Ah yes the kid on loan from a Premier League club with only a handful of career appearances everyone gets excited about when he joins, conveniently for next to nothing, before disappointing. Seen that one before here. Next please.

Back in 2013 or 2014 going into a Championship season we'd have had a good following at places like Rochdale and Bury for pre-season friendlies. Maybe 2014 when we had Bury and filled most of the stand behind the goal. Given we've been to these grounds half a dozen times now over the last 5-6 years the novelty will have worn off and i can't see there being more than a few hundred. When you play the same old sides every summer people will get bored with it. Playing them both in the league season before last will probably diminish it too. Only ones i can see being well attended are Rangers and Blackpool, for obvious reasons. The others will be poorly attended.

Possibly if the club treated sales with more urgency and got them on sale at the same time as most other clubs more people would have bought by now? e.g. whilst people are going to Ewood during the season rather than saving up for their summer holidays with other things to think about than Rovers. I'll buy when I'm ready to. No question I'll renew and I'll need to do it at some point this month to secure my seats. Not the same for other people though.

If we've the same budget as last year we should easily be able to improve both positions rather than one or the other. When we start bringing people in for lots of money as projects which eat up most of the budget we will struggle to address the issues.

Interesting that he speaks of a healthy budget for the summer but also talks about moving towards self sufficiency. The two are incompatible. If we want to compete and invest at this level we need external investment and through that won't be self sufficient. It's one or the other and that's nothing to do with our crowds compared to other clubs. You want to invest and compete then you won't break even. If Venkys don't like the idea of losing more money then they either need to get us up quickly or pack their bags.

I'm afraid a line is crossed when the manager and spokesman of the club is going out and making these sort of comments. I know it suits Mowbray and the regime we have to keep expectations down and remind people that we've no divine right to expect success and this is a very competitive league but there comes a stage where it is too much and we've reached that. I don't demand much of the club. I don't demand success or millions spent on top quality players but I do demand pride in what we are. I don't accept these comments as either accurate or appropriate. As I say Mowbray should perhaps say less at times, whether that be our huge rivals who actually aren't or the inflated crowds of rivals he comes out with.

Mowbray now claiming on the official website that Stoke and Middlesbrough are huge clubs with huge fanbase and we have to look forward to competing with them. Very disappointing and insulting comments in my opinion and I don't appreciate them being published on our official website. Even if Mowbray believes that I don't want him or anyone else at Rovers saying it. I believe he is incorrect in any event but then again Mowbray has form for saying things that are simply wrong or gross exaggerations to suit himself.

I don't understand why they can't even have a release date, let alone any proper marketing material. Is it really just a case of waiting for the van to turn up outside the shop and unload the boxes? Seems poor to me. We keep hearing about needing more income yet replica kit and gear is approached so poorly.

He'll be top earner or close to it and on far more than he would ever have hoped for at Gillingham. Probably explains the lifestyle. He was going nowhere fast until we went in and gave him a platform in a good side and all parties have reaped the rewards. Biggest problem isn't his bird it's the media and agent chums down in London who will be bending his ear every other week after landing him a big move and a mega contract. He strikes me as being happy here and grateful to the club and manager but it doesn't take long with some of the low life that operate in football these days to engineer what they want. Alarm bells going for me when he was invited onto Soccer AM. Sort of thing not every Championship player gets to do and probably had countless agent connected Sky lackeys in his ear ever since. Could nip everything in the bud early doors by getting him tied to a new deal, which was rumoured back in January whilst that rumour mill was in overdrive but never came to anything.

I'm sure had Fergie packed in earlier or Hughes hadn't gone to City then he'd have been next to or ahead of Moyes for that job. But he burnt his bridges by joining City and ensured he wouldn't get the United job. He always had a high opinion of himself justifiably so given his record at Rovers but perhaps not on his record at Fulham, QPR, Stoke and Southampton. Not particularly well thought of at any of those clubs and each one ended in a shambles. Fell out with Al Fayed then left the others in dire straits. Decent job at Stoke with 3 top 10 finishes in a row but nothing spectacular really. If he wants to manage again it will be either Championship or abroad. Doubt his ego could handle dropping down a division so I expect it will be early retirement unless a good offer from overseas comes along. You'd think someone in Spain or Germany would be interested given his playing background. Quite clear with hindsight that the Trust were taking us one way only with their refusal to invest in the club and lack of interest. As with Venkys theres no room in this game for reluctant or couldn't care less owners. Don't need to be hands on but need to take an interest and want the club to improve. It was only the good work of Williams, Finn, Hughes and Allardyce etc. that kept the ship afloat. The Trust deserve no credit for that.

