I think the 'logic' behind this decision is that they will put the smaller followings upstairs but then when they expect big numbers - (3000+) - then they set off with them in the bottom tier on the basis that they can sell up to 5000 without needing to open the other tier. So there is some logic in that. Although once again due to misreading things and also daft prices the mighty WBA following was instead about 2200 rather than the droves they were probably hoping for. I was long a supporter of sticking away fans upstairs - my logic for that was to be able to charge certain clubs high prices whilst avoiding doing the same to our own supporters - making the upper tiers a higher pricing bracket would enable that. But charging the same as the lower tier I just don't see any benefit to us of putting them out of the way. As far as I am concerned if they aren't opening the upper tier of the BBE to home fans then they shouldn't be for away fans in the DE. The vast majority of clubs - even Mowbray's fabled giants such as Bristol City, Forest and Derby - won't bring over a couple of thousand at the most. So stick them downstairs in the Riverside corner and at least try to have some sort of atmosphere around the place. It is like a morgue and a large part of it is due to the Club's own actions in moving people around, shutting areas down, making no effort to grow a singing area and sticking away fans as far away as possible.

I think the teams were displayed on the big screen against Swansea. Can't remember whether they were against Morecambe. I really think we are now at the stage where these things are just overlooked or forgotten or if someone is off sick or on holiday it doesn't get done and just falls between the cracks I don't know whats worse. That this is deliberate and down to relentless cuts or that it is accidental and just overlooked. It really is poor. Speaking more generally the big screen is way past its day and should be replaced. Having played at Forest and Millwall recently both those clubs have modern jumbo screens which are larger and more useful than what we have. I'm sure this is something else our billionaires would be able to address but unfortunately can't compete with rich clubs like Millwall.

Beaten by the better team, cannot fault the effort of the players. There's no shame in losing to them, though I'd like teams to have to do more to score against us than they have today. What there is shame in is shrugging shoulders and not learning from it or doing anything about it. I don't want pats on the back all round because we've give it a good go and lost, I want lessons to be learned and progress to be made. I want a manager who is raging inside at losing at home to a nasty team and determined to make up for it next week. Looks like another season of conceding with regularity doesn't it? 7 now conceded and no clean sheets yet this season, and to be honest how many of those came from great quality or pressure?

Not looked back since Mowbray left them.

Only about 5 people will know exactly what the players are on and exactly what they are after. In Nyambes case that will be him, his agent, the clique at Rovers and perhaps Nyambe's inner circle. I don't think we can really trust what Mowbray has to say on this because he's got form for daft exaggerations on things. Like claiming Patrick Bauer was demanding £40,000 a week to leave Charlton to come here (before joining thrifty PNE) and other daft claims like Bristol City play in front of 30,000 every week. He exaggerates to suit his agenda which is usually to put this club down/excuse failure/cover himself and the owners from criticism. Nyambe last signed a contract here in July 2017 just after the club was relegated to League One and just after his breakthrough season from the u23s. How much do you think we put him on then? Big money for an u23 RB going into League One? If you do a google search (possibly flawed I know) the figure given is £4,700 per week. Probably what I would expect and tallies with what well informed people have told me. Now if that figure is correct, and Nyambe wants his wage doubling, then I would agree to that. Why? Because a new 3 or 4 year deal on that basis would be an extra commitment from the club of between £750,000-£1 million over a 3-4 year period. As I've explained, the cost of losing him for nothing then having to bring in a competent replacement, wages and signing on fee would in all probability greatly exceed that amount. Even if it didn't we still have to protect the massive profit that could be made if Nyambe continues to improve. I disagree it is a tough decision. If Nyambe is only on £5k a week, which was a League One contract, he rightly expects a pay rise. I think that is fair enough. He's watched as the club has happily handed out deals to Ayala, Mulgrew, Dack over the last few years so why shouldn't he have some of that? If Nyambe was already on £15 or 20 thousand a week that obviously changes things but I see absolutely no suggestion for him being on that sort of money. What are you suggesting? That we go through the hard yards of developing these players in our expensive academy, give them their breakthrough, play them, take the risk with them, persevere with them and then once they attain significant value we let that go for nothing because we have to stick to a self imposed wage cap (that Nyambe is likely well below already)?

