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First of all, he is not the ONLY problem at the Club but he is a bloody big part of it, he's an atrocious manager/ head coach - and he is fully complicit in the situation we currently find ourselves in. The real test of how good or poor a manager he is imo came last season. Literally from the first minute he walked through the door, remaining in the play off picture no longer seemed to be an option. In the summer he was completely on board ("aligned") with Gestede and Pasha as he oversaw the destruction of the squad. After wheeling and dealing with eleven or twelve players both in and out we've been left with arguably the weakest squad any of us can remember and definitely the one with the least attacking potential. Hardly surprising when we went into the season with only two strikers that he was prepared to use. Frankly I don't believe a word he says either. He's been prepared to pretend players were close to signing new deals one minute then make out they'd changed their mind on a sixpence the next, sling unfounded accusations at other outgoing players or send them to Coventry in order to ease them out of the door, and been happy to sell a key player in the last few hours of the window without a replacement knowing the alternatives had a history of being extremely injury prone. Now he's (imo) pulling the wool over supporters' eyes by pretending players were coming in early and that we're after two strikers when (again imo) he knows there's no chance whatsoever of that happening. And it comes only a month or two after he told the owners they could repair the pitch instead of spending in January. The owners need to go, Pasha needs to go, Gestede needs to go. But by Christ this fella also needs to go. 4 home wins in 19 and 2 goals in 525 minutes of football.

Fully relate to this in its entirety. Trying to pluck pennies from here there and everywhere to take the kids down to watch the Rovers. Walking down with pride knowing I'm presenting an experience to my kids that I worked hard for. Though financially better off these days, my heart breaks with every stride toward Ewood knowing that its not the place I used to cherish. It'll always be Ewood Park. It'll always be Rovers. But the passion is fading too. Hard as I try it just doesn't resemble anything as it used to be. Heart and soul torn from a working class town, born into Blue and White for the most part, our release, our heritage, our Pride of Lancashire and no one could take that away from us. But it has.

I'm not sure how others feel but being a Rovers fan not from Blackburn is actually pretty strange. I live in Southampton and been a Rovers fan for more than 30+ years and have this affinity to the people and area of the country that is completely different from my life down here. I don't know anyone in Blackburn and I can count on 1 hand how many times I've had a proper discussion about the club with someone outside of Blackburn who has the same feelings towards the club as me. It can be quite lonely when you watch a game and can't talk to anyone about it except on social media - which can be a great or awful experience, depending on who is responding or what has happened. Even when Rovers win, you don't have that person to turn to and celebrate with. You just enjoy it on your own. It's a bit easier when Rovers lose because you aren't reminded of it because no one talks about them down here. It is strange when you're in the away end at Southampton, Portsmouth etc hearing Rovers fans slagging Southerners off....when you're a Southerner...but I wouldn't want it any other way. It's even better when you spot your friend in the home end at St Mary's giving them a w****r sign and they're smiling back. It isn't great when you're grabbed by throat outside the stadium being called a Northern so and so when you actually live and work 10 minutes down the road. Like I said - it's pretty strange! I love going to Ewood Park because it does feel like a pilgrimage to your football church to see the team you think about every day. Whether it's rainy and miserable or the sun is shining, you breath it all in and enjoy every moment - except the food inside Ewood - that really does taste awful! The flipside of that joy is having to watch the clock tick towards 90 minutes knowing that you might not be back any time soon, which makes you feel sad. The reason why I wrote all that is because it's difficult reading this post. I'm sure we've gone through similar experiences throughout our lives supporting the club from afar. Personally, I would find it very hard to stop supporting the team. I've dedicated too much of my personal life and time towards the club, however, Venkys are a cancer at the club that needs removing and if that isn't going to happen soon then you have every right to choose to do what you feel is right for you. I hope you can switch that dedication that you have for Blackburn towards something else that brings you the joy that the club has brought you over the years. Good luck.

