JHRover

Interesting that in the notice of adjournment on the last occasion the Court said something like 'this matter will take some time' and put it back to today for a final hearing but then it seems to have been listed before a Judge with dozens of other matters with clearly not a lot of time to look at it (if any).

To all the Venky supporters out there who insist that they are great nice people who we couldn't cope without and to whom we owe a great deal of thanks I wonder at what point they start to reconcile that with the future of our club potentially hinging on the verdict of a Judge on the other side of the world, just after he's finished dealing with all manner of unpleasant matters. Is this really acceptable for a 150 year old sporting institution?

We used to be in the business of such deals, Armstrong, Brereton, Gallagher. But that required Mowbray to sit around in India for a week before convincing them to do it. Those days are long gone.

He's got a distinctly mediocre record other than 12-18 months at Sheffield United when he had one of the strongest squads in the division at his disposal. Average to poor at Barnsley, Leeds and Hibs and his PL spell at Sheff Utd. Preston don't have anywhere near the resources Sheff Utd had. Could be interesting because they could be dark horses for a relegation battle.

'The Sanjeev Narula Riverside Stand' if he helps us get rid of them.

Of this I have no doubts. It is clear that throughout the summer there have been forces at work behind the scenes trying to make that move come about. Same in January. Same with Gallagher and Szmodics. The club is in fire sale mode and it seems the limited business done to date has convinced some that things aren't as bad as they really are. We are a club in financial crisis, all the evidence other than Waggott's BS points towards this. Bringing in over £40 million in 12 months and spending less than £1.5 million is nothing short of a total disgrace and yet they are quickly moving on to the next sale project and hoping to bring in a few more million for the captain who Eustace has made clear he wants to stick around. Anyone and everyone who can attract a reasonable fee or who commands a decent wage is being systematically removed from the club, regardless of what Eustace, team, player or fans want.

Or alternatively we've had goalkeepers with good attributes that have failed to realise their potential here and so have sought moves elsewhere, and have quickly thrived under different coaching. We will probably never know the answer. What I do know is that the current situation isn't good enough, and one or both of Pears and the coach need replacing pronto.

I believe that Benson, like Lowe and probably Johnson, is irreplaceable. We can only speculate as to the reasons why but the first two have been here for years and through 3-4 different managers. Of course the decision as to the makeup of his coaching staff should be one for Eustace but I think he will have had to accept working with that lot before getting the job.

Realistically what are the different potential outcomes? a) Another adjournment, possible but unlikely IMO given it is listed for 'final' hearing, but one which probably won't cause us too many major problems for the time being given the pile of cash they've brought in from player sales. b) A 'final' outcome and no more Court proceedings - in Venkys favour and they are permitted to send whatever funds they want over and we are back to 'normal' albeit with disinterested unfit owners who don't want to spend anyway c) A final outcome not in Venkys favour - they are refused permission to send any more funds over and therefore the club has to continue funding itself using player sales until it inevitably slides into admin when those run out. Judge tells them to find a new owner because they won't be getting permission to fund us any more (Ideal outcome). d) A middle ground where they are allowed to continue as they have been to date which is they can put in the essential funds to meet the clubs obligations subject to them putting an equivalent bond down in India Have I missed any?

I wish I could also 'dream' but am more grounded in my expectations. The saddest part is that we should be spending that sort of money on those sort of players and there's nothing that should be stopping us with £40 million+ banked recently. These owners and this CEO are not going to allow that, but they will allow the likes of Nixon to filter it out to the fans as it suits them for people to believe we are trying to do this sort of business. I totally agree that it would be 100% counter productive to offload Travis or indeed any others of our 1st team given the lack of depth we have and performances so far this season. I don't think Eustace would want to. But the manager is only one small part of the equation here and if the Indians or charlatan CEO / shadow have a 'project' of selling someone it will happen regardless of impact on manager or team. They'll probably sweeten it by telling Eustace he'll get a load of money to reinvest afterwards, he won't. 2 weeks ago he said he wanted 3 or 4 additions. Since then none have come in and Szmodics has gone for another £10 million and freeing up yet more wages. People are deluded IMO if they think further sales are necessary or going to make and positive difference now.

Indeed. I've long believed they are working their way through a list of the top earners and are forcing them out.

He didn't make it to a week, moving quickly on and now it's Travis to Hull. It seems they are desperate to continue the cutbacks and sales, not content with the £16 million+ this summer. We all know that multimillion purchases ain't happening here (though they could and should be with the money brought in) but of course it is free to try and con people into believing it and keeps the fans occupied for a couple of weeks.

