JHRover

I think we're seeing yet more evidence of the 'two clubs' system that our esteemed owners have put in place. On the one hand we've the club down at Ewood, which includes staff, facilities and essentially has to wash its own face on the income the club can generate. Waggott is tasked with scrimping and saving, minimising overheads where possible. End result is desperation levels of fundraising and penny pinching, evident lack of investment into the ground, ever increasing ticket prices to cover it and Waggott's shameful act of denying supporters the option of refunds or compensation for missed matches. On the other hand we've Tony and the boys, who never struggle to find wriggle room on the pay-roll for contract extensions and the go ahead for all that seems to come directly from India and the owners funds. End result is we can afford another month of paying squad fillers never good enough for this division goodness knows how many more thousands of pounds yet your minimum wage or recently made redundant supporters can forget about it. Doesn't make sense but then again we are the club that finds millions under the mattress to splurge on a 19 year old from Forest yet operates on ever decreasing lines and competency due to endless cutbacks. Disappointed in Mowbray not realising how grotesque his comments are in light of Waggott's statement last week (though admittedly Mowbray won't have had any input into the season ticket fiasco.

They got away with murder last season with a disgraceful challenge on one of our players in the first few minutes that the referee didn't deal with. Presumably it was too early. Then the season before Bennett got a very soft sending off. They are a nasty side in the image of their manager and will bully and outmuscle us if we allow it. I do worry about these sort of fixtures because I don't think we've enough nastiness to deal with it at times. We'll play some nice stuff but digging deep and countering the physical side of things against teams like this is a worry. Make or break time again though. We are at the glass ceiling with in theory two of the weaker teams to play whilst direct rivals play each other. In times gone by we'd fluff it in these two then probably beat Leeds. Let's see if we've progressed or can benefit from Covid 19.

No deals will be done for external players because Waggott and Mowbray will not have the authority until India has assessed and approved the next budget. That won't happen until they go to India which won't happen until the season is finished and Venkys are willing to meet. If we get in the play offs another 3 weeks or more could be added by which time we will have lost any initiative or advantage over rivals. Same old despite freak circumstances. God help us if we did get promoted having to recruit for the Premier League with so little time.

I'd put money on him staying if he keeps them up and they ask him to stay. He can't say no. He can't give it up.

Warnock in at Middlesbrough replacing Woodgate. That's them safe then.

Credit for what? If I bought a house on the cheap, proceeded to run it into a derelict condition, never visit it, upset all the locals through my neglect, installed a succession of undesirable tenants I continued to at least pay the mortgage each month would I then expect the local community to thank me for it? I dont think anyone expects them to come to games on a regular basis. Not many foreign owners do. But once every 9 years might be nice. I'm sure if it's a choice between keep paying the bills or get the receivers in their advisors will be telling them to stick at it for now in the hope of a promotion. I always find it funny that the people who award Venkys credit for sticking around and not leaving are the same who argue nobody else is out there who would buy BRFC. Perhaps the two are linked? As we can now see, Venkys are potentially 11 games from promotion to the Premier League and the cash bonanza that comes with it. What have they done to potentially deliver that? Stumbled upon a decent manager prepared to compromise and work with their bizarre system. I suppose it depends on the individual whether you believe they've learned lessons and have become decent owners or are just as clueless and disinterested as ever, only underlings have been able to put something in place remotely workable despite them.

Yes the cut out thing was tacky and frankly bizarre. It seems someone made a late decision to make ones of the owners sat in Jack's box. Ironically Mr and Mrs Desai themselves have now sat in that box less than their cardboard cut outs have. They've only ever been to one game and sat upstairs with the directors rather than above the tunnel. All very weird. I think it is a Suhail Pasha stunt, though not sure what the idea is behind it. If it is to show their interest/commitment/one-of-us then it would be far more productive for one of them to have jumped on a plane at some point in the last 6-7 years and actually been to a game. The photos they have used are also stock photos from when they last came to Ewood - the ones of Mr and Mrs Desai you can see the blue railing in front of them from when they were sat upstairs. They haven't posed for photos. So those photos are now 8+ years old and if they had any real interest would it really have been so difficult for them to email over a few proper up to date selfies to transpose onto the cutouts. No this has Pasha's fingerprints all over it. You might notice from other pictures that he also had his photo there, albeit a few steps down from Jack Walker at the back of the players dugout area. Nothing wrong with it as it is their club and they are entitled to do as they wish. I'd actually embrace the idea if they genuinely had interest and wanted to show it with the fans but the fact they've obviously not been involved with this themselves just shows it up as something of a hollow and cheap stunt.

We will get plenty of chances to get back ahead of Cardiff, including when we go there, so not too worried about them winning. We need to focus on doing the business against bottom third teams this next 10 days.

Sky in full on Leeds drooling obsession mode. Not even trying to pretend otherwise. Horrible to listen to. I'd love it if they cocked it up again like last season but have no faith in either Fulham or Brentford being capable of catching them.

