Embarrassed by what the owners and the criminal negligence had done to our club. Ashamed of the lack of culpability from footballing bodies and the support of shysters in the media.

I think you’re creating a strange hill to stand on here MB. Going to Ewood was horrible, stomach churning, heart wrenching, soul wrecking et al. Now it’s not. There is still a feeling of lament, but the horrible stuff has dissipated for me at least.

Maybe that could be reworded as embarrassed. I certainly went through some dark moments visiting Ewood, reading the news etc. Now it’s mainly optimism.

Absolutely spot on - two key things you mention that always make me wince to read criticism; 1. The expectation is this backroom teams doing. We expect, aspire to go upwards. It’s not long since I merely aspired a club. 2. The squad / team looks genuinely exciting, full of talent and potential. Not a top heavy, agent wage burdened mess. We may have wanted more from our 7m signing last year, but it’s only 5 since we likely paid Leon Best more to leave the club. What TM inherited and what he’s got now - Night and Day.

Im sticking to my guns with this one - Nyambe gets more a “wide centre half” every time I see him. For 100 appearances in a rovers shirt, he is no more confident at passing or controlling with both feet than the first time I saw him. We all know he’s fast, strong, brave, can tackle, can read games in moments like a proper defender - but if you’re playing possessive football that requires more technique, more adeptness at overlapping - he ain’t the guy, IMO.

If it gets a response, it’s the player - if it doesn’t, it’s the managers criticism.

Stewart Downing. Elliott Bennett. Two simple subjective, justifiable reasons why Rothwell/Nyambe haven’t started. When they have, they’ve both looked average.

Signs are good. Certainly far more adept at plucking the ball out of the air, and his passing is very accurate and adaptable.

You’re talking about a third choice at worst, second at best keeper - you’re not talking about a new key player. Its basic squad management. You and I may agree that Walton was probably not the signing to improve on Raya that we all wanted - However early signs suggest he’s making us far more robust defensively, particularly on set pieces. If we’d just signed Vorm for third choice on 30k pw, or to challenge Walton, you’re complaint would be more “waste” or “why bother with Walton”..! Theirs nothing weird or strange about this, it’s scratching for a problem at best IMO

I’m guessing that Walton is that for this year. I imagine a freebie with his pedigree or someone higher up would command actual decent wages, whereas an ex Bury/Crewe lad will likely fit into our backup level.

Common sense to me. Fisher ain’t getting better sat on the bench. Our current second choice ain’t good enough. Why not bring in some competition in case something happens to Walton?

I’ve read it all before - no offence intended. I know what they said and what they did, and as you say - it’s the only thing they’ve continued in his legacy. Thankfully they did though.

How about a rephrased question; Is it worth giving them credit for still allowing a grade 1 academy when the season tickets alone wouldn’t cover its cost? To me - that’s allowed us to still be somewhat competitive in a climate that’s dominated by city turnover or foreign cash.

More passion = more I think this bloke really cares about the direction of this club. Nice guys can lose their mind at football. @K-Hod is testament to this...

But LV - we are seemingly not going to the wall and/or completely neglecting the youth/first team. At times with these owners those outcomes had been the scenario. I agree with all the criticism they deserve, they’ve completely downgraded the club, whether it’s an neglectful accident or somewhat nefarious decision - the only real relevance is the future. At least we have one. Utterly gutted for Bury, and even though I sat through 2500 Bolton fans sing “long live the Venkys” - I still would hate it if they suffered the same plight.

Hence why I mentioned perhaps the auditors have given them the best advice thus far. Its a model we’ve always had since JW’s days, the funds we would spend would be budgeted to league position and any big sales would give a remit to re-invest. Whilst were a different level now, the most recent example of a big spend (parachute years) will have burnt their fingers, so perhaps that explains the more modest FFP regulated annual losses we’ve seen recently. As for selling a player - I’m starting to think Travis would be the one we’ve got worth the most right now.

Well I guess that’s part of any club with our turnovers plan. Buy young or cheap and try and polish up, develop and sell. For me, the analogy would be they bought our dream house, let it rot from the inside, hired cowboy after cowboy to fix it, and almost 10 years they’re still throwing money in trying to save face. I think it’s easy to see the positives when clubs less than 20 miles from us are folding because owners came, screwed it over and left.

It probably did, but it was recruited at a cost the made us post a 50m loss in one year (including pay offs, managers et al) I think now we are at a point where we have some scope for keeping the costs and losses below the FFP lines. With a decent squad too.

Thats come from keeping a grade 1 academy really. It’s the only thing the Rao’s have done we should be grateful for. I know it’s their fault we went down, but I was convinced league 1 would see stadium sales, academy closures, brochall sold etc! I wonder if the best advice they’ve ever had was from the auditors?

Using the stats too; 1. The Axis of Smalevans won the ball a lot and recycled possession well 2. Our overall defensive play was good but for a couple of individual errors (corner given away, Nyambe just before and felt Leut should’ve done better) 3. Our finishing/shooting/link up play lead to a goal and many other chances As for just using my eyes in terms of the performance, I’ve seen us play far worse and win games. In terms of Armstrong, I’m not sure anyone could suggest at 22 it’s time to either bin off or just stick out wide. I also don’t think we played a traditional 4231, at times we seemed more like a 433 with Rothwell dropping back and Dack in the middle of Buckley and AA AA linked well with Dack and Buckley at times, Whilst obviously not his best night- the cross for the goal was a pearlier. As for Nyambe - he showed exactly what I’ve been saying about him for the last few months. His technique at times is excruciatingly bad, and when you’re intention is to build up from the back, his one footedness and decision making is holding him, and us back. I think his days as an out and out right back are numbered, much like Derek Williams, I think he will eventually play more inside.

When you’re questioning someone’s integrity purely on the basis of playing backups, it seems a bit weird to me mate. Strange comment to make, hence why I instantly picked up. There’s nowt to take personally, I was merely pointing out it was a stupid comparison/comment. Perhaps I missed the punchline or the part of it that was supposed to be witty or funny? I mean (as you say) for all the foibles pointed out constantly on BRFCS, integrity of the manager isn’t something anyone could question.

Giving players an opportunity lacks ethics and integrity? You’re allowing hatred for someone to cloud sense DE. Similar to the Evans contract, I’m sure many here would suggest they knew Travis would step up like he has - but for the rest of us mere mortals, it’s easy to say in hindsight that it wasn’t necessary!

Ethics and integrity because he played some backup players? I’d perhaps look up those words and then remember opinions on footballers are subjective. Hardly comparable to a ball boy wasting time either, which is basic cheating.

Not the thread for it LV - but surely you’re in agreement that if they walked tomorrow - unless another billionaire is found, our academy, our facilities, our wage bill, our players would be sold? I hate the Rao’s but they’ve never missed a payment yet. The minute Davies left Bolton with huge costs and zero turnover, the writing was on the wall - would we be any different? An Anderson/Bassini from disaster...

And you thought correctly, although I was convinced we owed a “parent company” more like 150m now. Obviously, our assets wouldn’t cover that debt if they wanted to somehow call it in. Our problem (ironically) would be finding owners who can match or better the regular “advantage” funding we get. I just don’t see how that’s going to happen when our turnover sans league money is pitiful. Equally - our facility costs would bankrupt more than half the clubs in the EFL.