JHRover

How will he sign a new deal if he isn't offered one?

The Travis and Tronstad efforts will increase in the coming weeks once they've dealt with Brittain and got his money banked. Expect to hear more tales of 'unhappiness', wanting to move back to Norway, other clubs offering money we can't compete with etc. They've known for months that Brittain was off and I dare say have wanted this outcome, hence zero serious effort to renew his contract, as confirmed by Brittain in his press interview. The stunt with Nixon and Jackson, both fed by club insiders, claiming that a new deal was imminent another lie to dress it up as though Rovers are reluctant sellers and to keep the fanbase on side.

Thought we'd be the next Derby? Doesn't sound too bad to me.

To me that reads as though you can watch the video of them training ahead of the Nijmegen game in full on Rovers' Youtube, not that the game itself will necessarily be live.

I was told that Waggott's original plan was for this weekend to be a 'showpiece' 'curtain raiser' game against someone to commemorate the 150th anniversary. Of course his departure, coupled with the realities involved in organising such a fixture - costs, logistics, forward planning - meant we very quickly reached a point where we were getting too late to organise one. Nor is there much appetite for a game at Ewood unless they are confident the away club will bring thousands to cover the expense e.g. Everton. I think Nijmegen had been due to play another game this weekend and that was cancelled meaning they became available and were also looking for someone to play. Of course in a position of increasing desperation Rovers were willing to accept whatever terms the host club imposed including not allowing any Rovers fans to attend. Ridiculous really when you might have got 100-200 at most so soon after the Spain trip.

They're also quite keen on promoting the 'EFL' in the USA judging by recent social media activity. Conveniently that ties with the recent emergence of USA owned clubs in Wrexham and Birmingham. Perhaps if they spent less time helping certain clubs with their overseas growth and more time focusing on the ongoing destruction of clubs like Rovers, Morecambe and Sheffield Wednesday their competition might be better. They'll only intervene when Wednesday can't fulfil their fixtures, and that's only because of the damage it will do to their reputation and the hassle of sorting out the fixtures.

Excellent post. Unfortunately for some all it takes is some transfer tittle tattle and all is well with the world. We haven't even tried to retain Brittain - no doubt the narrative will be getting rewritten in the coming days "We did our best to persuade him to stay" "It's a good deal to get cash for someone out of contract next year and didn't want to be here" "The new bloke is better" "We can't compete with Middlesbrough" All nonsense and lies. We haven't tried to keep him. At best we have made some limited efforts since April but I sincerely doubt that given we haven't even replaced the CEO and hadn't even sorted pre-season out until a week ago. Nor have we made any effort to keep the other players - we want rid of all of them for precisely the reason we are seeing now - it is a quick and easy way to get a cheaper player in and a few million into the coffers. Make no mistake they've been beavering away hoping a bidding war developed between rivals for Brittain, have decided to finalise this one and now will be turning their attentions to Travis and Tronstad. They are disgusting and a disgrace and should be nowhere near this club or any other professional football club.

The 'Pride of Lancashire' stuff is very PNE to me. Sort of thing they'd roll out Nor should 'pride' be mentioned anywhere near Ewood these days. A sick joke.

Deary me But at least "we listen to fans"

Oh I don't know. They were a struggling Championship club when he turned up 10 years ago and still are. We were a top 10 Premier League club when our lot took over and look where we are now. Granted they are having all sorts of issues at the moment but I expect they will be rid of him and under better ownership in the not-too-distant future whilst our owners continue to leave us to decay.

All pretty pointless and a waste of everyone's time isn't it? Yet they still expect us to pay competitive Championship prices to watch it. Roll up roll up £35 to sit on the Blackburn End against Birmingham!

Some of us knew that the club's priority this summer was to (a) slash the wage bill further and (b) sell a few assets for decent cash to pay the bills. We've done the first, and now with a month to go are on to the second. The only other question now is whether they succumb to temptation and cash in on Trav/Tron as well. Probably another £5 million to liquidate there if they really want it.

Lets remember that Chief Venky Stooge Pasha hasn't just turned up, he's been lurking in the shadows for at least 10 years now, probably longer. He's already overseen his vision once before, it began in 2015 when we sold off key assets like Tom Cairney and Rudy Gestede, followed by people like Ben Marshall, Grant Hanley and Shane Duffy. In a very similar fashion to what we are witnessing now those players were bundled out the back door or made to feel unwanted, sales were sought and Rovers trousered 90% of the cash. In their place we turned to the loan and cheap markets and recruited largely dross which culminated in relegation to League One. It was only after he'd delivered that relegation, Mowbray went off to India and agreed on a plan of action, and they started to act almost like fit and proper owners, that the decline was stopped and reversed for a few years. Now the Chief Venky Stooge has seen off Mowbray, his mate Waggott, and re-established hegemony over the entire club again with his dogsbody Rudy making the phone calls and wearing the fancy suits, he is setting us back on the course we were on in 2015-17. Hopefully one day someone finds out just what the real story is with this guy, where he comes from, what his qualifications are and what his remit is.

