JHRover

I suppose the issue is that the -12 points for entering administration is mandatory and automatic, and nobody can argue against it. Points deductions for FFP issues are a different ball game, open to arguments and interpretation of figures. Let's see if they or Reading get any knocked off for that. I hope they do but will believe it when I see the league table with them off. They've been talking about it that long I won't hold my breath.

For going into administration, not for breaking spending rules. There are rumours they will get a points deduction for fiddling their accounts but those are rumours that have been rumbling for months. No points deducted yet.

Nobody has had a points deduction yet so I'd wait and see if anyone actually gets docked any points and if so how many before we go down the road of applauding our approach. We can rest assured that there will be no replacements lined up for anyone because nobody at the club will have a clue if there is any money to spend or permission from Venkys to do anything. I see that Waggott is back on blaming Covid for our collapse last season and now we have been able to reopen all our facilities everything is much better. This is the CEO of the football club, coming up with cock and bull nonsense excuses to try and cover for his mate's poor performance last season. How mental is this club? He's going to have another look at getting a Desso pitch. Hope it goes better than everything else he's looked into that hasn't happened. I'm careful not to scroll down to the comments section because I'd lose my rag if I read them.

I see that PNE have landed a home tie v Liverpool in the next round of the Cup. They vanquished Morecambe after we got knocked out by them and then got past Cheltenham at home. Goes to show what we could have had. Then we moan about no money.

Cardiff have already announced they will be installing rail seating on the back 5 rows of their stand behind the goal to provide the option for anyone who want to use it. Sensible. Proactive. Rovers will 'look into it', make it look like a far bigger job than it really is, mumble about the cost and do nothing.

I thought the comment about the swimming pool was interesting. Presumably that is one overhead he has his eyes on cutting off as we can be confident such a luxury won't be included in any plans. It certainly couldn't have been fit on the bottom academy site. I think we are still supposed to believe that Waggott's presence at the club is entirely unrelated to Mowbray's (yeah right) and that it is also a coincidence that for the second time and second club in succession these charlatans are involved in a training ground 'project' that seems to be based on selling valuable land for housing and finding a cheaper, smaller site elsewhere (if ever). I dont believe in coincidences like that. On the subject of Coventry I keep saying how since the moment the three stooges were all gone they have been on a rapid upwards trajectory. Amazing that. Almost like they were being held back by incompetence.

He cannot be trusted. His words might sound impressive (or at least they do to those still a bit wet behind the ears) but again they simply don't stack up. The latest 'scheme' - to try and identify a site in BWD - is absolute nonense and carries zero benefit to Blackburn or Blackburn Rovers. Infact quite the opposite - why would any professional football want to spend their week training near Blackburn over the surroundings of Brockhall. I'm not too concerned about this as Waggott failed to even get a new pitch sorted last year and struggles with the task of signing players or getting kits on sale so I can't see him masterminding a relocation and purchase/development of a new site in Blackburn. The Brockhall stunt was a quick money grab - push it through quickly and quietly, pile expensive houses on it and pocket the millions that come from it. Moving to a new site in BWD will require much more - identification of suitable sites, purchase, planning, construction - all whilst we continue to need existing facilities in the meantime. It won't happen and hopefully Maggott will be long gone by the time they even reach first base.

No they don't put in £20 million each season. The figure in the last year was higher due to the pandemic. That is sustainable, if they are able and willing to do it. As long as they are then it is no different to what the people at City do every year. It is only an issue if they can't or don't want to do it any more or do it using borrowing. We won't have a squad come next summer. You don't win points for having a young squad built on loans because they will be out of here with us having nothing to show for it.

