JHRover

I've heard some rubbish in my time but the suggestion that the training ground for Rovers needs to be or should be within the boundaries of BwD I think tops the lot. Of course if we didn't have a training ground to start with it would make sense to look as close to home as possible for a site to build one but this conveniently ignores the brilliant facility we have not 20 minutes from Blackburn which is set in beautiful countryside easily accessible from the M6 and A59. I too find it strange how Waggott made a comment about how it might be better being in BwD and then lo and behold someone I've never heard of before is turning up at fans forum meetings arguing it would be better if it was. It's one of the more daft suggestions I've ever heard. Brockhall is absolutely perfect as a location for a private training ground where professional players would want to work.

Why does anyone expect Waggott to honour refunds after what happened in 2019/20?

The owners will only notice it when the finance men raise it at the annual review. Waggott won't be bothered because he can just blame Covid and screw a bit more out of those who do go. Not long off retirement now anyway so his legacy of reducing the fanbase each and every season is certain to be intact. He can window dress by shutting the Riverside and moving the 1500 or so out of there and into the JW lower and BBE so it will look more full on telly. If they ever do notice or care about plummeting numbers it will be too late and they will be gone, many unlikely to return.

The pragmatic move would be to give Armstrong a long term new contract extension, protect our asset, build from there and make an assault on promotion. That is what a serious club would do. That is what Brentford have done with their star men which is why they've made so much money and been able to reinvest substantially in replacements. That is why Mowbray's talk about us copying Brentford is little more than lazy drivel to sound impressive. Actions speak louder than words. Given we haven't even managed to sort out deals like JRC and various other players who are on a relative pittance by Championship standards I think we can safely say that even if the club is trying to offer him a new deal (and I'm not convinced any serious efforts have been made) we aren't going to get very far for it. All well and good talking about a wage structure/ceiling but if it is the difference between getting £20 million for Armstrong or £7 million then surely it is a price worth paying to cough up on a wage increase? There is no other good outcome for Blackburn Rovers from this. The other options - those being keep him until January or next summer or sell him now - are damage limitation options. Best case is we get a reasonable fee for him (not that Rovers will benefit from it). If anyone at Rovers thinks we are getting £20 million for him with 1 year left on his deal then they need sectioning. This bravado will come to nothing and will achieve nothing other than wasting away precious time and making it even more difficult to source a replacement. I remain doubtful that a Newcastle or Southampton will be interested. I think it will be a case of Rovers then touting him around various rival Championship clubs who will then exploit our desperation and get him for a pitiful fee. If the intention is already there to use the loan market for such replacement then I suppose it suits those at the club to leave his departure until the last minute, that way nobody can expect reinvestment of funds and season ticket cash will already be banked.

Agreed. Most clubs can survive dark days because usually they only last for a few years and then a resurgence begins. The Boltons, Blackpools, Lutons, Portsmouths have had financially enforced hardship which has lasted 3,4,5 years but then they've come out of the other side of it soon after with what appear to be decent new owners who understand their clubs, clear the decks financially and put the effort in to rebuild it. We are now into year 11 of this ownership with no end in sight. Unique because most people would either have got fed up or run out of money by now. Venkys appear to have endless reserves of both. That period of time will wear down anyone. You can get away with 3,4,5 years of diminishing crowds, spiralling performance and neglect but we are looking at an entire generation here. It is difficult enough as a 2nd tier club in this area of the country but when you combine it with what we have here - will the club ever recover from it? I know Waggott and the people at Rovers will spin it and claim that work is done to engage with the community - pointing at the Community Trust and their work and the employment of this 'liason' officer or whatever he might be but it is barely scratching the surface. Proper efforts to engage fans - ticketing initiatives, improved matchday experience, travel to Ewood - all neglected because they require too much effort to put in place.

I've read Rich Sharpe's article twice and can't see anything in it that suggests Southampton have any interest other than they are "said to be in the market" for another forward. Given Rich Sharpe (not that I particularly blame him) doesn't even have the inside track on what is happening at Rovers, am I supposed to believe he knows who Southampton are looking at? Or rather is this just complete guesswork based on the sort of clubs likely to be interested in a young British player from the Championship? It remains a source of interest for me that the club has just waved off 10 players yet all the focus and attention is on who we are going to sell Armstrong to. Just what is the aim here and who is pushing this?

