JHRover

Spain have sacked their manager, Lopetegui, 1 day before the World Cup begins after he took the Real Madrid job. He never lost a game as Spain manager in 2 years incharge.

Sensible in that he's as close to a cast iron guarantee of putting a club into promotion contention as you can get. His record at Birmingham, Hull and Villa includes 4 promotions and one play off final. I'm sure a lot of Leeds fans would ignore his history if he got them promoted. Leeds reckon they want promotion yet their conveyor belt of random head coaches over the last 4 years has been ridiculous, with very few of them carrying CVs that suggest they are able to deliver promotion and none being given long enough to do it in any event. Complete unknowns like Christiansen, Milanic and Hockaday, inexperience like Heckingbottom and Redfearn, now they're going for another bloke who at least has managed at a good level around the world yet doesn't speak English and has left his last 3 clubs in bizarre circumstances.

Think Bruce getting a bit of unfair stick. Yes he's had a huge budget and ultimately failed to get them up but they went very close and considering the mess they were in 18 months ago he's done well to steady the ship and get them winning games again. I expect if he sticks around even with budget cuts they'll be up there challenging again because he's a very good manager for the Championship. Like with McCarthy he might not have a fancy name or exotic background but he's pragmatic, knows the league inside out and wherever he goes gets results and makes his teams hard to beat. He has form for walking away from clubs, particularly early on in his career, but he probably knows that Villa are probably the best he's going to get. Not many Championship clubs will have better prospects than Villa of getting up and staying up. Even with cutbacks Villa will still have a big budget and fanbase. Heard rumours of him moving to Leeds but that would be out of the frying pan and into the fire. Besides, Bruce is far too much of a sensible option for Leeds, they prefer to go for bizarre left-field appointments and then sack them after 6 months.

But the fact that clubs have agreed to remove the compulsory nature suggests there are a lot of clubs keen to no longer be bound to produce one and are happy to do away with it. It wouldn't have been passed at the AGM if a lot of clubs weren't happy to remove the obligation, and that's likely because a lot of clubs want the freedom to decide for themselves. Whilst the majority are indicating they will continue at present, I suspect it is only a matter of time before that changes. The momentum is in one direction only. If you are a programme collector then the minute some clubs don't bother making one the whole point of collecting programmes is diminished. If Rovers do away with it and 2-3 other clubs do then from 46 matches a Rovers fan might only have 20 programmes to show for the season. Its an incomplete record.

I don't think anyone is panicking at this stage. I was merely pointing out that the manager himself made it clear recently that he hoped or expected to have most of his business done by the time they went away to Austria a week on Sunday/Monday. For that to come to fruition a lot needs to happen over this week and next. A couple of additions will not represent all/most business when realistically we need 5 or 6 just to make up for those who have departed. I accept that most clubs haven't got going with transfers yet and many players and managers are still off on holiday but Mowbray must have had reason for saying he wanted it done early. Seems a strange desire to go public with if it is unlikely to be achievable. And we're never going to sign 5 or 6 in one day. We might see 2 announced in one day but never more than that.

One thing that is already getting on my nerves is the frequent references to 'promotion pay increases' that will now kick in and seemingly the theory is that a large chunk of our budget is going to be eaten up before we start by contracted players getting more money. To begin with - all these rises will be budgeted for as an expected expense written into the various contracts, just as wage decreases were written in the other way. Secondly, how many of the squad will have such clauses? Probably Mulgrew, Lenihan, Bennett, Evans - people who signed decent deals when in the Championship - but are many others really suddenly going to be getting massive wage increases? In any event, the cost of these will be expected and ought to be on Championship revenue levels and will be well outstripped by the increases in revenue from promotion. Can't help but think these 'wage rises' are being pushed into public consciousness more and more as a means of trying to convince people that money is being spent when really it isn't and is an excuse for limited spending moving forward. Anyway, the story goes that Venkys never refuse to sign a cheque when asked so I'm sure we'll see it happening soon.