Holy hell. Just as I was starting to calm down about the woes of the summer and then this comes along. Call me a cynic but I reckon he's been waiting until we had a few good results or were in a decent position before agreeing to do this interview. Every time I listen to this bloke the less I believe him and the less I trust him. Surely I cannot be alone in thinking the sums don't add up in relation to the out of contract players? In particular the likes of Lenihan, Brereton and Nyambe? I mean even if we just imagine what they would cost in the market to replace, and that's before the millions in value and transfer fees we will miss out on and they leave for nothing. Does Waggott ever get challenged on this or is he just left free to bleat on about our wage structure and not breaking it? I also find it quite insulting that our £300,000 a year CEO comes along telling us we cannot afford to do x, y, z when he is raking in such a massive salary to fail to get things done. Then there's the usual excuses. Normally the CEO would take responsibility for poor performance or failure yet this bloke just has his excuses down to a fine art and is allowed to churn them out. Collapsing attendances - not his fault Poor commercial performance - not his fault Failing to get transfers over the line - not his fault I see there is mention of the 1875 club making a comeback. Apparently this will enable discounts on tickets, but as far as I can recall when it was last in operation there was minimal benefit to regular supporters and no discounts. It was £10 a year and ensured priority on away tickets and exemption from the Waggott tax, but not discounts. I think this is just another money grabbing exercise. Fans won't even get a full season out of it because it is being introduced late. I think the most interesting line from his interview was this: "and get to a balanced position of having an affordable and competitive squad, funded by the revenue of the support base and other commercial sponsors.” No mention of the owners providing capital to strengthen the squad. Pipe dreams of us assembling a competitive Championship club on our revenues. I wonder if this is Waggott's selling point to the owners - leave it to me and I'll cut costs back to the point where you don't need to put cash in - or if it is the case the owners have told him there's no more money and he's let the cat out of the bag.

We need a manager who can get us promoted. That's all there is to it. Dyche didn't keep Burnley up he took them back down, but was able to keep their best players and given a chance to get them back up again like Farke at Norwich. Both Wilder and Neil have shown they are very good managers at this level and have recently won promotion from it automatically. Wilder also kept Sheffied United in the Prem, finishing 9th which was an incredible achievement forgotten about because things unravelled the year after. Of course there are some people out there in the world who might be able to get us up and then establish us but those are gambles. My view is you worry about staying up once you have got there and if necessary make a change once in the Premier League, as ruthless as that might be there's no room for sentiment. Once there you have the profile to attract top quality like Southampton did when they axed Adkins and brought in Pochettino. Even if it goes wrong you come back down with a big bank balance and sign the best Championship quality like West Brom have done.

The East stand where away fans are housed at Blackpool holds over 5000. Sounds like we've shifted just over 3000 with the allocations so far so unless there are safety reasons (it is a temporary stand) there should be plenty of scope for further tickets. Imagine Lancashire Police will be doing their bit to ensure we don't get many more but Blackpool would be daft to turn down the extra cash. Think people might be surprised by how full the home ends are - Blackpool are getting much better gates than they were in the Oyston days.

I'm well aware that there are huge numbers of Rovers affiated families in places like Chorley, Leyland, Bamber Bridge, Penwortham Again it seems the attitude is that these areas aren't ours, that they are too far away or belong to other clubs. If we had Premier League football then the problem would more or less take care of itself but until and unless we have that the Club needs to do more to persuade people in those areas to come here and ensure generations of fans aren't lost. Many of these people will never visit Blackburn unless for the football and over time will have less and less ties to the town. In the case of Chorley and Bamber Bridge again it baffles me why some see these places as PNE territory to hoover up support in when distance and travel wise it is just as easy to get to Ewood as it is to Deepdale from those areas. These sort of areas are also more affluent and attractive places to live and are growing rapidly with huge housing developments. Clitheroe is another one - loads of people moving there, nice houses being built - should be targeted with serious efforts including a Rovers bus. Is anything at all being done? Not that I'm aware of.