Look at any other clubs wages to turnover. We aren't alone or unique. What do I suggest we do about it? How about drastically reduce the wage bill? That's been done with Mulgrew, Bennett, Evans, Holtby and co. down the road this summer. How about we plug the losses by selling an asset? Done yet the excuses keep on coming. How about we protect the club in future by securing assets on contracts rather than running them down like Armstrong? How about we try to deal with the other side of the wages/turnover equation and actually increase turnover rather than allowing incompetents like Waggott to drag the club backwards with his approach?

It has everything to do with Mowbray. He's the manager, he runs the club along with his mates Waggott and Venus. He has been allowed to dish out substantial wages over the last few years, now we are unable to dish out lesser wages to tie down assets the club needs. I've already explained the business logic behind it - we will be losing millions on Nyambe next summer. We have allready lost millions on Armstrong this summer. Same for others too. It will not cost as much to give them the pay rise they want. It isn't a question of just giving them whatever they want. It is a question of realising that we have a valuable asset on our hands and ensuring we don't miss out on millions of value (again). I'm glad you mention 'paying silly wages' and that's why we are where we are now. Who was manager when those wages were sanctioned and who was manager when Smallwood and Mulgrew spent 12-24 months sat on the bench/out on loan? It is simply unacceptable that the club comes with this high and mighty principled stance on not giving contracts out willy nilly, yet that is exactly what they were doing only 12 months ago for players worth little or nothing to the club.

It's quite clear now that barring any significant changes then Nyambe and Rothwell will both be on their way next summer. By significant change i think it will require a change in manager or a substantial pay rise. Neither are going to happen here because Mowbray is more important than any player or supporter and his continued employment trumps any other consideration. So Venkys will see off any player or any number of supporters whilst sticking with the Mowbray show. The fortnightly 'updates' from Mowbray are just excuse, after excuse, after excuse. He knows it is ridiculous that we are in this position, knows that they have dropped several clangers here yet thanks to the Lancashire Telegraph and Radio Lancashire sympathisers and mouthpieces his excuses get published on a regular basis. The latest one is that the wages to turnover ratio is far too high and is the reason we can't offer better terms to our existing crop of players. Admittedly this is high yet ignoring that every other club has a ratio of over 100% yet not many end up in this state of disarray as a result, and also ignoring that the Armstrong money should plug this gap even if the owners won't Having slashed the wage bill by god knows how much this summer, returning to normality on crowds (other than the 25% decrease in customers Waggott has achieved), and landing a windfall through the Armstrong sale we are now supposed to believe that giving Nyambe a few grand a week more is an insurmountable hurdle. What will Nyambe be on as a graduate of our academy?? £5k a week would be my guess. Even if he wants his wage doubling to £10k a week, there has to be some long term thought here. As it stands he'll be on his way next summer for nothing, and we will have to source a new RB of equal or better quality. Not likely to happen. Or give him a new 3 year deal and his £5k increase. What commitment will that be? £750,000? Yet we would be able to sell him for 3,4,5 times that if needed and cover the cost. Having spent the summer so far whinging about FFP rules to now be unable to tie academy players down to new contracts is the giveaway clue that this has never been about wage/turnover ratios or FFP rules. It is pure and simple - Venkys have turned the taps off making it impossible to sign permanent players or give new deals to existing senior ones. There's enough scope in the budget down there to land a couple of cheap loans or give new deals to the less experienced kids but not for the bigger deals. I'd have a lot more respect for Mowbray if he admitted it, but he's more concerned with shielding the owners from any blame and hanging on to his job than telling the truth so on this sham goes. Sad thing is so many people accept it as the gospel truth whilst ignoring the blatant inconsistencies and complete lack of business sense behind it.

There's a recurring theme here Just about everyone to feature in our defence under this manager ends up being labelled crap or not good enough. How many have actually been hailed as success stories under this manager? Can't really allow THB or Tosin because they were top players before coming here and Mowbray didn't have time to alter them. Lenihan was decent before Mowbray and at best has stood still. Maybe the issue here is the manager and not the players? I agree Bell was poor in his time here. Yet lo and behold off he goes to a rival club, one that I expect will finish comfortably higher than us this season, and he plays for them.

