Very well written and a fair and balanced review. “In order to support Blackburn Rovers these days, the informed follower must be proficient in Indian tax law" That made me laugh.

It's the only Premier League manager contract I've seen - so not sure what is usually in there - but the contract is there to avoid any legal grey area should certain events happen. I'm sure Sunderland players had clauses in their contracts for reductions in wages for two relegations (based on the fact that a lot was made that Rodwell's salary was huge for League One) - so it might be a common 'covering their backs exercise'. If the club terminated Kean's contract - they had to pay him 6 months of his basic salary within 7 days. If we'd have sacked him after we were relegated from the Premier League, we'd have had to pay him £300k. If he'd have overseen a second straight relegation, his salary would have been cut to £300k and the pay out he was due down to £150k. There's not a chance you'd expect a manager to be allowed to remain in the position to oversee relegation from the Premier League to League One - but it doesn't mean you'd not put a clause in there for legal clarity.

Are you not getting confused with Ali Dia?

I remember the game where he scored his only goal. Dunn got a hattrick of penalties in the same game. Home to Rochdale.

Were you not pro-Waggott previously?

I've got a copy of the contract here - and there is definitely no bonus for relegation to either the Championship or League 1.

The bonus £1,611,000 only kicked in from the 2013/14 season. If we were in the Premier League in 2012/13 - he was due to be increased to the £1.2m a year basic PLUS £0.2m if we finished in the top 12. As it happened, we were relegated in 11/12 - so his salary was dropped to £0.6m. Still, entirely more than he deserved and we were absolutely played.

Absolutely not trying to defend him. Just pointing out that he didn't earn any bonus in the 11/12 season. You stated he went to be a £2.5m a year Premier League manager - which wasn't the case. He was on £1m in the 11/12 season and his salary dropped to £600k in the 12/13 season. There was no bonus for relegation. Facts. Still way more than he was worth and an utterly corrupt set up - I entirely agree with you.

There is even a provision in the contract of what salary Kean would be paid if we were relegated to League One. There was absolutely no incentive for him to get relegated though.

There's nothing in his actual contract to suggest that was true.

I was a big fan of Dickov - would love someone like him at the club now. Hard-worker, but a good footballer as well. Also a top bloke and he speaks very highly of Rovers. I was surprised watching that compilation that more than half of his goals were either headers or penalties.

In May, if you'd have told me that was going to be our starting line up for the first game of the season, I'd have been pretty upset.

Nothing that I can see. Basic salary was £1,000,000 in 11/12 - which was increased to £1,200,000 in 12/13 if we remained in the Premier League, but dropped to £600,000 if we were relegated. There was a promotion bonus available of £500,000 if we were promoted in 12/13 - but he'd have been financially better off keeping the club up in 11/12. He was due to be paid £2,000,000 per season basic from 15/16 if we were still in the Premier League - plus the £1,611,000 additional bonus with no performance criteria attached. Frightening.

According to the BBC club top scorers page - he got 6 goals and 7 assists last season - so 13 goal contributions. North End's top goal contributions were: Evans - 10 Cannon - 9 Potts - 7 Riis - 5 Whiteman - 5 So pretty sure they'd have liked to have kept him. We should definitely look to keep him.

The bonuses were: £200,000 if the club finished in the top 12 - failed in 11/12 £200,000 if the club qualified for the Europa League - failed in 11/12 £200,000 if the club qualified for the Champions League group stages by finishing in the top 4 - failed in 11/12 £100,000 if they won the FA Cup - failed in 11/12 £100,000 if they won the League Cup - failed in 11/12 £1,611,000 - for the 13/14 season with no target attached and didn't specify which division we had to be in (he left in September 2012, so wouldn't have got that).

He was on a basic salary of £1m for the 11/12 season, which dropped to £600k per annum in 12/13 after being relegated. Still not a bad number.

1. Who will win this year’s Championship ? Leicester City 2. Who will claim runners-up spot ? Middlesbrough 3. Who will finish rock bottom in the Championship ? QPR 4. Where will Rovers finish this season in the league ? 15th 5. How many league goals will Rovers score this season ? 48 6. Who will win the BRFCS POTY ? Adam Wharton

https://www.teamtalk.com/blackburn-rovers/sources-catastrophic-blow-for-rovers-with-jon-dahl-tomasson-set-quit-reasons-for-departure-revealed

It wasn't even just the trialists. That Tommy Leigh looked like a complete weapon.

