JHRover

Last chance saloon for the Millers after a poor run - their games in hand are disappearing without wins and a home match against us is must win time with a 4 point gap. I'm glad we are safe because going there under pressure would not be pleasant. Who knows how it might go. We've tended to struggle there against their physicality and set piece threat and I think they'll want it more than us given their position. At the same time they're in poor form and might have run their race, whereas we are hitting our dead rubber good run to gloss over an abysmal season so we could easily hammer them 2 or 3 nil and further rehabilitate Mowbray's status.

I'm talking about Bielsa's assistant at Lille. Clearly rated highly by world class managers. The ambition would be to speak to him, see if he was interested, what his thoughts were and he might fancy it, assemble a structure around him. But of course at Rovers it's think small/local so prioritise local lads who are used to working in the 3rd and 4th divisions willing to go with whatever we throw their way out of gratitude for the job.

If we were being ambitious I'd have a word with Joao Sacramento. Just sacked as Mourinho's assistant at Spurs, has also assisted Galtier and Bielsa at Lille and Ranieri and Jardim at Monaco. Only 32 years old. Depends on if he fancies being a manager himself yet but a club such as ours would be a good level to start at. That's the sort of appointment that would make people sit up and take notice and show some ambition for the future.

So Waggott claimed a new Ewood surface would cost £2 million. Actually the price for a Desso pitch would be significantly less than that, but still over £1 million. Venkys are permitting £45,000. And we were supposed to believe this lot were going to sell Brockhall, reinvest the proceeds to a state of the art facility AND cough up extra? Con men the lot of em.

Indeed. Anyone on the ownership side of the club with any interest in sales, revenues, fans, atmosphere, attendances, income - would quickly realise this. Even those not sick to death of Mowbray and his cronies but might 'um and ah' about a season ticket would no doubt be much more likely to get one with fresh faces, ideas, people around the place and something to buy into than 'same again' This is a huge summer on and off the pitch. Make the changes - get rid of the busted flush and recruit sensibly - even on a limited budget - and the ending of restrictions could mean a bright future, healthy crowds, optimism. I'm afraid sticking with this lot and bad news on recruitment it could be the death knell for the club, both in terms of Championship status and in terms of future crowds.

£45,000!!! There are 4th and 5th division clubs spend more than that on their pitch and that's ignoring the problems we had this season due to a lack of investment in previous years. Good job we have model owners who "never refuse a cheque". Also a good job we have a CEO that told us a £2 million replacement was being sorted. He can't possibly have lied, can he? I've absolutely no doubt your information is genuine and correct. .The £45k figure tallies with what i have heard in previous years and is the reason the pitch ended up in the state is did this winter.

Worth noting that Macron merchandise on Forest's club shop is much, much cheaper than ours. For example, a thick winter bench jacket for them is currently £30. We don't even stock them but when we did they were up for £100. Tracksuit tops are £18 for adults, at the Rovers shop they are still charging £30 (that's after a £20 reduction) from an initial £50.

If you went to about 15 away games and used the free coach travel you would probably get your money back through that alone. Stoke run by people in touch with their fans and they get 20,000 season ticket holders.

Macron have been moving into the market more and more in recent years. Also in the Championship they sort Reading, Forest, Stoke and Millwall - I can't comment on the quality or fit but the designs I think are ok - for example the Millwall halved away shirt looked ok. Looking around the Championship most clubs are made by one of a few companies: Umbro - us, Luton, Brentford, Bournemouth, Derby, Huddersfield Adidas - Birmingham, Cardiff Hummel - Bristol City, Middlesbrough, Coventry Errea - Norwich, QPR Puma - Barnsley, Rotherham Macron - Reading, Forest, Millwall, Stoke Then Swansea (Joma), Watford (Kelme), Wycombe (O'Neills), Preston (Nike) and Sheff Wed (Elev8) are alone with theirs. Ignoring the minor ones at the bottom I'd sooner give Macron a try and see what they come up with than stay with Umbro or go with Adidas or Errea. Puma probably similar. Think Hummel would be the best option, Under Armour would be great but seems they don't go for Championship clubs.

Macron isn't bad IMO. Quite like some of the stuff they've done - Bristol Rovers would be a good one to look at given our design and colours.

