I'm sure if they'd have been clear from the outset that the rationale behind it was to save a few quid whilst condensing the home support then even those being moved would have understood the decision. I'm also sure that if they ran a scheme of relocation to a suitable designated block elsewhere it could work quite smoothly without upsetting existing season ticket holders. To now try and make out as though it is being done to help supporters because we're going into the big boys league and will get massive away followings is quite insulting. Last time we were here only PNE, Leeds and Villa filled the Darwen End (or got close to doing so). For those games the Darwen End people were moved into side stands, no problems. I also find it quite insulting that the club suddenly claim to be concerned about supporters convenience and yet you can bet when Leeds or Preston come to town with a full Darwen End the club will agree to move kick off times to 12noon to significant inconvenience to a lot of supporters.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2018/may/darwen-end-statement/ So Waggott says the decision was purely to avoid inconveniencing home fans. He's expecting Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Leeds, Preston, Bolton, Wigan, Stoke and West Brom to all bring sufficient numbers to require more seats than the 4,000 that can be allocated in half of the Darwen End without needing to move home fans from the Darwen End. I think he might be disappointed on that front. Leeds will fill it and PNE might fancy a big day out again but other than that unless one of those are going well for promotion I don't see them bringing that many. Agreeing to noon kick offs for those games will also guarantee smaller travelling support.

Marcus Maddison transfer listed by Peterborough.

He seems to either do very well or be a complete disaster. Very good record at Middlesbrough, Twente and Derby but dreadful with England, Wolfsburg and Newcastle.

Think McClaren gets a bit of unfair stick. Yes he failed horrifically at Newcastle but more relevant to his potential QPR appointment is his record at Derby County over two spells. In his first he took them to the play-off final in his first season, very unfortunate to lose to a last minute goal against 10 men, and in his second he had them going well for promotion until the wheels came off as he was being lined up to go to Newcastle. In his second spell he turned them around after a dreadful start to the season under Pearson where they were bottom of the league. Win %s of 53 and 44 in his two spells. Not saying he's a brilliant manager but his record in the Championship at Derby is good, add on top of that he's worked at QPR before and can fit the 'head coach' structure and it strikes me as a half decent appointment. Trouble with QPR is that they still haven't learned lessons and still think changing manager every season is the way to success. Holloway was a strange appointment seemingly based more on his history with the club than his recent results.

Hope that is true but very difficult to quantify it. Would be better if they said it was x% greater than the first day last year etc.

Clearly someone orchestrating the whole thing, wanting Venkys to appear to be open, accessible and involved in club affairs. No surprise that Balaji embraced the publicity side of it and was happy to throw his doors open to Sky Sports to show them his luxury car collection, but more surprising that the puppet master of the scheme managed to get Mrs Desai on speed dial. Of course as Venkys continued to put their foot in it through their ridiculous comments and statements it added to the public belief that these were merely well intentioned but clueless owners, rather than the alternative, which was that they had minimal involvement in it at all other than providing a front and the capital whilst other people ran the club and made the decisions.

I've always found it odd how in the immediate aftermath of the takeover and during the Kean days all of the Venky clan were easily accessible, particularly to our friends at Sky Sports. Not just the chuckle brothers from the moment they were paraded on the pitch at Ewood before the Villa game but also Madame who provided numerous interviews and was on hand to provide her opinion on all things Rovers even though she had previously admitted not understanding the game. Then the shutters came down and it is rare for even the manager or staff of the club to get chance to speak to her, only happening face to face once a year at her behest in India. Probably more difficult to speak to her without an invite than the Queen. Curious how for such supposedly private people someone managed to persuade Madame to find space in her diary to provide interviews and how when things went horrifically wrong that she suddenly becomes an intensely private and busy person who can no longer speak.

Stoke and WBA would only need remotely near 5,000 if they were going well for promotion or if it was a special occasion - e.g. bank holiday or cheap tickets. If they were mid-table or bottom half they wouldn't bring anywhere near. Likewise as you say the big North End day out whereby they bring almost as many to Ewood as they get on at Deepdale is unlikely to be a regular event. Leeds will always bring 5000+ unless obstacles are put in place to prevent them. Villa and Boro - again - capable of filling it when the going is good but I'd be interested to see how many turned up if they were 15th in the League. Easy when you're sat top 6 and going for promotion. My concern is that Rovers are mistakenly thinking that 5,000 away followings are going to be frequent and are hoping to milk that by charging £30 a ticket like Bolton and Leeds do, which will ensure next to no walk on fans at home. Nothing stopping Rovers from charging away fans £30 for tickets but then offering Rovers fans a 30%+ discount on those prices for 1875 members. We've been done in the past with the old membership trick at Old Trafford with away fans charged more than home fans who are 'members'.

I've received a text message from Rovers this morning advertising season tickets. For some reason it explains that seniors start from £199, under 21s from £179 and juniors from £90, but doesn't provide a price for adults, except to say that it is less than £14 a game. When does the early bird period end? Edit - just looked it up and it is 16th June.

