Maybe its just me, but I have a real sense this season, that the club have gone back 12yrs on and off the pitch. I haven't been to a game since Wharton was sold and JDT walked and I have no intention of attending anytime soon, they can shove the season tickets where the sun doesn't shine to be frank. In my opinion we made JDT's position untenable, after what can only be described as a superb first season. He came in during the summer, after many managers had turned us down, and seemingly pulled rabbits out of hats week in week out. We hit last summer with a real sense of optimism, the club able to push on, the football excellent at times and then the bombshell that our bent owners are in court and funds are pulled, the taps turned off, coincidence? or just criminality? Either way the club suffers, the fans suffer and its back to 2012 all over again. Selling Adam Wharton this season was absolutely criminal, they couldn't wait to get the lad out of the door. Here we have a Rovers fan playing for his boyhood club, a future England star, sold from under the managers nose as soon as a bid came in. I don't care about administration, I don't care if we needed the money, they sold at the first opportunity that arose, that is the point here. Then JDT walks, lied to again by owners who promise so much, yet deliver so little and its back to square one, the best manager in 12yrs and they've bolloxed it up. Then on the back of that we have the players, our wonderful players who put us in the position, telling the fans they need more backing, more people coming through the gates, talk about no bloody accountability of self-awareness! Needless to say, our season ticket money will be staying in the bank, I doubt I'll go again until these owners leave, but when they do, we have 5 season tickets waiting to be bought, the clock is ticking for these abhorrent owners.

When you turn your first team squad into a development squad at Championship level with the only aim to stay up and sell players then who can be surprised this is where it leads ? You reap what you sow and the main issue has been individual bad mistakes and the only thing as consistent as that is Sammies goals. They are the only thing that has kept us from complete disaster up until now and along the way one or two other senior pros who have been trying to carry the can have dropped off badly down to the level this stupid new 'model' has taken us. All alright upstairs though because we've raked in 25 million in sales to rescue the owners blushes so the execs are blue eyed boys in India, bonuses and hampers all round. Downgrade continues in summer one way or another.

The right choice would have been Pears heading it out of touch and not playing a header to a player facing him and at an awkward height.

Hull 1 up. Hull could have a significant part to play in keeping us up. They win tonight and Coventry are out if it. They win on Saturday against Ipswich and it would mean Leiceter will almost certainly be promoted by the time we play them. Going into the final day, Norwich would need a result against Birmingham to secure a place in the play offs whilst Hull would be desperate to beat Plymouth to have a chance of getting into the play offs. Come on Hull basically! I have more faith in Hull doing their bit to keep us up than I do in our players.

Recent Income Phillips - £2m Kaminski - £2.5m A. Wharton - £18m Summer Income Szmodics - £10m (almost certain to go, price a rough guess) Raya (sell-on) - £4m In total, that right there would be just over £36m from selling assets since last summer... THIRTY-SIX-MILLION-POUNDS. As a result of the above sales (plus others walking for free), our team is absolutely dogshit and currently on the brink of relegation. If we don't reinvest at the very least 25% of that income into the playing squad, then i'll honestly give up. I won't buy my family season tickets as planned, and won't set foot in Ewood again until they're all gone.

Surely whether that was a fuck up by us depends on whether he’d have still signed without a clause/if the clause was higher. As shit as our club is, I think ‘the system’ is the main culprit in this case. It will probably end up the same with Finneran (if we even manage to keep him until he can sign a pro contract) and may well have happened with Wharton had he not been a Rovers fan.

Give it time and we’ll reach his level.

If you struggle to get to night games you've seen one win at Ewood in six months. Pathetic. The season ticket 'campaign' will be a laugh.

Phillips was happy to trade becoming an established first teamer here in a side that finished 7th with the prospect of getting many games/experience and a big money move down the line. Instead it was double or treble the wages, a London penthouse and a loan to Plymouth. Forget him, he'll still be plodding around the loan market in the Championship next season and probably the season after. It was all on him and his agent.

