JHRover

Is that supposed to make me feel better about the situation? I can't help but think these 'year options' that Waggott loves to use are actually becoming a hindrance. It appears to me the club treats those options as a route to force players to stay for another year on the same salary and in doing so jeopardise chances of those players signing up for the longer term albeit on better wages. What I mean by this is in Rothwell's case - 12-18 months ago we could have offered him a pay rise and a new 3-4 year deal and he might well have committed. Instead we did nothing, relying on the 12 months option to compel him to stay but now we are 12 months on - still no new contract and looking like being serious money out of pocket. Players will not see activating a 12 month option as an act of a club keen to keep them long term. Players will see proactive clubs offering them 3-4 year deals as looking long term. A 12 month extension is activated if I was an agent I would be advising my player to start looking elsewhere for next summer.

Mowbray was rabbiting on in his last press conference again about copying Brentford - that is to buy cheap, develop and sell high. Meanwhile Armstrong was sold on the cheap and Brereton, Rothwell, Lenihan, Travis, Buckley, Kaminski and others are out of contract within 18 months. And he manages to do it with a straight face.

There seem to be a lot of people out there who are frustrated with the referee and his decisions are attempting to reduce the blame or importance of those because Rovers had a poor night. I can't agree with that. Goals change games. If the Brereton penalty is given and scored everything can change including the sides performances. This is how promotion winning sides grind out results when not playing well so it really is unacceptable from the officials and it has to stop. I wish Mowbray would kick up more of a stink about it because otherwise, like the Boxing Day debacle, it gets swept under the carpet and on the show goes. Mowbray admitted that he sent them out second half to get an early goal and that was obvious, but once Hull got through that first 5-10 minutes they took control again. If we go in at half time level or even ahead after the penalty Hull have to approach it differently and we are not under the same urgency to get a quick equaliser. Those who shrug their shoulders at the referee and say it doesn't really matter in the scheme of things because we were poor miss the point- a major decision (probably a red card) at that stage in the game changes everything in our favour. To not get either and then finish the night 4 nil up on bookings absolutely stinks but I'm used to such things now.

Just in after a typical midweek away trip with numerous motorway junctions closed making life much harder than it needs to be. Very angry and frustrated tonight but only part of that is down to our performance. Of greater annoyance right now are the officiating and the feeling of being cheated, especially when we remember the events of Boxing Day. Of course Hull laughing all the way to the bank - having been shot at on confidence and missing numerous important players 3 weeks ago to tonight bouncing with their takeover and a much healthier home crowd along with most of their players back whereas we have done the opposite - now missing 2-3 important players and performances dropping off. I think that is now Barnsley, Huddersfield, Wigan, Cardiff and Hull where we have been quite poor. We got away with it v Barnsley and Cardiff and took a reasonable point from Huddersfield but have paid the price v Wigan and Hull with what ended up quite comical defeats. Another 4 yellow cards added to the tally - whether these are justified or not they are going to be biting us on the arse in the near future because we are picking lots up and it seems to me (and I'm going to look it up when I get chance) that we out-do the opposition on bookings in nearly every game. By the end I think we ended up all over the place seemingly with little structure or formation - Lenihan out wide right, Rothwell almost in centre defence? It was a flashback to the bad old days of chuck on 3 subs end up confused and unable to turn a game around.

Don't agree that we should be forgetting Fulham and focusing on Bournemouth. They are only 5 points above us. Given the situation in November/December we have slashed the gap considerably and have picked up more points than they have over the last few months. Fulham have shown throughout this season that whilst they have a ridiculous collection of ability in their ranks they have slipped up on several occasions. I don't care if they win every other game 7-0 if they slip up in a few along the way. I do think that Fulham will win the league as they should do with their spending but we certainly shouldn't be settling for 2nd in this position. We will need to finish above at least one of them and Bournemouth to get promotion. I do worry that there is a setting of the bar too low. From this position we have to be going for automatic and be disappointed if we don't accomplish that. Top 6 has to be the minimum expectation from here. 75 points is likely to be enough for top 6 which means 26 points from 20 games - a little over a point a game and basically survival level form from here on in. It would take relegation level results across the next 20 games to not hit 75 points. We just need to keep doing what we have, starting with a poor Hull side tonight. Of course games will get more difficult soon but we are above the likes of Middlesbrough and West Brom for a reason and that is because we have been better than them this season. No reason why we can't beat them. Luton away is my biggest fear of the coming weeks - I expect us to struggle at a horrible ground surrounded by horrible people.