I would have prioritised new contracts for JRC, Nyambe and probably Rothwell as a useful player to have around. Me saying the above - that the club hasn't even attempted renewals - is no different to claiming that they have but have been knocked back. It might be correct, it might not. Why would you believe what those at the club say?

https://www.stokecityfc.com/news/2021/april/21-22-Season-Cards-on-sale-from-Wednesday/ Rival season ticket update Stoke have them on sale from tomorrow. Prices frozen for 14th consecutive year. Early bird adults from £294 A range of benefits for ST holders: - 10% off home and away shirts and retail offers - Friends and family discounted tickets - 20% off home cup games - Free coach travel to all away games - Free admission to u23 and women games Meanwhile at Ewood how's our CEO getting on? Shame we're in a localised pandemic that prevents us doing anything.

I know when it was announced. I dont know the ins and outs or if there was ever any truth in the WBA rumours (i suspect not because they don't spend big money). Maybe the deal was on the table and he decided to sign it after his injury and rehab. I maintain that at the very least the extension for Dack was approved by India many, many months earlier than the announcement and probably before his injury and so fell under previous approval rather than the batch of extensions we are dealing with now. Remarkable coincidence that we have 10 senior players out of contract and all of them we are happy to release or are demanding too much money. The alternative possibility is the most likely- nothing has been done other than a lot of talking.

Dack's was sorted and teed up prior to the pandemic and his serious injury. They waited until he was fit again to sign and announce it but the deal was agreed and in place. The others - Dolan and Buckley - were cheap and easy deals to do - essentially converting their deals from youth/u23 terms to senior - and will have been easy to fit into the permitted budget and structure. The big ones - new terms for senior players - require specific authorisation from India - and they haven't had that. There's also precious little evidence of them being offered to the players - Mowbray throughout has been implying that with his reminders via the press of how important it is to keep your assets under contract - which is why not one contact has been signed by those senior players despite us clearly needing to get them signed. If, for example, we are offering terms to JRC and he is refusing to sign up then we need to seriously worry about the future. How hard can that one be? The fact that not even that one has been done tells me all I need to know - they aren't even trying to sort it. Believing that this is just down to players demands or Rovers looking elsewhere i think is foolish. Most likely is they just can't do anything. Same story as with season tickets. Not approved so can't announce.

I very much doubt any serious contract offers have been put to Armstrong or indeed any of those out of contract in a few weeks time. I have the impression that very little, if anything, has been done about the impending mass exodus. They'll get away with it in the eyes of the majority because most of those out of contract aren't very good but some of them a very useful/handy. Of course the club would love it if the supporters just believed that they had made multiple offers but greedy players/agents had rejected them and we were steadfastly sticking to our wage ceiling and not being taken to the cleaners. More likely is that these extensions fall outside of the annual budget and radio silence from India means nothing gets done or can get done until the go ahead comes through. This time last year I don't think Armstrong's stock was altogether that high. He had been on a good run but was still very much a streaky goalscorer with purple patches. I'm sure he would have signed a deal then with a deserved pay rise and more integral role in the team. 12 months on I very much doubt he would unless we offered big, big money. Whilst Rovers may have dawdled on such things you can guarantee the players' agents won't have and most of these, especially someone like Armstrong, will have spent the last few months getting things in place with other clubs.

Pearson's an odd one. He certainly doesn't fit into the same bracket as the Hughton, Bruce, Warnock, McCarthy's of the Championship who time after time go into clubs and have immediate positive impacts and haul teams into play-off contention. His job at Leicester was outstanding, but it was a slow-burner and took him 2-3 years to get them into shape with good backing behind them. He's an odd character and seems to leave clubs in strange circumstances - Leicester, Derby, Watford - and it wouldn't surprise me if he left Bristol in the summer. Obviously I'd rather have him here than Mowbray but I wouldn't see it as an immediate route to promotion as i would the names mentioned above. I also think it could go badly wrong with him - strikes me as a sort of character who players will either love and die for or one where people quickly turn against him and just don't take to his methods. That's before you get round to owners. Also wouldn't surprise me to see Bristol go after Chris Wilder.

A fascinating set of possibilities. I wonder if Forest will take it easy on Saturday against Sheff Wed to try and aid their survival chances at the expense of Wayne Rooney's club? Probably not so sneaky, but if it were us and we could contribute to Burnley's relegation I'd be well up for it. I'd like to see Rotherham survive and Rooney's side and Wednesday go down as FFP fiddlers but I think Rotherham might have played their hand and have too much to do from here. On balance I think I'd sooner see Rooney's side go down the Owls, I think both could go into a tailspin with relegation and off the pitch uncertainty and financial issues but then again I thought that about us and Hull and both bounced straight back. Sheff Wed a better day out and away trip than Derby though so there's that.