The failure of the Club to take any interest or make any effort in areas outside of the narrow confines of BwDBC I think is perhaps the most tragic and damaging thing that they have done, and takes some doing. I can perhaps forgive a newcomer to the Club and area who starts off with the expectation that the vast majority or all our support is in the town in which we are based. I imagine that this is the case at the majority of Football League clubs, and therefore quite rightly the majority of efforts are concentrated on those towns and cities rather than elsewhere. That is not the case at Rovers. And it is only going to get worse. Those running the Club should be aware of that by now and if they aren't then they aren't doing their jobs properly. I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of season ticket holders and match attenders at Ewood a season were people who live outside of BwDBC. Maybe it wouldn't be a majority but it would certainly be a substantial percentage. I also reckon that a lot of lapsed or former season ticket holders will not live in Blackburn or Darwen, and I also strongly believe that the most potential for growth lies outside of BwD - in surrounding areas such as Ribble Valley, South Ribble, Hyndburn and Rossendale. A refusal or avoidance of tapping into those areas is a recipe for disaster. Whilst attempts to engage the population of BwD are at times admirable restricting ourselves to these areas many of which are in groups who have no tradition of following football clubs is restricting the club and causing untold damage. This all happening at a time when the Dingles can rely on PL football and income to entice people and Stanley are undercutting us in our back yard whilst also making far more serious attempts to create a new generation of support by targeting primary school kids and families. It seems that there is some sort of belief or gentleman's agreement between clubs that Hyndburn is now Stanley's area for them to work on and we have to just focus on BWD. I'm afraid if that is the case then the Club is going to slowly die. It is also completely illogical, because Hyndburn is not Accrington, many parts of Hyndburn are as near to Blackburn as Accrington and even if they weren't this is a free market and it is our back yard. It is the equivalent of the dingles not promoting themselves in Nelson/Colne because they already have their own clubs or Preston stopping at the River Ribble because they don't want to upset Bamber Bridge or Chorley. So when we have the 'Next Gen' thing at Ewood and it is allocated exclusively to people from BwD I would love the club to explain why this isn't expanded to other Rovers supporting areas that are getting left behind. It is unforgiveable. I thought the Club had abandoned this nonsensical attitude but it seems not.

Neil played for Barnsley from 2000-2004. Quite possibly just visiting his old stomping ground and seeing friends rather than pursuing a job. More likely to be Barnsley manager this season than Rovers IMO.

I've little sympathy for Derby. They've spent massively in this league for 5-6 years, now their owner has got fed up and doesn't want to put any more in. Their attempts to fiddle to avoid sanctions also unpleasant and yet to be handed a sporting sanction although rumours one is coming. Most importantly a points deduction should see one place below us taken already and hopefully one relegation slot taken. I feel most sorry for Wycombe who were relegated last year whilst Derby survived because a points deduction wasn't imposed then.

Yes I have seen him play and you'll notice I accepted it is good news IF he is committing to the club. My point was that it is not normal for the CEO of a club to make such a point about the signing or otherwise of a 16 year old especially one who cannot be committed to the club and we might end up looking silly at that announcement. I don't count a raft of loans as signings. We've been talking about new terms for over a year and nobody bar the academy products on small money have committed. Something is wrong.

For a club that is no more attractive than us and in a worse league position to appoint him. Then we can make up excuses why he wouldn't come here and pretend there's nobody better than Mowbray available.

I don't think the owners will make the decision. Honestly. I think they will be more than happy for Mowbray to stick around as they trust him and he doesn't give them a hard time so that's all they are really bothered about. I think that assuming we don't get relegated then the decision will be all Mowbray's. The question will be whether he fancies sticking around and facing whatever fun and games the owners and their associates have in store. By that I am referring to further budget cuts, austerity, confusion, delay interferance in recruitment and inability to get deals done or even renew contracts. Many managers would have had enough by now but Mowbray seems to have the patience of a saint. Probably because he knows he won't get a better club than this and is in no rush to go anywhere.

They are billionaires so I'm sure they could finance it however they wanted. Every argument you come up with to poo poo potential alternatives to Venkys already exist with Venkys. How could they fund it yet Venkys have put the club hundreds of millions in debt so what difference would it make. Maybe new owners could clean Ewood and replace the pitch. That would be a nice start.

