I don't know what to expect, opening day in August is always a surprise bag, you can never tell what will happen. Would hope for the win obviously. Mixed feelings about this season. A number of positives to take such as finally being rid of McCarthy and a new name to take on team affairs but we got him from lower league and he's untried at higher level. Was far from the preferred names I wanted to come in when eventually announced. Some players out the exit such as McGoldrick, Bru and Webster and the Waghorn issue refuses to go away, and we haven't really brought in I feel adequate replacements for key areas although some seem satisfied enough. Marcus Evans is still in ownership - to that I have a feeling of regret - and what's with those horrible strips we're expected to wear this season ? Magical Vegas FFS, I don't know who came up with that idea but the design and choice of sponsorship was far ill-advised. Pre season we've played well in spells but never really faced anyone worth mentioning. Local games once again against inferior opposition where we (usually) win, but never really by any convincing margin. The actual league season is completely different though but just feel we're not really prepared for a nine month campaign ahead. Promotion seems very unlikely, play offs are a possibility but have to tell myself that mid-league seems best for another year. You remember when Blackburn won the League Cup ? I do, and that was the last time this club was in the top level of English football. 2002 may seem quite recent, other times it feels like an eternity. Hope those coming down on Saturday enjoy the game, be advised again Portman Road is not the easiest venue to get to or indeed depart from. It should be a good event.

The problem then however is that this time next year we will need at least 2 strikers of sufficient quality. Graham might well be moving on after this season or no longer be able to perform, the loan you want will go back to his parent club, and Samuel and Nuttall might be surplus to requirements. That's why we need an heir to Graham now, to come in and play this season. Bringing in a loan to play 2nd fiddle is just delaying things until next season when it will have to be addressed on a bigger scale. As far as I'm concerned we need at least one striker now to call our own who we build around and who shares responsibilities with Graham. Ship Nuttall out on loan and see how he goes on. Give Samuel a chance when possible and make a decision on him and then next summer we make decisions on Graham and Samuel whilst still having someone else to fall back on.

If you can't give yourself a bit of credit sometimes then who can

Right, re the 'happy clappers'/'doom mongers' debate.... Can we discuss why we disagree with people, instead of labelling en masse? It's getting very tiresome. Every single supporter is different and no doubt has their reasons for believing as they believe. The season starts on Saturday, so we'll most likely have something tangible to be happy/sad about then! Thanks ladies and gents.

Alan Nixon @reluctantnicko 52s BLACKBURN. Long pursuit of Adam Armstrong about to come to a happy ending.

Like the idea of Nmecha from City despite him going against everything Id like currently like from a striker. Think this would represent a bold move from the club and could add a bit of excitement.

Don't, it's painful. I remember at the time wanting us to be better though, the 6th place finishes, FA Cup semi, UEFA Cup runs etc were great but I wanted us to kick on. What a spoilt fucking brat was I, I'd kill for a 10th of all that now.

His career history would suggest that at 28 - he's just had his wonder season. Would be avoiding.

Would anyone else be underwhelmed if it was Waghorn?

A new season, a new series of podcasts, new theme music, a new panelist...you can't say we're not trying ? A cast of thousands on this episode all wanting to have their say & predict the Rovers likely finishing position upon our return to the Championship. Listen right to the end as the last 2 guests have their own section. Your host Ian Herbert tries to keep order as Josh Boswell, Kamy, Mike Delap, Michael Taylor (the Marple Leaf), Linz Lewis, Jen Bellamy (new signing) & guests Scott Sumner & Tom Schofield are fuelled with pre-season bonhomie. Massive thanks to Joe Bamford (Biz) & his band "The Symmetry" for providing us with our own theme music for this season. We'll hopefully hear more from Joe & the band as the season progresses... Listen out for some acronym related high jinks as one panelist mixes up the EDS at Man City with the EDL...both have some right-wingers...but...well you know... Hope you enjoy & if anyone fancies contributing a first or favourite Rovers memory, or a Revisionist Rovers item for a future episode, that would be great. Episode here :- http://brfcs-podcast.brfcs.com/?name=2018-08-02_brfcs_episode_97.mp3 ...and in iTunes feeds as well...please make sure you subscribe & please leave us a review...it really does help us. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/brfcs-blackburn-rovers-fan-community-podcast-from-brfcs/id1282664472?mt=2#episodeGuid=http%3A%2F%2Fbrfcs-podcast.brfcs.com%2F%3Fname%3D2018-08-02_brfcs_episode_97.mp3 http://brfcs-podcast.brfcs.com/feed.xml Feedback & ideas welcomed & many thanks to those who have offered (& submitted) contributions already.

