Without sounding like a JDT fanboy (albeit that 1st season was the first bit of optimism I'd had for Rovers in a long time), when it all went sour in the 2nd season, he was the first person within the club to start name-dropping Suhail.

hopefully not because Pears is #1

And looking at the minutes, part of this blokes remit is meant to be the academy. Absolute car crash stuff, they're so far out of their depth they're probably just laughing at us.

An excellent idea. I look forward to viewing the results. I suggest also doing Facebook as Twitter is garbage and a lot don’t go there anymore. A closely followed by B

This got to go to twitter vote if you dont mind lol

Brilliant. Worth saving to comment on Rovers Facebook mutterings.

Some cracking quotes on the V2 minutes. We could celebrate these, maybe with a flag to take to games. Therefore I've picked out the best quotes I can find, and we can vote on which Suhail Tifo we should make - probably best for away games. Vote for either A, B, C or D?

Yeah, like I said. It depends what the manager thinks on this….i know that the coaching team love Leonard. Rated him in the Ash Phillips, Adam Wharton category a few years ago. So if they think he can stay fit then maybe they’re willing to give him a chance. I get your point on strikers but it works the other way too. If they are going to back Ohashi and Gueye to play and score the goals we need then who is going to come in on loan and wait for one of them to get injured just to sit on the bench? The whole point of players going out on loan is to play, right? Next point, do you really wanna piss one or both of your own established strikers by bringing in some kid on loan who takes game time in time to go back to their own club who reap the rewards? I don’t expect you to agree (I’ve learnt that lesson) but I’m just trying to provide another perspective. Maybe, just maybe they believe in Ohashi, Gueye, Leonard and Tyjon?

Probably retired the 11 shirt for Shearer 🥱

The reason we desperately needed a #10. Cantwell can't be relied upon - he always picks up knocks, niggles and colds that keep him out of games.

How can Cantwell be fit but not ready? Maybe its just me ,but he seems to get mollycoddled more than anyone else at Ewood. P.S .That`s "footballers only "I`m alluding to.

Maybe because your opinions are laughable?

Total admiration for the fans who participated and for Glen in particular... SS has been at Rovers for 13 years now hasn't he? He came in when Jerome Anderson was half pushed out. His lack of footballing nouse accumulated in that time is breathtaking. I used to give Swag criticism but the guy somehow survived 7 years managing to work alongside SS. No wonder the TV pictures of the Rovers "directors" always showed them direly miserable and not talking to each other. As for the Adam Wharton comment, I am sitting in Malta and I had heard about him when Salesbury Primary won the National Football Cup! ZERO AMBITION, ZERO MANAGEMENT SENSE, ZERO STAKEHOLDER AWARENESS