Suspect that Middlesbrough and Charlton might survive despite being dreadful by virtue of Hull's collapse. There's no way they're surviving now. Question is will either Barnsley or Luton cobble together a couple of wins to really send things crazy down there. If not then the likes of Middlesbrough, Huddersfield and Stoke may all survive through drawing odd games.

Terrific win and performance in a game against top 6 rivals and a side that normally I'd have down as a really tough ask to overcome. Puts us in a good place and confident after the unknowns of the first game back. Making up valuable ground on Forest, Preston, Bristol and Millwall. It makes things interesting/exciting with the games remaining, though I still think we've left ourselves too much to do. Only 3 of 8 now at home, 2 of which are against the best 2 sides in the league, and real battles at away grounds against rivals (Cardiff and Millwall) and relegation battlers desperate for points (Barnsley, Wigan, Luton). Tough ask and I suspect we will live to regret cheap points squandered earlier in the season from winning positions. As long as we give it a good go and Preston don't get in there I'll be content. I was very impressed by how comfortable we were in the second half. I still don't know why our goal was disallowed. Scandalous. Ended up watching it through Robins TV. Somehow they felt they were the victims this afternoon and it was satisfying watching Johnson's dad eating sour grapes after the game.

21 of the 24 clubs know this. That's why they've taken the potentially expensive and painful decision to offer refunds or discounts in lieu of lost games. It's only us and a couple of others who are trying to avoid this duty to loyal season ticket holders. No surprises there with this regime running the club.

They can try and railroad people into doing things all they want. I don't intend on using I Follow with the code they have supplied and I reserve my right to request an alternative. Whether I do that or not depends on how much of a mug they try to make of me and how many more slippery schemes they try to avoid facing up to their responsibilities. Dishing out thousands more on needless wages for players we have barely used this season isnt the way to go about it.

I already had a My Rovers account for merchandise and tickets and whilst I created an I Follow account I'd like to see them argue that this was me accepting the streaming option. I may have just wanted to purchase a match pass as a one off. There is no small print to account for these circumstances. The only thing I've found that deals with cancelled games is the above on the League website where they have to allow you into the rearranged fixture.

I spend all day every day on a quite complex computer programme at work. I would probably guess I'm in the top 10% or so of people when it comes to doing these sort of things on websites, but i found it very difficult to the point where i nearly had to give up. I tried doing it on my smartphone first but it wasn't working so I tried again on my laptop and it took nearly an hour to get it up and running. Anyhow, I received my code this afternoon. I won't be using it because if I do I expect the club will take that as acceptance of it in exchange for my season ticket. If I watch the game on Saturday it will be through a 3rd party platform on a tv and not on my phone or computer. After the dismal experience of last night I can't say I'll lose any sleep if I miss it.

Take it the club are just ignoring Football League rules then.

I'm just glad that having decided no refunds for struggling fans and receiving his full salary at least Waggott still gets to go and watch the game at Ewood at our expense whilst we all have to sit at home struggling to stream it onto a laptop. Them and us indeed. Stay at home, shut up, dont you dare harm the club by expecting money back, be grateful for the streaming but make sure you cough up again next year. We need that money to pay 6 figure salaries out so Waggott and his mates can go and watch.

Having read Waggott's comments in the Forum the more things start to make sense. I had questioned the legality of the club refusing refunds on season tickets and I suspect if anyone pushed it hard and long enough they would succeed. Obviously not worth the hassle for the sake of 50 to 60 quid back but I'm pretty sure the club would struggle to win. I think Waggott and his fellow Chairmen/CEO'S know this as they will have had expensive advice on the subject and as such we see slippery schemes unfolding like these. Most other clubs just accept their responsibilities and offer the refund as an option to be discouraged but reach a middle ground of a discount on renewals. Sadly Waggott doesn't have the authority to do such things so we take the middle road and annoy a lot of people without even an incentive to look forward to. So instead we get a poor and nasty statement effectively trying to convince the masses that 9 games on I Follow in exchange for 4 proper matches is a good deal, more than adequate and that anyone who seeks money back is in the wrong and putting the club at risk. The sort of language that would normally strike fear into any true, loyal caring fan of a football club. Shameful, in my opinion, using such language and effectively emotional blackmail. It all leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth about the way the club sees and treats its supporters. Waggott in his ivory tower will think he's acted entirely correctly and congratulate himself. Think he might be in for a shock when renewal time comes round.

We'll try and time their release for the same week as a vaccine goes into production. I'm afraid the minutes of the forum and the club statement from earlier this week just don't tally. The club statement is clear that refunds are not being offered, it goes as far as it can to tell people not to bother even thinking about them and attempts to guilt trip fans thinking of doing so into keeping quiet. Now in these minutes Waggott 'hopes' that the 'majority' would 'accept this' and plans a message to be released once all the codes have been sent out. Presumably therefore those who redeem their codes are in effect accepting the alternative and are waiving their right to a refund, and Waggott hopes the number left over who can't/won't use I Follow and still seek recompense will be very small in number. I'm still not sure why if businesses small and large around the country and world can continue to operate remotely that the billionaire heads of an international conglomerate can't use Teams to tell their very well paid CEO what is happening. You'd think they would want kits and tickets on sale NOW to bring some much needed cash in. Yet here we are, club shop still shut, still getting rid of the left overs at £30 a time.

