JHRover

The fact that Bournemouth have 4 games in hand on Huddersfield and 3 games in hand on us tells us all we need to know about re-arranged fixtures. I find it inexplicable that Rovers would agree to play the Millwall game at this point with the injury list we have, sandwiched by home games either side. We then have almost a month without a home game leading up to Blackpool. Kicking it down the road to April/May would have likely seen Brereton and Dack back available, Nyambe now too.

Maybe this is the explanation https://www.afc.co.uk/2021/07/27/dons-appoint-head-of-recruitment/

The club is at least in part responsible for all the issues though. You seem incapable of apportioning any responsibility on Venkys, Rovers or Waggott. I'm not interested in retrospective claims of big money being thrown around. I think you are falling for the same old trap Waggott and Mowbray have laid every transfer window. Could have, should have, would have. Didn't. There is a long old queue of names of players and supposed bids that have been made or contract offers made that ultimately fail to come to anything. Another reminder that you don't get points, prizes or results for trying and failing. You get it for doing. You don't get credit for trying to sign someone from bottom club Barnsley. You get credit by signing them and them making a difference to the team. We didn't sign him, end of story. Might as well have bid for Messi because the outcome is the same. It costs nothing to be interested in a player. Yes we can be blamed for it - if we were so keen on Dembele we would have made an acceptable offer and got him, or moved on and got another target. Not waited until the last day of the window when there's no time to do anything else and Bournemouth's interest was probably already known.

I find it incredible the lengths some will go to try and find a narrative, excuse or explanation they can settle on that will absolve the owners, club or staff of any responsibility or wrongdoing At least 3 good players are set to leave the Club in a couple of months for £0. 3 players we have invested a lot of time, money and patience in improving and getting to a stage where other Championship clubs would love to have them in their ranks. I personally believe this is just the latest stage in a monumental cock up overseen by neglectful, disinterested, unfit owners and cowboys installed to run the club on their behalf. I could almost accept the shambles that is coming our way this summer - most of the squad out of contract/loan - if: a) The people responsible for it also left b) It was going to get the club to a break even or profitable level c) Lessons were learned and new contracts resolved very quickly for the others who will follow next year I don't think any of those 3 things will happen and come the end of the year it will still be Waggott here, still telling people talks are ongoing with players, some people still swallowing his crap and somehow the club still losing bucket loads of cash. Its like in January. They want us to believe that any significant expenditure on fees or loans would have compromised our FFP position. Yet I simply don't accept that when we sold Armstrong last summer for £15 million and will sell Brereton this summer for at least the same amount. They could have invested in proven players to get us over the line. Chose not to and now we are seeing the results of it. The only shame is the ease with which they have hoodwinked people into believing 'we did all we could'. They didn't. Just like they didn't on the contracts, just like they haven't on tickets and attendances.

How many times do I have to repeat this. No I don't want us to be under a transfer embargo. The point I am making is that we wouldn't be put under one if we spent some money or gave improved deals to our best players - the clubs I mentioned previously are evidence of that. I don't care what their local media speculates about. If it is anything like the Telegraph they will be wrong. When or if we secure these players to new deals then I might feel differently about things but talking about new deals has supposedly been going on for 18 months with 3 important players who are now set to leave the club for nothing so I'll wait and see what happens on the others rather than believing what Waggott says is happening. The wage budget we have means we pay Gallagher and Ayala substantial wages whilst we can't pay Nyambe an increase a fraction of that.

