I can assure you that there were death threats, I was the targeted when I was digging and revealing some of what was being found. I once got a note saying that if I did not stop poking my nose in that they would warm things up with a little fire, this was a note posted through my door. I reported it to the police and they took it seriously. I know that Glen and others had much worse. The other route that they took was the almost weekly legal threats from IPS Law, which to begin with were worrying but once we established our legal rights they became more amusing annoyance. Things now are much different, not to say that everything is perfect but the focus does seem to be more on the playing side rather than previously when off the field what was going on overshadowed everything on the field. I can never trust Venky's because my default position with them is that there is always the threat of them listening and acting upon that one piece of bad advice from the someone whose only motivation is to make a quick buck which will throw all of the good work out of the window and plunge the club back into a downwards spiral.

Wonder what happened to the bone heads who came from the midlands was it ? to put some intimidation on certain people ? Are they still loyal hardcore or where they on a payroll as well like kung fu pandas Bolton rent boys and the like ? What an unbelievable time but it's all been nicely swept under the carpet....for now. I live for the day something turns up in public non Rovers related regarding Dastardly/Mutley and all their crew, some who turned rogue when they were supposed to be loyal to the club, and sets off a series of events that lets it all out. Time is wonderful at throwing up that sort of thing just when it's least expected. Scum !

He's been very open about his struggles with depression. I could have cured him years ago - stop watching the dingles.

Campbell didn't know what "murus pater vester vester" means? I'm surprised at that.

I can't do links but Jonathan Wilson in todays " Guardian " has an excellent article on the subject of City's dominance. Just two quotes from a really good article - " But Saturday was miserable ,the traditional showpiece of the game was reduced to a grim parade, devoid of any drama, there to satisfy the propaganda wing of a faraway regime ". " The gulf between the elites and the rest has never been as defined as this. It is not just City, it is not just England. Bayern Munich wrapped up the Bundesliga on Saturday to mean that for the first time in history, the league title in each of Europe's five big leagues has been retained. There comes a time when you have to step back and say this is pointless. Teams like Watford should not be just patsies. They and their fans deserve better than to be mice tossed into the tank for the python to feed upon."

Lesson to be learned here is you really shouldn't talk about things that you dont understand. Blackburn Rovers, the club that Jack built.

Suhail is ex-SEM & ex-Kentaro, though, isn't he? And has pretty much been orchestrating events in some form or another since the beginning or close to? Hard to feel much relief when such shady elements still exist at such a high level within the club's structure. I think the only time I'll feel the club is safe again is when it is no longer in Venky's hands. Unfortunately there's no obvious sign of this happening any time in the near future though.

Found these online and thought they where really interesting - a full league review, images below... Shot Dominance The number of shots taken against the number of shots the opposition took Attacking Effectiveness Shot conversion, essentially. Bottom right is good, top left is bad. We come under languidly clinical, essentially didn't get lots of chances but took them. Defence effectiveness Exact opposite of above- top left is good - able to reduce opposition shots take more shots without conceding, bottom right is bad, opposition get lots of opportunity and take them. As predicted, we dont do well here. Expected goals The graph speaks for itself and sums up pretty much everything I thought about the year. Decent attack, poor defence.

Disagree about Robbo, he was well past his prime by then and had become a liability even at this level. Yes his big wage was a factor, as we couldn't sustain it in the Championship, but if he had been playing a lot better maybe we would have. When Steele came in I can't say I noticed much difference (agree it wasn't a particularly ambitious replacement though). Was far from a great keeper, but (I'm sure I'll be pilloried for this given the apparent consensus) thought he is villified far more than he warranted.

Alistair Campbell just now on C5 did not know or recognise his football clubs Latin wording on their badge when it was shown to him. I'd expect every real rovers fan to recognise and know the meaning of Arte et Labore as soon as they were shown Campbell is a plastic tosspot

Does it say 'sex digital insita'?

Yep - screams uncertainty over budget to me. Yet again.

The difference between Raya and Westwood is not the difference between promotion or not. We should not be selling 24 year old Raya to bring in a bloke who turns 35 next season, who has just been on the thick end of 30k a week. It is the complete opposite of the kind of thing we should be doing.

