Terrible performance.

It was obvious in January we needed a striker  - even more obvious tonight.

I thought Giels and Lenihan ( despite the missed chances ) were the standout performers but neither will be here next season. The rest were generally poor.

Playoffs at best I'm afraid.

4 minutes ago, islander200 said:

And again if money was made available and wasn't spent then the blame for that isn't on the owners.

It is if they have they insist on having the final say on how it is spent. 

Like most people, I have been ecstatic with the progress we've made this season Credit to Mowbray and the players. I don't know any Rovers fans who expected to be in 2nd position in February. It's been a fantastic effort all round.

The results so far have provided an unexpected opportunity which we could have grabbed with both hands if the owners had shown a bit of ambition but I am afraid they haven't. Some of the players we have signed are fine but we needed more in order to push on. Clubs that are successful spend money when they are already at the top. 

We lack experience and that is what you need to get over in these situations. A proven striker and a Berkovic type signing would have made all the difference. We obviously had money for Dembele but I doubt the owners would have sanctioned the purchase of experienced older players - short sighted really.

I see it as a massive opportunity squandered. If we miss out on promotion and then lose the end-of-contract players shortly followed by Brereton, Travis and Kaminski then we are back on the never ending 'journey'. 

I hope we can stay the distance but we really haven't made much of an effort to ensure we do.

12 minutes ago, darrenrover said:

Bournemouth have shit themselves IMO, don't forget you can only play eleven!

If I was to have a punt on Rovers or Bournemouth for second, with 'our togetherness' and players returning from injury, I'd back us all day long over and above a bunch of maverick mercenaries managed by Scott Parker.

 

Wishful thinking.

I think we would all swap their signings for ours. They also have cover in case of injuries while our squad is still very thin.

53 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

The signings of Hedges, Markanday & Zeefuik seem to be being ignored…I know Markanday got injured but who could foresee that ?

Giles in, Rothwell retained…that would be decent surely ? 

'Decent' won't keep us in the automatic promotion places unfortunately. 

'Decent' would have been OK if we were still on our mid table journey. This opportunity won't come around again soon. We need to show some ambition.

1 hour ago, Paul Mani said:

I can’t believe there’s still folk questioning where the next big sale is coming from….has BBD not taught you anything?

With a fair wind - Buckley, Travis, Markanday, Butterworth, Dolan, Wharton and Pickering could go for big money. Hell, if BBD can do what he is then so can Gallagher!!

Regardless of whether we go up or not, we have some bloody brilliant young players in our first team squad….by the sounds of it we have some absolute crackers in our 18’s and 23’s too!

Foolish to think BBD is the end of the conveyor belt! 

That's great if you want to be a conveyor belt feeding other clubs. I'd rather we kept our best palyers and get promoted

35 minutes ago, J*B said:

From memory, it took selling both Arma and Brockhall to just scrape through FFP: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-brfcs-podcast/id1282664472?i=1000545177676

I don't think that's quite right. Cheston was quoted in fans forum minutes of Jan 2020 that we were close to the limit at that point. We have not overshot by £30 million since then. We are allowed to lose £13 million per year so we would have to have posted a loss of more than £56 million if we needed the whole proceeds from AA and the training ground to balance the FFP books.

@RoverCanadaposted some figures a week or so ago - he is usually quite accurate.

I'm convinced we have FFP wriggle room. If Venky's aren't prepared to take a gamble this year, while we are in this position, then they never will.  I don't think we will finish second without more strengthening in this window, Only way to fix FFP restrictions in the future is to get promoted.

19 hours ago, arbitro said:

Was it you who had a reservation for your family? I actually mentioned to Waggott that somebody posted on BRFCS that the  postponement was too late to cancel a hotel reservation for himself and his family.

We had 1 room booked but we met quite a few groups in the hotel who were in the same boat. Some went home but some stayed the night anyway. Some Hull fans travelling from down south were also affected.

2 hours ago, arbitro said:

I have an update on the postponed game for anybody that is interested.

After several emails to the EFL in which they refused to answer my questions they suggested I write to Rovers as they clearly weren't interested. I wrote to Lynsey Talbot who wrote back and said she had forwarded it to the Head of Communications. Within an hour I got a reply from the recently appointed Commercial Manager. To say I was disappointed with his response is an understatement so I wrote again telling him so. Several days later I hadn't had the courtesy of a reply so I wrote directly to Steve Waggott and included the communications I have had with the EFL and Rovers. I sent that email at 11.20 today and got a call from him at 13.45. The gist of the conversation was that there is an on going investigation with the EFL which has now got as far as their Legal Department who are now involved. He said he will keep us updated as and when there is some news. What he did say was that the game wasn't officially called off until 13.45 and his questions he wants answering are essentially the ones I have asked. These are:

What time were the Hull players tested?

