He was running Charlton's Community Trust and had short unimpressive stints at Gillingham and Southend. His 'top' career job was CEO of crisis club Coventry, who had no stadium and interestingly embarked on a project to sell and build houses on their prized training ground. He's caused more harm than he's done good at this club, from what I can see, including reducing our support base and now selling off prized assets.

Nixon has blocked me so I can't but wouldn't anyway. I'm actually glad that Nixon has taken the line that Venkys are pushing this to rake in some cash - they won't like that (if they see it). We can only hope Waggott goes as soon as possible and that a proper appointment is made next time. I have to say that Waggott's background and experience elsewhere causes concern about him being CEO of Blackburn Rovers. If he can see this project coming to fruition he might postpone his retirement until contracts have exchanged and the money is banked. These people are taking us backwards.

I'm looking forward to seeing the planning permission for this 'state of the art' facility they want to build down at the academy site. Of course this project isn't to make money for people but is to better the club. So I would expect to see no expense spared in designing world class academy and training facilities using the millions generated from the sale of the existing facility. Leicester have just built a new state of the art facility and it cost them £100 million so for us to demolish and start afresh on the academy site and deliver a 'state of the art' facility it won't be cheap. The Gross Development Value of the top site is likely to be around £50 million. That is the total value of the houses when built, based on an average property price of £310,000 (Rightmove) and 170 units being built. Take out the developer's slice, construction costs, demolition costs, fingers in pies, planning costs - how much is left over? I'm also intrigued as to how they plan on fitting this super new facility on a relatively small site with limited access routes and parking and how they plan on building a huge indoor facility that will be many stories high and a blot on the landscape for miles down there. In short it is hard to believe this is anything but a big con. Get that valuable and easy to develop top site sold asap to developers, grubby hands on the proceeds and then send everyone down to the bottom site and chuck something together on the cheap down there. If 12 months down the line we lose Category A status who cares? The perpetrators will likely be long gone by then and they can just blame ever stringent regulations that favour the PL clubs. Some fans will just lap it up and be grateful. Job done, money banked and a sizeable portion of the fans accept, even embrace it, who will never see for themselves what has happened. Retirement here we come!

No news there from Nixon except a few thousand clicks for the Sun website on a Sunday morning which keeps him in work. Don't know where he has plucked £20 million figure from or what that is based upon. Probably just a guess based on sales of other training grounds. I remain convinced this is a Mowbray/Venus/Waggott scheme and the extent of Venkys' involvement is or will be to 'authorise' it. Another reason we need the three stooges gone asap before they cause permanent damage.

Mowbray just doesn't have 'it' in his locker to haul a team to promotion or the play-offs. That's why over 3 years at Boro and 3 years here, despite good backing and support from all angles he's never breached that glass ceiling of 7th/8th. He doesn't have what Warnock, McCarthy, Bruce, Dyche, Hughton have, which is the ability to haul a side up by forging them into a unit or team. We strike me at times as a bunch of decent individuals cobbled together reliant on one or two to do the business for us. His failure to accept full responsibility for our results further undermines his standing. It's one thing witnessing the season collapse in weary and familiar fashion but another that the man in control is coming out with every excuse under the sun, including nonsense about Liverpool and Brentford. He's out of ideas and excuses and is now desperately scratching around for whatever he can find until we stumble across another win to quieten things down for another few weeks.

Expecting the Walker Trust to do anything is optimistic. We'll have a better chance if current residents of Brockhall oppose and fight it whilst bringing up the covenant.

Another woeful afternoon. If that was 'more like it' in Mowbray's eyes I dread to think what 'it' could be. Once again unable to recover from going behind. Sign of a manager with no idea how to turn a game and a side without the know how or fight to do it. Reliant on another penalty and a moment of magic from Armstrong with his strike to go nearest to scoring. From open play we offered next to nothing. In Mowbray world we are 'on a journey' and looking forward to a bright new era with a new training ground. In the real world we are underachieving, sliding down the table whilst flogging off the assets. I expect a narrow win from either Watford or Coventry just to keep the serious heat off his back.

I always thought that the covenant was in place going back well before the sale to Venkys and was there when Jack Walker took the land from the previous owner at Brockhall. Might be wrong on that but I'd be surprised if there weren't restrictions on use imposed on that land when Walker bought it.