Anybody else disappointed this wasn't a thread of pictures of Claudia Schiffer

Im sick of the fact Raya has an erratic kick being a justification. Jason Steele got an assist once you know. The number 1 attribute you fundamentally want from your GK is shot stopping. Who cares if Raya gives the Riverside catching practice a few times a game. Look at the Brentford 1-0 win at home. Few goalkeepers in the world would have kept a clean sheet that day. We are not in the Paul Robinson, Tim Flowers, Brad Friedel market anymore. Robbo was probably our last proper goalkeeper and was decent and had a phenomenal kick - Robbo was also the England #1 for half a decade before we signed him thanks to a dodgy backpass got him crucified. Raya is an instinctive and impressive shot stopper, improve his back 4, start playing a positive style of football without 8 defensive players and for the love of God improve his GK coach and leave him be for 12 months. Raya is close to, if not in my "top 5 last players to sell" list. (Lenihan, Dack and Travis being the top 3.)

It's not just about being safe. It's about feeling safe. And I'm not making a problem because I personally don't have one. I'm merely pointing out that there are potential advantages to a bus service for those coming on their own from further away. We ought to be encouraging as many people as possible to use public transport for all sorts of reasons

Diouf paid for our banner.

I think there’s been questions over his attitude. He does come across as a bit of a tosser on social media, and effectively went on strike at the start of the season because he didn’t get a move. Think he was expecting star player wages wherever he went which put the kibosh on any potential transfer. I genuinely believe he was the “ripped jeans” lad that TM couldn’t gel with upon meeting him. This is all based on absolutely zero evidence whatsoever though, as per the rules.

Last seen looking round estate agents in Langho with the ghost of Ray Wilkins. (too soon?)

It is unfortunate that so many of us did not know the extent of what was going on at the club at the time or the methods adopted to keep people quiet. Ironic as it sounds now, I had always relied on the LT and Radio Lancs!! I have nothing but respect for MCMC 1875 and I was present at one EWMC supporters' meeting, when one individual reported a very disturbing, threatening phone call to his home...The rest I have merely read about in Glenn Mullan's stuff and from posts on this very site. I have no evidence linking our owners to the threatening behaviour, referred to above. What I will say is that very bad things went on before, during and after the disastrous sale. Clearly, secrecy was a prerequisite to enable this bad behaviour to continue, uninterrupted. Threatening behaviour, along with bribery, helped maintain that secrecy. It was all on the owners' watch.

No, made the big error v QPR, was generally terrible coming for crosses, and as @Oldgregg86 said, was really slow to get down, as shown for Norwich's first goal and also McBurnies header. The problem with bringing in "an experienced Championship keeper in to put pressure on" Raya suggests that the new keeper will not be first choice and thus isnt as good as Raya. Whats the point bringing in a player who isnt an improvement?

This is another thing Venkys have ruined; I've genuinely had nowhere near as much concern about Rovers goalkeepers in my lifetime until they turned up. Started properly following in 1992... ?

I’ve watched Leutweiler play for the U23s already, and to say he was/is an international keeper, he was terrible. (Granted, he might have improved but at 30yo he should be capable of being a very decent number two or even number one somewhere - at least an ambition to). Still not what we need IMHO. The thing is, similarly to Downing, Mowbray doesn’t appear to want players complaining about being on the bench and knocking on his door (I honestly think this was also his thinking with Travis and Rothwell). Leutweiler seems happy to be perma-sub and this is one less headache for Mowbray. (Even today “he could leave if he wants more game time” - why? He should be pressing to play here but isn’t good enough). Personally I think managers should welcome the challenge of players being upset at being left out because it means you can challenge those on the pitch to step up. Who was challenging Raya and who was challenging Mulgrew? Particularly post-January. In both cases, nobody. We shouldn’t keep mediocre players because they will gladly be sub and we shouldn’t let players leave on a free just because the want to play. Seems wrong to me.

I don’t doubt the lad pal I was trying to make a point to bluebell regarding his conduct in another thread.

He's a turbo tosser, that lad. Got a chip on his shoulder the size of Pendle Hill where Rovers are concered.

He went bright red when they revealed it was Burnley's motto....what a dick.!

Did he not spin a lie to cover the fact he didn't know ? He's made a career out of it after all !

Which people have said both?

For anyone, who hasn't seen it before, he is an example of what was going on at the club. What you have to remember when you watch this, is that the fans were blamed for not giving the player mentioned a chance. Was it just a coincidence that he is the son of an agent heavily involved at the club and did this player go on to make a career from himself, once he left our club and was no longer frozen out by the fans? Back then, there were some very questionable people around the club, who were able to manipulate people in high places and cover their tracks by being very clever and one step ahead. I know what my opinion is on those events and that's why I and many others who bothered finding out the truth, will never trust the current owners.

