JHRover

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.

"Likely to" We've been hearing this for 6-7 years and it never happens. I'll have a bet with you now that none of those clubs are placed under a transfer embargo and that Middlesbrough spend more than we do this summer. Then we will get the "but they have bigger crowds and bring in more money" which of course is right, partly down to our ineptitude, but they also spend a lot more than we do too. A quick glance at likely wages tells us that.

Not sure I'd go that far. They're losing players who have kept them in the PL for years and replacing them with promising players out of League One. The more changes the better I say. My concern was them keeping Dyche and most of their squad together which was a recipe for success. A young manager, loss of experienced players and replacement with youngsters is the route to instability IMO

The occasion of the Derby v the Dingles will be ruined by the various 'stakeholders' when it kicks off at 12noon, is on live TV and is £40 a ticket.

Clubs that are skint don't pay 6 figure fees for players not ready for their team when those players are available for nothing 5 months later. Aberdeen boys happy with the deal though. Especially their head of recruitment.....🤔

Blackpool at 7500 so neck and neck in the race of shame. But thank the lord for Venkys or else we'd end up like [Blackpool].

Kaminksi and Travis signing was excellent news and praise goes to the Club for sorting those situations out in good time. I hope that hard lessons were learned from the out of contract crew and that the Club approached things differently from now on. But that doesn't mean I can forgive or forget what has happened with the others. I'll have to argue that Kaminski isn't worth more than Lenihan and Nyambe combined. Having said that if a rival or higher club wanted either of them they would have to meet our asking price, which is the privilege that comes with having your key players under proper contracts. The same won't necessarily be the case for the younger players you refer to, as once they start (hopefully) making the grade at Championship level we will have to give them improved terms and in good time. The deals dished out recently do the job for the time being but will have to be increased before vultures start circling.

"Silly money" This is another one that irritates me. The suggestion being those players were demanding "silly money" to stay rather than just the going rate for an experienced Championship CB/RB. That isn't silly the only silly people are Rovers for thinking they can continue to take advantage of these academy products indefinitely, forcing them to stay on below market rate wages just because they've come through our academy. So us coming to an agreement with two academy players requires us to offer "silly money" whilst powerhouses like Stoke and Middlesbrough are able to offer them this "silly money"? How does that work? Does it not annoy you that those clubs are in a position to cherry pick our assets for nothing? Are you saying that those clubs are paying "silly money" whereas we aren't? Not long ago we were paying Mulgrew big money to do nothing and are paying Ayala big money to play half a season. Then we have to replace these lads. If anyone has any bright ideas about how we find as good or better without paying a transfer fee or committing to wages on similar or more than they were looking for I'd like to hear it. Of course the 'plan' will be to delve into loans for another season, which won't arrive until the last minute and won't enable the club to profit in future - which hits turnover earning potential again. See the fallacy of it all? We lose 2 assets worth multi-millions and now we will probably borrow replacements of no financial value to the club. So much for worrying about the finances. I keep on hearing about this wages to turnover thing - lots of talk about reducing wages but not much talk about increasing turnover. Of course the increasing turnover bit is the tricky part that actually requires skill, effort and a plan - none of which we have at Rovers, so instead we get squeezing the diehards until they pop and cutting costs everywhere we can. We can keep on cutting the wage bill every year and losing key players as a direct result - eventually that will destroy turnover because we will end up in League One again - that is inevitable sooner or later if the Club puts all its energy into cutting costs. You can't keep relying on finding good loans or pulling rabbits out of the hat and you can't keep losing players as soon as they mature especially not to divisional rivals on free transfers.

Has it ever occurred to you that your "several different sources" all originally got their information from the same liar of a CEO?

You trust the CEO to provide an honest account? Wow

I think you are coming at things from the polar opposite to me. When I see Nyambe and Lenihan moving to clubs like Stoke and Middlesbrough I don't feel good about it, and I don't think it proves anything about those players moving to rival 2nd division mid table clubs. I think it only offers a very alarming insight into the state of things at Blackburn Rovers, that despite nurturing these lads and them being mainstays of our team having been here since childhood, that these lads are now seeing their future away from Ewood and seeing clubs like Middlesbrough and Stoke as better places to be. I think that is very alarming, worrying and needs changing, because those running this club are effectively reducing us to a lower class than even the likes of Middlesbrough and Stoke, not to mention Lancashire rivals when it comes to attendances and ticket sales. A lot of Rovers fans seem to want to ignore this angle and instead adopt the approach of "told you they weren't that good" as they move to rivals, as though it somehow vindicates our approach and that we are going to come out of this situation better off. I think we are better focusing our efforts on the former and not trying to convince ourselves that moves to Stoke and Middlesbrough prove us right.

