JHRover

I genuinely believe that the biggest issue here isn't that Venkys are suffering extreme hardship as a result of Covid or that they can't make some funds available for the team. I think the biggest issue is that due to the travel restrictions and delay to last season it hasn't been physically possible for Mowbray and Waggott to get out there and meet with them face to face. I think that the only way a manager here gets any proper backing is by flying out to India and putting his case forward to the top dogs in person and persuading them to do it. Without being able to do that there simply isn't the direct line of communication in place to get the answers he needs to invest. It appears to me that Mrs Desai will only make decisions about Rovers at set times e.g. when her manager goes out to see her at her convenience. Without this the club is left to drift with no clarity or alternative. For some reason or another they will not work remotely. If they were willing to then Mowbray, Bowyer and Kean wouldn't have been out there twice a year. Notice also how they were the only ones to get any serious backing from Venkys. Of course it is mental and may well cost them millions if it ends up costing us promotion or relegating us but that's happened before and it didn't seem to bother them. Nothing but an irrelevance that only becomes of interest when Mowbray turns up at the front door with all the platitudes asking for some cash for players.

Joe Williams from Wigan joined Bristol City, 4 year deal. Notice how no income hasn't stopped their billionaire owner from making a signing.

Stalling tactics to calm the masses.

And yet most other owners of Championship clubs have made money available. Maybe not millions for transfer fees but enough to enable competitive signings to be made and wages committed to. What's the use in Venkys if we can't even sign a goalkeeper?

No club to be taken seriously at this level would want to lose him or base financial plans on selling him. If it is correct that they were planning on cashing in before his injury it is just another concern as to what the agenda is here.

Please can we stop going on about FFP as though this is the issue here. It isn't. The issue here is a manager or club that saw fit to splurge what money we had on unnecessary signings that haven't delivered whilst repeatedly failing to address key areas. The issue here is clueless, disinterested owners who aren't fit to run a professional football club yet because they keep the lights on we are supposed to be grateful. All the FFP talk does is play right into their hands and provides a ready made excuse. There is no excuse for the situation we are in. FFP is almost certain to be frozen for the foreseeable. How can clubs comply with no income for 6 months? FFP does not prevent the signings of defenders and a goalkeeper. Our wage bill has already been slashed this summer to start with. The blame lies first in India for inadequate ownership and then with the manager and his cronyism for failing to do the bare minimum on recruitment in 3 years. The clock is ticking. I'm frankly disgusted by it all and it is panning out exactly as I predicted last summer when certain people were hailing loans as a brilliant way of doing business.

'This type of financial dealing' They're selling season tickets and raking cash in. As are many others. If Bolton in the 4th tier can sell more than 3500 in this climate within a couple of days of sales then what numbers could we be selling?

Yes. What I think will happen is that Northampton will offer cash for Wharton and due to the issues at Rovers we will accept it. The plan then will be to use the money to get a loan player in at CB. Quite disturbing that I expect him to be sold to raise some cash from Northampton given the state of our defence.

3500 now since Monday morning at 4th division Bolton. Why can't we sell them again?

I'm not sure there had to be a reduction in spending at all. I agree there was always likely to be with Venkys. They move in cycles. They backed Bowyer and spent reasonable money between 2013 and 2015, then decided to slash costs which eventually relegated us to League One. On that occasion it was excused due to FFP yet nobody else did it. They backed Mowbray in their own weird way with Brereton and Gallagher and not selling anyone but those who have learnt lessons under these owners knew they would expect a return within a couple of years or would extract it in some other way. Again I'm not sure why this is mandatory. It appears to be the Venky cycle that they want to run the club by. A couple of years of steady investment followed by a couple of years of cost cutting and no investment. Let's remember Mowbray claiming he put the handbrake on after promotion and persuaded them to follow a long term project. Not really worked out, which many of us expected.

I can go online and book a holiday abroad. If I do the advantage is that I might get a good deal, but I would do so knowing full well the risks involved which might mean that I can't go when the time comes or that I might be able to go but not enjoy it as much as I would like. Of course it would be easier and safer to not book. But if everyone did that the airlines and tourism industry would be bust already. I don't see any reason why Rovers cannot do something to generate income. Ps Bolton are at 3000 sales since Monday.

In my interpretation we are in one of two scenarios right now. The first is that Mowbray and Waggott are still waiting for communication and answers from India. Neither have any idea as to budgets or plans moving forward because there has been no summit meeting and the owners haven't approved a budget. This explains the lack of season tickets, the lack of transfer activity, the lack of communication from all levels of the club and the fact that all out of contract players have been released including Downing even though the manager would have liked to have kept at least one of them The second is that Mowbray has been told his budget, but this is either a negative budget, meaning he has to sell to buy anyone, or at best he is limited to frees and loans only, which explains the lack of incomings and the dull and uninspiring names we have been linked to, many of which directly contradict Mowbray's own preferences. As such it will be waiting and hoping that we get some favourable loans. If the answer is the first set of circumstances, then even Mowbray's patience will be being tested to the limit right now and his resignation cannot be far away. If the answer is the second set then he'll stick it out for now, but probably come under extreme pressure from the fanbase if we are struggling next season. It's hard to have much sympathy for Mowbray really when he has overseen transfer policy and led us into this disastrous situation of having no keeper and 1 CB on the eve of a new season. Either he is to blame for that or he has allowed those conditions to develop under his watch. Either way he should be accountable for it.

Yes, apart from we actually get a proven quality Championship keeper who can hit the ground running rather than a youngster learning his trade on the job ultimately for someone else's benefit

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.