Yes it was a tongue in cheek, somewhat silly remark. My response was to a post regarding PNE busing fans in and there had been, at that point, no examples of what Stanley do. Now I understand there is an ultras section, live music, real ale marquees and cheap beer after a win. This is a different proposition. I have some understanding of our demographic in that the town has a wide ethnic mix, low income base and small population. I don't know more but given this I'd argue attracting more fans from the town will be difficult and achieving the 20,000 often cited here needs 40-50% of those fans to come from outside Blackburn. I live halfway between Chorley and Blackburn. At our peak around 30-35 fans left my village from 2.00pm onwards. With one exception these were families - I took four kids, another family was six in total. That's eleven from two households. Today I'm aware of four, yes 4, who go to every match. Three are me and two sons. I'm still in touch with the majority of parents and know their children have moved and are spread across the UK. As an aside this is why free child tickets etc. have an immediate effect but low long-term impact. Going back to demographics the Stanley initiative addresses, for me, a very narrow demographic. At 64 I don't want to stand in a tent, drinking beer listening to a local band. I enjoy each of those things but not at Ewood on matchday. I'd suggest the supporter this is aimed at would be 18-25, possibly 30 at a push. Thinking about the out of town fan and people I know with an interest in football. None go to football to drink, many will not, including myself, drink and drive at all. I may well be wrong but I think this would be commonplace amongst many of the target fans. Taking this deeper. I started watching Rovers in I think '82 possibly '83 when we moved to the area. It's a long story but I wandered in to Ewood one Saturday and immediately was hooked. I had 3-4 seasons alone and then took children for around 13-14 seasons. A beer tent and rock music is the last thing I needed with up to four kids in tow. By the end of this I'd hit early 40s and life had changed. My argument would be the majority who regularly question the club's commitment to or understanding of where the support would come from and how to attract them don't consider much of this. Those making this criticism look only at a narrow demographic, ignore out of town support and believe free child tickets build the future fan base, it doesn't. In the era of 20,000+ home fans the crowd could be split in to core support, floating Rovers fans and those who simply wanted PL football. The only solution to returning to those levels of support is PL football. Everything else is window dressing.

The majority of Rovers fans will of been taken to their first game by a family member, who was probably taken to their first game by another family member. To look at this you need to put yourselves in the position of someone who has never been to a match at Ewood or potentially any other sporting event anywhere. Going to your first game, without being taken, isn't as straight forward a process as it could be, granted the Internet probably makes it easier than it was 20-30 years it's easy to find ticket info online and buy tickets. But where would you sit, where would you feel safest with your kids, how much swearing will there be, will the traffic be bad, where will I park, will there be problems with away fans as I go back to my car. All things that once you've been to a couple of games probably don't seem like an issue, but if you never been they are all reasons why you might take the kids to the cinema instead. A simple to use well publicised park and ride that you can pre-book and guarantee a simple and straight forward match day experience has got to help, the first time fan, but it's not going to instantly add thousands on to the average gate. I'd probably go as far as to say it probably wouldn't get that much use on a matchday as there is so much on street parking, so would no doubt be cancelled as a failure.

Keep Raya AND sign an experienced keeper like Ruddy. ??

His apologies ring very hollow. He’s just realised that it’s 2019 and public figures are vilified for stuff like this. I’m pretty sure he meant what he said. It seems patently obvious that resents what’s Jack Walker did for this club and he has taken aim for today’s football ills on the wrong target and on the wrong day. Ironic that he is trying to do the same thing for lowly Accy. Odd that he singled out the names he has for his outburst. Abramovic is infinitely more responsible than Jack could ever be accused of for today’s ownership problems. Jack bought his boyhood club and for a fleeting moment restored it to its former glory. While Abramovic was the start of the “Pick a Random (London) PL Club as a Bauble” phase that has brought clubs to their knees.

Ah the good old council. Rather than putting empty land at Ewood to use by allowing people to park there in safety they build a gypsy camp there and leave the rest to fall into rack and ruin. Then put extra parking wardens on duty and drop them all off ahead of the game to try and issue some fines to boost the coffers. Trying to exploit Rovers fans for extra cash. Disgusting. Meanwhile the town goes to the dogs. The council are complicit in the difficulties.

