Lad, if we keep re-signing shite we won't be able to sign anyone good.

Any potential optimism I had allowed myself to develop towards the summer business has just dissipated like a weak fart. Ruthless Tony my arse. Less than zero reason to be in talks with Gladwin of all people. It better be in some non-football capacity! If we weren't buying or selling anyone this summer, we still wouldn't need him. JL only makes sense if we aren't getting a keeper, or if we want enough depth to allow Fisher on loan. Conway only if we don't plan to strengthen the flanks. Rodwell is maybe the most understandable of the lot, though most of us don't think he showed quite enough to warrant it. But keeping him plus all the deadwood is madness. How are we supposed to make room on the wage bill like he talked about if we won't even start with the out of contract detritus? It's almost enough to make me return to a Mowbray out stance as it doesn't bode well at all for how we will go about the summer.

What can you possibly have seen in Brereton to be willing to go into a new season without any new strikers, and also with him above our player of the season in the pecking order?

Been sat stationary on the m6 for 3 hours now (6 in total) but this has cheered me right up

Steve Waggott wins the playoffs as Leeds and their horde are welcomed back to fortress Ewood

Wrong. You set your targets to improve as a club. If you don't have ambition to kick on and improve then go and get involved in another sport. That means getting shut of the deadwood and signing better ones. Merely carrying on with players who aren't up to the job on the basis 'we're a mid-table side' and 'that's our lot' will only do one thing - ensure stagnation and decline.

Out of the four i wanted WBA up - picking out of the rest is like having to choose from three different ways of having your manhood mutilated. Really want to see Villa have to pay for their overspending, Leeds stay out of the top flight for another 20-years and Frank Lampards Derby County fail spectacularly. I guess ill have to go for the manhood fed through a mincer of Derby County to go up - if I really had to choose.

Alright lads, time to unban CP Company?

Statements in the Telegraph are one thing. Actions another. Talk is cheap and easy, spending and recruiting well isn't.

BRFCS - gratitude corner...?????? At the end of a long, hard season, it’s something of a tradition to hand out awards and such like and to reflect on what has just concluded. Well, we may not have any trophies to hand out but we sure have plenty of plaudits...so bear with me in this self-indulgence if you would be so kind... BRFCS has for a while been in need of some behind the scenes tinkering, a lot of which you don’t see; more often than not, the site just being up means people have “done stuff” and neither you nor I would have a clue but it keeps the engine revving. We are lucky to have our own “geek squad” in Glenn, Biddy, Stuart & Phil who tinker here & there and truly speak an impenetrable language of their own in pursuit of IT perfection. Phil has also done some sterling work this season in refreshing the page and creating a new home page which has brought us bang up to date and for that we thank him. We also thank him by asking him then to do some other stuff which hopefully soon will create a wonderful new section on the site which we are really excited about. Sadly Phil also insists on having a life and a real job that pays him money and sometimes these have to take precedence. However, thanks to Phil for endeavours past, present & hopefully future..and to all of our IT gurus, may your TLAs always be unintelligible to us non-gurus. The forum can be quite the enigma. Sometimes there is some lovely stuff on there, sometimes there isn’t. Overseeing it is a thankless task that is guaranteed to bring only opprobrium. Why anyone wants to volunteer to do it is beyond me but we are grateful that they do. It doesn’t win you many friends or put you on the VIP guest list at film premieres but heartfelt thanks to K-Hod, Tom & True Blue for helping to moderate the site. Podcasts next...these truly are a labour of love. We produce them, put them out there and then simply hope that someone listens and enjoys... Sometimes we get feedback, sometimes it’s positive, sometimes it’s constructive. We are proud of them notwithstanding. This season we were invited to Brockhall, we interviewed Don Mackay, John Nicholson from Football 365 we had help & assistance from various journalists including Rich Sharpe, Andy Bayes, Conor Pope, John Duerden and of course from erstwhile Rovers social media manager Ryan Grant. Let us also acknowledge the hard work of Kamy in keeping lines of communication open with the club. We had a podsquad of panelists willing to give up time & energy to contribute and we had a new executive producer and host for one truly memorable episode in the indefatigable Linz Lewis who created the terrific International Women’s Day edition. One of our panelists went on to create the “Ginger Ninja Appreciation Society”...it wasn’t a BRFCS initiative as such that’s true, but we would just like to bask in the reflected glory of Jen Bellamy who always is er... “forthright” and makes editing out swears quite the art form ! Another in Michael Taylor, reassessed Graeme Souness and persuaded a Scottish colleague to act out the role of Souness, which it has to be said he did with some uncanny accuracy making for a memorable episode. We have had help from Tom at our good friends at the 1875 Podcast, Scott from our favourite fanzine 4000 Holes, we have our very own Canadian corespondent in Bill Arthur who somehow managed to interview a former Burnley player yet make it about Blackburn Rovers ! He was also trying to line Brad Friedel up for an interview but Brad then got himself sacked so...another time perhaps ! We have recorded face to face at Christmas and put it on YouTube, we recorded our last episode in a real studio...all of this, constantly trying new things to make vibrant and hopefully enjoyable listening. Remember, all this is in spare time and for free. Thank you therefore to Michael, Linz, Jen, Mike, Stuart, Matt, Louis, Millie, Hollie, Lucy, Josh & Duncan who have all helped along the way. COYB

