JHRover

Hard to believe in 2025 that a Championship manager in the middle of December is publicly offering to cut his transfer budget to free up cash to allow the pitch to be repaired to ensure we can finish our home games when it rains. But this is Venky Rovers 2025, expect the unexpected. Just when you think the shame and embarrassment of being associated with this club cannot grow we have internal shenanigans playing out in the media once again, a p1ssed off manager and no doubt players demanding answers and action from a silent and invisible ownership and board. To make matters even worse we continue to have thousands of supporters who sit there like nodding dogs in the stands insisting that these owners are good or necessary to the future of this club, whilst the stadium rots around them and the pitch descends into a swamp and we can't finish home games.

Ismael's average game tenure as a manager across 8 clubs prior to Rovers is 27. His Rovers tenure is already at 31. So he's above average already here. Under Venkys the average managerial tenure (excluding Kean, Bowyer and Mowbray who established personal links to the gruesome people in Pune) is around 7-8 months. Those who haven't been afforded holidays to Pune to visit the palace don't last very long. Allardyce got 24 days, Berg got less than 2 months, Appleton got just over 2 months. Lambert got under 6 months, Coyle got 8 months, Tomasson got less than 20 months (and tried getting out after 12 months), Eustace got 12 months (and rumour has it was trying/offering to get out after only 3-4 months). Ismael has nearly managed 10 months now, he's had no jolly trip to India so he's done well to last this long. Won't be around much longer though, both his and Venky records show that.

Like him or not Ismael has worked at a lot of proper professional football clubs in his time in football. Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen, Hanover, Lens, Nuremburg, Wolfsburg, Besiktas, West Brom, Watford. Coming here he was probably under the false impression that he was joining a club of similar standing in the game. After 6 months at it he'll be learning the hard way about now as to what he is up against.

No %s for agency fees when spending big on a new pitch though....

Just shrug shoulders and hope it all blows over - that's the policy of this regime. They'll be panicking about tomorrow night yes, but then it will just be a hope that there are no further problems. They won't actually do anything serious to ensure it. Most we get is a fans forum comment that they are getting quotes/plans drawn up for the summer. Then it won't actually happen because they won't pay the going rate to perform such work and we will be having the same discussion this time next year and every year thereafter.

We now have a 'rainy season' apparently. Used to just be winter and a pretty wet part of the world to begin with. Here's my solution: Club statement tomorrow from the owners or at least the boss at Ewood: 'We want to apologise to our fans, players, Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich Town and the League. What has happened twice this season is unacceptable for a club of our stature and we have a responsibility to take action to ensure it doesn't happen again. We are employing specialists to immediately investigate and report on the issues and remedial work that can be completed both in the immediate future and at the end of the season to resolve this issue. As a gesture of goodwill all fans turning up to the replay will get a free drink/pie/chips and ticket holders for the original game will get free admission for the replay. Tickets otherwise will be £10 anywhere in the ground. This club and our fans deserve better and we apologize for the embarrassment this has brought and to the players for their wasted efforts' That took me 2-3 minutes. Yet it's far more than this lot will do.

I firmly believe that the owners have absolutely zero interest or knowledge in what is going on at the Club on a day-to-day basis and their little goon in the shadows is quite comfortable with that and running things as his own kingdom in their absence. I would be amazed if any of the owners were aware we were playing yesterday, or that the game was abandoned, and much less that this is a direct result of their conduct over many years. IF the club was to be fined by the League for this then all that will happen is the henchmen from the finance team and Suhail will have to juggle the numbers again, probably cut the transfer budget or wage bill or offload a player in January to cover it from the club's own resources. Owners won't find out about it. No way is he going to ring them up and ask them to cough up extra cash. On it goes.

An away tie. We've got a better chance of winning away from home. Plus at Ewood the game might not start/finish and we can ill afford more postponements and embarrassment.

Seems the priority for January is once again on cost cutting and reducing the wage bill further. That's all that really matters in the scheme of things here.

Move it to the Wham Stadium, should be enough space for everyone who would attend Ewood and we know that the game can both start and finish there. Matchday experience would be an upgrade too - easier to park, better priced food and drink, sound system

There's a closet full of skeletons. As long as they keep hold of it that closet stays closed. The minute they let it go, or even give potential buyers access, it's open and people find out everything that's been happening here since 2010. Potentially a very good reason to keep hold even when it clearly benefits nobody and costs them millions.

All the issues - poor squad, exacerbated injury issues, poor manager, late goals against, games off due to waterlogged pitch - come back to the owners and their investment/management of the club. You get back what you put in.