Maddison and Nmecha now please.

1.25m permanent signing! In this market he could be worth 15m if he scores 10 next season

Great signing and Mowbray brings the best out of him. Not to be greedy but give me Gallagher or Abraham and one of Maddison or chapman and things are looking much more like it

No offence intended but some people don't half invest a hell of a lot of time and mental energy into these rumours which are clearly made up by attention seekers on social media.

I think a few people just need to calm down. The window isn't closed yet. The squad isn't in a great shape at the moment, but there's time to sort that out and Mowbray seems confident of getting who he wants (based on recent interviews). Let's judge at the end of the window.

Bit sassy that, Chaddy.....

OK this is the kiss of death. We lost every match I did a preview for last season. I have never seen us win at Portman Road- I won't be going so be thankful for small mercies. I am not going to pick Mowbray's staring 11 or bench of18 for him but it looks like it will be pretty identical to last season, give a Palmer, take an Armstrong. Our last few trips to Portman Road have been pretty bleak (Ipswich first) 16/7 3-2 15/6 2-0 14/5 3-2 13/4 2-0 12/3 1-1 11/2 3-1 01/2 1-1 So not a happy hunting ground. Still, if I were Ipswich, I wouldn't be wanting to open the campaign against a team promoted as impressively as Rovers were. Betting odds are marginally making an Ipswich win favourites which I think is fair but all three outcomes are pretty evenly backed. Ipswich start their 17th Championship on the trot having parted company with 12 players (only Ben Knight to Man City for £700K for any cash) and brought only 5 in including Harrison from Bristol Rovers and Donacien from Accy Stanley. Which rather suggests they might struggle this season so this is a fixture we really should not be losing. A good opening test for Rovers and here's hoping the momentum from last season carries us on to a win.

Probably Hugill. We need to find a player similar (and it pains me to say it) to Sam Vokes

* Mystic Chaddy prods round his tea leaves with a silver spoon.

Trust me they aren't! He has signed and will be revealed tomorrow. Wants to play on Saturday but phyiso don't want him to and more than likely won't play

Neymar and messi no championship experience this not an easy league. Neymar not the hold it up kind of striker that can bring Dack into play. We need a get in your face type. Punt it long bring it down arse and elbows. Is that this neymar fella. Waghorn for me messi plays in dacks role is he going to be happy on the bench?

Nicely sums up the shambolic pre seasons of the Venky era...

Because Samuel shown in his handful of appearances out wide in League 1 that he wasn't comfortable there.

All the Players and staff at the club comment about Team Spirit and how good that is within the dressing room this is one of our biggest assets is the great bond there seems to be Why would Mowbray want to mess all of that up by saying I want to sign X to replace Y and have Y causing problems he is going to say that he wants to create competition to keep everyone hungry and on there toes. whilst he will be looking at players who are better than what we have

Danny Ings to Palace for £24mil. Good player but crazy price #Madness

Worth noting that all of our defeats to Ipswich in the past few years were when they were under Mick McCarthy's management. Hurst will be desperate to get off to a good start, especially considering what happened last season, but I think he'll struggle there. First day of the season is always difficult to call. Would take a draw from this one and happily move on. We can definitely win here, though, if we're set up to do so.

There would have been a few thousand doom-mongers too, proving the term is redundant. The point of my original post, which I'd hoped was obvious is that these sorts of terms are provocative, decisive,inappropriate and so on. I'll be delighted if this transfer window were, in the end, successful and if it isn't I'd hope everyone else would be critical to an appropriate degree.

Chaddy has clutched at many straws over the years....

Madison too would make it a dream window

Just as a pointer on the argument that we needed the signings in early to hit the ground running; I'm not convinced, whoever we sign, that the line-up against Ipswich will contain any of the new recruits. Perhaps one. I think Mowbray wants to phase the new players in slowly. Rightly or wrongly. Off the back of a successful promotion season, I don't think he wants to change it too much. Try and reward the lads who got us here. Ingratiating too many new players can have the opposite effect. Coming off a season of struggle, it may work better. I'm not suggesting this is preferable, or dumbing down any expectations. I just don't think it's the unmitigated disaster that some seem to think.

Given that you normally have to overpay for strikers , 1.5 mil ish for Armstrong is very good value. If he has a decent season or two in the championship he will have a much larger value. Very happy, a winger next please.

I think he might play Arma up top away from home when we are looking to counter attack with pace.

Hold on hold on...the EFL are disappointed that Birmingham City signed a player knowing they would not meet FFP!!!!! WHAT A TOTAL JOKE. Contrast that with how we were treated, a total sham. Guaranteed that Sheffield Wednesday will fall foul too.

