Mowbray, Eustace or anyone else would be bonkers to believe that the sale of a Rothwell or Dolan or anyone else would lead to cash being available to strengthen the rest of the squad. Has that ever happened before under the poison? Of course they and we would be led to believe it would happen. Then come the excuses that we've heard a million times before: FFP, cycles, difficult time to do business, admin errors, jam tomorrow, summer will be different, new structure coming, loans aren't free you know etc. etc. I'm talking full reinvestment of millions of pounds, not a couple of loans/cheap deals and a few million squirrelled away never to be seen again.

Rivals will lose key players because that's the nature of the beast in being a Championship club. No issues with that. But other clubs reluctantly lose those players, then go about dealing with their departures by investing the proceeds to strengthen or replace those departing. A bloke like Steve Gibson at Middlesbrough will ensure that he supports his manager as far as possible and that there's a plan for reinvestment. Here?

But why would we opt to do that and use those cash instalments to cover running costs? If there are no impediments on the owners putting in money, as claimed several times by those in senior positions at the club, then why don't they meet running costs from their own resources and then allow the Wharton money to go into the transfer pot? Why do you believe the money received since then - Szmodics & Raya - is going to be treated any differently?

You keep repeating this and I don't understand what you are saying. We keep getting told by the club that we can't use that money because it isn't all paid to us in one lump sum, rather it is spread out across several years. So how can it be gone? If it was all paid in one lump sum, and the club have lied (again) then where has it gone in less than 12 months? Are you suggesting that it has all been used to cover losses? If so why? That would mean that losses in the last 11 months exceeded £20 million, which is surely impossible, but even if correct we've still had the Raya and Szmodics money since then - so where is that? I think you are saying it is 'gone' because that is what Nixon is saying. What we actually are getting to here is not that it has 'gone' but rather that the owners are not allowing any of it back into reinvestment or improvement to the club. Instead they are using it to pay their bills moving forwards. Nothing untoward there, that's their choice. Nothing to do with FFP, cycles, weather, Covid, just a simple choice on their part that they want to save money by forcing the club to live off the sale of a once-in-a-generation talent rather than allow a portion to come back to support JDT or Eustace. Agreed?

One or two have managed to convince themselves that the failings of January 2023, Summer 2023 and January 2024 and subsequent relegation battle last season were all the fault or one or a combination of Tomasson, Broughton, Silvester. Basically they've fallen for the lie. I understand their eagerness to do so. So much easier and more comfortable to believe that it is all the fault of now departed staff members than face up to the reality that it lies with the unmovable owners and remaining goons in the shadows (even if it was all the fault of Tomasson, Broughton and Silvester, ultimately the buck stops with the upper management for employing them). So when we get similar calamitous inertia this January the hope is that reality dawns on these people that the real problem remains and the above were either victims or symptoms of the Venky disease and not the cause of our ills. Unfortunately it seems some others are already convincing themselves that the club remains totally hamstrung by a combination of FFP cycles, receipts in instalments etc. which the last 2 years has proven not to be an issue.

The club COULD spend millions if the owners wanted. There is no impediment to that, FFP or otherwise. Whether it SHOULD do during January or not is another question. It doesn't want to. That much is clear. Their choice, they see it as their money and their name above the door. Nothing we can do about that but lets not make excuses for them by pretending the club is constrained by other non-Venky factors.

Before we give them extra tickets why not give Rovers fans extra tickets?

I reckon that in the time they have owned the club there have been three managers - Kean, Bowyer and Mowbray - who have had any sort of direct working relationship with the poison, and it is no coincidence that they all had to jump on flights out to India several times a year. They weren't daft or doing it for a free holiday - they knew it was the only way of getting straight to the people that make things happen. The rest of them - Allardyce, Berg, Appleton, Lambert, Coyle, JDT and Eustace - have had zero direct involvement with the poison and have instead had to deal with them through an array of dodgy individuals acting as middlemen. Unsurprisingly they've had little to no financial backing and have lasted months in the job rather than years. There is zero prospect of the people that matter in India dealing directly with Eustace. His only hope on that front would to somehow request and be granted an audience with the odious ones. There's nowhere near enough time to be doing that now and it would have to be the summer. I'm not sure why he would do that when he could instead just put himself forward for a proper job where all this is avoided.