We are currently at 5 wins in 23 competitive games, beating Swansea, Birmingham, Huddersfield, Derby and Millwall since 6th March. in 2021 we've won a total of 8 games from 28 adding Birmingham away, Luton home and Middlesbrough away to the above.

Playing us at home is the ideal fixture for Forest to get their season up and running. They've had two tricky fixtures so far - away at Coventry first game back at the Ricoh and a last gasp defeat and then home to a decent looking Bournemouth side. Hughton's football gets its critics when results aren't good but he knows what he is doing and will sort them out. I can't see anything but a defeat. I think we will struggle to create much there and though we will have a decent amount of the ball and threaten at times they will deal with us reasonably comfortably. I was wrong about Millwall because I thought they would take the lead and we would fail to get back into it, but I'll make that prediction again here. This time I think they will go ahead quite early on in the game and from there it will be a frustrating evening with us falling to a 1 or 2 goal margin defeat. As with Millwall I would also shake hands on a draw from this one. Not because I think we should be going away and setting our ambitions at a draw but just because I simply can't see Mowbray masterminding a win and given the state we are in I think every point is going to be precious.

If reports are to be believed we offered Amari Bell a contract extension. For one reason or another he rejected that and instead joined Luton. Now that would suggest that either our offer was beaten by Luton, or that he didn't fancy staying here and saw Luton as a better place for him to be. Either way, it reflects pretty badly on this operation. I would confidently predict that Luton will finish above us this season and Bell will be a regular for them. Luton are an awkward one for the excuse makers at Rovers because they bust the myth that you need a combination of huge crowds, parachute money and big wages to get anywhere in this league. A bit like Barnsley. They also manage to go about their business in a sensible manner, without breaking FFP rules (like we allegedly have) or without needing massive cost cutting and demolition of the squad (like we have) and manage to do it without losing £20,000,000 a year (like we do).

Exactly what will happen. The story of pretty much all his transfer windows. Big talk in the last few weeks, followed by a few cheap frees or loans and sob stories about trying our best, unfair conditions and keeping powder dry until next window. Always tomorrow, never today with the resident excuse makers at Ewood.

The people running the club would be insane not to replace Armstrong with a permanent addition. If you aren't going to invest having just turned a 7-8 fold profit on one of your last investments then you never will. True I would prioritise termination of Mowbray and Venus' contracts and then give funds to a new manager but that clearly isn't going to happen. No use moaning about FFP if you aren't going to invest funds received into new investments and assets.

No new season ticket through yet. I suppose we have 3-4 days left but I would have expected it by now. I certainly won't be happy if they ask us to go and queue up for a paper ticket before the game on Saturday. I went to the u23s game at Ewood last night. Fair play to the club they made it free admission to all (although I wonder how much of that was down to the issues above with no new season tickets produced yet). There were loads of kids and youths, some with parents, some on their own. Now I would have expected Rovers to use the opportunity of having a healthy crowd on to push season tickets, match tickets or memberships. Perhaps put adverts up on the big screen during the game, announcements at half time as to prices. The new kits being advertised. I'd have put the stewards to use and instead of having them stood around staring at people give them leaflets to hand out to everyone there with prices and promotions for tickets. Get the game on Saturday advertised (yes the prices are outrageous but at least try to sell some tickets). Yet (unless I'm deaf and blind) the big screen was switched off and the tannoy barely audible with a few songs playing at half time. Complete amateur hour. Someone there just for the free game last night wouldn't even know there was a match at Ewood this Saturday.

I think they are made in the Far East then shipped to Europe

You really believe there are 5 or 6 strikers in our sights? I think they are having us on. Con men. Roll up roll up buy your tickets, we're busy working away trying to get some quality in. Away the weeks go to the start of September and then we get a few loans if lucky and the cash disappears along with the substantial wage savings being made. Excuse, after excuse, after excuse. One thing Mowbray is good at. Every summer transfer window is the same yet still people think business will get done and we've cards up our sleeves.

