JHRover

Why is it 'unbelievable' to be disappointed, upset or disagree with yes another price rise (3rd summer running) when we are in the midst of a pandemic and recession? I'd say a price rise is almost unbelievable in this climate all things considered. The reaction on here is to be expected. What is unbelievable is that Waggott would go in the Telegraph in May and indicate that loyal fans would be looked after with a discount and then 4 months later perform a complete u turn and actually put prices up. What is unbelievable is that this man or someone else upstairs at Ewood will take home £300,000 for the year for making this decision, whilst a 10% salary cut would probably cover the money gained What is unbelievable is the club and some fans playing the poverty card when the manager dishes out contracts like confetti to players he won't use. Remember Gladwin, Hart, Smallwood, Leutwiler and Samuel? We are now being asked to pay for those contracts. Happy with that?

The club is broken with no idea how to fix itself. We've a CEO on a mega salary who has only got one strategy here and that is to maximise what he can get out of those he knows will sign up every year regardless. Covid 19 hasn't changed anything for him. A very shallow and shortsighted approach that a school pupil could come up with. He has no plan or intention of driving the club on into the future, attracting new support, broadening our appeal or horizons any further than Darwen. Last season was disgusting how they treated season ticket holders in comparison to rival clubs. Aggressive, emotional blackmail and 'this or nothing, tough luck' approach to I Follow. To now have the audacity to suggest that there was an option of refunds that most fans ignored is wrong. To follow that episode up with this stunt is sickening. 5000 season ticket holders it is then. I've seen and heard enough from this clown. I just hope Mowbray replaces him before its too late and we reach an all time low on crowds.

Agreed. I'd be doing improved deals for Travis and Armstrong too. Mowbray is thinking about it and telling the owners it is important. He might, if lucky, get permission to offer them a deal before 2022.

Waggott grateful to those who took I Follow as recompense for missing games last season? Was this optional? The statement I read suggested it was that or nothing and tough luck if you don't like it or can't use it. A diminishing fan base just shrunk even further with a price hike in the middle of a pandemic and at the onset of a massive recession. Will be able to accommodate everyone in two stands with social distancing in place at this rate. Waggott's grand plan for navigating these difficult times is just to screw the loyal 8000 for a few more quid. Think he's in for a rude awakening as even the most loyal have a breaking point. I'm rapidly approaching mine.

What frustrates me is this. Rich Sharpe's 'intel' this morning suggests that we are after a minimum of 4 and ideally 5 or 6 signings. In my view this is the sort of business we need to be doing to replace departures and ensure depth and competition in the squad. If his intel is correct it suggests that Mowbray is of the same opinion. I've seen posts on here suggesting that we don't need 5 or 6 additions and that we can make do with 3. Our manager clearly disagrees. I'll be very surprised if we do get 5 or 6 through the door. I also expect that if we don't then people will start saying that we've done enough business and didn't need those numbers, even though our manager thinks we do.

We all know that if we sold those two that 75% of the cash would not be seen again. It would disappear from view in the name of FFP or balancing the books. The residual balance would be drip fed back into the squad to fund a couple of relatively expensive loans or misguided project signings. BRFC would not see much if any benefit. At Brentford they pre-empt big sales by identifying and lining up replacements, investing for the betterment of the club including on a brand new stadium. Therefore progress continues on the conveyor belt and the club grows and prospers. I'm staunchly against sales of our assets because we've seen what happens when we do and how the club suffers.

You don't have to offer refunds if you make it clear in the smallprint that they won't be offered. People would then be free to make their own decisions as to whether to wait and risk not getting into games (not going to happen here but will do at smaller grounds) or whether to pay up now and run the risk of getting 4-5 games on I Follow instead.

You've got to hand it to Waggott and his mates. They really do have it set here. Spend half their time telling every fan that will listen that the club is desperate for cash, restricted by FFP rules, needs to generate it's own income, struggling against richer clubs blah blah blah, many lap it up as gospel truth without any question. Now here we are with no tickets on sale, no new shirts on sale and won't even bother to open the club shop whilst others all do. As above, if a local pub or grocery store can open why on earth can't Blackburn Rovers club shop? Of course its easy and risk free to keep it shut. Why not do that permanently and never reopen it again? Same for Blues Bar, maybe the same for the whole of Ewood Park? That way no risk of any aggro or difficulties. You can't have it both ways yet it seems this is exactly what Waggott wants - every excuse in the book as to why we can't do things yet very little evidence of any effort being made to change the situation and a legion of fans who will never question, challenge or doubt it. Accy Stanley up at the Crown Ground are selling season tickets and have their shop open to try and make some money. Please please please can someone on here give me one single sensible reason why we can't do either of those things? My mate, an Accy Stanley season ticket holder, sent me a message yesterday as he had been down to their ground and renewed his season ticket. He was telling me that he was looking forward to October and finally being allowed in the ground and asked me what I was doing with Rovers. I was completely embarrassed when I replied to him saying that we haven't had a peep out of the club in months, that we can't buy anything and the place is locked down. He was amazed, he sees us as a major professional outfit compared to Accy Stanley. I had to correct him and state that sadly even Stanley are ahead of us in approach these days.