Well, we've turned them up before for little money (Szmodics, Adam Armstrong etc). I think we need to look at League 1 and 2 and take a punt on a couple of forwards with good goal scoring records at that level. I doubt loans are going to help us, or players from abroad. January loans tend to not be motivated, and players from abroad need time to get up to speed.

I'm not a prolific poster on this message board, but I have been a member for 18 years now, and I'm close to signing out too. My dad was my last tangible connection to the club really, I guess my brother too but we haven't really spoken about Rovers in a very long time. Dad passed away a little over a year ago. Dad grew up in London, he supported Rovers because his dad, who died long before I was born, was from the town. Even Grandad had left Blackburn during or around the second world war - though I am told he maintained the accent immaculately - by the time I came around the connection was already getting a bit frayed. I now live on the south coast, I guess Bournemouth are my local 'big' team, I used to go to away games with dad but haven't set foot in Blackburn in years, let alone Ewood. I probably have some relatives in the town - dad certainly had cousins who were still about, but I don't know them and wouldn't know how to find them. I genuinely, sincerely, love this club, but it increasingly feels like that one relative you gradually grow up to realise isn't a very nice person and you actually don't enjoy spending time with. I deeply resent that the rovers of the last years of dad's life was this version. It's gutting. It should be a source of joy, and memories - I want to see results and think 'dad would have enjoyed that', 'dad would have liked this player' etc. and I can't. He wouldn't have. The fanbase feels increasingly fractured, even on here. I have encountered other Rovers fans in the wild and been almost reluctant to admit that this is my team for fear of the reaction if my views on Venkys or recent history don't align with theirs, if I am not sufficiently 'getting behind the boys' or whatever. A prolific poster late of this parish accused me of being a dingle infiltrator a few months back for suggesting I'd like to see the academy players get a run out in the cup. Supporters of other clubs are unsympathetic or ignorant, and I find myself fed up of explaining, or attempting to explain the situation, so I shrug and move on. I used to be proud of this club, and I find myself wondering when I lost that. I guess it's just been worn away gradually over the last fifteen years. At some point it will be gone entirely and I will probably have to make the same decision as Devon Rover. I'm tired lads.

The thing that has frustrated me the most about his management is the way he has handled the strikers, whether by choice or because Rudy and Pasha have told him to. Leonard banished to the U21s, Gueuye not picked in squads, Tyjon not picked in squads. Instead we had Dlamini and Henriksson up front yesterday. The most baffling thing is Tyjon has suddenly been picked in the last two squads but he has zero intention of giving him any minutes. It reminds me a little of when Kean wouldn't play the likes of Salgado, Nelsen and Emerton but wouldn't really be honest about the reasons why

I do not think we will sign anyone permanently ,who will make any difference to the squad !

This thread is so sad! I wish the Rao family understood the human impact of their inaction.

The sad thing is that if we stay up, the owners will see this as a very successful season. Wage bill reduced dramatically; one player we signed last summer (Alebiousu) will go for a sizeable profit in the summer; average age of the squad reduced; and a number of youth team players brought into the first team. They are the objectives of the club and I don't think they even try to pretend otherwise anymore.

