JHRover

Monk has left under a cloud or odd circumstances from every club he has been at. He's only about 40 and yet has gone through 5 clubs in the same number of years. Its never been a case of him being sacked because results have been poor or their League position being a problem. He left Leeds when they nearly got into the playoffs, Middlesbrough when they were in the top 6 or very near, Birmingham in strange circumstances after most felt he had done well keeping them steady during the Ffp problems. Lee Carsley is being linked to the job today.

Sky will be sorting the fixtures out. Just need to make sure it is all set up to maximise their 'show' and viewing figures, especially if they can get every one of Leeds' remaining games on for everyone to enjoy.

Fair enough, must be someone picking calls up then. I know that emails haven't been getting responses and the vast majority of staff have been furloughed in which case they aren't allowed to speak.

I don't think it is that difficult. Once the league and Sky have decided what is happening, or should i say once Sky have told the league what is happening, then it should be reasonably straight forward to sort something out. I don't see why you need to analyse purchasing histories of fans. If you have a season ticket, or half season ticket, or had bought tickets for the 4 remaining games, then you should be entitled to a refund if the club isn't allowing you access to watch the games when they happen. In terms of contacting everyone I'm sure the club will have either an email or postal address for every season ticket holder and can send a standard uniform email out to them once approved with a few clicks on a computer. In terms of someone in the ticket office I don't think they are doing anything at this moment in time, same applies to most non footballing staff at the club. As I understand it the place went into lockdown in late March and hasn't really opened since. Other than for online shopping. I think if you try ringing them now you won't get through to anyone because they are all at home on furlough. As Derby have shown a simple 5 point scheme offering an option for everyone can be rolled out. More than enough there to satisfy the vast majority of people. Clearly a different option to suit every individual's preferences isnt realistic but it should more or less follow the route of a) donation to club b) pro rata refund c) reduction on future purchases e.g. discount on next season (this option needs to be weighted to encourage as many as possible to renew rather than accept a cash refund). I don't think the club is really alive to the longer term implications of getting this wrong or leaving it too long. They need to be getting people tied down to new season tickets quickly and i suspect the only way they are going to do that with some people is by offering an incentive or discount. If that isn't done then sales will plummet and then we'll spend the next few years blaming Covid and feeling sorry for ourselves whilst other clubs recover quickly and retain supporters.

I totally get where you are coming from with this. The problem is that over a number of years the club has added to its online offerings, whilst introducing things such as 'Club Cash' which have all been developed alongside one another rather than under one umbrella. Last year you needed about 4 different log ins to access everything - one for the club shop, one for tickets, one for club cash and one for I Follow. I think they have tried to address this by developing the 'My Rovers' account to bring everything under one account and password but it certainly isn't without its problems. One of my mates has a season ticket for his young granddaughter - apparently she needs her own account and unique email address to set it up with in order to redeem club cash - quite how someone who has just gone to primary school is expected to set up and manage their own email address I'm not sure. It's over complicated and difficult, even for someone who spends all day on computers like I do.

I see several managers are upset about resuming on 20th June saying it is too soon. Barnsley, Sheff Wed and QPR managers all moaning. I suspect there's absolutely no chance of a delay now that Sky have gone public with their coverage

Highest paid director on £300,000 per annum. We assume that's Waggott, might be someone else.

The issue I have is i expect Rovers will consider the offer of Ifollow as an adequate or fair replacement of a season ticket, but it isn't. I live in a house with another season ticket holder, plus an ex season ticket holder. So between us we've 3 quite keen Rovers fans, two who have paid close to £700 for the season and are circa £100 down on the 4 missed games. Now i don't accept that a pass to watch it on a TV which we all have access to is the same as admission to the ground. Per game my season ticket is just over £15 in the JW. Supposedly the cheapest way to watch Rovers per game. Yet if my understanding is correct then Joe Bloggs who never had a season ticket can watch games for £10 a time, or for nothing if he shares a house with someone else who has Ifollow access.

