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#GBandBenBensonFanClub

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm a convert and have chosen my side... go Al-Raed!! Looking forward to a big year from Mohamed Fouzair and some indelible with my fellow travelling faithful 🙂 Mid-table may be the best we can hope for in the league... dare we dream of a group stage spot next year in the inaugural Asian Football Confederation Champions League 2?! Does a saucy road trip to see the best that Tajikistan or Uzbekistan have to offer beckon?? Perhaps a run in the legendary King Cup?!? We'll see!!

Another random one is Sam Burns has ended up in the 2nd tier Greek league: https://panachaikifc1891.gr/nea/o-agglos-sam-burns-to-neo-metagrafiko-apoktima-tis-panaxaikis Certainly an interesting move! Good luck to him.

Probably the whole reason this has dragged out. Sunderland hierarchy are happy/willing for Baath to go, who apparently only triggered an option year on his contract through appearances (as part of being their POTY). They've replaced him with a couple younger CBs (assets) and Baath is probably on a relatively pricey contract too. Rovers are scouring for an experienced CB to replace Ayala, but we're on a tight budget. Baath looks like a good target to pick off without a transfer fee (rather than resort to decrepit 'free' CBs a la Greer/Brown). Maybe sign him at 10k/week for 2 years, so a ~1m total outlay, but avoid an upfront fee. Mowbray probably kicked up a fuss about giving away an experienced POTY CB, so the Sunderland hierarchy decided to start angling for a fee (£500k-1m?). Baath has probably been pushing for the move to secure himself another contract and it looks like he's out of their starting 11 now too. GB may literally have zero budget for a transfer fee and/or Venky's and co. have argued against/disallowed fees for 30+ players. So, we said no thanks and started looking into fallbacks, like Sykes (who Venky's may be willing to sanction a fee for given he's 24 and could have resale value). Now, Barnes is out long-term, so we definitely need a CB, and perhaps have now offered something like £200k, while Sunderland is risking paying Baath a decent wage all year to mostly sit on the bench. We're at least avoiding having to start a young CB (like Phillips last year), so we're willing to see this to the deadline. So, who blinks first?

haha holy fuck do you realise how good we have it here when you happen to venture to some other club's forum...

Possibly! I suppose it depends how that £356k/y 'fair market value' rent charge is calculated. You'd suppose that a 'true' private operator would essentially seek to bundle maintenance costs into a rental agreement with its only tenant.

Pretty sure it's how we avoided a transfer embargo in 2020/21... (and had decent room under FFP to work with the past couple years) The Venky's 'debt' is all interest free (well, the bank overdraft they utilise for some reason costs about £500k of interest a year. Further digressing, but we also made £761k of interest on the £17.3m from the training ground as it sat in our accounts, so there was a rare net interest gain in 21/22...) I suppose the negative after effect is we now have to book the cost of renting the training facility from Venky's (at fair market value of £356k/year...) as an ongoing operating expense...

Ha, was wondering myself. Looks like Maguire mistakenly added a photo of Raith Rovers' directors, which was in a previous tweet (https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/status/1668967479018700807)

FWIW, Markanday has now been subbed on for the last two Aberdeen games. Came on in the 58th minute in a 0-0 draw against Hibs and in the 79th minute in a 2-1 loss to Hearts. So, 3 sub appearances total so far... While obviously worrying/disappointing that he hasn't outright broken into their squad, it's worth keeping in mind: a) Aberdeen apparently already had a surplus of wingers when he joined b) He joined Aberdeen right after they sacked their manager amid a horrid 1-1-8 run (including 2 cup losses), so a signing made amid turmoil/uncertainty (Both points obviously raise questions as to why Aberdeen was considered a good landing spot for him! Who knows if there were other options) c) Aberdeen have gone 8-1-2 since his loan. Hard to break into a squad that suddenly went on a roll and there have been few opportunities to at least come on as an attacking sub Having said all that, apparently hasn't impressed in the sub appearances he has made, but just wanted to point out it's hardly been ideal circumstances for him to get a run of games.

Just a shame he wasn't at least available as a 3rd CB down the stretch instead of Wharton (don't mean to pile on Scott. I'm hopeful he'll rebound next year). It was only the last few minutes, but I'm pretty sure he cleared the ball from our box with authority at least a couple times when he came on at the end against Millwall. I suspect he would've been able to help shepherd us to wins against PNE and Coventry, if only able to come on for the last 20mins or so... Bah. A quality, 'traditional' CB, just a shame about the injuries. But there is reason for optimism at CB despite his departure!

The intensity he had as he ran the ball up the pitch before the 4-3 goal... I hadn't seen that in a while. In many ways a frustrating end to his Rovers career, but I'll at least keep some fond memories for that 2nd half send-off.

Swiss Ramble did a review of Rovers' 21-22 accounts. He's switched to a substack subscription now, but you can sign up for a free 7-day trial if you want to take a look: https://swissramble.substack.com/p/blackburn-rovers-finances-202122 Key summary: I haven't had time to skim through the latest accounts, but doesn't seem to be any real surprises. Operating loss continues around £20m/yr (before sales). Income up with matchday returning, although broadcast revenue a bit lower (I think from bringing forward some revenues during Covid), and no longer have our pandemic insurance claim included. Impossible to know how we stand on FFP given the weird two-year averaging and extra exemptions for Covid (plus the usual exemptions for academy and community spend, etc.), but safe to assume we have some wiggle room. 2022-23 operating losses will likely look a touch rosier given a couple cup runs, league attendance up about 7% (unsure of the source here, haven't tallied it myself), and the wage bill was likely slashed a bit more, but probably still a £10-17m-ish loss with no Armstrong/STC sales (Venky's London accounts surprisingly suggested Magloire+Stergiakis netted us £462k, but still relative peanuts)

"He did what to Rihanna?!?!"