Well 2 weeks from now the players and management will be in their hotel in Austria after their first day of training. Given that Mowbray has publicly said that he wants/expects the majority of summer business to be done before they depart (just over 12 days from now) we're either going to have an extremely busy week or so or he's going to be disappointed. That's assuming we're after at least 5-6 new players to replace departures and strengthen the squad and also need to factor in new contracts for Dack, Lenihan.

That was the order of the day with Coyle's scattergun loan signing process. Fill up the numbers quickly, easily and on the cheap by taking whoever the Premier League clubs would let out for nothing to get game time. I've said many a time I'm not a fan of loans, particularly not as a means of building a squad. By all means add a couple of quality loans to add options and layers to the squad but only to go on top of your own contracted players, not as a means of recruiting on the cheap. Armstrong and Payne fell into that category - came in mid-season to complement those already here and to carry us over the line to promotion - made sense and they were tried and tested at this level - clearly quality players for the division given their exploits elsewhere - but when you're running around Premier League academies looking for favours I'm not keen. Not just because of Byrne and Samuelson etc. but because the vast majority don't seem to work out. You might get the odd one like Tammy Abraham at Bristol City, but not many.

Just generally a more professional appearance. No need for photos of players or landmarks from Blackburn or silly spray paint effects or scruffy writing all over it. Blue & White halved cover, Rovers v Whoever, Ewood Park, glossy finish. Save all the silly writing and photos for the inside. I believe that discussion has taken place and clubs are no longer compelled to produce a programme. Of course the biggest concern with the bigwigs wasn't further erosion of supporters matchday experience or traditions of the game but whether their precious sponsors would be negatively affected by removing a printed programme with their names all over it. As far as I can see nobody has announced they are stopping doing a programme as yet. Will be interesting to see which clubs decide to do away with it, I bet Rovers are keen to do so.

An example I'll use is the Under 23s. Last season the coverage of their games and results in the matchday programme was appalling. They didn't even bother to display the u23s fixtures. Now I can understand some people might not be interested in learning about past meetings with the opposition or players who have featured for both, but keeping supporters in the loop with what is happening in the u23s, especially when they are winning the league and need all the support possible, yet the club doesn't even bother to let people know about their fixtures in the programme, is shameful. If they really treat such things with such contempt then it would be more acceptable to 'do a Fleetwood' and just produce a small pamphlet with the teams and managers notes and charge a quid for it. At least that would be acceptance that the product is inferior and so should cost less. But this continuing to charge £3 in line with the other clubs whilst making nowhere near the effort that smaller and less well supported clubs make, is wrong. The proof will be in the pudding this summer. Rather than taking steps to improve the product and 'catch up' with our rivals we'll be going the other way and I suspect working towards abolishing the programme or if not then diluting it further. In terms of making the effort I suspect they could ask any one of numerous retired supporters if they'd be prepared to spend an afternoon every couple of weeks putting together some notes and information together, probably even on a voluntary basis, as plenty of people would enjoy the task of doing it, and would come up with something better than what we had last season, which looked like it had been cobbled together on someone's lunch break.

I don't mind as long as there is acceptance on both sides that he isn't going to be a starter. I didn't like it last season when he had a run of starting games when everyone knew he couldn't last 90 minutes and would need to be taken off after 60 minutes. That isn't his fault and I don't doubt his effort and professionalism, its just a sign of the times that he cannot complete 90 minutes any more. It seems silly to me starting him knowing that one of our subs is already used up taking Conway off after an hour. If he knows and the manager knows that he's a second half sub that can come on and use his experience then I'm happy with it.

