ROVER AND OUT
Shock as Mowbray admits he’s ready for exit
TONY MOWBRAY has revealed he’s ready to quit Blackburn Rovers after a remarkable no-holds-barred press conference.
The former Hibs and Celtic boss has Rovers in eighth place and still with an outside chance of making the play-offs.
But that’s after a torrid run of six games with just one win that means the promotion dream is out of their hands.
Mowbray has managed the Lancashire club for five years, building them back up from League One – though the Premier League has eluded him.
And in a press conference bombshell he admitted there had been no contact from the “men in suits” at Rovers with an exit looking likely as his contract is up in the summer.
He said: “What answer do you want? I don’t know what goes on in the background of football clubs. Men in suits, they get on with their jobs and there will be a reason I don’t know.
“There will be people you should ask, not me. I can’t give you an answer.
“What I do know is I don’t go knocking on doors and say, ‘Can we talk about the contract?’ There’s been no conversations, no approaches, no discussions and we’re a week away from the end of the season.
“What do you want me to think? I don’t feel I’m being disloyal by saying anything other than it looks like I’m leaving.”
Mowbray revealed he has hardly seen his kids due to the burden of work at Blackburn.
The 58-year-old, who has been at the helm since February 2017, added: “I’m not sure I’ve had my work-life balance right. I commit a lot of time to this club, away from my family and my kids, but I need to address that pretty soon.
“I just feel the time is right, five years is a long time. We have had a five-year plan and it’s come to an end, maybe someone else’s voice needs to be heard.
“It looks like I’m leaving because there’s no contract discussions and I’m out of contract at the end of the season.
“I’m pretty relaxed. Why? Because I’ve got a life balance to get on with.
“My youngest son was seven when I joined, he’s going to be a teenager next week. I’ve hardly seen him. I’ve seen him once, sometimes twice, a week for the last five years. “He’s a little boy and he needs his dad to watch him on a Sunday. I like to take him to school, I like to take my family out for dinner if I’m at home.” Mowbray bossed Hibs during the emergence of the ‘golden generation’ that included Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson and Steven Whittaker. His time at Celtic began in 2010 but he was sacked after just nine months in charge.