JHRover

I think you are a generous person if you assume that the Indians know anything about what is happening in the Championship this season, or last, or the one before that. My view is they simply don't know what is happening, much less that they care or think it is their job to do something in response. Personally I don't think they know from one month to the next what is happening. I bet they haven't watched a game yet this season. First, seventh, seventeenth or twenty fourth it matters not one iota to them. Waggott and Pasha would of course have a sweat on if it was the latter, not because of any sporting performance/targets but because relegation would jeopardise their cushy numbers at the annual review. They're at the stage of underwriting the losses if/when they have to but forcing the likes of Waggott to try to minimise that by selling players and cutting costs. This would be a sensible and expected course of action if it was paving the way for selling the club. Get costs and input to a bare minimum until you find someone to take it off your hands. But we know it isn't. This lot won't even entertain the potential for a sale. If a sale isn't on the agenda and yet you find yourself in the promotion shake up it is unbelievable that they make no effort to improve or break into the top 6. Yet that's the reality of where we are. Each year that goes by the Venky myth gets further pulled to pieces. People used to say they would invest if we got to January in with a shot of promotion, which was proven to not be the case. People used to say they are waiting for us to get back to the PL before they sell or try and claw their money back, but they clearly have no interest in getting there. It is so crazy that it inevitably leads to another theory which is that they, or their underlings, have the club exactly where they want it and are going to do nothing to to try and change it. The failings and inertia of 2022, 2023 and 2024 have been blamed on all sorts. Not having enough money, FFP, Mowbray deciding not to spend, secretary having amnesia, Broughton going for dinner in Manchester, not pressing send, Waggott bizarrely going to watch us at Birmingham rather than being at Brockhall sorting it out, yet the longer it goes on the more clear it becomes that all these things are just made up excuses to achieve one thing and one thing only - to keep the focus away from the Indians. That's all it does yet they are the one constant above all this.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Did Eustace go running to the recruitment team and ask for Sanderson as his first choice CB signing having worked with him previously? Or did the club tell Eustace we've got no money to play with and he's limited to low cost loans so he's making the best of a bad do by picking one he knows? I think there is quite a big difference between the two.

We've managed over the last few months with only Hyam, Batth and McFadzean as CB options so I'm not sure it is that important that we sign another CB just to cover the next few weeks until Carter should be back, unless as I say his return isn't likely any time soon. I trust Eustace's judgment. But fundamentally we are now going to reach the end of this season with Batth and McFadzean out of contract, Sanderson returning to Birmingham and Scott Wharton making a comeback after over a year with a serious injury. It's going to need another rebuild. That's before they try and flog Carter as one of our few assets with any remaining value.

I don't really understand it unless we are offloading a CB or Carter's injury is worse than first announced. Suppose it is low risk and it is clearly a Eustace led/approved signing so have to support his judgment. Birmingham fans seem to think his best spell was when Eustace was their manager. It really doesn't suggest there is much either by way of plan or resources though. It instead points to an ever increasingly desperate financial situation. All that talk about structures, plans, systems, scouting. All that money brought in. And in the end it's loaning someone who the manager knows from his last club who are now in the league below yet seemingly in a far better state than we are.

I will try and think of a few more and then can get a game up and running, entries before 31st January

We tried our best January is never a good time to do business We will learn lessons and take them into the summer window It's not ideal when John Park leaves unexpectedly Admin errors/run out of time Other clubs/players/agents are changing their demands We don't want to block pathways for our younger players We don't want to replace those who've done so well for us already this season We don't get all that incoming money in one go you know Nobody else has done much We aren't going to put the club at risk by spending heavily Take your pick from any of the above and maybe more. Reality is we are just waiting on Brighton, Villa, Liverpool, Everton deciding who, if anyone, they are prepared to send here for peanuts until the summer in return for games.

It's not hysterical it's just a question of whether it is deliberate or just negligent. Third time in four years under three different managers where they've managed against the odds to drag us into the promotion conversation by the mid-way stage and unless something very unexpected happens in the next 3 weeks it seems they've ignored all their past failings and continued with the same plan.

Correct. At least when Mowbray and Broughton were running things they could maintain a facade of long term planning and vision, even though we knew deep down the owners wouldn't actually ever allow that to come to any sort of fruition at least it was reassuring for a while thinking that the powers that be had some sort of plan and aim. Now it seems they've dropped all pretences. Totally failed / given up on any sort of contract extensions for senior players. Zero reinvestment of funds even when massive sales take place. Where does it end? They want the club to fund itself yet refuse to allow it to obtain new assets to grow in value by spending in the transfer market. They can't even ensure that the assets we do have are tied down long term to protect value in them. Basically a modern day version of Oyston's Blackpool.

