JHRover

Looking forward to all these better players we are getting After all I've read frequently about how Nyambe, Lenihan, Rothwell, Khadra aren't that good and how we can do better. So let's see. Rival clubs expecting promotion this season clearly think it is worth paying their 'unrealistic' wages to take them off our hands. Personally I'm disgusted by the situation. I'm asking why we bother if we are little more than a place for clubs to send their loans and so we can develop players for Middlesbrough's benefit.

I look at the Ryan Hedges / Aberdeen deal and Aynsley Pears deal with deep concern. If Mowbray could pull those off I wouldn't put anything past him.

There's another solution to the alleged spectre of FFP other than just slashing costs and hoping the kids pull us through. That solution doesn't get much mention on here or from the people running the club. I presume one of the reasons being that they have no intention of pursuing it and are incapable of doing so. That solution involves increasing income and turnover, and in doing so give us more scope to invest. That is easier said than done, especially at a Club like Rovers, and requires planning, strategy, ability upstairs. We have none of those things here so instead we have pound-shop level operators cutting pounds and pence off running costs e.g. by doing away with a programme on matchdays and trying to squeeze an extra £30 a year out of hardcore fans. So we need to stop with this "there's no alternative" other than the route being taken. There is. It just requires more effort and ability than those owning and running us are able to provide. One glance at the 'local' nature of sponsorship says it all - some seem to think it is a good sign that we only seem to deal with local companies but I think it is just further evidence of a small scale operation incapable of pursuing more substantial deals. I'd have a bet now that no other Club in this division of those not coming down from the PL will have slashed costs to the level we have in the last 12-18 months and even less will have had the benefit of probably 2x £10 million+ sales to fall back on. It seems some are uncomfortable with the alternative possibility here which is that FFP is not the big issue, and that the whim of our lunatic owners is just as important if not more so. I've said it before and will keep on saying it because I strongly believe it is key to this whole operation that the only way these owners will invest proper cash for players is if someone flies out to India, sits down with the Desai bunch and persuades them to do it. The reason the cash has dried up is purely because since 2019 nobody has had the ability to go to India and do this. So we are back into 2015-17 mode now - cutbacks, sales, scaled down budget. We know how it ended last time and I'm a great believer in learning lessons from the recent past rather than ignoring it and hoping all will be fine.

Worth remembering that from January onwards we witnessed relegation level form from a squad that was indisputably stronger than the one we have right now. Of course a large part of that was down to having a bottle job infantile manager who had a tantrum wobbler when his approach backfired but if the squad was so good it wouldn't have been bottom of the table form for so long. We can argue and debate how much stronger it was then to now, and how much of the void might be filled by younger lads 'stepping up' ( a hell of a gamble if you ask me ) but nobody, not even the biggest optimist, can suggest the squad is anything but weaker right now. We've lost two quality CBs one of which was club captain, our only RB, midfield numbers and presence, and 2 of our only creative players in Khadra and Rothwell. Even if Brereton stays, unlikely, the chances of him replicating what we saw last season are remote. So what happens if you get weaker from a side that displayed awful form from January onwards? A struggle that's what. We might be less streaky and more down the middle road on form rather than one extreme to the other, we might get a couple of players surprising us. But I'm amazed anyone can't see the warning lights flashing in the distance here. If only the Championship was so simple as turning to the academy lads to sort it out. Doesn't work like that you need investment, experience, know how. Unfortunately we are yet to discover who has decided to implement the setup we now have with Broughton and Tomasson and what their remit/backing is. But each day that goes by the concerns only grow with no business done.

Waiting doesn't necessarily mean we are going to get the better ones. Quite possibly the good ones will be gone by the time we are getting our business done. It seems the assumption is that moving quickly means we are rushing or getting people in for the sake of it. On the other hand it could just mean we have a plan and are acting on it whereas rushing around at the last minute suggests no plan.

Why? How about the last 12 years of being lied to, misled, let down and made a fool of. You call it poisonous, I call it realistic and learning from the past. That's how these crooks operate. I wish it wasn't so but actions speak louder than words, and all we've had this summer so far is words.

Why have you put a link to Broughton's interview? I asked if Tomasson had said anything about this supposedly healthy budget he has. His comments there in that interview don't seem to suggest so.

Derby will be in the PL before we are. Another like Wigan, Blackpool, Bolton used as a convenient example of what we would be if Venkys left but will ultimately rebound and rebuild whilst this club withers on the vine.

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.