As far as I'm aware there's no precedent for doing it. Unless I've missed it no riots or unrest which have occurred at 3pm. I think some Leeds fans made a mess in Wetherspoons the other year but I'm not sure why a couple of hundred idiots in town should impact upon 20,000 others. I'm firmly of the belief that Rovers have become a soft touch over the last few years as the downgrade has been in full swing. Especially ludicrous when only a few weeks ago both Rovers and Burnley played home league games on a Thursday night with a combined 35,000 crowd watching. Hopefully Waggott 'gets it' and intervenes in such things.

I accept and understand that it is important that the club makes as much money as possible through gate receipts etc. However I am concerned that we're heading towards the 'we can't compete' sob story that has been regularly pushed from within the club. Bucket loads of evidence around that the lesser supported clubs can and do compete - Brentford, Preston, Millwall, Cardiff - ahead of the bigger supported clubs - Wednesday, Leeds, Forest. Its about having a structure, plan and organisation - all of which have been lacking here in recent years. Leeds and Forest for example have the benefit of 20,000+ crowds every week, but they are both basket cases and so aren't successful - ridiculous turnovers in directors, managers and players see to that.

Earlier home times for those who have the power to influence decisions. 3pm kick off means staff at Ewood not getting home until 7pm on a Saturday. Noon kick off = home in time for tea to enjoy the rest of the weekend. In the power vacuum of the last few years it honestly wouldn't surprise me if it boiled down to something as silly as that. Hopefully now we have a CEO such things won't be allowed to happen without very good reason.

Sheffield Wednesday - Chansiri shirt sponsor and stand sponsor QPR - Air Asia shirt sponsors Fulham - Visit Florida shirt sponsors (just so happens their owner is based in Florida) Cardiff - Visit Malaysia shirt sponsors (their owner is based in Malaysia) Ipswich - Marcus Evans shirt sponsor Nothing stopping Venkys themselves or one of their friends in India signing up to a highly lucrative shirt, stand or stadium sponsorship package worth millions of pounds. Always a mystery why such wealthy and well connected businessmen have never delivered any tie ins with India apart from the odd few Venkys boards around Ewood.

The fun and games starting in earnest for the busy summer ahead. My bet for next weekends gossip is a Championship club is preparing a bid for Dack. This stuff will go on all summer long and it is usually the same culprits in the press responsible for it. Doesn't help when those people have a small army of followers hanging on every word giving them a bigger audience than they should have.

I know that, yet repeatedly the club has decided to shut off areas in the home ends instead of or as well as areas in the away end. I'll never forget them kicking season ticket holders out of their seats to put netting over areas for when Burnley came to town. Disgraceful. I'm a JW Lower season ticket holder. I don't want to spend home games stood up, moving seats, having 'banter' with away fans. I want to sit in my seat and watch the game and having had that seat for several years and now being handed a £50 price hike I expect to be able to A few years ago I was nearer to the Darwen End, when we played Leeds/Preston etc. the Darwen End people were moved into the area where my season ticket was. I arrived ten minutes before kick off and my seat was occupied and the area was stood up throughout the game. There is sufficient room to allocate the end 2 blocks nearest the Darwen End as a singing section and keep the middle 2 for established season ticket holders. Sadly I can't see that happening as the club will shut the end 2 blocks for most games. Whatever way it is done it needs to be managed. There needs to be some sort of divide by way of a barrier between blocks to make it clear that the standing/singing area is at one side and non-standing at the other. Of course one sensible alternative would be to put away fans in the corner of the DE and Riverside, and then whatever segregation is needed can be put in place in the DE at the JW stand corner.

Certainly sets the bar low with regards to expected financial outlay this summer just as people might be getting carried away....

Our income this season was vast compared to other League One teams.

There's some vindictive individuals around, who cannot stomach any sort of success for Blackburn Rovers and have to try to dampen the atmosphere by winding people up about transfer embargos. Last week Mowbray said our wage bill is around £8.5 million. Even with promotion rises it won't go up massively from that. If we are falling foul of FFP then heads need to roll as it would represent colossal ineptitude for a promoted League One side with our personnel to be breaching those limits.