The intensity has gone out of our game under Eustace so I don't think that the amount of games Coventry have played will be any advantage to us. We aren't a pacy team by any stretch of the imagination but under Tomasson the intensity made up for some of this. We really look like plodders and as such easy to play against.

No other Championship club has had to sell £25 million worth of players (+ substantial wage reductions) just to keep the lights on Why have Rovers? They will try to normalise our situation making reference to annual losses and FFP but it isn't normal. Its unique.

Good analysis and the numbers really do tell their own story. Out of a possible 66 points thus far we have garnered only 24 points. And to think Ewood used to hold some fear for visiting teams.

He needs to be a target. Get him scared and out of our club.

Come on now Abs, they’ll have flights to Marbs and Dubai to catch straight after Leicester.

Still can't believe how many no fucks given and not a care in the world attitudes before last night's undeserved awards Should be a no distraction week and fully focused on the cov game , not blowing smoke up there fragile egos when a huge important game coming up. If there are awards do it when it's over ffs.

Bolton have sold an additional 1k extra tickets vs last season in the early bird phase. Priced at £249. We continue on the journey to a closed Riverside under Swag.

It may have been but it looks to me like he was aiming for Hyam.

We just rest them during the 90 minutes.

The 'timing' of all those court hearings has been just perfect enough to impede the football club. Another monumental Venky coincidence.

I'd like us to reinvest some of the Adam Wharton, Ash Phillips and Kaminski cash (£25 million+) before we start thinking about selling Szmodics to reinvest cash.

66% possession, 6 shots, 0 on target and lose 5-0 Your the man, Russell. And contrary to opinion expressed by another they will not win the title, not gain an automatic promotion and, I really hope, continue Russell's implosion into the playoffs.

They should put that on the season ticket blurb.

If Pears is our No.1, in either league next season, it'll be depressing.

Now you're just trolling us

The most depressing bit for me is that we will likely have a few quid to play with, but who is JE realistically going to attract? JDT was a legendary international-class player and he clearly knew what he wanted - we just couldn't afford them (or sabotaged the deals). It would be the most Rovers thing ever if we spent £10m-£15m this summer and wasted it on a load of dross.

So why rest players in a must win game ?

Rovers have to lower the prices this coming season with the new TV deal coming which the EFL wanted more money from TV revenue. Games will be moved to a number of different kick offs from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Rovers should charged £199 for Riverside, £249 for BBE and lower JW, £280 for JW upper wing and £330 for JW upper centre I think Rovers also need to look at match day prices policy where you need to make attractive for walk on fans to attend also. £10 for midweek games, £15 to £20 for weekend games I hope Rovers actually serious think about this cos some people won't be attend to every game due to work or family commitments was kick offs changing.

It took Mowbray 5 years of 'development' to get us to 69 points. That includes 10 transfer windows during which he was only forced to sell Adam Armstrong and had, comparatively speaking, a massive budget. JDT came in 2 weeks before pre-season started having just lost Lenihan, Nyambe and Rothwell The way to do this is simple and obvious. It doesn't need someone to reinvent the wheel with clever strategies. It needs price reductions across the board, it needs people to see value in the product and it needs serious sustained efforts at selling. When it comes to value in the product there are many aspects to this. Selling all your quality players, spending no money, throwing in the academy kids - this is not going to persuade anyone that you have any ambitions or serious intentions. With half the games being midweek, red button, Sky, dodgy sticks, lunchtime kick offs then the price of a season ticket has to reflect this as a large number of people will be unwilling or unable to get to those matches. So you have to have a price whereby it is still worth being a season ticket holder even if you miss all those games. Preston and Bolton - £250 per adult. So even if you missed 50% of all the games you are still getting the other 50% for a reasonable price that's still good value despite the Sky tv and kick off nonsense. But at £400 per adult if you miss 50% of the games you are looking at a price which is hardly worth it when the club often offers matchday tickets at £15-25. People will just pick and choose and not be any worse off. There is also an onus on the club to drive sales. Putting a few tweets out and tacky straplines about commitment or similar isn't enough. You need to engage clubs, schools, previous buyers, get people buying in groups. This takes time and effort. You can't do it overnight. Too much effort here. Waggott has got away with his low hanging fruit policy for 5-6 years milking the results of Mowbray getting us back up and protected by Covid and then JDTs good season. I think he's going to get the results of his ruinous policies very soon. May need to bring forward that retirement date.