We are losing £20 million a year. On no planet is that financially sensible. Just because some clubs have recently lost more doesn't mean we are sustainably run. Don't get me wrong - very few clubs in this league are or can be financially sustainable and I'm not suggesting we should try. But please don't make out like our model is clever or sustainable because it isn't. You seem to miss the point on wages - whether or not it is 'sensible' if it causes us to lose all our assets on free transfers as they head off to rival clubs it isn't good. Not sure what current league positions have to do with anything here. My original point was that 3 clubs in this division have recently posted astronomical losses way above the magical £39 million over 3 years that is seen on here as the dividing line between manageable and apocalypse embargo/points deduction. Stoke, Middlesbrough and Bristol City showing that the £39 million thing was a load of codswallop and that if you have clued up owners - Coates, Gibson, Lansdown - they'll find a way to navigate around the rules without sanction. Meanwhile you seem to prefer that we lose our assets for nothing and spend nothing when 2nd in the league and in with a shot of automatic promotion because it is 'sensible' and avoids these punishments that don't materialise for rivals spending and losing a lot more than us. Personally I'd have preferred we kept our best players under solid contracts, built a squad capable of challenging and going again next year if we miss out this or seizing the opportunity before us in January. I'm sure those owners above would.

It's definitely happened before at Reading - I remember it the last time I went. I'm not sure what their logic is in doing it but maybe they offer cheaper tickets to their own season ticket holders so have to do the same for away ones. I'm not sure. I've not come across it elsewhere - Cardiff offer cheaper tickets for the 'family' area.

I'd have just released tickets for every remaining home game at £20 a head. No strings, no packages, no deals, all on sale from January. I think Reading have been up to this sort of thing for a few years. Nothing to do with Rovers.

I suspect an earlier poster was correct when suggesting that Waggott doesn't really want substantial growth or increases in attendances. He will be more than happy if an increase is minimal or small/manageable for him but at the same time he can turn around to supporters and to his bosses and show that he personally has done "all he can" to address falling crowds. Come the summer he will have portfolio of evidence of steps he has taken to try and increase attendances. Half season tickets, the London Double Decker, the Final Five, the Bristol City deal. "We've done all we can" is his motto. Every one of these deals has strings attached. Joe Bloggs on the morning of a game cannot wander down to Ewood and get a cheap ticket for one game. Joe Bloggs has to either commit to more than one game, including televised/evening fixtures, at considerable expense, or has to get one in conjunction with an existing season ticket holder (the other issue is that most season ticket holders will already sit next to friends and there won't be spare seats around them, meaning extra people will have to sit on their own or relocate with season ticket holders to where there is space for them both). No strings attached would introduce an element of the unknown, and especially risk 'undesirables' attending Ewood and causing aggravation. The absolute last thing the people down there want is droves of people turning up on matchday to take advantage of cheap tickets and then having to accommodate them. These deals ensure that most people will buy in advance, enabling the club to 'plan' on numbers attending and then if anyone buys they can be very quickly traced or tracked down in the event of any trouble. It will also deter spur of the moment or last minute decision makers which they don't really want.

The Club is run 'financially sound'? Since when?

What infrastructure spending have Stoke incurred in the last few years that would account for losses of nearly £150 million in 2 years? Parachute income will be factored into those losses, which would have been much higher without that income. Doesn't change anything. Awkward for you who likes to believe that we are one cash signing away from a points deduction but Stoke, Bristol City and Middlesbrough proving that when you have astute owners and management mega losses don't result in punishments.

All this is just so Waggott can turn around at the end of the season and claim to have done "all he can" to increase numbers. Of course we all know that these schemes won't work, I would hope by now even he knows. He's building his dossier to take to India to show them his 'efforts' to grow support at Ewood.

So when he joins a non-Premier League club and not Fulham or Bournemouth what will the excuse be then? Presumably Preston will be offering him £40,000 a week like Patrick Bauer?

Stoke lost £55 million last year, on top of £87 million the year before. No points deductions or transfer embargoes to be seen.

Who said anything about the league above? I'm talking about Championship rivals.

I'm sure it will come up in their discussions - particularly when Mowbray asks for permission/money to go and sign replacements and we've brought in no money from their departures. As I've pointed out before the situation with Buckley, Wharton, Carter vastly different to that for Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis. Those players who signed within the last year were on their first contracts which they signed as u23 players and it will have been very easy to upgrade their deals to something more representative of a first team/squad player. They will still be on relative peanuts by the standards of the league and Club. The latter few will also be on relative peanuts in the scheme of things but have now reached senior player age/standard and therefore quite rightly expect an increase on that basis. They are no longer 19/20 years old hoping to break through - they are captains, vice captains and mainstays of the team. The club seems unwilling to reflect that new status in their pay.