Simple question that needs putting to Waggott is to ask why were are different to 21 of the other 23 clubs in not offering refunds as an option. Either he's one step ahead of all the others, or he's falling short. I know which i reckon it is.

True but I firmly believe that our slow starts to seasons are a symptom of poor planning and late decisions by Venkys with the barmy annual India review in May to authorise budgets and targets etc. This time their influence will be less so it will really come down to Mowbray and his staff getting them fit and competing quickly. Not optimistic of that mind you.

Waggott arrived in mid-2017 when we were half way towards promotion from League One. Since then we secured promotion and made a good fist of being back in the Championship last season, yet despite that upward trajectory the number of season ticket holders has at best stood still, and is actually significantly less than it was during the Gary Bowyer days in the Championship. I think it represents a failure, somewhere along the line, that crowds have bumbled along and our season ticket base has dwindled, despite a pretty good couple of years since he arrived. That tells me that either the Blackburn/Rovers supporting population are freaks of football nature, who react adversely to positive upward momentum, or one/several of the club's policies have failed in delivering an increase in season ticket holders despite having had success to build on. We certainly missed the boat with the promotion season and carnival Oxford fixture, inexplicably allowing 26,000 Rovers fans to come and go without ramming season ticket information down their throats. In my view deciding to rocket prices by some 17% overnight was another dubious decision that would probably have put some people off. When we were meandering along between 2013 and 2016 under Bowyer and Lambert were were getting more people on watching, but since then the club committed harakiri by bringing in the dingle clown and losing any good will that was left. Subsequent actions have repaired some of that damage but bewildering approaches to shutting various areas of Ewood down with seemingly no consultation and all done in a very insensitive manner again erodes trust and respect. Once a person is gone they aren't coming back. I firmly see Waggott as someone brought in to boost income and reduce what Venkys need to chuck in. To that end he's dealing in the here and now - maximising what he can as quickly and easily as he can from what is already here. Hence price rises across the board and a very much short term image about everything - all about immediate cash flow rather than taking a medium to long term approach on how to engrain new cultures into new fans. This is one of the reasons for my concerns because I suspect both Waggott and his bosses are solely concerned with the immediate cash flow situation, and have little-no interest in the impact policies will have on our support 5-10 years from now. Waggott because he won't prioritise this over cash flow targets and Venkys because they are clueless and disinterested in such things. If 500 turned up to league games I doubt they'd notice. For me the focus is on the wrong groups. If you want more people to come you target those most likely - the youths and younger end people of say 15-25 years of age (predominantly males) who are capable of buying tickets and going to games with their mates without their parents and who might well get into the habit and follow it for the long term. Especially who enjoy the social side of spending the afternoon out with their mates. Aiming at the primary school age children, is in my view admirable and even worth a shot but the focus should be on the above. I know the club do good work for primary school age children. Dishing out free tickets to kids is nice but in my opinion unlikely to see them suddenly become fanatics. Even if they were they can't do it on their own and can't spend.

I'm looking forward to matches happening again and watching the results come in and promotion/relegation be battled over. Not really looking forward to watching us on my laptop in an empty ground though.

If the clubs future is at risk that is because of the way it has operated including seemingly being comfortable with £10 million+ losses and a huge wage bill. Not because regular fans out of pocket may want compensating for games they have already paid for. The club could have done it so much better. A simple case of saying 'we can't offer refunds at the moment but we will ensure loyalty is rewarded with prices for the next season ticket' Season tickets could be put on sale now despite not knowing what is happening. Many other clubs have sold thousands already. This would help cash flow, ensure a base was retained through the barren months and win people over with discounts and reductions in lieu of losses this season. Quelle surprise we aren't doing that and are instead going to be playing catch up. Annoying fans by not providing a choice and allowing people to slip through the net over the coming weeks and months when (personally) I'd be ready and willing to sign up and hand over money now if the option and incentive was there.

The problem is that they are attempting to equate going to a match with a password to watch it from home on a laptop or smartphone. They are not the same. Far from it. I realise that it might be the best alternative in the current circumstances but for me 9 logins to online streaming is worth a lot less than admission to 4 home games. Others may disagree with that and feel online streaming is a more than adequate alternative. Rovers along with the other Championship clubs have done a deal with Sky and the media companies to allow all the games to be streamed in exchange for which clubs will receive the same media income as pre virus. So Rovers are still getting that cash and will have little to do to facilitate it, simply issuing additional passwords. I'm almost certain that I would prefer a discount on next season's ticket instead yet no suggestion of that being on the agenda, even though Waggott suggested it would be. I think most clubs are now taking the view that I Follow is a fair and pro rata equivalent to a season ticket. In that case why should I bother buying next season? Why are home games costing me £16 per game yet someone else can now buy a password for just £10?