JHRover

Totally agree. There is absolutely NO excuse for not backing Eustace this window and strengthening the squad. They can't hide behind FFP because nobody has brought in as much as this club over the last couple of years. They can't use the admin error / rogue secretary excuse again because even the most deluded wouldn't fall for that again. They've been happy to tell us that there are no impediments to Venkys putting money in. It also seems they've been telling Eustace that he will be getting backed with a few signings and that there is money to spend (I reckon they tell every manager this in November / December). So it will be fascinating to see what they do and what they come out with on February 1st when the inevitable failure has occurred. If you aren't going to invest in this position then you never will and there is no point to any of this. We've learned from experience in the last 2-3 years what happens when you fail to back a decent manager and what happens when a small squad runs out of steam. The worst part of all of this is that should we slide away (again) after another January transfer window failure (again) and end up finishing say 9th or 10th come May there will be loads of supporters out there quite happy with that, claiming that it has been a good season and excellent progress following a relegation battle last season. But they will be missing the real point which is that we are on course for a top 6 finish and have an opportunity now to go on and secure it. Aside from the top 3 there are no teams that stand out. So to slide into mid table from here especially if self-inflicted due to a failure to strengthen that would be a failure, and probably one that would lead Eustace and some of our players to look elsewhere for next season.

Ta. It might appear to some to be a trivial minor point but Eustace says "There is some money to spend, I've been told" Key points I take from that is 'some money' and 'I've been told' He isn't saying there is money, he's saying someone has told him there is. That's nothing new, they've been claiming that every transfer window since they turned up. Unfortunately it usually isn't enough to get what we need.

Where and when did he say this? Do you have a link as I haven't seen or heard him say it

I'm afraid with the people we have running Rovers these days even if demand required it I very much doubt they would countenance splitting the Darwen End between home and away fans. Of course they could if they wanted, and should if needed, we did it perfectly well in 2009, but that all sounds like too much hassle to me these days. These days they are selling the home ends short for 400 'segregation' seats that are in totally self contained and separate stands to the away fans, meanwhile away fans can share facilities with home fans including the same stand at most other Championship grounds. They'd sooner max out the away numbers and then leave it at that.

Although if the police and 'SAG' were giving them similar advice to what Rovers allegedly get then they would need to net off 500+ seats in the Cricket Field stand. Inevitably these would have to come off the home allocation rather than reduce the away allocation to a measly 1700. It would probably involve kicking season ticket holders out of their seats. The corner between the Bob Lord stand and Cricket Field is almost touching distance between home and away fans. No netted off seats. No 10ft high steel fence. There remains an old 'box' area actually within the away end which often has home club staff sat in it during games and this is allowed without the need for Berlin Wall style no-mans land. Why?

Yasir has been having his say on the subject when questioned by a supporter. Apparently they are advised that those blocks must be 'segregated' and Rovers have to follow that advice. Once again problems unique to Rovers and Ewood Park and not seen anywhere else in English football because most clubs would fill their grounds rather than turn fans and money away to follow 'advice'.

The decision was made, probably with police input, from the get go that they were having 4000 max in the Darwen End. At that point there should have been a contingency plan in place to maximise use of the Darwen End by allowing use by home fans *if* demand required it and as a last resort. I fully accept that demand for these tickets has come as something of a surprise. I was surprised that we even opened the top tier but with the pace things were going at a fortnight ago it was obvious that if momentum continued a sell out was likely and that alternative arrangements might be required. Lets not mix up demand for this and the Sunderland game with general increases in 'walk ons'. These two games are special situations for traditional historical reasons and would have seen significant increases even if we were in the bottom 3. The results of the team have just added to the increase. None of this gets around the fact that there are AT LEAST 350 seats unavailable in the home ends that could be used. If they were then this would be at least another £10,000 of income for a 'hard up' club and you never know, one or two of those people might be tempted back or into buying a season ticket. We are in no position to turn people away if we don't need to, and until every last seat in the BBE, JW and Riverside is occupied that is what we are doing. Total jobsworths spoiling it by covering blocks of seats up with netting when it isn't required. No other game in the Football League, including the reverse fixture, requires swathes of home areas to be removed from sale. If you need segregation you take it from the away end (4000 to play with there).

Well the club have now taken to social media to announce a 'sell out' of Ewood Park so I suspect it is highly unlikely that they'll release any more tickets, even though we all know they could release another 300+ simply by removing pointless netting. Too much hassle I guess. I'll be kind to them here and accept that rejigging things a week before the game to be able to use the remaining 3-4000 seats in the Darwen End is going to be difficult. Maybe they could have done this from the start and divided the Darwen End between home and away fans but it seems their expectations for this one were considerably short of a full house. Still it annoys me no end that we have a 31000 seat modern stadium and yet will be claiming a sell out over 4000 short of that. Is there another ground in England/anywhere that claims a sell out whilst leaving 14% of its capacity empty? Its bonkers and unique to Ewood but they seem to like being unique.

