Google, knowing that I'm a Rovers fan usually directs me to Rich Sharp's articles every day. Today's headline appears to be, "Rovers set to miss out on target as transfer search continues." It provoked two thoughts: 1] What a surprise? ; and 2] Are they really searching? I'm sorry; I'm getting so disillusioned with what's going on - or more likely isn't - that I'm ignoring all future hints from google until it's to an article by R.S. reporting that we've actually signed new players. Mowbray must think we're all so-o-o gullible; well, not me any more.

Sorry, I'm playing catch-up again. Which manager, other than one who wants a nice cushy billet in what may well be his last 'big' managerial appointment, wouldn't get frustrated by what appears to be micro-management by our owners?

Definitely!!?

Let's not forget that, not only are Bournemouth having to come to terms with relegation and losing some of their better players - hopefully including King to augment our transfer budget - but they're having to do so with a manager who's never managed in the Football League before, and whose only experience of managing a team was a very brief spell in charge at Weymouth in the equivalent of the National League. Since when, he's only been an Assistant Manager to Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, the Dingles then back at Bournemouth. So let's go into this game with belief that we'll be the team with the better chance of picking up three points from this match and ending up as Championship table-toppers after the final whistles have been blown on Saturday afternoon. Sticking my neck out, I'm going for a 2-1 Away win. Not right bothered who gets 'em; it wouldn't matter to me if our winning goal was scored in the 90 + 4th minute by a deflection off substitute Bennett's backside! COYB.

No I won't be renewing but mainly for the practical reasons I gave in the post below. Saves me repeating myself!?

There's various posts on the last 3 pages referring to Bolton, PNE & Stanley, HBM.

It's the lack of communication from the club that angers me. One of my "lockdown jobs" has been to get my collection of sporting - mainly BRFC, obviously - programmes into some proper order, rather than just living in boxes, as they have done for far too long. I mention that because I had forgotten that I had very few programmes from the 2011/12 and the 2012/13 seasons. And that was because I was boycotting the club because of its ownership. But I could also identify with the PNE fan on the link from Lancashire Live. In a way, Ewood's been my spiritual home since the late 1950s and I've always sung "Rovers till I die" fervently. I came to more games from 2013/14 and remember mentioning to a friend I bumped into before one match that season on the now-disgraceful concourse to the Blackburn End that I felt that I'd "come home." And so I bought another season ticket and faithfully renewed it, even though my dependence on public transport means I don't get home from a Saturday match till about 7.15; and I almost never come to a midweek game because it'd be midnight - far too late for this old beggar to be out! - before I got home. But love for a football team - like any kind of love - surely requires a a degree of reciprocity from the object of your affections. And I'm sorry, but I'm just not feeling it from Rovers any more. One of the rhetorical questions I've been asking myself recently is, "What does Waggott actually DO for whatever salary he receives from our owners?" Am I wrong to expect that the unspoken contract between the club and me requires him - or somebody on his behalf - to let me know what their plans are for the coming season? I take the point that some have made on here about Bolton Wanderers; but at least we've seen on here how they, and PNE, and Stanley have, for better or worse, communicated with their fans. So it's a very disillusioned Rovers fan who's beginning to come to terms with apparently being given the boot by the object of his affections over the years. Like I said, "I'm Rovers till I die"; I just wish they loved me as much as I love them.

So, presumably, the draw for the next Round is some time after 5.00 on Saturday.

Really, TiG? Don't you really mean, "As a Rovers' fan, I really hope he'll tell West Brom to do one."?? Put yourself in his boots and you're a young-ish footballer, currently on the books of a League One club which is in administration, and a Premier League club and one from the Championship are competing for you to join one or other of them. And, as far as we know, each is promising more money than your present club is likely to be able to pay you. Surely in those circumstances as that young footballer, you'd sit back and let your agent negotiate the best financial package for you, even if it meant being a squad member at the Premier League club. I'm fairly sure I would, if I were his age.

I agree 100% with this, Stuart. I've not seen anything of Dolan's performances but all that I've read about him makes him sound like one of the most exciting prospects that we've signed in goodness knows how long. Let's hope his flair and attitude are encouraged. I bet Knobbers' fans must be sick.

Without going into the other room and checking, I couldn't tell you, Angry Pirate; I just recall one game where Duffer put in a real shift and I commented on it to my pals in the Riverside. Totally agree with you about Warnock & Pedersen.

Don't you read 'em before you send them, though??

As this thread will show, this is my first visit here since last night; sorry!! I obviously missed some thought-provoking posts last night after I started watching TV. It just occurs to me that one area where our approach of giving youth its chance - which, of course, may be dictated by a number of other factors: our overall financial position; managerial preferences; to name but two - occasionally appears to get its own reward. E.g, because of decisions taken at Deepdale, we have been in a position to snap up a youngster they've had to release who so far has had a couple of impressive displays from our substitutes' bench. They may turn out to have been flashes in the pan - let's hope not, obviously! - but if they aren't, let's just celebrate our good fortune.

