JHRover

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.

We can discuss it all day and night on here but the big problem is that we will spend more time thinking, worrying and discussing it than the people at Rovers will. Venkys won't know or care. Waggott will only be interested in £s through the till and making those that go pay more. The general staff down there will see their job getting easier on the same pay. Easier to handle 9000 than 14000. No incentive to anyone down there to boost numbers. This is how clubs die. The problems at Blackpool, Bolton, Portsmouth etc. came and went in the space of a few years. Ours are a decade in the making and will continue.

Thats the other side to Mowbray though. Unable to achieve the consistency or ruthlessness required to keep on winning and really push in up the league. How many times have we been in this sort of position? Have a reasonable run of form, get within a win of being in the top 6, then blow it.

I am firmly of the belief that the reason we got these lads from Brighton and Leeds is because those clubs were happy to send them here for nothing, or close to nothing, in return for us giving them regular game time and getting them playing proper football. This can be the only logical explanation for why we waited on them for so long and seemingly pushed the deals through despite the lack of fitness. I find it unbelievable that we waited until deadline day to sign a loan who had a 'pre existing' injury who is not going to be fit for weeks.

Cooper left Swansea because they mucked him around on transfer funds which was going to make his job impossible after two play off appearances. I doubt he would want to get involved with the clowns owning and running Rovers and a budget that sees us wait all summer to borrow injured kids from Brighton reserves. I hope you recognise how ridiculous this is getting. So you refer to Mick McCarthy as 'living in the past' and a 'boring suggestion' - this a bloke currently doing an excellent job at a rival Championship club, has a record of promotion and play off campaigns over many years and has recently managed abroad and at international level. Yet you persist with the Gareth Ainsworth obsession- a bloke who has been at Wycombe Wanderers for nearly 10 years, had one Championship season which ended in relegation. More significantly than that the football Wycombe have been known for over most of those years has been direct, physical and reliant on set pieces, all traits you say we should avoid because it doesn't suit our squad and is boring to watch. Bizarre.

Babu has been around Rovers since day 1. Pasha has been around since 2015 since when Mowbray has been to India and had meetings with Mr Desai. I think it is just a convoluted mess. I don't doubt Balaji has the most 'interest' out of them but I still believe the ultimate purse strings are controlled by the Desai's, and it is the lack of meeting with them in India that sees things grind to a halt here, as it did from 2015-17 when no managers went to India. Kean, Bowyer and Mowbray all knew the way to get things done and survive was to go to the ultimate power and that wasn't Balaji.

Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. I think it is quite obvious that to get anything done it needs the approval of Mr and Mrs Desai. It might be Balaji's toy but they pay for it, or at least the big expenses.

I really don't think it is a difficult one to understand. Mr and Mrs Desai control the pursestrings - the cash that comes in from the businesses in India. They'll pay the wages and running costs but will only go above and beyond that when someone persuades them to do so. Usually that is when the manager gets on his plane to India, sits around for a few days waiting for an audience with them so he can put his proposals forward. We've seen it under Kean, Bowyer and Mowbray - the three managers to recieve time and backing - that they had to do this every summer to get proper cash for players from the owners. They won't do it remotely and they won't come to the UK. Conversely Lambert and Coyle got no real cash to spend because they didn't go and meet them in India. For one reason or another Mowbray hasn't had that opportunity now since 2019. That might be because of Covid restrictions, or it might be because the owners refused to meet with him. They wouldn't meet Bowyer in 2015 for one reason or another either which just so happened to coincide with them selling players, cutting costs and spending nothing. They move in cycles - meet a manager who goes out there, tells them how fantastic they are, promises to do a good job and work very hard and that in a couple of years we should be getting money back on investments or pushing for promotion. When that time comes around and promotion hasn't been anywhere near there is a cutback. This is the way Venkys work. Always has been.

I know he was sold. I asked what you think would have happened if he couldn't be sold, which might have happened. I don't think it made any difference to our summer - if he wasn't sold we would still have been able to sign the players we did - cheap loans - do you agree? If you do then you've confirmed my point - that the sale of Armstrong and business done afterwards had nothing to do with FFP and more to do with an unwillingness to spend either way from within Rovers. To be honest I'm not interested in reports on who we tried and failed to sign. Lets call it Assombalonga syndrome - we have these every transfer window and then all sorts of excuses afterwards about why we couldn't get it done.

For heavens sake. The last two years of his Brighton spell? You mean after he had got them into the PL and they were staying in the PL and getting to an FA Cup semi? I'd take wasting some money if he delivered that. Last season at Forest he was a success. He took over when they were in the bottom three and kept them up. They finished 5 points behind us despite our 'journey' of 4 years under Mowbray and him having had no opportunity of recruitment at Forest and them going through a different manager every season. As I've said - his tactics and style get teams promoted and quickly. So they work. Whatever tactics Mowbray have take teams nowhere. We are six games into the season. I bet if we were around the bottom 3 now you'd be quick to point that out. Yet now desperate to be proved right that Hughton is a 'dinosaur' because they've had a poor start. What do you have to say about McCarthy - another one you were labelling too negative and finished last year - doing alright isn't he? I've no idea in his 'record' with academy players - he didn't get his job at Newcastle, Brighton or Forest on that basis. His job is to get teams promoted. That should be Mowbray's job and focus. The only 'recruitment plan' we should have is getting a side together to get promoted. Great if that can involve the academy but if not then get external players in. Its the sign of a club going nowhere and a manager incapable of delivering promotion that goes on about needing to bring through academy lads all the time. I want promotion. Nothing else.

No such thing as a crystal ball in football. But I'd say there was a pretty solid expectation that one or both of those players, or Dack/Armstrong, would be potential £10 million+ players and would cover that outlay yes.

Sheffield Wednesday were under FFP restrictions last year (we aren't as confirmed by the club) yet they were still able to sack of Garry Monk, Tony Pulis and all their coaching staff and replace them with other proven managers. So I don't accept the excuse that FFP is preventing us from removing Mowbray or attracting anyone decent. You'll also remember then that Paul Lambert (on paper our only decent looking appointment since Allardyce) arrived during the time we were under an embargo. Seemingly convinced that we had a plan to get out of it. Not sure why something similar couldn't happen right now and a good manager be brought in on the basis he could get ready for backing next year. He didn't go to India last year for good reason. The world was locked down and nobody knew what was happening with the football seasons. This summer he could have gone out there or alternative plans could have been made with a conventional summer window. How many times do I have to say this? We lost £20 million last year in no small part due to the pandemic. Costs attributable to the pandemic can be discounted from FFP calculations. So that figure should be substantially lower. The massive savings made in terms of the wage bill and Armstrong cash would also be factored into any discussions with the League on restrictions - if they were suggesting restrictions were coming we could show that we had slashed costs down and brought cash in. I also keep coming back to the Millwalls, Lutons and Barnsleys - smaller clubs who manage to attract decent managers, build squads, finish mid table or push the play offs and all without any FFP trouble. Why can't we do that?