First alarm bell that should be going off is the fact that the club have only acted AFTER the news has emerged through fans doing homework online and spotting the planning application. If this is such a brilliant, ambitious and sensible plan why weren't they shouting about it from the rooftops early doors? I'll be honest I feel physically sick about this. Not just at the thought of Jack Walker's legacy being dismembered before our very eyes despite still being lumbered with Venkys but also the possibility that there are other agendas in play here with the Coventry-Venus-Waggott connection. I may be a cynic but expecting me to believe there is no connection is pushing it to the limit. The very thought of vultures picking at our prized estate, the envy of the land at one time, is sickening. Equally distressing is the volume of supporters online happily accepting the club's statement and feeling quite pleased about it. These people are beyond help yet I can't help but get angry at their gullibility to just accept whatever they are told. It's almost as though the last 10 years of misery and decline in every department haven't happened. The trouble is that very few of these people will have ever been to Brockhall or understand what the situation is like down there. The rubbish from the club referencing the facilities being 30 years old - nonsense. The senior training centre is a little over 20 years old. It is a fantastic facility to this day, and will cost a hell of a lot of money to even match never mind improve upon. Most PL clubs would love a facility like that. The new one the dingles built at Gawthorpe isn't as good and that was only opened a few years ago. Thank you Jack Walker. There simply isn't the space on the existing academy site to develop it into a state of the art facility able to house everything we need for a Championship club and Category A academy. It isn't big enough. Jack Walker knew this, which is why he funded construction of a separate site elsewhere. They'll worry about that after though. 99% of fans won't ever go to Brockhall to see for themselves what there is there so they'll just cobble together something on the cheap. They disgust me. I don't even think this is a brain child of Venkys. They are too distant and disinterested to push something like this. Mowbray-Waggott-Venus - this has your fingerprints on it. I want them gone. Now.

Precisely. There isn't the space without going onto the existing grass down there, and when you start doing that you lose pitches. The cynic in me is telling me there's no intention whatsoever of maintaining or improving the current facilites, it's just get everyone down there and make do with what we have. If we lose Category A status through having inadequate facilities then that's another bonus for them - saves a few million a year and can blame ever more stringent requirements.

I can't just find the original quotes - I'm sure he made them soon after his arrival but have looked and can't find them. If we look at the Fans Forum Minutes from July 2018 he mentions it: https://www.rovers.co.uk/contentassets/72f15c4f64fc46be88e3fa7646577133/ff-minutes-9-7-18.pdf Interesting that he was already publicly admitting these plans mere months after his arrival at the club and now here we are. This has been in the pipeline for years with this mon.

The plans don't contradict each other. The first plan is for 170 housing units along with other things on the existing Senior Training site. The second plan is to rebuild the lower academy site to house everything in one place. They make sense as two applications and are consistent with comments Waggott made previously about having one site rather than two. They will come up with all sorts to try and sell this to the fans. They'll roll Mowbray out to do his bit for the cameras as they have at past consultation meetings hoping his ramblings will have people eating out of their hands. Hopefully that old trick will have run out of steam now people are tiring of his drivel. They'll blame coronavirus. They'll try to argue it will be better for the team/club/academy to be all under one roof. They'll claim the new facilities will be better than the existing ones (they won't be better than what Jack built) and will suggest that the cash raised will enable further investment in the club moving forward (it won't) If Venkys can't fund us as we are they should leave.

What is even worse than these underhand attempts to sell off the crown jewels is the fact that there are already, before the club has responded and tried to sell it, many people online saying it is understandable, necessary or a positive. Apparently it is Mowbray's idea. I thought he was manager (hopefully not much longer) of the first team, not running the club so why is he involved in this sort of plan. The only positive to Venkys ownership to date is that they haven't sold off our great infrastructure. Looks like that will change thanks to the Mowbray-Waggott-Venus crew. They weren't enough for Coventry. They aren't good enough for Blackburn Rovers.

Nyambe wasn't just dropped. He was bombed out of the squad altogether. That's my gripe. A manager can pick his preferred XI on form, mistakes, plans but Nyambe if fit has to be in the squad and an option from the bench. There can be no excuse nor justification for that omission. I do not think any other defender - THB, Branthwaite, Lenihan, Ayala, Douglas, Bell - would ever be dropped out of the squad if fit. Mowbray wouldn't dare. He does with Nyambe.

