I thought it was telling when Suhail said that his trips to India have been reduced from every three months to once a year. I think this is true, and symbolises the 'washing of hands' the owners have performed of the club since 2020. Basically they trust him and Waggott to oversee things provided they keep income at a certain level and do what is necessary to minimise their losses. As long as their money men can see that happening in the accounts then the owners are fine with that year to year. This leaves these two stooges essentially running Ewood however they like, within budget, hence the total shambles and chaos we've seen since Mowbray left. It is unworkable unless the manager gets direct access to India, which hasn't happened in 5-6 years.

The stooges on the one hand referenced the made-up figure of £22 million a year required to fund the club (sounds better than the real figure if you are defending Venkys). On the other hand they admitted and accepted that the vast majority of the tens of millions received has gone into covering losses so the owners don't have to. So a new owner wouldn't need £22 million a year. It is already a lot less than that. Get a proper commercial team in place and ticketing and it falls further. Effective player trading reduces it further. Not necessarily easy, but possible for people with a brain/plan which this lot clearly don't have.

We are probably one of only about 5-6 at most in the Championship who do know what League we are going to be in. That is a tired old excuse that they come out with pretty much every year to blame for a lack of activity, forward planning, season tickets etc. Their approach to January and mismanagement ensured that a sustained play-off push under Eustace was doomed to fail - they chose that route. Not even Ismael's woeful performance so far is enough to drag us into the relegation equation, unfortunately for them Eustace secured too many points in December. Nearly managed it last year though. It's just excuse after excuse. Waggott's favourite is to make out as those the shenanigans at Ewood are all normal part and parcel of life. He knows that the morons on Facebook, Twitter and the Venkygraph will fall for this every time.

It is when those few academy graduates who actually go on to be decent players for us will either: a) Be sold at a significant undervalue to pay bills - Adam Wharton b) Be driven out of the club by running their contracts down - example Lewis Travis, among others It is a made-up metric that they continue to think is a measure of success. It might be for the academy coaches but for the overall management of the club the only thing they should be worried about is wins on the pitch and first team performance.

They are clearly rattled and uncomfortable and have quite quickly orchestrated this 'update' in such a way to try and head off any trouble at the pass. They probably thought the Eustace debacle, January debacle and annual collapse down the league table would just blow over but the efforts of those behind the statement last week has clearly been significant. With it coinciding with season ticket renewals in April and horrendous form on the pitch I think these three are worried big time about a (deserved) collapse in season ticket numbers. This is a pitiful attempt to project power and leadership. Sat down, facing the cameras, the choice of placing them together in the boardroom, all deliberate. Fortunately judging by the public reaction they have failed and people are more angry than they were before. Thanks to their lack of communication - Pasha over a decade at the club and no public appearance at all, Waggott 7+ years and has shut down shareholder and fan consultation meetings and Gestede a year at the club and one solitary interview - they have shielded themselves from the public knowing the hard truth - that none of them are up to the job of running this club. When it was easy and quiet - when uncle Tony's journey was trundling along and the two stooges could sit back and leave him to talk about his favourite chocolate biscuits - they had nothing to worry about because people didn't look to them and they could masquerade as competent club directors with zero pressure from the local media. Things have changed and rather than their public demonstration reassuring and quietening unrest all they have done is shown everyone with half a brain that none of them are very good at all and confirm that they shouldn't be here. Onwards and upwards - this lot are really feeling the pressure but I still think the only thing that is going to tip the balance is a large reduction in season ticket sales. £££ is the only language they really understand.

One minute in. Waggott has managed to make himself the victim of this situation by referring to abuse and personal threats and boasted of his approach to communication and his 'open door' policy. Last I checked he had shut down shareholder and supporter consultation meetings under the guise of Covid whereas prior to 2020 these were a valuable route to supporters asking direct questions of management.

I haven't watched it yet but have seen the general reaction so doubt I'll be impressed. But that image of those three sat like that in the historic boardroom of Ewood Park is enough to knock me sick. What a total mess. They should not be occupying that boardroom and are sat there looking like hostages. This is the sort of image that should be used to show what an unprofessional joke this club is these days.

