JHRover

If its another loan so be it The way I see the CB situation is that we need 4, at least 2 on the pitch at any given time, sometimes 3 and at least 1 on the bench to step in. Forget about Barnes for this season, this leaves Ayala, Wharton, Carter (when back from injury) and Phillips. I wouldn't be making any plans that are reliant on Phillips unless he commits to a deal. If he doesn't he should be treated like a loan player. We don't even know if he is good enough yet. I want Carter to get a shot at it as he needs to and earned rave reviews at Portsmouth last season. If he doesn't make the breakthrough this season then he's going to be moving on. What won't impress me is if we sign this Dutch lad from Liverpool on the proviso that he is going to be playing every week, and in doing so dislodges one of our own CBs e.g. Carter. Whilst Ayala is the most likely given his age, cost and injury record he is simply too good to drop when he is fit.

I hold out hope that we get through and play Stockport away in the next round (I think the only possible tie which is a new ground for me) Longer term it would be good for the Club, finances, fans and young players to have a game against one of the top sides either filling Ewood or a good away trip. We haven't had one of those now since Liverpool in 2015.

Until the people running the club start looking beyond the M65 as our catchment area and towards the wider region then we are doomed to fail. We will never get sufficient numbers attending from the town of Blackburn. Nothing wrong with that per se as long as the club recognises it and does something to maintain numbers from other towns. The usual places - Clitheroe, Ribble Valley, South Ribble, Rossendale, Hyndburn. Sadly, either because they don't understand our fanbase (postcodes of season ticket holders would explain it), because they don't want the hassle of making the effort I have seen almost zero effort from the club over the last 10 years in those areas. In the PL it is easy - you don't need to make the same effort as people will come from afar either way - but in the lower leagues you have to keep people going and engage them. Instead this lot seem more comfortable with a local small scale operation. They can churn out data about how many more people from minority communities are attending but when losing thousands of long standing season ticket holders from other areas it is only going one way.

Because when 'Hartlepools United' was formed it came about from a merger between two Hartlepool clubs - one Hartlepool the other West Hartlepool I think.

People overestimate things based on a summer of no games, a natural tendency to be optimistic about our own youngsters and a positive result on the opening day with an almost fully fit squad. Get through to the depths of winter with 3 games a week, injuries, suspensions, tiredness and a few bad results / performances and the lack of depth will be brought into focus and cost us. Unfortunately when that time comes we won't be able to do anything about it because the window will be shut and it will be a case of limping through to January and finding some loans. I'd prefer we prepared for those eventualities by adding depth now, when we have time on our side and a full season ahead of us to try and accomplish something, than taking a gamble and potentially jeopardizing success by cutting corners now.

Does it? 10 outgoings, 3 incomings, 1 a youngster on loan and 2 from League One. Long way to go yet. Another 3 needed minimum. Looks like they've allowed a slice of the Armstrong money into the pot a year on, or if Brereton goes they will still turn a huge profit on trading again. Not to mention the wage bill which will be a fraction of what it was 14 months ago. So lets see where we stand at the end of the window. If there's been a significant net outlay on new players I'll applaud them, but if this is the limit of it or it is covered 8 times over by Brereton being sold I'm afraid it is just more of the same from Venkys.

I'll reserve judgment on Morton just like I will on any signing I know very little about rather than heralding it as a masterstroke. He could be another Harvey Elliott, Leighton Clarkson or somewhere in between. My views on borrowing other clubs players to fill gaps in the squad are already known. I'm not a fan of it. Unless the player is so good that we couldn't possibly do better by signing our own or it is the icing on the cake I don't think it is a sensible policy in any respect other than financial - it certainly isn't a policy that is suggestive of building an asset base or a long term plan. Yes I know what Broughton has had to say about our own academy lads having 'pathways' into the first team but that suggests to me that we are approaching recruitment based on a short term arrangement in the hope that a year or two down the line the academy lads step up to the plate. Having let so many players leave I am worried that those numbers required keep on being cut down. Having offloaded 10 from last season's squad I would hope to see 5-6 permanent additions and then maybe a couple of loans to finish things off. I can see it now people will be saying after this and the Peterborough lad that we are almost sorted. I think not.

