That's the thing. I could almost accept/support/understand the delay in releasing information and getting tickets on sale if the club was going through some sort of lengthy research process to try and understand what they could do to improve things, or were putting together some drastic new pricing or other ideas in an attempt to overhaul the thing and boost numbers. But we all know now it will be more or less the same as this year. Same categories, same stands, similar prices, no bonuses. It gets to the embarrassing stage when Blackpool of all clubs, in receivership, up for sale and starting from the lowest base of all, are now ahead of us in the game. Does anyone know what Waggott actually does if he isn't setting the budgets, signing players or getting tickets on sale?

Join the dots time. Sky Sports - Jim White - Laurence Bassini - Jerome Anderson - Sky Sports All goes round in one big circle. All know each other. Remember Bassini saying he'd been offered Rovers before taking over at Watford? Stinks. He seems to be under the influence of something. Cant get my head around the Dave Richards references. Very strange.

Does anyone know what happens if their players stick to their threat and refuse to play their final 2 games of the season? Not clear if it is just their senior squad doing this or every registered player. Clearly if it is the former then they can fulfil their fixtures by chucking in the academy kids. If it's the latter then it will create a mess for the League to sort out. Presumably Brentford and Forest would be awarded the 3 points and the games wouldn't go ahead. Would Bolton face additional sanctions or just start afresh next season?

Meanwhile the 'competition organisers' EFL let the show continue. I hope, if this game doesn't go ahead, that they start Bolton on minus points next season. I expect they'll do nothing except release some vague statement about them speaking to the relevant people. Not really a surprise. One look at Bassini and you have to wonder how and where he has got the sort of money needed to bail Bolton out of their debts.

Yeah. The difficulty I see is that it appears to be a Mowbray brain child. I suspect he is the one who has identified it as an area of concern and has diverted energy and resources into improving it. Really it should be the owners, board or sporting director who decide to go down that route whilst the manager focuses his time and energy on coaching the players on the training ground. At the moment we've not a lot to go for on the pitch (other than perhaps getting a top half finish which would be nice) so nobody is too bothered that Mowbray is jetting off all over the place. But really you need a Director of Football who is going to do this sort of thing, organise the scouts every week and build up the database of targets. Too much for one man to handle and it all hinges on the manager being here. Such a short term position as a manager means these things need to be entrusted elsewhere. A manager is never (or at least should never) be more than a few bad results away from the axe. That's the reality of the industry. So it seems silly to be to put him at the centre of recruitment, scouting and entire direction of the club when it could easily come crashing down after a bad run of form.

Think that area has all been landscaped into a playground and parking area for the houses.

If we're level or winning the game heading towards 90 minutes then the referee will just do what usually happens at Norwich and add 9 minutes injury time. We need to be aware of this lot as they'll be well into trying to get our lot booked and sent off from the word go. My enduring memory of the game at Ewood was their manager constantly berating the 4th official and linesman whilst their players rolled around after every challenge and surrounded the referee. Not nice to watch.

I suspect the 'late April' comment from Waggott at the Fans Forum was just a stalling tactic to buy more time. He will know how daft it is to be in this position. Welcome to Blackburn Rovers - the club that moans about lack of income and small crowds but then makes little to no effort to increase season ticket sales. I still reckon we'll see the Swansea game come and go and with it the 2018-19 season without anyone being able to commit to a new season ticket. Insane.

You can scout all you like for quality players but if the owners don't provide the cash or we take weeks and weeks to get approval then the chances are that decent players will go elsewhere and we'll be running around trying to find what's left over. Good to see the manager is using this time to do some homework and preparation but until the owners allow the club to get on with it we'll be held back on that. Having known for some time now what league we are in it is simply inexcusable to be almost in May and have no confirmed budget, pre-season or season tickets.

The sort of thing Rovers should be all over like a rash and kicking up a fuss about on behalf of the 600+ fans who are being both inconvenienced and ripped off. Funny how Rovers released a statement on their website explaining how they couldn't do anything to reduce the price of tickets, then return some to Norwich who subsequently put them on sale to their fans at a lower price. Scandalous. It was explained to me today that the 33 quid price is only for their members. I explained that I don't care what it is for - the simple fact that seats originally allocated for Rovers are now available for less to Norwich is unacceptable. If that sort of behaviour is allowed then we should be doing the same thing to other clubs at Ewood.

