Normal club that loses a home game to lower league opposition there are powers above the manager that start asking questions or having doubts about the manager. Here? The owners probably won't have known we were even playing and if they did won't know what the League Cup is or who Morecambe are. The 'CEO' in the managers back pocket. Won't say a word that might upset or annoy St Tony and instead will ring him up for instructions rather than answers.

Seems like a convenient time to remind people that talking about, trying to and making offers to players isn't the same as making signings. You can talk to hundreds of players, make bids for them, but if they all turn you down or other clubs beat us to it then it matters not. In windows gone by Mowbray has made excuses for a lack of action by convincing people we were in for the right people but just couldn't get the deals done. Good at making excuses this lot. Action is in much shorter supply.

They've got nothing else to talk about. As long as the rest of the world don't take it seriously. Mind you in the London centric/obsessed world of Sky expect them to start hailing them as the 'oldest' club. Fulham have been marketing themselves on similar lines - branding themselves as 'London's Originals' as they are older than anyone else. I have an issue with Stoke City claiming to have been founded in 1863 making them the oldest or second oldest side around. Firstly there was no mention of Stoke City back then, but Stoke Ramblers, and there's significant uncertainty as to when they were actually formed. It wasn't until 1878 that they became known as Stoke FC which is how they joined the Football League. They also went bankrupt at the start of the 1900s which raises a question as to whether the same club then rejoined the league later or a new one.

You'd think for a club supposedly skint, desperate for extra cash and income and unable to afford to clean Ewood or replace the pitch that the opportunity of a lucrative cup run would be too much to miss out on. Get an away game at United, Liverpool or Arsenal or a home game against one of the 'big 6' and get 30,000 on Ewood. 45% of income to each club. Seems once again all the talk about no cash doesn't actually marry up with what happens. We've no money - yet can give out generous deals to Smallwood, Samuel and Leutwiler to do nothing. We've no money - yet can hire a private jet to Cardiff. We've no money - yet an opportunity for cup progression at home against Morecambe gets squandered with nothing but a shoulder shrug from our glorious leader.

I expect a valiant defeat. Probably 1-0 or 2-1 to Millwall. No shortage of effort from the lads which will resonate well with many but a shortage of quality and depth is our downfall. I really think we are in trouble this season if we fall behind in games, particularly against the likes of Millwall who will be solid, organised and physical. I think our best and possibly only chance of winning will be a fast early start, which seems to be what we are good at, get at them early and get ourselves ahead. If we can do that we might be in business. I'd take a 0-0 right now to be honest but I don't think this manager has any intention or idea how to go away and secure such a result.

No other club owners act in such a way though. They invest, and if the manager doesn't deliver they bin him off and employ someone better. Here it seems to be the opposite. Only invest if the manager can persuade them to, then if it doesn't reap rewards after a couple of years then slash right back but keep the same manager who has failed. Mental. But they've learned lessons.

None, other than Raya. You'll note that things have changed significantly in the course of the last few months. The Venky taps are off again. This is how they work. Release some cash for a couple of years then slash it back. This was the cycle we had in 2013-15 with investment and 2015-17 with extreme cost cutting.

Well back down to earth and predictably so after the enjoyment of Saturday. I say predictable because we've carved out a knack over the last 6-7 years of exiting this competition in the early stages to lower league sides. Off the top of my head Shrewsbury, Scunthorpe, Carlisle and now Morecambe just some of the illustrious names to have dumped us out. Those who bizarrely claim they 'aren't bothered' or are 'glad' we are out of a competition we've 'no chance' of winning anyway are at odds with everything that professional football is all about. It is their job to win games, they have the weight of expectation and history on their shoulders and as a supporter I don't understand the suggestion that it is good to be dumped out of the cup at home in embarrassing fashion. I thought we were short of money? Well a good cup run and playing a PL side down the line could bring in tens or hundreds of thousands. I shouldn't pay too much attention to the dugout but once again we have the Morecambe manager barking instructions, gesticulating, kicking every ball and changing the course of the game with his decisions in it. Then a few yards away we have Mowbray, saying very little, looking fed up, head in hands, watching the seagulls flying around. And his assistants were nowhere to be seen again. Was Venus asleep for this one? If we go to Millwall and win then we will all soon consign this one to the history books but really if anyone watching that tonight isn't extremely concerned about the state of this club both on and off the pitch then I wonder what it will take before people wake up and smell the coffee. Poor, weak squad coached by a poor manager and staff. Humbled by county rivals just out of League Two. Not long ago the very suggestion of losing a competitive match to Morecambe would have been inconceivable. Now it is reality and I'm not in the slightest bit surprised. Just how much further can these people sink us?

Believe what you want. I think Venkys are fed up, cutting everything they can and will sell anyone they can. 12 out 0 in is not the sign of a club astutely dealing with the market. Its the sign of a club desperate to cut costs.