It isn't my fault either, so why should i relinquish money that i've handed over for goods undelivered? I am undecided on whether to request one, but I am struggling to feel guilty or uncomfortable when I see players turning up in Range Rovers at Brockhall on £10,000+ a week, none of whom have taken any wage reduction, whilst i have also lost income during this period. I struggle to feel uncomfortable when Steve Waggott is set to collect his £300,000 for the year whilst yet again it is the regular average season ticket holders expected to pick up the tab because of their loyalty. I agree the silence is poor from the club. I was looking at Derby's website earlier. They've announced 5 options for season ticket holders: Pro rata refund 20% off next years season ticket 10% off next years season ticket with free subscription for BCD games 4 x match ticket vouchers for next season No refund - donate to the club A very fair, sensible and effective way of dealing with it. An option for everyone, an incentive to renew next season, an option for those who pick their games, an option for those who want to walk away from their money and not claim it. Lets see if Rovers can come up with something remotely this reasonable. I expect not. If it was I'm almost certain I'd go for option 2 and be quite happy about it. I'd like to think a lot of others would do the same thus ensuring a healthy renewal level for next season whilst also ensuring immediate cash flow isn't harmed.

No surprises that Sunderland are ones potentially depriving their fans of refunds. I suspect they will be one of the hardest hit clubs with their owners, overheads and likely missing out on promotion again. I'd like to see the small print that allows the club to replace match tickets with access to Ifollow without the option of a refund. I'd also like to know how they are going to stop a season ticket holder from hooking his account up to a pub and broadcasting it to many others who don't pay for access. What happens if you share a house and tv with 3-4 other season ticket holders. Why should they get less for their money than someone who lives alone? What happens if you don't have a tv licence, satellite tv or internet? You might laugh but i know people who don't. Can of worms opening here. No surprises there hasn't been a word from Waggott or Rovers as to what the options are going to be. Suspect he will be minded to at least encourage fans to accept Ifollow as the alternative. I'd like him to explain why i should do that and not have a refund whilst the club has been paying Charlie Mulgrew to not play for 6 months.

Back in February/early March if you had told me at the time that Derby away was going to be my last Rovers game for 12 months or more I'd have felt sick at the thought of it. Up until the lockdown Rovers was such a huge part of my life i would look forward to fixtures all week, spend most/all of my Saturday's going all over the place spending fortunes doing it and the idea of suddenly stopping and not having that in my life would have been hard to comprehend. In all honesty, sat here now in June 3 months into this i can say I haven't really missed it anywhere near the level i expected to, and haven't struggled coming to terms with the lack of football in my life. I've got used to it and found other things to occupy myself with. That may well change once the nice weather and summer days go and the days get shorter and everything at the moment has a 'summer break' feel to it perhaps subconsciously expecting a return come August. Of course I want it back asap along with other things like the pub, social life and holidays, but I'm not bothered about it being back if it doesn't feel like it is back and doesn't have the benefits of being back. I don't like receiving my football dose via television and doing so is a very inferior replacement to the real thing. If they were to announce tomorrow that 20th June would be business as usual and a normal home game at Ewood v Bristol City I'd start counting down the days with enthusiasm. But counting down the days to a cringeworthy over-hyped tv show played out in an empty ground? It doesn't mean very much to me. I'll probably watch it because its there and I've not much else to do but excited about it no.

I think if we reach a stage where the people exposed to it through their work in the health service or other jobs are immunised, along with those in the 'high risk' categories e.g. with underlying conditions or of a certain age, then in reality the vast majority of the problem would be dealt with. The vast majority of people can cope with the virus and overcome it. If a vaccine was introduced but given first to the above groups then I see no reason why the country couldn't get back to normality before receiving vaccines if they even wanted them. I was reading the other day that for the average primary school age child the likelihood of dying from Covid 19 is less than getting struck by lightning. NThat isn't to say it isn't an issue or problem but some perspective is needed. Once a way of shielding the vulnerable is found the majority should be able to have some sort of normality with or without a vaccine.