Over the years or January transfer plan tends to be to go to Everton, Liverpool, Villa, Brighton and ask them who they have available that they want to see playing every week in the Championship who they will cover the vast majority of wages on. Some have worked, some have been shite. It has never been enough to get us over the line and into the top 6 because you need more and you need better and you ain't getting that if you are unwilling to pay a fee or more than a small % of their wages.

There's no way Eustace gets a new deal here. It would need Waggott or shadow man to get hold of the Pune poison, which itself is probably close to impossible, and then somehow explain to them why they should be committing to an increased salary and longer contract for a bloke who is already under contract until May 2026, who they've never met. We know how these cretins work and it's just not going to happen. We all know why it makes sense to extend it now but the lowlife would simply expect him to honour his original deal and await a decision in May 2026 as to whether they are offering him another one (see Mowbray). Then of course there's the question of whether Waggott and Shadow Man are going to do a single damn thing that involves asking the owners for anything, or instead will just keep plodding on as they are. Cushy numbers are hard to give up and going to India requesting things might threaten that.

Looking forward to 'advice' forcing capacities of Old Trafford, Emirates, Tottenham, Anfield to be reduced by almost 20%. Just not geared up to it are they? Imagine for one minute if Eustace got us up through the play-offs. Do any of the people down there appear remotely competent, capable or interested in dealing with 25,000+ every week?

A horrible day for several reasons. Unlike some I dread these occasions due to the pressure and hassle involved. A familiar story, doing most things right for most of the game but not having enough quality or depth in the last 30 minutes. We've seen it unfold 4-5 times already this season in similar circumstances. They didn't deserve to win but the second they went 1-0 up I couldn't see any way back and think it was too easy for them to get through the rest of the game with minimal trouble. I'm not going to blame the players or manager. I think they did the best they could and fine margins etc. Our collapse over the last 15 years to a position now where a win over them seems as distant as ever I feel is the perfect manifestation of the Venky regime. Our last win against them coming just before they darkened our door and ever since they've had the better of us. Their poisonous presence has made this a losing club. It is a pretty woeful tale in all derby games - Preston, Wigan, Bolton too but especially bad in this one. We also never seem to be able to get home with the win in home or away games with a big Rovers support on. 25,900 'sellout' though. Has anyone heard anything as daft as that in their lives? Red carpet treatment for that lot. Hospitality, flags laid out across the Darwen End, thanks for coming. Stark contrast to the vile treatment our fans get there. Too much nicey nicey down at Ewood. Also a final mention for the officiating in the two derby games this season. With an element of competence and honesty from the officials we might have had more than 1 point from 6. A legitimate goal disallowed at their place, a red card following a refereeing failure forcing us to play for 40 minutes with 10 men, and then today allowing a joke of 4 minutes injury time. It is absolutely irrelevant whether people think we would have scored if the time was longer. Another few minutes, the least we should have had, allows for another 5-6 launches into their box. We go to Millwall, Leeds, Sheff Wed and they add on 8-9 minutes when we want the game over with. We play dingles and Hull at home and need a goal we get the minimum 4 minutes. Maybe Sky wanted to get their adverts on quick. A total disgrace. As we witnessed at Preston a year or two ago all it takes is one of those balls into the box to bounce off someone and its an equaliser. Anyhow, that's enough worrying about external factors - other teams, referees etc. In any organisation / body you have to get things right internally before you worry about external threats. Until we've removed the poison within and recovered from its effects we are wasting our time worrying about outside issues.

Met Office issued an 'amber' warning for snow covering NW England from tomorrow....

