I was thinking this too. I know Dack is good mates with Rothwell, Evans, Mulgrew - all gone or going. Armstrong best mates with Rothwell. Other senior players who were popular out the exit door, instead relying on the kids. Some might say that's the way of things in professional football and I understand that, but there comes a point where the remaining players must get mightily fed up and downbeat about the future watching the direction things are going. All the while the same dreary old management team keeps on repeating the same old mistakes. Why would anyone want to hang around?

Lets have a think about numbers. 11 out the door, pretty much all of them either very experienced players or high quality youngsters. Two or three that had well and truly run their course, another handful that still had something to offer yet perhaps not enough or not fit enough. Reality is they are gone. Options we no longer have to call upon. People with know-how to step into the battle at Barnsley or Millwall on a Tuesday night. Now it seems it might be a case of one in, one out. I suspect that's the only way Mowbray will get agreement to bring in Reach and Rothwell and Mowbray don't see eye to eye. Rothwell is also one of the few with any serious value who other clubs might take an interest in looking at our rapidly depleting asset base. But the reality is, whatever people think about Rothwell or Reach and the pros and cons of each of them it takes us no further. A week or so until the big kick off, maybe Reach for Rothwell and a few quid into the back pockets, but still losing one of our few attacking options with any quality and still 11 players down. Its a disgrace.

I see Wigan have announced sales of 6000 season tickets. I wonder if that will beat our efforts this summer, despite everything and everyone telling me that without Venkys we'd be in a state like them.

With Travis absent tonight I wonder if he is the one they are trying to offload Nothing would surprise me with these cretins. Hopefully it is a genuine illness and not more transfer shenanigans.

Travis out tonight ill apparently.

I don't think £15 million is a good deal for Armstrong. It may be the best we can get, but it isn't a good deal and I really hope the revisionists and rose tinted spectacle wearers out there don't start making out like it is. Armstrong should be £20 million minimum. He ticks just about every box there is to tick when it comes to totting up the value of a player: young, pace, excellent fitness record, no major injuries, knows where the back of the net is and perhaps most importantly English. The fact that he is English, he is good at his job of scoring goals and has at least 8-10 years left in the tank adds a massive premium on his price (or at least should). Unfortunately we've wiped that premium out by allowing this situation to unfold. So much for buying low and selling high - this policy only works if you ensure that when the players come good you are protected and can maximise your return. Allowing millions of pounds to slip through your fingers - money that could ensure FFP compliance, enable a rebuild or replace the pitch at Ewood - is criminal.

Over 3 years since he was charged with assault at Barnsley and still not stood trial. With that sort of system in place you have to wonder what's going on.

Because losing him may well cost us Championship status and all the costs that come with that? Far greater than £10 million. I hope nobody is under any illusions here. Relegation isn't only possible it is probable particularly if we lose Armstrong.

Palace recently decided that they were actually founded back in 1861 and not 1905 as they had claimed for the last 100+ years. I don't know the ins and outs of it but it seems someone has managed to find a link to the original Crystal Palace team and that's enough for them to claim status as one of the oldest clubs in the world. Whether it is actually true or not I doubt they care as it seems to be all about proving that they are older/more historical than their London rivals.

I think there are only two ways in which we see an incoming player. First is that we've managed to persuade Liverpool, City or Everton to send a teenager here for the season on a heavily subsidised loan, promising that they will get loads of Championship game time this season to aid their development. Second is that we've got a sale or significant departure lined up and permission to use some of those funds/wages on bringing in a free agent. Draw along from that and ask who we have likely to attract bids/interest at this stage and the list is a short one. Kaminski, Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis, Armstrong, Rothwell. We know Armstrong will be going but they will time it to cause maximum damage to our recruitment and season. Other than that can we afford to let any of the others go? I mean of those Rothwell is the least valuable to us but still one of a rapidly diminishing number capable of creating something in this squad.

I was also hoping there would be a shareholders meeting which is usually an opportunity for the minor shareholders to ask questions of the board. Waggott is now saying that due to Covid 19 there cannot be a shareholders meeting this year. I'm not sure why 20-30 people in a room is higher risk than opening up Blues Bar or the Premier Suite on a weekly basis but hey, it gets him off the hook a while longer.

Is he still 'looking into' coach travel being put on by the club into traditional support heartlands? I know we've had Covid but he was meant to be doing that back in 2018 which tells us nothing will probably happen on anything he says. 19th July and 'plans will be put in place' to contact fans directly. Well the deadline for retaining seats is in 2 days and I haven't seen or heard any evidence of anyone having anything but an email and it seems plenty haven't even had that.

