You’ve lost that loving feeling?

[Bethnal]

Very late to this thread but it’s been a fascinating read, as so much resonates.

First fell in love in ‘94, at 5 years old. Memories of my first game are a blur, I couldn’t really see the pitch or anything but it was warm and busy. My mum was there and that’s the only game I am aware she’s been to. Never looked back.

First fell out of love 12/13 season. I was living in Berlin, so you kind of fall away from everything UK-centric unless you really try and it did not feel worth trying. I suppose even ten years ago, the world felt a bigger place.

I also lived next door to a Dortmund pub (Intertank, on Manteuffelstr., directly opposite a very good Korean restaurant) which was both very rowdy and very welcoming. Watching Klopp manage Lewandowski, Götze, Gündogan et al was somewhat more compelling than watching what was happening at Ewood. I remember a few matches early that season, on weird foreign streams, but the transition to spending Saturday afternoons next door was swift, if a little hollow.

Been in London for 9 years now and used to catch all the games down here, seeing familiar faces, but not having anyone to go with (friends move) means I don’t bother. I’ll come up for games now and again to see my brother and I’ll be up for Burnley in March. I do get a thrill still, stood outside the Blackburn End, noticing how much smaller it seems to me now.

I also spend far too much time reading threads on this site at key moments (matches, transfer windows, etc). But I do have the nagging feeling that it’s all a bit of a waste of my own time.

Really didn’t care about the World Cup. Normally, I am very much into the World Cup and everything around it but nothing engaged me, not even the final. Objectively an enormously significant event and some drama, but in prior years that would have had me climbing the walls. I think I managed one beer at home.

If there’s going to be anything I love in football, it’s going to be Rovers. We have the best kit, best badge and nothing else will really make me feel the things we feel about the clubs we follow, as fans. But everything seems so much worse now. We’re an omnishambles as an organisation and the footballing output leaves a lot to be desired at times.

Worse still, football and its fans. The Twitter fans, the sportswashing, the Americanisation of the sport, the money, the endlessness of it all and - the absolute worst - “Penaldo and Pessi” discourse.

Still, as I said, I’ll be at the Burnley game, double cheeseburger from the death van and two-pinter in each hand, asking my pals “has the Blackburn End always been that small?”

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

My son and I took our grandson to the Big Club game last Saturday. It’s the first time all three generations have been to a game. I sent my son a text yesterday asking him if they’d enjoyed the match.

He replied - “ Luke loves it, you do at that age. I did have a good time, there just seems to be something missing “.

That sums it up for me. It’s Blackburn Rovers,  but not as we know it.

Edited January 30, 2023 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Norbert Rassragr]

It won't be right until those Indian crap bags sell the club. Until then we will be a mediocre, dysfunctional Championship team with no goals or ambitions.

[Waggy76]

5 hours ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

It won't be right until those Indian crap bags sell the club. Until then we will be a mediocre, dysfunctional Championship team with no goals or ambitions.

I think , the Indians will take us down a Division again, there is no ambition , appointing  managers who , should be nowhere near the job. The club is a total joke  nobody cares anymore.

[broadsword]

There's an article on the BBC website about dyche at Everton. With some words from some of his old players.

Now this following quote really caught my eye. Admittedly, I don't follow rovers press conferences religiously, but I thought to myself, it's been so long since I've heard a rovers manager said anything like this

 

That is what he did at Burnley. He said: 'I promise you, you will have a team that will give everything for the shirt, week in, week out, win, lose or draw.'

[bluebruce]

7 hours ago, broadsword said:

There's an article on the BBC website about dyche at Everton. With some words from some of his old players.

Now this following quote really caught my eye. Admittedly, I don't follow rovers press conferences religiously, but I thought to myself, it's been so long since I've heard a rovers manager said anything like this

 

That is what he did at Burnley. He said: 'I promise you, you will have a team that will give everything for the shirt, week in, week out, win, lose or draw.'

I'm sure a Rovers manager did say something along those lines in the not-so-distant past. Someone in the Venkys era. I'm not sure who it was, but I'm sure they didn't deliver.

[Mattyblue]

Sounds like something Coyle would say with, perhaps replacing ‘shirt’ with ‘Blackburn Rovers Football Club’… ergo means bugger all either way.

[broadsword]

There was nice Garreh Bowyer giving it a "reset good go".

[smiller14]

Wasn't sure where to post this, but £25 for a midweek vs Blackpool. Wasn't there a plan to cap prices at £20 for midweek games? Or was it £25? Been a few similar broken promises this year so just wondering. 

[MarkBRFC]

34 minutes ago, smiller14 said:

Wasn't sure where to post this, but £25 for a midweek vs Blackpool. Wasn't there a plan to cap prices at £20 for midweek games? Or was it £25? Been a few similar broken promises this year so just wondering. 

It was £20, same happened for the Sunderland game earlier on in the season which was midweek, and we charged £25 because they would bring a few.

Also. if you signed up for the 1875 club as a non ST holder you were promised £5 each off the "derby" games, another thing that has conveniently been forgotten with both the Wigan and Blackpool games. 

[Mattyblue]

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2023/february/01/ticket-news--rovers-v-blackpool/

It is Cat C (£20 for BEnd and Riverside) when you follow the link to the article, but the graphic advertising the game on social media (what most fans will actually see at a glance) says £25, so looks like Cat B.