I'm not opposed, in principle, to using a sky or pale blue from time to time, e.g. 1 every 9 or 10 kits. It makes a change and there's nothing I'm aware of that stipulates what shade of blue is the correct one. When we are tied to using halves of blue and white altering the shade of blue is one of the few things they can do to come up with different kits that will continue to sell. I'm not convinced that there's that much thought goes into it at Rovers end. I suspect they just take whatever Umbro decide to give them.

How does that work? The Bet 10 sponsor was only agreed last summer a matter of day/weeks before the shirt was released as we ran around trying to decide on a deal after Dafabet expired. We are often told that designs for kits are sorted many months in advance of them being on sale to provide time for manufacturing and shipping etc. Doubt the arrival of Bet 10 was anything to do with having pale blue. More likely is Umbro/Nike factory found it easier to use the same colour as Man City's shirts rather than using a different shade of blue. All Bet 10 will have been able to decide was the design and colour of their logo, which is why we ended up with the horrific black sticker on the front.

They've always tended to allow a few players in for relatively low fees early on in the window. Those people tend to be loans or free agents or at most nominal amounts. They never commit to substantial deals or large fees early doors. Last summer we had Rothwell coming in but the money only arrived later on for Armstrong and Brereton. Back under Coyle they brought in Samuelson, Byrne and Hendrie on cheap loans and allowed the Graham deal to go through but the cash for Emnes, Gallagher, Williams and the deal for Mulgrew only came later on. I suspect the reason for this is if there is a bit of cash left over in the budget or room on the payroll then those at Ewood have authority to do it, but expenditure above and beyond those levels requiring Venky input requires their permission, which takes time to come through.

I was trying to work it out last night. Only one of Scunny and Plymouth can catch them, which leaves one more place to avoid. I think they 'can' still go down but that would depend on Wimbledon winning both their games, and then on Southend getting 4 points from 6, and after that it would still need Rochdale, Bristol Rovers, Shrewsbury and Wycombe to pick up at least a point from their games. Of course that's on the basis Stanley lose both of theirs. They can go down, but it would be a very unusual sequence of results.

I think it must be your memory that is failing you. My memory recalls that when we were relegated at Brentford we had Paul Senior (Director of Football), Mike Cheston, Ian Sivester and Suhail Pasha all at the club in senior positions. By many accounts Pasha is the most influential man at the club as the only regular link to the owners and de facto boss. Admittedly Senior walked after relegation but the remainder of the hierarchy and coaching staff remained as it was the day Mowbray arrived. Since he arrived only Senior has departed and only his allies Waggott and Venus have arrived. Hardly a massive rebuilding job. Likewise the playing staff remained similar. Waggott's 'new management team' which took 6 months to 'assemble' consisted of no new appointments. I'm not sure how much you can blame accountants for not having any strategy at the club. It seems to me that there is little to no medium to long term strategy at the club, with it existing on a year by year basis with a budget laid down in May and nothing can or will happen until the next summit meeting. We've only to look at Mowbray's transfer comments this week to see he doesn't know what he's got to work with, I assume that also is the reason we can't function on a basic level of getting season tickets on sale even now with status secured. Signings are always late and I don't think that had or has anything to do with our relegation or accountants coming in. It's just the way they operate and always have done. A wall of silence from the top level down until they're ready to look at things again when they've some time in their diaries. This is the reason we're slow out of the blocks every summer and are always last to sell season tickets and conclude our transfer business. Please don't interpret my comments as a Mowbray bashing exercise or me trying to diminish the good job he has done. I've said many times I think he's done well and deserves a lot of credit for an improvement in fortunes but lets not go over the top with things here. In respect of the original point in my opinion League One last season was an easier division than it is this year. Nevertheless we got 96 points which is impressive and represented a job well done.