The only way he gets sacked is either if he deliberately turns the spotlight himself onto Venkys / Curtain Twitcher Or if the pressure that has been building in the last couple of weeks grows and grows over the coming months and eventually the Curtain Twitcher feels he has no other option but to feed Ismael to the wolves, a last gasp desperate sacrifice to attempt to diffuse the anger and quieten the public down (this is the sort of stunt that would be pulled at a normal club, where a panic stricken owner or chairman bits the bullet and pays the necessary to remove a manager and in doing so diverts anger and focus back onto the pitch/new manager). At Rovers however even this second option highly unlikely because even that would require going to the Indians and requesting permission to pay someone off, which just doesn't happen unless the person asking for it wants to get themselves into all manner of trouble. Best off just heads down and hope it blows over.

Get Venkys gone and Waggott, Suhail and Gestede very quickly follow. None are qualified or appropriate people to have running a Championship football club. I task anyone to identify anything any of them have done prior to their current positions that suggests they possess the required experience or skills to run what should be a club aiming to be in the Premier League. All three of them have benefited greatly from the negligence of the Venky regime. I can't even blame them for that too much, it is a job for which they are well paid and they wouldn't have got near anywhere else. A real owner worthy of the name would very quickly have all three clearing their desks.

It all comes down to the bills and wages. As long as they are paid on time then the media keep relatively quiet. The minute there are tales of unpaid wages, HMRC etc. then it immediately becomes something much bigger in the eyes of the big media. Same with the football authorities. They aren't interested at Rovers because as far as they are concerned nothing is wrong. Bills and wages paid on time, nothing to take issue with.

When we go back to 2013 they very nearly succeeded in taking us straight through the Championship, only stopped at the 11th hour by Gary Bowyer stepping into the breach. A two year reprieve followed after he went to India and talked the top dogs into giving him some time and money to do it his way. Then they got bored of that so resumed operation take us down the leagues by firing him, playing games with Lambert and then handing Coyle the job. They got there in the end with 2017's relegation to the third tier. A reprieve followed again after Mowbray went to India and again they were talked into giving him time and money to do it his way for a few years. Then they got bored of that and ever since have resumed operation take us down the leagues by mucking JDT and Eustace around and wrecking the squad by selling all assets, running down contracts and starving it of investment. This season and last displaying relegation level form for several months. Warning signs flashing. So aside from a couple of decent management choices and two blocks of 2-3 years where they've struck up friendly relations with two competent managers it has been a 12 year destruction process that is simply continuing now.

Crikey. If the curtain twitcher is speaking in public it can only mean one of two things. Either he is really panicking or Waggott is doing nothing. This lot don't like doing anything externally, usually enjoy leaving it to the manager and players to face the local media. Even the usually tame questions from Bayes/Jackson will be a notch higher than the in-house nonsense.

One thing we do know is that whoever they go for next to replace Waggott (if he can ever peel himself away from lucrative Venky employment) will not be someone proven, qualified, experienced. They have owned the club for 15 years nearly, of which the first 7 years they didn't bother with any CEO or Chairman and then since 2017 have left this bloke to do it, who must have thought Christmas had come early when he had to give backword to part time work at Gillingham to take the reigns at this club. I remain convinced he only got it due to a good word being put in by Uncle Tony during his tea and biscuits in Pune. So forget getting someone half decent or qualified for the role. They won't. At best it will be someone cheap and compliant, desperate for job. A 6 figure salary and expenses paid trips to sit there pretending to be important and on the canapes at Championship grounds. Only drawback is you get a bit of stick from supporters on the rare occasions you can be bothered to meet with them.

His average tenure at a club is about 26 games. That goes back 10 years at Nurnberg, Wolfsburg, Apollon, LASK, Barnsley, WBA, Besiktas and Watford. He has only made it to 1 year in charge at one of those 8 clubs, LASK, where he made it to 14 months. So fortunately for those of us that have very serious doubts and concerns about his capabilities we've only got a few more weeks/months and then based on the above he is likely to be off. (I am being sarcastic because rather than proceed with caution based on the above we simply handed him a 3.5 year deal and are a club that do not sack people based on performance).

4 weeks on Friday is the first pointless 'deadline'. Nobody, probably not even those making the decisions, knows what happens on 2nd May in terms of pricing. Will there be a third or fourth phase? I won't be cajoled into handing money over early only to then watch them demolish the squad and fill it up again with frees and loans. The ball is in their court to show me (and others) why we should continue to fund this regime.

