JHRover

Too often people try to apply common sense and normal considerations to incoming/outgoing transfers at Rovers when they really shouldn't. It is discussed ad infinitum on here and around the fanbase about how player x should be sold to raise funds, about how player y should be given a new contract, about how player z should be retained, with various reasons given ranging from maximising sale value, reducing outgoings But its all pointless and a waste of time under these owners. We sell no players, we sell players for £15 million, we sell players for £50 million. It makes no difference to the club. They remain in control, they continue to employ substandard staff, they continue to deny it the investment it needs. No money or lots of money, the only difference it makes to Rovers is whether Venkys need to send it over or not. It isn't going into facilities, new signings or anything else that might help the club. It is either helping Venkys or not.

Waggott was looking into this about 6 years ago. The scariest part of this for me isn't that they can't be arsed with the hassle of doing anything, it is the apparent belief they have that places such as Hyndburn 'belong' to Accrington Stanley and therefore Rovers have no reason or right to do anything in those areas. It is simply wrong, false and dangerous for the future of the club, yet a charade they all seem more than happy go play along with.

The club has washed its hands of making ANY effort to retain or increase support in non-BwD areas. South Ribble, Hyndburn, Rossendale, Ribble Valley, North Lancashire, Pendle all abandoned and given up on. Support continues to be drawn from such areas from tradition, family, history rather than any efforts made by Rovers over the last 15 years. If they don't recognise that there are vast swathes of Rovers leaning people in these regions they aren't doing their jobs. If they don't think that efforts need to be made then I think we will ultimately learn the hard way that this is incorrect. The passage of time coupled with expensive tickets and second division football will eat away at it. If we were fortunate enough to be in a county where Rovers was the only major club then we might get away with it. But this isn't a Norwich, Ipswich, Newcastle situation. The region is teeming with rivals who can offer a better, easier or cheaper experience. The fact that Rovers seem happy to give up on these areas and be supplanted by rivals is a tragedy that has to be reversed, but will only happen when we have owners AND board who want what is best for Rovers. I don't think we've had that in 20 years.

Not long ago they spent many thousands of pounds on the totally unnecessary vanity project of building three new TV gantrys on the Riverside stand. All to make the ground look better/more full on TV. Then there's thousands more employing people to plan a housing estate for Brockhall Yet no money to repair the 35 year old drainage or shelter disabled supporters. There's your priorities.

That it is even being considered by anyone anywhere as even remotely possible tells us all we need to know about where Rovers are as a club under this regime. I am worried that this sort of thing is happening quite a lot. Only in the last few weeks he's been among the favourites for both Hull and Coventry. Whether it happens or not there's usually a reason why names keep on getting linked elsewhere and it is suggestive either of an unsettled manager or other people knowing there is a problem. You don't get the likes of Carrick, Thorup, Cleverly or Corberan getting linked to clubs lower down the Championship. Yet Eustace is. That tells me something off somewhere.

Still plenty of murmurs about Eustace being an option for the vacant Hull job. In the betting he is among the favourites. Skybet he's 6th favourite at 10/1 but on Oddschecker he's second favourite at 6/1 after Chris Hughton.

It would be nice to break through the 15,000 home fans ceiling that seems to have materialised over the last few years. It should hardly be considered an acheivement, especially on Boxing Day, but getting up to 18-20k home fans together with 7000+ away fans would be cracking. Sadly due to policies of the last 7-8 years I think even those numbers are a pipe dream unless the tourist clubs come to town. Would love to be wrong though.

No problem at all if that's an addition to going Rovers. But I'm sure there will be plenty of Rovers folk who will decline going to Middlesbrough yet will rush to Anfield to watch that instead. Very odd mentality in my opinion.

Why any Rovers fan would elect to go to Liverpool to watch Stanley ahead of a similar journey to Middlesbrough to watch Rovers is beyond me

In their pursuit of a quick easy buck they'll stop at nothing including humiliating the club and fans and plastering claret and blue over our website. They've even put a bigger Burnley badge than Rovers. Probably not intentional and just rank incompetence but you never know with this lot. What next? Pay an extra £10 and we will put down the red carpet as well?

