Stock of the shirts selling out can only be a good thing, particularly at a time where apathy towards the club seems rampant. That said, I'd hope, someone in the club, have the foresight to hold back some stock left for the opening match of the season.

Beat me to it @Herbie6590😄 1. Will Steve Waggott still be at Rovers on 1/7/22 ? If no, date of departure. Wasn't he retiring last season? I think he'll see out this season, possible departure May 2022. 2. Will Tony Mowbray still be manager on 1/2/22 ? If no, date of departure. Yes I think so, again, I think he'll see out this season. Will he sign a new contract? That's the million dollar question. As with most people, I think he's had more than enough time to implement his philosophies on the club. One more season hopefully won't send us down, but a change will likely be needed, for all parties, by May 2022. 3. Rovers Player of the Season 21/22 ? Ben Brereton Diaz. Particularly if it goes to a public vote! But in all honesty, if he's going to progress upwards in his career and play at the highest level week in, week out, then a big 2021/22 is the season he needs. Hopefully we can piggy back on that and stay in this division. 4. Where will Rovers finish the season ? Flipped and flopped so many times over the past few months, admittedly from desperation to apathy, rather than optimistic to hopeful. I'd say we manage to keep our heads just above water all season. 17th. Staying free from key injuries and the breakout of some youngsters imperative. 5. Who will be championship winners ? AFC Bournemouth. Danjuma, Brooks, Mepham, Marcondes, Pearson, Stanlislas. Plus Parker as manager, with a budget to match? I think they'll start strong and endure. Interesting to see how the changes of manager at West Bromwich and Sheffield United impact their playing styles and squads. QPR a dark horse tip.

Lets not get carried away with either performance. Cirino looked decent in his spell, but a promising 30 minutes in a preseason game doesn't make you a future starter. Pickering did his job admirably I felt, yes looks a little one paced perhaps, but what do people expect? There was a moment in the first half when Raphinha did him for pace on the outside, Pickering tracked back and most importantly....DIDN'T DIVE IN, potentially giving away a penalty! He managed to wrestle back some control in the situation, the Leeds winger checked back in and delivered a cross on his weaker foot that was defended well by Carter. I'd rather have Pickering than Barry Douglas.

My two penneth Positives Defended really well against a fluid, Premier League quality Marcelo Bielsa team, which contained several of their bigger names (Rodrigo, Raphinha, Harrison etc) All of the younger lads acquitted themselves well and by the end, all had done their first team chances no harm indeed. Notable shout-outs to Garrett, Carter and Magloire. All played 90 minutes and defended, headed, tackled and work hard throughout. All three will be involved more this season I'll bet, and based on last night, they have something to add to the squad. Of the others, nice run by Cirino, McBride rides his luck with the goal (but at least his free kick was on target) for his second of preseason. Him as a fourth/fifth striker option isn't the worst news. Nyambe, getting better each season, nothing new to report. Pickering, I think he's getting a bit of undue flack on here! Based on last night, I think he's a ''Steady Eddy'' type at left back, More of a Michael Gray/Alan Wright type than a dynamic fullback, but handled Raphinha as best he could. I can say this with absolute certainty.......He won't face too may Raphinha level wingers in the Championship! Mention too for John Buckley, some very nice moments, some frustrating ones too, a couple of beautiful passes, a couple of ''who was he passing to there?'' moments. Never shirks a challenge to be fair to him, big season ahead. Brereton Diaz - A different beast all together, more like a £7.5m potential star of the future than we've ever seen down at Ewood before, plus the stadium (or at least where I was sat in the Blackburn End) came to life whenever he had the ball. Kaminski also looked every bit the keeper that won Player of the Year last season. Negatives Armstrong looked completely isolated up top in that system, and his shooting boots where on the wrong feet! Pike and Vale couldn't make the same impact as some of the other substitutes, poor header from Pike for the Leeds goal, but I think both need some first team football in League 1/2 this season. No Butterworth either, which is a shame, after his MotM cameo at Fylde and he played against Bradford too. Nothing too major in the negatives in regards to play and ball retention as it was a very young team against a team heading in the right direction in the Premier League, but still sloppy at times, particularly going forward. Overall Before even speaking about the match.....How brilliant it was to be back inside Ewood. Feeling that connection with the team once again, and that feeling of pride at the final whistle. Great to be home! The kit looks fantastic, plenty wearing the shirts in the stands, saw both home and away on display! c.9,000 fans provided a great atmosphere for a pre-season match. Thankfully Rovers fans almost matched the Leeds fans 1 to 1, so made for a nice spectacle. Left the ground feeling more optimistic than I felt going in! In regards to almost everything! Off the pitch, how comfortable it felt being amongst a large group of people. The euphoria of being at a live match at Ewood and the feeling when the ball hit the back of the net. On the pitch, I still feel as though this season will be a battle from start to finish, and I'm predicting a lower middle placed finish, but I do feel we have enough to survive. Particularly with Gallagher, Johnson, Travis, Ayala and others to come in and come back.