12 out 0 in. The Venky cutbacks continue.

When did I say I would take £15 million for Armstrong? I might have said that was what we were going to get for him given his contract situation, I didn't say I'd be Happy with it or that it was a Good price for him.

We haven't saved money if the asking price for Obafemi is excessive or inflated. I just think it is quite extreme that for a club supposedly in dire straits financially, one that is unable to even issue new contracts or sign free agents, that we are now 'paying' £5 or £6 million for this guy and however much wages he is on.

Yes but when we signed Gallagher we were spending money and weren't facing the crisis of losing most of our assets on free transfers. We are now supposed to believe that the club has been trying and failing to agree terms with important players like Nyambe yet are able to pay Obafemi. Seems strange. I'm not sure how avoiding paying Mike Ashley £2.7 million really changes anything. We still get the majority of profit on him so the more he goes for the more we get (and Newcastle). It is therefore in both our interests to get as much as possible. The only real question here is whether this Obafemi is worth the multi-millions we look like missing out on by accepting a lower fee and taking him on top of it. I'd say not given our current predicament and need for investment in multiple areas but I'd be happy to be proved wrong if it turns out to be a masterstroke. Personally I think this is the only way Mowbray will be able to get a 'cash' signing - by knocking it off the Armstrong deal and arguing that it makes sense to do so to deprive Newcastle of more cash. I'm sure the Venkys would be well up for such a scheme. On the flip side I suspect Mowbray knows full well that if Armstrong is purely cash then that money disappears and he's back to loans only from the owners.

I'd rather have £21 million. The extra £6 million could be split up into 2 or 3 decent fees rather than 1 and address 2 or 3 positions. I think Southampton are having our pants down again here and we are taking all the risk. They are offloading an injury riddled youngster who has a lot to prove for a 'fee' of £6 million. We are wiping away a big chunk of our Armstrong cash on a big gamble. Nobody has yet answered my original question. If we can't afford to sign free agents or offer suitable terms to Kaminski, Nyambe or Rothwell to extend their deals then how can we afford to offer Obafemi a deal remotely close to what he will be on at Southampton?

How do we pay Obafemi? We've supposedly tried and failed to offer new deals to Nyambe, Armstrong and Rothwell. If we had any sense we would be offering extensions to Kaminski, Lenihan, Travis, Brereton Yet unable or unwilling to. In the very unlikely event this Obafemi is on less money than all those players then it doesn't add up. I also don't fancy taking him with a supposed value of several million and doing Soton yet more favours by taking him now against Armstrong's value when they are set to lose him next year for free. I'd rather actually use the cash more effectively and in a more balanced manner, investing in 3 or 4 areas of the squad. Suspect there's some chain yanking going on here just to keep concerned supporters quiet whilst they get Armstrong out the door.

I also seem to remember that the last time we went to West Brom they were very reasonable with their prices and charged something like £20 for adult away fans. A very fair and reasonable price and something that should be applauded and reciprocated. We repay the favour with these disgusting prices. If I was running West Brom I would be making a note of this and ensuring that when we go to The Hawthorns that away fans pay £32 like they are at Ewood. Waggott won't care about that of course because he's on the complimentaries anyway. I bet he hasn't paid a penny into football or tickets in years. His excuse will be 'parachute cash' blah blah blah yet Reading are another lot who offer sensible prices -- no parachute cash there cocker.

And now he's in the PL with Brentford whilst we would consider 21st in the Championship a good season. So he's come out of that deal the better off, as have Brentford. Weird logic where people still try to justify player sales when the ex player is now a league above us. A bit like the folk who went on about Rhodes going to Middlesbrough yet he got a promotion and a shot at the PL. OK it didn't work out but it beats relegation to League One. We got Kaminski a year after selling Raya. So in between we had Walton, yet another loan, who was poor. We wasted 12 months of our FFP cycle and now look at us - you reckon having to slash costs to comply with the rules. Yes Kaminski is good, and we got him at a good price. Also looks like we are going to lose him at a bargain price too. What do you have to say about that? If Raya wanted out of here to join Brentford then that says more about this setup than it does about him. An academy graduate who had made the grade, established himself as Number 1 and won promotion the year before - wanting to leave us to join Brentford? Why?? Why do you just accept these things as though it is normal and unavoidable for decent players to want out to join other Championship clubs? I find it concerning and alarming.

If that is true then we can see the iceberg up ahead. When a bloke who has just been binned off by PNE is rejecting you because of budget cuts and academy cuts then you have problems. Bearing in mind PNE have a tin pot academy setup and small budgets by Championship standards. Pulis has had nothing but a poor short stint at Sheffield Wednesday at this level in the last 2 years. He will be desperate for a Championship job. And who is Jones? Nathan Jones? Or Dave Jones?

