Waggott is (allegedly) running the football club. So he takes responsibility for these decisions. I don't accept that the club is powerless.

But how can the 'committee' (whoever they may be) insist on that when there are no reasonable grounds for them to demand it? I could understand if it was Burnley, or if there had been serious trouble against Leeds or Preston in the past, but there hasn't, and also there are plenty of examples recently where such games have taken place, incident free, in afternoons and evenings. If Waggott seriously thinks that 7000+ from those clubs are going to rock up for a noon kick off and is putting that ahead of the wishes and feelings of Rovers fans then perhaps I've overestimated him. I'm already perplexed by his explanation to close the Darwen End due to bigger away followings (our first 3 home games will probably see about 3000 away fans in total if we're lucky).

Precisely. I look at the side that was relegated and it contained a forward line of Danny Graham, Sam Gallagher, Marvin Emnes and Lucas Joao. I think we're a long way short of that at present. Other areas of the pitch I think we're at least as strong or arguably stronger than when relegated but not by much. I've never been a fan of loans unless they are with a serious view to buying e.g. Gestede and Cairney. When they're just cheap squad fillers to avoid paying a fee or committing to a multi-year contract then it is a short term and flawed policy.

Its all part of the blame deflection game. Avoid any one person or group being held responsible. The ultimate cause of it all is to make life easier for a select group of people who are paid good salaries to do the job but want as easy a time as possible in doing it. I think that applies to both the police and to those at Rovers anxious to get by with minimum fuss and aggravation. These people aren't football supporters, certainly not Rovers supporters, and for them football is a job nothing more. Being at Ewood on a Saturday isn't pleasure, its work. Better clocking off at 2:30pm with the afternoon to enjoy and less 'risk' of trouble than clocking off at 6pm. When it suits the club e.g, when Sky Sports come along with their chequebook then the game changes. We're not alone in showing such disregard for home supporters but I do wonder how many other Championship clubs have already made 2 home games into noon kick offs, especially when there is no history of any violence or crowd trouble between the clubs in question. I had half hoped that having a CEO who seems to talk some sense would prevent such things happening, but Waggott has already made it clear which side his bread is buttered by his desire to pack the Darwen End with away fans. Even if there was some sort of rule in place which prevented 3pm kick offs when there was a full away end (which there isn't) the club could get round it by not allocating away clubs 7000+ tickets, which is a ludicrously high number for any club to allocate, instead limiting it at 5,000 which is still way above most clubs' away allocations. Rovers presumably don't understand that these games will now be seen by even less home fans as not many will pay £25 and get to Ewood for noon.

It gives an insight in the football hierarchy these days. Top of the pile are Sky Sports. Then come the clubs and the police who do things at their own convenience, then bottom of the pile are the supporters, those same people Rovers are trying to encourage to cought up £400 a piece for season tickets whilst chopping and changing the fixtures to less convenient and enjoyable times (for most people). A Rovers representative said at a Fans Forum meeting a couple of years ago that when Rovers are giving the whole Darwen End to away fans that the police INSIST on an early kick off. That was the justification they used for moving Leeds and PNE previously. Yet since then we've played Man Utd in the cup at 4pm on TV and are shortly going to play Liverpool at 7:45pm on a Thursday evening, so that statement was clearly a lie.

Bristol City away game moved at the behest of Bristol City to 'aid the team's recovery and to alleviate fixture congestion'. Looking forward to Rovers moving a few games when we're struggling with injuries with important games coming up.

Why is the Liverpool friendly not a lunchtime kick off when they have been given all the Darwen End?

Leeds and Preston will have been moved due to the ridiculous safety advice, the same advice that allows 5,000 Rovers fans to travel to Preston on a Saturday for a tea time game and the same advice that allows both Rovers and Burnley to play at home on a Thursday night on TV. I hope that Sky Sports come along and pick one of those for live broadcast (with Leeds it is highly likely) and the game is then moved back to 5pm. Then it show just what a joke the whole thing is.

These sort of announcements should be made before the early bird season ticket deadline, or at least there should be a clear warning when buying a season ticket that this is likely to happen. Waggott's grand plan of filling the Darwen End isn't going to get very far. I doubt either of them will need 7,000+ seats for those games unless they are going strong for promotion. Notice also that Bolton at home remains a 3pm kick off, despite far more instances of crowd trouble against them over the last few years than Preston or Leeds.

Very nice, especially with the gold trim and I even quite like the Umbro sleeves on these colours. If this was last summer I'd be hoping for something very similar for Rovers but having had red and black last season I'd be very surprised if we got it again.

Cheers, I presumed Johnson had left but don't think there has ever been any official announcement of that. Never heard of Harvey but note from this https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2015/august/a-passion-to-succeed/ That he was leading recruitment in the academy in 2015 so it seems at some stage he has been promoted. Do we know any more about him (other than him being ex-Burnley)?

Did the question about Tommy Johnson get asked? Seems he has disappeared, as the Telegraph are now referring to Stuart Harvey as head of recruitment.

Some work out well but the majority are a step backwards. I quite like Sheff Weds new badge but that's basically an old badge that they've brought back. Same with Man City. I wouldn't be against minor alterations to modernise it but the shape and layout ought to remain the same.

Yeah but apparently if they don't go up they might be in trouble. Bit like Villa, what a mess they're in now...... Then again if they don't go up they might not be. And if they do go up they definitely won't be. At least Bristol have sold Reid to a club in a higher division for a good sum and will reinvest that cash. Better than selling your best player to a relegation rival for a low amount and then spending none of it on replacements.......