Is the shop credit already on the Season tickets? Quality, feel up close? Any non professional shots to share?

Question for the fellow kit geeks like myself... Will we see blue shorts for the away matches at Blackpool/Stoke/Sheffield Utd etc... Last two trips to Blackpool have seen us wear our away kits. The teal nike kit, as worn by match winner Rudy Gestede and in the League One promotion season, the Black with Red pinstripe effort, as worn by match winner Charlie Mulgrew. That said, our home kit has been sufficient against Luton for the past few of seasons. Though Luton do wear navy shorts as standard. Similarly, we wore the grey away kit in our last game at Bramall Lane, cup defeat a couple of seasons back. Or will there be a 3rd kit option? A single block colour, either light or dark, being the obvious choice. After today's kit reveal, my way too early guess/prediction would be for a yellow shirt with blue pinstripes as next seasons away kit.

YES!! 9/10 I can live with the sleeves and layout on the away kit more than the home shirt. In the words of the great Barry Davies ''you have to say that's magnificent''

Its seemingly obvious that we're going to be relying heavily on loans from Premier League clubs, like last season in a lot of respects. Doyle, Clarkson and others linked from City/Liverpool respectively, yet we know that due to preseason squads being decimated by the Copa America, Euros and Olympics that these signings are all likely to be late in the window or even deadline day itself. Brace yourself for another 50+ pages before a signing I'd imagine. Maybe a link with Leeds also after tomorrow's friendly and the Barry Douglas link last season?

Got my tickets for the Leeds match at the weekend. Not expecting many fellow Rovers fans to be honest, might have a row to myself in the Blackburn End 😁

Its almost perfect, would have preferred opposite sleeve colours, but a solid start from Macron. I'd guess the away might be the same design, but in red and black? Intrigued to know what colour the socks are, and also the goalkeeper shirts to come. 7/10

