So another campaign ends at Ewood with no news at all about new season tickets. You'd probably expect a club desperate for cash and keen to get as many tickets sold as possible to have them on sale by now, or at least have announced prices and be pushing them like mad whilst there's a crowd on Ewood and a captive audience. But no, in typical Rovers fashion we do nothing, we let the season end and then we'll announce something in a month or so when people are off doing other things with their time and money.

A combination of their recent home form being solid, having Rowett in the dugout, and that they know they need to win. They'll treat it as a cup final, their ground will be full and they've done this sort of thing more than one before on the final game of the season.

If Bolton get through the play-offs I wonder who the 'be careful what you wish for' gang will use as their poster for why we can't hope to be rid of Venkys. All these other clubs who go bust, reset, get through it and go again, coming back in far better health than Venky Rovers. One day we'll do the same, we need to, just hope its sooner rather than later.

I think we are now in Plymouth's hands and hoping they don't beat Hull final day. That's our best chance of survival. Hull a tricky side to beat but Plymouth unpredictable at home. I think it is a banker that Wednesday finish the job off and get something against a rudderless on the beach Sunderland, after comprehensively dealing with us and WBA. I think it is highly likely we lose at Leicester, and I'd bet on Birmingham getting past Norwich at home. Really couldn't have asked for better circumstances today. At home, against a side with nothing to play for, knackered after a big week and playing with 10 men for over 30 minutes. Couldn't manage it.

Where's the connection? Gestede was long gone from Rovers before Waggott turned up so doubt they knew each other or that Waggott is letting him shadow him at Forum meetings as a favour to an old friend. I'm not aware of a similar arrangement ever occurring before, and it isn't the first time I've heard of Gestede being around the club and training ground which all just seems odd to me if he isn't employed there.

I may have missed this among the talk of using the Adam Wharton cash to repair the broken lifts at Ewood but can anyone explain why Rudy Gestede was in attendance at the meeting on behalf of the Club? I can't find any mention of this in the minutes and cannot find any mention of him being employed at the club or what role he performs.

I know he's done a good job. Point was what happens next. JDT got zero backing and undermined in 3 transfer windows, forced to sell his best players and offered nothing by way of reinvestment. I bet QPR's board don't do that to their manager this summer. Our January transfers were nothing short of laughable. Just because we signed 6 does not mean they are remotely good enough or that the manager has been backed.

Unlike JDT here they'll actually try to back him and improve under him.

Can't block those pathways for the youngsters. It just wouldn't be fair to sign proven players when we've an academy model to follow!

Surely these facility repairs and safe standing could all be funded comfortably from the £25 million cash coming into the club since last summer? Or are we supposed to forget about that. Just like we are supposed to forget that not long ago Coventry were a 4th division side playing in Northampton, so yes I take exception when Rovers employees are using them as an example of what we could/should be. The only reason we are below them is because of mismanagement at our end which has been bettered by virtually every other club in the Football League.

I'm sure it occurs to him every summer to do it and it will probably be the next step on Steve's race to the bottom which he will turn to eventually. For now he'll have worked out the costs and benefits. At the moment there's 1000 or so ST holders in there many of whom would be furious if the club asked them to move and many of whom wouldn't move elsewhere they'd just not buy. Most of these people will be in his 6000-7000 bankables who he needs to renew every season at his prices to hit his targets. He'll know that he's taking a risk if he starts going after those people. Expect it to happen only as a last resort or if relegation occurs and he grows increasingly desperate in his cost cutting schemes.

They will justify it on the usual basis - that we need to 'help' the owners, that we need to 'reduce' our reliance on the owners, that we need to comply with FFP and that if we cut ticket prices it will simply mean less cash left over to spend on players and transfers. All a load of crap of course, but music to the ears of the apologists, as proven by the fact that we carried a far greater wage bill and transfer outlay years ago with cheaper ticket prices, but back then we didn't have a CEO paid on the basis of saving the owners money and willing to do whatever it takes, including destroying the club, to achieve his personal targets. There is not a single reason to believe that this CEO will come up with anything better than a price freeze and probably some offer with multiple strings attached that isn't worth the trouble. One look at his track record tells us that. He isn't in the business of reading the room and making drastic changes to reflect that, he will simply double down and push it through regardless. Remember back in the covid days when he lied, twice, first by stating that people would be compensated for missed games in the covid season and then by saying the club would reduce future season ticket prices to compensate people instead. Neither happened, so I'd take his comments at the moment with a lot of salt because he'll say one thing when on the spot and then deliver something different when sat secure in his office with his targets to meet. He knows he's getting at least 6000 whatever league we are in and whatever price he comes up with. His biggest problem is going to be plugging the £10 million black hole from relegation and missing out on the away support bonanzas offered by Leeds, Sunderland, Sheff Wed, Sheff Utd, Dingles, Preston and co. if we go down. That will be his biggest concern.