A couple of interesting takeaways from those comments for me: 1) Despite saying an awful lot there, a the base of it all is admission from Mowbray that he has no direct communication with the owners in India. This is important. Mowbray tries to cover for that important fact by adding Suhail into the mix and claiming that through Suhail he has 'direct' access to the owners. That isn't true. If you go through someone else then you don't have direct access. Now normally that would not be an issue. I wouldn't expect many managers in the top 2 divisions to be able to pick up the phone and go direct to the majority shareholders. In our case there has been a noticeable shift in how things are done over the last 18 months and that, I believe, coincides with Mowbray losing his direct link to India and instead having to go through Suhail. 2) Admission from Mowbray that Suhail had a 'big part' in him joining the club. I think this is the first time there has been public acceptance from a senior figure at Rovers that Suhail is and was central to major appointments. I remember when Suhail's job was advertised and described basically as a link to smooth communications with India. I don't remember the job advertisement including responsibility for recruiting managers. Some might be reassured by this, others unsettled by it. I don't necessarily think it is a bad thing having a Venky representative on the ground alongside the manager and keeping him in check but I would wonder how on earth someone like Suhail (footballing background?) came across Mowbray and what the process was leading to that appointment. I've heard it several times before that Suhail is 'Balaji's man' and I also think it is important that Mowbray does not specify which of the owners Suhail is in 'direct' contact with. My point for many years has been that the only route to getting serious stuff done is by going to Mr and Mrs Desai. I think Mowbray knows this which is why he jumped on a plane to go and meet them in India and other managers have done the same. I don't think it is a coincidence that shortly after those visits to India Mowbray was able to spend considerable sums of money on players, whereas in recent seasons it has been a few hundred grand here and there. I suspect this is cash that Suhail has persuaded Balaji to put in from his spending money.

If we put aside the question of whether Rovers could or couldn't have forseen/prevented this issue earlier - either by not getting into bed with Recoverite to begin with or by reviewing things in the summer rather than allowing us to get half way through the season - the idea that they can just stick something over the top of the existing sponsor logo and expect people to buy it I think absolutely stinks. There's absolutely no interest in making the club even appear professional and projecting a positive image of it. I mean most of us see it with the corner shop operation at Ewood on matchdays and the rapidly deteriorating state of Ewood - not an ounce of pride from those running the club - but to expect players and fans to represent the club wearing replica shirts as shown in those photos - just couldn't give a stuff could they? Going back to the days of Probiz stickers being slapped on the kits or the generic stock training gear made to look like an away kit. Just a couldn't be arsed attitude at a time when momentum and performances are such that any club with ambition in this position would be able to attract much better sponsorship and would ensure it was presented well.

Just in the nick of time for us being on Sky every week for the promotion run in we are going to turn out in that mess. Poor. Really poor. Granted if there are issues at Recoverites end those may be of no fault on Rovers' part but even so slapping a big black vaping sticker over the top of the Recoverite logo and expecting people to pay full whack for it is poor stuff.

Don't get into deals with these sort of companies. Seemed strange to say the least when we announced Recoverite as our main sponsor - an Australian firm with no presence in the UK. Then again since Venkys arrived I'd go as far as to say the only decent shirt sponsor we have had was Dafabet. This was a substantial deal by all accounts with an established player in English football who have also sponsored Everton, Dingles and others. That particular one was the brainchild of Dave Biggar (Commercial Director, ex Everton). Other than that we've had a frankly woeful run of shirt sponsors. Crown Paints dropped us, then we had the Princes Trust (because nobody would pay to go on our shirts), then short term deals with RFS, Probiz, Recoverite and now Totally Wicked, along with the strange case of Zebra Finance. No coincidence that these sort of companies get nowhere near sponsorship of rival clubs who have the expertise to source better. Then we come back to the situation we have had now for 4 years of having no Commercial Director and the proof is in the pudding with this sort of thing going on and only 'used car salesman' Waggott to sort it out. A club of this size, seeking a sponsor to adorn our world famous shirts, should have much better. Then we come back to FFP and once again scant evidence of anyone at the club actually taking this seriously - if FFP was such a major issue then shirt sponsorship is a major route to generating funds yet it is treated like an irritation. Finally it comes back to the lack of shirts available in the club shop. Frequently I see people sending tweets to Rovers asking when new stock will be in the shop (no response) and apparently most average sizes have been out of stock in all 3 kits for nearly 2 months now with no plan to restock. That is ridculous. A potential promotion season and no kits left to sell in November. No wonder we can't attract sponsors is it? If you were being asked to put millions into the club in return for having your name on the front of the kits you would want as many kits as possible selling to maximise your audience. Why would anyone serious put money up if the club can't even get its stock levels right?