For context this was the original approved version of the minutes. Minutes of the Blackburn Rovers Fans’ Forum Meeting Monday 14th July 2025 – 6.30pm Present – Fans’ Forum Mark Hitchen John Wareing Glen Mullan Fin Rosbotham Ivan Rosbotham Annette Birkbeck Kenny Hodkinson Zubair Bassa Attiq Ali Steve Birtwell Terry Crawford Megan Longworth Duncan Miller Chris Lofthouse Neil Duckworth Katie Hull Present from BRFC Suhail Shaikh Chief Operating Officer Lynsey Talbot Head of Operations Christina Haines Admin, Access and Inclusion Officer/Supporter Liaison Officer Yasir Sufi Head of Commercial & Partnerships Adam Owen Head of Technical Development Anna Melia Head of Marketing Rob Gill Head of Media & Communications 1. Apologies for Absence Ray Williamson Savio Mathias Bharat Parmar Tristan Stock Peter Bolton Adrian Chenery Joel Chenery Anne-Marie Riach 2. Matters Arising from the Minutes of the Previous Meeting 15th April 2025 None. 3. Pre-Season – including Spain Tour YS stated that tickets for both games at the Pinetar Arena were available online from the venue. Asked whether there would be open training sessions, he replied that the cost that would be charged by the hotel were not justifiable. JW asked whether any game had been arranged for the weekend of 2nd and 3rd August. SS replied that nothing had been arranged as yet but that discussions were ongoing. 4. Staffing Changes MH wished to put on record his and the Forum’s thanks to Steve Waggott for his input to the Fans Forum over the past seven years. He asked whether the club had any comment to make on the terse official statement on his departure. SS replied that he wished to make no further comment. The process to appoint a new Chief Executive had been started by the owners, although he was not involved in the process. As a result he could not advise on the timescale for the process. I It was confirmed that at the moment Steve Waggott was still officially a club employee. Asked by JW about the reported departure of David Lowe, SS replied that as far as he understood this had not happened. 5. Club Communications DM asked about the status of the Fan Engagement Plans that the EFL now required clubs to produce each season. LT replied that the 2024/25 plan had been submitted before the end of June in line with EFL Regulation. The 2025/26 plan was being prepared by LT, AM and YS and would be signed off by SS and the Board and submitted by the end of July. GM asked whether the club were still supporting the Government’s proposals regarding a Football Regulator. LT replied that the position of the Club remained the same as it had previously. 6. Funding ZB asked for feedback on SS’s recent visit to the owners in India. SS replied that it had been a normal trip to finalise club budgets for the coming year. The owners had provided up to £17m to support the club in the previous year and a further £5m has recently be sent to cover for shortfalls in May and June. Capex budget of £1.5m had been proposed for planned stadium maintenance. Asked for clarification on the transfer budget by DM, SS replied that a budget had been agreed for five appointments of which some had now been filled. Overall the plan was to run a financially sustainable club in the Championship but with the aspiration to gain promotion to the Premier League. GM asked whether, if the club generates funds by player sales, some of these funds could be used to buy replacements. SS replied that, whilst there was no such general agreement in place there had been reinvestment in the playing squad from player sales, such as when the club re-invested 40% of Sammie Szmodics’ transfer fee. DM asked whether it was possible for any Championship club to be financially sustainable in the current market. AO replied that he had agreed to come to the club based on its model of developing young players and selling them on for profit as they develop to mitigate losses. He believed that this was possible with a Category 1 academy as the club had. MH asked whether SS had been able to obtain the maximum wage budget they asked for, as outlined in the last Forum minutes. SS replied that he had not got all he had asked for but had negotiated an improvement. 7. Season Tickets 2025-26 AM stated that information on the membership tiers would be issued in the following week and that the club had taken on board various issues with Blues membership. YS provided some information on season ticket sale for the 2024/25 season. The club had responded to fans’ desire to have season ticket prices launched earlier. The decision had been made to launch in March ahead of the club having a run of three games against teams in the relegation fight. As it happened the club lost all three of these games. Currently the number of season ticket sold were 3.6% down on the total sales at the same time in the previous season, but revenue was up by 10%. YS stated that in the 2024-25 season the club were 23rd in the Championship in terms of revenue from season ticket sales and that the Championship average season ticket income across all clubs was more than double that for Rovers. Rovers had year on year reduced Season Ticket pricing, which had led to a decrease in overall revenue. Only Hull City offer overall cheaper ticket prices across all age groups than Rovers in the 25/26 season. He stated that the club were not where they had hoped to be in terms of sales but were in a better position than had been feared earlier. In response to a question he stated that to date the club had sold about 400 tickets in Phase 2. JW asked whether the club intended to issue a flexible season ticket as they had done in January. YS stated that this may well be done in the New Year. There was a discussion about how the club could grow the sales of season tickets. YS believed that pricing was not the principal reason for declining sales. GM believed that the club should concentrate on lapsed supporters from the core fanbase, those whose families have been fans for generations. ZB wanted to grow the interest in the South Asian community in Blackburn, now a significant proportion of the population. ND agreed that the club should look at attracting fans who have no familial connection to the club. DM and GM asked whether the club could publicly recognise their failures in the management of the club which have had impact on attendances. SS replied that of course there had been mistakes. 8. Club Kits 2025-26 MH asked for an update on sales of the two kits so far released for the new season and the plans for the 150th Anniversary kit. YS replied that sales had been going well and that there had been a positive reaction from fans. The club had increased the order for the 3rd kit after the success of the 2024-25 version. GM praised the launch event recently held. The 150th Anniversary shirt would also be provided by Macron under the existing contract. It would be a limited edition shirt and would be released closer to the Anniversary date in November. The away kit would be launched on Friday 18th July. The team would be wearing this kit for the friendly game with Everton on 19th, as Everton had as yet only released their new home kit and they had requested that they wear it at the game. GM asked about the inadvertent leak of the kit the day before the launch. AM replied that the error had been an individual one made by a member of staff of the agency that had been contracted to help. It was extremely unfortunate, and the club had come to an agreement with the agency as a result. 9. Summer Works LT stated that bore holes were being drilled for the rails to be fitted for the new safe seating section that week. The rails would not be fitted before the Everton game as, once fitted they would require building regulation approval along with SGSA Licensing which would have been time restrictive as until the license is approved the whole area would not be able to be used. She expected that everything would be ready for the home cup game with Bradford City in August. MH asked what other work had been done in the close season. LT replied that £250,000 had been spent on the vomitories at both the Blackburn and Darwen Ends in the last year. The toilets in Blues Bar had been refurbished and a considerable amount of work had been done at Brockhall. YS stated that, contrary to some social media comment, the ANPR cameras which had been installed in the car parks were not for fans parking there but were for the number of cars who use the car parks across the week. An example was driving instructors who often brought their clients on to the car parks. YS stated that there had been upgrades to the turnstiles. There would be communication to fans ahead of the Everton game encouraging fans to have their mobile tickets ready for processing and downloaded to their wallet ahead of arriving at the turnstiles. GM asked about parking for stewarding staff on the club car parks, feeling that they should for security be allowed to park close to their work. LT replied that current staff who had car parking spaces would be protected but spaces would not be provided for new staff as there was no available space unless there was a need to make a reasonable adjustment. She said that Darwen Vale school had provided more space and that they had been willing to offer a number of spaces for staff who were willing to park there and walk down to and from the ground. 10. Equality, Diversity & Inclusion LT stated that there was nothing to report during the close season. 11. Women’s Team ML led the discussion on the club’s decision to voluntarily relegate the women’s team to League 4. Despite the club’s One Rovers inclusive campaign they had withdrawn funding for the team. SS replied that unfortunately due to the demands the current model was not sustainable, with a further significant rise in minimum criteria set by the league, increase in staffing levels and player contract it was not economically viable for the club to continue to support the team at the Championship level given the new funding requirements. The team had had a £100,000 sponsor but took less than £20,000 in ticket income in 2024-25 but the new funding would require expenditure of £1m a season. It had been the club’s decision to take voluntary relegation to work with the budget approved by the owners. KH asked whether there was any truth in the rumour that the club rejected an offer for some external funding for the team. SS replied that he was not aware of this. ML asked what the plan for the team was now. SS stated that they would compete in League 4. DM asked about the rumour of a team player whose funding for her rehabilitation programme had been stopped as a result of this decision. SS stated that this was not true. The player was unable to undertake her rehabilitation at Brockhall but the programme to support was continuing elsewhere and they were hoping to come to an agreement to train at the University of Lancashire’s facility in Preston or a suitable alternative location. YS pointed out that Rovers Women’s team were not the only club to be in a difficult financial situation. GM asked whether the club would accept that the decision had not been handled well, to which SS agreed. 12. Any Other Business a) CL asked if SS could confirm his role at the club. SS explained that he was responsible for the Academy and for the commercial operations at the club. The CEO would be responsible for the football club. b) GM requested that the club keep open consultation with the various fans groups, particularly BRFCST that had this when Steve Waggott was CEO. LT explained that the club had to outline its approach to consultation as part of its annual Fan Engagement Plan. It may be that a new CEO would approach consultation in a different way and it was possible to change the plan by notifying the EFL with 5 days notice. YS stated that it would be important that any fan communications were consistent across the whole fan base, and not just with select supporters.