We can't say for sure whether the kit would have been shown/teased/released yet if we'd stayed with Umbro. Burnley's kits haven't been revealed yet, but Derby, Brentford, Shrewsbury and Hull have. Likewise, those teams who have been with Macron for sometime, some have shown all the kits, eg. Nottingham Forest Others have shown their home or away only, see Bolton and Reading Us, along with newly Macron supplied Sheffield Wed are still waiting for any reveals. As stated by the club, the new kits are likely still in transit, or have arrived and are awaiting a photoshoot at Ewood or Brockhall before release. That could be today, tomorrow, next week or the start of August. Last 10 Rovers home shirt reveal dates 2011/12 - Revealed 11th July 2011 (A month before the season opener) ~ New principal sponsor The Prince's Trust 2012/13 - Revealed 17th May 2012 (4 days after end of the disaster of 2011/12, 2 1/2 MONTHS before the season opener) ~ No principal sponsor until 2013 when Probiz added their emblem to the shirts. 2013/14 - Revealed 2nd July 2013 (4 1/2 weeks before the season opener) ~ First year with Nike, RFS sponsorship added later 2014/15 - Revealed 15th July 2014 (3 1/2 weeks before the season opener) ~ Birdy's big date 😆 New principal sponsor Zebra Claims 2015/16 - Revealed 3rd July 2015 (5 weeks before the season opener) ~ Last year with Nike ~ New principal sponsor Dafabet 2016/17 - Revealed 12th July 2016 (3 weeks before the season opener) ~ New kit supplier Umbro 2017/18 - Revealed 14th June 2017 (8 weeks before the season opener) 2018/19 - Revealed 18th July 2018 (16 days before the season opener) ~ New principal sponsor 10 Bet 2019/20 - Revealed 3rd July 2019 (A month before the season opener) 2020/21 - Revealed 29th August 2020 (14 days before the season opener - of course the season didn't start until 12th September) ~ New principal sponsor Recoverite 2021/22 - Season opener is 2 1/2 weeks away ~ New kit supplier Macron N.B. The change shirts may have been revealed earlier than the dates shown, also, the release dates to the fans may be considerably later than the dates shown. Interesting to see that whilst it feels like its far too late to be revealing the new kit now, it isn't that far removed from several others over the years. Add into that difficulties moving goods during a global pandemic and post Brexit. I'd expect Macron to be more prompt next season.

The Millwall Macron kit has been revealed. Interestingly for a release date of 23rd July 2021, so I wouldn't expect the Rovers kit to be released by then (next Friday). I have to say its another attractive effort (IMHO) Sheffield Wednesday are in the same position as Rovers, having just joined the Macron group. They too are playing in pre-season strips for their friendlies...enabled I'm sure by a more traditional striped design, and therefore using a Macron Teamwear design. Expect to see the Rovers/Wednesday strips be revealed and released at the same time. Looking for clues from this, Wednesday do flip-flop between their shorts colours, blue/black. Interesting to see the preseason kit has black shorts....maybe a nod to their official design? As for Rovers, I think the blue shorts are a nod to contrast with the white shirt, rather than using blue shorts with the home kit (last seen in 04/05) although..maybe the choice of sock colour...could mean a return to white rather than blue? Could be way off the mark.

Mulgrew in the new Macron kit....alas its for Dundee United

The Macron deal is now live! I'd expect a flurry of home/away kits and training kits news to start trickling out over the next few days. Early clue from Rovers twitter? Note the Arte et Labore text in the bottom right corner, this on the sleeves like the 94/95 shirt?

Looking at the squad arriving at preseason training is giving me July/August 2016 vibes.... Of course there's no Kaminski, Brereton, Gallagher or Dack from the pictures I've seen, but crikey, I think we're a real relegation threat with this squad. So much youth, so little experience, injury prone players, players who have underperformed at this level... I know the season is still a ways away, so the panic button isn't being pushed just yet...but wow, we need reinforcements, and fast!

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2021/june/Rovers-to-start-with-Swansea-/

Renewed mine yesterday. As I said in my post a few days back, I bought one last year so really had no decision to make this year, given the benefit of the ''discount'' ''We've got a life sentence'' is what I said to my dad

Not a slight on any of the comments already given or defending the club for their pricing structure. But as a business owner myself, its hard to quantify certain consumer expectations, whilst feeling the pennies going up elsewhere. For example I spoke with a customer last week about a slight price increase and got a bit of a rant back, whilst on the same day, I paid £1.30 for a litre of petrol, £4.25 for a pint of Estrella at a pub, plus nearly £5.00 for a sandwich/drink at lunchtime. All of which lasted me a combined 15 minutes!! 😂 Prices going up dramatically across the board, the COVID effects on this are only truly starting to surface now and will do forever more I'd have thought. Renewed last year, so duty bound to again and with the 'discount' an easy choice.