There's a reason it keeps getting mentioned. Its a sideshow. Makes up for the lack of signings and situation with senior players out of contract soon. As has become the case under this regime an inability to get business done with senior players sees the focus turn onto getting much cheaper and easier deals done for kids. Since when did the manager and CEO make such a fuss about a 16 year old agreeing terms? Never happens. Even if Phillips is in some way committed to the club (I can't see how he has done anything other than shook hands) let's get some perspective. Good news yes, a bright prospect yes, but just look at the squad and the state it will be in soon. No amount of pre contract agreements with 16 year olds will make up for that P.s no mention of Lenihan's new contract that Waggott claimed previously he was days away from signing? Surprise surprise - he's a con man and I wouldn’t believe a word he comes out with when on the spot with supporters.

Expect Forest to be interested in getting Chris Wilder in. They'd be mad not to try. Another top manager who we should have been after who will be snapped up by a rival club in the near future.

The idea that they need the players to be able to attempt any engagement initiatives with the support offers a glimpse into just how off the pace they are and how short they are on ideas. They really think engagement just needs them to arrange for a player or two to meet with fans or pop into a local primary school and that's all there is to it. No idea as to the enormous sustained effort the whole club needs to embark upon and sustain for years to come to engage or re-engage people and get them back to Ewood. One look at Accy Stanley will show the sort of thing that needs to happen - ticketing, commercial, matchday, initiatives to get people in. This regime - unwilling or unable to make the effort needed and clueless as well - think all they need to do is arrange for a couple of players to sign shirts in the club shop. Embarrassing.

Ah the old 'doesn't want to move up North' excuse. A classic Rovers one that. An issue that doesn't seem to affect any other club in this region who can recruit from all over the world and attract players from here to Timbuktu yet a lad desperate to progress his career won't move from Southampton to the glamour of Manchester/Cheshire near the superstars of City/United/Liverpool, yet is happy to move to a corner of South Wales. Talk about going through the motions and fobbing people off. Gets asked a simple question and can't even come out with some sort of coherent response and instead just answers an altogether different question. A few of his 'will look into it'. Ridiculous that we have done a deal with a new kit manufacturer, released 3 very nice and popular kits and then have no stock to sell. Of course blame the pandemic, amazing that hasn't prevented anyone else getting them on sale and hasn't stopped Accy Stanley getting hold of their thousands to give away to kids. No intention of doing anything. Coasting along, taking home a kings ransom and I'm starting to think he's laughing at us now.

The day after our lowest home league crowd in three decades up the road at Accy Stanley Andy Holt is busy with his free shirt day/giveaway, writing to all primary schools in Hyndburn inviting them to Stanley, free transport, to pick up their free replica shirts. Anyone at Ewood worried, bothered, interested?

Never mind attendances increasing, I'd be more than happy if we could just get back to the figures that we were getting a few years ago in this division. Because one thing everyone should remember over the coming weeks and months is that 9000 is not normal or typical of this club in this league - between 2012 and 2019 gates were higher than that and up until the Coyle fiasco we were getting season ticket sales of 10-11,000. Not ideal or enough to relax on but enough to ensure crowds of 13-14000 a week and a solid core to build on. What has happened over the last couple of years is an erosion of those numbers and at a rapid rate. Some will say that the reason for that is poor football or people not wanting to watch mid-table Championship fare. I'm not sure I would agree with that given the figures above. It is probably a factor - but I can't overlook the fact that the recent 25% fall in sales and decline to 8000 then 6000 season ticket holders under Waggott's management correlates directly with the club introducing not small but significant price increases. If we were floating around with 10 or 11,000 season ticket holders but unable to achieve an increase on that then it might be something that the club could take in its stride and say that is 'our lot' at this level without promotion. But when you are facing a decline of approaching 50% sales on what we had a few years ago at this level - down from 11,000 to circa 6,000 - then there should be all sorts of alarm bells ringing. Yet I get the impression there's no such thing, Just a shrug of the shoulders whilst Waggott gets his calculator out and plots how much he needs to increase prices to cover it.