My prediction is that the starting XI tonight will be roughly the starting XI from the second 60 minutes against Nuremberg e.g. our second string but with Buckley, Markanday, Garrett etc. Then the starting XI tomorrow to be the starting XI from the first 60 minutes against Nuremberg e.g. our 'strongest' XI apart from Hedges and Szmodics I am predicting this because it would make more sense to test the strongest XI against a League One side on a Saturday than it would against a League Two side tonight, and I expect he will want everyone to get 90 minutes sooner or later. The club media have also used photos of Buckley and Garrett for the promotional material for tonight which might be a clue. Could be wrong of course and it could well be a mish mash of both.

I suspect that only in the last couple of weeks have Venkys authorised the annual budget. Hence zero movement or even rumour up until the last week or so and suggestions shadow man went out to India not long ago to sort it out. So he's probably come back with permission to use a sliver of the fortunes brought in and some flex on the wages to add a handful, soon to be recouped in any event with Szmodics to be sold. It is the only logical explanation for nothing being done until now even the easiest of deals in McFadzean, which of course would have been wrapped up many weeks ago at a functional football club (not that I'm keen on it, it stinks of desperation to me).

I've watched us in pre-season against Accy Stanley and Nuremberg and I'm intrigued to hear more about what this 'certain way' of playing is, because I couldn't see anything of the sort.

The club has been gearing up for League One now for the last 3-4 years (at least). Owners who should be nowhere near professional sport, let alone the Championship, directors with absolutely no pedigree or qualification to be involved in running a professional sports club, budgets being slashed to League One levels, playing squad being systemically reduced to League One standard. That's before we get on to operating like a non-league outfit with amateurish conduct, skeletal staffing, no programmes etc. I don't think anyone would argue with any of that. I think this is all the fault of the owners whose decisions have taken us to this stage and continue to damage the club. Others want to convince themselves that it is the fault of the fans, or nasty FFP rules, or Blackburn being a 'small town'.

Which is what Venky Rovers want as it allows them to pin the blame and responsibility for the move on Szmodics and his agent for being 'greedy' or forcing a move leaving poor old Rovers with no other option but to move him on.

I do. And I very much doubt we will get £15 million for him. It sounds like he might have a release clause in any event. Of course the club will announce it as 'undisclosed' so they can pretend they got a good fee for him, not that it makes any difference to Rovers how much we get.

This will be a Szmodics out for £8-10 million and this lad coming in using 10% of the cash. The club will make a net profit of many millions of pounds and the owners won't put in a penny towards it.

Easy to go around making multi-million pound offers for other Championship teams' best players when you've raked in £30 million from sales. Except when you are Venky Rovers, in which case you are still destitute and ripe for the picking.

I suspect that morale at the club at all levels is at an all time low, with really only the academy kids now in first team reckoning happy with the way things are at the moment. It cannot be a pleasant place to work with uncertainty on direction and even viability as a business, major departures and cost cuts throughout. This is probably just a relatively cheap and easy way to 'unite' the troops behind the new Waggott regime as the new season approaches. I feel the best way to unite the club would be for Venkys and their minions to exit asap and leave those of us who actually care for the club behind to rebuild from the rubble

Of course it's completely illogical. But then the only things Rovers will really be looking at is wage, signing on fee and contract length If Batth is now willing to come for less, or happy to take 1 year rather than 2, then Rovers will be interested as all they are focused on is cobbling together some sort of Championship standard squad as cheaply as possible. Actual fitness, game time last year, suitability, all irrelevant to calculations. Interestingly however this is coming from the Venkygraph, which suggests to me someone, probably Waggott, has drip fed it to them. Probably to alleviate pressure and convince the locals that we are in the business of signing people.

When they placed Steve Kean in charge of a Premier League side and left him in place after the near miss in 2011 most of us knew that relegation was the inevitable consequence. When they placed Owen Coyle in charge and left him at the helm until February most of us knew that League One was inevitable. When they starved Bowyer and Coyle of funding, forcing us to sign dross like Delfouneso, Feeney, Greer, Brown and others most of us knew that League One was inevitable. When they sell everyone of any value, spend nothing and hope to get by with a team of academy lads most of us know what the inevitable outcome will be. This lot couldn't care less because all relegation means to them is different numbers on a balance sheet each year If it isn't deliberate it is certainly an inevitable outcome of their approach and totally avoidable. The iceberg has been in view now for over 12 months and rather than change course they've simply changed the man at the helm whilst ordering full steam ahead towards it. A blind man can see it coming. Either they can see it and aren't bothered or they aren't even looking

Look on the bright side, there's a desire from some to see positivity after all: 20th August hearing can probably get adjourned off as no need for more money from India Waggott might get another bonus for 'helping' the owners save money They can spend the next 6 weeks pretending we are going to reinvest, but ultimately won't Venkys get to maintain their grip on the club for another 6-9 months What's not to like?