I don't see why Mowbray had to persuade the owners to do anything. Surely as the ones paying the bills they decide what happens and the manager works with that? If they wanted to keep funding the salaries to try and get us straight back up that's their decision, not sure what evidence there is that Mowbray managed to persuade them to do it or that it would have been different with a different manager. If the only reason Mulgrew, Graham and Evans stayed here was because of Mowbray's persuasion then fair enough. I don't remember any talk of those players leaving. Infact the only news we had was of Sheffield United putting in a derisory bid for Lenihan. A bit like saying Guardiola deserves credit for persuading Sheikh Mansour to spend more money after winning the league last season

There's no such thing as an easy automatic promotion, but we should have finished in the top 2 last season. We achieved our target. Of course we could easily have missed that target and not got promoted, as maybe Sunderland might do if they fail to go up. We had one of the most expensive squads that league has ever seen, had stability in personnel following relegation and didn't have any players snatched away from us. So in terms of preparation it was just about as ideal as you could ask for. For comparison's sake Sunderland have had a new manager, coaching staff, ownership and are still adjusting their squad from the one that was relegated from the Premier League. I also think it is a much more formidable League One than last year. The emergence of Luton on the brink of back to back promotions, the improvement at Portsmouth as Jackett has built them into a promotion capable side and Charlton who have improved, along with Barnsley and Sunderland who are looking to bounce straight back. Tough. Last season the play-offs contained Charlton, Shrewsbury, Rotherham and Scunthorpe. This time round potentially Sunderland, Portsmouth, Charlton and Peterborough/Doncaster.

I suspect the club just take whatever they are given by Umbro. Whatever input Rovers have into the design/colour of the kits is, I suspect, absolutely minimal. When something as straightforward as a matchday programme is treated with such reluctance and lack of attention I can't believe anyone down at Ewood takes any serious interest in what shade of blue our home kit has or what colour our away shirt is. Lets remember that we've turned out in white and dark blue away shirts over the last few years which has resulted in the need for a 3rd kit. Why it is so difficult to have an away shirt that doesn't contain any blue or white I'm not sure. In terms of the red and black I accept that it is the ideal away shirt for Rovers, but given they used the red and black stripes last season I'd be surprised to see us go back to it so soon. The priority will be to sell as many as possible (or at least should be) so coming up with a very similar colour to 2 seasons ago might not sell.

Having a special season of the coat of arms crest would be a good way to mark the 150th anniversary season. Probably far too imaginative for the regime here though. We'll do well to get a mention in the programme. Don't think there was anything whatsoever to mark our 140th anniversary whilst Birmingham had a special crest/kit/season long celebrations.

Doncaster are formidable at home. Stanley in for a tough night. A point would be excellent for them. Stanley also travel to Portsmouth on the final day, who will need a win to get promoted or have a chance of doing. Can't see much for Stanley there. So much rides on their home match v Plymouth. Win that and they'll be fine. A draw and they might be ok. A defeat and they'll be depending on Southend/Scunthorpe staying below them. Plymouth play Scunthorpe final day in a 6 pointer. Southend are at Rochdale at the weekend.

The only solution to that is to make ourselves into one of those and convince him he's as well being here as elsewhere. Starting point for that is to sign some decent players and show everyone we mean business this summer. Once again this comes back to club management. Sitting around until July waiting for something to happen, moaning about money and costs and how difficult it is and aiming for mid-table will ensure decent players look elsewhere in their quest to reach the Premier League.

Arguably their scouting has had to be successful, as on their budget they are unable to do it any other way. If they weren't good at unearthing gems they'd likely be back in League One. They certainly don't have the facilities, academy or finances available that we have. We could try to emulate their approach but it seems, given our business in recent years, that we don't want to do that. Given where we were last season and the season before I'm happy to be rubbing shoulders with them in mid-table, though my aim for the remaining 2 games would be to get above them and get into the top half and hope the manager does too. Moving forward now we have survived we need to be getting above them. Given our annual losses at the last count were £10 million a year more than theirs and we've spent heavily on Brereton and Armstrong, I don't think it is arrogant or wrong to expect us to climb above them. I'll be disappointed if we don't given the above. If we want to compete with them then we should get our losses down to less than £10 million a year like theirs are, give up the academy and get our wage bill and transfer budget down to their level. Then we'd have to follow their route and unearth gems but we might struggle to do it as successfully as they have.