Crowdfunding to make changes and improvements to the stadium. Utterly tragic and embarrassing. The sort of thing I'd expect to hear about at Clitheroe or Bamber Bridge not a Championship club owned by 'billionaires'. 'Some work' 'would be planned' 'summer 2025' - talk about jam tomorrow, yet again. They can never actually do things can they, just refer to some vague non-binding future date when it might happen. When people leap to the Venky defence and grumble about FFP and support they need to ask themselves why such relatively minor investments aren't made by our great and wonderful owners and why a once great club and stadium is literally covered in mould. They talk about these renovation works as though it is unique or something. I suspect the reason we are facing a relatively high bill for these works is because they've cut corners and dodged spending for over a decade and now it comes back to bite with crumbling concrete, broken boilers and malfunctioning lifts. Some TLC and proper maintenance over the years would have kept things in working order. As far as I'm concerned these meetings are a stunt overseen by a liar and people who aren't up to it or empowered to do anything. I don't believe any of Waggott's claims, little more than a paid human shield to present a positive image of his bosses come what may. The club don't want Szmodics to stay, the window isn't even open yet and you can tell he's practically salivating at getting some big juicy offers in for him. He'll be flavour of the month in India if he can get a wedge in for Szmodics just 6 months after the Adam Wharton bonanza.

More likely they only predicted / budgeted Coventry would bring 4000 and have only made arrangements for that number including police, stewarding and catering, and at 2 days' notice and with cheap tickets it isn't worth the hassle of getting more on just so they can sell another 500 or whatever.

It took Mowbray 5 years of 'development' to get us to 69 points. That includes 10 transfer windows during which he was only forced to sell Adam Armstrong and had, comparatively speaking, a massive budget. JDT came in 2 weeks before pre-season started having just lost Lenihan, Nyambe and Rothwell The way to do this is simple and obvious. It doesn't need someone to reinvent the wheel with clever strategies. It needs price reductions across the board, it needs people to see value in the product and it needs serious sustained efforts at selling. When it comes to value in the product there are many aspects to this. Selling all your quality players, spending no money, throwing in the academy kids - this is not going to persuade anyone that you have any ambitions or serious intentions. With half the games being midweek, red button, Sky, dodgy sticks, lunchtime kick offs then the price of a season ticket has to reflect this as a large number of people will be unwilling or unable to get to those matches. So you have to have a price whereby it is still worth being a season ticket holder even if you miss all those games. Preston and Bolton - £250 per adult. So even if you missed 50% of all the games you are still getting the other 50% for a reasonable price that's still good value despite the Sky tv and kick off nonsense. But at £400 per adult if you miss 50% of the games you are looking at a price which is hardly worth it when the club often offers matchday tickets at £15-25. People will just pick and choose and not be any worse off. There is also an onus on the club to drive sales. Putting a few tweets out and tacky straplines about commitment or similar isn't enough. You need to engage clubs, schools, previous buyers, get people buying in groups. This takes time and effort. You can't do it overnight. Too much effort here. Waggott has got away with his low hanging fruit policy for 5-6 years milking the results of Mowbray getting us back up and protected by Covid and then JDTs good season. I think he's going to get the results of his ruinous policies very soon. May need to bring forward that retirement date.

No other Championship club has had to sell £25 million worth of players (+ substantial wage reductions) just to keep the lights on Why have Rovers? They will try to normalise our situation making reference to annual losses and FFP but it isn't normal. Its unique.

My prediction is a freeze at £399 for adults who are renewing, but a short 'early bird' discount of perhaps £20-40 off that price if you commit quickly.

Coventry announced that they've sold 4,200 for Saturday but have been told they won't be getting a further allocation. A rare case of Rovers realising how daft they'd look if Coventry sold 6000+ and we got beat again? Or perhaps with cheaper tickets on offer and in view of the timings with only a couple of days to go they've worked out that it isn't worth the hassle of opening the extra areas, staffing them and getting extra stewards on?

I'd like us to reinvest some of the Adam Wharton, Ash Phillips and Kaminski cash (£25 million+) before we start thinking about selling Szmodics to reinvest cash.

So often there's a bigger picture to be had. Increased turnover only one element of the overall picture. At this stage of the season, with a cataclysmic relegation to the 3rd division still a possibility and a direct rival coming to Ewood, yes I'd turn my nose up at increased ticket sales if I felt it gave us a better chance of avoiding defeat. Would be different if we were in Sunderland's position and going nowhere, or virtually safe, but that was never going to be the case when we started selling tickets to them, Short termism again. Lets all congratulate the management for saving on wages by loaning people out and getting rid of loads of experience from the squad. Well done. Increased revenue and reduced expenditure. Job done. But that could directly lead to relegation and a far greater cost.