The Club will try and divide and conquer. They will try and make this out to be an issue with particular individuals, their approach and demands rather than it being a bigger issue with the club. Easier to accept and blame individuals than face up to a bigger problem. We can see that with Waggott's comments to the Forum. He's driven a wedge between the situation with Lenihan/Rothwell and that with Nyambe. The first two on the lookout for their final big pay day whereas Nyambe categorised differently, reference to no communication with his agent of course designed to heap responsibility on his camp. So in the case of Nyambe the aim is to shift nearly all responsibility and blame away from the owners and Club onto Nyambe and his agent. Make them out to be unreasonable in their demands, make out that they weren't interested in staying and that no matter what the Club did it was always going to end in failure. Of course Nyambe and his agent won't be able to defend that until it is too late and they are elsewhere. This 'divide and conquer' strategy is to turn attention away from the alternative scenario - one which I firmly believe is the case - which is that the Club is almost entirely responsible for this situation, that the Club has done too little too late and behaved appallingly, like it has towards loyal supporters as well. In an attempt to cut corners and save a few quid in the short term they have blown it big time and are now losing assets. Not one of the academy lads have signed new deals. Seems strange. Almost as though the common denominator - the Club - has some responsibility for that. Tried saving a few quid on ticket refunds and price increases = result of collapsing ticket sales and attendances Tried saving a few quid on getting by with the old pitch = games get called off when the weather is bad in humiliating fashion Tried saving on contract extensions and pay rises = result is valuable players walk All part of a big game going on here - losing Nyambe for nothing will rankle both in the stands and in Pune at the summit meeting so best get the BS out there quick. Shame so many don't see when they are being played and taken for fools. I woke up to it many months ago and I think slowly more and more have.

Precisely. The monthly magazine was only ever a stop-gap. A temporary compromise rather than immediate abandonment of a publication. Then when that doesn't sell well - and lets be honest it was never going to do - use that as evidence of why the whole thing needs scrapping. Job done - less effort and input required, no risk of any sort of financial hit, another Waggott cutback successfully implemented. Of course the point behind running a matchday programme isn't to make money. Never was, or at least not in the last 20+ years. If you are a 1st, 2nd or 3rd division club and the money gained or lost from programme sales is a concern then you really should have bigger things to worry about. If we cast our eye around the Football League the simple reality is that the large majority of clubs continue to produce matchday programmes and either make ends meet or absorb whatever loss there is because there are other benefits from selling them - publicising the club, increased coverage for sponsors, maintaining a valuable tradition - things that Mr Short Sighted won't have any interest in but will then scratch his head with bewilderment when it limits our appeal to advertisers.

I've been going on for months suggesting that there has been minimal effort or engagement from the Club to try and keep these players. I think Waggott has just confirmed my suspicions. I remember when people were saying that it was a ludicrous suggestion that the Club would just sit back and make little/no effort to keep these players - I was called a conspiracy theorist and throwing baseless allegations around and the party line was that the Club had worked tirelessly to make good offers to these players which greedy players/agents had refused. Not sure how you do that without even speaking to Nyambe's agent.

Waggott couldn't lie straight in bed. I would urge anyone listening to him or reading his comments to do so with the utmost caution. Nice to see a couple of other gems of excuses as to why things can't get done here. We can't release season tickets because of "current inflationary pressures" Is anyone buying a word of this nonsense? He can use big words but I would hope by now most of us can see right through it. Bolton Wanderers, 3rd division, have had early bird season tickets on sale for a month and have sold 5,500. I don't see their chairwoman coming out with this nonsense. They just get them on sale - £219 an adult - whilst they are playing well and winning home games and sales figures show it is a good idea. He is just another example of a snake oil salesman who has managed to get himself into a senior position on a staggering salary by talking the talk and stays in position by doing the same at these rare meetings with fans and with his bosses whenever they come along. Paul Senior another one who could talk a good game but had precious little to show for it. Inviting 50/60 fans into a room for a Consultation Meeting might be a Covid risk? How? This is the same club that opens hospitality lounges every home game and has hosted many indoor events including boxing, comedy nights etc.