Personal preference is a tie home or away against Salford, Exeter, Orient, Tamworth, Bromley, Harrogate, Morecambe or Wycombe. A change to the usual routine, either a new ground or an interesting/easy trip, or at least a game we should win. I can see the appeal of a Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, United, Liverpool, City away but personally not that interested. A final visit to Goodison would be nice I suppose. Definitely don't want a Championship side away, nor anyone like Brighton, Fulham, Bournemouth, Southampton, Palace etc.

January 2024 we signed Ben Chrisene and Yasin Ayari on loan and McFadzean and Fleck on short term deals. January 2023 we signed Sorba Thomas on loan January 2022 we signed Ryan Hedges, Ryan Giles and Zeefuik on loan On each of these occasions we were either sat comfortably in the top 6 or very close to it. Yet we made 3 permanent signings, two of which were 6 month deals running until the summer, and 5 were loans. Where or why anyone thinks that Eustace is suddenly going to get backing from these owners or board I really don't know but it never ceases to amaze me that people think things will suddenly change whilst the same old regime runs the show.

Yeah it was an investigation by a newspaper or journalist that drew public attention to Ali Syed AFTER his entourage had turned up at Ewood and were filmed walking into the offices. Really does make you wonder, if that work hadn't been done or if it hadn't been circulated in the national press just how far would the Walker Trust have allowed them to go? My bet is that by that stage they'd have allowed ANYONE to take the club as long as they got their cash, and thanks to that we've ended up with possibly the worst owners to ever get hold of a club in this country.

Times like this that nobody from the club or support base has any right to reference FFP rules. If you can't even get sufficient stock in the month before Christmas you cannot complain about income or restrictive rules.

It's obvious that Sigurdsson is on his way, whether that's because he isn't interested or whether that is because the 'powers that be' have identified him as too expensive and disposable and are determined to get shut we will probably never know, but expect him to be gone sooner rather than later. Now what a club with a semblance of plan, sense, long term strategy would do is then divide Sigurdsson's wage up between 3-4 remaining players - your people like Carter, Travis, Hyam - and offer them pay rises and an extra couple of years on their deals. None will be on big money by Championship standards. Net result is that we lose Sigurdsson (no big loss on this season's contributions, though I do think he's capable of much more) but protect the situations with a few of our remaining senior players, and it doesn't cost us much, if anything. This won't happen because the money off in wages will be put towards saving the owners money and into Eustace's meagre transfer (loan) kitty, they will kick the contract situation down the road until the 11th hour hoping that the players cave in and accept whatever dismal terms Waggott has planned, then realise when it is too late that 7-8 rival clubs would happily take them off our hands for nothing and pay them more. All of course completely unforgivable and unacceptable at the best of times, but when it is only a few years after the Rothwell, Lenihan debacles and even less time after bringing in a staggering sum of cash from Wharton, Szmodics and others then it is disgusting.

None of the players mentioned will get new deals. One glance at the lack of new deals for established players over the last 5 years tells us all we need to know. If you are a proven experienced Championship standard player you will want and expect a wage and package in keeping with that status. The 'new regime' at Ewood will not allow this and so those players will go elsewhere. Broughton did indeed oversee a raft of new contracts but actually when you scratch beneath the surface most of those were younger up and coming players from our academy or from League One and not in a position to command more. They will pretend that this is just the way of it, that poor little Rovers are trying their best but simply cannot compete. Some will believe this. Myself and others won't believe it and will instead see it simply as the next phase of Waggott's downgrade, saving thousands more on the wage bill, allowing assets to walk for nothing/knock down fees but he doesn't care because their wages are off the balance sheet come the end of the year and that will justify it. He will think that replacements can be sourced for lower cost and will be happy with a couple of seasons of relegation risk as part of that equation.

Who is benefiting from the extra cash (several million pounds) the club has got from the new media deal in exchange for all sorts of chaos to the fixtures and kick off times? I don't think the fans have. The team? Don't think so. Looks like the owners. So the fans and team are mucked around by Sky and the extra money to soften the blow goes to make Venkys life easier. Tossers who haven't summoned up the interest or energy to visit a single game in over 10 years. Fans suffer, Venkys benefit.