Not being rude, chaddyrovers; but do you type very quickly and sometimes appear to say the opposite of what you mean? E.g. I'm guessing you meant to end your second paragraph, "Why not give Rankin Costello, Buckley, Vale, Chapman their chance?" As it was, it reads as though you've given up on them. Or was that what you meant??

For me, one of the benefits Gresko enjoyed was playing his career behind Damian Duff. It always seemed to me that Duffer was prepared to come back and help Gresko out. Mind; that was in the days when the management played yer actual wingers!

Well, that's interesting; it could certainly make Saturday teatime a lot easier for those who, like me, don't normally get home from a Saturday Home game till about 7.15! Still, afaik, no word from the League or the Government about whether Away fans will be allowed into games, though. Ewood could probably accommodate social distancing regulations if games were played before Home fans only in all four stands. But have they thought about those sad b'stards of us who like to 'tick' away grounds? In normal seasons, I'd be looking to be at Brentford 's new ground and Wycombe Wanderers.

I, too, couldn't make the tribute; but was glad to know that the cortege went as close to the pitch that Stewart graced as possible. Presumably, that was with the agreement of the club's current management. If so, let's hope that it's the start of the club treating the memories of ALL of our former heroes properly. Let's hope that the programme for the first game we can actually watch at Ewood includes a fulsome tribute to what this 'one of our own' gave to his local club. And let's also hope that the club has the surrounds of the stands in better condition for any future cortege of a former player to visit than they looked to be on a recent photograph on another thread.

It is indeed sad. When he was appointed, I remember feeling happy that he was our first 'proper' manager since our owners sacked Sam and that, at last, we would have a manager who'd been round the game for long enough to get us back to the Premier League which I naively believed was what our owners wanted too. I was one of those who cut him a lot of slack. I'm sure he'd be a very nice chap if I knew him socially. But I regret that the owners haven't been as ruthless as they were with Sam. He may well be the man to have consolidated our position in this division but if he's proved anything in his time with us, it's that he isn't the man to get us back to the Premier League and keep us there, like Sam, I'm sure, would have. If only the owners had had a bit of patience, the club could have continued to have deliver some of the Premier League wealth to their 'bottom line'; they'd have had the kudos of owning a Premier League team and we'd have all been a lot happier. (We'd still have been grumbling about something, mind!) All very sad.

I don't know the answer to that question, chaddyrovers. I do, however know that my local League team, Rochdale, has had an announcement on their website for some time now - and had the details in the local paper last weekend - about selling 'season cards' to allow their fans to have a seat in the ground for whenever fans are allowed in to watch games. The club actually apologise to fans that it may not be for their 'usual' seat, but assures them that when the COVID19 restrictions are relaxed, they can switch back to the seat that has been theirs for however long they've had a season ticket. I'm guessing here that fans who stand at games played at the Crown Oil Arena will have to buy a seat temporarily. 'Compare and contrast', as they say in all the best exam questions, 'with the complete absence from the Blackburn Rovers website of any information about how the club intends to sell season tickets for season 2020/21.'

Two blokes called Riversider28 living across the road from each other? What are the odds?? Even in Blackburn!??

Am I really the first to offer for consideration the following three names? Richard Witschge from the Premier League-winning squad; and from the mid-1960s, Allan Gilliver and George Jones. I'd be the first to agree with anyone who says that none of them can compete with yer Corrado Grabbis, Danny Murphys and Myles Andersons et al at the top of this particular league table, but all surely deserve to be found in mid-table?! If only Witschge had been as good as he thought he was, . . . Allan Gilliver had a different problem; he turned out to be more injured than we thought he was when we laid out all of £30,000 - forgive me showing my age, but in the era when "£30,000 was £30,000" - for him. And is my memory failing me, or did we not then sign George Jones from Bury to fill the Gilliver-sized hole in the forward line, and he also failed to deliver?

Awful news that a lad who really was "one of our own" has left us at such a comparatively early age. Others have shared their memories of him and his versatility; we're talking of a Rovers' icon here. Let's hope that the club's tweet is a preliminary to some sort of appropriate recognition by the club of a "local lad made good".

I'm not so sure, Mercer, about what I've put in bold. It's something I hope and pray for every day, but I'm sure I read in a profile of 'TM the man' somewhere a couple of years or so ago that his children were still at school. I can't see a good family man like TM will want to stop working until the children have left school. Which means that we need our owners to be decisive if TM isn't. And I'm not holding my breath for that to come to pass.

I was just referring to what TM said in the article about his own approach to negotiating.

I never thought I'd write this, but I read a mildly interesting article on LancsLive today. https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/transfer-news/blackburn-director-football-ambition-mowbray-18703922 It's about whether we'd be better served with a Director of Football negotiating contracts rather than the self-confessed poor negotiator known to us as Tony Mowbray.