I'm trying to work out how this could be done in any way that improves or maintains the offerings we currently have whilst saving substantially on cost/raising extra funds. I can't. I've been down the academy site many times before. The existing academy building, that used to be the senior training centre, is now relatively dated, and contains changing rooms, a canteen, gym, offices, kitchen. There is a car park, a groundsman's shed and then 4 or 5 full size pitches. I'm struggling to work out where they could build an indoor training centre with full size pitch, along with all the other facilites the senior training centre offers and that are part of modern day football - media suite, recreation space, swimming pool, recovery areas, manager's office, analysis suite. The ST centre building is much newer than the others and offers all these modern facilities . A facility big enough to accommodate all the senior squad and coaching staff, category a academy and staff right the way down to scholars is going to take up quite some space. The only way it could fit is by building over one or more of the existing pitches. Constructing a brand new all in one training centre would cost millions and would also be a planning headache with height and size of the building required down there. I'm not saying it couldn't or wouldn't happen but it isn't going to be straightforward or cheap.

If a trustworthy and transparent owner came in and announced this in an open and honest way i think most would have some faith or trust. When it's this mob and they're doing it this way there can be no trust and no belief it is in the club's interests.

It might not be anything to do with Venus. Then again, its one hell of a coincidence isn't it?

Waggott got the job here, eye-watering salary and all, on the basis he would generate cash and reduce overheads/reliance on Venkys. He has to justify that salary somehow and something like this will more than make up for his pitiful commercial and ticketing efforts over the last 3 years. I dont think Venkys will have set this in motion. They could have done it years ago if they were that bothered. They just don't care. Into the void come all sorts of chancers and agendas.

Two ways they'll sell this to the fans: Developing one site after selling the other will raise money to enable better and more modern facilities to be built (it won't, because they won't pay for better facilities than those already there, they'll do it on the cheap) I doubt there's even room down there to build an indoor centre big enough for the academy and senior squad with parking, ground staff etc. Mowbray will sell it as an important step to 'consolidate' the academy and senior squads with them training together and will help 'link' them more closely (it won't).

Adkins would be Mowbray mark 2. Competent and would keep us up but not good enough to haul us higher. Frustratingly inconsistent with positives but annoyingly optimistic and positive in everything he does. Nice bloke but not ruthless enough.

I can't read it. Those people would see the good side if we demolished Ewood to rent at Turf Moor. These are the fools who Waggott will have wrapped around his little finger.

This one has Waggott's grubby fingers all over it. He's here on the promise of boosting the coffers and cutting dependence on India. He'll have had his sticky eyes on the potential and value of Brockhall since the day he arrived and will see it as a relatively quick and obvious way of bringing in millions in one swoop. I'd rather we hadn't bought Sam Gallagher but hey ho. There will be uproar about this but hiding away in London with retirement in sight he'll be off before there's any trouble.

I wonder is this how they are funding the new Riverside stand and £2 million new pitch (sarcasm).

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-city-plans-unveiled-76-11989164 And just like Noah's ark selling off training grounds for housing development come in pairs....

Hughton is a proper clued up astute manager at this level - everything Mowbray isn't - he will make gradual improvements, building from the back and improve a side year on year. He's doing now what he did at Brighton in his first season - inherited an absolute shambles - he's not ripping up trees or blowing teams away but the signs are there - they are conceding less goals, becoming harder to beat and climbing the table slowly but surely. They won't win awards for nice football or nonsense like box incursions, expected goals or number of passes completed but they will achieve consistency. Next season he'll have them challenging for the top 6, like he did at Brighton and Birmingham. They'll be really hard to beat. We'll still be lolloping around going nowhere and Mowbray will be able to bemoan the Forest spending, resources, quality etc. Good managers continually progress clubs. Average managers reach a level and can't go any further. I expect a narrow defeat but a reasonable performance insofar as we won't be outplayed or humiliated so Mowbray will fall back on excuses, mistakes, fine margins or the referee as the reason for another defeat. By that point it will be 4 straight defeats so the pressure will be getting up to unavoidable levels even for the more deluded around, so expect a draw the following week v Watford and a narrow win v Coventry to keep the show on the road in typical fashion.