If you leave this season as it is or scrap it then you also scrap prizes and punishments. You don't do 2/3 or 3/4 of a season then stop and award trophies and titles because 'Liverpool deserve it'. You only deserve a title or relegation over a full season. So either the full season has to be finished or no prizes are awarded. It matters not that a club is 2 or 20 points clear. If the season can't finish then trophies can't be given out. Harsh maybe but no more so than on Leeds, WBA, Coventry or Crewe who would all suffer the same (or should suffer the same, if a sensible, fair and uniform approach was being adopted across English football. Instead we've ended up with every man for himself, a farcical situation where some divisions are returning, some have been abandoned, some don't know and promotion/relegation all over the place. This was a job for the FA to intervene and put their feet down and decide what was happening across the board. As ever they've left it to individual clubs and competitions to decide whilst shirking their responsibilities and now we've a right mess unfolding. They clearly think they can safely/effectively finish the season behind closed doors (it won't be behind closed doors, because they've already estimated needing a minimum of 300 people there to enable the game to go ahead - can anyone out there explain to me how you get to 300 essential people from 2 teams of 11, subs and coaching/medical staff?) I also don't believe for one minute that the PL has managed to avoid any infections and has announced 0 positive tests whilst the Championship has announced numerous. What are the chances of that happening? I suspect they are trying to railroad clubs and players into resuming asap because those subscriptions need renewing and Sky are losing viewers. Clear from the QPR announcement today that clubs are barely being consulted on this and are being cajoled or forced into things they aren't particularly comfortable with. For me the most sensible approach would be to effectively close football down for 12 months, put it on ice with a view to having normality in time for the 2021-22 season. If it can come back sooner then just have regional divisions or cup competitions to pass the time.

I don't think BCD games are necessary. I understand the argument that it can be considered the most 'fair' way to end the season but i think there's a debate to be had there. In my view, risks considered, the most appropriate solution would have been to void the whole season, wait for things to settle down over the next 6 months or so with regular reassessments and then start afresh for 2020-21 when the time is right. Something would need to be done about Bolton's point deduction but other than that there would be winners and losers. Shame for Liverpool, Leeds, WBA, but good for Norwich, Luton, Barnsley. That's life. I think if Sky didn't have English football over a financial barrel the story would be very different indeed. I don't buy this about the authorities wanting to boost morale or ensure fairness in the leagues. Its a financial decision made in no small part by those who pay the piper and their desires to see football on TV asap. I can understand why some people want football back in their lives asap and are relishing the prospect of sitting at home with it on tv every night. I'm not. IMV watching games in empty grounds through Sky is not something that i have any real desire to do. I may watch bits but won't be sat glued to the tv enjoying the 'bonanza' of Sky coverage. Those saying we can't have crowds in grounds again until a vaccine arrives - nobody seems to be considering the possibility of one not arriving. Then what? We spend the rest of our lives never going to any large gatherings or social events - weddings, birthday parties, football, cricket, festivals? Not feasible. They will have to come up with an alternative.

I have been getting quite irritated by the 'new normal' talk and 'the world and our lives will never be the same again' dramatic stuff. I think some people just love to overdo it at times. Clearly if anyone has lost a friend or family member to the virus that is terrible and lives will be permanently affected by that, in just the same way as they would if a friend or family member died from any other cause. This is not what i am getting at. All the changes to our daily lives - work patterns, social distancing, no events, no sports, no pubs or restaurants - should be treated as very much temporary adjustments to deal with the outbreak and manage it until one of three things happens: 1) A vaccine is developed and distributed 2) The virus dies out naturally/is starved of hosts to spread 3) An effective treatment is developed or discovered which means the virus can be allowed to spread If we can't do one of these within the next 12-18 months then forget about a 'new normal' where we just have to sit at home and watch TV rather than go to the pub or have to watch Rovers on Sky for a few years. There won't be pubs, society, sport to go back to. Which might be fine for some but then there's the economic impact of that, the harm it will do to lives as a result. Catastrophic. I suspected from the moment the lockdown was announced that this pandemic, whilst a logistical nightmare for the organisers of football, would actually also be used as a quite convenient cover for a re-alignment of how supporters recieve their football in this country for years to come. Not to mention numerous other things they've been wanting to bring in. This provides the perfect opportunity and cover for them to do it with minimal trouble. Mid-season breaks, especially with Qatar 2022 on the horizon - that problem has just about sorted itself out now European Super League - expect that to escalate rapidly when they get around to dealing with next season - UEFA won't let the golden goose lie and will sacrifice domestic leagues to ensure the 'big boys' play each other. I'm reluctant to be a guinea pig in a new era of Sky/BT controlling football. The only reason it has resumed is because Sky are forcing it and can practically taste the new subsriptions coming in when it resumes. I can almost hear them coining it in now as they prepare to 'welcome' football back into our lives and 'present the show' to millions of existing and new subsribers around the UK. Are they going to give that up without a fight once the restrictions are eventually removed? Not for me thanks. I dislike watching Rovers on TV even if it isn't live. The thought of doing so whilst paying Sky to watch glorified friendlies infront of empty grounds. Think I'll sit in the garden.