I collect programmes insofar as every match I go to I buy one, and I've done that for the last 7-8 years. I find it a source of embarrassment that Rovers continue to charge £3 a time whilst producing probably the worst programme in the league. All the excuses about declining sales, content, difficulties in producing a programme, shifting to digital platforms all fall flat on their face when you consider the quality of programmes on offer at clubs like Rochdale and Bristol Rovers this season in League One. The only ones that were possibly worse than Rovers' were Blackpool and Fleetwood. Fleetwood produced essentially a leaflet and only charged £1 for it whilst Blackpool are hardly a model club to set our standards by. How can it be that those other far smaller clubs, with much smaller fanbases and staffing levels, can find the time, effort and need to produce far superior programmes at the same price? If it really is such a burden on the club to make one then how come every club doesn't take the option of churning out a flimsy cheap effort like Rovers do? Bristol Rovers as an example - their programme was more than twice the size of ours, packed full of information and things worth reading, including past meetings between the clubs and various bits of trivia. They only charged £3 for it and their gates are smaller than ours - so how can it be worthwhile for them and not for us? The word is 'effort'. Some clubs take pride in appearance, others can't be bothered with it and do the bare minimum to get by.

Another gamble on an inexperienced manager by a relegated club. Fair do's to them they're putting their faith in a young highly rated British manager but like with Moore at WBA he's got no experience of working in the pressurized environment of the Championship.

First round draw for the Cup will take place on Friday morning in.....Ho Chi Minh City.

Just had a look and Hector is one of those like Todd Kane who has had a vast number of loan clubs over the years. He's 25 now so obviously won't make a do at Chelsea and is reasonably experienced for the Championship. I'm always wary of signing young 'talent' on loan especially after the Byrne, Samuelson, Hendrie fiasco last time round.

What are the odds on Rovers deciding not to produce a programme? I reckon they will have one eye on not doing. Have any clubs announced they won't be bothering following the rule change? I've noticed a few who have said they will continue to print a programme irrespective of the rule. You can understand it to some extent at the top Premier League clubs with truly global support - simplifies things to churn out a digital product for their worldwide fanbases - and at League Two clubs getting a couple of thousand on it might not be worth the effort given the amount of programmes they sell - but Rovers should buck up their ideas on this and start producing a programme worthy of the £3 price.

Mirror reporting we're after Trevor Chalobah and Michael Hector on loan from Chelsea. Don't know anything about either of them except I think Hector has been at Reading on loan in the past.

Or alternatively we spend as much money as possible before then up to the limit before it resets, enabling us to avoid sanctions by spreading spending around. I'm not a maths wiz kid but I'd love someone to explain to me how we can be within but close to a £39 million loss over this period having spent about £1.5 million max on players and sold £30 million of players whilst Derby and Sheffield Wednesday have for 3 years spent £10 million each summer and not sold anyone of major value. Yes they get bigger crowds but that's a hell of a lot of tickets to plug that sort of gap.

Potentially concerning. Getting someone like Graham tied down to a new deal should be the first and easiest piece of business to do this summer. He's already here, clearly wants to stay here, he deserves at least another season and it really is a no-brainer to have someone with his experience in the squad for this season. To see it dragging on in such fashion is not encouraging. Conway is less serious/urgent as he didn't perform/contribute as significantly as Graham did last season and moving forward will likely only be a squad/sub player at best, but where we stand today Graham is our primary and only striker of proven Championship quality at the club. If he goes then we're looking at needing 3 even 4 decent forwards to rebuild the attack, unless relying on Samuel and Nuttall is the plan. If we're attempting to keep him but risking losing him by trying to get him on lesser terms than those contained within his 1 year extension option rather than merely activating the option it is a very dangerous game. I remain confident he will stay but I'm sure he will have numerous other options in the Championship should we not cough up. We need to pay the going rate or struggle.

As mentioned earlier on here it would just be typical for Lowe to notch his 2nd goal in nearly 200 games in the last minute against us. As unlikely as that may seem given his performances for us we're the side that allowed Emile Heskey to bag a winner against us for the pigs feet not long ago. We seem to have a habit of making the unlikely and unbelievable occur against Notlob.

Something along the lines of that 80s yellow shirt in the mould of that Hull home shirt would be very nice. Substitute the amber for pale yellow and the black for pale/sky blue and it would be a winner. I hated that yellow and black away shirt when Kean was manager but if done properly some of Rovers' best away shirts have been yellow. Red and black stripes/halves is the best but after having that last year it wouldn't make much sense to have the same again this year. Failing that an orange/grey/silver combination wouldn't be bad. Just hope it isn't another all red or navy blue generic kit.

