Absolutely, but you could argue those deals were done pre-pandemic under very different circumstances. Deciding to splash another months wages out on those players happened in the middle of the pandemic, after Mowbray had told us all how tough it was for Venkys and how Waggott had told us all to forget about any sort of refund on tickets. So it doesn't stack up. No money one minute but enough to look after a few nice lads for a few weeks more the next.

So we are by some accounts absolutely skint, to the point we are sending Tosin back early to avoid paying him and, again according to some also have to make cutbacks for FFP compliance which may result in us having to sell at least one of our prized assets, possibly putting us in serious relegation danger next year, yet we can find the money to make expensive gestures such as these in the hope we manage to get a reputation as a nice club that will 'look after' players. Madness. Hope that reputation helps when we are fighting relegation and attendances have continued to plummet after refusing to refund fans out of pocket. Hart, Smallwood, are these not the very definition of non contributing players having barely appeared for the last 12 months and have been very well paid in the meantime?

Perhaps Mowbray should then compare Raya's performances at Brentford to those at Rovers and question why he has gone from being such a problem here to arguably the best keeper in this division in less than 12 months. I agree he did make mistakes last season. Now look at him under different coaches. Perhaps that is the issue Mowbray should be addressing. Instead it is shoulder shrug stuff whilst be go shopping in the bargain aisle to find a couple of decent keepers. What a terrible and preventable position to be in.

If we need to save money why did Mowbray allow tens of thousands out on temporary contract extensions for Samuel, Smallwood, Graham and Hart?

We've heard all this before. We know from experience that money generated from sales will not be fully reinvested into the squad. Even if it is Mowbray's record spending money is terrible. We also know from the Raya fiasco that we are likely to source inferior replacements, possibly on temporary terms until next summer, causing a problem to unfold as we have now. No club with serious ambitions should base its transfer 'policy' on first selling prized assets. We aren't very good at it so the policy should be to do everything to keep the quality we have and then if we have no money then put this famous scouting system to some use at last.

It isn't just a poor decision. A poor decision would be to have replaced Raya will an adequate and competent keeper that was contracted to the club and worth value to the club, albeit not as good or valuable as Raya. To take the money, sign a loan and be sat here with no keeper and probably no money whilst Raya wins the golden glove, possibly promotion with Brentford and is attracting Premier League interest? Well I'd describe that as a balls up of epic proportions, unacceptable and at any normal club the manager wouldn't have even been allowed to do it, but having done so he would he hauled into the boardroom and taken to task. But this doesn't happen when you allow the manager control over the club and let him appoint his mate as CEO and assistant as Head of Football or whatever he is.

How do we know that when we don't know what the budget is? Setting out on the summer with the intention of selling your best players when you're already short of a keeper and defence and have just released 5 players. It really does make me wonder sometimes.

Right decision maybe but I wonder if there even was a decision. Perhaps given his lack of budget he simply couldn't offer them a new deal even if he had wanted to

you don't have to give anything back, just kick the can down the road and allow fans to get in further down the line instead. Once people have handed their money over they are in. Not many would go through an arduous refund process. They'd just wait until they were allowed in. It doesn't cost anything to issue tickets.

I don't understand how this is going to work. Are they going to do away with the weekly or twice weekly testing or are they going to roll it out across all four divisions? How are they going to pay for it all? How are clubs going to pay their players and fulfil fixtures especially in the bottom two leagues without income? Are Sky or the League bailing them out? It seems every issue from 3 months ago is still there yet they are now able to restart. Don't get me wrong I'm glad about it but just baffled by the lack of answers.

Getting ahead of myself maybe but next season is looking like bad news for Waggott and handing over the Darwen End to big away followings. A run through of the likely clubs in the Championship and it is also bad news for those "we are only a small club" people. When it is Wycombe v Luton, Brentford v Bournemouth and Rotherham v Barnsley let's discuss how Blackburn Rovers are a small club at this level. With the exceptions of Derby, Forest, Wednesday and arguably Stoke and Norwich I'm not sure where the bigger clubs than us are. They don't exist despite some people's obsession with putting us down. It is there for the taking. No 'giant' to hide behind and make excuses about next season.

I don't think Barnsley will go down without a fight if Wigan get let off. It will be CAS time and they have owners with pockets deep enough to do it.

Not keen on them Umbro ones at all. Good to see the mighty Luton, who didn't know what division they were in until less than 48 hours ago, have been able to transfer from Puma to Umbro yet still get their new kits released before us who have been with Umbro for years.

