If we're being absolutely fair SC, whatever happened to Burnley FC they weren't ran by a football agent and his client. One of the best ran clubs in the country was quickly taken apart for reasons I'll allow you to imagine. Our downfall was an absolute travesty and proof that no one really cares about town clubs, and fit and proper doesn't exist. It says a lot that 10 years on we're still suffering from Venkys takeover and the events that happened soon after. When we went down in 1999 mistakes were made but they were exactly that, mistakes, nothing nefarious. Rovers were still a very well ran club, it wasn't just about money. There's a big difference between a few dodgy managerial appointments taking you down, and pure unopposed corruption. Even before Jack Walker was allowed to invest in the club it was ran for footballing reasons. Honest people were running the club and the team would have given you a game. I've been inside the club pre JW, during the Dalglish era, and seen it when it became a husk of its former self in 2012. Although there does seem to be some signs of recovery there are still problems that the current league position wallpapers over. I still think we're in massive trouble and wonder when the time will come when Venkys turn the taps off. With all Burnley's historical misfortune you've experienced nothing like it, you should hope that you never will. If Pace does eventually take you for a ride no one will care but the fans, you can be sure of that. Even then I doubt it would be quite as self serving as what Kean and co did. As a sidenote I saw a PNE fan writing some drivel about how Venkys bankroll Rovers to the tune of so many million a year. Although that's true they've lost us far far more and it's the very least they can do.

They won the Premier League, Alan Shearer as their centre forward and Kenny Dalglish as manager in 1921 and 1960?

Let’s count how many things Burnley fans won’t experience in this photo 🫣

November 19th 2010. A dark day for Rovers, a glorious day for our neighbours.

A quote for the history books.

Would be a good like for like replacement for Ayala.

That's extraordinary if true. I'd replace Ayala in January. Get an experienced midfielder in. Sign a good centre forward. Play Scott Wharton when he's fit. Play proper fullbacks.

Both Wharton's were a big miss. Adam Wharton is a brilliant player, not the finished article but he's only 18. We should be getting at least 60 minutes out of him a week but JDT seems happy to bring him in very slowly. We rarely lose when Scott Wharton is in defence. I personally think he's a better player than Ayala but to replace him in a fierce Derby with Mola, a 21 year old loanee who has only played one cup game a few days ago was madness. I imagine Scott Wharton was dropped because his passing has been a bit ropey since he returned from injury. Similarly I don't know what was going on in Tomasson's head when he decided to play Garrett. He probably thought he'd break up play but he's only 19 himself with (I think) less minutes on the pitch than Adam Wharton. There are many reasons for that performance. Partly fatigue, and tactics and team selection were suicidal. Having Hedges and Brittain, two good players as inverted wingbacks is something JDT is experimenting with, and I wish he wouldn't. Also there's an over reliance on youth due to a thin/unbalanced squad. Many years of Mowbray putting round pegs in square holes has meant we haven't signed a "proper" centre forward since 2019. A problem we could have fixed in Summer but for some reason didn't, although Summer priority seemed to be to replace Lenihan and Nyambe who both left on frees. I'd expect any normal club to remedy the centre forward situation in January - but Rovers aren't a normal club, so my expectations are low. The tapping about at the back is something Tomasson continues to impose on the team, to our continual detriment. Along with Gallagher going off this handed you the game to win, though with the way the team was set up was never going to last 90 minutes. We won't win many away games because JDT doesn't direct them to attack as much at home. So we get the tippy tappy stuff combined with a bombardment of the defence, which leads to conceding goals. He seems a bright, positive guy in person, but the penny isn't dropping that these players cannot do this away from home - or even at home really. Gallagher going off basically reduced us to ten men with barely any goal threat, with Brereton out wide and tiring. I don't expect much from the home fixture unless we sign a decent experienced midfielder along with a good centre forward in January. We may give you a match if JDT grows a pair and balances the squad.

Why JDT?

It was always a must win because a decent amount of their fans are the most deluded dicks in football. They say we live in the past but they've never forgiven us for having a promotion party at their place. What a fantastic Championship manager Souness was.