As I say, Venkys have never had a problem loading staff and players, often on big wages, onto the wage bill and then absorbing those costs along with the other losses. Worth bearing in mind that whilst Bowyer did indeed recruit a lot of players he also disposed of a lot, and those leaving were on much bigger wages than those coming in, so whilst it can be seen as Bowyer being backed it was actually doing Venkys and the club a favour by shedding the overpaid dross bleeding the club dry and replacing them with cheaper alternatives who would go on to make them millions in sales. My point about their spending last summer was that a million quid goes a long, long way in League One. Being able to sign a couple of top League One players on top of what we already had made a big difference. However, if Mowbray had kept us up at Brentford, gone to India and asked for £10 million to rebuild I don't believe he'd have got it. £1 million ahead of a Championship season would unlikely be the 'difference maker' unless we really struck gold. So in some ways this investment that they supplied last summer was much less than it needed to be had we survived. I think there would have been merit in spending more, the reason being that we're going into the summer with big decisions to make and work to do - Payne, Chapman, Armstrong, Antonsson out of loan, Evans, Conway, Ward, Graham out of contract, so they're going to have to cough up or work quickly just to replace them. I don't think it will necessarily take £25-30 million to go for promotion, but it depends on which way they want to play it. If they are serious about getting back to the Premier League then it might take £30 million over 3 years with a gradual building job, but acceptance that it might end in failure e.g. like Derby and Wednesday have had every year so far. What we can't have then is another demolition job as they lose faith in the manager and take a wrecking ball to the squad to recoup some money. I hope we're pleasantly surprised and I hope that the feelgood factor and Mowbray delivering on his remit will persuade them to have a go at it but I just don't see much past record of them coughing up proper cash for new players. They usually allow a few hundred grand through and might allow us to keep our existing players rather than look to sell, but since the Premier League dosh dried up that's been about it.

Venkys' view on 'investment' in the club appears to be: 1) Continue to service debts & the overdraft 2) Pay wages and bills on time 3) Ensure the club remains solvent through honoring liabilities and meeting overheads The fourth form of investment comes as cold, hard, cash, millions of pounds of it, which goes above and beyond the bare minimum essential required to keep the doors open. This investment is the money needed to seriously strengthen the team, improve facilities and develop the club longer term. This cash seems much harder to obtain and my understanding is it only materialises when Madame can be persuaded to write a cheque via a face to face meeting or after other players have been sold and a small amount is then allowed to be reinvested. This has always been the case. In the Premier League they had the Jones windfall to use, then the parachute money. Rhodes' huge fee was a one off splurge that subsequently saw Rhodes have special status as a result. Since the parachute cash dried up we've been extremely limited cash wise - Bowyer nothing, Lambert nothing, Coyle a few hundred grand and then Mowbray nearly a million (big money for League One but not for the Championship)> So on the one hand Venkys have invested by way of maintaining a big wage bill and ensuring the club remains as a going concern. They don't seem to have a problem with adding some names onto the books in wages or absorbing big losses at the end of each month, but when there's a need for some real money to be chucked in for 3 or 4 big signings it is more difficult to get done.

This is the 2nd time in 3 years that a home section of the stadium is to close. Last time, when they decided to boot long standing season ticket holders out of their seats in the BBE Upper and JW Lower to create a new family zone, there was an 'obvious' place for those affected to relocate to. This time there isn't. There is ample space in the JW lower for the 500ish Darwen End folk who want to stand, sing and wave flags whilst the existing season ticket holders (myself included) could remain unaffected in their existing seats. Unfortunately that isn't how it will work out. The club enjoys netting off large numbers of seats in the lower tier towards the Darwen End which will be expanded when larger more volatile away followings come. The obvious result especially with larger home crowds vs Preston and Bolton will be that the Darwen Enders end up being pushed into the more central sections (as has happened numerous times in previous seasons when they have been moved out of the Darwen End). The end result could well be upsetting established season ticket holders in that stand who don't want to stand up etc. during games.

To be honest Vincent Tan at Cardiff has basically done what Venkys have this season - appoint the right man for the job, let him get on with it, kept him happy with some limited cash, now promotion is secured there is a softening of the anger towards them. All of a sudden he's being carried around the pitch, but prior to hitting the jackpot with Warnock they were a shambles with Slade and Trollope as manager and massive budget cuts. Goes to show just how ludicrous it was that we overlooked Warnock and appointed that toerag instead.

The majority of people on here seem to think Lambert is a bad manager. If that's true then we should be celebrating Stoke announcing they are keeping him as we should have no problem finishing above them next season. West Brom are managerless and are going to have an overhaul in personnel. If Johnson, Appleton and Smith are the frontrunners then it seems they are going down the young British but only proven at lower level managers. Only Appleton with 4th division Oxford has won promotion from that group. The Championship is full of basket cases of which we were one, hopefully those days are over and we can have another successful summer window with reasonable investment. We can keep on bleating about parachute money for some clubs up there but there's plenty who don't have parachute money who have owners pumping money in - Forest, Wednesday, Derby etc. So there's nothing stopping Venkys from doing similar rather than hiding behind parachute money and FFP. There's also plenty of skint clubs who survive - Bolton, Brentford, Ipswich - who between them have spent a pittance who we should be outspending if Venkys truly are giving Mowbray their 'full support'

You can bet now that out of 23 league games next season at least 5 will be midweek games from the off. Another two or three might be moved for TV or the ludicrous 'police advice' to either a Friday night, Saturday lunchtime, Saturday evening or Sunday lunchtime. It isn't something that determines whether I can go as I would be there for a 6am Wednesday kick off if necessary, but I recognise for those who don't live 15 minutes from the ground or who have work or family commitments that it simply may not be possible to attend games moved to evenings or midweeks. When you start getting down to less than 15 home games actually occurring at 3pm on a Saturday with others at more inconvenient times many may weigh up that it isn't worth £400+ for a season ticket.