution to fill a position we dont have any players for next season. Whether we all think he would have been a shrewd addition or an underwhelming one is irrelevant to that. We saw with Bauer that we had a signing in mind, dallied, were beaten to it and had no plan B so lets see how this plays out. Talk about potentially holding back tactically in case we mount an unlikely play off triumph is incredibly naive in terms of how inefficient and slow minded the club is under Venkys.

He isnt complaining, he isnt taking part in the conversation. And I am not defending him, I have called him a knobhead and a shit manager. I am just stating the facts that he had hardly any resources and had to sell his best 2 players. I have not stated whether I feel that he used those limited resources well or otherwise, my point is that he had very limited resources.

At least theres a reason this year for the owners typically disorganised approach allowing others to steal a march. Mowbray better hope he is allowed to fly to India otherwise no signings will be coming!

Yes, all frees and loans apart from one for 250k. Net spend of minus 10 million. Your dislike of Coyle is overriding any logic.

He had his best 2 players sold for 10m and was given 250k to spend and otherwise had to make do with loans and frees to replace those 2 and the series of loans Lambert decided to bring in, the best of whom Coyle signed permanently. Whether he was happy accepting such a bad budget and whether he spent it wisely or not is not my point. I know hes a shit manager and a knobhead but surely you can look past that and admit he was not given a good budget.

Not really sure any of that is relevant to the points I was making, that Coyle didnt have much money at all to work with, and that Villa's transfer team however its made up is doing an awful job of recruitment.

I think he was trying to pander to the fans, former player, promises of "good football" the usual story really. The transfer committee policy certainly isnt "fine" at Villa, Smith may be ok with it but hes managing his boyhood club. It has ended disastrously in terms of the signings actually made. You can throw a lot of insults at Coyle who is a hopeless manager but certainly one of them isnt that he had anything other than peanuts to spend. He had to sell his best 2 players in Hanley and Duffy, and needed quite a few in all bar one he couldnt spend a fee on, and that was 250k for Bristol City outcast Derrick Williams. He did sign a lot of shite but he had no money and the likes of Graham, Williams and Mulgrew have contributed heavily under Mowbray who has had the privelidge of only selling Raya and having loads to spend in comparison.

Nixon strikes again, talking out of his arse.

His time at Leeds was admittedly underwhelming in quite a lengthy period of poor seasons for the club. His last 2 jobs have involved getting Cardiff promoted and saving Rotherham (very impressively) so I wouldnt write him off just yet and I'd certainly suggest that he is a better bet than the inept Woodgate.

Would bring in Armstrong for Gallagher. Nyambe for Bennett. And Rankin Costello out, Williams in if fit, otherwise Downing to LB and Rothwell or Johnson in CM with Evans and Travis.

I may be mistaken but I think chaddy tried to claim that Coyle did have decent resources to sign who he signed. Mowbray obviously has had more money than Woodgate and has signed a couple of really expensive disasters but he has also signed some real bargains (Dack, Armstrong, Holtby etc) and we are higher than when we started with him. Agree with all of your very well put points regarding the argument that he MAY not have had full say on transfers. I think it is a really flawed argument as you say.

It was the wrong decision to appoint him. He has never at any point appeared to be a competent manager and to be honest he has done well to last this long considering their dreadful results. I think he can have all of the excuses in the world but his signings were shite, his team selections were strange, he didnt get the best out of his players, and they have dropped 14 places in a matter of months. I cant see any teams rushing to appoint him as manager. You mention Pears who he has started playing but he did sign a keeper called Stojanovic in January for over 1 million who has only played 1 game so he has had little alternative. I have not seen anything to suggest that Woodgate didnt pick the signings. If it was a transfer team it should be scrapped like at Villa. People throwing players upon a manager without a plan or necessarily being wanted by the manager.

