JHRover

I've watched a few games both home and away on TV this season. This includes the highlights packages offered by Sky and ITV. At no point in any of those broadcasts have I seen any reference to this being out 150th anniversary season. You wouldn't know about it. They've done nothing to update or alter the club badge for the occasion, nothing to introduce a commemorative home shirt (quite the opposite it is one of the least unique and recognisable home shirts in club history, including the halves being wrong), they've got a random away shirt that we've worn a couple of times with town 'landmarks' on it but I'm struggling to understand the relevance of that to our 150th anniversary. As far as I can see (from a distance) there's nothing at Ewood to commemorate this occasion. You might expect boards around the ground, flashing advertisements, flags. Nothing. The pitiful banner on the BBE effort seems to have been abandoned after one game and not seen since. What would I want / expect to see for our 150th? 1) A new or temporary club crest for the season - perhaps in gold or altered to make reference to the occasion - so that anyone who sees it recognises it is different and special 2) Programmes (digital and paper) being reintroduced even just for the season and each edition being comprehensive and accurate about significant occasions and people from our long history - plenty of material to go at 3) A proper anniversary shirt worn for the whole season that would be immediately recognisable as different and unique and be worn by players and fans all season long (not a sticker on the back of the neck that nobody can see from any distance). Not worn on one day only (why limit such an occasion to one afternoon?). 4) A proper range of merchandise to celebrate the occasion - not a few t-shirts of dismal quality 5) A new timeline being introduced with it being permanently installed around the ground or an exhibition open in the Darwen End lounge each home game with food and drink available 6) A fixture against opposition of some relevance or stature in the game. Perhaps Athletic Bilbao or similar. Yes someone who costs money and effort to bring here and organise - good things cost money you see. 7) A club documentary - released on Youtube and media channels - make it a feature length film presented by a 'legend' or two chronicling it all the way from start to present (preferably ignoring the last 15 years of hell).

They missed 12:25pm - round of applause as our former manager, assistant managers, captain, and six(?) other players take to the field for the opposition having been forced out of Rovers over the last few years due to mismanagement/contract negligence.

I'm not sure of the relevance of any of those things. I'm well aware of our history all of which occurred under a different ownership - a proactive engaged ambitious owner / his legacy and not the current shysters. I've told you what Watford have achieved under their current ownership - promotion, PL survival and a cup final. None of which these owners or their mates will ever deliver here, even by accident when the opportunity drops into their lap unexpectedly (Mowbray, JDT, Eustace). Watford achieved all the above with their hire and fire culture - ruthless and decisive - not everyone's cup of tea but it got them up. The first season they went up they had 4 managers in a season and the second time around they sacked Ivic after no time despite a high win %. Only time will tell if it is a good move to sack their manager. If they shoot up the table then it probably has been a good move yes. If they get relegated then no. It suggests to me that whoever is making decisions there is actually looking at the bigger picture - not just a few results - and probably speaking to people behind the scenes, players, staff and assessing whether all is well or not. These all normal routine things for most clubs - ownership and management actually keeping an eye on things and ensuring changes are made for the betterment of the club and results. Alien concepts here I'm sure even you could agree. We haven't seen invested ownership or a focus on results since the day these people darkened our doors. It's similar to Forest - Marinakis doesn't mess about and won't hesitate to sack people. You might not like that approach but it has worked for them - another club that has left Rovers in the dust when 10 years ago we were well ahead of them.

By contrast we've given managers bucket loads of time - Bowyer got 2 years+, Mowbray 5 years +, JDT and Eustace would have had as long as they wanted if they had been willing to stick around and put up with it. And we've got nowhere. They've been to the PL, stayed there and got to the FA Cup final. Not bad for a small club. 'Strange and weird' may well be a fair description for their owners. Still it beats disgraceful, lying, club wrecking which we've got here yet you seem content not to criticise.

Does it matter if they finish above us?

Continue on this path and lower end League One will be optimistic. When you've no interest in competing or winning in a cut throat industry and spend all your time and effort cutting and reducing eventually everyone will catch up. Only so much living off past legacy can occur and we will soon be at that point.

No. In this day and age the only feature that determines a good/bad owner is whether you pay your bills on time. If you do you can do whatever you want. If you don't you'll get everyone - PFA, FA, EFL, media coming down on you like a ton of bricks. Let's remember that if it wasn't for the late / non payment of wages there would have been barely a murmur about the owners at Sheff Wed and Reading. It ALL comes from not paying wages/bills.

