This season is a golden opportunity for a side or two from mid table to get promoted. No big money being spent, no giant club with huge squad, relegated sides all in transition and under new management. Shame because after a couple of steady mid table finishes we should be set now for an assault. We know where the weak points are and these could be addressed relatively cheaply and easily with a couple of steady eddie defenders and a keeper, along with a manager ready to draw it all together. Instead bumbling along wasting the opportunity we have playing games with recruitment and hamstrung from India.

Nobody here will buy one or so the excuse goes. Meanwhile 4th division Bolton had sold 1000 within 3 hours of sale yesterday and today people are complaining because they can't get through on the phone such are the queues. Excuse after excuse down at Ewood.

Marshall on £12 k per week on a 12 month deal. Low risk. We know he is good enough and will be able to come in and pick things up quickly. Then next May review and give him another year if happy. What's the difference between giving an older keeper a 12 month deal and review next summer and giving a kid a 12 month loan? Next summer we might need someone else but at least we don't have to nurture someone else's player still learning the job and making errors. If we are going to sign a good young keeper on a 4 or 5 year contract to establish himself as a top keeper fine. I look forward to it. We ain't paying for anyone and ain't offering 4-5 year contracts though. So it becomes about here and now not nonsense about tomorrow or years from now.

Yep looks like you are spot on with this. The Raya one will have been unforseen. They likely didn't expect serious interest in him and when Brentford came along offering multi millions they probably thought Christmas had come early. A chance to rake in a few quid. Essentially that money covered the initial payment on Gallagher avoiding the need for Venkys to fund a transfer pot.Mowbray had long wanted him back after presumably getting on with him in 2017 and him being a nice lad to work with. Deal with the GK issue by giving Leutwiler another deal which he happily accepted to be number 2 on cheap wages. Find someone on a subsidised loan deal and along comes Walton. Now in a mess not because of Covid but because of the short-sightedness of last summer trying to get by on the cheap and easy. No prizes for corner cutters in this game. It wouldn't have happened anywhere else because a chairman, owner or sporting director would have kept an eye on it. But here we have owners who don't know what day it is and Mowbray's mates who think he is Guardiola and when he says jump they ask him how high.

Yep. Ticks just about every box a club our position has to tick. Knows this level inside out, back to front, upside down. Been at the top and bottom end of it. Could come in at relatively short notice and get on with the job of being number 1 with only a few weeks to go. Presumably we can pay him what Wigan are so if finances are an issue in signing someone from Wigan then what's the point in Venkys? But we all know deep down it won't happen. For one reason or another the only way the GK situation will be resolved is either through promotion from within or by loaning someone on the cheap. I will be astonished if we pay a fee for a goalkeeper this summer and will be amazed if we issue a permanent contract on one. The rest is just bullsh1t just like rumours of Joe Hart and Karl Darlow last season. I don't know what they are playing at but most of us are wise to their antics by now. It will be someone with only a handful of games under their belt on a favourable deal heavily subsidised by the parent club.

Have we even made Downing a proper offer? I'd be surprised. Mowbray might like to keep him but given the state the club has been in recently I'd be surprised if we had been busy negotiating contracts given we've been incapable of anything else.

We heard all this about Bauer. Charlton didn't want to sell because they wanted promotion and he was too expensive. Then he joined Preston on a free transfer.

We are owned by an international conglomerate with interests in food production, pharmaceuticals, health products and numerous other areas. Is it really impossible for them to use their international contacts to find a respectable sponsor for our famous shirts rather than an unheard of gambling company or local vaping firm?

Something like Singha beer would be decent as a sponsor. The mighty Oxford managed to attract them whereas I'm expecting ours to be strictly local.

No point wasting money. That philosophy can be applied to virtually every facet of the club. No point wasting money on new contracts. No point wasting money on training camps. No point wasting money on improvements to facilities. No point wasting money on permanent signings when we can do loans. No point signing a new keeper when we can promote from within. Good for the bean counters. Won't get us promoted to the riches of the Premier league though.