Me to. Just our being in the FA Cup brings it back, year after year after year. To this day I do not know how he missed.

He did and there it is still all out there for all to see. I am sure some will bury their heads in the sand and suggest that Venkys were just badly advised, but things went a lot deeper than that. http://roversrevisited2.blogspot.com/2016/09/good-money-if-you-can-get-it.html

For those who bothered to find out, what was going on in the first few years of Venkys ownership, most will know about the death threats and also other very untoward things. I have spoken at length to one individual, who was put through all sorts of personal trauma and who received a death threat. Someone has asked if it was reported to the police, well yes it was, but unfortunately it was never investigated properly. As many people will know, anyone who stood up to what was going on at the club back then were sorted in their own way. Whether you were the first team manager, a club executive, or simply a pesky fan getting too involved, it didn't really matter. I would suggest that's why the people who knew what was really going, on, will never rest, until the current owners are gone. http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2012/05/08/revealed-new-leaked-blackburn-letter-lays-bare-crisis-and-torment-inside-ewood-080501/

Nobody was talking about City as a “killing machine” while Liverpool matched them every step of the way and could, and should, have won it (given the help they had) but for too many draws. If anything, Liverpool’s challenge this season turned City into a ruthless outfit. The key issue for the purpose of this article is the utter mismatch between City and Watford in the FA Cup Final. This is what made it a non-contest. The only way to minimise the risk of this is to seed the draws for each round - which will ultimately ruin the magic that makes the FA Cup. (Although sponsorship and gimmicks have already damaged it to an extent). Maybe, if there is not to be the complete revolution of a European Super League then there ought to be a separate “Premier League Cup” competition with the fourth Champions League Spot up for grabs (or even new European Cup Winners Cup, single-team-per-nation) format - and give the FA Cup, the Wembley occasion and the Europa Cup place to the EFL.

OK, I forgot that. Thanks. But wanted to also make the point that he's no longer considered even as 3rd choice keeper for the Canada squad

As you know, one former player did his very best to help with some of the stuff. I will respect that guy for the rest of my life, as he, unlike some did not take the money and run.

Indoctus asinus

Had to be done: The Jam - English Rose

So we're not signing Luca Toni then?

The Damned - New Rose

Ted can't post on the internet without his usual touch of arrogance and assuming he knows better than everyone else. Ted then wonders why people find his tone a tad annoying. Ted doesn't know anything better than anyone else. Don't be like Ted he's a bit of a helmet.

It’s my belief that folk post what they actually think the first instance. I suspect he’s only issued an apology later as someone may have pointed out to him that Stanley have Rovers fans watching when we are away from home. As far as I’m concerned he can stick his apology where the sun don’t shine and as I alluded to a couple of weeks back, Stanley could quite easily have been rivalling us if we hadn’t got promoted from the first division at the first attempt. Lets forget all this nice Stanley bollocks, they aren’t Rovers!

German model

Mowbray is just a naturally overcautious manager, he'd rather play it safe than potentially leave the team in a vulnerable position by exposing gaps for the opposition to exploit. It's a commendable attitude in some respects, but there are two major issues I have with his approach. Firstly, he seems to wait far too long to change things. We went on an embarrassingly long run of terrible form from the beginning of February before he finally made some serious changes which brought instant results. At that point he had little choice but to continue on with it, and since we were safe at that point and had no realistic chance of reaching the playoffs there was no real pressure if we got a couple of really bad results along the way. Secondly, he is far too cautious against teams which are inferior to us - particularly at home. Because of his overthinking we rarely start off on the front foot against teams we should be beating. I have no issue with taking caution away from home (although our away form this season was pretty poor anyway) or at home against the better teams in the division, but I don't understand it when we're playing teams like Rotherham, Ipswich, Millwall, etc. Those are situations where he needs to be more courageous if he has serious ambitions of getting promoted. I'm still hopeful that the tail end of the season will have opened the manager's eyes a bit, and with a decent summer we may have a good 19/20 season. A poor summer window and no lessons learned from last season could see us in some serious trouble though. At this point I really feel like it could go either way.

There has. This bloke was signed by Warnock at Bury where he played 37 games. I actually refereed him when he played for East Bengal in a pre season tournament at Leicester. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaichung_Bhutia