I detect a whiff of concern in Mowbray's latest comments on Armstrong. He's been advertising him for sale for the last 6 months so has now backtracked slightly in saying he would like him to be here and would like him to extend his deal. some of that is stating the obvious and sending a message to the fans, but I suspect some of it is a dawning realisation of the predicament we are in, both in terms of sheer dependence on Armstrong and also the financial implications of being forced to sell him this summer from a weak bargaining position. Clearly if the club had proactively dealt with this situation- handed him a bumper deal last summer as his hot streak was beginning- we'd be sitting very pretty now. But whatever we do get for him will be much less than we could. I suspect this is why Mowbray is now talking about a new contract but not stopping him moving if a PL club comes along. Presumably it is going to reflect badly on Mowbray if we end up getting a low fee or even nothing in 2022. There's a lot of talking going on about new deals yet little result. Good talkers here. Less doing rather hard luck stories.

I too am resigned to another summer and season of Mowbray. I expected that regardless of yesterday's result, but the victory over Huddersfield will reset the clock in the minds of many and you can already see it with 'back to back' home wins and 2 wins in 3 that they will be arguing that a corner has been turned. Of course those of us experienced in watching this manager will have expected these wins against dire opposition in dead rubber games when the pressure and expectation is minimal. We will probably get another 3-4 points from the final two games and then it is onto next season. Without significant changes I think relegation is quite probable next season, especially if we lose what quality we have and don't have money to sign decent new players. Shame because relegation would cost us an immediate £7 million, that's before ticket sales, other income and the loss of Championship status/damage to the club. On that basis alone you'd expect relegation to be a 'no no' and after 2 wins in 17 the manager to be on thin ice. Also on that basis you'd expect someone somewhere to calculate that it is worth spending a bit more to get a proven quality manager who would excite the fans, give you a chance of promotion or at least ensure survival rather than cut corners and costs by going for someone cheap who might well cost you your league status. Logic isn't to be found around this club though.

Wilder and Hughes need to get back to work to repair their reputations. If they think PL jobs are coming they are mistaken. How much was Wilder on at Sheff Utd? How much does someone used to managing in the lower leagues expect to be paid? I've no idea but what I do know is that someone in the Championship will employ him, soon, and I see no reason why that can't be us. Ainsworth has been a manager for 9 years, and has spent all of that, bar this season, in the lower divisions. If he wasn't from Blackburn he would barely have had a mention based on his CV alone. If 2 promotions in lower leagues are the requirement for this job I'll come back with 10 other names and ask why you wouldn't appoint them instead.

Ah right, so restrictions don't end in June then. I dont think the government and media should be advertising June as the end of restrictions if basic things such as attending a football match require x, y and z.

We are a big club in the football league. Aside from the PL clubs and maybe a third of Championship clubs we are big - in every measure - despite the efforts of some within the club to change that. The job here would be coveted by many, especially with the freedom Venkys allow in their disinterest. The budget is huge compared to many. We aren't some skint outfit cobbling together a squad on buttons, but even if we were there are good managers who would have confidence in working to it. Wilder did it at Sheffield on a relative shoestring. We're losing £20 million a year for a reason and much of that is subsidising an expensive squad of players and not selling anyone. A mid table Championship budget is still attractive. I don't see why that should be entrusted to a 3rd or 4th division manager. Why don't we entrust it to someone who has operated in the top 2 divisions and done well?

This is a big club, with a big budget and big aspirations. Why are some people so keen on looking at small clubs and their managers? Why not just go for someone who has managed a similar club and done well recently?

I thought restrictions were due to end, all being well, in June. Why/how can they stop away fans in August and beyond? They are on about having 90000 at Wembley for the Euros so on what possible basis could they prevent 1500 Rovers fans going to Birmingham?

My reluctance to buy a season ticket stems more from Waggott than it does Mowbray. I can accept garbage football and a team going nowhere (if the club does something to try and address it). I really struggle to justify subsidising Waggott's obscene salary whilst he milks fans during a pandemic, withholds money paid in good faith, schemes to sell our training ground and protects his failing manager friend. What makes you say there will be no away games? Why not?