That was a shocker too. But at least that was the League Cup so we had to get through a 2 legged semi before getting to Wembley. Cardiff went on to the final and lost narrowly to Liverpool. The Millwall one we had done the hard part - been to Arsenal and knocked them out at the Emirates, drawn a mid table Championship club in the Quarters, went to a packed Den, were played off the park yet held on for a 0-0 to take them back to Ewood and then put in an even worse display and the tactical approach was to launch it long and try to beat Danny Shittu in the air. We'd have been off to Wembley playing Wigan in the Semis.

Yes we drew 0-0 at their place then lost 1-0 at home. Best chance ever of getting to Wembley in the Cup and squandered.

Take the positives from losing at home to Morecambe. Try to imagine Souness, Hughes, Allardyce or even rivals such as Warnock coming along with such an attitude and comments. Sums Mowbray up. A loser.

I suppose the question is whether a third kit was always the plan (seems unnecessary to me especially using a landmark such as the 30th anniversary of 1991-92 promotion. Or whether we've been forced to get a third kit because of supply issues with the home and away kits and Macron had some spare to put in the club shop.

The Ayala one had all the markings of a classic Mowbray/Rovers transfer saga. He was linked early doors last summer. Free agent after leaving Boro. Rumours we were letting him use Brockhall for keeping fit. Should be an easy one to get done if you really want him. Goes quiet for weeks, rumours it isn't happening and he's picked a move to Saudi/Spain instead. Then right at the back end of the window it all goes through, multi-year expensive contract and no doubt a signing on fee to go with it. Hmmmm.

I think my memories of the Souness era eclipse those of the Hughes days. I think there's an argument that in terms of backing and finances Hughes did as good as if not better job in results on what Souness did. By the time Hughes was in charge the last of the Walker cash was drying up whereas Souness did get some decent backing for people coming in. But I think the memories of winning promotion, winning a cup at Cardiff, and then on the final day the following year smashing Spurs away to move into the top 6, take some beating. It was always fun and entertaining and felt like we could beat anyone on our day. It is quite depressing thinking about it and then facing up to the reality of where we are now with this sham outfit incharge. The days of having a proper and quality manager, strong team behind him, proper board of directors. Just listening to him talking about John Williams meeting up 3 or 4 times a week to have it out with him. Great stuff and how a proper club should operate. Not the slippery charlatans we have now.

A great watch. Great memories of that era and what a job Souness did. I've so many memories of that time and sometimes it is hard to believe that it all happened in the space of 4 seasons - promotion, cup success, top 6 and European campaigns. Someone who should be considered a legendary figure of the club yet the last 6 months or so of his tenure seems to have eroded that status somewhat. There was a bitter taste in the mouth when he upped and left for Newcastle with us struggling but in hindsight it was what he wanted and probably the right thing for him and Rovers to go their separate ways at that point. If only the current incumbent had an ounce of the same rather than holding on beyond his shelf life. Loved his comments about the City game when they came to Ewood at the end of the season and partied and how he wasn't happy about it. A warrior who is the polar opposite of the clowns we have now. Can imagine Souness raging at another club coming to our ground and celebrating, whereas Mowbray and Waggott would just see it as an opportunity to remind everyone of 'where we are' in the scheme of things.

We are different because Venkys are still here. Sunderland and Sheff Wed didn't sell off training grounds, Sunderland still have the Academy of Light which is Category A and one of the best facilities around. Sheff Wednesday have an old training ground near Hillsborough, nothing like the standard of Brockhall. Bolton and Wigan both sold their Euxton training ground when going through administration and a change in ownership. We may well have to do the same when Venkys finally clear off. But to sell it now, and keep Venkys as owners? The worst possible outcome. I'm sure most would accept a downscale as necessary if it meant ridding ourselves of this regime and starting again with new ownership. Bolton and Wigan also had second sites that could be adapted and used as replacement facilities. Bolton at Lostock and Wigan at Robin Park. Preston have since acquired the Euxton ground and use it together with their old one over in Lea.