'Until an entire reconstruction of the pitch can be signed off, which of course would require significant investment' Good job we've billionaires owning us who never refuse to sign a cheque and facilities investment isn't restricted by FFP rules then.

Middlesbrough recently lost 3-0 at home to Coventry, 2-0 to Bristol City, drew 1-1 with Preston and 2-2 with Portsmouth, so I'm not having it that they are some unstoppable juggernaut that Rovers cannot expect a result against. Having said that as others have rightly pointed out our away record in midweek fixtures is dismal, often finding a way to lose, sometimes heavily, even in games or against teams where we really shouldn't (Coventry a few weeks ago, Birmingham and Cardiff last season). So how good Middlesbrough are is probably irrelevant, its how poor we are in these games that will determine things.

I don't think Venkys want or even feel a need to have a CEO. They didn't bother with one for the first 7 years of their ownership, instead there was a revolving door of people with other inferior job titles. I believe they eventually agreed to appoint one - Waggott - because it was sold to them on the basis that he would get a grip on their costs and reduce these, saving them money and justifying his cost. Even then his background of running clubs was patchy to say the least - Coventry, Charlton and advising at Southend and Gillingham - hardly an impressive or desirable collection of clubs given their fortunes in the last 10 years. The only thing he has made any effort at since arriving at the club has been cutting costs and saving the owners money, which suggests that is what he is measured on and is what will determine his future. When he leaves my expectation is that they will try and fudge it - perhaps see if they can get away without a replacement or perhaps promote someone from within which is the popular lazy approach. The chances of them actually going into the big wide world and sourcing a proven competent experienced candidate is about as close to zero as imaginable.

It may have been beyond the control of anyone today, but I'm firmly of the belief that this situation is, at least in some part, a consequence of years of bare-minimum cost cutting operation. I'd be surprised if the drainage was any different to the rest of the stadium - lighting, sound system, pitch, seats, steps, jumbo screen - all of which have deteriorated over the years Enjoy your weekend

I don't think any of us know for certain one way or the other. Unless you're a civil engineer and have been lucky enough to have been down in the River Darwen inspecting the drainage pipes recently. It might just be bad fortune of being next to a river that is flooding during intense rainfall. It might be down to a sustained lack of investment in facilities stretching back decades. It is probably a combination of the two creating a dismal situation.

I think today was the fifth game at Ewood since we left the PL to be called off due to the weather: 1) Portsmouth November 2024 2) Millwall February 2022 3) Swansea January 2021 4) Middlesbrough December 2015 5) Brighton December 2012 It's obviously correct that the ground is next to a river and drains into the river and always had. So logic would suggest that postponements due to rain will have been a frequent occurrence going back decades. Maybe its me but I cannot remember many at all before these people turned up and started cutting budgets left right and centre. It is clear that Ewood is suffering from a lack of investment. It's filthy, crumbling in places, and hasn't had any substantial investment beyond routine essential maintenance in pushing 20 years. I think it is fairly likely on balance that drainage and ability to cope with difficult weather conditions have been impacted by these cuts. It might not be the only reason but it is probably one. The outcome is that we get the indignity of being the only top 2 division side to be incapable of hosting a match in heavy rain and along with Fleetwood, Bradford and Salford of League Two and Fylde, Halifax and Rochdale of the Conference the only seven clubs in the top 5 leagues to be off. They must be very proud of themselves.

I think there is some pressure building on the people upstairs at Rovers. So far today we've had interviews with Eustace, JRC and Buckley all talking about how much the fans are needed and encouraging people to turn up tomorrow, they've given 500 tickets away to kids They've announced half season tickets at being on sale (£249 per adult), I think people are asking questions about the drop in numbers turning up.

I heard the other day that Plymouth are running some sort of 'fly on the wall' documentary with Rooney as manager. Similar to the disneyland nonsense at Wrexham or 'Class of 92' at Salford. I did wonder when they appointed him what their game was and why they would gamble their Championship status on such a poor manager. Now it comes into focus, it's the publicity and profile it gives them. They'll inevitably get loads of viewers watching their documentary in the UK and abroad, people will take an interest, you'll probably get foreign investors interested off the back of it.