What time the EFL were informed of the results?

What time the game was called off?

Called off too late to even cancel my hotel booking. A couple of hours earlier would have saved me the cost of the room at least.

17 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Anyhow C'mon Rovers, chop chop, only ten days to go and ideally three additional bodies in needed. Striker, central midfield, back up keeper?

Let's get the business done early and not be messing about in the last few hours of the window then miss out like in summer.

It's been obvious to me that the three positions you have identified are where we need reinforcing with experienced, proven players.

We should have acted as soon as the window opened if we were serious about automatic promotion. For a start, we would not have had to change tactics against Hull due to one player catching Covid. Sitting in 2nd/3rd place and with FFP buffer from Armstrong/Training ground sale, this opportunity won't come around again.  

It's a chance for Venky's to show real intent and rebuild some bridges but they need to act decisively. If not the chance will be lost.

What disappointed me was the apparent lack of confidence. We were unbeten in 10 matches playing a team struggling near the bottom of the league but we looked sheepish and vulnerable from the kick off. No leadership either.

Ref was bad but Rovers were awful. Eaves showed what you can you can do with determination and effort. We showed very little unfortunately.

I'd like to see us sign an experienced midfield bruiser for the run in. David Batty / Vinnie Jones type with presence, leadership and a lot of bite. 

I admire Travis for is endeavour but he's not great defensively and adds nothing going forward. I think a bit of experience in midfield will be a big help in games like yesterday when we were under the cosh a little.

Not sure who is available who could fill that role.

@RoverCanada Thanks for your very interesting input as always.

Couple of questions: You say we have £6m free spend over the next 3 seasons but, presumably we could spend that right now and still be within FFP at the end of 21/22 season ( and obviously, think about the consequences later ). 

The table shows an allowed FFP loss of £51.4M over the last 4 years and you have estimated we are at £37.1M - even with a relatively conservative estimate of £8m profit on the training ground sale - I would think it could be higher. 

So from those figures don't we have quite a buffer just at the moment - enough to take a gamble on promotion by spending now ? 

Teams that go up automatically often strengthen during January to consolidate their position. Given the sale of Armstrong and the training ground we must have some leeway with FFP.

Given our reliance on some key players and the inexperience of some of the squad, I think we are bound to have a difficult patch due to injuries/Covid. It is also unfair to expect Brereton to keep up his amazing scoring rate for the rest of the the season. We need goals from elsewhere. 

The opportunity is there but we need to strengthen now otherwise I think it it will be playoffs at best (which is still a very good achievement with this squad). Selling anyone at this point will certainly derail the current momentum. 

I think 4th.

48 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Yes, Diaz might turn back into Brereton anytime....

I thought it was common knowledge - he signed a pact with the devil, Robert Johnson style, in a diabolical ceremony on his first visit to Chile - hence the name change. Folklore tells us that he will remain Diaz until he suddenly disappears at the age of 27.

1 hour ago, FGS5635 said:

After years of saying nothing, this window might give us something of an idea of what Venkys are thinking. If they have any kind of exit strategy or desire to get to the premier league and recoup their debts, then the time to strike is now. The stars seem to be alligning and who knows when we will be in this position again going into January.

This is the key factor for me. This opportunity has fallen into Venky's laps and it has given them the chance to show some ambition and prove that they have the club's bets interests at heart. It's not only a footballing opportunity but a financial one for them. It's a 'free hit' for them to try and regain some respect.

I hope they realise how exciting this is for the fans, start taking a real interest and make the right decisions over the next few weeks.

Well, that was fun - Just arrived back from Hull.

Game was called off just after the cancellation deadline for our hotel. We had just checked in when we found out. Decided we might as well stay but others went straight home despite having paid for the room. We were absolutely gutted.

A 10 am announcement would have saved me a fortune in fuel/hotel rooms/meals and, just as importantly, time and effort rather than battling across the snow covered Pennines.

Pockets of Rovers fans all around Hull last night and everyone seemed to be on best behaviour despite the deep frustration and a whole day on the beer - well done everyone on that score.

The choice as it is - Rovers or England - is easy. Rovers every time even with Venky's in charge.

If the the choice was:

1) Rovers promotion and Venky's remain or

2) Rovers miss out on promotion but get new, engaged, fan-friendly, owners ( probably with less money ) and a new board.

What would people go for?  

3 hours ago, 1864roverite said:

because our divided fan base means some will not come to the ground even if we have billionaire owners!