All issues that Rovers need not worry about. 'Our level' is now somewhere between 7000 and 9000 season ticket holders depending upon who Waggott is speaking to. Even at the top figure we could comfortably accommodate them with capacity reduced to just 10,000 You can also bet for a variety of reasons that a fair chunk of those won't renew. The fact remains that many rivals including those in lower divisions and those with capacity issues have sold thousands whereas we haven't. Surely the club is desperate to rake in as much cash as it can right now? Even if only 200 people were willing to renew now, that would still be about £60,000 or more in the bank for the club to spend. It wouldn't cost the club anything. They will come out with all the excuses but they are falling well short again and this will restrict our selling potential.

As time passes it appears Senior was parachuted in mid season to 'troubleshoot' given our lowly league position. Remember at the time we only had Cheston looking after the finances and Sheikh lurking in the shadows. Rather than do the normal thing, fire Coyle and appoint a proper management team to keep us up it was seen as preferable(cheaper) to bring this guy in until the end of the season and him use his 'expertise' (bullshit) to calm the fans down and address the situation. If we'd have survived he might have earned himself landed himself a longer term position but in the end relegation meant he wasn't kept on and a change in direction happened. Mowbray managed to escape any blame, got himself a new deal and control, bringing his mate in as CEO whilst Senior was possibly too expensive or took some of the blame for relegation. Unless part of the b.s. was telling Venkys he knew how to keep us up. A weird transfer window where we only signed Lucas Joao who he also put in at Sheffield Wednesday. Some digging into his claims quickly unearthed that he was something of a snake oil salesman with things he claimed to have done at past clubs actually happening before or after he was there. All very odd and another name on the long list of them through the revolving Venky door. Could certainly talk the talk and seems to have a knack of picking up these Big money temporary positions but delivering little.

I've no idea, why?

I would yes. Selling a product that doesn't yet exist is clever. If people are willing to pay then why not?

Yet despite that it appears Hughton is prepared to go and manage them. Why couldn't we get him then?

If anyone is coming in it will have to fit within the parameters of the structure at Ewood and the wriggle room Mowbray and Waggott have on finances. Having chopped a substantial amount off the wage bill this morning, particularly with Downing, Graham, Smallwood and Samuel out the door there must be nearly £50k per week done there. That lad from Doncaster won't be on 10% of that so adding his wages onto the books will be manageable. In terms of fee perhaps Donny will take anything right now to raise cash. Believe it when I see it. I certainly won't be getting excited. Sounds like another Davenport to me.

I don't know why you are amazed that clubs are selling them. To me it is logical. Clubs are hard up and need money. Not many better ways of doing that than getting fans to hand over hundreds of pounds at no immediate cost to the club. In these unusual times a lot of people are going to come through this with very different habits. They might lose their jobs and income over the coming months and not be able to afford a ticket, whereas if they had been on sale in June they might have paid up whilst sat at home with nothing to do. As the economy and travel begin to open up bored people will be finding things to spend on that they haven't been able to do over the last few months. Book a holiday. Go out for meals. Sign up for another year of Mowbray's Rovers way down the list. People will change habits. It is now 4 months since the last game at Ewood and will be 7 months minimum before people are allowed back in the ground. During that period people will find other things to do. They will be lost, not to return. If they had been enticed into signing up with a discount in April then they would have a reason to come back. Honestly it is basic stuff. Then Waggott wonders why crowds continue to drop.

How when we don't know what money we have?

Imagine if Warnock stayed at Middlesbrough, but then spent all summer telling their fans that they should be grateful for not following Hull into League One, that it is a slow build job and he is looking for small progress and improvement each year, that he would be happy with more points than this season.

Yep. That's one play off spot tied up. Houghton will do similar as he did at Brighton. He won't spend all week talking about player values, kids, possession football or building clubs. Best way to build a club is to get promoted. Painful watching other clubs with less going for them than we do act decisively and ambitiously. Middlesbrough will be next with Warnock. I reckon next season will be wide open. Only Norwich of those coming down will be strong. Lose Fulham or Brentford and the others will struggle with reduced parachute cash. Some quick smart decisions and it could be anyone's year.

Yes, going off his demeanour and body language wouldn't surprise me. I think when Mowbray does decide to depart then Waggott will follow very shortly afterwards. His power base will be gone.

I don't believe it is anything sinister or significant. They just couldn't care less about the needs of the club and rather than tell Mowbray that they are struggling or there's no money they would rather tell him nothing. Must be hard for the ego having guided him around their palace and had him bowing before them to now turn around and backtrack by cutting costs or reducing funding. Much easier just to ignore it and not pick up the phone.