"Loans aren't free ya know....."

I don't consider it crazy any more. It is clear that we are behind most, if not all, other Championship clubs when it comes to offering good contracts to potential players. We seem to have a policy of not offering long term deals, even the recent McLoughlin signing bizarrely limited to 2 years. This is important in negotiations as many players, particularly those in their mid to late 20s, will expect 3-4 year deals. We have seen recently that Derby County are a more attractive prospect than we are these days - finances will be a part of that - Eustace, his staff, Weimann and Batth all more attracted to what they offer than what we do. This despite the fact that they were in administration and League One very recently and have well publicised financial limitations under their current owner, with him seeking external investment to help. We have seen PNE and Millwall spending or trying to spend money that we haven't seen spent here in many a year, despite them bringing in less than us from sales. Oxford are investing and recently signed a player we were supposedly keen on but couldn't get done. I'd really like to know who people think offers less money than Rovers these days. Probably Sheffield Wednesday at the moment. I suspect that's the end of the list.

So still no comment from Rovers on whether this will be broadcast live, either by themselves, Nijmegen or a separate broadcaster. Despite pleading with fans not to travel to Holland or try to gain access to the game and offering the possibility of a live broadcast as a sensible alternative, all we got 10 days ago was "we will endeavour" to provide a live stream. I'll be surprised if they do. I also find it immensely disappointing that for our final pre season fixture ahead of our anniversary season Rovers are off abroad arranging fixtures that permit home fans but exclude Rovers fans. Shows how little they think of Rovers fans despite all the posturing on social media.

Where has Arnor Sigurdsson's wage saving gone? Come to think of it where have the savings made on Batth, Dolan, Weimann, Beck, McFadzean, Markanday, JRC gone? Surely nobody in their right mind believes that the signings of Tavares, De Neve, Alibiousu and McLoughlin have gone anywhere near to covering those savings? I could - almost - accept it if the savings had been used to ensure Trav, Tron, Hyam, Carter or Brittain had got proper new contracts, but no, not a single one of those has been sorted, surprise surprise. So once again a good window if the focus is on avoiding new contracts, cutting back the wage bill and saving money. Not sure it has been a good window if the focus is on putting a decent side out or protecting our rapidly dwindling assets. What ever happened to Nixon's cock and bull about Brittain 'imminently' signing his new deal?

Teams like Preston and Millwall have been comfortably outstripping us on fees for the last few years now since the latest Venky cuts were imposed mid-summer under JDT. Blows a massive hole in the claims that we need to charge what we do for season tickets to ensure we have a competitive budget / FFP nonsense. We've got away with it up to now thanks to the legacy of a good squad left by Mowbray and Broughton/JDT and good management by Eustace. I have a feeling that in the not-too-distant future that will end, probably just about after they've seen off the remaining solid core in Travis, Tronstad and Brittain.

I'm surprised we still make any effort in Darwen. What do Darwen FC have to say about us encroaching on their patch?

Exactly. Some seem to want to point to the fact that Middlesbrough have been stuck in the Championship for quite a while as 'proof' that spending heavily doesn't equate to success (as you rightly point out they have had success, promotion, Premier League, multiple play-offs. But there is so much more to it than just spending money. They have an ownership, board, management who want to be successful. They might not achieve success, but they want to, they try, and their fans can see them trying and trust them to get it right one day. Nobody involved at ownership or management level at Rovers can look in a mirror and say they have tried and every fan knows deep down that's the reality, no matter how much delusion or excuses they want to come up with to make themselves feel better about things.

I think you are being very generous saying that Rovers have spent £12 million in the last 4 years. I bet it is well short of that in terms of cash actually paid out so far.

Really is incredible to consider that Rovers have simply washed their hands of vast swathes of Lancashire which for generations have been hotbeds of support due to one, or both, of laziness and not wanting to upset Accy Stanley/PNE/Bolton. This is not the club I once knew and keep this up within another decade or two self-destruction will be complete.

"Yeah but we can't compete because they're a massive club blah blah blah"

The normal under this regime yes. Acceptable? Hell no. That's what happens after 15 years of unrelenting destruction and mismanagement, continuing today with no CEO, no board worthy of the name, no commercial director and the likes of Pasha, Gestede and Sufi running the club, people who would be nowhere near comparable positions at any other professional outfit, and they know it. Imagine where we might be with a competent, ambitious, driven ownership and executive.

I'm sorry, are you suggesting that 8.7 thousand is a good sales figure for Blackburn Rovers season tickets?