When saving money is the priority over the best possible preparations for the new season then we aren't going anywhere fast. Poor quality friendlies and lack of training camps commonplace here. Barnsley are staying at St George's Park for the week treating that as a pre season camp. How/why can they do that and we don't? We've bigger things to worry about at the moment admittedly but its another example.

Why don't you ask Klopp who has taken Liverpool away or the multiple other Championship managers who have all done it? As ever, we're falling short.

What does coronavirus have to do with it? It's either good for the squad and players or isn't. If it is in then one can be organised in Scotland.

4th division Bolton have shifted over 1000 in the first morning of sales. But remember, nobody is going to buy them at Rovers. What's the next excuse?

Why do other clubs need them? I'm not a coach so I don't know but they must feel it is worth the effort. Our pre season preparations usually see us playing catch up once the season kicks off (no opening day wins in a decade). So i think we need to approach this carefully.

Will Rovers be having a training camp somewhere? I note that Stoke are in Northern Ireland and quite a few clubs have gone to Scotland. Silly question really.

Confirmation that the termination date was several months ago and not this weekend. Means Rovers have had time to source a replacement and haven't been left with only a couple of weeks.

Salford City are selling season tickets from today. £160 for renewals and £180 for new buyers. Amazing how they are managing it and we can't.

Swansea have signed Freddie Woodman on loan for the season...

Yep, tend to agree. These issues have a habit of repeating themselves every year and we have to look internally for the answers. As pointed out this isn't a manufacturer issue because numerous other clubs using Umbro have at least unveiled their new kit and have dates to sell it. I don't believe the 10 Bet development is something that has suddenly been sprung upon us 4 weeks before the new season. They will have had to make their decision earlier to give the club time to find an alternative sponsor. Not easy admittedly but we are now facing kicking off the season without a sponsor whilst the 23 other clubs all have them. Coincidence? Not in my view. It is symptomatic of the neglect and shambolic operation of the club. Whether it be kits, sponsors, tickets, budgets or signings we always end up at the back of the queue and late. People think I enjoy moaning about it. I don't. But I will continue to criticise until we start operating like a club of our size should operate. Makes me laugh on twitter when folk are saying 'why does it matter' when the kit comes out. It matters because we are competing in an ultra competitive division. We need income and revenue and are not doing all we can to deliver it.

Only two days ago you were suggesting that quarantine rules could be dodged by the club testing players avoiding the need for a 14 day quarantine. The quarantine rules do not apply to Germany where all the foreign links have been. Now you are suggesting that these rules could be preventing us signing players from abroad. How is it any different to Travis and Armstrong going to Ibiza on holiday? How long did it take Wolves to start signing European players after their owners took over? Is more than a year really an acceptable time frame?

I'm not asking them to take us over and invest fortunes. But a few advertising boards or a shirt sponsorship would promote their organisation in their home town and benefit the club. If we can't get sponsorship off them then who can we?

It is quite incomprehensible that a place the size of Blackburn has a multi billion pound company based here and yet it doesnt have any form of relationship with the club. Either the club has failed to get them to the table or for whatever reason they don't want to be associated with us.

We must have had a warning period. Most clubs have released kits and started selling them. They wouldn't do that if their sponsors could just pull the plug a month before the season leaving the club in disarray having sold merchandise with the old sponsor on. It is a dreadful deal for Rovers if they are able to pull the plug just a month before a new season. They must have handed their notice in much earlier to give us time to go elsewhere.

I'm not blaming the club especially. I dont doubt there is a break clause in the deal, I just think if 10 Bet are not liable for costs then that is a poor deal that we have signed up for. It seems heavily weighted in their favour rather than ours. On the flipside if they have had to pay a termination fee and we can now get a new sponsor it might be a good thing. Remember we signed up with 10 Bet just out of League One and we are now looking for a sponsor as an established Championship side. I worry partly about the general economic situation (albeit some companies are doing perfectly well at the moment) but also because we have a history in recent years of being unable to secure a shirt sponsor. It happened in 2011 when we gave it away to the Princes Trust and then again the following year when we didn't have one.