JHRover

Too busy rolling to finish reading my sentence which included the words IMPROVING IT. I acknowledge they pay bills and wages on time, as they are contracted to do, and as they have to do unless they want the Club taking off them by administrators. They will not spend on IMPROVING the club. Facilities, staff, structure - left to rot for a decade. That's why its the mess it is. Like having a house. Paying the mortgage on time and expecting gratitude and credit for it whilst sitting back letting the place fall down and diminish in value due to neglect.

Venkys want to run the club like a corner shop operation. Spend nothing on improving it, take no interest in it but pay the staff on time and make sure you trust the manager to run it for you. Absolutely incompatible with modern business of this size and complexity and especially in the weird world of football They haven't learned a thing on that front since the day they arrived. Just replaced Kean and Anderson with Mowbray and Waggott. Mowbray is at least a manager albeit a mediocre one and Waggott at least some background in running a club. Neither good enough, neither should be here yet Venkys let it rumble on whilst chucking millions down the drain.

Adam Armstrong now starting games and scoring for Southampton in the Premier League v Everton and Man Utd Harvey Elliott starting games for Liverpool in the Premier League. We had both last season and Mowbray delivered a relegation battle and an eventual 15th place finish. Makes me wonder. How on earth this mon is still in a job. But then again this is Tony Mowbray FC. He's more important than anyone and anything at Ewood Park. Outrageous really but the spin doctors down there assisted by the local media have already erased last season from memory and used Covid as the excuse for anything that happened in it. Meanwhile the rest of the football world lives in reality and gets on with things.

The permanent striker thing is just a red herring. They are feeding Sharpe scraps like this to keep the twitter legions and Telegraph readers quiet until the end of the window and keep them thinking that the Armstrong money will be getting reinvested and there's a chance we might get our own player of decent quality through the door. Incapable of issuing contracts even to our own academy products, let alone players coming in. I'll be happy to be proved wrong but suspect we get to deadline day with the 'working on' line keep getting pushed then the window slams shut, no permanent signing comes in, then it will be talk about revisiting deals in January which is 'only' a few months away then when the time comes there's no money and it's a bad time to do business. Having us on this lot. Remember - always tomorrow, never today Signings, tickets, pitch, improvements, contracts - always being worked on, planned, intended - rarely materialise under the con men.

Excellent start to the season? 2 wins, 2 defeats and a draw is excellent? Decent or better than expected yes. Lesson to learn here is that no matter who he has or what combination of players he uses we still concede goals. It comes down to coaching, organisation and resilience. In short supply here with this mon who thinks he's Pep.

I'm expecting a narrow defeat here. Middlesbrough have had a bit of a sticky start to the season. A good draw at Fulham, narrow win at home v Bristol City, narrow defeat at home v QPR and a draw at Derby. Not a great start but solid. We seem to have had the better of Warnock over the last few years. I remember us beating his Rotherham side at their place last game of the season, then when he was Cardiff manager we seemed to do ok against them, often drawing, then last year we picked up 4 points against his Middlesbrough side. Expect a low scoring affair. I can't see us keeping a clean sheet. Quite looking forward to this one but that's more to do with having a day out, a nice drive and seeing friends rather than visiting the Riverside or watching Rovers, neither of which I find particularly enjoyable these days.

This isn't true. Media and commercial income has continued throughout and even increased by way of additional payments from Sky/PL clubs to bridge the gap. Ticketing revenues collapsed yes but this applies to every club and given the numbers we have turning up is a smaller loss than most have had to cope with. Many fans, myself included, have had enough of lies, contempt and bullsh1t from the club. Like promising a price reduction last season then 3 months later hiking prices for all during a pandemic. The club chose to do that. They have to live with the consequences. 25% less sales it is.

There is a mystery- like how we can sell a player for 8 figures, demolish the wage bill by releasing 15 players and yet still not be in a position to even be able to sign a few free agents, restricted instead to a handful of teenage loans. Operating in line with FFP also means ensuring assets are under contract, not what is happening here. Red herring this FFP stuff. This is on the owners and management not the rules.

It seems the stumbling block is the club offering any sort of lump sum or contractual commitment. Unable to extend players contracts. Unable or unwilling to pay out any fee. I find myself hoping that the reason for this is that Venkys are at the end of their tether and are packing their bags. Or, a slightly less exciting prospect, that Mowbray is on his last legs and they are refusing any further backing for him (albeit risking our Championship status and squad in the process). We should be so lucky. The more likely scenario is they just haven't bothered picking up the phone or having a meeting about Rovers recently so in the meantime the club limps along on its own meagre resources. Shambles.

Am I alone in being absolutely sick and fed up and bored stiff of this whole farce? The club is an embarrassment. I remember the good old days when we used to be better than the likes of Leeds. Better first team, better academy, above them in the pecking order. Yes, that was the case not 20-30 years ago but 4-5 years ago. We used to turn up at their ground and outplay them. Recently. Now we are gratefully accepting Leeds' kindness in allowing one of their youngsters out to us for the season. I suspected as much when we got Leeds to come to Ewood pre-season - I knew they would have their hopes pinned on Leeds returning the favour by sending someone our way for the year. Some call this good management. I call it corner cutting. Reading the Leeds' Director of Football comments on the move: "We feel Ian can make an impact here in the future and we've been very impressed with how Blackburn have developed players such as Harvey Elliott at Liverpool" Life comes at you fast doesn't it? As I say, only a few years ago we were better than Leeds, now they see us as a destination for their kids to go and develop. Some people might be impressed or happy at the Leeds' director of football seeing us as a good place to send their prospects. I'm not impressed or happy with it. I think all it does is highlight how they have rapidly progressed and how we have rapidly regressed in the space of a few years to the extent that they are now a million miles ahead of us. This is the way Venkys and their stooges want us to be. Basically a farm for the big boys down the road to send their prospects to develop then take back and enjoy the benefit of. If that's the way you want to do business so be it. But there won't be many more Adam Armstrong fees and there certainly won't ever be a promotion off it. I can't accept that.

Could always get a bargain with the 'meal deal' which is £8.50 for a hot dog and a pint.

We are in an embargo now. Or at least we might as well be. We could still sign teenagers on loan if we were under one. There are clubs under League restrictions and embargoes who have done more business than us. Remember the last time we were under an embargo? We still signed players (albeit poor ones). Nonetheless we handed out permanent deals on OK looking signings at the time - Danny Guthrie and Hope Akpan, and a very solid loan in Tom Lawrence. So all this talk about avoiding FFP trouble - what's the point? Where has it got us? We still can't sign anyone by the looks of things. Unless the truth is that Venkys have decided that no contracts are being issued and no signings authorised. This would make a lot more sense.

"I see some shoots of hope. The players work extremely hard, but it's a man's game," "They're babies in a man's league. "I probably let them down by not getting in the big 6ft 4in centre-half we were after, who could have been a man and help us keep clean sheets. "We knew what the budget was but we didn't get our targets. You can't build a club off loans. They have to invest in footballers they can keep and build on. "It's important that this group of players get support. I have not seen a team better than us this season but, if you can't put them in and you can't keep them out, you're going to struggle. "If they stick together, with the support of people, they can. The club needs to grasp the opportunity of keeping their young players." Tony Mowbray - September 2016 after leaving Coventry City in ruins. Anyone spot any similarities?

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).