Have a listen to what Keegan says from 1:26 onwards. That's exactly the type of attitude I want to see from a Rovers manager. Mowbray is so far away from that kind of positive approach it's unreal. Bigging up average opposition every week just to cover himself. It gives players an excuse and puts doubts in their minds before a ball has even been kicked. There are many things that wind me up about this lot. The defeatist, loser mentality is right up there as one of them. The fact he makes out as if he is some sort of football visionary is absolutely laughable.

I saw this on twitter a couple of days ago. I think the photographer said it was taken from the top of Earl Street.

It's the "forget the Premier League" line that doesn't sit well with me. It might have been said hypothetically by the author, but that is exactly what a lot of the fan base has been conditioned into thinking. Not just that, it plays right into Mowbray and Waggott's hands. Mowbray's talking down of the club, Waggott making out we are lucky to have Mowbray, the L1 promotion being milked for all it can. All of that creates a false notion that mid table Championship is ok and the best we can hope for. Do the pair of them want promotion? I seriously don't think they do. The proposal to sell off and downgrade our Premier League standard training facilities for no real reason says it all for me. Unfortunately a number of fans seem to be content with mid table Championship these days. Waggott comes across as a 'normal' CEO, he isn't Shebby, Mowbray isn't Kean/Coyle and the club isn't Bolton or Wigan. All negative, miserable viewpoints, imo, that make mid table mediocrity seem appealing and weirdly comforting to some. Joe obviously means well, I respect that he has put some time into coming up with a solution, so this isn't a slight on him. I just feel that Mowbray and Waggott would be smiling from ear to ear if they were to read that article. "Forget the Premier League" is music to their ears, though they will never admit it. The plan suggested would, imo, result in us giving up hope and end any ambition to get back to where we used to be and also allow 'easy street' to continue unchallenged. The only solution for me is for the owners to get a decent manager in and back a proper promotion push. After all, Mowbray told us the owners were excited after our L1 promotion and wanted to fund an immediate push for the Premier League but he had to "calm them down". It shows it is possible but only if the owners bite the bullet and make a bold decision.

I don't know what would be worse, the inevitable drubbing or the sympathy from some of their fans afterwards. I know a number of their fans who are sympathetic towards us these days. There's even a thread on one of their forums about Rovers with some saying they miss us and want us back in the Prem. I preferred it when they hated playing us.

I wonder if losing to United 'shames' the owners into taking action? If I remember rightly, Allardyce was sacked after a heavy defeat at Old Trafford. Coyle was sacked after the FA Cup defeat to United. There's plenty of United fans in India, maybe even among Balaji's group of friends for him to lose face on those occasions. Could just be a coincidence, I suppose. I'm just wondering what the heck it will take for them to do something.

I really enjoyed the Michael Gray one. He spoke very fondly about his time at Rovers. You could tell how much he enjoyed playing for us and how gutted he was to leave in that way. We had a squad full of captains back then, players who could take the game to anybody. Hughes going to Old Trafford, playing a 4-4-2 when everybody played 1 up top there, and beating them showed that. Friedel recently said that his 8 years at Rovers were the best times of his life, not just his career. Chris Samba has said his best time was at Rovers and that Rovers is his club. He mentioned that Drogba and Anelka would tell him how much they weren't looking forward to coming to Ewood as they knew they would have to fight for 90 minutes. He wanted to sign for us again in 2017 but a deal couldn't be done and Villa signed him instead. He left in 11/12 because he didn't like the direction the club was going in and that "all the best players and people were being taken out". I've heard Ryan Nelsen on another platform say how much he loved his time at Rovers. He was baffled and shocked by how he was pushed out of the door at the end. He mentioned how somebody who had influence at the club (who he wouldn't name, but we can guess who) approached him at the training ground one day and said 'Tottenham want to sign you and we are cancelling your contract as we can't afford to keep you here'. He signed for Tottenham two days later. He was gutted at how he was ushered out and by the fact he didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to his teammates. It's good to hear old players speak fondly about the club. We had some great times before those pillocks turned up in 2010.

I think so too. I'm convinced Pulis is going to be the next man in. I really hope that doesn't happen.