The only things we can base predictions on right now are what we have and what we think we are likely to have. Right now, with the players leaving and the strong likelihood that we will flog Armstrong, with Dack out until the end of the year and may not recover, and a poor manager still here after last season's shambles the only logical prediction I can come up with is a long hard season of struggle. Everything that has come out of the club (admittedly not a lot) since the end of last season points towards cost cutting and extremely limited funds (if any) to strengthen the squad. Now that might be Mowbray and the club being canny and crafty and leading people to believe funds are tight, but I think more likely is that it is true and we are skint. This might change, if they surprise us with some funds or rabbits out of hats in the transfer market. But I think both are unlikely to happen. My expectation is the only hope they have for funds being made available for new players is by selling some first. And top of that list is Armstrong. I wouldn't trust that to happen. I think expecting reinvestment of substantial funds from Venkys is optimistic - see Rhodes and Gestede. The money is more likely to disappear under the banner of FFP rules and excuses about not having enough time to get replacements in so we get some loans instead.

Because for all the talk and sob stories about how hard up we are and how tough it is the long and short of things is that the club doesn't really want to grow the fanbase or maximise sales. It is nothing but a convenient excuse for poor performance - that we have relatively small gates and need more money - but actions (or lack of) speak louder than any words and they just don't have the interest or desire to change it. In the past they've known that 8000 will sign up come what may and eventually they decided that with that in mind they were going to screw those 8000 for every penny rather than increase beyond 8000. I think they arrogantly assume that the same 8000 are sat at home desperate to get back to Ewood and will be sat by the phone waiting to sign up as soon as the club can be bothered to do anything. I think they might be in for a surprise from how I'm feeling and what I've picked up from other regular season ticket holders.

Would also expect a game against Fleetwood. The Grayson and Dunn connection there. Unless Grayson is miffed we've let his lad go.

We were close to getting stuck in a relegation battle and that was with Armstrong firing and and Elliott in the ranks and after a good start to the season. Unless something surprising happens and assuming the status quo remains then I fully expect a relegation battle and possible relegation. You can't operate like we operate and expect much more. A good budget and being able to outspend other clubs might keep heads above water but when that stops and players are sold it will be a downward spiral. We've seen it all before. Seems lessons haven't been learned.

I would certainly hope or think that there is potential here to resurrect Rovers TV and actually produce a channel, even if just via YouTube or the club website at limited hours, to a good standard. I notice that Charlton have their own in house channel which includes all sorts of pre and post match interviews with people at the club. In this day and age and with the Covid remote viewing experience to draw from there should be good value to it. They want to promote the womens team so putting their games on it is one way of getting people to watch. They could also broadcast all the u23 matches home and away.

I just can't understand this 'trusting' a CEO thing. It just isn't the real world. On what planet do billionaire businessmen keep hold of a loss making enterprise and allow it to fail because they don't 'trust' anyone to run it for them? It's nonsense. It is also nonsense that you would employ substandard or clueless people - Kean, Waggott, Agnew, Singh - because you do trust them and allow that trust but incompetence to ruin the club. I could - almost - believe and understand it if they had been at the club for 6 months and were still finding their feet and getting to grips with things and they were new to . But after nearly 11 years I just don't accept, believe or understand it. Nobody - nobody - no matter how rich or clueless - buys a business on the other side of the world, in an industry they have no knowledge of - and then allows that business to underachieve and fail and doesn't take steps to sort it because they don't 'trust' someone to run it for them.

It is almost beyond belief. Last time I checked we were a professional sports club operating in a multi-million pound competition aiming to get to the most lucrative league in the world. Yet you could easily believe this is just a part time amateur operation with no purpose or aim other than to recycle players and keep certain people comfy. I don't know what part of this is worst. a) That we are so devoid of ambition that we are offering people like Bennett and Chapman new contracts b) That those players haven't ripped our hands off for the chance to stay at this club c) That we are still mucking around with this 'will they, won't they' approach heading into June. Any offers should have been put forward months ago and they should have been jettisoned already if they showed any reluctance to sign. Whatever it is it isn't good enough, on any level. Typical Mowbray and Rovers though. No aim nor ambition for next season but make sure the good lads have another year or two out of this if they fancy it. Amari Bell didn't. Makes you wonder what pitiful terms we are offering here, but with Venky taps turned off it will be whatever Waggott can find rattling around the club coffers. Enough to hand out deals to a few of the academy lads but not enough to sign game changing quality.

The point of course is that there was a claim going round that he wouldn't be obtainable for a Championship club and particularly not one in the North of England without substantial investment. Unless the Prince at Sheffield United is suddenly changing his ways they won't be throwing tons of money at it. If Venkys (apparently billionaires who want us to get promoted) wanted Jokanovic we could have beat Sheff Utd to the chase by lining him up to take over several months ago. We haven't done it because they don't want to. Not because Jokanovic wouldn't come. He clearly would if the offer was right.

That's our choice. Venkys could pay him if they wanted to. Sheffield United are hardly rich.

Turns out he did want to leave Qatar and return to the second division, after 2 years of people saying he was unaffordable/unobtainable.