I'm convinced that those people on the ground are just in autopilot mode now. Reading between the lines Venkys have either gone silent/uncontactable, which is quite possible as this seems to happen when they don't like what is happening, run out of money or don't know what to do next, or alternatively the owners have just said that there is no money whatsoever for new signings and that's the end of that. Sort the rest out yourselves. Of course many managers - Swansea's this week - Lambert here a few years ago - would not put up with this and would walk out - but we've got Mowbray who is a different personality and who knows he and his chums won't be able to get another job certainly not with the freedom and power and a commutable drive from Teesside. He probably still thinks that he is the right or best man for the job and that he is doing us some sort of favour being here, or that he is such a good manager that he will sort us out even without new players. I suppose the next question is whether they need Indian approval before player sales. If so then that might explain the lack of progress on Armstrong as they will take an age to authorise it.

I forgot what day it was. Good news there was an Adam Armstrong 'story' in The Sun written by Alan Nixon so quickly knew it must be a Sunday. You can almost set your watch on him.

Main question from me - can anyone tell me the possession statistics?

Few pennies will be dropping over the next few days as to what a mess this club is in.

Warren Joyce was at Salford and resigned last week. Wonder if he's lined up for that job? Another exciting opportunity of career progression away from Rovers no doubt?

We should be blessed with owners willing and able to tip in such amounts each year It should make us the envy of other clubs in this division. It should see us armed with a strong squad of assets. It should see Ewood immaculate. It shouldn't see us slashing the squad back, relying on unproven kids, risking our Championship status. Yet it does. It isn't good management and it is awful value for money. They seem happy or comfortable with it. The trouble is that the club crumbles and stagnates whilst this goes on and how it ends up is a big worry.

I think they were asking for membership numbers but you might get away with it with a Bradford address/postcode.

So basically for £15-20 million a year extra on Preston and Luton we get nothing. Infact less because they can look after their facilities, improve and expand them (Luton new stadium, Preston new training ground), and both are able to avoid our boom and bust model of having to slash costs every few years in a desperate late attempt to avoid FFP sanctions. I don't agree that money not spent on facilities can be spent on the squad instead. I just don't think that expenditure on our academy can be used as an excuse or reason for FFP difficulties when the truth is that Venkys could tip endless cash into facilities and it ought not to harm our FFP position. It was this 'model' of management that saw the chaos of 2015-17 and our relegation to League One. The parallels are obvious and clear. It isn't acceptable.

No problem with that. More worried about who is going to be supporting Rovers in future and what we are doing about it.

I know they haven't signed new deals. Which is all that really matters. Trying and failing is still failing. Question is have they even tried?

Hold on, so Luton and Preston have bigger commercial incomes than Blackburn Rovers? And that's acceptable? The same Luton that have no corporate facilities and were non league recently? You do realise that expenditure on facilities and academies are exempt from FFP? Even if they weren't why does it cost so much more here? Deepdale is better maintained than Ewood. They have two training facilities to operate. Simply doesn't add up which ever way you put it.

I've just been online and offered £1000 for a brand new Mercedes. It won't be accepted so is a waste of everyone's time. Apply the same principle to our 'offers' to senior players all of which remain unsigned. JRC, Dolan and Buckley do not count as senior players for those purposes. They will have been on effectively youth or u23 level contracts.

I don't think we are seriously looking at anyone. I don't think Mowbray or Waggott have authority to bring in any signings, certainly not spending cash or issuing contracts. That might change when Venkys realise there is a new season starting and that we are looking at relegation again or if we sell Armstrong and they can persuade them to allow some of those funds to come back to the Club, but until that happens I think the best we can hope for are 2-3 cheap loans, which will inevitably be last minute and a case of taking whoever we can get. We all know, deep down even if the eternal optimists won't admit it, that this is a ticket to relegation next season, especially with this management team, bereft of ideas and tactical nous and exhausted of patience among the fanbase and probably the squad of players too. I can only imagine how fed up some of our remaining decent players must be that after the weariness of last season to be turning up listening to the same monotonous drivel from the manager whilst looking around and seeing an exodus of personnel and no reinforcements. The only chance we had of keeping Armstrong here, i think, was to show some ambition this summer, ditch the manager, bring in a winner and recruit well. None of those things have happened so why would he stay? I think the people reacting with horror and ridicule to reports of bids of £8 million from Southampton may have to revise their expectations when it becomes clear that this might be the only or best offer we are going to get any time soon. In terms of FFP I don't agree that we have to chose between copying Brentford/Barnsley or gambling by spending like Leeds/Derby There is a middle ground. Preston. Luton. Millwall. QPR. Bristol City. I implore anyone to explain to me how those clubs, with less well off owners, similar or smaller fanbases, can outperform us or at least match us, whilst expertly avoiding issues with FFP, yet there seems an acceptance here or feeling of inevitability that we just have to accept FFP as something we cannot avoid. Yes we can avoid it. We need better management though. The inevitable Armstrong sale should be the golden goose that pays off FFP issues for the next 3 years in one swoop. Yet more hard luck stories coming about that one and why we stand to make very little on a 25 goal a season young English striker. We should be laughing to the bank on that one (or building a formidable side around him to go for promotion)