May well be correct but they've never had a demand to unlock those seats since that day, now they clearly do, I'm also struggling to understand their logic and what it is they think will be prevented by refusing to sell tickets in the front half of the block. Anyone wanting to cause bother can simply walk down to the front and try it. You'd think with a penny pincher like Waggott leading the operation that every single opportunity to get more people in would be used. So will be interesting to see whether they do or instead prefer to keep them empty and turn their noses up at an extra £10k+ in tickets and food/drink.

Probably pigeon shit on the seats needed wiping off and they thought they could get away without needing to do it Down to the last 50 now so we will soon see if they are serious about filling the home ends.

I think he's learned from his boss slippery Steve and has been taught to just come out with any old excuse you can think of when questioned. The majority of the fanbase won't pay any attention or will just accept it as gospel truth and only a small minority like us on here will quickly spot that it is nonsense.

I think the pointless segregation probably comes to more like 350 than 500. There's definitely 160 or so in the JW lower and then in the Riverside I'm not sure how many rows were taken out but I don't think it is the full end block, perhaps just 12-14 rows of 14 seats so perhaps the same again or slightly more. I also think the very front row of the BBE upper has been greyed out from the start, not sure why but they don't seem to ever sell those front rows. In past fixtures they have also netted off some seats at the front of the JW upper near the Darwen End but didn't notice that this time around. So yeah suspect we are currently expecting around 26,400 total, which could easily get up to 26,900-27,000 if the club actually sold all the home seats.

At present there are about 240 remaining tickets, almost all in the BBE upper. There are some additional seats in the JW lower and Riverside that have not been released for sale and you would hope someone at the club would be getting them released. This is the corner block of the JW lower tier, currently covered with revolting 'Venkys' sheets. There are about 160 or so seats there, needlessly covered up. In the Riverside stand end block I think the club have sold the back half, but the front 12 or so rows were never put on sale and if past dingle games are anything to go by will be covered up. The mind boggles as to the reasons behind this as if anyone in the Riverside wanted to confront dingles or attempt to launch missiles towards them they could do so from the walkway at the front, plus there is a 10 foot high metal fence between the two stands making it nigh on impossible for any direct clash of fans anyway So probably another 160 or so there. That's another 300-350 that could be freed up immediately.

Stoke manager sacked. Wonder who next there. Usual names - Robins, Mowbray, Cooper. No doubt Eustace will be 'linked' or at least the Telegraph will claim he is in the reckoning just to stir it up anyway.

Why is it too late? Sheffield Wednesday sold us tickets in the Leppings Lane upper tier the other week, then on the night they simply redirected away fans into the lower tier instead and told us all to find somewhere to sit/stand. We could split the Darwen End down the middle, give them 2500 in the lower tier and 1500 upstairs, place a buffer zone next to it then sell up to a further 3000 in the Darwen End to home fans (if needed). The only obstacle would be deciding which 1500 of their 4000 to put upstairs and which not. I'm sure this isn't insurmountable. If not then simply shove them all in the bottom tier with 1000 spare for a buffer zone at the front and then open the upper tier to home fans. These aren't radical bonkers proposals, it is maximising use of OUR stadium when demand requires it. Something most other clubs do each and every week.

I'd be interested to know the logistics of opening a block or two for home fans in the Darwen End. If the cricket field shed can be shared between home and away fans then the Darwen End certainly can. Of course first we need to sell the 300ish in the upper tier and the 500ish in the Riverside and JW stand that the club hasn't yet mentioned. Magically the 'maintenance' issues of a couple of days ago have been resolved now that we've promptly filled the other blocks and there's still money to be made, so you would hope once the rest of the upper tier goes they'll apply their minds to removing the pointless netting and actually putting people in those remaining seats.

Well I'm glad someone somewhere has seen sense and released the rest of the upper tier. Of course this contradicts the clubs claim earlier in the week that no more would be released, so I wonder whether someone higher up the chain has had a word and told them to get whatever it was sorted out and quickly. This should free up an additional 500 tickets. Hopefully they go and then they can unlock the end blocks of the Riverside and JW lower and actually have a real home sell out.

You watch the Sheffield derby they have home fans at Bramall Lane above the away fans and also no blocked out seats just stewards in the bottom corner between the home and away fans. You watch City v United they have a line of stewards separating home and away fans. Same at Spurs v Arsenal, same at Spurs v West Ham, West Ham v Chelsea, Villa v Wolves and every other derby game going. At Leeds they have a couple of seats netted off between home and away fans, no empty blocks, sometimes even put home fans in the lower tier in front of the away fans. Burnley they have a couple of rows of stewards and a metal shutter between home and away fans. Sunderland they have away fans upstairs lobbing all sorts onto home fans below, so much so they have introduced a policy of confiscating coins from away fans before they enter the ground. Bolton have a 28000 capacity bowl stadium yet are able to get 26000+ in with a single row of stewards between home and away fans. And yet at Ewood Park, 4 separate stands, large metal fence between them, we have to net off 500+ seats in the home ends rather than release them for sale even though demand now requires it. We are a club that would sooner turn people away and turn our noses up at another £15-20,000 for reasons unknown by netting off blocks of the Riverside and Jack Walker lower tier. I could maybe accept it if we had sold a full 8000 to the away club and had no means of putting a buffer in the Darwen End. But we've 4000 empties to use for that purpose in there. Just totally embarrassing and pathetic.