He seems to lurch from one extreme to the other. Last season for the first half they were top 6 pushing the top 2 and knocked Man Utd out of the cup. Then they fell away significantly and only just made a top half finish. Season before they started off reasonably well but fell away and ended up in a relegation battle and he was arguably lucky to keep his job. Not that Bristol City fans have any reason to complain, the Championship is the top end of the scale for them.

Thing is I can see them using that £15 million to go out and sign some real quality, what they won't do is trouser it all and then moan about FFP rules. Meanwhile how much is that now for Middlesbrough since they were relegated? £50-60 million with Flint and McNair arriving this week? Alright for some, lets see if an embargo ever gets put on them.

Suspect they'll have one eye on allocating Liverpool the Riverside if they fill the Darwen End.

I look at our forward line, which is the area causing me concern at present. As it stands we've Danny Graham, who does a job yet will be a year older, then we've Dack who we were possibly too reliant on last season who is unproven at Championship level, and then Samuel and Nuttall with question marks over whether they were even good enough for League One. Having waved goodbye to Antonsson, Armstrong and Payne, we're in I would say quite urgent need of work in that area. This is an area where decent players are in short supply and who generally cost more money than other areas. We need pace and presence up the top end of the pitch, and like it or loathe it they will cost substantial money, unless the plan is to rely on a couple of loans again, which goes against the steady building job talk we've heard because after 6-12 months the loans will need replacing, as we're finding now with last season's gone and seemingly out of reach this time. Of course there are one or two gems out there like Gestede was for us but in the main even proven League One forwards cost millions - Rhodes, Marriott etc. For those saying that the season hasn't started yet and there's plenty of time - I know this. But I'd remind you of our own manager's comments not too long since where he clearly wanted most of his business done by now so they could travel to Austria and 'bed in' with the squad. Listening to managers one of the big things with foreign training camps is the chance for the players, old and new, to go away for a week together, effectively live together, eat together, get used to each other, train together. Every season in the last 4-5 years we have started slowly looking disorganised and short in key areas. I want to avoid that this year.

Nothing long term about Cardiff's business. Warnock arrived mid-season in a relegation scrap, kept them up and then swiftly assembled a squad that got them automatic promotion. No talk from Warnock about long term building jobs - he wanted promotion at the first attempt and knew how to get it. I know it doesn't purely come down to wages and transfer fees. The point i was trying to make was that last season it was much easier to put together a good side on a relative shoestring due to a lack of competition and the fact that a million quid goes a long way in League One. In the Championship you have to be prepared to pay more, if not you will likely struggle.

Wouldn't surprise me if we rocked up at Hibs with last season's away shirt and didn't 'unveil' the new shirt until the Liverpool home game.

Don't think I said it had. Doesn't change anything though - we need more quality, the sooner the better, and it costs. Trying to do it on the cheap is a very dangerous game. Think we need to realise that we can't just have a repeat of last summer. Last summer for a modest sum of about £1 million we were able to recruit a top quality League one side. This time round we need better players which cost more and we're in a League with clubs who can spend more, so a million on 5-6 decent League One players might not be sufficient.

We're weaker now than we were at the end of last season. We need to be significantly stronger. To do that we're going to have to spend some money.

It goes beyond being a question of whether the Riverside is fit for purpose or safe or big enough, its a question of improving the standard of the stadium, making it a better place to be for home fans, whilst also adding infrastructure to the stadium that can be used on non-matchdays and generate additional revenues for the club. The club can moan all day long about a lack of revenue and about poor us because other clubs make more money than we do, and yet ticket receipts only go so far on that road. Other things such as sponsorships, commercial departments and non-football related income are actually more significant. As far as I'm aware the only 'external' income the club makes on non-matchdays is through renting offices on the Darwen End and through hosting events in the Premier Suite. We have a stand in the Riverside that may well be adequate for our matchday needs in terms of capacity and safety, but which is lagging behind the rest of the stadium, inferior to most other stands in the Championship, and contributes nothing by way of extra revenue to the club. A redeveloped Riverside could incorporate a variety of things to at least give us the ability to raise extra funds. Office space, hospitality, a hotel, a conference centre, shops. At the same time the stand could be brought into modern day standards by making it all covered, removing the supporting pillars, having a concourse within the stand with extra food and drink kiosks rather than 2 shared over a stand of 4,500 queuing up for ages. No doubt some will say 'there's no demand' for such things and yet in the last 5 years there must have been what, 6 new hotels opened within a few miles of Ewood? So clearly there is demand in the area. PNE managed it by going into conjunction with the NHS and involving them in it, which isn't ideal but is an alternative way of doing it.

Sounds to me like a waste of time. Unless new personnel are being brought into the club or a range of new powers are being passed from India to those already here it won't make much difference. You can have all the job titles and structures in the world but if you don't have the ability to run the club properly then it doesn't matter.

My knowledge of Rothwell is limited to say the least, but I didn't know very much about Smallwood last year and he turned out alright. I agree though we need to be looking at proven quality that will immediately improve on what we already have. My particular concern is up front, having lost Antonsson and Armstrong, we've only really got Dack and Graham (big question marks over both Samuel and Nuttall). We were at times over-reliant on Dack last season and he's going up a division where things will be much tougher. We need at least a couple of options up there who we know can do it at Championship level, not gambles.