I'd argue financial fair play rulings (which I don't agree with in their current form) are slightly different to a membership body stepping in and ordering someone to sell a club, sell it at a loss or who to sell it to.

A close relative of mine worked for the Community Trust several years ago and he was working to the same policy. I say several years ago we are probably talking 10+ years ago, which is a long time in football to totally neglect and ignore a huge swathe of your support base.

All correct but the club have invented a rule that tells them they cannot market Rovers in Hyndburn or South Ribble because those areas 'belong' to Accy Stanley and Preston, and we wouldn't want to go upsetting people would we? We won't even look for sponsors outside of BwD judging by Watson Ramsbottom and Totally Wicked. Totally small time, lazy, yet bizarrely the 'local' obsession is taken by some as a badge of honour or something to be proud of. A conscious decision to save themselves time and effort but ultimately spread across many years, combined with decline and demographic change in Blackburn, WILL be a hugely damaging, potentially fatal move for BRFC.

Great post. Its there in black and white. We have also heard Gestede and Ismael mention 6 or 7 signings prior to knowing that Weimann and Batth were to leave, seemingly before Dolan was even confirmed to leave. There have also been interviews mentioning an "exciting" summer, that it was going to be more of an overhaul than we anticipated and repeated mentions of wanting some new attacking players with pace and power. This is why I dont get why people are downplaying the amount of players that we need. If we dont end up with another forward, or we do only sign a couple more. Im not going to have that it was a conscious decision not dictated to by finances.

…..but true.

Exactly so.

Absolutely unbelievable.

I should have added that when we challenged the club on the postcodes of those with ST’s they came up with a high figure for BB postcodes and said they were from BwD until we explained many of those with BB postcodes lived outside of BwD. The corrected figures shared with us showed approximately 50% of ST holders were outside of BwD.

Surely there's a duty of care to the supporters? Surely there's an SLA on these things.

‘If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything’ Mark Twain

I thought it was common knowledge. I am sure Duncan will confirm my statement above. This has been the case for years, we have been told the likes of “there is so much infill in the BwD area that this is our focus before we look elsewhere”. The Community Trust have arrangements with other community trusts in Lancashire not to tread on each others toes - perhaps this will also explain the lack of activity in Rishton, Ossy and Accy alongside that for Chorley, Leyland and local villages such as Samlesbury, Hoghton, Withnell, Wheelton, Abbey Village, Brindle and Brinscall - all these villages have local schools with footie mad kids. WATR offered to sponsor an Ewood Express built only on the basis it was from outside of BwD, we were never taken up on the proposal nor asked for payment. I do believe an Ewood Express has subsequently been run a couple of times from Hyndburn but this was due to friendships between the different parties involved.

Indeed. We used to think Vince O'Keefe was a bit of a liability but he's a better keeper than those four put together. As evidenced at Wembley in 1987.

Surely this already happens? A few examples: These businesses are told when they can and cannot sign players (transfer windows). They’re told how many players they can register for the league (squad lists). They’re told what financial restraints they must operate within (FFP).

My local club. A real shame. Was once a family club that overachieved and competed well in League 1. Taken over by a dodgy bloke with a history of running businesses into the ground and even liquidating other sports clubs. Absolutely terrible the amount of dodgy owners with alternative motives in the English leagues. Its not just Rovers that suffer with this.

In some ways you could just pick the whole 1980 back line as one - Arnold, Branagan, Faz, Keeley, Rathbone. Once they'd fully gelled under Kendal they were the football equivalent of a castle!

He was hardly injured last season and was in the team or on the bench for Plymouth most of the time so no reason why he wouldn't be fit. The run up to him signing for Rovers is listed below. The longest spell he had last season without making any first team appearances was the 4 game run in March / April whilst he was at Ewood. He was hardly like Dennis who hadn't kicked a ball in a first team for almost a year. Nor had he missed loads of training through injury last season. Therefore I'm not sure how you can say he wasn't fit. He appeared better as the season went on because he wasn't starting. He was generally coming on when we were shutting up shop and had less ground to cover.

We really were blessed with some great keepers in the 70's /80's weren't we.

"Arrangements we have with competitor clubs" WTF? What's that then? "We won't stray outside BWD, you do whatever the hell you like?" Sorry, not wanting to shoot the messenger, never heard this before and I can't quite believe it.

Im not sure if there's a case to be made that Jim Arnold was even better than Gennoe, great keeper that he was. Makes you weep seeing the likes of Walton/Wahlsted/Pears and Toth in goal when we've had keepers like Jones, Bradshaw, Arnold and Gennoe in the past

Perhaps Rovers could try something really novel such as marketing beyond their existing database and even looking beyond the borders of BwD? PNE are running free soccer schools for kids in Chorley this year with, no doubt, some freebie tickets thrown in to entice the youngsters to Dumpdale. This is Chorley FFS……a Rovers stronghold for many years. The Council leader is a rovers fan and the manager of the Westway complex where the sessions are being held is a Rovers fan and a past employee of our Community Trust. The idea of marketing outside BwD has been raised time and time and time again. Rovers and the Community Trust refuse to do any work in PR postcodes as it will upset the arrangements they have with competitor clubs. As the crow flies I live 1 mile from the BwD border and the area was full of Rovers fans - the school kids now get enticed to PNE. We are officially useless, toothless and careless at marketing. Which clown(s) heads this up for the club?

Another free agent is Liam Cooper. With Wharton/carter prone to injuries I would be looking at a deal for him. Experienced, and an ideal Batth replacement

Decided to have a look at current free agents since transfer rumours have gone a bit quiet lately: Oli McBurnie (29) - proven at Championship level. We were supposedly after him in the last transfer window but not now? Would add much needed experience and competition for a starting spot up front. Would also allow Leonard to go out on loan to a L1 or L2 club. Grady Diangana (27) - also proven at Championship level. Lost his place to Tom Fellows last season, hence a dip in playing minutes. Would be more than an adequate replacement for Dolan on the right wing. Also fits into team's style since he's athletic and a decent dribbler. Fraser Forster (37) - bit of a gamble due to his age but feels like he's the perfect goalkeeper for Championship being 6'7 (201 cm). At least you won't have to worry about keeper punching the ball from incoming crosses with this one. Maybe Rovers can offer him their new 'favourite' kind of deal (pay as you play)? Whether these are realistic or not probably depends if they're willing to accept a salary in line with or below Rovers' alleged wage limit of 10K / week...

Down to the very 'core' of supporters buying season tickets now - those who would buy a season ticket regardless of owner, league or situation. And all credit to them. The club will know this, hence the price rises to capitalise on revenue. There is zero effort to: 1. Increase season ticket sales to NEW supporters 2. Try and entice old season tickets holders back. Countless examples where people have not renewed and the club have not followed up. Those two things take a bit of commercial nouse and principally, effort. Two things sorely lacking at the club for many years. I have said this for a long time, the club is not interested in the supporters as we have no material impact on the P&L. The controllable lines (expenses & running costs) have been adjusted down to improve operating profit, in addition to sales revenue. We are all witnessing the lack of reinvestment. LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!

I loved Tony Field but hard to leave Garner out and Field only played for us in the third tier. I swithered over Terry Gennoe instead of Sir Roger for the same reason.

Too much emphasis on whether you're The Judean People's Front or The People's Front of Judea in the last few posts. What matters is what is said to the Club in the meetings and their response to it. If the minutes aren't being released in timely fashion and/or are not being recorded accurately to protect the Club, ( i.e. any dissent not recorded) then that isn't acceptable and just goes to show the box ticking nature of the exercise from the Club's perspective.