A few problems with that plan though. First off Mowbray might not be manager next summer if performance isn't acceptable this season. If he is here then he'll be preparing for his 4th full season which is above the usual lifespan of a Championship manager yet his scouting network will only just be delivering results. What if his successor wants to do it differently? Then it hinges on Venkys reinvesting all the proceeds of a hypothetical Dack sale which I think is unlikely given past behaviour. Then it comes down to our scouting doing what the other 23 Championship clubs aren't already doing. To do that we would either need to be going beyond what others are already doing or be extremely good at what we do. Mowbray sold us a 3 or 4 transfer window strategy to build a good side capable of challenging. We're now in window 3 since promotion and are being linked with Stuart Downing and keeping Ben Gladwin. Not exactly impressive. Hopefully there's better to come. But I do find it funny that there's now talk of European signings next season when that will be window 5. Always tomorrow, never today with this lot.

More massaging of the figures to suit the agenda. Last season it suited him to claim the higher figure whereas now with a pitiful 2500 sold it suits to set the bar lower and achieve higher.

Standard stuff from Mowbray really. As ever the proof will be in the pudding and I'll try to reserve judgement and not pay too much attention to the publicity. I do get sick and fed up of Sky, Radio Lancashire and Telegraph scuttling along to the Eid in the park event and trying to get a story out of him regarding Dack. Maybe to be expected from Sky in their Premier League obsessed world but it is disappointing to see from the local media. Gives them something to do I suppose but I don't think it is being done in Rovers interests and appears to be completely baseless at this point.

Hughes' right hand man Mark Bowen is rumoured to be becoming Reading's director of football. Unless I'm mistaken that will be the first time he's not worked with Hughes since Hughes entered management. That tells me that perhaps Hughes isn't planning on managing again for a while.

Unless things are so bad behind the scenes at Hull that he knows what's coming and he's getting out with a good season behind him. Their fans are blaming the owners and expect relegation next season.

Approval given for Coventry to play next season at St Andrew's. So the threats to kick them out of the league were hollow ones as they will agree to relocation to ensure they can fulfil their fixtures. My issue is whether the rental income and receipts through this ground share can be used by Birmingham to offset against Ffp calculations. Given their recent record with the regulations I suspect this extra cash will come in very handy. Question should be whether it is fair on rival clubs that a member can benefit from this arrangement to put them in a stronger position as a result of the league sanctioning this relocation. Convenient solution all round....

I actually don't mind that. It's different. I'd like to see that template applied to our home shirt with halves on the body and those stripes on the sleeves. Derby have got themselves a sponsor that works very well with their shirt though, whereas I still think the problem we will face is successfully incorporating the sponsor.

For all that see Wolves. They got lucky with good rich owners and did what they needed to. Obey the Ffp laws to the letter and you'll likely go nowhere. The clued up owners work around them, ours hide behind them.

I see there's a fuss being made about this 'investment' into recruitment being made. Whilst a positive development I do wonder how significant it is in the scheme of things. A bit like the 'investment' in pitches that Waggott claimed was happening this summer which if spread out across our sites actually doesn't represent very much and is probably the bare minimum upkeep needed to ensure that the facilities are adequate for next season. It's good that they're spending more and taking scouting more seriously but it appears to me that we're now playing catch up after years of neglect whilst rivals have steamed ahead. Thanks to the cost cutting slash and burn approach going hand in hand with complete and utter neglect from the owners and the board down it is baby steps stuff and probably still nowhere near what most rivals are doing every year yet Waggott expects everyone to be impressed as though we are doing something special.

Unfortunately we could have Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China competing to buy us and Venkys would probably refuse to even pick up the phone. We're in the triple lock of being dependent on external funding, being owned by idiots but also the sort of idiots who can afford it and won't entertain selling. All the while rival Championship clubs get bought up by foreign owners and many fans try to convince themselves nobody would be interested in Rovers and Venkys are the best we can hope for.

Looking forward to it. Shame it's a Sunday but might have to book the Monday off work. Going up on the train. Something to look forward to from pre-season at least. Been waiting a long time to go to Ibrox. Don't think there'll be anything to worry about allocation wise going off what it was like for the dingles the other year.

Why does a competition organiser for an English football competition have to meet in sunny Portugal? Back slaps all around as they spend that fine money. Never mind Bury or Bolton, record attendances this year and Sky are paying more!

What sort of people pay £5 million for a mansion on the other side of the world and then never come to stay in it? The sort who have a hell of a lot of money and are quite happy to let it leak into the UK every year.

Just more moving of the goalposts. Same with transfer window targets and expectations. To have sold half of what Blackpool have and a seventh of what relegated to League Two Bradford have so far is awful. Obviously we will see more sold as the summer rolls on but i can't for the life of me see why Rovers or the owners prefer it this way than having your core paid and signed up already.

Sounds to me like a move agreed or very close to being if Waggott is talking about it like that in the paper. Nothing to get excited about. Effectively waving goodbye to Conway and replacing him with Downing. Both well past their best, both free agents, don't imagine Downing will be costing much more at his age. I suppose at least he was playing regularly for a team in the top 6 most of last season...