Doesn't matter how rich they are. I won't come because of our owners not despite them.

They can chuck as much money at the club as they like, they need to show more respect to the community and the fans.

I don't attend matches at Ewood out of principle. Why don't the owners attend matches ? - They can't be arsed.

I do go to away games which is more than Venky's do.

Is there anything stopping another attempt at nominating Brockhall as an ACV?

Venky's now own the STC and may take so little interest that they won't object

43 minutes ago, J*B said:

Alls I’m saying is 12 months ago he was an absolute disaster for Rovers. We had spent big and he wasn’t coming good, there’s no avoiding it. He was a £3M player at best.

If you read back, in my defence, you’ll see I thought he might come good, was worth persisting with, has the attributes. But now, they can’t afford for him to stop this form because he’s a £7m signing and they need a return on that.

Armstrong was different, he was cheap. We could have sold him for 4M and it would have been a success story.

I think I’d stick with him in January simply because everyone involved deserves this success, but come summer I honestly feel like the Diaz story needs to continue to be written elsewhere. Another £15M for Rovers, another chapter for Ben, everyone leaves happy. 

I think everyone has to admit that whoever made the initial decision to pay £7m for Brereton has been proved right. Very few people expected that and we now need to acknowledge it.

However, to make the deal a real success, we need his good form to benefit Rovers on the pitch, not on the balance sheet. Given the sale of Armstrong and the training ground, we surely have enough FFP buffer for his sale not to be a necessity. If we cashed in just to pay off some of the overdraft or to pay for some upcoming bills, I would see that as a backward step.

We have a player who is getting results for the club, raising the profile of the club and seems to be enjoying being at Rovers. I would hold on to him at all costs. It's a chance for the owners to show some ambition and interest - they could put the club's footballing interests before financial gain - they can afford it. I hope they make that choice.

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Hardly, they've injected £16m quid into the Club for an asset they already own because there was no other way round it due to the ludicrous FFP rules!

I think that is a very positive spin on the training ground sale.

The £16m will only cover losses incurred over the last 10 months or so. This time next year, the money will be spent but the value of the land will no longer be listed as an asset on the club's balance sheets - the asset has gone.

An alternative would have been to pay the bills as they normally do ( VLL share issues or whatever method ) and take a 6 point penalty while keeping the training ground as a club asset. To me it looks like a short term fix. If any of the board members were actually committed to the future of the club the sale may have been voted down - who knows? 

We could make up the 6 points in a couple of matches ( with luck ) but we're not getting the training ground back ever.

I haven't checked the accounts but maybe the wages have been reduced but the turnover has slumped ? Hence the increased % figures. That's why we are in trouble with FFP too. Maybe if the owners started paying attention ?

50 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

If it helps you I found about this sale way before I met with club officials and from a very close acquaintance where we have known each other for over 40 years. It is solely this reason alone why I never divulged anything about it to anyone, not even my closest friends, its called confidentiality and common decency. My friendship with that particular person is worth far more than letting slip anything we have spoken about where BRFC are concerned.

Thanks for the reply. I understand that and fully agree with your approach to confidentiality and friendship.

I was really getting at is why the club never announced the sale of the training ground. Surely it would be only polite to let the fans know of such an important event rather than it be uncovered as it was. As you mention, you found out from a friend but did the club officials freely offer you this information in your meetings I wonder? Why would they not be open about such things ?

34 minutes ago, arbitro said:

From the carrotts being dangled by some posters it appears that Venkys are going nowhere but there will be changes to the management stucture. Again hypothesising but the only assumption I can make is that Waggott and Mowbray will be amongst the ones to go. Now how ridiculous and unprofessional is it that this information has been passed on to supporters? If it's correct it's another example of how poor our owners are sums up the last eleven years.

Again I stress that these are my assumptions.

I have been thinking along these lines too but where would this information come from ? Surely Waggott will not be informing supporters of his own demise unless he is retiring by choice. If that is the case, who is to say Venky's will replace him with someone more suitable ? I don't think Lynsey Talbot would pass on this type of information even if she was aware of it.

If the assumptions are correct then has the info come from Suhail ? ( and as you say - very unprofessional )

If the assumptions are not correct then it is likely that the alleged changes will be minor or maybe just a change of manager.

I do believe that Rev and Roverite have had some information that they trust but it's very frustrating when tidbits are dangled with no supporting evidence while the really important happenings - like developing or selling the training ground - remain under wraps. 

Is it possibly a case of people being fed the 'Don't worry, we are looking into it and things will improve' type line often seen in the fans forum minutes ?