JHRover

Sorry that might be my memory and you might be right it was 'healthy budget'. Either way, it could mean an array of things. Healthy compared to the shoestring Bodo Glimt were operating with almost certainly. But healthy by the standards of the Championship?

I like Tomasson and what he has had to say since he arrived but I think we need to remember where he has come from. He was unemployed for 6 months prior to coming here and whilst he was managing a relatively big side at Malmo and won a couple of titles it isn't exactly the sort of resume that gets pulses racing. I'm yet to come across a manager who doesn't claim to have had other offers whilst unemployed. Not saying he is lying but he's hardly going to say the phone was dead for the last 6 months is he? Besides if the offers were coming from clubs outside the power leagues of England, Spain, France, Germany and Italy it is likely that their budgets will have been small compared even to ours.

Has Tomasson actually said anything about budgets or recruitment? Not that I can recall. It was Broughton who spoke about this straight after his arrival. 'Good budget' can of course mean a whole range of things.

Must say I do like the shade of blue. Much better than last season.

Why is it a limited release? Don't we want to sell as many as possible?

We played Celtic in a hastily arranged friendly on a Sunday in 2010 when we were a PL club. There were a few hundred Rovers fans there and the ground was nearly empty. Now it might be different this time with more advanced warning and it being a Saturday but I would still expect one block to be more than enough. Also a large number of those seats, especially those in block 120, are obstructed views due to the old main stand pillars

Good budget for two unemployed blokes coming from Scandinavian leagues does not mean it is a good budget by Championship standards.

Van Hecke falls into the Harrison Reed category. Clearly a good player, clearly the sort we should be investing in and building our team around, clearly attainable for a Championship club with some sensible investment. But not one that we are likely to get done because we won't pay the relatively small fee needed to get him. Even if there was some serious interest at Rovers' end we would take too long or faff about trying to drive him or Brighton down on cost whilst a rival comes in. So instead he will end up elsewhere in the Championship and then we will get stories about how we could never get him due to FFP/Parachute money or because his girlfriend wouldn't allow him to live anywhere other than the South Coast of England etc. etc.

Oh I think we will spend SOME money. But I think it will be limited to a few hundred thousand perhaps on a couple of younger end ones like with Edun and Pickering. I think however anyone seriously thinking that these owners or management would splash out £3 million on an international CB have the wrong end of the stick here.

Increase turnover?

Don't Sheff U have to worry about cutting costs to get their finances under control having failed to get promoted last year? So just to recap we've got: - FFP rules mean we can't spend any money - Parachute payments aren't fair - We have a wage structure that we can't break so even though we have money we can't spend it if the wages are too much - We can't keep our academy developed players from the clutches of mid-table (non parachute blessed) rivals because those players are greedy and we can't be held to ransom - Billionaire owners keen to invest but just not able to do so All sounds very unfair. Of course this is what Venkys and Waggott want us to believe, because it absolves them of any responsibility or culpability when things don't happen or things go wrong. I prefer to look at things not from the 'not fair boo hoo' angle and more from the side of 'what can we control and do differently to change things?' So I look at FFP. Some would have us believe that these are punitive rules designed to punish clubs like Rovers. Instead I look at ways around FFP. One side of this is income. I'm afraid there are a whole collection of examples of how the Club has failed massively on that front. Whether that be woefully inadequate sponsorship, the crisis of allowing key players to leave for nothing or self-destructive season ticket policies take your pick - all need improving and quickly and if they do so does income and turnover. I look at the wage bill - this has been demolished since last year. Miller helpfully above shows this. I believe this is because Venkys have had enough of putting the money in and have imposed substantial cuts on wages. This directly feeds back to the contract fiasco. Their choice. Their fault. Lets worry about what we can do rather than play the "its not fair" game.

We hope we have got a much better appointment. Nobody has been proven right or wrong on that yet. Most people are pleased with Tomasson and want him to succeed but he hasn't managed a game yet so we have to see how good he is when the business really starts. You don't get points or prizes for talking well A bit rich you pointing to my expectation of an Adkins or Grayson when you went through an assortment of names yourself none of which got the job in the end. I'm sure you never mentioned Tomasson as a realistic option despite your 'sources'.

Impressive stuff, shifting 5000 less STs than PNE and Notlob.

What comment is that? I made a prediction yesterday that we won't go close to spending £3 million, especially not on a CB, and this morning it seems to be correct. I feel the need to point this out as only last night I was criticised for making false predictions on here. I'm not interested in excuses or the "poor us" routine. Getting stuff done is what matters.

So generate more money?

So hold on, after all the talk we didn't sign the £3 million proven established CB? There's a surprise.

We've heard all this before. The money doesn't get reinvested. We slashed the wage bill last summer and did hardly anything instead blaming FFP rules. Now you think they're going to reinvest Ayala's wages if they get rid? In my humble opinion all that happens is we go into the loan market and lose an experienced CB. Dangerous game. In an ideal world we'd have kept Lenihan and Van Hecke, offload Ayala and reinvest his wages into a couple of quality free agents but we don't live in an ideal world thanks to Venkys incompetence. I'd be very surprised and pleased if we spent £3 million on anyone this summer. It isn't going to happen. They want fans to believe it might though. Talk is cheap.