Villa situation: Rumours of FFP trouble and a fine/embargo - hasn't happened yet Rumours of administration and a points deduction - hasn't happened yet Rumours of all their best players being sold in a desperate bid to balance the books and stave off Armageddon - hasn't happened yet Rumours of Bruce walking away - hasn't happened yet. So basically loads of rumours which are to be expected when a so-called big club with huge expenditure fails to go up after 2 attempts, but as yet nothing serious has happened which makes me think they will struggle next season. The clowns at the EFL have put in place a FFP system that can be flaunted as numerous clubs have successfully done over the last few years so they can bang the FFP drum all day long but until the punishment is issue and enforced it is meaningless talk. Likewise administration is highly unlikely to happen and is often thrown around in the media to try and wind people up. When was the last time a League club went into admin? So of course I might be proven wrong and frankly with Villa I hope that I am, but as we stand they've still got a huge wage bill, quality squad and quality manager for this league and if things remain as they are they will be in contention again next season. Maybe they will have a fire-sale and collapse but that doesn't happen very often. Infact it only really happened at Rovers. Most other clubs find a way of sorting themselves out without flogging all the family silver overnight.

By my reckoning Block W01 holds about 600 people at the most. If we work on the basis that the club or their 'safety' advisors will net off the corner block then we can knock another couple of hundred off leaving about 400 seats at the most in W01. If the majority of those who were in the DE last season decide to move to the JW lower then there won't be many seats left in W01, especially when there is already a number (admittedly small) of season ticket holders in that area who will have had tickets in there for many years. I think that if the club is actively encouraging/supporting W01 becoming a singing/standing area which it will almost certainly be, then the least they should do is make existing people in that area aware of the high likelihood that their matchday experience is going to be very different from now on and make them aware of relocation options. The next problem I can see is that Rovers will decide to net off additional areas, and then when the derby games come round or the so-called high risk fixtures arrive and more Rovers fans turn up there is going to be a spillover from W01 into W02, where there are quite a lot of long-standing season ticket holders. I don't mind standing up for 90 minutes as I'm quite young and tall but around me there are a lot of older people who simply cannot stand up in games and will be unhappy if that happens. My view is that if the club is supportive of such a thing then fine, but it needs to be done properly. Make it strictly W01, open up all of W01, don't allow standing outside of W01, and if necessary put some sort of division in place, and warn those already in W01 that this is happening. If not they run the risk of upsetting a large number of season ticket holders come August as these are people who won't want to stand up or sing for 90 minutes and the club will get itself into a mess. It is ludicrous that these concerns are even being raised given the size of Ewood and number of ticket holders but I know from experience what the club are likely to do. When Leeds roll into town and Cheston sees 7,000+ at £25 a head they won't limit the away crowd for segregation. Segregation will be in the home ends instead and that means people with different preferences in the JW lower will be condensed into what isn't a particularly large area. The gradient of that lower tier is quite shallow meaning people standing infront of people even at an angle can easily restrict views.

Parachute cash used to be spread over 4 years when we got it. On that basis Fulham might have been in their final season of it this year, but in the 3 years before that they'd had one play-off campaign and 2 bottom half campaigns. Likewise Cardiff were relegated 4 years ago this summer so potentially were in receipt of some money but their spending dried up years ago. But yeah, in this seasons top 12 only Villa, Middlesbrough and possibly Fulham/Cardiff had parachute income. Wolves, Derby, PNE, Millwall, Sheff Utd, Brentford and Bristol City didn't get any. Bottom half Sunderland, Hull, Norwich and possibly Reading/QPR all got parachute dosh and it got them nowhere.

If the club are going to be promoting this have they said what they are planning on doing for those season ticket holders in W01 who will be affected? Will these people be warned before buying that they are going to be in the new singing/flag waving area or will they just find that out at 2:50pm on the first game of the season? Are they going to enforce seating allocations or just allow people to go wherever they want? What happens for the bigger games vs Preston and Bolton etc. when the club choses to net off large areas of W01 meaning the inevitable result will be spill-over into W02?