In terms of potential refund on my season ticket i have not yet decided what i am going to do yet. I'm struggling with the idea that i should refrain from getting a refund to the tune of £60+ on games i haven't been able to go to. I have many other bills to pay, I don't get a great salary and already spend far too much of it going far and wide every week watching Rovers. Meanwhile Rovers have a wage bill of millions of pounds and to my knowledge nobody in the hundreds of employees down there have yet taken a wage cut or lost any money. Waggott is on £300,000+ a year, lord only knows how much the players are on, not to mention the invisible owners rep, and whilst it is nice they have deferred some of those wages this is a DEFERRAL and not a CUT or REDUCTION. I also have a series of other issues and gripes on my mind that are telling me not to wave away a refund. I am unhappy that the club dishes out hundreds of free tickets for league games whilst taking my season ticket money and i ask why i should subsidise that. I also ask myself why i should pay for games that i won't be able to watch whilst i fully expect a large number of non-essential people to be able to gain access to Ewood for these 'behind closed doors' games whilst many are being paid to do so - Community Trust, office staff etc. I suppose one way of getting rid of the issue would be for the club to offer a discount on next year's season ticket to those who had them this year who don't claim a refund for the missed games. That would be an ideal solution as it would ensure there was a serious incentive to renew again at a discounted rate whilst addressing those games missed this year. I am very worried about the impact this pandemic is possibly going to have on our support base. Many people go to Rovers purely out of routine and habit rather than any great love of what gets served up on a fortnightly basis and i think the club takes a lot of those people for granted, expecting them to just roll up and renew every summer regardless. Once that habit is broken or people feel they are taking chances or putting themselves at risk by going and it becomes very difficult/impossible to get those people back who start to realise that they haven't really missed it and don't need it in their lives. If the club gets it wrong with refunds and upsets people or has the audacity to suggest those asking for them are causing the club harm or put prices up for next season then they are going to cause untold damage down the line. I can see a drop in crowds far greater than what any relegation would bring. In short if the club was able to offer an incentive for me to refuse a refund - e.g. discount on next season - then that would probably deal with the issue. But if they start with the guilt tripping and 'proper supporters' would walk away from refunds whilst continuing funneling thousands of pounds a week into millionaire's back pockets whilst i balance the bills each month there's going to be trouble.

I'm not sure how this is feasible in the Football League. Take Accy Stanley. Putting next season into 'hibernation' with no definite start date might save them the costs of hosting fixtures and paying bills to open the stadium up, but they are still going to be committed to all sorts of other costs whether games take place or not. They will still have plenty of players on contracts who will need paying. The furlough scheme is likely to be gone well before football can resume with crowds. They will still have to pay their groundsman, maintenance staff, admin staff yet advertising and sponsorship will plummet. Rovers will be similarly affected. Unless there is some massive cash injection from the Premier League, FIFA, government etc. to enable clubs to pay their staff and expenses for 6-12 months to see them through the hibernation period i can't see any way it will work.