We've lost 2 important CBs already this summer. We shouldn't even entertain letting another go until we've brought some replacements in. This squad is short on proven experience. I'd be very careful about more leave under the guise of further cuts to the wage bill that won't be reinvested, just like the millions saved since last year hasn't been under the guise of FFP.

So why did Mowbray go to India? Surely he could have skipped the time and just got what he needed from the middle man instead. Reckon Suhail could have authorised the Brereton or Gallagher fees? Nah.

Plus side to this new structure: - Someone other than the manager has responsibility for appointments, transfers and recruitment - In theory this means the manager can focus his energies and efforts on managing the first team, not flying around the world and running the whole operation himself - Hopefully by extension this means that if results are crap or performances not up to scratch the manager can be removed easily and quickly and replaced without needing to rip up the entire operation and start again from scratch Down side to this new structure: - Broughton might talk well but is new to this job and this level - It might further complicate and lengthen an already convoluted snail pace setup - The absence of any flights to India to worship at the feet of Mr and Mrs Desai tells me that things are being done below their level and I am certain this means slower chains of communication and most importantly much less to play with on the financial side. I am certain that healthy cash budgets in summers of 2017, 2018 and 2019 all followed India visits whilst non-existent budgets came in summers of 2016, 2020 and 2021 without India visits.

To be honest I have little interest in renewing at any price if I am sat on my own in a seat that I don't want. I think the Club has made a monumental mess of this and has actually misled people in its literature and advertisements. The original 'offer' was that existing season ticket holders could renew, claim their seats at the price of £399. The Club has extended this deadline twice and in its literature has made no reference to the terms of that offer changing. I think it was entirely reasonable to interpret 'deadline extension' as meaning the same terms were available, including retention of seats, until 30th June. If that wasn't the case and the Club was unable to guarantee seat retention then they should have said so in their articles. They should have warned fans of this. I've never been contacted. Perhaps foolishly I went through June quite relaxed knowing I could have my seat at £399 if I wanted it so long as I did my renewal by the end of the month. Unless the Club is more specific I would read 'close of play 30th June' as meaning the clock striking 1st July. With the arrival of internet sales it makes no sense to impose a 5pm deadline and if they did you are quite right they should have said so.

I was already angry and disappointed with Rovers as to their season ticket sales and pricing before yesterday, but things have taken a serious turn for the worse. I logged on last night to renew, last minute, before the deadline so to claim the lower price and my own seat. Rather than be offered my own seat I was offered one 4 rows further forward and about 8 seats further along. I thought this was strange as I expected to be able to claim my own seat. I was sure i had read that i would be able to and of course the interpretation of "extended deadline" is that the same benefits as before the previous deadline would then be available before the new deadline. One of those benefits being retention of seats. I went on Rovers' website this morning to try to confirm my suspicions, but curiously the website article announcing the deadline extension on 17th June has been deleted. The link is still there: https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2022/june/17/season-ticket-loyalty-scheme-extended/ But when you click on it the page has gone. How very strange. This sets alarm bells off for me as I wonder why anyone at Rovers would go to the trouble of deleting a story from less than 2 weeks ago unless there is something in there that they don't want the public to see any more. It isn't the case that they are simply 'tidying up' the website as all other ticket articles remain on there including older ones referring to earlier deadlines. If anyone can find or send me this page it would be much appreciated. I then went on the Lancashire Telegraph story of the same date: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20219542.steve-waggott-reveals-blackburn-rovers-season-ticket-sales-figure/ Which clearly states that the deadline to claim seats was extended until 30th June. Rovers' twitter account also states that anyone whose seat had been claimed by someone else would be contacted by the club in the coming days. I've never been contacted. There's a big problem here that I am determined to get to the bottom of. I suspect a cover up.

Well I've been online and tried to renew this evening. After logging in with my details and clicking on the 'renew' option I am offered a seat 3 rows in front of my season ticket seat for £399. I don't want to sit there. I was under the impression that if I renewed before the end of June I could retain my seat. Seems not.

The comments of Mowbray, Tomasson and Broughton all suggest the 'plan' is to rely on the academy kids. Its a shame in that having just missed out on the play-offs last year the plan doesn't seem to be to recruit to go one better, especially when we should in a healthy financial position to launch an assault having brought in £15 million last summer, wiped clean the wage bill and have an asset that will have to be sold this summer for 8 figures. Should be plenty of scope there to invest to improve on last season. We were told 4 years ago under Mowbray that the plan was to use the academy, develop our own players for the first team and grow assets for the club. Then Lenihan and Nyambe happened. What's the point to this if we just end up in the same position again in 2-3 years time because we won't pay the lads a competitive wage?

I think Giles was another that we just took because he was available and cheap and looked good, without any real plan or role for him in the team. We've done that sort of thing a few times towards the back end of transfer windows. I think Tom Trybull was another. We just collect these people who are available from their parent clubs on short term loans, heavily subsidised so that they don't cost much and we bring them in without any real plan for them.