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John Buckley, local, academy product, I'm sure he's a lovely lad. Putting him on a plinth with the likes of Garner, Shearer, Dalglish. Clayton, Douglas and the rest, is brain-dead from this football club and makes a mockery of the whole thing. How would he make the cut of 'legends' at England's tenth most successful football club? Could this anniversary season have been any more tinpot?

Really, really not looking forward to this. When do Rovers EVER do anything the easy way? Was only the other season we really needed to beat Sheff Wed at home to give us the best chance of staying up (might have been enough to keep us up?) and we turned in an absolute horror show and lost 1-3. Instead we went and drew with Coventry and then turned champions Leicester over in their own back yard to secure safety.

Again, I am boring myself saying it, but the most clear and obvious tweak he could make is to bring on Ribeiro/Pickering instead of De Neve. I'd wager we'd be at least two points better off.

Obviously, a year or 2 down the line, these obscure recruits may well (at least in some cases) progress and become experienced Championship performers with the required "know how" to close out games. Unfortunately, by that point, they will be wanting Championship level wages befitting their stature, which Venkys/Pasha/Rudy/the club will not offer, so the process will be repeated ad nauseum

This weekend is the FA Cup second round proper and the Premier League and Championship clubs are entering in the next round. Despite the almost downgrading of the competition by the FA and clubs for me the third round is a special date in the football calendar. I guess it's an age thing as many of a certain generation will recall the excitement and magic of the cup. I have vivid memories of crowding around a transistor radio at school on Monday lunchtime after the previous rounds games had been played. Replays were always the week after the original game and replays would go on until there was in a winner in a proper game. And clubs would play a full strength team. The draw takes place on Monday evening around 6.45 but the bad news it's on TNT, Discover+, ESPN, something called FUBO and YouTube which pretty much precludes a lot from watching it. Personally I would like to get an away match at a lower league ground I haven't been to but failing that any home draw.

Buckley honour cap... I'm flabbergasted

If they'd given the training ground back to the club it would be more attractive. It all depends on who might fancy buying it though, a wealthy investor who wants to rebuild it or a hedge fund then 55 mill is probably way too steep but to a billionaire it's cheap.

Agree with most of your post, but, (if you had the money) would you pay (at least) £55m for it tomorrow?

That's what that over-rated "Championship experience" gets you. "Let's replace them with some relegation specialists from obscure European Leagues. Think of how much money we'll save!"

The narrative has definitely changed in terms of the accounts now though so there has been some sort of a shift in head office and some alarm bells finally going off. I've been of the opinion that possibly the main finance people and bankers at the VH group have taken the reigns off the loons due to all the ongoing court/investigation/asset seizing that went on. They way it's now being run suggests a serious administration intervention in India. I don't think the owners would sanction any sale if they can stop it but the cashing in of all assets, the wage cap, no contracts for better paid players moving forwards and the minimal reinvestment on less wages to sell in the near future all points to preparing the club for something. Shadowman himself said the benefactor model - such as it supposedly was with them - is over so that suggests past funding levels are over for good now. Once this latest reset proves useless when income continues to dwindle and we don't create 10 million quid players to sell out of nothing overnight, what then ? There really is nowhere to go and those finance people might hopefully finally insist on selling the club and finally cutting the mess away.

Could get back into it! Hold those catches lads!

Wow - 5 minutes of subline to ridiculous cricket! We could have had 3wkts in 3 balls, we have 2! Come on England.

We conceded 2 last minute goals in Eustace's 12 months here. Conceded 7 in 4 months so far this season!

The bit in bold is me too, I just can't muster any effort to travel the 50 odd miles midweek anymore. What has helped me recover some of my enthusiasm is my 16 year old lad is completely Rovers obsessed, which has taken some doing when all his mates are Man City, Liverpool, Stoke and Port Vale fans. Been taking him since he was 5, but would say it took until the start of the 21/22 season where he really took notice, we have probably done 90% of weekend games since the start of that season home and away as I want to make the most of it while he is so interested. The day he loses interest, if he does will probably see me drop off quite a bit I imagine.

A far, far cry from the stuff we were watching last season when Eustace had us as one of the most organised sides in the division. You knew when we had a lead under Eustace we were unlikely to let it slip and had confidence in the team seeing it out. Still onwards and upwards under the 'new project'!

They really are taking the piss with these. Beamo was a figure of derision back in the day and for many years after his retirement from playing. In later life he was Commercial manager for many years of course and I remember being on the Fans Forum when someone suggested the Club bring out a DVD to commemorate something or other when the team was still good. Beamish's response to that was to pour cold water on it saying - "Who here has a DVD player?" Everyone just looked at each other. Who the hell is picking these nominees? Mowbray, (Buckley - nothing against him per se but come on) and now Beamish. No recognition for the likes of Sid Puddlefoot Howard Kendall and (Sir) Kenny Dalglish. Has Damien Duff been awarded? Next month, Jim Iley, Steve Kean, Bradley Orr and Lucash Neill.

The only way this lot let us go is if they have to - either because finances dictate it or because their legal issues prevent them from owning us or sending money out of India over to us. They're probably best described as a modern day reincarnation of the Oystons - nobody really wants them, they run the club as an amateur outfit on the lines they are comfortable with - but always do just enough to ensure they keep control and have no intention of letting that go. Fortunately for Blackpool fans they eventually found a legal route to his removal via the Court action of the previous major shareholder. I had my fingers and toes crossed that the Indian legal proceedings would be our answer to that. Sadly that hope seems to be fading, although some hope remains that once the Wharton/Szmodics cash runs out and there's nobody else left to sell breaking point will be reached.

I've been going longer than him so I want one too

Maybe he should go with Elliott Jackson from the LT

Bizarre but I suppose he still has friends down there and will be in a few phone books so an easy one to sort out.

That dropped catch from Smith as opposed to the ripper of a catch from Labuschagne sums up the difference between the 2 teams. The Aussies are ruthless.

It's a mixture of poor game management, poor substitutions, and inherently poor players without the backbone or fire in their bellies to see the games out. But hey, let's pin all the blame on the officials instead

If they continued to refuse to write any debt off, I'd consider the requirement for any prospective purchaser to give us at least £55m (and rising) an absolute bar to finding new owners. Who'd want to give us that much in our current state? (If we unearthed another couple of Adam Wharton's - maybe) I wasn't even aware of the 25% rule until the Wednesday situation cropped up. Ludicrous imo.

That's a ridiculous stat but of course non of it is to do with the same stupid things he keeps doing with subs etc. Non of i tell thee.

Buckley, err, ok.