You do know that we're owned by Venky's, right? 😝

My story is creeping that way too I'm afraid... I'm from Stockport - and in 1990 I was 8 when my dad sadly passed away. His best friend thought the way to support my mum and his mate's memory was to take her lad to the football - the only caveat being that he was a Rovers supporter.. .who were in Division 2. A week before my 9th birthday we went to Ewood for the first time, losing against Wolves but I was reassured it was an anomaly as they hadn't lost for six games before that! Regardless of the result, it did something to fill a hole in me, my life, my Dad... and I fell in love with the family nature of the club, the booming Lancs accents of the men around us at the games and felt like a big part of me had found my home. I wasn't disappointed with the ride... over the next few years nobody could have envisaged how it grew... Uncle Jack took over, and the stadium was thrown up around me. For every kid giving me stick about the team buying it's way to success, there were days and nights of sheer enjoyment, being devastated that Alan Shearer was effectively replacing Speedie but then being catapulted into dreamland as he fired us to the title. In 1996 I turned 15 and my dad's friend stopped attending.... but Rovers was my life and I had made good friends with the season ticket holders around us. As part of group of like-minded lads I started getting the train on my own from Manchester for every home game, having some hairy moments with a group of PNE fans at Mill Hill on one occasion and often encountering all kinds of scrapes with other fans at Piccadilly. We had no expectations, just loved the club and whatever happened, Rovers would always have a go.. "get into 'em" was the visceral cry of the Blackburn End demanding commitment, passion and heart from every player. Despite relegation, Graeme Souness came to the club and his Rovers side of the early 2000s became my favourite team of all. Jansen, Dunn, Duff - young English (and Irish players) complimented by a smattering of experience from Berg, Short and Flitcroft... Brad Friedel showing what an honest down-to-earth bloke he was. I followed them home and away every game through University for three years, mounting debts but didn't care... By this time I knew that there would be no chance of a Premier League title again - the money gap was too vast - but I was fiercely proud of my family club, still overseen by the Walker Trust and with a creative attacking team (not averse to getting one over on Burnley from time to time!) and the Worthington Cup win was one of the best days of my life, jumping all over Big Ron Atkinson outside the ground in a haze of Euphoria... God I loved that time. The smell of the pitch at Ewood on a Tuesday night for an evening kickoff... amazing. What a childhood. Didn't matter that we had been relegated, ups and downs, in fact it all enhanced the picture and my love for MY club. I took great pride in supporting them through thick and thin - I felt like I was a part of Rovers, and they were a part of me. My first daughter was born in 2006 and my son in 2009... work was a massive commitment and I struggled to get to games... but nobody wanted a free ticket anymore... I persevered, taking the kids to the games whenever possible, decorating their rooms in Rovers merchandise, my son playing in Rovers kit and keeping up to date with the team selections and results... watching every game we could... watching the kids pin their hopes on their 'Speedie' or 'Shearer'.... Jordan Rhodes, Adam Armstrong, Ben Brereton, even Sammie Szmodics... all flickers of hope quickly extinguished as the reality that this football world, climate, landscape had changed. Players like Phil Jones and Adam Wharton, coming through to great hope and promise - a throwback to an academy still capable of producing the highest quality of player... but now they didn't become David Dunn or Damien Duff, now they play a handful of games and are sold to the highest bidder to try and balance the books. The experience of a Travis or a Hyam - no longer cherished and valued like a Short or Flitcroft... now the wages weren't sustainable and away they go. A glut of foreign players - no xenophobia here - but a lack of relatability now... players who come and go overnight. A pitch that was cutting edge, a stadium that was home, slowly being left to crumble as some overseas owners don't even visit, just wait for the next transfer fee incoming to try to balance the books on a failing asset. I came with the kids to the Wrexham game last. They tried their best, oohing and aahing as Baradji - a player lauded as being decent but who is anything but - hit the bar. The Wrexham fans goaded us for our silence... but I couldn't muster a murmur. There was no passion, no heart or determination... no "get into 'em"... I looked at the kids and just felt guilty. Lamented the £110 it cost me to come and watch them and felt bad for subjecting them to this... I never expected anything but being part of a family and community who pulled in the same direction even if it failed. It doesn't feel like the club is pulling in the same direction as the fans any more. It hurts.

