I'm not going to comment on the game itself as I don't think there's much I can say of any use or that others won't have already covered. But If ever we needed to see what a hollowed out shell husk of a club Blackburn Rovers is these days one only needed to sit through the final 30 minutes of tonight. Getting absolutely annihilated by Fulham, going down with a whimper to the heaviest home defeat in history yet nothing. No mutiny on the terraces, not much by way of boos, just a few groans and an odd few chants among those left at the end. The whole thing just a shrug of the shoulders. I'm part of it. In years gone by I would have been shocked, disgusted, furious at witnessing that sort of performance. Now I'm none of those things. I almost don't care. What's the point? Normally a defeat of this magnitude represents a watershed. Managers get sacked on results like these alone, or at the very least are into the last chance saloon with both chairmen and supporters. Here the show rolls on. Owners who probably don't know we played, CEO who will be more worried about keeping the heat off Tony than the result or performance, and it seems the fanbase has been battered into submission where we get little more than acceptance of our fate. Even ignoring the horror of the performance and result it was another weary midweek at Ewood. Pitiful attendance showing that Maggott's 'pioneering' initiative has had all but zero effect on the gate. Dire atmosphere not helped by no effort from the club whether that be some pre-match build up or tannoy announcements. This club is on a road to oblivion and nobody is willing or able to do anything about it. I'll say it. This club disgusts me in its present form. Owners, directors, management - I hold in contempt. The matchday experience and visiting Ewood Park is appalling. There is only one way to turn this around and it starts in India.

I have to admit it is funny watching Newcastle seemingly struggle to attract top quality management. You'd expect someone like Loew - unemployed - would jump at the chance to join a PL Club and a project with vast resources - seemingly not. If it is true then Emery would rather stay at floundering Villarreal and Xavi in Qatar. Conte would sooner go to Spurs - working under a famously tight chairman in Levy - than chase the Saudi money at Newcastle. I think it is probably just delaying the inevitable because with that sort of cash there sooner or later they will get the top drawer manager they desire or get themselves into a position to get them. It is just a case of getting through this season and to safety. As daft as it might sound they might be better just giving Allardyce or Hodgson a call - massive bonus for survival. It might not be popular or sexy but it would be survival and give them time to plan ahead whilst a safe pair of hands keeps things ticking over. Have to chuckle at the Eddie Howe stuff - yes he did very well at Bournemouth for a number of years but ultimately relegated them with an expensively assembled squad and hasn't worked in nearly 18 months. Not sure he is what Newcastle need in their difficult position.

Looking at it from Conte's point of view this is a low risk move for him. He's out of work and presumably in the last few months hasn't had many offers from rich clubs in good leagues. Suspect he has had word that he isn't on United's radar or that they won't be sacking Solskjaer in the near future. Missed out on the Real job in the summer. No other obvious options in any of the big European leagues. He can sit around until next summer doing nothing or try to do what no other has managed which is to win something with Spurs. Even if he gatecrashes the top 4 he will have done a good job considering how far ahead Chelsea, City and Liverpool are. £20 million a year for 18 months work. Can walk away then if he gets a better offer or falls out with Spurs. Win a domestic cup or one of the 2nd rate European trophies and his CV will be enhanced even further. Spurs are a club that have always seemed to have a bigger and better reputation than they deserve and always manage to attract good managers and players above their level. I was amazed Mourinho went there with their lack of success and I'm surprised Conte has too. Suppose money talks plus they have the big benefit of being in London and now a great stadium.

Well a quick glance on the ticketing website doesn't suggest there has been a surge in sales in the home ends. Still bucket loads of availability in all areas. I'll be surprised if we sell more than 10,000 home tickets. I think categorising non-attenders into either those who avoid it because of the cost and those who don't want to watch mid-table Championship football is taking the easy route out of this. I think the problems run much deeper than merely the cost of tickets or the 'product' not being the best. Of course both these things are relevant to varying degrees and to many people may be central issues - but I think there are a lot of others who have just given up/turned their back on going to Ewood and there are a whole collection of reasons why which stretch back over many years and go hand in hand with the complete lack of effort the club has made during that time to retain or obtain new supporters. Cutting costs may persuade some to return, as would a promotion push or PL football, but again there needs to be a deeper examination as to what has gone wrong at this club. I don't expect that to happen because there appears to be no interest or serious analysis at ownership or board level as to the underlying cause of the problem. That examination and analysis isn't going to happen any time soon. The owners don't care whether Ewood is full or empty - if they did they would have acted before now. People like Waggott aren't tasked or judged on sales but on numbers on the books so he will just make excuses or compensate for less sales with further price increases. That's why the only route out of this is a regime change to someone who will take this seriously and take action to address it before it is too late and an entire generation of support is lost forever.