I may be wrong, but that sounds like he is saying it is up to the owners whether they want to keep him as manager or not. "Do you want to carry on with the plan" (with me still in charge) "Or, do you want to throw that away and start everything again with a different idea" (under a new manager). The latter, Balaji, the latter! It's for the greater good of our football club. Half of the fan base is in denial, 'terrified' due to our relegation to L1, fooling themselves that this is somehow acceptable or alright for Blackburn Rovers. We need a change to reinvigorate the club and to hopefully remind the "we could be Bolton" crew of the actual standards of this club, which thankfully, many on here have not forgotten.

The thing that winds me up is that the Mowbray backers aren't doing so based on any real footballing reasons, it's simply based on sentiment. I've seen some even go as far as to say that they would move Mowbray upstairs if we were to get a new manager in. Why? Why are they so afraid to say Tony has to leave? They don't want him sacked because of this narrative of him being a nice, honest, family man who rescued Rovers. He probably is a nice guy, but since when has that ever been a reason to keep hold of a manager who is failing to get results? Throw in the promotion from L1 and it's a case of "Ah, he deserves another year, he needs more time". They just can't say what needs saying. For how long are these fans going to use L1 as an excuse to hide the fact that they have no ambition and that they are afraid of change? Let's forget the Premier League and stick with mid table Mowbray then, eh. Mowbray has done some good things, yes, but he isn't the man to take us up. I don't get why saying we want Rovers to challenge for promotion with a proper manager in charge is seen as a crime and viewed as "pathetic" by some. It really is baffling. What the heck do they want for their club?

Spoken like a true small time manager. Give the players an excuse to put in another half arsed display again, why don't you?

He could well be. It just goes to show the difference that could be made if the owners applied a bit of pressure. If they were present at more games I don't think we'd see half as much of the weird selections and lacklustre performances that we have to put up with. It's their lack of presence and the lack of accountability at the club that has caused the holiday camp mentality. At the moment it's far too easy for Mowbray to send messages to India via the press and simply carry on with the "we go again next week lads" approach.

I don't think they will be leaving anytime soon, sadly. There was talk that they want Balaji's son, who studies at Reading University, to eventually run the club. Does that mean there's another decade of this to come? An utterly depressing thought. We've got to hope that they either finally get fed up of losing millions every year and say 'enough's enough', or somebody makes them an offer that is too good to refuse (very unlikely, I know). I long for the days when all I thought about was the football on the pitch. I never used to give the Walker Trust, John Williams, Tom Finn or Martin Goodman a second thought. That's because I didn't need to, as a result of the fantastic job they all did in making sure we were one of the best run clubs in the country. Nowadays, I find myself becoming increasingly peed off with all of the charlatans that inhabit our club, the total lack of ambition and the absolute hogwash Mowbray comes out with. It takes the fun away from the actual football for me, because no matter what Mowbray says, the Coventry 3 do not want promotion to the Premier League and the owners clearly aren't bothered no matter how bad results get. What a crap situation this is.

That reads like a sulky response to me. It's clever though, as I think he will spin it in his favour if pushed on it further. "How about the promotion from League 1, Tony?" "You could say that, but listen, this club shouldn't find itself in League 1, our aim is to be back in the Premier League and we are working towards that". Cue the 'top man, Tony' posts on twitter/facebook.

Why doesn't he go the whole hog and say 'Barcelona lose games too?'. We lose at Barnsley, but 'never mind, Brighton beat Liverpool last week you know'. Makes sense. It's irrelevant whatever results those clubs are getting. On the one hand "we can't compete with Brentford" and "we haven't been tearing it up in the Premier League for a long time", but then it's alright to compare our results with those clubs just to cover yourself, eh, Tony? I've never seen a manager get so tetchy over even the slightest bit of criticism. Look at how prickly he gets with Sharpe and Bayes when they try and challenge him even just a little bit. He's contradicting himself on a weekly basis and to be honest, his ramblings are sounding more and more like the crook that went to Brunei. I can't believe we are witnessing another situation whereby the manager has made himself unsackable and is now trying to treat the fans like mugs by talking constant drivel. I thought those days were over. I'm glad that a lot of fans are realising what's happening though, as his mask is slipping.