Hopefully the ‘95 one. I appreciate they’re now in their 50s but I’d still have more confidence in them getting the win we all crave.

Ah right when my missus said “put some talc on your tongue” I assumed she meant it gave her extra sensation?! 😬

If Coventry lose tonight they are out of the race. They are probably resting players tonight because they are knackered after Sunday

🤮🤮🤮 Delete this thread.

The big clubs also keep an eye on youth football and hoover up anything and everything they can get their hands on. They don’t even need any of them to work out for this method to be successful as the minuscule ‘compensation’ they have to pay for academy players is easily recouped through loaning them out to the lower divisions. The whole system is set up for the benefit of the big clubs (see also, no more FA cup replays)

The fact you quoted my post!

A long rest needed, but that will come on Saturday

Nice shoutout in Parliament.

I don’t agree they’re to blame for the Philips situation but I do agree a business model which is difficult/impossible to achieve (due to the current system) is a flawed one.

Managed to get a pair of these on release at RRP. 3x browser windows open at 11pm on the dot, luckily someone didn’t want a size 11 and that got me in! Probably wheel them out about 5 times a year, tbf!

It's been tried, with no joy so far. He looked entrenched to me last night, but just stood back observing and did not get involved. As we already know, he is running it and Waggott is just a stooge.

Come on Hull !

It's just a lack of awareness from Hyam. Should have been safety first knowing his keeper was out. Having said that, the finish was outstanding.

I’m astonished anyone thinks Markanday has anything about him. He’s rubbish.

Great post - but I just worry, and sorry to be so pessimistic and potentially piss on any optimism you may have, that I feel this is a step too far for most. It's all about hope, and lack of it. When we went down under Mowbray, there was a core of players you could get behind, and Mowbray seemed a steady hand and offered a glimmer of normality, both on and off the pitch. We signed Dack, and the team regained an identity. The League One season was fantastic for many people under 30 who missed the glory days in the 90s - and it did what most relegations do, the cliche of galvanising a club. There were still issues but it felt like a small reset and things could start to improve, especially the relationship between board and fans, not just the usual case of success sweeping issues under the carpet, but a real chance to rebuild. When we went down under Brian Kidd there was trust in the board and the owners that they'd guide us through it and make sensible footballing decisions, which they did. I actual miss the days, when for example, we were losing at home to Stockport in the league cup in 1996, stood in the BBE chanting "we want Harford out" that the board would go away and listen to the fans and do the right thing, that fans and board were on the same level. This is what is getting to supporters at the minute - that whatever they do, it doesn't matter, there's not that connection any more. The only way to move onwards, and to be honest a total pipe dream, is for the Venkys to leave, magically write the debt off, and we get new, sensible owners who are sympathetic to the area, and who can put a pro-active board in place, whatever division we are in. It pains me that the Wanderers are doing an amazing job, and getting 15,000 season tickets, it's madness. Of course I don't want administration, I don't want job losses, and the more we struggle the harder and harder it will get, but even in League Two with a small fanbase, with the right owners and some clear messaging and direction, you'd get that siege mentality that would make matchdays a passionate affair again. I get we need to reduce expenditure, and I get we need to become a selling club to survive in the current climate - but it seems whatever new model or scenario we set ourselves up for, there's issues, and it just wears away at us fans, wherever we turn we just can't seem to make anything work: - we try and be proactive, hire a DoF, sign an ambitious coach and start to develop a model (JDT, Lambert) - but the owners turn the taps off and there's a clear divide behind the scenes. Fans see an identity and a plan and get behind it, but there's that nagging feeling it'll be short-lived, so what's the point? - we, as supporters, get our heads round that our youth is our "identity", and except that the team might struggle but we'll be watching our "own" play week in and week out, and we can get behind that and support them, but we then sell them off before we have a chance to actually watch them grow in our side, the money goes into general admin, we don't see it reinvested. I get it - but it's still sad to see, it's something else you can't get excited about. - we hire a steady hand in Mowbray, but let a number of transfer windows come to nothing even when the team are riding high, and let a bad situation drag on and fester for too long causing the club to stagnate. - we go from a "solid" if old-fashioned recruitment setup under TM, a network of mates basically, but it worked, seemingly using his connections to sign great loans and gems from the lower leagues, giving the fans trust and excitement in any new signings, to now seemingly scraping the barrel of Europe. And if we do get the basics done, the i's dotted, and get the forms sent off in time, if we do actually sign players, they are literally the bottom of the list - whilst other teams seem to steadily strengthen and sign lads who can out-fight us and who are better at a rough and tumble scrap in the Championship. So now the fans immediately doubt any new signings. When was the last time we got excited about a sub coming on and changing the game? When was the last time you saw a new signing on the bench and couldn't wait to see him get a run out, that roar from the BBE when he comes on the pitch? I've totally forgotten that feeling. The way the ground fell silent and emptied after the Pears calamity on Sunday, that's the feeling I get - it's total apathy, because we just can't see a way out, or a way to turn. There was time in the game to lift the team and a "normal" scenario would see team and fans as one trying to claw back some respect, but because of this gradual dumbing down of the squad, you know what's coming - we don't have the players to perform under pressure. Couple with everything off the pitch, it's like we've been neutered as a fan base. We never come from behind, we never score late goals, this stuff is so telling, it really means something - there's a reason why Utd in the 90s kept scoring late goals, the whole "Fergie time" aspect, the whole place had belief. As someone else put it better than I could, we've got billionaire owners yet need to sell the crown jewels to keep the lights on. We're at a point of complete stagnation. So what's the model under Eustace, I presume treading water from one season to the next? Bringing on youth and selling for a profit I presume, while the mysterious 20m leaves each year. Normally I would give him the benefit of the doubt, based on a normal scenario of him being allowed to sign his own players, just to see if he can pick a player and build a team - but who knows what our transfer policy is now, it's all up in the air. Apologies for the long winded rant.