Lets see what happens to Bristol City - because they lost £38 million last year alone and no news of a ban or points deduction. Also as I've said many times before there is no such thing as a transfer ban. There are transfer restrictions whereby the League will interfere and only allow free transfers until losses are reduced but that isn't necessarily a problem - if you ensure you have a quality squad under long term contracts as you can get through an embargo using those players and sell them for big money to achieve compliance. Don't think I've ever supported or suggested we should be paying anyone £50k per week but when we have billionaire owners pumping in £20 million a year it would be nice to keep our good players on solid contracts to protect the club There are two sides to FFP - outgoings and incomings. There is an obsession with outgoings - transfer fees and wages and reasons why we can't do things - yet very little attention paid to incomings - increasing those and maximising player values to achieve compliance. Paying Nyambe £4k a week and letting him leave for nothing might sound good to those who don't want to pay him £8k a week but then deprives the club of millions more pounds in transfer value - such a short term attitude but then again with a CEO like Waggott and manager who has no idea what the plan is beyond May that is only to be expected.

Don't agree. He might or might not be a good signing. I simply don't know. He might be highly rated but playing in the u23s league is a different game to playing in the Championship or hopefully soon Premier League. My concern would be whether he is a signing going to come in and hit the ground running - which really is what we need right now. If we are a club going places and pushing for the PL then signing a soon to be out of contract player from Spurs U23s is not a 'coup'. It might be a good signing, I hope it is, but we are Blackburn Rovers, pushing for the PL here. We can spend millions - if the owners really want to. That would not 'risk the club' - we are £200 million down over the last decade and counting - the only way to stop that is to get over the line to promotion. Truth is I haven't seen anyone demanding huge money be lavished on expensive players - just recognition from most that we are in an unusually strong position to kick on and attract better players than in our usual mid table nothingness. Middlesbrough, West Brom, Forest have all added experience and quality to their squads and more will follow. This is a really competitive division and we need to compete. I come back to what I said last night and have said many times before. I am of the firm belief that the only way any substantial funds are released from the owners - be that transfer fees or wage increases - is when it gets the OK in India at the top table. That hasn't happened for a long time.

That was nearly 4 years ago. The owners got excited after promotion and allowed Mowbray to spend. IMO when they reached January 2021 and we were miles off promotion and going backwards on another tailspin they cut communication and ceased spending. Some might blame the pandemic for that yet I remind myself of 2015 after Bowyer missed promotion and a very similar thing happened.

Hands up who thinks that at some point in the last couple of months Waggott/Mowbray have had discussions or meetings with the owners (not their dogsbody) and have agreed a plan and budget for January that we are now working through with a budget approved by the owners in view of our excellent form and position? Hands up who thinks that the owners financial team authorised an annual budget which has been handed down by the dogsbody to Waggott within which Mowbray has had to wheel and deal - this is the reason most signings have been loans and no new contracts have been signed and that Mowbray has lost his direct link to the top owners who won't know nor care that we are in contention for promotion? I'm in camp 2. Wheel and deal it will be as Waggo juggles the pounds and pennies in the budget authorised by the money men last summer to last until this summer. I'd be surprised if any cash was spent and if it is it will have to fit very strict criteria.