I'd be interested to compare the line ups against the team they put out against Nuremberg 10 days ago. Nuremberg just drew with Arsenal.

We should expand on the Guardiola formation. When we don't have the ball, JRC plays at right back. When we do have the ball, we play him upfront.

I remember Ian Harte scoring a hat trick of free kicks against Rovers in a friendly. I know he's a left back.

This backs up what you're saying: Over the last 10 seasons – the Champions have been a side that was relegated from the Premier League 50% of the time. The Champions have been a relegated side in each of the last three years – showing the increased influence of parachute payments. Six of the sides achieving automatic promotion in the last 10 years did so after previously being in League One – compared to 14 sides returning to the Premier League. Four of those six sides got promoted as Champions. No side finishing 6th has been promoted in the last 10 years. In fact 80% of the teams promoted via the play-offs finished either 3rd or 4th. Aston Villa are the only side promoted in the last 10 years after achieving less than 80 points. Rovers’ have achieved 69 points for two years running. The average seasons in the championship before promotion for the teams finishing as runners up has been 3.8 seasons over the last 10 years – but the average is 1.8 seasons over the last 5 years. Leeds took 10 seasons in the Championship to get automatic promotion. They’re the only team to achieve automatic promotion in the last 5 years that spent longer than 3 years in the Championship. No side has achieved automatic promotion in the last 3 seasons having previously been promoted from League One. This is compared to 43% of the automatic promotion spots being taken by teams previously promoted from League One (over the first 7 years of the sample). This will be Rovers’ 6th season at this level since being promoted from League One. They would be emulating Brighton in 2016/17 if they managed automatic promotion.

Hyam does strike me as a bit quiet. Szmodics told Hyam to 'F Off' in the first half of the first game on Saturday when they had a bit of a disagreement when Accy won a corner. Hyam didn't give anything back.

Thought I'd give my views from Saturday. I had to leave after the first half of the second game, so potentially missed our best spell. There was definitely an element of at least one of the full-backs tucking inside when we had the ball. Pickering picked the ball up centrally a lot in the first game and JRC a lot in the first half of the second game. Kaminski/Pears. Kaminski made a couple of sharp stops. There was one in the first half where I wasn't sure if he blocked it or the defender did - but the referee gave a goal kick. It was either an excellent save or an excellent block. I'm pretty sure the chance came from us giving the ball away on the edge of our own box - we did that a few times. Pears looked decent in the warm up and his distribution was very accurate (in the warm up). Then he showed what he is capable of when he fumbled one in at his near post. Defensively - no real issues other than giving the ball away in dangerous positions. Phillips looked the best defender on the pitch. Very calm on the ball and a unit for his age. Batty gave the ball away a few times - probably trying a bit hard to impress. We didn't seem to want to shoot for much of the game. Even all the corners were taken short. The amount of times we'd carve a half decent opening on the edge of the box only to try one pass to many - I lost count. It was like we were trying to pass the ball into the net (although this appeared to work later in the 2nd game after I'd left). Tronstad was fine but nothing flashy. I suspect he's a bit short of fitness, coming off as the first sub. He's smaller than I thought he was going to be (don't know why I thought he'd be bigger). Gallagher - Didn't do a lot, but didn't get much service at all. He won't score many at all this season if we play like that. Markandy - I don't think he'll ever make it here. Tried hard and a few nice touches, but looks a bit lightweight and he's not particularly quick over longer distances. I've been wrong about players before though. Szmodics - Looked lively without doing much. It was noticeable he gave Hyam a bit of a telling off in the first half. You'd think Szmodics would be captain material. All in all, hard to read too much into the game, and obviously we were missing Wharton, Sigurdsson and Ennis, but you'd definitely think we need a bit more quality. We started with 8 academy graduates in the 2nd game - but from the bit I watched, you'd have struggled to tell which team was two divisions above the other. I don't mind the passing around at the back if you make use of it. Surely the point is to draw the opposition players out of position and then exploit the space - but we seem to pass it around for passing sake. The style definitely needs a bit of fine tuning. I thought Rosaire Longelo looked decent for Stanley before he went off injured. He played on the right hand side and kept cutting in on his left foot, but he caused us a few problems.