I refused to watch any of the game but knew they would win tonight. It all stacked up in their favour. Huddersfield bound to have the post play-off final hangover and then on top of that have lost their manager and two best players in the last 2-3 weeks and appointed a rookie coach. Ideal conditions for the dingles, lucky them.

According to Waggott (I know, I know) there are around 1,000 people who held season tickets last year who haven't yet renewed for this year. I find that to be alarming and I would hope Waggott does too. Given we are only starting from a base of circa 8,000 season ticket holders to begin with, to face a situation where 13% of those are not renewing, despite a decent season last year and the new manager ''bounce'' suggests there is something very wrong. Of course some of that is natural drop off and will be replaced by new people which has been the case since the start of time, but I do think that is a high number / percentage, especially when you factor in that renewals got the cheaper 'loyalty' price - so I'm not sure how much of this can be put down to pricing alone.

Earlier this summer people were suggesting James Brown as a competent Championship RB who could fill in to replace Nyambe. He's just joined League Two newboys Stockport on loan. Best of luck to the lad but I think that brings things into perspective. What people think we might have available isn't all that.

Preston have not only sold considerably more than us, but in doing do have likely made more money (despite far lower prices), will certainly make more on food and drink on matchdays through having 5000 more a week on watching and will reap the benefits of having a 2/3 full ground every week and only 7000 empty seats rather than a 1/3 full ground and 20,000 empty seats. It doesn't look good for us on any level. If our higher prices were enabling us to rake in substantially higher income than them then there might be some justification for them. But I fail to see how that case can be made. Even if we have made slightly more money that has to be offset against the income from food and drink and benefits of having a full ground.

No, my clever plan would have to be honest and transparent with the fans and other stakeholders. Just say that it isn't resolved and couldn't be until he turned 17. Instead Waggott once again seized the opportunity before him to try and get some free credit in the bank by leading people on a merry dance believing that the situation was resolved. He got a big pat on the back from it and then surprise surprise it isn't sorted, far from it, and we stand to lose yet more money. He didn't say it was 'pretty much done' either. If you read the article it says a 3 year deal is agreed and clearly implies that the situation is done and dusted and that everyone should feel good about it. Nowhere have I said we could force him to sign a contract, and nowhere have I said we are immune to the threat of bigger clubs coming in and taking an interest. But then again patterns are emerging here that are impossible to ignore. Patterns which involve the CEO leading people to believe things are happening, or are going to happen, only for them not to. This corresponds to what I have been saying for months - that these people can talk the talk - promise the earth, tell us how great things are going to be at some point in the future, tell us how Player X is going to sign, how Venkys are going to provide money for players, how we are going to spend fortunes on a new training ground or new pitch. It's all jam tomorrow. Yet time after time people fall for it. Believe them. Then believe the sob stories and excuses that come with it when things don't happen. I fully expect this summer to go the same way. Lots of big talk for weeks on end about how recruitment is going to kick into gear, about how we are lining up good players rather than adopting a scattergun approach, about how money is going to be invested, how we've plenty of time to do this before the end of August. Hope I'm wrong but I've seen this before. It ends with excuses, bullshit, 'we've done our best', 'money was there but we couldn't spend it'. Hope and pray I am wrong because if I am not then the bottom 3 won't be far away this season. I know people like to think I enjoy being negative or pessimistic about things but I think that is an entirely reasonable and fair stance to take given the above examples.

I wouldn't have gone to the press and said or implied that the situation was resolved. I would have been honest and said it wasn't. Of course nobody can be forced to sign a contract. Though given the numbers who have declined them I think if you haven't already it is perhaps time to start questioning the approach of those offering them.