Very true. My expectation is that the Club will dress up this changing of the guard and reshuffle as a 'new era' and attempt to convince people that changes have been made to address the issues of the last few months / years. Unfortunately we still have a lot of fools in the fanbase who will convince themselves that the problems have been solved / addressed. Owners still remain. Stooge 1 curtain twitcher still remains. Dysfunction still reigns. Waggott gets his golden handshake and Rudy is promoted again to the 'top' job just 12 months after being on work experience. Ludicrous.

Season tickets are just part of the box ticking balance sheet exercise, nothing more than that. As long as enough money is being brought in to meet the stooges' targets and qualify them for their PRP then all is well. If they fall short they will be worried, not because their jobs will be in threat, because nobody gets sacked based on performance, but because their bonuses will be in danger.

The 5 games so far and the coming 7 games will mean he has had over 25% of a season to demonstrate he has even some of the requirements to warrant putting our medium term future into his hands. They keep talking about a rebuild, which they have ensured is necessary by running down the contracts of the entire squad, you don't then put that rebuild in the hands of someone who has been on probation for 4 months and 12 games and shown NONE of the signs you would hope/expect to see from a new manager. Given he was unemployed, an initial deal until the summer with terms on ice for a 2 year extension would have been appropriate, that way a probationary period with the ability to look elsewhere in the summer if things didn't go well. By god they couldn't have gone much worse. This isn't just results, it is performances as well. At a rational organisation overseen by competent qualified management he would already be on thin, thin ice (he probably wouldn't have got the job to begin with but hey, mistakes happen, especially when giving the work experience bloke the head of football job). This lot however run the club according to cost and convenience. So he's in place and will cost to get rid of, meaning they will happily let him 'build' his own team and ensure next season is a write off just because it is easier and cheaper to leave him in place. If anyone has any doubts, see the Coyle season, and JDT last season - they preferred to let him totally derail things rather than just pay him off earlier. Quite soon the 'next season / summer' propaganda will go into overdrive, both from Ismael and the club itself. They are going to have to 'offer' something to try and shift season tickets and will attempt to do the 'jam tomorrow' routine which is their favourite as tomorrow never comes and they can never be held to future aims / aspirations. All they will do is promise something else once the annual reshuffle takes place at Brockhall.

The players will have one eye on the summer and being employed elsewhere. Who can blame them? They aren't achieving anything at Rovers and Rovers themselves have their sights set on moving them on. All sounds great until you realise that we won't get better with no money and no clue.

I suspect in the not-too-distant future, maybe sooner than planned, Gestede will be occupying Waggott's role when slippery Steve has had enough and retires to Kent. I don't think slippery Steve will give up the gravy train easily, but at almost 71 if the pressure and scrutiny builds he might just head off down the M6 with a boot full of loot and never be seen again. Head stooge curtain twitcher will then need a replacement patsy and we know they won't appoint someone experienced or credible because such people wouldn't dance to the Venky tune. Gestede is on standby to step into slippery's shoes and keep the show on the road, allowing head stooge to remain in the shadows orchestrating things. If they get really lucky Gestede will agree to do Waggott's job for much less money, continuing the cutbacks further.

Also translates that they are going to try to divide the fanbase and blame these efforts for our slide down the table. They will stop at nothing to deflect and turning fans on fans is strategy #1 for this regime.

Any waverers reading today's communique from the Club may well have just had their minds made up for them. A totally rushed, half arsed, pointless, unhelpful, insulting and antagonistic statement, as usual failing to do anything to tackle the issues we face instead coming out with blatant lies and nonsense.

Neil Yardley's phone will be ringing off the hook this afternoon as Waggott/Gestede hurry to arrange an in-house interview to try and head off this anger and 'prove' their communication efforts via a comfy sit down chat at Brockhall. That's the usual way of it - once the fans discover a plot or anger is building then do a 10 minute planned interview and come out with a few of the typical soundbites to try and pacify the support base.

"While differences of opinion exist, our shared goal is clear - to drive the club forward together" Potentially the most offensive, untrue and inflammatory official comment from the club I have seen

I actually wrote my post above before I read that!