Interesting to compare to Preston's Osmajic after he bit Owen Beck. Despite both admitting their guilt Osmajic got an 8 game ban and was fined £15,000 whereas Sainz only has a 6 game ban and fined £12,000. I also find it quite ridiculous that in similar fashion to Osmajic he has been allowed to play in 4 games since the incident in which Norwich have won 3 and gone unbeaten.

Don't know if already mentioned but Blubberhouses shut for anyone planning on driving over tomorrow morning, so its either M62 past Leeds or diversion round Otley or Pateley Bridge (brave in these conditions). Don't see any reason why the game would be in doubt though. No snow or rain forecast.

Which is the same reason why Rovers only took the upper tier of the away end at Leeds last week - could have had an extra thousand or so in the bottom tier but would have had to pay for those at £30 a time if they weren't sold, whereas Leeds sell them no problem.

But we are the only club who: a) Have sold £40 million worth of talent in the last 12-18 months b) Have three times in two years had signings in the building at Brockhall, including wearing the Rovers shirt and having photos taken, and the club website announcing their signings, only for them to collapse afterwards I'd say these two facts suggest we are incomparable to any other club.

Opportunity missed in WBA not coming in for Eustace. A lump sum compensation payment that would have been useful and a ready made excuse for not strengthening in January and sliding away from the promotion conversation gone. Oh well, back to the 'admin error' it is.

So it seems back to the routine of shifting players out before we can bring in. Baker already gone, talk of McFadzean and Leonard being on the way. Nobody coming in (but importantly for the bean counters Garrett back). McFadzean looks to me to be playing an important role behind the scenes and on the touchline. I'd keep him until the summer. But of course we need to remind ourselves of what is important here. The motivation behind what the owners and board are doing is not to equip Eustace with the best squad possible and to break into the top 6. The motivation is to keep costs as low as possible. Everything revolves around that. Why pay a new player for the whole of January when we can sign them in 3 weeks and save on the wages? Eustace was told there was a pot of money for signings. Yet there's more talk about outgoings than there are incomings.

I'm not Morton's biggest fan but he clearly has something about him to be getting into Liverpool squads this season, plus playing virtually full seasons as a teenager for us and Hull whilst we chased the play-offs. I also don't think that JDT can necessarily be blamed for consistently picking Morton over Wharton, if memory serves me right there was a spell where Adam wasn't fit, plus in his breakthrough season he had to be carefully managed in terms of games. Not that I think he will end up back here. Suspect he will go somewhere like Sheffield United as has been mentioned consistently for some time, which kind of tells its own story if he does - Wilder is no mug.

Jackson doing the usual of ruling out / denying / downplaying all the rumours that have emerged online over the last week but not actually bringing anything himself to the party. Very easy to sit back and poo-poo rumours. A bit more of a challenge to actually come up with something himself, which is probably why he's spent the last few weeks scouring the betting odds and doing his best to link our manager with moves elsewhere off the back of it.

Sheffield United were meant to be after him

Flexi Tickets Story on website about injured players making their comebacks - Trav back jogging etc. Contract extension(s) for one or two of the academy lads This is how they play the game. Smokescreen.

The great irony that comes with our owners' insatiable appetite for selling off assets and using the proceeds to pay their bills is that they have the opportunity to repeat the trick on a regular basis moving forwards yet don't. If they were so keen to rake in cash, for the club to 'fund itself', for more of the Armstrongs, Whartons and Szmodics to pay their bills for them, then you'd think after a decade of this that the penny might have dropped that you have to put some cash back in to get some more assets onto the books and repeat the process in a year or two's time. Yet with this mob they aren't even good at selling, because the well is very soon going to run dry and so they will be soon back to having to find £10 million+ (not £20 million a year as they've managed to hoodwink many into believing is necessary) from their own resources. Venkys.....not very good at much are they?

The window going swimmingly well so far for slippery and shadow. Another wage/contribution off the books today, over a quarter of the way through the window and no money spent, still counting the money from last weekend's derby day cash bonanza. It's only the players, manager and fans that want us to spend, strengthen, get better, improve, maintain our top 6 push. This is not of any concern whatsoever to the owners or 'board'.