Imagine when sitting down with Waggott or whoever it was who offered him the job last February. You can imagine the bullsh1t being fed in a bid to persuade him to take the job mid-season. - No restrictions on the owners - They're wonderful people desperate to see the club succeed - They'll spend where they can within FFP limits All the same guff they come out with to the fans all the time but there's no evidence to back it up. As an outsider coming in it probably sounds fantastic. Get us safe, get to the summer, naturally will lose a few including Szmodics but at least they'll reinvest and that will be an opportunity. Then summer comes and goes with another 8 figure net transfer fee profit and we end up spending a bit here and there mainly on free agents and a couple of overseas players. Knuckle down, logic being that if we get to January in contention they'll surely sense an opportunity to go up and release some cash from the vast amounts they've recouped recently. Probably told by 'the board' (whoever they are) during November and December there's money to spend on some players, don't worry, we will sort it. Come February 1st we and Eustace will know what the game is. Unfortunately for us we've seen it all before and are praying that they will change their ways but know it is highly unlikely. For Eustace he's still relatively new to these shenanigans but come February will have had two windows of it and will know that if they don't back him now they never will. I reckon it is at that point he realises there's no point being here.

The Darwen End can be a home end and be split between home and away fans. That's the main issue here. Either by giving home fans the upper tier or by splitting it down the middle and giving half the upper and half the lower to the away team. This has happened many times before (pre-Venkys and Waggott) and indeed that stand was designed with such a division in mind. Tickets have been on sale for many weeks and it was obvious at least 2-3 weeks ago when they were forced to open the BBE upper that there was high demand and that further seats may need to be unlocked. I am not advocating giving them 7000 tickets. Never have and never will. But some of the 4000 empty 'could' be occupied by Rovers fans. Might only be 1000-1500 in the lower tier but there's no reason not to do it. It can be done, it has been done before and pretty much every other club in England has no issue with home and away fans sharing the same stand. Your suggestion that selling an extra 3000 to the dingles would cost us more than we would make in revenue. I would suggest that is nonsense. If the additional policing costs were £100,000 (3000 tickets at £33 each) there is something seriously wrong. If this was remotely close to being correct then we would see most stadia around the division with swathes of netted off blocks every week to save on policing costs. That doesn't happen except at Rovers. At Burnley they have next to no segregation. There should be no Rovers fan turned away from this ground whilst there remain unoccupied seats. Then we get on to the other issue here which is that you say 'as long as the home ends are full' - but they aren't. There are at least 300 empty seats in the Jack Walker Lower tier and Riverside bottom corner. The club has refused to release these for sale and instead would rather they be netted off - again not necessary. Are there another 2,000 people wanting tickets? Who knows. All I know is that we 'sold out' about a week ago now and logic would suggest quite a few more would have gone in the time since as the game gets nearer.

So despite refusing to sell almost 5,000 tickets out of our 31,000 capacity stadium the club are now attempting to rake in extra money by trying to persuade people to 'upgrade' their tickets. Just a totally ludicrous operation down there. No other club in professional football would get themselves into a position where a sixth of the ground is stood empty, turning away high demand from both home and away fans, for no reason. If they really wanted to they could get a crowd of over 30,000 on for this. They don't want it because it is just too much hassle. Leeds can pack 36,000 into a 37,000 capacity ground including having home fans underneath away fans in a 60s era stand. No problems. They must have plenty of money at Ewood to be turning away upwards of £100,000 from the 3000 or so extra seats they could have filled had they tried all due to 'advice' that no other club needs to follow.

I wouldn't class him as a senior player at the time he signed it. I think he had just made the breakthrough to the first team from the academy and suspect they just got him onto a senior level deal, rather than improving what was already a senior deal. May be wrong though. We keep hearing these tales of Dolan etc. refusing to sign new deals but there's precious little evidence other than the word of a proven liar that the club is doing anything to address anyone's contract situations. This goes way back to Lenihan, Rothwell etc. They can claim as many times as they like that they are making good offers and trying to secure them but until at least one of them signs and commits I will have my doubts as to how genuine those claims are.