People are that desperate for a signing, they will believe anything.....

No to Neymar he's a bit of a diva doesn't fit the mowbray mould.. Messi could be a useful impact sub behind dack

Why the F do people still tweet that Jamie Mcconell guy on twitter as if he knows anything? He knows as much as the rest of us. What a tw@t.

The reason I say weaker is that this is a tougher league, we have lost Armstrong, Chapman, Antonsson and Payne...they contributed greatly towards our goals column. Look now and we have a 33 year old Graham, with Conway and Bennett on wings and Dack behind...Nuttall and Samuel are our options (Palmer is a good signing but hasn't played yet). Three forward players needed with PACE. Teams have shown in the past that with pace in the side you can unlock defences in this league, we have zero in the attacking areas! I have faith the players will be bought but right now, we are in for a long hard season, especially if Dack/ Graham are injured.

I remember the initial appraisal of Dack was far from universal approval. If he signs let’s judge him by his actions in a Rovers shirt.

Not sure how much we'd have to pay and don't see where he'd fit in to our side. My understanding is that he's always played in a front two just off the striker or behind a lone striker centrally in an attacking midfield role. If we signed him we couldn't play him as the lone striker and he's not going to replace Dack as our attacking midfielder so I can't see us spending money on him too be honest. Unless we are going to play 3-5-2 and he's going to partner Graham.

I feel like you are ignoring the fact that we’ve already signed Palmer and Rothwell who Mowbray will most likely play out wide. I agree we need 2 more quality signings up front and out wide to have a truly strong team that’s able to compete this season, but not at the expense of team spirit and Mowbray has got it right with his current approach to signings. Signing “two quality strikers” and immediately relegating Graham (one of our key men last season) to third choice before a ball has even been kicked this season would be a disaster.

I'm on the same planet as you thank you very much "pal". Lol. Cover might be what we need for players like Raya, Lenihan and Dack. Up front and out wide we need players who will come straight into and improve the first eleven.

You feeling okay?

I reckon a trio of, clough - dack - palmer behind graham would certainly give us a lot of creativity. The only issue is that it would make us abit narrow, which in some aspects wouldn't be to much of a bad thing due to the fact most teams who will play us this season will be looking to attack rather than to sit in and defend, so being narrow would make us hard to play through, along with us potentially having some intricuate attractive play at the top end of the pitch. However if we were to play with a narrow 3 behind the striker then you have to have fullbacks who bomb forward constantly to provide width, which we haven't really seen from our fullbacks, in particular Williams, so not sure it would work. So having said that I do think we need to bring in a natural wideman who will give us width and pace because in tight games that's what can make the difference in opening a team up.

More and more of our fans have moved away from the BB1/2/3 etc area in recent years and midweek matches are always a mad rush for such folk. As well as many local residents as Hasta pointed out on another thread. I'd expect midweek attendances to fall off a cliff, especially when it becomes the norm. Very shortsighted of the 'EFL', but what else can you expect from that shambolic organisation...

Yeah I think we got Cairney instead

When I used to work in football doing a bit of match reporting, I used to get a lot of Bolton games at the Macron (university of Bolton stadium as it's called now) and saw a lot of Clough, that was when they were in the championship before they went down, he was a pleasure to watch and was by far the best player they had at the club. He's different to anything we have at Rovers now, but I wouldn't say he's someone who is going to score 20 odd goals a season. I would be delighted if we signed him, just needs a manager like Mowbray.

Isn’t the phrase Happy Clappers a tad dated now on the back of a promotion season, given there were 27,000 of them on the ground last game we played?

Massively. Especially with the price Ipswich apparently want. Doubt we are interested and I fooking hope not he's a shite little lump. I don't care that he scored a few last season I'll put money on with anyone he doesn't score as many this season 100%. I'm not a fan

Where will Rovers finish this season? : 11th after a few brief flirtations with the play offs Player of the Year : Dadley Brack Young Player of the Year: Lewis Travis Top Goalscorer: main striker to be signed next week Championship Promoted : Derby, Stoke, Boro Championship Relegated : Bolton, Birmingham, Rotherham Dark Horse : Ipswich Hey....Stranger things have happened : Venkys put the club up for sale / Mercer predicts a draw Miscellaneous : Rovers knock Burnley out in the FA Cup and go onto a quarter final

Viera from Leeds joined Sampdoria for an initial 5.4 million.England under 20 international. An 18 year old from Spurs Griffiths turned down a new deal and instead signed for Lyon. It's good seeing some of these young players go abroad