2 goals and 1 assist over the season. That's the measure I'll be going off. Makes me laugh when people compare him to Dack in importance. Nowhere near at this stage. There's promise there though. In comparison to the rest of our midfielders I suppose that return is good but for a team with ambitions of promotion it isn't. Either he will have to up that return or we will have to do better.

Bit of a gamble to take when the manager is talking about promotion.

In the International Cup you don't have away trips. All games are played in England. I agree though that Rovers will probably try to avoid the 'aggravation' of participating. Too much hard work.

The narrative will be that Chapman, Davenport, Samuel and even Rothwell are effectively new signings going into next season. We don't know that any are good enough for where we want to be and I include Rothwell in that.

You can bet Sky Sports and the League will be rooting for and delighted if it is Villa v Leeds in the final at Wembley. Full house, neutrals will love it, high viewing figures on tv, hours upon hours of talking about what big, fantastic, great football clubs they are and how wonderful their support is, how the Premier League needs them. Football League will use it as evidence of how great things are when we've two traditional big clubs competing in a Wembley final and they can showcase the competition to the world. Really is sickening stuff which I struggle to listen to. Can be sure that Sky/EFL would much sooner have that final than Bristol City/Derby/WBA or most other clubs at this level.

Rumours that their manager is going to Plymouth in the division below.

I'm almost at the stage where I want Leeds to beat them in the play-off final. No time for Dean Smith who seems to take great surprise that some teams turn up at Villa Park and defend. Amazing that. You spend £50 million on players in the 2nd division and have a Premier League wage bill yet teams like Rotherham turn up and defend. Wonder what Smith would be doing in the opposite dugout. Reports today that WBA will interview Hughton for their job next week. Very sensible and will almost guarantee a promotion push next season if it happens.

Yep. Comes back to taking an interest in making the club better. Not the same as writing off losses when due and leaving things as they are.

Its quieter than any other ground I've been to. I can barely hear the announcements at times in the lower tier of the Jack Walker.

Like it or not the club has some responsibility towards trying to improve atmospheres and attendance at Ewood Park. This goes way beyond running some reduced price ticket offers throughout a season. It requires imagination, ambition, determination to try different things. Unfortunately I've seen no evidence of any such thing in the time we've been out of the Premier League aside from a few gimmicks led by Alan Myers such as the Fanzone and singer pre-match. Of course fundamentally an atmosphere at a ground stems from the fans inside it but as shown recently at Middlesbrough, Derby, Reading and Bristol City there are numerous initiatives clubs can come up with if determined enough to do it in an attempt to improve atmospheres at their grounds. Sometimes the club has to make more of an effort. Look at clubs like Norwich, Villa, Wolves and even Ipswich at this level all promoting the 'kop' concept with flags, banners and scarves dished out. Small things make big steps long term. The truth is that unless we magic 10,000 fans from thin air then the atmosphere at Ewood will always struggle to live up to much with so much empty space. Same goes for PNE, Bolton, Wigan, Middlesbrough, Hull who have all got similar numbers of empty seats and similar sized grounds. But I absolutely do not accept the club has made every effort possible to improve things. Infact quite the opposite. Shutting down 2 home stands in 4 years with no consultation or serious efforts to relocate groups elsewhere is frankly shocking and a complete own goal. The pitiful situation in closing the DE and doing nothing to replicate it elsewhere has resulted in a tiny number of people down by the corner flag still miles away from the away fans now shunted upstairs. I'm afraid if the club has the view that 10-12,000 is 'our level' and that's that then they might as well give up. There are a lot of people in this part of the world and the club has to make things more appealing to as many of those as possible. Of course structurally there are issues at Ewood too. 6000 seats are cut off upstairs a long way away from the action. 5000 seats are in the old Riverside which is an outdated structure a long way from the pitch and other stands. It isn't like being at WBA or Forest where the ground is tight and everyone packed close together. That's before we get onto the pre and post match routine. Drab music played at low volume, little to no imagination on trying to whip the fans up for games, no build up, nothing at half time. It really is poor and lacking in imagination. To most people such things are unimportant but small things like turning up the volume and playing some more appropriate music than the dreary version of Wild Rover might encourage people to start some songs going before kick off.

Not sure about Fulham and Huddersfield. The Warnock factor will ensure Cardiff are thereabouts unless he loses his motivation. I expected him to move elsewhere to keep things fresh and have a clean start somewhere. Fulham and Huddersfield both managed now by rookies who have never managed in the Championship before. I wouldn't be comfortable with either of their managers. Huddersfield also being sold as we speak so anything could happen there. Might work wonders like Wagner but will lightening strike twice there?

I was surprised to read on Rovers' website story about away crowds that we were 8th in the Championship for away numbers last season. I expected us to be perhaps mid-way or just below. Goes to show the 'small club' up against the 'big boys' narrative isn't really accurate (if that stat is true). Suspect Villa, Leeds, Sheff Wed, Sheff Utd, Norwich are 5 of the 7 above us. Perhaps WBA/Stoke the others.

Some clubs here have tried it. Cardiff ditching blue and turning red on the whim of their owner and his superstitions being the prime example. Eventually he had to back down and revert to blue. WBA and Southampton both went close to ditching their traditional stripes. WBA had a season wearing almost only white shirts with a small amount of blue and Southampton purely red home shirts but both were ditched. 'Fortunately' for us our owners don't give a stuff about our image or how many shirts we sell abroad so are incapable of making such a cut throat business decision. They're more likely to see us without shirts at all rather than a controversial new design to try and sell more.