This is version 3, though leap years ahead of version 1 which was approved and was gonna be released. Its completely inconsistent from 2 with the cut outs leaving sentences making no sense.

I just checked and McLoughlin has 124 championship appearances, the other summer signings have none. We'll have to see what that means. Ohashi had never played in this division but he ended up doing alright. Gueye had never played in it and he looked a donkey for at least 6 months before he got going a bit. Fingers crossed they all adapt fairly quickly, because if they don't we're a bit stuffed! 🤞

1. Winners of the Championship Southampton 2. Automatic promotion (runners-up) in the Championship Coventry 3. Four Play off semi-finalists in the Championship West Brom Boro Leicester Millwall 4. Three relegated sides from the Championship Wednesday Hull Oxford 5. Where will Rovers finish in the Championship? 9th 6. First Championship club to change manager (after the season starts) Watford 7. Winners of the Premier League City 8. A notable wild card prediction of something that will happen in the Rovers universe during the season (e.g. Donald Trump visits Ewood Park) Rovers to be top scorers in the league after 10 games

Leonard is a write off, even if he stays he cant stay fit. And Tyjon seems unlikely to play up front. With other positions, 2 for 1 can work especially as they can often be covered with veraatility. But at times we might want 2 up front at once in games, or if there is one injury, its always at least important to have someone on the bench. Also, Gueye cant just slot in for Ohashi so it requires a change of tactics.

And what was it that I’ve been saying previously? As far as I can recall I haven’t stipulated how many I wanted. Just that I refuse to judge the ones we have signed as better or worse than we had before, until I’ve watched them play. I actually wouldn’t sign another striker, unless we sell, or loan BOTH Leonard and Tyjon. Because I genuinely believe that Ohashi and Gueye are good enough and should be given the chance. The loans I’d target would be young, wide forwards who can create and maybe get us 5-10 goals.

Not that numbers mean much these days (sadly)

No Cantwell is a massive blow. Just stick Henriksson in to start. He was mid season anyway so not like he should be unfit.

When was this written? Sean Mcloughlin isn't far off 150 appearances on his own. He actually has more than that if you include all competitions.

New squad numbers announced. Notably 11 is still available.

Cantwell fit but not ready for tomorrows game. Axel and Miller "will be involved"