January 2017, faced with catastrophic (albeit self inflicted) relegation to the third division, sign only Lucas Joao on loan from fellow Championship side Sheffield Wednesday. Outcome? Relegation. 29th January 2022, sat 2nd in the Championship & 5 points off top, 8 points clear of 7th. Sign fullback cover on loan in Giles and Zeefuik, a project signing in Markanday and Hedges who never plays. Outcome? Slide out of the top 6. Mid-January 2023, sat 5th in the table, second most wins in the league. Sign Sorba Thomas on loan from bottom 3 side Huddersfield. Outcome? Slide out of the top 6. Early December 2023, sat 7th in the table, a couple of points outside the top 6, sign short term McFadzean and Fleck, and Ayari and Chrisene on loan. Outcome? Slide into a relegation battle and survive on the final day. So January 2025, sat just outside the top 6, what do people expect to happen? Dotted among these failed transfer windows are a series of 'project' signings. James Brown, Dilan Markanday, Connor O'Riordan. Occasions where it seems we have been willing and able to part with some cash for permanent deals but have come to very little. Other than that Hedges is the only other one who interestingly came from Mowbray's brother's club and then didn't kick a ball for 6 months until after Mowbray had left. Very strange.

I think the answer to that one is quite simple. There's no money, not to make serious signings, I don't think there ever has been which is why we have at no stage in the last decade made a serious season changing/defining signing in January. The only one you could point towards was Adam Armstrong, but that was in different circumstances with us being a league below and the 'big boys' financially at the time, and he was only on loan. The 'loan with a view to buy' plan is instead a brainchild of people like Broughton, who know full well there is no money to do immediate business so attempt to overcome that problem by offering other clubs jam tomorrow to tempt them to agree to let quality players come here. The O'Brien one of course the biggest and most famous example due to the disgraceful way the club went about business and the no doubt huge damage done to our reputation and credibility, but I suspect there are many, many more. It sounds like after the owners refused to fund the McGuire deal it was again restructured on a 'borrow now might pay later' basis but even then they managed to scupper it. 'Jam tomorrow' is the perfect motto for Venky Rovers - there's never any money NOW - when we desperately need it to make a serious difference to our season - but they keep on stringing people along that there will or might be money in a few weeks/months/years. So people like Broughton just try to be imaginative with the extreme restrictions. They are just utter lowlife and will never change their ways, we need them gone and I've got zero expectations of anything positive coming from this window. If we get to the end of it without selling any assets and Eustace not resigning I'll be positively surprised given their track record.

I said the other week that if we were to take their word for it and believe that there is already money available to strengthen (there bloody well should be even if you ignore huge sales - see increased media deals, bumper gates, no FFP restrictions) then we should not be relying or waiting on a departure such as Sigurdsson before making a move. Sigurdsson's wage should be divided by 3 or 4 and added to the wages of Travis, Tronstadt, Carter and maybe another to ensure they commit to long term contract extensions. It should not be funding 2-3 short term loans or temporary squad fixes.

They will still be telling or suggesting to Eustace that things are in hand and that we've a reasonable budget to play with. They're good at that - it costs nothing to tell people things, and they won't admit, least of all to an employee that they need, that the cupboard is bare. As above Eustace is new to this game, we aren't. Of course what actually matters in the end is what is actually delivered, not what is attempted and failed or talked about. Might as well send the recruitment team on holiday for 4 weeks as try but fail because the end result will be the same. Plenty of the more gullible elements of our support base have lapped up the excuses for failings over the years. Some of our managers have tolerated it to keep their jobs, others have refused to tolerate it and left. Eustace will need to decide which camp he wants to be part of.

According to the official website he is now an employee of the club oddly titled 'chief operating officer' which is a slightly higher and more prestigious position than 'owners rep' or whatever he was before (he's had about 6 different job titles since Cheston made a fool of himself not knowing what to call him). I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between a Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer but the clear suggestion is that he sits below Waggott in the order of command, which we all know is not the case in practice. Some have said that he spends half his time flying back and forth between here and India, which if true would lead me to question how he can perform the role of 'Chief operating officer' of Blackburn Rovers. There are also two other directors, named on the club website, both apparently executive directors and thus employed by the club, in Mr Rao and Mr Babu. I've never seen or heard of either of them. I wonder if either attend Ewood or matches or have any meaningful contribution to the Club in return for their wage.