JHRover

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?

The sort of deal we should be after to replace our talisman. Sadly they've already set the bar low on expectations of any replacement for Armstrong let alone a decent one. Soon to be 12 out 0 in. Mowbray's next excuse will be that clubs and agents are demanding too much because they think we've got the Armstrong money burning a hole in the pockets. It will be excuse after excuse with little action to show for it. Whether it is £10, 12 or £15 million matters Little. It won't be of benefit to Blackburn Rovers and it is a bargain in today's world of English young goalscorers. Shame because that sort of player sale should catapult us forward and enable quality reinvestment. But, like with Venkys millions, what should be of benefit won't be.

I suspect in a few weeks or months time Armstrong will give an interview and claim that there was never a contract offer from Rovers on the table. I think the same happened with Ben Marshall. If that happens it will be a choice for individuals as to whether they believe the player, who would have little reason to lie, or the people at Rovers, famed for their arse covering, who would have every reason to lie.

Are the club not selling Macron training gear i.e. t shirts or tracksuits? Went on the website but couldn't find anything other than the kits.

Agree. The cost of relegation exceeds that and isn't worth taking the risk.

If the club was competently managed then the wages squandered on contracts to Ayala, Downing, Smallwood, Samuel, Graham, Hart and Leutwiler last summer would instead have been diverted into giving Armstrong a pay rise and new long term deal. At that stage he was some way off a PL move but had shown clear signs of his capabilities and wouldn't have had a better offer than that. We could have secured him until 2024 or 2025. We would now be able to relax and demand minimum £20 million knowing that we'd have plenty of future opportunities to sell if nobody paid the asking price. There was zero suggestion of any attempt to sign him up to a new deal. Mowbray prioritised wasting money on deals for players he had no intention of using and who were of no financial value. Result? Probably at least 10 million off Armstrong's sale price. Next news is they moan about struggling under FFP requirements. I wonder why when missing out on that sort of cash?

Expect Preston to struggle. Not the strongest squad and inexperienced manager. Suspect that will turn out to be a poor appointment and quite foolish. The old promote assistant/caretaker to full time manager rarely works.

Portsmouth got a good win at Fleetwood. I expect them to be challenging for promotion. Think Sunderland, Sheff Wed and Ipswich will be top 6 too. Orient will be a top 7 side under Jackett IMO. A very good manager for that level.

Great to kick off the season with a win for the first time in years. I felt before the game that Swansea at home was an ideal fixture for us with their issues and departures. The team clearly worked their socks off and couldn't be faulted on that front. I still remain deeply concerned by our depth and options. That bench is worrying and had we been level or behind with 20 minutes to go I'm not sure there is anything there to trouble the opposition by way of changes. That simply has to change. Even if it means bringing in a lower league 6 foot 5 carthorse to rough the opposition up and aim for on set pieces. We just need something there to bring on. Likewise reinforcements needed defensively to avoid an inevitable crisis. 3 down 47 needed. Thats the only aim and hope I have. It was great to be back at Ewood and it felt normal. Didn't feel like nearly 18 months had passed since the last one. I was positively surprised by the number of people there, particularly in the BBE. I hope that isn't inflated significantly by it being first game back and first game of the season.

His days were numbered at Coventry. If he hadn't walked he would have been pushed. He thought he was too good for League One to start with. Never mind League Two. Here he won't be. There's still a large chunk of people who think he is god's gift and a blessing, that he cannot be questioned and is the best thing about this club. He's full of himself so isn't going to pack in when he's got so many eating out of his hands and he's still in the Championship. He won't be sacked. He's got this one stitched up good and proper for him and his mates to enjoy. Our owners who have 'learned lessons' have been had again. Hook line and sinker.

Let's see how many of the 24 Championship clubs actually do away with a programme. Anyone who has purchased a programme at away grounds will know that it is feasible to produce a decent standard product and sell it at £3. Here however we have a can't do attitude. Can't have a club shop in the town, can't put season tickets on sale, can't get new kits on sale, can't can't can't. Rapidly wondering why they even bother opening the doors. Would be easier and cheaper to not bother.

Anywhere else there would have been massive alarm bells many months ago. Here i doubt they will even know or care that we aren't getting 18000 anymore. But we're lucky to have them.

All just cheap gimmicks in a late and desperate attempt to improve morale around the place and shift a few tickets to get away from league embarrassing levels. Mowbray talking and talking about wanting at least 5 loans in - nobody here Inviting popular ex player back. Letter 'from' the owners pledging their support and 'intention' to turn up and see a game at some point. Some of us can see through it all. Waggott's panicking.