the season starts next weekend. By mid October we could be stuck towards the bottom or competing at the top. Aren't you fed up with starting every season slowly and poorly. For once in a decade it would be nice to have our squad ready and raring to go on game one. Never happens and we will be scrambling around in the last couple of days for essential additions.

Bit more than that. We need two CBs, at least one LB, another keeper and that's a minimum. Ideally we would be looking to improve in other areas too rather than sticking with the same old. So there's 4 signings needed and quickly. Given it seems to take weeks and weeks to get one done and with the League kicking off in 9 days time it really is a shocking situation to be in. The excuses will come thick and fast. First it will be telling people to wait until October when the window closes. Then there will be sob stories about Covid 19, no money, FFP, travel restrictions, quarantine, unusual circumstances, targets getting poached by other clubs, the stars not aligning as hoped. Everyone else can find a way to get the bare minimum in the building. Our scenario has been unfolding before our eyes for 2 years and we still haven't solved it.

Some experience would be nice. A CB and LB with more than a couple of dozen games each who have played at a decent level before. Under contact to us so we can avoid going through the same process again in August 2021. Won't hold my breath. Interesting the club is claiming 3 signings for the summer although McBride and Dolan are for the u23s so it is actually only 1 signing.

Villa going from spending silly money on unheard of foreigners last year to now spending silly money on good Championship players this year. Suggests Dean Smith taking more of a role in recruitment. Expect them to be down struggling in the bottom 6

Hanley has today been given squad number 5 for Norwich. Would they have done that if looking to get rid or sending him to us?

Ayala would be a good addition. Still got years left in the tank and experienced at the top end of this league. Would be very pleasantly surprised if there was potential for that one given his likely wages.

Phillips ticks all the Rovers boxes so would be no surprise to see him turn up here. - Young - Inexperienced - Only a handful of senior appearances - Cheap - Loan Liverpool likely to be happy to do a deal. He's 23 and never played for them so probably one eye on a future elsewhere.

Interesting they refer to 'current season ticket holders'. As of 18th July 2020 and the conclusion of the Reading match the club has had 0 season ticket holders. We are all ex season ticket holders. Presumably the club will be emailing those who held season tickets last year but they ought to be doing this for every ex season ticket holder not just those who had them last season.

And how does this explain 7000+ signing up for 4th division Bolton which was my original point? Is Blackburn some island of deprivation or are we just looking for excuses not to do what most other clubs are doing?

Mowbray warning against loans on Saturday and then signing a loan on Wednesday would be routine Rovers. Sarr an odd one. Free agent. Highly rated by Charlton albeit a side that got relegated last season and in League One the two before. Don't know much about him. Seems to have the attributes but only 100 or so career appearances, strange.

Lad from Celtic for u23s but dressed up as a first team signing to appease the fans?

Birmingham doing some decent business. Just signed Adam Clayton on a free transfer.

Yep great post. I'm at a similar stage. Extreme disillusionment with the whole thing and I've never felt so undervalued by the club. They just don't seem to care or think that loyal fans should be treated in a certain way.

Yep. We can mostly appreciate that we have a budget and getting good players isnt particularly easy and there's not a lot we can do if a Premier League club decides to come in for a player we are after. But there comes a stage where we have to wonder if there is a bigger issue with being too selective or slow in our processes. End of the day 18 months on from Mowbray's defenders speech to have still not signed one suggests there is a problem

On the contrary for those who have been until now receiving furlough money and unable to go out or go on holiday they might have had spare cash to part with. Now moving forward redundancies may well increase and foreign travel starts to open up more people will have less money or other things to spend it on. 7000 Bolton fans seem happy enough to do it. They can all read the small print. Lucky for Bolton they now have a couple of million in the bank and haven't had to do very much to earn it.

Even if we accept Wharton is ready and good enough that still leaves 2 slots to fill. Assuming that Mulgrew and Williams are on their way.

Just the 7000 sold at Bolton now.