Hmmm. I think Bowyer did a brilliant job with us. I have more respect for him than anyone at the club since Venkys took over for his work in keeping us up and turning us around given the issues we had. Could we have finished higher in those two full seasons? Possibly, but then again we could have finished higher this season or last season so really you can carry that on indefinitely. Things began to turn sour in his final season but I'm not sure how much of that can be pinned on Bowyer. Lets remember that by then he'd had Gestede and Cairney sold from underneath him, had been operating under a transfer embargo for several windows, was getting no funding from the owners and didn't even get to meet them in the summer of 2015. I also suspect the increasing involvement of Pasha from that point onwards played a part as he began to take more of an active role and its no coincidence that also around that time or shortly afterwards Bowyer allies in Shaw and Myers handed in their notice. I think Bowyer probably knew he was on borrowed time as Pasha wanted to assert his authority and bring in his own man (remember the rumours after the Brighton away game that he had been sacked?). Something was amiss from the summer of 2015 onwards. Mowbray is still in the phase Bowyer was in during his first 2 years - all good - owners who keep out of the way, send him money for transfers from time to time and don't interfere. If we make it through another couple of years like that then I might start to believe they've turned a corner but it wouldn't surprise me to see things unravel again the moment Madame begins to lose faith or starts taking her advice from different people. We're now hearing worrying comments from the manager about having to go to India again this summer to speak to them and 'find out' what their ambitions are. This after apparently agreeing on a long term vision at previous meetings and having a multi-window strategy, now he has to meet with them again to discover what they want to do and presumably seek approval for a transfer budget. After all, she lost faith in Bowyer or at least allowed someone else to sack him after everyone thought he would be secure after making them fortunes in sales. Why won't she do the same with Mowbray if we don't keep progressing or if she gets up on the wrong side of bed one day? I agree that Mowbray has that potentially crucial experience that a club like ours needs given the lack of know-how at ownership and boardroom level. A club of this size and stature with a vacuum of footballing know-how at most levels needs a proven pair of hands. If we want to go down the up and coming coach route then fine but we need to install the correct backroom and boardroom to enable that to happen. I think Bowyer did extremely well for us and for Blackpool and given time will do a good job for Bradford. I suppose he and Mowbray have had different opportunities in football management. Mowbray had a reputation as a decent level player, Bowyer didn't. Mowbray went up to Scotland to get his management career going which Bowyer didn't. Bowyer took over a mess of a club here, Mowbray had a smoother ride with Hibs. Mowbray got a good move to WBA in an era when British managers working in Scotland got moves to the top Championship clubs, which doesn't happen these days.

The colour of the away shirt becomes more important given the number of occasions it is worn, sometimes unnecessarily. Forest away being the latest example. I'm sorry but there should be no circumstances at all in which we don't wear our famous blue and white halves whilst playing a side in red. I'd rather the away shirt was restricted to only those against blue or white shirted opposition. Fortunately at least we'll be in proper Rovers attire at Norwich.

Absolutely. It's really not that hard to work out. We've got a backward structure in place where the manager of the first team is also effectively manager of the club. We hoped that had changed with the arrival of Waggott as Chief Executive but it appears not. I'm afraid the only logical conclusion to come to with Waggott is that the owners were persuaded to appoint him as Chief Executive by Mowbray/Cheston/Pasha to handle the no doubt hefty workload of running the operation on a day to day basis (far too much for one person to handle as they attempted with Cheston) and Mowbray put a good word in for Waggott having got to know him during their time at Coventry City. It certainly doesn't appear to be the case that Waggott has the ability to act as the link between India and Brockhall, nor does he have the ability to handle budgets other than to propose them to India for approval, nor does it seem he even has authority to determine season ticket prices without needing prior approval from India which won't come until the summer. This ludicrous structure they have put in place is, of course, entirely their decision as majority shareholders and funders of the club. I don't think it will ever ensure any sustained improvement at the club because it is so inherently flawed and backward in an industry where the proactive and bold are successful. It might be the way they like to do things, good for them, but it will pretty much guarantee that mid-table Championship is as good as it gets unless a fluke happens. And it will cost them £10-15 million a year every year as a result. When you look at the size of clubs and professionalism of some of the operations at the top end of the Championship we're a million miles off and it looks like the owners like it that way. No point tasking Waggott with increasing revenues but not allowing him to release season ticket prices. We're hearing similar stuff now from Mowbray - having to go to India to 'find out' what the owners ambitions are. Hang on a minute - I thought they agreed on a plan and a strategy last summer and Mowbray persuaded them to go down the slow build approach of him building a promotion capable squad over 4 transfer windows? It seems Mowbray doesn't have a clue what is in store and it all hinges, as ever, on what Madame decides in a meeting in May.