To rinse the Everton young support, they’ve no interest in attracting ours.

Probably be like last season, where they were organising Friday/Saturday games through out pre season, and forgot to arrange one on the Saturday before the start of the season. I'm not really sure why we aren't playing a match on 5th July either considering they will have been training for two solid weeks before that? Unless they are doing something behind closed doors maybe.

https://rovers.co.uk/news/2025/june/25/ticket-news--rovers-v-everton/ Rovers have announced ticket prices for the pre season match with Everton. Under 12 non season ticket holders are being charged £8 which I think is ridiculous. A nominal £1 or even free would surely be the way forward to potentially attract the next generation. Extremely poor but unsurprising for a hugely out of touch regime.

I think they might well have. Court case and all that.

Gestede specifically mentioned free agents when he talked about plans this summer. But especially with domestic based ones, I am guessing the financials have proved too much (signing on fees and wages) on our budget.

Well we might be..... if they are a free agent after leaving a Scottish League 2 team 😉

This is what dutch speaking fans are saying: '4.5 million and they can have him' 'Sounds like a great move for the club but less so for Brian, who really wants to play European.' It doesn't seem likely if both those things are true, not to mention the article the rumor is from's top comment is making fun of the publication for their inaccuracy in reporting with transfer dealing with this very player. '“De Keersmaecker saw a transfer to FC Midtjylland in January,” nice work again VP.' I seriously doubt it's going to happen now, I'll look into Kapuadi later.

We aren't in the market for free agents due to signing on fee/wage demands. Both look to have decent pedigree compared to our first two signings, which tells me they probably won't happen.

I’m going to do some more speculating here. The £26 million was requested (as evidenced in order of 7/6/23) for Venkys London Ltd, Venkys Overseas Limited and Venkateshwara London Limited - but with no details as to proportions. The Order dated 31/10/23 then tells us this £26 million was to cover their commitments for the year 23-24 (suggesting ‘payment in advance’) Venkys Overseas Limited is the company which they claimed was for rearing of ducks etc (source - Directorate of Enforcement press release 2/9/23) As you know, Venkateshwara London Limited own the training ground - I’d postulate some of that £26 million was to enable them to pay instalments due (to the club) on the purchase of this. The fact they then took out the loan against the training ground (I think someone may have suggested £9 million?) possibly supports this. In October ‘23 the next £11 million requested - the breakdown in the relevant order (31/10/23) indicates this was also for 23-24 commitments (which I’d suggest makes this part of the initial £26 million) £3.54 million sent + £11 million sent + £9 million loan on training ground = £23.54 million (not far off - maybe the remainder was for rearing more chickens🤔 * ) * Despite the aforementioned DoE press release stating no business activity being initiated in the eleven years since Venkys Overseas was incorporated 🧐🤨 (nothing dodgy in trying to send more funds to them then…) I’ve made a few assumptions along the way there so I might be spot on but equally I could be entirely wrong!! Edited to add an additional thought… The £15 million in March ‘24 could be the payment in advance for 24-25. Is this figure lower than the year before because of Adam Wharton…

Where are we at with Brian De Keersmaecker? Anyone seen him play outside of those Youtube highlight packages? Probably not... Personally I'm itching for a centre-back and word online seems to be that we're linked with Steve Kapuadi.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cy7ng4vj8leo The French football authorities don't mess about after they relegated Lyon over the state of their finances. Meanwhile Man City are spending hundreds of millions bringing in new players despite having 113 charges against them.

Unbelievable that, yesterday. Fair play to the whole team.

Unless they've changed approach, history shows this isn't true - not unless their valuation is reached. There's countless posts about players who left for free under their tenure when offers were widely reported to have been received.

Wonder if it will be as Stuart Jones replacement, essentially as "loan manager"? Rovers have been advertising for the role, Lowe has worked with younger players as head of youth in the past & current day Rovers love an internal promotion

I know he was here before Waggott 🙄 but I'm saying its odd he always survived especially given our turnover in backroom staff. It's no surprise, none at all, that you'd think it was completely normal.

And so might Mowbray, JDT and Eustace but Lowe always kept his job.

Definitely begs the question of what was the other 22 million for? We've managed to survive the last few years on less than 20 million total so how were they needing to send 15 million a year? Where was it all going?

Maybe, but that only mentioned ‘financial commitments’ - there was no reference to transfer funds (or anything else for that matter ). The £26 million was what they wanted to be able to send to which the DoE objected (hearing of 7/6/23) The £3.54 million was the sum they said was needed to prevent HMRC issuing a winding up order. (hearing of 23/6/23) As an interim measure, the judge (in trying to balance the two sides) allowed this lower sum to be remitted.

I think he may be referring to the initial request for 26 million. As we all know, not much if any would have gone towards transfers. It's interesting though that it went from 26 million to just under 4 to pay the bills. It definitely begs the question of what were they doing with all that money and where was it going because as we're all well aware, they weren't shelling out for loads of new players or stadium upgrades. I think a large part of their failures is simply down to them bing thick, arrogant and lazy, but you'd be foolish to say there's nothing dodgy been going on.

Can I ask where you’ve got that from as I can’t see any reference to requesting funds for transfers ( or the judge rejecting the same) in the original order. Just to add, the only condition for the first payment was the guarantee - the other conditions were added later.

Which is to be expected as if you are under suspicion of what they were/are and being investigated they aren't going to allow millions to leave the country and go to agents and other British or worldwide football clubs. Stands to reason really.

Lowe was here well before Waggott turn up here. Ismael might not want so many coaching staff members on his team or wants his own staff in

In the original case Venkys asked for permission to send funds for transfers and the judge declined, saying the courts would only permit the sending of essential funds to maintain their investment. This is why they have to send a detailed audit of what invoices the funds are being used for, to ensure no funds are used for anything other than essential funding to ensure the business does not go bust.

Bit like politicians. They never answer a question but lead you down a verbal rabbit hole and before you know it you've forgotten what you originally asked

mustapha bundu leaving plymouth after refusing new contract,we should be all over that imo