We chose to send them our academy produced goalkeeper for a relatively small fee. Mowbray sanctioned that. Fast forward 2 years and they are in the PL, and Raya will be worth £10 million+. They also will ensure he is under contract. So the mugs were Rovers. Putting in years of hard work and effort to develop Raya into a good goalkeeper, showing patience and faith and then deciding to offload him to a Championship rival at the first sign of interest, they pick up a young keeper that is on his way to big things but needs polishing up. Brentford have reaped the rewards of our academy. Us? Well we got some money, which was promptly all spent on Sam Gallagher. We've ended up with a good goalkeeper but he's out of contract next year so we can predict which way that one is going.

Looks like Christmas will have come early for Venkys, Waggott and Mowbray if they can not only shift Armstrong but Rothwell as well. Especially when 90% of the fanbase has already accepted all the excuses and will be delighted as long as we 'replace' them with a couple of u23 loans.

'Hopefully' get 2/3 in regardless of permanently or loans is exactly what I am getting at. I've said throughout that I've no issue with letting Armstrong go to a PL club provided the money is good. But this attitude of we'll just pocket a substantial fee and 'hope' to get a couple on loan the other way is what I can't tolerate. The club has known Armstrong is on his way for weeks/months. They need players ready to bring in. Quickly. These need to include permanents. If we can't or won't sign permanents when we get a substantial cash windfall from selling an asset like Armstrong when will we? How do we expect to emulate Brentford and comply with FFP rules in future if all we do is sign loans? Just 'get behind the lads' and hope for luck with injuries isn't acceptable either. This is a professional organisation, you don't just hope for the best and get through the season with no injuries. You need a squad to cope with the challenges ahead.

Nothing to worry about then. All is well with the world because the team tried and won. We could win automatic promotion this season and I would still have deep concerns about the direction things are going in crowds and think the club has to take urgent action to reverse this decline. I thought we had settled at 10,000 season ticket holders ensuring we would always be above that number in this league. Despite Kean, Berg, Appleton and Singh and mid-table football we could rely on those numbers from 2012-16. What we've seen since 2017 has been a relentless decline. Despite being 'on our way back', investment in the squad, promotion back to the Championship numbers dropped. First down to 8000, now down to 'pushing' 6000. At any other organisation a decline in 2 years of 25% would be alarming and catastrophic and see action taken. Here what happens? What is being done about it other than shoulder shrugging. It seems many fans are of the view that their continuing attendance makes them true fans whilst those who have stopped aren't. What happens when Waggott puts prices up again and puts us last on sale again and we have another drop down to 5000 or 4000. How low does it have to go and how quickly before something is done about it?

So another dodge on actually trying to rebuild our asset base and a cop out by turning to loans again. What happens when all the assets are gone? We can move on to what? No reinvestment, another asset off, no replacement (a loan isn't a replacement).

It isn't perfect and of course in an ideal world we would have everything on one site which would make more sense for several reasons, logistics and finances. But it is still a very good site, better than most at this level and many in the PL. I also very much doubt there are other sites in BwD or the surrounding boroughs that are big enough, accessible enough, affordable, able to be developed and anywhere near as private/exclusive as Brockhall. It might be appealing to some people to throw up a prefab facility behind Witton Park school or on Whitebirk industrial estate but I think having the beautiful surroundings and privacy of Brockhall, yet only 10 minutes drive from the M6 and 20 minutes to the middle of Blackburn is ideal If we look at what other clubs have done with their training facilities almost all the biggest clubs have sought to develop what we currently have - a countryside base, away from the town or city, decent transport links, private, a nice place to work and train. I'm not aware of anyone who has given that up to build something slightly nearer their town to maybe save some people a few minutes drive or for the nonsensical reason of being in the local authority boundaries. We are like a club in reverse - having everything that rivals would want and then actively looking to give it up. One of the first to have a club radio station - gone One of the first to have an academy - trying or risking losing it One of first to have a state of the art complex - looking to get rid Town centre and stadium shop - gone Personally, if they had shown any interest or appetite over the last 10 years for improving facilities, investing in the clubs infrastructure then I would have been all ears for such a scheme. If there was a strong logical argument for relocating other than saving on a very short drive fine. If they had started by sorting Ewood out - by cleaning it, investing in a better pitch or rebuilding the Riverside stand which is much more pressing than messing with Brockhall - yet they've done none of it. All these things would be indicative of owners wanting to improve things and willing to spend on it. If we look at what Leicester recently did with their new training ground - if we had done similar - talked about buying a new site elsewhere - perhaps a golf club or large site elswhere capable of housing a combined facility then it might be plausible. But the suggestion that the bottom site is either big enough, accessible enough or capable of being developed to accommodate everything is completely ludicrous. We've done it to death why that is. It isn't only about pitches. Floodlights, parking, access, building an indoor centre down there.

Very much doubt Obafemi will be coming in. They can't even get to the level of paying Nyambe a few grand a week more. How the hell are they going to pay his wages?