Assuming the slippery one turns up and the meeting goes ahead it will be the only opportunity that fans or probably anyone outside the club gets to put direct questions to anyone in a senior position at the club. All other lines of communication severed, and it seems requests from local media for interviews being ignored and fobbed off. I'd suggest it is essential that the above is raised directly with him. If this meeting comes and goes without it being raised or with the usual excuses and 'will look into it' fob off approach then it will be disheartening to say the least. Tonight is an opportunity to ask questions that genuinely concern the future existence of the football club, Not to discuss the new kits or season ticket sales.

I saw the fans / players meeting as a typical Waggott manoeuvre in response to feeling the heat. A relatively easy, cheap and small gesture but one he thought would head off trouble. Turn the focus away from the owners and their financial activities and on to the players and their thoughts about things, localise the issues to a meeting table in Lancashire, get together prominent fans who would hopefully be won over by the tea and biscuits and then head off online and to their groups and spread the word about it, filtering down to the wider fanbase, all whilst he barely had to lift a finger. Of course an open question event with hundreds of season ticket holders invited and free to put forward their questions to him and other directors would be a good idea, but he's never had any intentions of such exposure.

Eustace will have taken the job because despite what these horrible people have done the name of Blackburn Rovers still carries a lot of weight in the game. Someone in his position after a little over 1 year at Birmingham City to be offered a 2.5 year deal to come here, established Championship club. On the surface a complete no-brainer. Potential new staff members and players will of course assume that even with a very limited budget there remains a determination to get somewhere and some degree of ambition and a plan to make it work. It won't become clear to them until their feet are under the table and the games start that there is zero ambition, zero plan, owners who are beyond belief when it comes to a lack of interest and a board of directors dominated by shadowy characters none of whom have ever spoken publicly (some I'm not sure have even been to Ewood before). Then there's the other slippery character labelled as CEO but is more of an administrator measured purely on his cost saving schemes who I wouldn't trust to go and buy me a Lancashire Telegraph if I gave him a couple of quid. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that in the chaos (self inflicted) of late January and early February, after they forced the last manager out yet still dragged his exit into a multiple week long process, and with Broughton half way out the exit door, there will have been a degree of panic and with that a 'tell him what he needs to hear' approach. Obviously telling the truth as to the real situation isn't what is done here. We've seen that with the lies and deceit towards paying supporters and probably players over the last 12-18 months since this crisis escaped the bag. First they pretended that it was all due to changes in Indian tax laws, then it became clear that it was actually due to the owners being under investigation. They've claimed also that the court hearings are a minor issue, not really anything to be concerned about, a formality, yet it is obvious that isn't the case. So absolutely 100% believable that they will have painted a rosy picture to Eustace, allowed him to believe there would be jam tomorrow if he kept us up, money will come, this lot never refuse a cheque. All sounds fantastic. I bet JDT got similar, as did Broughton, Lambert, all the rest. Then we get the moving goalposts, silence. Some types of manager are fine with that, they've a contract and will sit tight and collect their money and hope it one day changes for the better or they get a better offer at some point - Kean, Bowyer, Mowbray Others simply won't put up with it and will actively seek a move away - Lambert, JDT - because they know they can get work at a professional football club so why allow this mob to make a fool out of you It remains to be seen which group Eustace will fall into, but I certainly bet thoughts have or will soon be going through his head. I'm certain it is one of Waggott's favourite schemes. Tell potential players/agents, managers that we can offer x,y,z or will be able to offer something later, get them in the building, under contract, committed to some degree, then change it and shift the next move onto the employee - take it or leave it and call their bluff. Hope they just shut up, take the money and put up with it. With the way they have run the club and treated paying supporters I cannot imagine how bad it must be to actually work for them. Awful, awful people.