JHRover

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.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/16311147.Maintenance_work_at_Ewood_Park_is_on_Rovers__agenda/#comments-anchor Lots of talk here but very little actual detail or confirmation of what is going to be done and when. The club seem very quick to remind people of the need and costs of maintaining the stadium and training ground. As far as I'm concerned the only part of Ewood 'showing signs of age' is the Riverside stand, which will need significant improvement in the not too distant future just to bring it up to Championship standard. The supporting pillars, lack of a concourse, lack of office/internal space to generate funds from and lack of rain cover for the first 10 rows need to be addressed. The remainder of the ground isn't 'showing signs of age' as it remains modern by any standard but is showing signs of a lack of investment, poor maintenance and neglect following a period during which very little has been done on the stadium. Its nothing that a good clean and some tlc wouldn't sort out but when you've got a regime wanting to get by on the bare minimum you end up with things looking tatty and dirty. I think the Telegraph have completely misinterpreted Waggott's comments in this article. From my recollection of Waggott's comments he wasn't suggesting that Ewood was unsafe or that the safety certificate on the stadium was an issue. He did say his priority was safety and ensuring people came to the game and went home safely, but no suggestion that the stadium itself was a potential risk.

So lets just check I've got this right: - Rhodes scores nearly 100 goals in 4 years at Rovers in the Championship yet 2 years later is no longer good enough for a side fresh out of League One with only 1 proven striker on the books. - Rhodes might be available this summer but you don't want him, preferring someone like Sam Winnall who has also spent most of the last 12 months sat on his backside in the Hillsborough dugout. - Even if you did want him you believe he is out of our reach financially, yet curiously he's within reach for skint Bolton Wanderers (a side we will need to finish above next season). - For some reason players that cost more money are deemed to work less hard and spending less money means that those coming in will graft harder or buy into the team spirit more, yet I'm not sure where this comes from. Think I've had enough of the Rhodes debate for this week.....

Sam Winnall was signed by Wednesday from Barnsley for good money, sat on their bench and was then bombed out on loan to Derby. My question is why are you so against Rhodes and keep mentioning him not getting in the Wednesday side yet you'd suggest his colleague as a potential target who also couldn't get in their side?

Rovers say undisclosed fee yet some saying he was out of contract this summer at Oxford, so more like compensation agreed or a fee to avoid going to a tribunal?

On Dunny, I wonder whether he has had his nose put out of joint, bearing in mind that he was promoted to first team coach when Mowbray arrived then swiftly demoted back to the U23s last summer.

You're probably right he isn't good enough for the PL. Still he got there and had a shot at it which he wasn't going to get with us. He is definitely good enough for the Championship though, which is our area of concern. You're right we've moved on but not necessarily in a good way. We need players of Championship ability and there is one potentially available who scored close to 100 goals for this club not long ago. I don't know who there is with a better record than that who you're expecting us to sign. Whether we can afford it or not depends on what he wants and on what his current club wants. I'm intrigued by this acceptance that a bottom half side like Sheffield Wednesday can chuck around £40k a week for him to be sat on their bench is absolutely fine and yet the prospect of us potentially paying half of that to bring him back here is one that can immediately be ruled out as financially impossible or if not impossible then foolish or wrong. I accept its unlikely to happen for us but someone in the Championship will likely sign him and I suspect he will score a lot of goals for them.

I predicted a Brazil v Argentina final in a competition. Not looking good right now.

Actually he has, since leaving us he's been promoted to the Premier League, had a shot at the Premier League, moved clubs and been mid-table in the Championship again. He always said when at Rovers that he wanted a shot at the Premier League, even if just a few games, and he's had it. Meanwhile we've dismantled the club and been down to League One. He's out of favour at Sheffield and needs a move to get him going again but there's no question he'll score goals if played. It never ceases to amaze me that people have such a problem with a good lad who scored close to 100 goals in 4 seasons at Rovers, 2 of which essentially kept us in the division. McPhillips is assistant manager but Andy Todd left earlier this week and he was 1st team coach.

Hopefully it is the same as what does a Greek shipping magnate want from a Championship club and what does a Thai bloke who made a fortune in canned tuna want with a Championship club. Hopefully what they want it to access the money and profile of the Premier League as that is the only way of salvaging some finance and respectability out of this venture. Its hard to believe because those other owners actually make serious efforts to achieve it by being hands on and investing in improvements to the club, whereas our lot seem to take no interest at all and invest by way of filling a black hole that they created.

It will be the same old culprits - Leeds, Sheff Wednesday, Norwich, Ipswich, QPR and Bolton. For some reason that group of clubs charge an additional £10 on top of the average, easily getting to £30-40 an adult. I think most others are 'sensible' insofar as they usually go no higher than £25. So probably a £5 increase on last season.

Start as we mean to go on. Whatever Ipswich charge our fans we should reciprocate by shoving them upstairs in the Darwen End and charging the exact same prices when they come to Ewood. Maybe eventually if enough clubs do it Ipswich fans will apply pressure to their club to change their ways.

I've never seen us win at Ipswich, it's certainly a 'bogey ground' and we're due a win there. Best it has been in recent times was that Marshall free kick last minute equaliser, other than that it has been by and large dross, quite often on very cold Tuesday nights in the winter with about 300 away fans.

I'm pleased that we've shifted more season tickets so far than we did all last summer. That alone should see a significant increase on crowds from those that we had in the Coyle season. Noting that we're now at about 81% of Waggott's 'stretch' target I'd be surprised if we reached that now, unless something major happens in the next month. I'd expect 95%+ of those prepared to commit to a season ticket would have bought one by now before the deadline. There'll be a few who for a number of reasons leave it until later and pay the higher price but it won't be many. Still, I think any sort of increase is a step in the right direction and progress, so long as those people are enticed to remain and be built upon in future years with a period of progress and positive development.

Don't accept the smallfish part. I hope nobody approaches this season with that attitude given we're bigger than many clubs in the Championship. Last season we were top of the league expecting promotion, this season we aren't and probably won't be up there. If we start like a house on fire and are in promotion contention like Sheff Utd were last season then our followings will be as big or probably bigger than last season, even with scandalously high prices for some tickets.