Is it not about who we keep paying wages too for doing fuck all?

Gladwin and Conway in talks? About what? Where to go on holiday? This has to be some sort of joke, surely? ?

Yup, not saying all his signings have been great but consider Bell plays every week, as did Reed. Not to mention Samuel, Payne, Antonsson and Downing who played regularly and contributed to our promotion. Davenport looks every bit a player...Gave several u23’s their debut over two seasons (11 in total I think). Not bad for a guy who blindly sticks with the players he’s inherited, makes all bad signings and apparently never plays them huh?

At least Leeds can console themselves with breaking two brand new records. First Championship team to be top at Christmas and not go up. Also the first Championship team to lose a playoff semi final having won the first leg away. Ho ho ho.

Waggott’s praying for a Derby winner...

Well Conway sends all the wrong signals for me...

I've no issue with Rodwell and Conway being in talks for new deals. Rodwell can at least compete at this level and is a decent option for us in CM. Conway, although not at the level he once was, still proved this season that he can fill in and do a job when called upon. As a squad player, I see no issue with him as long as we are offering reduced terms. Leutwiler and Gladwin are the funny ones. Leutwiler staying surely kills off any need for a new GK. Why would we pay 3 senior GK's.. Even when fit, I can't imagine Gladwin getting on the bench for us, as we've seen nothing from him so far bar a horrendous miss against Plymouth.

Agree with this point. It's okay going with the idea of trying to give the guy some sort of career and income and many will say it wouldn't be right to boot these types of players out the door but think of it in another way. In extending a contract for someone who can't offer what's needed just to prolong their career here. You are directly ending a career of a young academy player who might be ready to run through walls to get their chance. Blackburn Rovers owe no player a career. Not from your Dacks to your Gladwins. If you play and are employed by the club then you contribute in someway or another. As for the previous poster stating that we should be out next year with the team we've got. We were in a 10+ losing run which took us from top 6 to near bottom 3. We will be near relegated next year if improvements are not made.

We could still let him use our facilities for recovery without offering him a new deal, short term or not. That's how these things normally work. We've already done right by paying him to not play for two years. It seems obvious that he realistically has little to no chance of a long term future with us, so why even bother with the short term deal? It just doesn't add up to me, unless Tony genuinely thinks in six months Gladwin is going to recover and be such a beast in training that he'll have no choice but to tie him down to a longer deal.

The first totally unnecessary meltdown of the window, well done sir.

Absolutely. Another way of looking at it with guesstimates attached: If Leuts, Conway and Gladwin are all on £4k a week, it will take 2,000 season tickets bought for The Riverside to cover their cost. Get rid, save the cost and let us in for nowt!

Dack, Rothwell, Chapman, Armstrong.. How much did those 4 cost vs current /potential value...

And a second choice development keeper having let Albinson go. I’m with Mr E on this one. Mowbray made a bold statement of intent last week and his first opportunity to show us that he meant it he hasn’t done. Out with the old - including a non-committal Rodwell - should have been the message loud and clear.

That young lad Wilson looks a cracking player. Great awareness.

What’s the difference between Gladwin and Brereton? £7m.

Really did not want dirty Leeds back at Ewood but I enjoyed that. Well done Frank.

From his brilliant, intelligent interview he gave (which we all loved to bbc lancs) I would of expected, Conway & Gladwin to be on the bus out here. Why keep them?? Like most of last season his comments and actions don't match. Still plenty of time however...

It's mid May ffs, all I will do is react to over reactions until at least early July

This is a football club not a charity. Gladwin has been well paid for two years and has given next to nothing back in fact over those two years the club has done more for him than he has for us. By all means allow Gladwin to continue training with the club and using the facilities but to give him any kind of contract is ridiculous especially when the manager has already said that he won’t be fit for pre-season.

