JHRover

I'll come back to what I said earlier this week. In the last 6 months following promotion Mowbray has awarded new, improved contracts to Smallwood, Evans, Graham, Mulgrew, Lenihan, Conway and Bennett. Now some, including me, applauded most of those decisions and I still think most of them deserved at least improved terms if not longer contracts (not sure on Smallwood and Conway but the rest all good enough and needed keeping for our first season back at this level) and I think most of them have done very well this season. Lets try to imagine for one minute the reaction from Madame and Mr Desai if Mowbray rings them up and asks for millions of pounds in transfer fees and wages to bring in a raft of new players to replace the above and consign them to the bench for the next 2 years. First question he gets asked is 'why the hell did we go through with dishing out all those new contracts Tony?'

Yes, it's amazing what a couple of group photos and a name/title on the website can do. Somehow the whole arrangement feels more transparent and legitimate now he's emerged from the shadows and has appeared through official club media. It probably won't chance a thing but personally I feel more comfortable with the operation if all those running the club on a daily basis appear to be working together in the open rather than name/faceless individuals skulking in the shadows never speaking. I'd still very much like to know where Mr Shaik comes in the hierarchy and how that works in relation to Mowbray and Waggott. Is he merely the 'eyes and ears' or does that extend to decision making ability? Who has final say and how is that affected by Shaik's messages back to India?

I reckon that is the first time in at least 3 years of him being involved that the club has officially confirmed the presence/involvement of Pasha and his photograph. Sounds lovely but I'm not sure how much it changes things. All the people there were already here and doing the same jobs before this new 'team' was announced.

Coventry doing a repeat of their 'Community Day' by selling tickets at £5 in advance and have donated 12,000 to local schools. Impressive.

Indeed. But shuttle buses aren't some radical pioneering concept. I think most clubs have them in some form or another. Even Accy Stanley did a deal with Pilkingtons buses to make it cheaper for football fans to get from across Hyndburn to the ground on matchday.

Interesting. Seems we're well behind the competition with even PNE making more effort to tap into a Rovers supported area. In other news Norwich, who don't know what league they will be in next season, have today put season tickets on sale for next season. I wonder why they are doing that and not waiting until May or June like we do?

Are those club arranged shuttle buses? How much do they charge? I've never seen it promoted on any of Rovers web or Twitter pages.

On the subject of PNE I couldn't help but notice a tweet they put out this week about changes to their matchday shuttle bus schedule in Leyland. Do we provide a shuttle bus to supporters in Leyland and the surrounding areas?

We as a club need to be encouraging as many people as possible to buy tickets and come to Ewood, arguably more so than many of our rivals who can rely on 20,000 a week. If some of those people can't or won't commit to going until a few hours before kick off those people should not be penalised or deterred due to a needless surcharge. Some people cannot or will not make a decision until the last minute. Some people work Saturday mornings, or decide given what the weather is like or what the wife is doing. Why should that mean you pay more than those who decide on Friday lunchtime?

On what I've been told £2.5 million is the amount. I've no reason to doubt that. I believe that is far more likely to be accurate than Venkys ever committing to £7 million up front.

Of course I don't have any 'evidence' nor will anyone other than those in possession of the transfer documents but as with all transfers the fee reported in the media is the total amount payable should it reach its maximum level, not the initial amount paid up front. Virtually every transfer deal is structured in instalments with increases dependent on how the player in question performs and the club performs. If we get promoted more will be due, if Brereton becomes an England international more will be due, etc. Same happened with Rhodes, Reported at £8 million yet the starting point was much lower and I doubt we ever reached the full amount as we didn't get promoted and he didn't play for Scotland enough.

Brereton hasn't cost £7 million and the way things are going never will do. Try £2.5 million and then lots of performance related add-ons. That's how Venkys like to structure their deals - bonuses down the line spread over a number of years and not a large lump sum downpayment. Ask yourselves who benefits from this fabricated £7 million price tag - does Mowbray benefit? No, it merely enhances the pressure on him if the signing doesn't come good. Does Brereton benefit from it? No because the spotlight is on him way more than it would be due to his price tag and the expectation on his 19 year old shoulders rises. No - the only ones who benefit are Venkys as they receive credit from observers who believe they are throwing in more money than they actually are. However, even at £2.5 million, questions and doubts need to be raised. Even that amount is more than we've spent for a long time and you would have to say at this stage could have been invested better. But we all know that things aren't normal. I'm not suggesting that Brereton was foisted upon Mowbray from above but I'd also be very surprised if Mowbray had carte blanche over the summer to invest that money as he saw fit. It certainly seems that money only came available at the 11th hour, perhaps unexpectedly, and Mowbray felt he had to act quickly to invest it or it would disappear into the ether along with so many other Venky promises. He also probably had to invest it into someone expected to rocket in value so he could demonstrate success in the market. Given the time constraints and criteria he had to satisfy Brereton was the sort he had to go for but so far it hasn't really worked. Still early days though. As before we could say the same for the majority of Mowbray's signings who for a variety of reasons have failed to establish themselves in the first team, with the majority being established pro's here before him or kids who have come through from our academy.

As a season ticket holder for 20 years+ and having bought every away ticket for 9 years I'm looking forward to receiving my 'post Christmas gesture' from the club. Hope it's more than £3 off a ticket having spent £115 on Leeds, Sheff Utd, Millwall and Newcastle x 2 since Xmas.