If he's after a new spine to the team then that suggests a considerable job ahead and if he wants them to be better than what we've got and experienced at this level or higher he's going to need a lot of cash and freedom to add to the payroll. It also undermines the 4 window building job that Mowbray and others spent all last summer referring to as here we are now seemingly needing to spend heavily down the spine of the team in one window.

The Football League have confirmed that Bolton will be docked 12 points next season after officially entering administration today. I find it interesting to note that on the League's website they say they will be contacting the administrators to try and secure a long term future for the club. Interesting because at Rovers, Charlton, Port Vale, Blackpool, Coventry, Bury etc. the League have said and done very little whilst dodgy people have wrecked clubs and have hidden behind it being private club business that they can do nothing about, yet now they're interested enough to try and help look after Bolton. Interesting because they've proclaimed themselves to be 'competition organisers' and not 'regulators' yet the above suggests they are regulating and getting involved in the private workings of member clubs.

I may be paranoid about the whole thing but I was upset last summer when we didn't get invited into the Checkatrade Trophy despite finishing higher than numerous other academies that did get entered into it. Thanks to the investment made some time ago which put us at the forefront of things we've managed to maintain Category A status and I suppose some credit has to go to these owners for not shutting it down, yet, although I suppose if we churn out more Hanleys, Lenihans and Travis's then it's worth chucking a couple of million a year into it. Then there was the Ladies experience which laid bare the corruption. In theory all clubs with Category A status should be considered equal insofar as academy standards are concerned as each have to maintain a level and investment each year. I've no doubt that they will want United in their International Competition and will try to get them in and likewise won't be keen on a non-Premier League club being so high up the rankings. At the moment with 24 Category A clubs it fits quite neatly into their structure but it will be interesting to see what happens should another club seek admission as Category A and meet the criteria. Will they get rid of one to make room?

Don't get your hopes up too much. As good as it would be to those who watch the u23s and as beneficial as it would probably be to our lads and club profile I'm expecting them to find a way to avoid allowing us in. They won't want Blackburn Rovers as one of their elite 12 clubs.

I'm looking forward to us entering the Premier League International Cup next season and hosting some elite European clubs when our promising youngsters can lock horns with some of the best across Europe. My understanding is that entry is for the 12 highest placed Category A clubs and 12 European clubs by invitation. With us finishing 5th in the upper division we should be getting picked. Small problem for the Premier League - Rovers have just finished 5th whilst Man Utd finished 6th in division 2 so if entry is based on performance then Rovers will be in the competition and United won't be. Time to change the rules and make it all invitation only so the poster boys can be in.

Only a matter of time before they're building some 10,000+ breezeblock stadium next to the M60 somewhere. Already changed their badge, kit and dumped their nickname so that will be the final stage of the transformation from what they were to what the 'celebrities' want them to be. Too much time and money on their hands. Rather than retiring into the sunset after successful playing careers or going into coaching people like Beckham and Neville are all about self-promotion and keeping themselves in the limelight. Some might say its positive for Salford to receive this investment and propulsion through the leagues. I think it's a shame especially when the owners get more coverage and publicity than the club, fans or players. Giggs involved despite being manager of Wales, Gary Neville despite being well in at Sky Sports, Phil Neville despite being manager of England women. Sky Sports sponsoring them whilst covering the Football League. All a bit suspect.

Bad news with Salford getting into the League. Fylde not much better but at least with them there isn't the media love fest. Brace yourselves for unrelenting Sky and media fuelled obsession with Salford. A club being used as a vehicle to promote the ex United players. Not nice to see. With Neville being Sky's star pundit and them conveniently having a sponsorship deal with Sky Bet Super 6 its clear how it is going. A conflict of interest in my opinion but it won't be pretty to watch. They'll suddenly start taking an interest in League Two now Salford are there. Expect they'll be picked for more live broadcasts than we will next season. Cringeworthy.

Think they're on row 12 so any beneath that won't be a problem. I'm sure the club would let you have a look before buying to see if it's ok.

Barrow we played the other year and there's the Hardcastle transfer connection. Blackpool there's the Terry McPhillips connection. Rochdale there's the Sam Hart connection. Bury there's the Scott Wharton connection. Wouldn't surprise me if all 4 have come about because of those.

Think with Parker the fans and players love him and he's popular so they're giving him a chance after an ok spell as caretaker. I agree the Championship tends not to be a place for rookies and people on their first managerial job. Bowyer managed it with us. Not many others. Lampard done ok but no better than McClaren or Rowett at this point. Doubt Fulham are struggling for cash as they appear to be another lot immune from Ffp concerns.

I was told Rangers was a go-er up until recently when they were invited elsewhere so it wont be happening. Not a bad selection of friendlies in terms of getting to. More convenient than Lincoln and Grimsby of previous seasons. Hopefully we'll get a couple more games but against higher calibre opposition. Once again the lack of fixtures against continental opposition to me smells of a lack of planning and ambition. Easy to pick up the phone to the old friends down at Rochdale and Blackpool but not as easy to arrange a game in Europe against a high profile European club.

'We've shown we can mix it with the big teams' Who are the 'big teams' exactly?