That will be to relieve the pain of his injury , officer

Broken heart...sorry, no , that's mine...

It's times like this I long for a Chaddy post validating TMs decision on Gladwin.

We know the drill, 'Gladwin is back on the grass, he'll be like a new signing...'

Letting Downing go in January was never the problem it was the lack of a replacement. It’s the same situation this time around, I’m please we’ve let him go provided that we sign a proper centre back

Not a meltdown at all, well done sir. Very worrying signs about TM's intent for the window. If you disagree, elucidate in the form of a counter-argument instead of having a pop.

Wow. Some reactions to that news. Lads, go out and enjoy the sunshine Next season is about who we sign.

Literally NO reason to keep Leutwiler & Gladwin. Even if we don't have a pot to piss in this summer, we could still pick up a couple of freebies who would make more of an impression.

Me too, from 1996 - 1998 I loved watching Nitro on Friday nights. Then we switched to Sky Digital around September 1998 and lost TNT my grandparents were still on analogue Sky though, so they'd tape it for me every Friday I asked them to stop around mid-99 as I lost interest in WCW, it was pretty bad by that point. It was all about WWF by then. It was so huge back then, even my parents would watch Raw on Fridays and Smackdown on Saturdays. They'd order the UK PPV's on Sky Box Office as well, so that was great for me! WCW eventually came back on Bravo, I think, but I didn't bother watching it by that point. Anyway, it's really cool to see TNT back in the game with AEW. The industry desperately needs some real competition for WWE, which is dire nowadays, so fingers crossed AEW is successful.

Quite how Downing has been given the boot but Gladwin hasn't is beyond me. Seriously. What the fuck. We literally have no senior CB we can trust aside from Lenihan and they let him go but Ben Gladwin has been given a stay of execution. Horrendous start. Come on - chop chop.

I have been saying since Samuel went down with that big injury that he will be given a chance to prove himself next season, I didn't even think of Gladwin to be honest but I guess he falls into the same category. Why we are giving Leutwiler an extension I don't know, a really poor keeper. Rodwell yes I would like to keep if it's to play in CM, Conway really isn't needed here anymore. And people are still expecting a glut of "first 11 ready" players to come in before August 8th, no chance i'm afraid.

You must be joking. You don't know if Rothwell is good enough for a starting place in the Rovers side next year?

The manager is talking of promotion on the back of comments about signing new players. He's already signed those. You've claimed it's a gamble doing something that he hasn't even done yet. If the narrative is that they are "effectively new signings" at the end of the window, and if we don't sign anyone of note, then you can criticise him. Until then it's just conjecture and you should take him at face value really.

Yeah have to agree with the above. For instance I don't think we'll look at full backs this summer, I think TM will persevere with Nyambe/Bennett for RB and Bell with Williams as cover for LB. Pretty obvious that we'll be looking for a CH, and I think we'll be looking to get a CM in too as it seems that Smallwood has finally dropped quite far down the pecking order. Seems like a GK will be coming in too, I imagine this will be a free transfer and "experienced". I'm not convinced that TM will be bringing in a CF to go straight into the team either, I think Graham will still feature a lot next season, and with Brereton, Armstrong and also Samuel coming back into the fold I think we might go until January with what we have. TM loves a number 10/Wide Striker too so I could see him maybe bringing in another one of those, because.

So back to the signings, of all the ones he's made one is a liability at LB (Bell), one is brilliant (Dack), one he only played because he was desperate (Rothwell) and another who blows hot and cold (AA). They are the only ones that get in the team. Raya, Mulgrew, Lenihan, Nyambe, Bennett, Evans, Travis, Williams, Graham he inherited. Those are the players he picks the most besides Dack, AA and Bell. Mogga has spent £10m+ and 2.5 years achieving that. The transfer market is not his strong point.

Pink Floyd - Money

He's rarely bought well, that's why the team is full of players he inherited.

Irons in the fire. We have identified targets. Unrealistic prices. Get our business done early. Loans not permanent. Yep. Been here before.

She lived in Carmel by the Sea in California and owned a hotel there. We went in the restaurant part of it when we were in Carmel last June. Very nice it was too. Clint Eastwood also has a hotel and restaurant in the same town where we also dined one evening. We were told to go in relatively early in the evening and we may stand a chance of seeing him. Sure enough, he was stood at the bar!

The Clash - Know Your Rights