Yeah, I still have recollections of those lowly crowds vs West Ham and Stoke not long ago, which were really poor, so to get nearly 13000 home fans on, possibly more than we'd get for a non-televised league game including season ticket holders, I think was a decent effort and suggests the £10 tickets did have a positive impact although perhaps not at the level Waggott was expecting. Had we got through to play Watford it would have been essential that they repeated those prices otherwise that would have been an awful turnout as Watford don't possess the same level of interest as playing a traditionally 'big' club in Newcastle. Newcastle probably on a par with Everton, Leeds etc. as not one of the top clubs but nonetheless playing them at home might attract a few more than run of the mill sides like Watford or Palace.

I accept VAR has its advantages but I'd rather it wasn't introduced. It just seems to me to be another step towards the sanitization of the game and the removal of any unpredictability/controversy which makes it so enjoyable. Someone said on the radio last week there's something wrong with VAR when paying ticket holders at the ground can't see what is going on with the review system but those sat on the sofa at home can.

Disappointing of course to lose after 210 minutes of football against them during which we've played quite well. I won't be losing any sleep over it mind. I expected us to go out when we were drawn at Newcastle and wouldn't be particularly excited or optimistic about playing Watford in the next round. On we go to the League. Main thing is we get ourselves sorted out and dispatch a dodgy Ipswich side on Saturday to make it an excellent league start to 2019. Failure to win, or a patched up knackered team after tonight struggling and not winning on Saturday - that will be the big disappointment. Newcastle was a free hit and we've done ok, though twice there we've put ourselves into a good position to win the tie both at their place and at home - and failed to kill them off. Like in the first leg I don't think our substitutions did us any favours. I was pleased to see Mowbray 'go for it' tonight by throwing more attacking bodies onto the pitch but it didn't really work. Dack was ineffective, Rothwell and Nuttall did very little. I thought Travis and Reed were outstanding, Graham, Armstrong and Smallwood good. Defensively I felt we were a bit of a mess, particularly early on in the game. Frustrating that having done the hardest part in recovering from a 2-0 deficit and scoring our 2nd at the perfect time we didn't really offer much in terms of getting the 3rd. We were comfortable, committed, solid, and worthy of ending the game at 2-2, but didn't do anywhere near enough to deserve to win it. Not for the first time we relinquish a result late on in a game from little/no pressure with one of the opposition's first efforts of the half. Special mention for the scandalous VAR situation. An absolute disgrace from the FA to allow a situation whereby it is used for the 1st game but not in the replay and another unnecessary nail in the competitions coffin.

Blackburn should be a city. Infact as far as I can tell it is one of only two settlements in England to possess a Cathedral yet not have city status, the other being Guildford (which was only built quite recently). Very simple - if having a cathedral is the mark of being a city - then Blackburn qualifies and places like Preston and Brighton don't. If it is more to do with size/population then Blackburn still qualifies as it is bigger or similar to many cities in England. I can't see one reason why Blackburn shouldn't be awarded city status except it is in the wrong part of the country. If it was in Wales or Scotland it would have been awarded by now, like much smaller and less relevant places like St Asaph and Stirling. It marks a failing of local government that cathedral-less rivals with similar populations like Preston, Brighton, Chelmsford etc. have managed to secure status ahead of Blackburn.

Not questioning your info, just seems strange to me why we'd opt to give Fisher 90 minutes in the u23s if Raya is unavailable.

Why did Fisher play last night if Raya is unavailable and even then why does that prevent him being on the bench tonight?

Looks like sales have picked up significantly over the last couple of days but even so I suspect 15000 total is ambitious. To be honest if we get more than 10000 home fans on for a midweek cup replay it's more than I expected given our recent home gates in the competition. I hope a smaller take up than Waggott expected doesn't put an end to 10 quid tickets. For me in this competition 10 quid per adult should be the regular price, not a one off. I wonder if it would help if cup games were included in the season ticket package so all season ticket holders received a home match ticket for cup games as part of their deal.

About 8000 home tickets sold yesterday and I'm told Newcastle expecting about 2000 in the away end so will end up more or less a league crowd.

Absolutely, they should know that, but I'm not sure they do. Hence spending massive amounts on a teenage multi-year development project like Brereton and not on players who could hit the ground running and improve the squad here and now.

Yes, I was very pleased that that element of business was done quickly and particularly in the cases of Graham, Lenihan and Dack we acted to protect our investments. I suspect Mowbray managed to convince the owners that those needed doing as without doing it we would be open to having them picked off by rival clubs and unhappiness from those players if they weren't paid competitive salaries by this level. I also suspect that some of those players who 'signed' improved terms were actually entitled to such upon promotion back to the Championship. But again, if I were the one signing the cheques and Mowbray came to me asking for a couple of million quid to sign another striker or a CB to improve on Mulgrew and Lenihan, purely from a business perspective I'd be asking why those already here aren't sufficient.

Having dished out new and improved contracts in the last 6 months to the majority of the squad Mowbray might have some difficulties in persuading the money men in India that we need to continue to evolve and improve. They'll be wondering why they bothered sanctioning those wage rises and extensions if after 6 months back in the Championship we're looking at replacing most of them.

John Percy, usually quite a reliable source, reckons Martin O'Neill to be appointed at Forest later today. Quite a surprise as it looked like they'd be going down the foreign route and he's very much his own man who wouldn't take kindly to interference. A club legend there, I think he's a top manager but a lot of their fans not overly impressed. Be interesting to see if they expect promotion this season or if he will get time into next year.