This problem has been years in the making. Last year (November time) we had a game abandoned against Portsmouth due to rain. Prior to that there were vague promises by the Regime (Waggott) about getting the pitch relaid to prevent future problems, which unsurprisingly never materialised. This is not a problem that has landed on the club unexpectedly overnight. It has been developing for years as a direct result of cutting corners, costs and avoiding significant expenditure on the facilities under these hideous owners. That - might- be excusable - in claiming we can't afford it - had it not coincided with circa £40-50 million of transfer cash flowing into the club due to them selling everyone they could get out the door. So to not spend a miniscule portion of that ensuring the pitch and drainage is fit for purpose is unacceptable and unforgivable. The excuses that the water has nowhere to go due to the River Darwen might 'hold water' if this had been a recurring issue going back decades. But history shows that it hasn't been until recent years, again due to neglect and cost cuts catching up with us.

Should have had 9 points in the last week, and have instead got 2. These are the sort of fine margins and hard luck stories that separate survival and relegation.

Also should be noted by the fans and management team that a small squad struggling with injuries and depth have just wasted an hour of exertion in tough conditions for no reward whatsoever, and will now physically and mentally have to go again. I hope when more players break down and injuries are picked up there's no head scratching going on. By the time we've played our rearranged game against Wednesday we will effectively have played the best part of 2 extra league games over everyone else having had two cancelled with 15-20 minutes remaining in each. That's an extra demand we could really, really do without but has been imposed on these players and manager.

Unfortunately a sizeable percentage of the match going crowd at Ewood are either totally oblivious or in denial as to the severity of the mess this club is in. That bloke being one of them. This club is in a dire, dire state and yet sadly the head in sand brigade continue to tell themselves all is well because we get to watch the lads every other week on Ewood. The way things are going that might not be able to continue much longer. If Ewood is no longer functional as a football venue during wet periods we will struggle to fulfil our fixture commitments. I'm looking forward to the lies and blame game that will come from the club stooges over the coming days. Ismael and the players deserve better but he needs to speak out rather than defend the regime. Last time they gave a microphone to groundsman Trevor to talk us through it all. I doubt they'll get away with a similar stunt this time around.

Stolen from someone on twitter: It's nearly Christmas and Rovers have had more home games abandoned than home wins.

In all seriousness the way things are going we need to start thinking about whether we need to be playing our home games at a different venue. Assuming the lowlife that own us aren't going to take this seriously and invest in remedial work it is going to get worse, and worse, and worse. We cannot afford to continue using a facility that cannot cope with heavy rain and causes multiple abandonments and lost points. Either that or I expect the League will begin to apply pressure and begin to fine/sanction us for it.

Actually laughable that with the exact same thing happening only a couple of months ago the 'solution' during the intervening time has been to buy/borrow half a dozen water hogs that obviously are going to make zero difference on a football pitch in that state with the rain still peltering down. Like with everything else down there, superficial, cheap, minimal efforts to resolve an issue just end up making us look even more amateurish than before. We use the same hogs to try and dry the square at our amateur cricket club, not a full size football pitch in the Championship,

Global warming disproportionately affecting a small corner of Blackburn? That's darn bad luck again. Or maybe, just maybe, it's something to do with the tossers owning and running the club?

Accy Stanley still playing, maybe it's time we arrange to ground-share with them and then at least we can finish our games.

And there is the never ending project. It never ends because as soon as we get anywhere players quite rightly expect improved/extended terms which the club is unwilling to provide and other clubs start to take notice and offer them more than this regime is willing to offer. Still, in the middle of this is highly lucrative employment for the people facilitating it, not to mention the agents tasked with bringing in their clients to fill the void every summer, so at least someone is benefiting. Just not Blackburn Rovers or the supporters.

A far, far cry from the stuff we were watching last season when Eustace had us as one of the most organised sides in the division. You knew when we had a lead under Eustace we were unlikely to let it slip and had confidence in the team seeing it out. Still onwards and upwards under the 'new project'!

The only way this lot let us go is if they have to - either because finances dictate it or because their legal issues prevent them from owning us or sending money out of India over to us. They're probably best described as a modern day reincarnation of the Oystons - nobody really wants them, they run the club as an amateur outfit on the lines they are comfortable with - but always do just enough to ensure they keep control and have no intention of letting that go. Fortunately for Blackpool fans they eventually found a legal route to his removal via the Court action of the previous major shareholder. I had my fingers and toes crossed that the Indian legal proceedings would be our answer to that. Sadly that hope seems to be fading, although some hope remains that once the Wharton/Szmodics cash runs out and there's nobody else left to sell breaking point will be reached.

Bizarre but I suppose he still has friends down there and will be in a few phone books so an easy one to sort out.