Just a bit of a shambles down there, ain’t it…

 

[smiller14]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2023/february/01/ticket-news--rovers-v-blackpool/

It is Cat C (£20 for BEnd and Riverside) when you follow the link to the article, but the graphic advertising the game on social media (what most fans will actually see at a glance) says £25, so looks like Cat B.

Just a bit of a shambles down there, ain’t it…

 

Marketing 101 down at Ewood 

[rigger]

It has got to the stage were, if the Rovers advertise anything as a bargain, don't believe it. 

[Upside Down]

1 hour ago, rigger said:

It has got to the stage were, if the Rovers advertise anything, don't believe it. 

Fixed.

[RoverDom]

This thread is about to get busy....

[sabino]

Thick and thin.(probably am)

It's what a fan puts up with. 

[Blue blood]

Well in the last 48 hours the club have shown they don't give a proverbial about:

Promotion

The fans

Signing players. 

 

Not hard to see why people may be disenchanted. I mean what's left to support? They aren't even sticking to their (not so attractive) plan of making a few quid on players, with daft decisions like not selling Bereton and Morton blocking out players progress. What's to get on board with? We're watching sheer negligence from the owners downwards. 

[wilsdenrover]

I’ve been to one match since the ‘Kean Bolton debacle’

Sometimes I wonder if I still care but then I find my heart racing as we try to hold onto a lead or frantically refreshing to see if we’ve made a deadline day signing.

Then the club makes a mess of things (I’m being polite) again and I wonder why I still care.

I live in hope, but not expectation, that one day things will get better 

[booth]

I think this last debacle has done me in and all faith is lost.

I'll keep supporting the club and watch the matches but I'm under no illusions that it's ever going to go anywhere, and eventually it will fall even further. Nothing can sustain constant neglect and BRFC is no different.

Anything else to the contrary coming from the club is just lip service. There's no attempt at getting promoted, or even being competitive. Waggott and his employees are just building their own castles and couldn't care less.

If we get beat against Wigan, I don't think I'll even be angry about it, just empty like I do now.

Edited February 2, 2023 by booth

[Mattyblue]

ITK-ers on this site and Rich Sharpe have both stated in recent weeks that there is no particular ambition to go up. And that is with a side that has spent the majority of the last two seasons in the top 6. What even is this club then? What’s the point of any of this?

So this latest debacle is par for the course, yet they will still be asking the ever loyal 8/9k for their £400 - £530 (maybe even another hike, why not, ay Swag?) in June, some of the most expensive prices in the league for what is in all purposes a ‘development club’.

Yet in return they can’t even fulfil the very basic admin tasks of a football club or fulfil the basic mantra of a football club at any level - i.e you strive to be the best you can, with the best possible team you can muster.

They play in blue and white shirts down at a (decaying) place called Ewood Park, good job as I don’t recognise much else…

Edited February 3, 2023 by Mattyblue

[Upside Down]

14 hours ago, Blue blood said:

Well in the last 48 hours the club have shown they don't give a proverbial about:

Promotion

The fans

Signing players. 

 

Not hard to see why people may be disenchanted. I mean what's left to support? They aren't even sticking to their (not so attractive) plan of making a few quid on players, with daft decisions like not selling Bereton and Morton blocking out players progress. What's to get on board with? We're watching sheer negligence from the owners downwards. 

They've been showing that for twelve years.

[goozburger]

At the end of the day, all we want is owners who understand Blackburn Rovers. We're a unique club that is steeped in tradition and success - against all odds. Supporters don't expect anything other than to be run with dignity and care. Successes are a special bonus, but they don't come without due care and attention for a club of our stature.

We all know that we haven't had anything remotely close to this in the last twelve years. For whatever reason, the owners are so aloof that they probably dread even thinking about the UK, never mind Blackburn. In their stead, they employ people in responsible positions with zero authority, and duffers at that.

I'll admit that I'm worried, and still am, regarding who can plug the finances, but I do know that we'll never stop being a soulless club while Venkys own us. I'm not expecting a financially-successful Rovers supporter to come in and save the day, but imagine how many would come back if we just had a sensible ownership that was hands-on and sensible.

There have been some small improvements in the last few years compared to what was before, but they will never be anything more than that, and we all know it can easily swing the other way under Venkys. Right now, it feels like shit. It's been in the "chore" phase for too long.

[Mattyblue]

Just now, goozburger said:

At the end of the day, all we want is owners who understand Blackburn Rovers. We're a unique club that is steeped in tradition and success - against all odds.

 

But we aren’t, as the club’s own head of marketing said ‘there’s nothing special about Blackburn Rovers’

Should be the slogan of Venky era Rovers…

[roverblue]

consider it lost!

I was already thinking about not renewing as I have not enjoyed the football at ewood this season and feel like the Riverside is a total shambles of a facility.

Spending most of the first or second half to get a pie or pint as they have one poor 14 year old behind the till with a queue looping around the stand is bad enough. To be then followed by a bathroom break where you cant dry your hands as the ones on the wall are cold and 30 years old with no power. The stand itself is crumbling and a constant drip on my head from a leaky roof just puts the icing on the cake.

All for 400 of your british pounds (£100 more than it was 2-3 season ago) whilst upwards of £20m of talent leave the club on free transfers. I've got to the point where I would rather just be at home listening on the radio or catching the odd game on TV until there is some fundamental change at the club.

[rigger]

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

But we aren’t, as the club’s own head of marketing said ‘there’s nothing special about Blackburn Rovers’

Should be the slogan of Venky era Rovers…

And he should have been sacked five minutes after he said it, (another job for the CEO ).