Which accounts? There may be truth in the rumour that we want him but the manager said last week that he isnt in a position to be offering contracts so its not practically done. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18527266.mowbray-reveals-rovers-contract-boost-ahead-re-start/

Definitely the correct decision, albeit very late and of course correcting a mistake that perhaps should never have happened. Woodgate has as been touched on never appeared to be anything like a competent manager. Pulis finished 7th last season. They are now 21st. That cannot be defended or justified. Have they even lost much from last season either? Downing came here but couldnt start games contractually anyway. The likes of Flint, Mikel and Braithwaite all played bit part roles too. And the signing albeit not with loads of money from Woodgate have basically all been shite. Warnock is a proven Championship manager and you couldnt wish for anyone better in this situation. Ah the phrase "attractive football" often used to try and defend and cover up the fact that results are inadequate. The most attractive style of football will always be where your team scores more than the opposition.

Id agree that the comment on Lowe was harsh and I have never underplayed that it was a difficult (if achievable) task but a "healthy number of points" would have led to survival so that is untrue.

The fact that our form or results would have extrapolated to this that or the other is irrelevant and flawed. He came in with a difficult but not impossible task of keeping us up which he failed at. He came close but he failed. Another flaw regarding extrapolating results is you look at some of the teams we beat near the end of the season, Villa, Brentford etc, they had nothing to play for.

I think there has definitely been a progression, our team is definitely in a healthier state as you would expect with the resources and time he has had. The question would be have we progressed enough, I would say I am content with that too but felt the screenshot was making out that it was remarkable progress which is very hyperbolic. Mowbray has done a good job here. I would say that people overlook his part in the relegation, although Coyle (and obviously the owners overall) has to take tbe vast majority. Mowbray came in to try and carry out a very difficult but not unachievable task of keeping us up. Theres no real validity in exteapolating results, he failed and that was a setback. I also think that to try and justify a narrative of Rovers fans being over critical, many overlook the amount of praise, very justified as it was, that he received when he got us promoted. There have also been 3 points when his job was rightly discussed as if it should have been in the balance and the fact that he overcame each of the 3 situations does not mean that the criticism at all 3 times was unwarranted. 11 games into League 1 and we had already lost 4, when his neglect of the defence sent us spiralling last season and when we were 17th or 18th after a third of this season.

Saw this retweeted on twitter, not sure if the tweeter is on here but anyway I think it can make an interesting conversation. I would say of course that I think Mowbray has done a good job here. The squad is better now and we are in a better place now compared to when he joined, not sure there is much argument in that. Playing devils advocate, is it THAT much of an progression to in 3 years time go from being in the bottom 3 in a league to then be outside the top 6 within that same league having never broke into that top 6? A very healthy budget that neednt be downplayed, and a few youngsters in particular that the manager deserves plenty of credit for the way he has nurtured but ultimately it is a massive strength to inherit such young players like Lenihan, Nyambe and Travis. Mixed transfers including expensive duds, free/cheap revelations, some cheap players along the way who were useful within the progression and fairly decent overall use of the loan market. Failed to save us from relegation, kudos for promotion to put us back to where we started, gradual progression since.

Itd be a surprise surely if that was the 33 year old dropped earlier in the season by League 1 Sunderland due to poor form and with only one season at Championship level.

Corry Evans really is a conundrum analysing his Rovers career and making any sense of it. I think you would look at his midfield partners and see some correlation between his own form and the quality of his partner. His partnership with Travis has been by far the most successful, and their points per game record is very impressive. Throw Downing in next to them and you have a little bit of everything in there. He's had some really terrible partners in his time, players like Lowe, Akpan and Williamson who could barely pass a ball 5 yards, and then Danny Guthrie who didnt have close to the physical capability of playing in a Championship midfield 2, so whilst that doesnt remove all responsibility from Evans, and he did have occasional good games or good spells in spite of that, he was fighting against the tide. He has complimented the energy of Reed and moreso Travis much better than any partner he has had in the past. Looking at his commitment and I dont think it can be coincidence considering how many times it happened that he often recovered from injury just to play for his country. Maybe he was unwilling to play through the pain barrier? But then again, he seems totally unfazed that he had his skull caved in so it really is a mystery. I wouldnt say that he is a particularly assertive midfielder, I have always felt that he was fairly neat and tidy but rarely does he take a game by the scruff of the neck. He finished the League 1 season as arguably our best player for the last month or so, after missing much of that season, he started last season really well, got a new contract and then seemed to somewhat predictably fade away somewhat. However when he came in next to Travis his form massively improved over a decent period of time and I hope it continues.