I can only guess that the 'Safety Advisory Group' have said to Rovers that if we sell the whole Darwen End then they will need a significantly greater police and stewarding operation at a significantly greater cost. Notice how there is no issue opening the BBE upper tier for a few hundred people on free tickets which has happened several times this season. Looking forward to the Rovers tweets warning of a very busy day at Ewood with a massive 15000 expected. Just how did the club ever cope with regular 25000+ crowds?

Just waiting for the interview with Richard Bevan of the LMA expressing his disgust at the number of sackings and managers not being given sufficient time in a job. He was quick to draw public attention to the ongoings at Rovers when we sacked Michael Appleton after only a few months in the job, so can only assume he will be doing the same now that Spurs have sacked Santo just a couple of months after winning Manager of the Month and still in the League Cup/Europe.

Barnsley's strategy is a high risk/reward one. With a high turnover in coaching staff (not all their own fault) and recruiting from a pool of untested names it can pay big dividends or be a struggle. If they'd have stuck to the tried and tested model they might be in a more stable position right now but by the same measure they likely wouldn't have been near the play-offs last season. To be fair to them they've appointed 5 of these European coaches and 3 have been very successful, 2 not. Ismael worked spectacularly, Schopp hasnt worked. At least they've knocked it on the head quickly and will try something else. It is getting similar to the Watford model but on a smaller budget. The bottom 3 are in danger of getting cut adrift on their current form.

Conte is too good for Spurs but then when we look at the alternatives for a manager of his calibre he might have a long wait. He missed out on the Real Madrid job in the summer. United likely to stick with Solskjaer. Liverpool, Chelsea and City happy as they are. Juve rebuilding under Allegri. Barcelona in financial crisis. Bayern is a no. PSG happy with Pochettino. Just left Inter. Not many other clubs in a top league that could equip him with the finances and opportunity for success. In theory Spurs should have the ingredients - brilliant stadium, training ground and academy. London location. I was surprised that Mourinho took the job there at a club with no recent history of success as it was uncharacteristic. Conte will be the same sort of surprise. Having worked at Juve, Inter and Chelsea - all with records of success - Spurs is an anomaly. But he may fancy himself to change that.

Get stuck into them from the off. Make them uncomfortable. A long midweek trip up North especially with this terrible weather are the sort teams like Fulham will slip up in. They've already lost games at Blackpool and Coventry this season so those are what we should be trying to emulate. I just hope we don't show them too much respect or that Mowbray tries to outplay them. This is a game for the dark arts and I worry Mowbray won't ever employ them, which is one of the reasons our record against sides in the top 4-6 in recent years is so poor. If this rain continues for the next 2 days I doubt the game will be on but am expecting a woeful gate with about 300 from Fulham coming.

Quite clear Waggott expected the same numbers to buy at a higher price this summer thereby boosting his figures at minimal change to gates. Many of us mere civilians knew this 'strategy' was a high risk one likely to fail and cause long term damage especially off the back of a pandemic and what do you know? Right we were. Substantial fall in gates at the worst possible time at a club and in a town that simply can't afford to lose season ticket holders by the thousands. Now it is desperation time hoping to claw them back after they have gone. Not working judging by the numbers. Paying this guy how much to demolish our support base? And the 'initiative' merely consists of continuing to sell season tickets after the initial deadline at a similar rate. Hardly groundbreaking is it?

It will be interesting to watch the sales pitch in full swing over the next couple of months. Knowing that it is a January sale or £0 for Rothwell and Nyambe I expect to see relentless advertisements in the Telegraph and Mowbray wittering on about them with regularity in an attempt to entice bids and interest in them. Even if it is just £500k a piece it will do the trick for Mowbray and Waggott in keeping in the good books and getting some cash in. Problem they have is that their departures may well derail our season, especially if we maintain current trajectory and are mid-table with a sniff of the play-offs come January. We all know those sort of fees for those players represents a disastrous return for a club supposedly hard up and struggling with FFP compliance.

Derby only picked up 3 points less than us this season so two evenly matches sides based on results so far. The fact that is the case despite rookie Rooney having to deal with administration, points deduction, takeover uncertainty, and all sorts of issues tells me what a poor job has been done at this club with stability, continuity and substantial investment.