I know how he felt. However he, like several of our lot, has no right to be too critical bearing in mind how many times he has lost possession, missed tackles and wasted attacking positions, this season. Pears' errors were atrocious, but the lack of quality, focus and fight goes well beyond the goalkeeper in this team.

I’ve finally watched the highlights. Hyam could have played it a bit slower and a bit more in front of Pears. However I think Pears is trying to get it upfield. As it’s coming at a bad angle to him, he’d be better launching it into the Riverside and bollocking Hyam. Pears really needs to deal with it better. And I don’t want to dig him out too much, but when he heads it to Hyam for the first goal he stands there and admires it for a second or two. What is he waiting for? A one-two? The minute he heads it he should be retreating back to his goal at full speed.

I expect our younger players to make mistakes- youthful exuberance and all. but, I’d prefer U21’s over 5 or 6 of the lot that played vs Wednesday. Our fans deserve a better effort, and fewer mistakes, from players who are old enough to play better.

This post should also be framed and put in the boardroom. My thoughts exactly. If only anyone at the club with influence truly cared like the fans do. The board will be happy life has got easier because standards were being driven, often through the media by Tomasson - a man with intelligence, charm and charisma; traits you could say the club and certainly the CEO lacks. He wasn't perfect but we hadn't seen expectations like it at Rovers in over a decade and JDT brought them back for a season and a half... but with the people above him and the owners it was never going to last. I called it the moment he joined but it was "Brilliant" off the pitch, while it lasted.

Playing devil's advocate, is that to improve on the GK coach who worked with Spain international David Raya and Belgium international Thomas Kaminski, both of whom are also established in the premier league? I've said numerous times I've no idea why he gets so much hate, other than his age and lack of playing experience. Those things don't necessarily make you a bad coach and sometimes it is the player who can be the limiting factor, not the coaching.

I'd say he came over to say "what the fuck is wrong with you?, you looked like a clown running across a minefield"

WHY BRING THIS SCUMBAG UP ?????????