Now would be the perfect time for all concerned for Eustace to get an improved and extended deal. He's approaching a year in the job and has unquestionably done a very good job so far in very difficult circumstances. His original deal expires in 18 months, by the summer it will need addressing in any event. He's done exactly what the Indians want from their manager which is to knuckle down and work with a limited budget and keep the attention off them. Similar to Mowbray in that respect though I think Eustace in private at least will be a lot more ambitious. Already this season we've had his name 'linked' - and I use that word loosely as a lot of it simply seems to be his name appearing in the betting odds - but his name has been mentioned for Hull, Coventry, Stoke and West Brom. Not only is it frankly outrageous that our manager is seriously considered as an option for a move to any of those clubs, summing up the state the Indians have us in, it is also a perfect reason to nip that in the bud with a better deal for him. It would also protect the club more if a club did come in for him, which if current progress continues will happen sooner or later. Sadly all this is too much logic and sense for Venky Rovers and they will see no reason at all to do anything about this until May 2026 when he is already clearing his desk (see Mowbray's final weeks). Contract extensions clearly aren't being authorised by the Indians - when was the last time a senior player or manager signed a new, extended contract?

Will be interesting if Robins does get the Stoke job whether he takes Adi Viveash there with him. A lot of people think that his success at Coventry was in large part down to his good double act with Viveash and the wheels came off this season after Viveash left in the summer.

Plymouth deserve to pay the price for appointing him. It was obvious to most that it was a crazy appointment and one that could cost them their league status, yet on they pushed. Of course the whole media circus and publicity that comes with it was too much for them to turn away.

Totally agree. There is absolutely NO excuse for not backing Eustace this window and strengthening the squad. They can't hide behind FFP because nobody has brought in as much as this club over the last couple of years. They can't use the admin error / rogue secretary excuse again because even the most deluded wouldn't fall for that again. They've been happy to tell us that there are no impediments to Venkys putting money in. It also seems they've been telling Eustace that he will be getting backed with a few signings and that there is money to spend (I reckon they tell every manager this in November / December). So it will be fascinating to see what they do and what they come out with on February 1st when the inevitable failure has occurred. If you aren't going to invest in this position then you never will and there is no point to any of this. We've learned from experience in the last 2-3 years what happens when you fail to back a decent manager and what happens when a small squad runs out of steam. The worst part of all of this is that should we slide away (again) after another January transfer window failure (again) and end up finishing say 9th or 10th come May there will be loads of supporters out there quite happy with that, claiming that it has been a good season and excellent progress following a relegation battle last season. But they will be missing the real point which is that we are on course for a top 6 finish and have an opportunity now to go on and secure it. Aside from the top 3 there are no teams that stand out. So to slide into mid table from here especially if self-inflicted due to a failure to strengthen that would be a failure, and probably one that would lead Eustace and some of our players to look elsewhere for next season.

Ta. It might appear to some to be a trivial minor point but Eustace says "There is some money to spend, I've been told" Key points I take from that is 'some money' and 'I've been told' He isn't saying there is money, he's saying someone has told him there is. That's nothing new, they've been claiming that every transfer window since they turned up. Unfortunately it usually isn't enough to get what we need.

Where and when did he say this? Do you have a link as I haven't seen or heard him say it

I'm afraid with the people we have running Rovers these days even if demand required it I very much doubt they would countenance splitting the Darwen End between home and away fans. Of course they could if they wanted, and should if needed, we did it perfectly well in 2009, but that all sounds like too much hassle to me these days. These days they are selling the home ends short for 400 'segregation' seats that are in totally self contained and separate stands to the away fans, meanwhile away fans can share facilities with home fans including the same stand at most other Championship grounds. They'd sooner max out the away numbers and then leave it at that.

Although if the police and 'SAG' were giving them similar advice to what Rovers allegedly get then they would need to net off 500+ seats in the Cricket Field stand. Inevitably these would have to come off the home allocation rather than reduce the away allocation to a measly 1700. It would probably involve kicking season ticket holders out of their seats. The corner between the Bob Lord stand and Cricket Field is almost touching distance between home and away fans. No netted off seats. No 10ft high steel fence. There remains an old 'box' area actually within the away end which often has home club staff sat in it during games and this is allowed without the need for Berlin Wall style no-mans land. Why?