There clearly is or certainly was an issue with extending contracts. Armstrong, BBD, Nyambe, Rothwell and Lenihan are living proof of that. The only reassurance since then is the commitment of Travis, Kaminski and Gallagher which suggests something changed later on last season. But prior to that we had gone circa 2 years without getting any senior player tied down to new terms. That suggests to me something wrong at the clubs end. Whether that be budgets, negotiators, timings, who knows, but for ALL of those players to turn down the offers after so long tells me there's a problem with how the club went about it. 'Nothing we can do about it' is precisely the attitude Waggott wants us all to take. Of course there are other things the club could have done, as is the case in every contract negotiation - offer more money, increase the budget, come to the table much earlier

I remember a lot of people questioning the fee paid for him, particularly given the massive imbalance compared to lack of investment in other positions of the team. To be fair to Mowbray and co. after 4 years the investment has been vindicated. It took a long time but we got there in the end. I don't remember any talk about giving him away or being happy for him to leave for nothing.

Hardly. Mowbray, Waggott and Venkys had obviously satisfied themselves of Brereton's potential by shelling out multi-millions for him when he was a teenager coming through at Forest. We all raised our eyebrows at that outlay and commitment but the decision was made and I assume made following extensive scouting and research from our staff. Having made that commitment and then persevered with the lad from 2018-2021 a decision should have been made by the end of summer 2021 as to where we were going with him heading into the last 12 months of his deal (forget the 12 month extension which is little more than a last gasp insurance policy). If you are willing to spend that sort of cash on him and willing to put the hard yards in for 3 years developing him it seems bizarre that you would then sit back and let him head into the last 12 months of his deal without either moving him on or giving him an extension. It was always a long term project signing, so when you get to the last 12 months of his deal you have a decision to make, seems we did neither and kicked the can down the road

Would it? There may have been debate over it and his role in the team but if the Club and those running it genuinely had faith in him and his abilities (they will claim now that they always knew he'd turn out good) then they would have dealt with the contract situation.

Meanwhile over on fantasy island we get the 'cannot criticise the club in any shape or form' angle. Even if you are right does it matter or change anything? Simple fact of the matter is that we are losing valuable assets at reduced or zero fees. Millions and millions down the drain that is irrefutable fact and unacceptable for a club in any position let alone one with our FFP obsession. End result is what matters. We can debate how we got here but you can't paint this situation as good or desirable however hard you try.

I don't care whether it has or not. Changes nothing. Discussions are free and easy. Getting business done is the benchmark. The key to managing this is getting players tied down early before the vultures start hovering. We can spend all January talking to Assombalonga. End result is he doesn't come. We can spend years talking to Lenihan, Nyambe, Brereton, Armstrong. End result is no contract extensions and a massive loss to the club. We can talk about good budgets, grand plans and exciting players. End result is those things cost money and need getting over the line.

The time for sorting Brereton out was 12 months+ ago. Once again Waggott and his paymasters have missed the boat. They've tried being clever and saving a few quid, and it has now put us in a very weak and risky position. Ineptitude doesn't quite cover it. An absolute sh1t show 3 years in the making neglecting contracts and trying to corner cut. £10 million down the drain this summer already and more to come when we are forced to shift Brereton for a knock down fee.

Waggott out

One of the latest in the division for putting them on sale Next season starting earlier than ever before due to World Cup Pricing set up to try to force people to buy before the end of June with 'loyalty' discount And Waggott thinks it is impressive that the rate of sales is higher than usual.

Birmingham still advertising season tickets starting from £225. Ours start from £429 unless you are renewing and doing so in the next few days. Absolutely no justification / excuse for that price difference.

As I've pointed to before after Waggott has referenced this 'investment' - is this voluntary spending to try and make things better, or essential maintenance costs faced by most modern professional football clubs ? - how does this figure compare to rival Championship clubs? It all sounds great until you realise that actually in the scheme of things this is probably just the bare minimum needed to keep things ticking along and probably enhanced by years of corner cutting making problems worse

I'll be very surprised if we spend near to £5 million