You might be right, however, it certainly is a heck of a coincidence that this has happened at two clubs he has been at.

Funnily enough, Joe has a bit of a soft spot for Rovers. He used to post often on the Rovers 606 pages and another Rovers forum (no longer active) with a bunch of us around 2008-10. He was a regular in the match day threads and used to cheer us on, even though he's a Villa fan. It didn't stop the rascal from diving or scoring a winner against us though! Would love for us to sign him. He has lost his starting place at Forest. Has a cracking left foot and can play on either wing. Forest would want too much for him though. As for the game, I think we are going to pull off a surprise win tomorrow. We always seem to do that when things look bleak and the fans aren't expecting anything.

I really wouldn't want Tugay here under this lot. He is a club legend and there are so many fantastic memories of him in a Rovers shirt. Whenever I remember Tugay I smile as it reminds me of the real Blackburn Rovers, not this HSH infested impostor. The maestro doesn't deserve to be associated with these losers we have behind the scenes.

I don't want to write what I really feel about that quote from Mowbray. It's like I said last week, he's a small time manager not worthy of managing our club. He's basically covering himself with "you can't expect the Premier League guys, you haven't played there for a long time". It's a snide insult in order to protect himself. It's reminiscent of Mourinho's "football heritage" comment to United fans when they got knocked out of the Champions League one season (i.e you have a history of losing at this stage of the competition, 'it's not my fault'). This is not someone I want as manager.

I want Bilic or Hughes, but I feel it's likely to be Pulis due to his connection with HSH.

It makes no sense, especially when you consider we knocked it around ok earlier on this season. Imagine how peed off our more creative players like Dack, Elliott and Rothwell must be with this. Danny Graham said on a podcast recently that Mowbray and Venus have completely different views on style of play, tactics etc. I'm guessing Mowbray is for the tippy tappy stuff, whilst Venus prefers a more direct game. I wonder if Venus has taken charge, so to speak, over these last few games? He has certainly been more active on the touchline recently while Mowbray has sat uninterested in the background.

So much for us trying to play a passing game. We've done nothing but hoof it for the past few games! Mowbray just makes it up as he goes along. What an awful team selection that was. Look at how many players have gone backwards these past 2 years. Mowbray, Venus, Waggott, the whole lot of them need to do one.

I can't believe he has said that with a straight face. It reads to me like a plea to India. 'Don't sack me now, the journey has only just begun'. When we fail to reach the play offs this season it will be 'we are only a season into our journey to be honest, we've had to learn some harsh lessons, injuries haven't helped us, but we will be going all out for promotion next season'. For how long can a manager use the term 'journey' as an excuse for mediocrity? There has to come a point when those in Pune recognise this for what it is, surely.

Nyambe the fall guy again. What a surprise. This is the perfect excuse for Mowbray to shoe horn Harwood-Bellis into the starting 11 now.

I don't want them to, but I'm expecting Venky's to go down the agency route. As a client of HSH, I think there is a good chance we may see Tony Pulis as our next manager. I'm not sure how I'd feel about that. He can organise a defence, plus he isn't one for the 'softly softly' approach. Those two factors have caused us problems for years. It won't be pretty to watch, though.

I had a similar thought last night. He didn't seem to know anything about the initial interest in Harry Pickering. The way in which we rushed into signing Brereton out of the blue, the constant use of Gallagher on the right wing, the 'let's throw all our attackers on and see what happens' tactic. It stinks and actually does feel like a real life game of Football Manager being played out. Another thing, why does this stupid false 9 tactic only seem to appear when we are closing in on the top 6? It cost us last night and at QPR. I remember a game at Wigan last season when we were in a similar position, he tried to go with Holtby as a false 9 and it failed miserably. It feels like we revert to Armstrong down the middle when we are a safe distance away from the play offs. Get within 3/4 points of the play offs and suddenly Dack/Elliott/Holtby/Whoever is played as a false 9. Why? I remember hearing Glen mention on a podcast that when the rat was manager he would send the team sheet to Balaji for approval and he would make amendments to it. I'm not saying that's still happening today, but if somebody was to tell me that Balaji is the one who is picking the team and Mowbray is just the coach, suddenly all of this garbage would make sense.