Pretty much every club that has had FFP issues has had something to show for it at the end of the day. Bournemouth - got promoted and stayed in the PL Leicester - got promoted and stayed in the PL QPR - got promoted then came back down Sheffield Wed - 2x play off campaigns including narrowly losing in the final Fulham - 2x promotions to the PL and looking like doing it again at a canter Cardiff - 2x promotions to the PL Reading - spent most of last season in the top 6 and also lost the play off final on pens a few years ago Birmingham - probably the most similar to us in being a dysfunctional mess but they have spent reasonably heavily and I don't recall them ever bringing in the sort of money we have through sales Derby - regular play off challengers including losing in 2 finals. So all in all it goes to show that those who have had FFP issues - and remember we've had them twice whereas most of the above haven't - usually the offenders have some sort of success to show for it and their efforts. Some clubs have fallen short - Derby and Reading - showing that there is no guarantee breaking the rules leads to success - but they've a hell of a lot more to show for their offences than we have, where our greatest achievement has been bouncing back out of League One and being at best a mid-table side in the Championship. Again none of this is necessary. The jokers running Rovers would love it if the gullible fans just believed that this is the only way of doing things - that the only way we can exist at this altitude is by way of massive losses, walking a FFP tightrope and that there is no alternative to this and Venkys. Of course that is absolute nonsense, as many rival clubs prove the rules can be adhered to without plummeting, sanctions can be avoided with astute management, training grounds don't need taking out of club ownership, managers who fail to achieve targets can be sacked easily and quickly without the cost causing FFP problems. Too many people in the fanbase can't see the wood for the trees and just accept the words of 'experts' or failures like Waggott without engaging their own brains and thoughts. That is why it is so easy for them to continue to run the club in this way with little to no opposition or hassle. No surprises when the Telegraph immediately and without question trot out the 'club spokesman' line and get a 'finance expert' to tell us what is going on. Who the hell is the 'club spokesman' and has this person got access to the owners? Would be useful to know. Is it Waggott hiding behind anonymity and if so why? Or is it someone else privy to the inner workings?

He's a football finance expert and a FFP expert. He isn't a Blackburn Rovers expert and probably knows very little about what has gone on here.

I think the suspicious thing is how quickly we went from one thing to the other. In February/March all the talk from Maggott and the Club and some people on here was how it was a good idea to amalgamate training sites into one, claims from the club that this was a decision being made to improve facilities, that it would require further owner investment and was being done to usher in a bright future for the football club. By April that grand exciting scheme had been abandoned, by June there was a transfer out of the club's control and by October we are now being told that this was a necessary step due to the pandemic and FFP rules. Strange how those thiings didn't come up in Waggott's appraisal in February. Back then it was all hunky dory and Venkys were tipping extra cash in to build the super duper new training centre. My assessment - this is all smoke and mirrors - the original plan was nothing more than a cash grab dressed up under the guise of improved facilities, they then hit the buffers on that due to immense public opposition and instead have quickly moved on to plan B which is underway with this transfer. I think more will come out in the months to come but unfortunately we will have to rely on supporters going and doing their own research rather than any transparency from the club. I think people interpreting this as a mere accounting stunt to dodge FFP issues are going to be surprised in time to come. Hope I'm wrong because the last thing I want is to lose the crown jewels but I think that is what we are seeing here.

So lets get this right on the timing. February 2021 - a member of the public discovers on the Ribble Valley planning portal that Rovers have had plans drawn up to demolish the STC, build a housing estate on it and combine both sides onto the lower academy site. Once this discovery is made the Waggott, in embarrassing fashion, attempts to sell the project as being a good, positive, forward step for the Club, even recording a face to face interview to extol the positives of this, claiming that the Ribble Valley planning department had taken him by surprise in releasing the plans online before Rovers had announced it themselves. The Club then spends god knows how much instructing surveyors and planners and running a consultation period, setting up a website etc. By 9th April 2021 the club has performed a complete U turn, confirming that the proposals would not be progressed and "will now consider other options". By 11th June 2021 a company has been set up seemingly with the sole purpose of purchasing the STC, and by 24th June 2021 that purchase has been completed and the transfer registered at HMLR. 4 whole months pass by with no mention of anything from the Club until 27th October 2021 when once again a member of the public discovers via the submission of documents online about the transfer earlier in the year. Within a couple of hours the Lancashire Telegraph have managed to obtain something from "a club spokesman" blaming the pandemic and FFP rules - both of which were there many months earlier and during the housing estate efforts. I'm sorry but it is going to take more than the textbook blame FFP or the pandemic to make me believe there isnt more to this than meets the eye.