Playing at home with 7000+ away fans behind one goal filling 25% of the stadium isn't normal. That's the point. Nobody else does it. It's not just a run of the mill situation that players are used to dealing with every week. So it's likely when we do it is going to have some sort of effect. We've a young, weak and inexperienced group. Sheffield Wednesday are at the opposite end of that scale. I'd wager the younger ones would struggle more than the experienced ones in such circumstances.

Pretty much agree with the lot of it. What a post. JDT by no means perfect but he had valuable assets. Ambition, drive, personality, a vision. I think back to last season, particularly August to February, and the first half of this season, and this was a guy capable of dragging this club out of the stinking cesspit that it has been dragged and into a potentially bright future. Alas as we saw with the Allardyce fiasco, as we saw with the Bowyer/Lambert fiasco, these owners and their minions will always find a way to derail and destroy any positive momentum or progress and set the club back years. I should have known better but I admit I believed. I genuinely thought that with the Director of Football approach and JDT leading it and after the season we had, going so close in league and cup, that the ingredients were there to take the next step and crack the play-offs. More fool me. I can't describe the disappointment I feel about the way in which once again these people have destroyed something that should have been good and positive and that fell into our lap almost by accident after Mowbray finally left. Yes it was clear that JDT was burned by the O'Brien fiasco, yet he stuck at it and we still went close last season. It was clear he was unimpressed by the summer's shenanigans yet he stuck at it, moved his family over, accepted the constraints and we, somehow managed to get ourselves sat just outside the top 6 in December with this squad. Then a third transfer window of nonsense, culminating in Adam Wharton being sold, the McGuire disgrace (what sort of club treats other clubs and players in such a disgusting and humiliating fashion?) and no reinvestment was the straw that broke the camel's back. Totally understandable for anyone with any self-respect to draw a line at being undermined by your colleagues. Of course ownership and a board with any finger on the pulse would have sacked JDT once it became clear that the damage was irreparable and the direction things were going. I agree that he was essentially saying 'f... you' to them and going gung ho wanting to be fired. Yet they couldn't even manage his departure correctly. It came far too late, even in the week it happened they took days on end to announce it. They're just a disgrace. There's no coming back from this in my book. It's happened too many times and I won't fall for it again.

Yesterday was summed up by the substitutions. We are 2 goals down heading into the last 10 minutes with another 10+ then added in injury time. So if we had anything about us we would have put them under immense pressure during that time and made them work their socks off to preserve their lead, they should have been hanging on for dear life. In the end it was predictable garbage and we barely laid a glove on them. Their keeper could have had a lie down in injury time. We bring on Chrisene, Ayari and Moran. Stood on the touchline coming on they looked like 3 little boys. Meanwhile the opposition bring on Callum Patterson and Michael Smith. Not exactly world beaters, far from it, but two big bruisers who have been there and done at in professional football. If I was their manager I'd have been delighted seeing us throwing them on for the last 10-15 and not a couple of nasty giants. Prior to that it was Buckley and Markanday coming off the bench. Another two who have no physical presence whatsoever and look like little young lads. Wednesday were packed full of size, stature, power. We all know where the reason for this comes from, saving cash and doing things on the cheap. 3 kids on loan coming off the bench to save our skins. How sad.

Its a completely different scenario Chaddy. You can't simply say that because we won an away game that there is no issue in giving away teams vast allocations at Ewood. You go away to Arsenal, Liverpool, United in the Cup and play infront of 60-70,000 you expect your team to rise to the occasion. It is completely different to hand over 1/4 of your stadium to the away team, who are in a must-win situation, and have them making all the noise. The Ewood atmosphere is poor at the best of times. There's an age old concept in football of 'home advantage'. It is why teams since Victorian times have preferred playing on their own ground rather than going away. It is partly, though not wholly, because they prefer being surrounded by their own fans backing them whereas the away team is having to play with a small number of their fans. Yesterday home advantage went out of the window from where I was sat. It was a decent atmosphere yes, but the Wednesday fans made a huge amount of noise and I am sure that the Pears calamity show in the second half was at least partly brought about by jitters from having their fans right behind him. Control the controllables. We can't control what goes on at Leeds or Leicester, but we can control what goes on at Ewood and make sure in must not lose games we aren't giving the opposition any advantage whatsoever.

With you 100% there. Its the feeling of hopelessness, and betrayal. Over the last 12 months or so I've felt not frustration, hope, optimism for the club, but feelings ranging from dislike to outright hatred. I'm ashamed to even be associated with it. It's tough. I certainly have had to do a lot of soul-searching and will again this summer, it certainly isn't normal peaks and troughs of supporting a football club, it certainly isn't enjoyable or healthy. But I'm not one who can just switch off my emotional investment in the club and walk away (yet). So I'm in this limbo zone which I suspect many others are where I keep going, keep coming on here, keep thinking about it, but just feel numbness and disgust and weary resignation. Its almost like a state of civil war. There's an enemy within that needs defeating and destroying before we can even begin to think about anything else, and peaceful coexistence with that enemy is no longer an option in my book.