Ahead of the fixtures being announced next week: A thread, based on the fixtures released today by the Premier League for Burnley What we can safely assume: 7th August 2021 - Opening Round of fixtures - Home (as Burnley are at home 14th August, meaning Rovers likely away) 26th December 2021 - Boxing Day - Away (Burnley home) 1st January 2022 - New Years Day - Home (Burnley away) 14-18th April 2022 - Easter Weekend - Home and Away (this has been the trend in recent years, with Good Friday and Easter Monday - Burnley away) 7th/8th May 2022 - Last Fixture of the season - Away (Burnley home) 29th May 2022 - Playoff Final - Wembley (For those optimists! 😁)

Been enjoying the data stuff put out by Andy and Joe. Makes interesting reading. I'm a big fan and follower of baseball, who've been the forerunners of this data driven approach for nearly 20 years now and have seen how it has impacted the game over there, for the players, the front offices (Director of Football/Scouting etc in football terms) and the general fan. Its impact will be felt forever more in baseball terms, and whilst not wholly embraced by the supporters....is now the standard in the sport, has lead to a generation of players who play to the 'Moneyball' standards. Ironically, Brandon Beane and the Oakland A's (the team shown to first use the new approach in the film Moneyball (well worth a watch)) haven't actually won the World Series since the 1980s. And their statistical approach has been copied and pasted throughout the league.....its easier to run a Moneyball operation, when you have the resources/attache/cash to back up the data! That said, there has been push back against the data from large swathes of the supporter base and ex-players/pundits a like, notably Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz. I do often wonder at what point do the general fan get put off by the data driven approach? and the endless stream of statistics that are shown? Particularly niche stats like xG At what point does the general fan have to acknowledge that statistics are here to stay? Yet the need to counterbalance that with the more traditional 'eye test'? Also, baseball has seen a rise in general managers coming from the top universities, where they have studied economics, business studies or finance and financial analysis. I wonder how long it may be before we see one of the big clubs (or small clubs for that matter) hire an Oxbridge/London School of Economics graduate to run the data department at a football club? I'm sure this has probably already happened! The next 25 years of football will undoubtedly see more stats, more interest in the stats and more new fans approving of new methods to find players and to run their teams.......The Old School vs. New School battle is just beginning. Personally, I think the stats data will win through and just as we look back at the days of drinking/poor diets/poor training regimes, we'll wonder how clubs used to send a middle aged bloke to Colchester v Scunthorpe on a wet Tuesday in February... to watch one game of a left back, who looked decent on the night and was then signed for x amount of pounds.... Maybe scouts will be replaced by data analysts? who knows....

New website?

This was just a quick throwing together of a list, the intention was for people to make their own lists and share, see link above. Judging the shirt in isolation, I don't like that shade of blue and the black sponsorship would have been nicer in our more traditional red. Also talking in isolation, the Princes Trust home shirt was beautiful, but will forever be associated with the disastrous last season in the Premier League and him who shan't be named!

AFC Fylde away is the first preseason game on 10th July. They play in white, so would expect the new away shirt to be in action by then at the very latest. As said above, with the Umbro deal running until 30th June, I wouldn't expect any Macron releases until 1st July at the earliest. Bit of fun for everyone in the meantime https://tiermaker.com/create/blackburn-rovers-shirts-1985-2020-247365

What we expected. Interestingly, Macron will be the kit supplier for our 150th Anniversary, the 2025-26 season. I was disappointed that Umbro didn't come up with a 25th Year Anniversary kit for the Premier League winning team in 2019/20, but I suppose we did get the pinstripes/red shorts combination for the League One campaign. Looking forward to seeing what they come up with. Personally think this past season, Macron had some good kits See Millwall and Armenia Bielefeld to name just a few. Looking forward to seeing what they come up with. A simple Blue/White halved home, with the same in Red/Black away, and they'll be off to a flying start

Retained list released https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2021/may/rovers-confirm-retain-list/ No surprises I don't think