With the exception of today (always more on Boxing Day) and the dingle game (special circumstances) the buzz has passed Rovers by, as crowds particularly in the home areas have been stagnant for the last decade. Agree though that generally around the country crowds have been surging. Shame we've managed to avoid it.

Well it can't be maintenance of the turnstiles, access, exits, concourse, toilets, lighting, catering or stairways as all those are going to be used by the 2500 people they've sold tickets to already. Unless the plastic seats in the two end blocks have for some inexplicable reason deteriorated despite not being used for years and therefore aren't fit for use whereas all the central blocks are usable then I'm really interested to know what crackpot nonsense they have got lined up as a reason why we are selling ourselves short of capacity and looking like turning people away for no reason. Darwen End upper wide areas are perfectly fine for Leeds/Sunderland fans to use yet Blackburn End upper wide areas unfit for Rovers fans to use. Tells you something. 'Mumble mumble maintenance' Or 'We've let the upper tier fall into disrepair through neglect and laziness and now we're faced with a large gate can't make the effort to sort it out' Once again problems unique to Venky Rovers. The one occasion where demand requires use of all areas of our 31000 seat stadium and ludicrously the club can't even maximise its own seating. It is beyond ridiculous, and once again totally contradicts their pleas of poverty when they are fine to turn their noses up at perhaps 1000 tickets being sold at £33 each. Just like they are fine to deter people from visiting the shop and Ewood on non-matchdays and fine not to ensure there is sufficient stock to meet demand. Nothing to do with weather, covid, Suez Canal and everything to do with an incompetent, lazy group of people.

There are no works at all that need doing that affect these end blocks. They use the same turnstiles, toilets, catering, access, exits, gangways and everything else that people in the seats across the aisle in the blocks for sale do. Liars.

Just as we did with JDT and Broughton Stoke may will bin off the 'head coach' structure and revert to a more traditional setup, especially if their Championship status is in jeopardy. You'd be surprised just how determined some clubs and owners are to preserve Championship status - see Oxford making a change this week - it's only here where the owners sit back and let disaster unfold and do too little to late to stop it.

The semi-emergence of this bloke from the shadows gradually over a 7-8 year period is itself odd and intriguing. Up until the recent fans forum meeting when he turned up there had been a sustained refusal, despite various requests, for him to in any shape or form engage with supporters. No interviews, no photos, no comments, nothing. Then suddenly, after all these years, he appears at a forum. I wonder what has changed? Way back when Gary Bowyer got the boot and Paul Lambert was employed it was clear that he was a central figure behind the scenes and responsible for much of what was going on. After this they then had the charade of advertising for an 'owners conduit' - one of the job requirements being multi-lingual - and posted this advert on the website even though it was clear only a very small number of people could satisfy those requirements, and it seemed the man they wanted was already effectively doing the job. I suspected at the time this was work permit related. I think it was 2019 before they confirmed his existence publicly by announcing the new 'Senior Management Team' where he was named as Suhail Shaikh and in January 2019 was announced as 'owners representative / operations and management consultant'. Since then he has remained but we've had a myriad of titles and job descriptions up to today where he is described as 'Chief Operating Officer' on the website. Now my interpretation of this is that he has transitioned from being an employee of the owners in India / consultant to eventually becoming an employee of the club. Like everything else at Rovers it is just very odd, unusual and strange.

Completely nonsensical indeed and I and a few others pointed this out the day it happened. I'm not aware of many other examples of clubs loaning out their captains to rivals mid-season but then again not many other clubs operate like this one. Of course as time has gone by and Travis' importance both on and off the pitch has become more and more apparent it only looks even more of a shocking decision and just imagine had we actually got relegated off the back of it. Some want to console themselves by believing the party line that it was all the fault of that nasty unreasonable JDT. Nothing to see here folks, nothing at all to do with Venkys, shadow man or Waggott, the wage savings of course just a convenient by-product. A bit like it being ever so convenient that Ian Silvester suffered amnesia and forgot how to submit a transfer form on deadline day and that conveniently saved the owners the expense of spending on new quality signings.....

I reckon about 24,000 on at current sales including their 7,300. Still plenty of empties in the Riverside and no BBE upper but yeah Jack Walker and BBE lower reasonably full.