So as predicted the rearranged fixture will be taking place midweek on 2nd December 2025. Why on earth a game cancelled in September needs to wait the best part of 3 months to be replayed I am not so sure but hey, a few weeks before Xmas, dismal weather, should ensure a low turnout. Could have been played in October. Rovers also saying that ticket holders will pay 'half price' for the rearranged fixture which I find odd. In most previous examples surely it would be free entry to those who bought for the first game? Can't imagine the Ipswich lot will be too happy about paying twice but welcome to Venky Rovers. Maybe they'll bring their usual 1000 rather than the tourists who turned up for the cancelled game.

Sees us through a few months and then come January the chuckle brothers will be expected / instructed to sell another couple to keep the cash flowing for the second half of the season. Todd Cantwell going to be way out at the top of that list - some value there with his new captain status and clearly streets ahead of the rest of the team. They've known this for months which I dare say was a factor when appointing him captain as it adds extra value onto him.

I asked the question about the relevance of playing Old Etonians on Twitter. The only sensible response I got was: That they were our opponents in our very first FA Cup final in 1881-82 which was the first to feature a team that is still (for now) surviving as a Football League side (Rovers) and the last time the Cup was won by one of the Southern amateur teams. I'm still not much further along in understanding why any of this is relevant for us celebrating our 150th anniversary. Interesting stuff for FA Cup historians and might be more relevant had we won the trophy that year to become the first non-southern amateur club to win the Cup but we weren't, we lost, so probably a fixture I would expect to see the Old Etonians arranging for their 150th anniversary not the other way around.

The other issue with this is logistics. When the Derby game hits full time you can bet on it taking a good 15 minutes for the pitch to clear, all the staff to get out of the way, media/Sky gang out. Then all the Rovers and Derby players will need their post-match discussion, shower and change before leaving the stadium. Are they going to be doing all that whilst there's another game taking place outside? Where are the 'legends' and Old Etonians going to change? They won't be able to use the home or away dressing rooms until probably an hour after full time so are they going to be stuck in a cupboard or spare room somewhere? Access the pitch from round the back of the Riverside as the tunnel is off limits? Pretty sure there are rules in place with the EFL regarding who can access the tunnel area before/during/after a game and time limits for that so that could easily cause a problem All the while they are expecting good numbers of fans to sit in their seats and wait... I say these things because I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if nobody down there has even considered these issues and just thinks there will be 22 kitted out players stood waiting in the tunnel to run onto the pitch and kick off at full time.

Whatever we did or didn't spend how about we ask ourselves why, after spending 'so much', have we deteriorated so much? Eustace and JDT both had us competing in and around the play offs without spending much. Now after a 'big spend' as you seem to consider it we've dropped into a side that looks nailed on for best case a long struggle against relegation. Why? Maybe reported transfer fees is only a very small component of this particularly when selling proven quality for more and slashing wages into League One levels.

Last season we were in the top 6 all the way through and fell away to finish 7th. Derby County, who were in administration a few years ago and League One as recently as 2024, who took our manager, captain and other players off us, and who survived in this league by the finest of margins last season. Now we are supposed to be feeling smug that they are struggling and 'only' a point above us?

Ok. So how about Wrexham, Birmingham, Forest, Wolves, West Brom, Leicester, Norwich, Ipswich, QPR, Portsmouth, Cardiff, Swansea, Sheff Wed, Sheff Utd, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Reading, Watford or Charlton All taken over by 'foreign money' in recent years none of whom were in the Premier League at the time

Agree save for the last part. In the last 5-10 years people have bought all manner of clubs in all sorts of divisions. In the North West all of B*rnley, Bolton, Wigan, Stockport ,Salford, Everton, Blackpool, Wrexham have been taken over by wealthy people wanting to invest in football and only one of those is bigger than Rovers.

The likes of Stoke and Preston aren't that good, they're just doing what we did last season - got off to a good start by virtue of having a united setup, good organisation, being hard to beat and carrying momentum. We did everything we possibly could as a club to stop and derail that - making the manager's position untenable, failing to strengthen in January, running out of steam, appointing a mediocre (if being kind) manager to pick up the job from February onwards. I can guarantee Preston and Stoke will at least try to stay in the top 6.