All this talk about FFP - you'd think the rules were new to us or that we had suddenly had them imposed with no warning. We spent 2014-17 whinging about the rules and suffering because of them. I thought things were supposed to be different - building on a sustainable footing, being sensible, not saddling the club with ridiculous wages. And here we are. Transfer embargo earlier this year, selling the training ground, slashing costs left right and centre, selling our star player and losing what little quality we have on free transfers because we can't or won't sort out new contracts. What exactly has changed in the last 6 years? The club seems to be no further on than it was back then. And I'm still waiting for someone to explain why we have such a hard time of managing FFP yet all these other clubs in the Championship manage it without sanctions, without £20 million losses, without billionaire owners and without selling their training grounds - see Preston, Luton, Barnsley, Millwall and many more.

So in the last 6 months we've had the Armstrong cash (minimum £10 million?), the Raya bonus for promotion, the Brockhall sale cash (£16.6 million) and then there was another substantial share issue in the summer as I recall (maybe this share issue was using the Brockhall cash - probably needs clarifying). All in there a massive pile of cash, greatly exceeding the £20 million covid loss we keep hearing about. On top of that massive wage savings through departures this summer and no new contracts issued. Where is all this headed?

We have low income because of Venkys and the way they run the club. So their 'steps' to overcome this by selling a prime asset are not good enough. New appointments? Who? The commercial bloke who worked at crisis club Hull? Who else? Leaner organisation? That's just a positive spin on making people redundant and cutting costs. They don't want to announce these because there's nothing worth announcing. You've put the most positive outlook on things possible. Given the history of these people I think expecting the back of Mowbray, a decent new manager and healthy transfer kitty next summer is fairyland stuff.

We can't sell any big players if we can't keep them under contract.

So why the secrecy? Why no announcement from the owners, CEO etc. at a fans forum meeting or on twitter to reassure concerns? If it is a mechanism to overcome FFP then how come we slashed costs in the summer, sold Armstrong for £15 million and spent a couple of hundred grand on a full back from Lincoln and have failed to secure any senior players to new deals despite a critical need to do so? A £16.6 million boost to the accounts along with the Armstrong cash would surely put us in a great position to resolve the above? They have created a situation where we have only 9000 fans turning up. You make it sound as though they are innocent powerless bystanders in that. Want more than 9000? Don't run the club like this and let Mowbray and Waggott continue. Appoint a commercial director. Get a kit manufacturer that delivers shirts to sell. They have created these problems. Maybe this is a way to overcome it. So what happens in another couple of years when there are no more assets to sell off and crowds have dwindled further/we are in League One due to a lack of investment?

I didn't say the agents or players were being greedy. None of us know. My belief is that we haven't even offered them new terms. Venky taps are off. Yes I said earlier I had supported such a scheme as a means of avoiding FFP trouble. If FFP is the reason behind this then ok, I expect to see us investing in new players soon. I don't expect that to happen. I cannot overlook the stunt they pulled earlier this year. Fair enough if you can but I don't believe in coincidences such as these.

Can't pay Nyambe what he wants yet can pay Richie Smallwood and Jason Leutwiler to stick around on the bench. It's not clear at all. There are alternatives - maybe the club has chosen not to offer them new deals or the players won't stay because of the manager?

4 months ago this happened. Only comes out because government/local authority documents that the club cannot prevent confirm it. Second time in a year this has happened. Last time Maggott claimed that it was an administrative issue that resulted in Ribble Valley Council uploading planning documents earlier than expected. Then along come the Telegraph with the 'exclusive' hours after it comes on here, positive spin as expected. Of course if it was so positive you might expect the CEO to have mentioned it in one of the many meetings and conversations with supporters since then. Hmm. I wonder why he would avoid mentioning it?

Before this transaction were someone to try and buy the club or Venkys try and market it for sale part of that package would be ownership of the training ground. Now it would not. That's a pretty substantial and valuable asset out of the club's portfolio. of course it can be remedied quite easily by transferring it back to the club just before any sale if the intentions are honest and positive. But if not it could be bad bad news when assets end up owned elsewhere. In the past I have encouraged moves such as these to circumvent FFP rules. I'm not sure i believe that is the motive here, not after what happened earlier this year.