One other thing on Rothwell regardless of exactly how good he is, are we going to replace him with better? And how much would replacing him even with the same quality cost? If the cost of replacing like for like costs more than the contract upgrade for him, we have made a mistake. Unless we can get significantly better, letting him go will be a mistake. Also given how threadbare the squad is getting, do we have the capacity to replace another player?

Brilliant, brilliant post. Top marks! Hang on at no point in that post does he advocate spending into embargo. It's a bit naughty to bring this up when it isn't any part of the post and certainly not the only alternative to our ffp ahem, "policy". In fact the alternatives in one respect don't impact the critique of the current situation. IE the merits of our policy (ha ha) Plus even if he did mention it previously any engagement with the rational for doing so, as JH seems to elaborate on his points well - as oppose to sarky comments and missing the point of others posts.

Indeed but no one was comparing us to the title winning team. That's a very big difference from thinking we should be premier league.

No one, literally not one fan, has compared us to or had current expectations for us influenced by winning the Premier League. It was an utter whopper to suggest that fans were comparing the current situation to then, it's simply not true. As for the rest, as I said. If not outright lies they are dishonest and disingenuous as they don't share the context of how these came about or the fact, as you say, that they are all problems of his own making.

Well the fans comparing us to the 95 and comparing them to the Premier League winning team is one whopper that springs to mind. As is his moans about not having experience when he just signs kids (not just from this season) or complaining not having enough defenders when he stacked up midfielders and ignored the defence. Maybe not outright lies but these are certainly distortions of the truth, lies by omission and generally not very honest assessments.

The horse hasn't just bolted it's buggered off out of the county and is sipping on a pint somewhere near Dover. Nayambe has been dropped for every man and his dog, including some pretty substandard players such as Caddis and Bennett. Rothwell has played in more positions in midfield than I thought was feasibly possible. He also had a fair few years of bouncing in and out of the team. Bereton was woefully out of his depth for 2 years and horribly mismanaged during that time. Game time via a loan away was obvious to everyone and yet it never came. Also all three have directly and indirectly criticised by TM in the media. Poor do when others haven't. The evidence suggests that we aren't offering the going rate and we are unarguably starting negotiations far too late into the contracts. All in all we have set ourselves up to fail in these negotiations. The only plus is we have so few players now that they are guaranteed game time. But too little too late I fear.

Smart move cashing in. Glad to hear of Rovers fans doing well. Another compelling reason to cash in is aside from injury or transfer away it's not beyond the realms of possibility he gets to 18 goals with half a dozen games left and TM begins to play him at left back for the remaining fixtures...

Two issues here. Firstly the owners have forced us into a situation where there is a 20 million a year need for them. Hardly praise worthy or gratitude inducing. That's a bit like me pushing you over a cliff and holding onto your ankle and the argument being you should be grateful for me saving your life. Secondly, get a few basics right and maybe there's not a 20 million a year deficit! From actually signing our players to long term contracts ahead of 11th hour attempts to do so through to not being a charity case for past it and not needed players that 20 million loss really starts to shrink. Then a bit of reengagement with fans. That we had a full house for the promotion party after years of being dumped on shows the potential is still there with a bit of nous to reclaim our fan base (or some of it.) Biggest way of helping is to get Premier League and that really isn't going to happen under this lot. A dose of that money would make things a fair bit more manageable. In short, to me, things are much more doable with better owners. Problem is they are never going to go.

That I think is where I land on this. Factor in as well that weakest of managers seem to have one good club in them - even the Ince's and Coyle's of the world. So the odds that we don't get a good manager or the mediocre to duff manager who is the right fit - those are long odds is 11 years. It's hard to think of another club who.have had 11 years of rank poor management. If it were chance and random what they were doing we would have got a right fit by now.

Yes to all three. Will admit Lambert had me fooled though. If you are asking were these appointments less crap than the others, then the answer is yes.

In isolation the club could perhaps be forgiven for not having tied down a player who has had a couple of terrible seasons, an indifferent one and then has started on fire this time. I mean up till last season no one (or very few) would have wanted him to stay. Thing is it's not an isolation thing. Ignoring the price which would be a red herring imo, there are some key factors that meant it should not have been left to this year to get it sorted. Firstly last season was ok. A bit of a flat track bully and not amazing but enough to show there might be a squad player in there. Secondly we were already letting 11 players leave, and quite simply could not afford to try and replace yet another player on top of that. There's only so many players we can try and fail to replace in a window. Thirdly with Gally as the only other senior recognised striker we were really short in that position. One of the reasons it didn't hurt that the talented if erratic Holtby left is we had Rothwell, Buckley, Dack (when fit) and other youngsters to take his position. Up front we only had Gally who is hardly reliable. Fourthly the wide contract situation. We have a paper thin squad. Four loans go back at the end of the year. Four of our first 11 are out of contract in the summer. School of thought that we may need some players! Fifthly we have just had the Armstrong saga and not getting value for money. To have the same lesson repeated on us the following year is a very poor do. AS ever with Rovers if there is an easy and a hard way we chose the latter.

What the heck is happening to Cardiff? Decent squad, good manager - surprised they are taking a tonking of late.

I think what frustrates me the most is that situations are so avoidable. No depth and minimum experience after 4+ years of these same struggles is criminal. It's the definition of madness, doing the same thing over and over yet expecting different results. What makes it worse is the first 11 is surprisingly solid and good, as evidenced by Saturdays excellent display, despite the lack of strengthening it has had. If we - or rather TM - had learned some of the most obvious lessons we would have built on a promising first 11 and fantastic academy and been in a good position, despite the albatross of Venkys. It's the same mistakes: - some formations just don't work for us. - we have always been short on defenders and signing an injured loanee isn't going to help. - you can't build a squad on loanees - you need experience in the squad. The latter always pees me off most as TM always bangs on about it, and in all industries including football, the benefits of experience are evident to see. This team really could do with some more nous. It goes such a long way to making players better, limiting their weaknesses and managing games. We have so little it hurts.