We had some tired legs out there. Brereton must be fatigued at this point. I won't say the game swung when Gallagher went off with a gashed leg as I always expected defeat when I saw the teamsheet, inverted fullbacks and no midfield, especially with Tomasson parking the bus for the first 45. But having no centre half on the pitch certainly gave Burnley the license to commit more players. We're still paying the price for not replacing Adam Armstrong in 2020 and if that's properly addressed in January it could mean the difference between getting into the play offs and not. Is Barnes always that "physical"? Some of it was blatant, some clumsy, it's just a shame Kaminski made a meal of it as Barnes was digging his own grave. If he hadn't scored I think he may have chinned someone.

A bad result against Preston may finish me off.

When we destroyed Burnley at Ewood with 5-0 (which for our young readers was a far bigger mauling than our own 3-0 debacle on Sunday btw), their fans felt exactly the same way. No passion, no fight, just another game mentality. They didn't just go oh well, that's that then. It hurts and I'm sure it's the same for every other fan going away disappointed from a big derby game. Same with when we beat them 3-2, they were back in the top flight but I imagine there weren't many Burnley fans consoling themselves with that fact for quite some time. We've always had a section of the support that sticks their heads in the sand. I'll never forget the vocal minority of Kean supporters. If you can support Steve Kean as he helps to dismantle everything Jack Walker, Kenny Dalglish, John Williams, Graham Souness and Mark Hughes built, you've got a very very low bar.

The midfield is poor but it doesn't help that Hedges is being used as he is. He seems to be a decent midfielder, but as an "inverted wingback", whatever that's meant to be, his best qualities are wasted. Also we have one good forward that plays mainly wide, and a mediocre forward that would be better off coming off the bench for a good centre forward that can hold the ball up and score regular goals.

Kaminski pulled off two excellent saves and we rarely got out of hour own half. Some of us could see that we were heading for a hiding (not you) at half time. Burnley committed more players when Gallagher went off because we had absolutely no one else to play that role so we had to change what we were doing. Because the club thought it better to sign a lad on loan who is useless in the Championship, and took his while to get going in League 1. The only team that tried to be more attacking was Burnley because they knew there was no risk. "Rewarding Mola for a fine performance" One fine performance usurps pretty much 18 months of fine performances now does it? Scott Wharton off the boil is still better than a lad who has been trusted to play one game, and will have been leggy from travelling and playing in London. And what defines "off the boil?" His passing may have been off but his defending has still been very very good. You don't drop a local lad who is one of our best defenders in one of the biggest local derbies in world football - and lest we forget, the chance to top the table. The entire teams passing is off pretty much every match for at least one half, and has been for years. Do we drop all of them and replace them with the nearest 21 year old who hasn't yet played a Championship game? We got mullered due to lack of foresight in pre-season by the likes of Broughton, massive naivety from Tomasson, mistakes made throughout the season, a team selection that came straight out of Tony Mowbray's playbook, and speaking of which an unbalanced, thin squad, relying on youth players, due to five years of moronic ideas.

He won’t play that way against most teams. He massively overthought it, hence the inclusions of Garrett and Mola and exclusion of Scott Wharton.

When I said shitshow I obviously wasn't referring to just the league position.

Never forget that Burnley history teachers are the most bitter history teachers 😉

We've signed a handful of players and had a new manager since mid June. The players still only perform for one half, as they did under Mowbray. They are still as gutless as we were under Mowbray. But in third place. Tomasson has his issues which I've pointed out plenty, but don't tell me he's not wrangling with the shitshow he was left with.

Alan Pace spent any of his own money yet?

“I wasn’t at the club, but I think there was the option to bring in players last January and for whatever reason, the team in place at the time didn’t think that was the right thing to do for the squad. To give them credit, I don’t think anyone could have predicted the injuries that happened post-January as well." Plenty of fans did.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23023541.gregg-broughton-outlines-blackburn-rovers-january-transfer-plans/ According to Gregg, no grand plans in January. Saving it for Summer. He lost me at George Hirst.

Indefinitely or months? It can't be both. He can't take flak indefinitely I agree but it's going to take some time to get the ghost of Tony Mowbray out of the club.

There's no way Tomasson will want Brereton getting injured in a friendly. He's the only player at the club capable of hitting 20+ goals this season, and Gregg tells us we aren't doing anything in January so without BBD we won't be scoring many.

I can answer that, five years of Tony Mowbray.