Come full time at 2:30pm there's a pretty strong chance we will have seen Rovers get beat by a Derby team containing our former management team, captain, and 3-4 other players. Unless something changes quickly we will be in or around the bottom 3 of the Championship. Odds are the weather will be crap as well. How many of the 8000 Rovers fans are going to hang around in those conditions potentially watching Derby fans/players/staff celebrate and gloat whilst Rovers get ready to play this 'legends' match afterwards? Not many at all I'd wager. It's hard enough getting people to stay in their seats for the 'lap of appreciation' after the final home game when we've lost never mind watch another match.

I'd suggest maybe Lambert a bit like Eustace albeit less effective in that he wanted results first and wasn't brought in and didn't have any intentions of all the above stuff. But yeah other than that whether it be Kean, Bowyer, Coyle, Mowbray, JDT and now Ismael there has always been a 'project' running alongside the bread and butter of results which takes over from it. The sad thing is that in both JDT and Eustace - for totally differing reasons but both very effective - they had people here that could deliver for them. Eustace showed he could do it on a shoestring budget without the need for some elaborate network and scouting, and JDT showed he could do it whilst handing debuts and game time to a raft of academy players, most of whom proved themselves to not be good enough yet were given plenty of opportunity at Championship level whilst we remained competitive. In avoiding both of the above we now seem to have gone down a third route - totally ditched the academy model, totally ditched the 'tried and tested' experience model, and ended up with a massively inferior manager working with a raft of players not good enough. Idiots gambling with the club's future and Championship status, for no good reason other than to perhaps benefit third parties outside of BRFC.

It's just the low hanging fruit again. Cheap and easy. Play it straight after the Derby game so there's no significant additional costs in opening Ewood/getting staff and stewarding on. Play Old Etonians it requires no effort or cost to bring them here for it. Is there supposed to be some particular relevance to playing them? I mean I know we played them in an FA Cup final but didn't we lose to them? So it isn't even a commemoration of a famous historical success. Are we now really at the stage of playing a game against an amateur outfit from the other end of the country who happen to share the same name as a team we lost to in an FA Cup final 140 years ago? Seems a bit tenuous to me.

It's never been about results on the pitch. Results have not been the priority at this club for over 15 years. If it was Allardyce wouldn't have got sacked, Kean wouldn't have been appointed, Kean would have been gone within a few weeks or at the end of that first season, both Bowyer and Mowbray would have lost their jobs earlier than they did. It is about cost and compliance. If you are willing to operate in the structure these people want and not complain, and are relatively speaking cheap, then you're set. Allardyce wasn't ever going to play their game so he had to go, Bowyer and Mowbray put up with it both because they got answers directly from India and because neither would have got similar jobs elsewhere. Coyle wouldn't have got the job and definitely wouldn't have been parachuted in ahead of Warnock and would have been sacked in October or November rather than February. Lambert wouldn't put up with it, nor JDT or Eustace because they all knew they were able to get employment elsewhere

Oxford's draw at QPR puts us into the bottom 3, albeit we can lean on the excuse of having a game in hand on most due to it raining at Ewood against Ipswich. We can take some comfort that Sheffield Wednesday, with their unpaid players and points deduction to come, are for now below us. Sheffield United WILL climb the table sooner rather than later once Wilder gets them sorted out.

If McBurnie continues scoring for Hull (he's up to 7 for the season already) and those goals keep them in the Championship whilst we go down due in part to a chronic lack of goals, I wonder if the bean counters and laptop carriers upstairs at Ewood will reflect on that as they count the £10 million+ cost of relegation? Of course they won't, they'll just resort to more and more excuses as to why we couldn't have signed him.

The owners and their stooges have been 'building' for relegation since the summer of 2023 when they decided they weren't going to support Broughton and JDT and then actively undermined them both by drastically slashing an already limited budget in the middle of the summer. It was only through a combination of good management by JDT and Eustace, and having the remnants of a good Championship side (Hyam, Travis, Brittain, Szmodics, Dolan, Batth) that we've kept ourselves afloat, although, again due to mismanagement they nearly managed relegation from nowhere in 2024. Now they've dealt with both of those issues - forced out the good managers who could overachieve and replaced with a highly questionable manager and dismantled the remains of that solid squad - so we are back on track. If it isn't a deliberate plan to relegate us it is at least recklessness and gross negligence.

Stoke had a tough away match at Middlesbrough last night, travelling back down after the game, late night. Us two home games in close succession. Could be an advantage there but then again just have to hope Ismael has no more birthday parties to go to before Saturday.

They didn't get rid of Coyle until February. February. This mon won't be going anywhere, especially with his 3 year deal and alignment. Remember lesson number one under this regime - football results and performances are irrelevant. Have been since day one.