We aren't in a position to lose any more players, let alone the few we have who we know can contribute something meaningful and positive to the team. I feel like I say this every summer. We are having an exodus of players out of contract or loan. Last count was ten having triggered extensions on Nyambe, JRC and Rothwell. The only thing the people running Rovers should be thinking about and worrying about right now is how we replace those ten players. Lots of work to do, not much time or money to do it and not much of a good record in past seasons. At a club or with a manager with an ounce of ambition the aim would be promotion, and players recruited with that aim in mind. Here the standards and ambitions are drastically lower and the aim on that front will be to find loans and frees to fill in gaps for the season, and with a bit of luck hope someone from the academy does the job on a small salary without needing to bring anyone else in. It baffles me as to why there would be any desire, focus, effort or even consideration of getting rid of people like Armstrong and Rothwell at this juncture. We know from experience that those two are two of a very small number of players we have that have the experience and ability to threaten the opposition. Yet the impression I get is that a large part of our efforts and focus is on trying to bring bidders to the table for those two, which if it happens will wipe out virtually all our goal threat (assuming the two oafs don't suddenly come good) What sort of club is this?

As predicted we are now in the 'dust settling' phase. Go off on holiday, keep quiet, let the catastrophic run and performances of January to April drift into the distant past. The local media are busy away doing their bidding by regurgitating interviews about which players and positions we need to address, how the summer provides an opportunity. All this does is implant things in people's minds - makes them think it is business as usual, that there's no decision to be made, that anyone entertaining ideas of him going are barking up the wrong tree, that the only issues for discussion here are which players we let go and which we bring in, and subconsciously prepare them for full steam ahead with Mowbray come July. Him and Waggott aren't daft. Keep quiet, say nothing, let the dust settle and then by July most people will have forgotten about last season and those who haven't will be shot down with the usual 'its in the past' 'whats done is done' 'we need to look forward, not backward' stuff. Eventually desperation to get back to watching live football for many will trump any particular interest in who is running the show or how bad they are at it. Not all mind, I'm sure season ticket sales will be evidence of what people really think of the shambles.

Might as well have Zinedine Zidane or Jogi Low lined up. No vacancy though so they could offer to do the job for free and Mowbray would still be here.

All will finish above us and I'll have a bet at least one of those three finishes in the top 6.

Both Birmingham and Nottingham Forest granted Category 1 academy status for next year. All these other clubs growing and improving meanwhile Waggott wants us to knock ours down and lose it. Note that these clubs are Championship not PL and don't have parachute money so we can put that little excuse to bed.

We had almost a year to appoint him after he left the Ireland job and he was desperate to get back into the Championship. We could have been proactive and made a move. We missed the boat. Cardiff got themselves a good manager and we are still lumbered with a poor one. Can say the same for Forest with Hughton and Middlesbrough with Warnock. These sort of managers aren't gambles.

Mick McCarthy lost 3 of his 22 games at Cardiff. They'd lost 6 on the bounce before he went in What is old or boring about that?

"Managed to escape" suggests his position was under serious threat but he has somehow talked his way out of it. I don't believe that has happened. Venkys simply have no interest. Never have, never will. That's why Kean was able to wreak havoc for 2 years without intervention, why Coyle was allowed 8 months of abysmal results and why Mowbray is still here. It may make people feel better about things if they think Venkys are interested or keeping track of things but it really is just plain old fashioned couldn't care less.

I think it went further than that. I think Lambert was sold the same bull%hit that we fans have been sold since day 1. That we have billionaire owners that never refuse funding requests. That the owners love the club and want it to prosper and succeed. That they will provide a war chest to get promotion. It goes on and on. They and their associates/stooges have been trotting that line since day one of their ownership and continue to this day. It's all nonsense and hollow words. The actual reality of what happens in comparison to what they say/claim/want people to think is very different. Lambert probably saw what many others see - a once great club with all the facilities and structure in place to succeed and thought the owners might back him on that. It was a sensible move by him to include a break clause in his contract if it didn't work out. But maybe it suited them just as much - they got Paul Senior in on a similar sort of temporary arrangement to keep the locals quiet for a few months and then he 'resigned' at the end of the season. He's the only one of their 7 managers who was able to walk out and get a similar job elsewhere. The rest have all ended up in the backwaters of League Two or abroad. I think the penny dropped quite quickly with Lambert that they weren't going to stump up the considerable cash that would be needed, so he then moved on to plan B which was to sell Rhodes for big money and in doing so get permission to spend those funds rebuilding the squad, avoiding the need for the owners to cough up the funds. Then when they wouldn't even authorise that it was quite clear there was no way forward. We'll get the same this summer with Armstrong if he departs - anyone thinking cash will be reinvested is deluded.