But there's a middle ground. I've not seen anyone suggesting we should go daft and throw ridiculous money around this month. But we will never be in as strong a position to make moves and attract players. We must also have a cushion with Armstrong and Brockhall with FFP rules. If not something is very wrong. No problem with the 'build' policy if that is actually what we do - but looking at the squad we are not building. Too many loans and out of contract players for that - we need to strike whilst we have a chance because as it stands the summer is going to be another big expensive rebuilding job - possibly with a different management team - and it won't take much to send us back to square one. Need to keep pushing, striving to improve and adding to what is a good young squad but needs depth. This starts with retaining the core then adding. If (as I suspect is the case) there is minimal money from Venkys or no communication to India to get cash (and I'm talking real cash for signings - not shuffling around on wages or a couple of hundred grand on one signing or allowing a couple of 6 month loans) then we need to ask what the point is and why they bother.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't recall a single occasion that the manager has flown around the world to meet with Balaji. I've no doubt he has a more 'hands on' role than the others in terms of interest in the club but when it comes to cold hard cash and funding it is clear that managers have always needed to get through to Mr and Mrs Desai. Snake Kean worked out quickly where the power lies. No visit to India since 2019 puts Mowbray on thin ice and no coincidence that since then buys have been low cost (if anything) and sales have started. All my opinion and belief based on what we've seen over the last 10 years. Some might call it a conspiracy theory but I think it makes perfect sense and until Mowbray can get around a table with them cash will be very limited, as will new contracts.

He went to India that summer and got approval for funds. It was the same summer he spent money on Armstrong. He went the following summer and got approval for Gallagher. Summer 2011 - Kean goes to India - decent money spent on Dann, Yakubu, Rochina, Petrovic etc. Summer 2012 - Kean goes to India - decent money spent on Rhodes, Best, Etuhu Summer 2013 - Bowyer goes to India - decent money spent on Marshall, Evans, Conway, Gestede Summer 2014 - Bowyer goes to India - money spent on Duffy, Steele Summer 2015 - Bowyer doesnt go to India - no money spent - Cairney and Gestede sold Summer 2016 - Coyle doesn't go to India - very little money spent after selling Duffy and Hanley Summer 2017 - Mowbray goes to India - gets contract extension, keeps all his squad together and able to sign Dack Summer 2018 - Mowbray goes to India - able to buy Armstrong and Brereton Summer 2019 - Mowbray goes to India - able to buy Gallagher Summer 2020 - Mowbray doesn't go to India - no cash spent Summer 2021 - Mowbray doesn't go to India - very little cash spent despite selling Armstrong and substantial cutbacks/unable to secure players to new deals

Apart from Mowbray can't contact Mrs Desai directly and because of that no extra cash comes from the owners. We all know she controls the money and we all know there's a reason managers have flown across the world to meet her.

Maybe. And as people often like to remind me on here there is more to FFP than transfer fees alone. For example - we are roughly break even on fees spent/received under Mowbray Also you are ignoring wages spent. I will bet their wage bill is substantially greater than ours and growing with Balogon and co. joining

One club has sold a training ground and £20 million player along with slashing the wage bill last summer and unable to keep existing good players, all supposedly due to FFP yet Middlesbrough no such problems. Amazing.

Would expect most of the squad to be off today. Quite often are on a Wednesday.

The old Newcastle problem comes back though - the reason they are throwing money at the likes of Chris Wood is because their options in January sat in the bottom 3 are severely limited. Burnley might get a big pile of cash for him - but they've 3 weeks to spend it and how many decent players are going to jump ship to them at this stage with 1 win all season?

Quite happy for Fulham to win 7-0 from time to time if they have 5-6 game winless runs in between. Just need to focus on ourselves. Maintain our form since November through to May and we go up. Are likely to need 40 points to get there - 2 points a game (ish). Still think Fulham will win it comfortably and the only chance of automatic will be by finishing above Bournemouth.

We need to beat Cardiff and Hull if we have automatic aspirations. Both are struggling poor sides. In a few weeks we have Middlesbrough, Swansea and West Brom and people will be on here happy with draws in those so we need wins on the board if so.

For all the talk, fancy websites and the rest underneath it all they just want to brush fans off with standard copy and paste emails. I hope you keep pressing them Tony as without it will just be brushed under the carpet until the next fiasco crops up.

The point being? I was saying that Frost covers were needed because the undersoil heating wasn't working. Not too bothered where the covers came from.