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Tugay could smash it in from 25 yards as well. After Douglas, the most naturally gifted player we ever had.

England were basing their “feared” pace attack on a fit and firing Wood - which was always a gamble given his injury record. File his inevitable departure in the debacle file along with Stokes’s poor captaincy, McCullum’s unwarranted bravado, and the players’ inept batting, bowling and fielding. England could of course win 3-2 but I’ll eat my flat cap if they do

Just hope the guys with the soak up rollers are more on the ball tonight. On Saturday standing water was visible on the pitch just before half time. Why weren't they out there rolling through the interval?

Which is exactly the stumbling block every time any protest group is started. The only person that’s ever risked putting himself above the pit is Glen Mullan, who had financial and family issues because of it as well as death threats. Until someone’s willing to lead, nothing will really get off the ground. And I’m saying that as someone who’s not brave enough to lead!

This was a good listen. I bet it was disappointing to do a deep dive on the manager only days/hours before his post-Ipswich shopping list meltdown, then to have him come out swinging yesterday regarding the state of the pitch. You couldn't have forecast that ☔ Maybe you'll have to do an emergency update episode on the developments.

The wage cap such as it is is rumoured to be for new players coming in. We all know Cantwell's way above that and Travis, Brittain, Hyam would have been above it as well. Oddly enough Id imagine Pears is one of the only ones remaining apart from Cantwell and Tronstad above it. Maybe also Pickering and Carter? Not sure what Wharton would be on.

Yep. This 25p in the pound rule is ludicrous imo. For every £10m they inject from now on just to cover bills and keep the lights on, the potential purchase price to a new owner goes up by another £2.5m. A reward for bad ownership.

Very heavy rain forecast until between 2-3pm then not much rain for the 5 hours up to kick off. I'm guessing and hoping that 5 hours is long enough for the pitch to go from a saturated state to a playable state, even with our busted up old facilities? If they have staff out with those rollers for a couple of hours, will that do the trick before the teams warm-up at about 7.15pm?

That is the scale of incompetence at this club Tomphil They have put in over £200m; they have wrote off around £60m. The remainder sits as a debt owed to Venky's. It will not be outside of their commercial mind that, should the club ever go under (only possible if they pull their funding commitments), then the minimum they can expect to recover is 25% of 140m - around £35m. That is assuming I am understanding the 25p in the pound rule by the FA. And herein lies the issue with our 'model'. The more money the Venkys put in simply to offset losses, the more they saddle the club in debt (albeit, 'friendly debt'), and ultimately the more they get returned on sale. Very, very, very little of the £200m debt saddled to this club has been invested. It is just dead operating losses. Our (BRFC) accounts show a net asset of -£118m. We are insolvent. VLL show a +£27m of assets. Assume this is the club. We are still a positive on their overall Venky's group accounts. Player trading - profit. Revenue - down. Wages - down. Everything is in the favour of Venky's except still, after all of this time, requiring £15 - 20m per year "investment"...it makes no sense. Now, we can talk about Pasha's talk of "benevolence". In pure accounting terms, it is true. In all 15 years VLL has never took a single penny out of the club in fees, dividends, rent or interest. But is that a big deal? And what does he mean by that model now being over? Does he mean that Venky's are now intending to take a return; hence the increase rents for the community trust, or do BRFC now need to pay the holding company for the training ground? I don't know. But this is the only part of Venky's ownership which so far has been good and their man on the ground is telling us that is over. WTF. Just in general downbeat with the whole thing. This drainage is just another fiasco: fax machines, western unions, family threats, crumbling infrastructure. Venky's came here to increase their reputation. They have certainly done that but for all the wrong reasons.

That's what I was getting at last night -what looks like breaking of ranks and a rant from Val is perhaps just an orchestrated brief from the puppet master.

Frankly, I’m hoping it is off as I don’t want to go tonight. However, if it is on, I will be in my seat and surrounded by thousands of empty ones 😞

Panned it down all day here in Morecambe. Very wet November/December so far. Love that the main topic on here now is the weather. Sign of the clubs decline.

I think it should be ok but that’s not the point, after the shambles of the weekend they should be giving updates and some reassurance rather than pretending otherwise

They are the sorts of idiots who are best ignored anyway though. They dont need an excuse as they come up with enough of their own. Fixing the pitch does not excuse not investing in the team to any rational person. They still do the same now, they still have to. The one exception was the season we sold Wharton because the whole fee counted as profit. Had he not come through, even with the court case, they would have had no choice but to offset the losses again. I dont consider it financial support not to be sniffed at. But all Championship owners have to do the same. It isnt very significant spending, its just offsetting losses that occur even in seasons where they dont spend a penny on transfers. Even Mowbray didnt have continued financial support, it was just one season really of reasonable spending. Similar to Tomasson albeit double the fees. No manager has had any prolonged support, the odd one has had fleeting support. If a manager is performing poorly, or a player, or a staff member, they deserve criticism of that I dont doubt. I also do respect when people kick up a fuss but again that is still largely based on protecting themselves, knowing they cannot succeed in these conditions and maintaining their personal reputation. Its not them taking a personal stand on behalf of the fans as part of a noble and ethical cause. Some of those you mention obviously go beyond that. Suhail is an extension of Venkys. Anderson and Kean also went beyond merely protecting their own self interests. As a side note, a lot of it is speculation. I dont personally believe that all current players are on less than £10k, Cantwell for one wont be, even if I can clearly see the intention to keep cutting the wage bill. Equally, not convinced Mulgrew was on £20k and even if he was, he had become surplus to requirements for footballing reasons, but had a contract from when he was a key player, we didnt do him a favour to keep paying him.

Who takes responsibility for that money?

Ribchester also but a lot lighter than 10 minutes ago.

Its not perfect when nobody turns up!

Yet tens of millions have gone a awful signings wages, agents commission and pay offs and wages/pay off for directors who couldn't direct themselves to the bog. Now look what we are left with now they've run out of money or the willingness to spend it. Absolutely shameful but hey rejoice because we are still in business and paying clowns for the circus.

They'd love it to be abandoned, another game to sell tickets for, sell hospitality for. An extra home game is perfect for the regime

According to radar the last of the rain is around 2pm and breaks off for 3pm for the evening.

Pouring down in Clitheroe now. Looks like we may not have seen the end of it after all🌨️🌨️☔☔

Val's words say to me they aren't expecting or going to push the owners for extra pitch money. So are prepared to try and fund it themselves from any existing budget surplus and future sales/cuts. I reckon he probably had a heads up from someone before he let fly in the press otherwise he'd have been gagged.

Fair point Mark. Maybe change that part for negative press then.

Recommend Weather and Radar for accuracy. Google it, click it, scroll down to radar and tap on the map. Pinch n zoom accordingly. 👌

2 hours drive, all motorway, quiet once you get past Leeds and the M1 junction. Good city centre in Hull and walking distance to the ground. A boring draw yes but at least not a nightmare journey.