See here's the thing for me. If I were an agent and not a Rovers fan I wouldn't be encouraging Ben to sign a new contract at Rovers. Why should he? He'll get a big signing on bonus somewhere, his stock with the international call up and goals this season is sky high and a bigger/more successful club will take a punt on him. After all, why wouldn't they? How much is he worth at the moment if under contract? A hearty signing on fee would be a fraction of that. I'd say he's an attractive option on the market for the more ambitious championship teams looking for a striker next year. The best (and imo) only option in damage limitation that Rovers have available to him is to offer him a contract with a low buy out clause. It'd well under his market value if he continues as he is and was under contract but it would allow us to recoup something from him rather than letting him go for nothing.

Along with deliberately misunderstanding the editing of posts is another naughty tactic. Seems to be a commonality...

The more I think on it, the more I wonder if there's something deliberately untoward about it. It defies logic and all business sense to expect "good value" season tickets to force people to buy these over individual games. Perhaps it would work if you had a huge market of customers, but we clearly don't. No one who is ambivalent - and given our attendances I suggest that many former attendees and the general Blackburn populace is - is going to go straight to coughing up hundreds of pounds. No one does that for any hobby/form of entertainment. Well maybe if you are loaded but if they think that's the target market then they are way off. Big purchases often come after research or trying and liking a smaller amount. In either case in terms of Rovers that would mean having sampled games beforehand. People don't jump to big price expenditure. The nearest I can think of favourably to Rovers is parents buying their kids games consoles at hundreds of pounds as an all in from the start. Even this however isn't a great comparison. Often they will have tried it/experienced it elsewhere, perhaps at a mates, there's the building on demand from previous consoles and peer pressure of wanting what their mates have to join in. Can't see much pressure not to miss out on following Rovers given our attendances, and without cheap tickets and given recent attendances there's little previous experience/interest to capitalise on. I'm no expert on this yet it's pretty clear from the off how flawed it is. It's inconceivable that our CEO and business department don't know this. Which begs the question why adopt this strategy? Laziness or something more untoward?

Hugely charmed for the last two seasons. Even if it didn't make the difference between relegation or staying up (imo I think it helped last season but won't be necessary to stay up this year) it does inflate our league position making it more favourable. The best thing that has happened to TM and Maggot is COVID. Huge excuse for every ineptitude and failing making them bullet proof. Between that and all these administrations and the like they have it very easy.

That's ok - he's entitled to his opinion, even if it does seem a bit contradictory and confusing. Imo It's less ok to deliberately misunderstand other people's posts.

Indeed, it's a bit naughty as the meaning was clear. Even if you genuinely thought the timings were not a generalisation and a mistake the point still stood.

I mean there's so much wrong with this it hurts. Aside from the season tickets not being that cheap and the product poor. I remember in my first term at Uni that we covered price elasticity of demand. Simple concept stating that the price influences the amount of demand. Not rocket science, goodness it's covered at A level and recapped at Uni early on. And yet we have a CEO who is utterly unaware and uninfluenced by it. Tad worrying that anyone with an A level business revision book would have a better handle on pricing.

For those who can't be arsed to read: None of it is his fault and the future is grim. The fact he wouldn't call not getting a striker in a failure makes me wonder how he can look at himself in the mirror. That's exactly what it is. Also with regards to prices and attendances he couldn't have said "I don't give a shot" more clearly if he had used those words. Also it's not 1500 down you clown it's about double our season tickets pre venkys, minimum. Good Lord we have no ambition or idea. The future is hugely worrying for Rovers. We could not have more incompetence at the helm.

Well, given their dispicable behaviour in the car crash incident, i struggle to feel sorry for Derby. Add in the apparent huge stupidity of a trebled wage bill from £16m to £47m, their dodginess of accounting practices, and perrenial chronic underachievement with their resources and sympathy is in short supply. In a similar vein it shows how fragile the football bubble is. It's going to be a long season for Derby to survive - financially speaking that is, they're toast football wise. And that could really mess up the league. It's a house of cards, the football industry, no doubt about it.

Indeed. Pointless exercise if they dodge any question they don't like. Mind you its consistent they dodge them - no accountability anywhere in the club.

Not really paid any attention to him. What's his CV like? As I said before I think all managers have a good club in them. And probably the converse is true too they all probably have a bad club in them too! Guess that's where you need to do some digging to try to ascertain if they are the real deal or go with a good track record. Pearson is an interesting one. Not sure that it can be said he is past it as his previous role with Watford he did really well. He got them from dead and buried to having a chance of staying up before being sacked. It's a funny one.

My thoughts on managerial options (although I think we are stuck with TM forever): 1) You have to be careful with one club successes. It may be an indicator of greatness but it may well not be. Most managers have a "right fit" club where they do well - even Coyle with the Dingles. Hasslebank is another - excellent at Burton, poor elsewhere. (Had to have this pointed out to me but the point still stands.) I'd be cautious on this front. It's not a deal breaker but needs investigating. 2) Anyone not wanting McCarthy is imo pretty daft. Not an unblemished record for sure, but a very good one. Multiple promotions, lots of experience, but what stands out to me is the last 2 jobs he has done. He has revitalised Cardiff, improving them more in one year than our "epic" journey under TM. And Ipswich was a good job too, where he had them punching above their weight. Just look at what happened to them when he left. He's definitely not yesterday's man and would be my pick. Not that he would leave Cardiff for us.