Well, that was a fun time in the away end. All I could do was laugh at that second half.

Plenty to be annoyed about for our run-in... But I'm just going to sit back and be thankful that we have something to play for on the last day of the season 🙂 (Aside from the agony of the game itself, I was feeling a pang of embarrassment having just before the game convinced a neutral friend to join me at the Den on Monday, advertising it as a game that will 'matter' haha...)

Liked him a lot at the start of the year, but he ultimately frustrates. Ooccasionally plays with a certain 'X factor' suggesting he's capable of creating some special plays, but too often his plays don't come off at all. Has had enough solid displays to suggest he's a decent squad player at this level, and probably relatively cheap, so happy to keep him around. For the sake of the question at hand, it should be noted he's currently signed through 2025 with a one-year option. It came to mind that JRC seems to be flourishing in the role that JDT was trying to slot Hedges into earlier in the year. A sort of 'roving RWB'...

I took a brief glance at an Aberdeen FC forum (woof, if you think the quality of posts on BRFCS can be bad🙂) and they seemed a bit baffled by the signing at the time. Apparently they already had a surplus of wingers and Markanday was probably a panic signing amid a horrid Dec-Jan (including back-to-back 5-0 and 6-0 losses at the end of January), falling out of the top 6 (having earlier been 3rd), and sacking the manager. They've since gone on a 7-0-2 run and are back in 3rd. So, it's looking like a bad loan and it's never a good sign when a player can't break into the starting 11 in the SPL, but it also seems like an odd/unfortunate bit of circumstances for Markanday as he joined just when they started rolling and there hasn't even been much opportunity to come on as an attacking sub.

Across our Liverpool loanees, Morton's been dropped recently, Clarkson was dropped plenty, and even Elliott was dropped quite a few times when he was here. Liverpool loans aside, the likes of Reed, Palmer, Branthewaite, Giles, and Khadra weren't automatic starters. van Hecke even took a bit of time to break into the side (might've been injury-related?) That, plus Sharpe has reported that we don't do such deals... Maybe there are some financial penalties we're not aware of, but I wouldn't put too much stock in it. Harwood-Bellis was one I was suspicious of when he was randomly thrown on as a RB sub a few times, but he was generally decent and we were desperate for CB cover that year, so it wasn't a big deal. Tosin was an obvious first choice CB too. The only one we've got burned on was the Poveda loan, but that was due to lacking a termination clause in case of severe injury. (Come to think of it, Poveda did return for a couple games at the end of that season)

Frankly, sounds like case where the EFL should be given some extraordinary legal powers. Some time in the clink for the directors, Kompany, and Brownhill (buck stops at the captain) may be warranted.

Seemed to me his early struggles were linked to our laboured playing out of the back. Doesn't offer much of an outlet for holding up the ball... I also noticed he'd be desperately trying to marshall pressure up front to no avail, maybe when our pressing game was still developing. But he was at least offering decent defensive work, particularly during a few sub appearances, and popped a few goals. Now, he seems well-geared to the one-touch passing JDT is trying to instill, plus he's a menace on the press. Can start to see why JDT may have specifically picked him out, and our persistence in signing him... Haha, I was surprised that didn't seem to get more notice! Reminded me of that lower league Scottish football commentator who got sacked a couple years ago for telling the audience he was late for the 2nd half because of a "half-time jobby" haha...

Hell, I may still be drinking GB's kool-aid, but, whatever you may think of him, at the very least it would be very worrying if GB (and JDT...) leave in the offseason, while the likes of Waggot and Sylvester are still in place.

Grabbing some 'micro' stats from https://www.fotmob.com/teams/8655/stats/blackburn-rovers/players and https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/158/Show/England-Blackburn I recall the MLS has some sort of 'expected goals from build up' stat that helps value how MF passes help build up attacks, but haven't come across that for the Championship... maybe in the PL... Obvious caveats to take on how to interpret them, how they're tallied (which can differ between sites...), etc., but picking out some stats for the sake of the argument (click for a slightly larger image! Sorry...):

According to Sharpe on Twitter, Leonard (and Harlock) were brought off at half-time yesterday because they are due to be involved in an internal game on Wednesday with whatever senior players don't play tonight. Perhaps he'll be on the bench, but wouldn't expect to see him starting anyway. Just noticed Leonard hasn't actually made the bench yet for a league game, only for a couple FA Cup games.

Ah, I only took a glance at his low appearances this year, but may have been injury-related!

Repeating myself, but to briefly add, Benson's also apparently still a close confidante for Dean Henderson going back to their Carlisle days. Fisher's done alright since he left too (although seems to have lost the starting gig at Swansea). Stergiakis maybe a miss, but whatever. I know fuck all about GK training, but the social media video snippets they post of the GK training appear to be relatively creative/interesting (or I'm just boring enough to bother watching them). Agreed that all good coaches must have been ex-players is silly reasoning... I've been curious what we've had in mind with a relatively large stable of GKers. Wonder if anything will come of Hilton (had a decent Scottish loan spell last year), Eastham, Goddard, etc.