Boro play Luton at the weekend. Luton play Chelsea tonight. Hopefully both are equally exhausted after big 120 minute performances and play out a bore draw on Saturday.

The ease with which some people just swallow the 'blame the agent' stuff that the Club are desperate to embed in the mindsets of supporters. I get that some people don't like criticizing or questioning their club as they feel it makes them less of a supporter, but it seems some cannot comprehend sometimes that Rovers are responsible for quite a lot of the misfortune that befalls them. It isn't always some freak event or third party causing havoc for the club. It is sometimes that the Club itself, run by incompetents, has allowed or created an environment where academy graduates are looking to the exit door to get away from here because they know they can get a competitive Championship wage elsewhere that the cretins running Rovers won't offer them. Nyambe won't 'end up shafted'. He will have half the Championship queuing up for him on a free, paying him a wage reflective of his abilities, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if a couple of bottom end PL sides took a look at him either. The ones who will 'end up shafted' are us and Rovers, because we lose a very decent player, with scope for improvement, who has been a regular in the team that has got into a promotion battle, for nothing. A player the club has invested a lot of time and money into and we get nothing. As pointed out - in all probability he goes to a rival club. Those laughing will be Championship rivals picking him up for nothing at our expense. Why? Because Waggott and Venkys have tried pulling a fast one like they have done with many other academy produced players by not offering them an increase reflective of their status. 3-4 years ago the likes of Nyambe, Travis, Buckley, Wharton were kids just about to make the breakthrough. They are now core players in a good side in the Championship. Of course they deserve a substantial wage rise to reflect that and the club could of course afford it given the savings made last summer and cash pocketed and to be pocketed this summer from Brereton. But when run by cowboys like Waggott this is what you get. Not that he'll be here to pick up the pieces in a couple of years' time. Not that he will give a stuff about how bad it looks for the club as he's more than happy to operate like an amateur operation anyway.

And that needs building on. No good for anyone if we finish in the top 6, lose and then dismantle the squad and start again. No arguments from me that by accident or design we have ended up with an exciting good squad surpassing expectations, but the Club needs a plan to take that further. Progress this season is meaningless if it gets undermined by an exodus of players or lack of investment.

Its interesting - I was saying after the game on Saturday that I don't remember Travis ever being awarded MOTM despite being an ever present over the last 3-4 years. I think he won it in his home debut v WBA back in 2018 but since then don't remember him doing. Might be wrong as I haven't checked. I think because he doesn't make match winning saves or sit in a defence keeping clean sheets and doesn't score goals that he gets overlooked for this, because on Saturday I thought he was excellent, even winning the free kick for Khadra's goal just by heading towards the corner flag and winning a foul off the QPR player.

Not really. How is Nyambe or his agent to blame if Rovers have made him a laughably low offer? Only have to look at the array of others in a similar position to see that there is a big issue with how Rovers are approaching these deals. You might want to make Nyambe or his agent out to be unreasonable in their demands but that doesn't explain how Lenihan, Rothwell, soon to be Travis, Buckley and Wharton, all excellent prospects and key players yet all facing expiring contracts. IMO Waggott, clown that he is, has tried pulling a fast one with the academy developed lads, trying to keep them tied down to the club on relative peanuts by offering only very small increases on their academy level deals. This strategy will come back to bite the club big style, costing us millions in lost revenue and the loss of key home grown players. Waggott will still be here collecting his obscene salary telling everyone why we can't afford to do things. Meanwhile you'll be happy when Nyambe and co. are lining up for Preston.