Which is precisely my point. Plenty of folk are keen to take Waggott's word for it, not just in this instance but in most other areas of concern. "We've done a,b,c" "We've offered x,y,z" "We've got big bids on the table for new players" "We've done all we can" "It's not our fault" Time after time stuff he comes out with then doesn't happen. I just don't get why people are so keen to believe the party line when he's got such a track record for bullshit or saying things that don't happen. Player after player depart for nothing, costing the club millions in lost player value, yet rather than question what the hell people like Waggott are up to instead it's easier to look away from the club - FFP rules, crowds, income - all the usual easy excuses. Responsibility starts at home. And lets be honest we are only talking about Ash Phillips now because of the lack of CBs we have following another exodus this summer. If we'd have recruited properly up to this point we wouldn't even be considering putting him in the squad.

You believe what you want. I know what he's up to. He'll tell anyone and everyone what they want to hear but in the end fails to back it up. September 2021 was around the time he was telling fans Lenihan was days off signing his new deal. Not a word that he comes out with can be relied upon. I hope it makes you feel better about things telling yourself it's never an issue at Rovers' end and always something else out of our control. Won't get us anywhere though.

Not tell the press and fans the situation is resolved?

So why tell the press in September it was in hand and sorted, if it wasn't?

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-phillips-contract-latest-21594468.amp Relax everyone, its all under control, Waggott said so.

I wish people would stop lumping us in with all the other clubs in the land, as though our issues are just normal ones faced by well run sensible clubs at this time of year and there's nothing we can do about it, as though everything is sorted out at Rovers and the only issue is the general state of football I get that it is fashionable these days to avoid putting any blame at the door of the owners or those they employ but ultimately they have been in control of finances and contracts and they are the ones who have left the Club short on numbers on the cusp of a new season. Of course it is tough to do business. Simple way to avoid that if you are struggling to sign players - don't let 10 important ones leave overnight! Sort your contracts out in good time. Don't build a squad on loans (all things I've raised concerns with on here over the years which now leave us in this precarious state). So just to recap its absolutely nothing to do with Venkys, lackey or Waggott that we've lost 10 significant players over the summer, nothing to do with them that we have been dependent on loans every year to fill the squad up which means we have to wait until the deadline to sign key players, nothing to do with them that we've only signed 1 person this summer to replace them all.

Only at Venky Rovers could you go from being 2nd in January/February and in with a chance of promotion, and then in the following 5 months not even finish in the top 6, lose most of the players that were central to us getting into that position, sign 1 RB all summer long and now the discussion is about 'transition' or in old fashioned speak a season of struggle / mediocrity and forget about promotion before we've even started. Deliberate sabotage couldn't have turned things around so quickly as this.

Once again an insight there into Waggott's focus as well. All about BWD area and next to nothing about the surrounding regions where a huge proportion of Rovers fans now live. Ignore them at your peril. But why should Waggott care?

Then I hope we don't sign him. Absolutely ludicrous if we are offering anyone guaranteed places in the team, especially not a 17 year old.

JDT will be judged on results, which is how it should be. Not how he talks, who he signs or how many academy players he puts in his squad. Get off to a poor start and he's under pressure. No amount of excuses will protect him from that. Doesn't matter when he was appointed, FFP rules or how unfair life is, if results aren't good enough he will be judged accordingly. All this 'free pass' talk is ridiculous. This is professional football in a cut throat ruthless league and we are paying top end prices to watch it. Why the should I accept a season where results aren't important or is essentially written off from the start because we haven't got our recruitment sorted?

Stoke lost £50 million last year, are way over 100% on spending to turnover and have just signed Dwight Gayle. Derby weren't sanctioned for spending too much. They were sanctioned for inflating the value of Pride Park to try and dodge the rules. Then their owner gave up (we can dream) and cleared off.

A lack of evidence doesn't mean something isn't true. Just like there is no evidence to suggest Hibs couldn't afford his wages. Nobody bar JDT and those running Hibs know for certain. I have no evidence that the Venky lacky is to all intents and purposes running Rovers and has been for the last 7 years, but that doesn't mean he isn't as most of us can see between the lines