Blackburn Rovers is now a club where apathy is endemic I do not think that anyone can blame you. There is a malaise at boardroom level; a club and owners that see no real benefit in ambition. Instead, it is simply a case of moving from one account to the next, ensuring the portfolio of far flown billionaires is ticking over without any unusual activity required from the Chairs. The Venkys have shown no interest in anything Rovers since they embarrassed themselves on an international level. I think back to the visit of the Queen, over 10 years ago now. As far as we know, this is the last time an owner stepped foot in Blackburn. They came for their state visit, rubbed shoulders with royalty and then flew home before the Rovers kicked off only the following day. Can anybody blame fans for disengaging when our owners cannot be bothered to attend or engage? The family feel of Rovers is all but gone. Long-term staff moving on with allegations of less than friendly behaviour behind the scenes; Suhail Pasha, faceless for over a decade, but now front & centre in all manner, has systematically ripped this club from the town. The truth is that under the Venkys nothing will ever change. The fans will continue to disengage and this element of their portfolio will wind down. It feels like such a hopeless task at times, to follow and remain engaged with Rovers, but at the same time it is impossible to shake both the joy or the unbridled sadness that comes with the final whistle and end result I do not like using the word 'hate' but I hate the Venky's for what they have done to this club. A once great source of pride, trodden in to the dirt, and left in a position where an apathetic fan base have succumbed to this suggestion that we have 'found our place', that nobody else better will come along and that we should be grateful for the owners for paying their way. It is the most fantastic piece of business management that Suhail has provided the Venkys - one in which he is greatly recompensed for - to etch away the ambitions of an entire fan base and deliver a most extraordinary example of Stockholm Syndrome. I am 32. I have confidence I will outlive Venkys. What condition the club will be at the end is the part that worries me.

I feel exactly the same way. I no longer actively look out for rovers games. If I happen upon a rovers match on tv or in the final score I'll have a look. Otherwise I just don't feel any inclination to seek it out. I watch other matches on TV. I haven't felt any great connection to rovers for about 15 years. Since 'they' arrived. I used to love taking my mum to matches but I no longer felt I could in all honesty justify going. Now my mum has since passed and that's been robbed from me. I will show my love for this great club once they have departed.

He was under contract till 2027 anyway, so there was no need to sell and leave us with no strikers. Also read this from the Lancashire Telegraph, and then ask yourself if it sounds like we were desperate to keep him and offering him a new contract.

I'd be taking them to the cinema or Arcade Club or something. Or doing something else I rarely do with them whilst I have a "free" afternoon. Not spending on the ground, as a tactic, would only really work if it was implemented across a period of time / games rather than a one off which won't be either felt by the club or noticeable.

aligned

It was a good effort from the 'kids'. Ultimately we were not strong enough. I do not buy this narrative that VI is doing a good job with the squad he has at his disposal. Why? - 1 win in 11 games - Where is the accountability for the woeful squad we have? He has played along with Gestede and Pasha throughout. Rotten

I think this sums up the feelings of a large number of Rovers fans these days, myself included. It’s just not fun anymore. I don’t hate the team, if anything I feel sorry for them. They’re trying their best but due to being in positions above their ability and the complete lack of support from those in positions of power they’re hung out to dry. I hate what the club has become and no longer recognise it as ‘my’ Rovers. People may say they can never take Rovers away from us, they have. This is a sad version of a once proud and successful club. That bears no resemblance to anything that has gone before

It's just not fun any more, is it? I legit only go for the social aspect and that's adversely affected by poor rail connections and otherwise expensive taxis, so I've pretty much got to do those at half time and during the match.

I will be attending the game as It is something i do with my 2 kids and dont know how much longer i will have to do this with them, they have been told though that we wont be spending any money at the ground like we usually do

That well written piece sums up my feelings, and I dare say quite a lot of us on here. It’s the feeling of hopelessness. The feeling that there is nothing we can do to effect a change. I’ve been a Rovers fan since 1960. I’ve seen some truly great teams and quite a few not so great. In all that time and all those ups and downs I’ve never given up hope that we would rise again. Even in the dark days of the 1970’s when we were skint. There always seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel. The Chicken Chokers have almost extinguished that light. At 76 I fear they may outlast me and I may never see a Blackburn Rovers run by people who love Blackburn Rovers. We live in sad times.

WBA have appointed Eric Ramsey as their new manager. (I have no idea either)

I'm sure at one stage he was the most expensive goalkeeper in the premier league when he moved to Sunderland I think it was around £9M at the time.

Our budget wouldn’t buy the big toe of any of those

Given Peterborough presumably offered more with theirs, no.