It's quite clear to me that the reason there is the desperation to get Premier League and Championship football back on asap in some form or another is down to the TV companies and the cash they stand to make/lose from this pandemic. At the moment they have a captive audience of a football starved population sat at home bored in front of the TV all night and weekend. Sky and BT will have seen their viewing figures plummet over the last couple of months and if it continues much longer i suspect many will be questioning whether to cancel their subscriptions. There's only so many repeats and inane Gary Neville discussions people can listen to before having enough. They will be salivating at the prospect of the entire UK population and beyond being confined to their houses for days on end infront of their TVs with wall to wall Premier League coverage every day. Think of the new subscriptions, advertisements and viewing figures. Of course if Sky and BT lose their business that will end up being passed on to the clubs who rely on it. Shouldn't be a problem given the amounts of cash paid out over the last 20 years but it seems nearly all of it has been spent on obscene wages and transfer fees. I do find it quite ironic. After years of criticising the Venky 'model' of being dependent on their input to underwrite massive losses every year whilst they pile millions onto the debt whilst Burnley have been celebrated as a model of what to follow. Now we are continuing to rely on Venkys managing these costs from their business and cash reserves, entirely separate to football in the UK, whilst Burnley are over the barrel of being dependent on expected income from Sky etc, which may not materialize and may send clubs depending on it to the wall. No discussion of such things in the local paper though, who are quick to mention Venky's troubles in India but still haven't carried out any analysis into Burnley's financial state if football doesn't return soon. The EFL and prized cow Championship will follow suit because they have started to go the same way as the Premier League with the ownership and money sloshing around and Sky will be eager to ensure that season is played out to a conclusion. The potential legal ramifications of not doing are severe. Only yesterday i was reading that Barnsley are contemplating legal action if they are demoted at this point and Derby/Sheffield Wednesday survive after both have been found guilty of cheating and haven't been punished (yet). What a mess it could lead to. Partly self-inflicted of course because if the EFL had thrown the book at those clubs months ago it would have been dealt with before the pandemic came along. Personally speaking I've missed it less than i thought i would do. Though subconsciously i am probably still in the mindframe of it being the summer break and it won't really hit home until September when the weather turns and there's nothing to do at the weekend. I notice that some clubs such as Everton and Man Utd have already started offering refunds to supporters for games that have been missed and i wonder how long it will be before Rovers address such things. I'm not desperate to get my £60+ or whatever it is back but i will be asking questions before deciding whether to do so.

Got to be Kappa, Asics were good though. With a couple of exceptions I've found the Umbro and Nike efforts to be quite dull. I suppose this season's grey kit at least is something different although given how often we've worn it not really worth doing. Next I'd be happy with Hummel as i love what they've done with the Coventry kits. I also like Macron efforts. I suspect we are shackled to Umbro for the forseeable.

Not sure about photos but theres a video on YouTube of it. https://youtu.be/PwaUyrvdmUI

Unless I'm being blind or stupid the only home game on sale as an individual match is this Saturday v Bristol city. Personally I'd have them all on sale now. Then again I'd try and get as many home fans in the ground as possible which doesn't seem to be on the agenda here. I suspect quite the opposite for the Leeds game.

I went on Rovers' website last night and unless you buy the 4 game bundle there are no tickets for sale for the Leeds game. It really does sum this operation up that whilst we are able to produce and send tickets to Leeds for them to sell out within an hour we can't even get ours on our website so that Rovers fans can buy if they want to go. Talk about priorities. Then Waggott will wonder why nobody bothers going. How about get tickets.on sale?

Says who? Waggott? I take what he says with a pinch of salt.

I dont understand the commercial angle to the 3rd strip. They only released it as the season was starting and only had extremely limited stock to sell. So even if it had been the most popular away shirt in history it wouldn't have sold many units.

Ok, pet hate time. I hate it when we wear an away shirt rather than our proper blue and white halves. There is no need for us to wear a changed strip at places like Middlesbrough, Charlton or Bristol City. This season we now have 3 kits, our '3rd strip' for some reason being blue with white trim and shorts and our '2nd strip' being a horrible grey. The only away game we have worn our proper kit is at Hull. We've worn the blue shirt 10 times in 20 away games, and only worn the grey shirt 9 times. Whole thing absolutely pointless. Made more silly by the fact that the blue shirt was only revealed at the 11th hour and very little stock was available for purchase. Whoever is running this needs replacing. How hard can it be. One away shirt, worn when playing away at sides with blue or white home strips. Rest of the time we use blue and white halves, like we always used to up until about 5 year ago.