For one reason or another it has always been fine for them to heap relatively hefty wages onto the books, hence the massive annual losses, but they have rarely shown any interest in putting up real cash to enable significant signings. There are odd ones out - Rhodes, Brereton, Gallagher - but that's 3,4, 5 out of 100+ signings. Interestingly those quickly followed relegation/promotion and were very much out of character with other activity. I'd suggest interest pricked after relegation/promotion and someone wanted to be seen to be acting and probably put in personal cash on those occasions expecting to recoup it later.

Going to be interesting to find out which Rovers player he's going to link with a move away now Adam and Szmodics have both gone. I give it a week and he'll be on to the next one.

If they had any interest, pride, shame, investment in this club then yes, they would be completely embarrassed and ashamed at the state of this club and the fact that so many others have managed to completely outperform us on a fraction of the financial 'investment'. The likes of Luton, Ipswich, Brentford, Brighton, Dingles, Palace and many, many more who were years and years and years behind the organisation Venkys took over in 2010 and yet in most respects have left us miles behind in most areas of operation. Not because they've gone out and spent outrageous amounts or had 30,000 a week crowds propelling them, just competent ownership/management. I know I'd be embarrassed but these people are ignorant and totally shameless. Suppose it helps when you've vermin like Waggott and Shaikh telling you how wonderful you are, how the club would cease to exist without your benevolence etc.

Best outcome: judge directs them to immediately take steps to relinquish control of the club as the current situation will not be allowed to continue much longer. Most likely outcome: we're having the same discussion in January or February ahead of another hearing date and nothing changes before then.

I suspect that with another £15 million landing from Raya and Szmodics this will negate the need for Venkys to send money from India. Convenient, and will enable them to kick the can down the road on the court proceedings hoping that by the time this money runs out there is someone else to sell.

Just like with Adam Wharton we all recognise that as a Championship club we will be vulnerable to interest from Premier League sides in our best players.. Nothing new there, nothing unique to Rovers, nothing Venkys or no Venkys will do about that, it's a tale as old as time. It is the surrounding situation however that is unique to Rovers and is unique to the ruinous pondlife in India. These sales are occurring not because the club has been presented with irresistable bids, but because the club is desperate for cash because they are trying to find ways of funding the club and avoiding the need for the pondlife to divert their own funds over whilst putting down the equivalent bond. Wharton and Szmodics ensure that and then some. Other clubs would reluctantly sell those players but do so for good amounts of cash and would immediately set about reinvesting a large portion of the proceeds back into the club and squad to reinvest and go again. No such intention here I suspect. We've already seen it with the Adam Wharton money 'mumble mumble running costs' bye bye £20 million. That's the problem and that's why Venkys have to go. If we can't improve and invest from this position we never will.

Probably about right. We will then go shopping in the loan market and get a couple of youngsters to fill out the other positions, the rest of the money never to be seen again. Then we get the 'loans aren't free you know!' line and the job is sorted. Of course if there's any truth to the claim that we were attempting to sign the Dutch goalkeeper a couple of weeks ago this begs the question as to where that money has gone and why that can't be used instead of the Szmodics money. Unless of course such a deal was contingent upon selling Szmodics and we pulled the plug on it once Ipswich started playing hard ball on the fee.

I bet there's no last minute paperwork / rogue secretary issues at Rovers today. Never have such problems when there's a pile of cash coming in....

Selling a 19 year old future England international and the Championship golden boot winner both to Premier League clubs for less than £30 million combined certainly isn't good business in today's climate.

Oh it will be true. But we'll sign 2-3 cheapies or even loans for perhaps £1 million max, with the rest of the money never being seen again. Unfortunately the arrival of 2-3 newcomers will convince some that all is fine and dandy and this is part of the 'project' when in actual fact it is just another drastic cost cut and multi-millions gone.

Well we've now got a 'Chief Operating Officer' getting settled in to his newly created job even though he's already paid to fill several other roles together with our 'Chief Executive' and numerous 'Head ofs' Won't be cheap

Each and every time we've lost a senior valued player we hear either from favoured 'journalists' (usually Nixon or the Venkygraph) that we've been ever so desperate to keep them and have supposedly made scarcely believable offers to try to keep them but just couldn't do enough. I think it is one of Waggott's favourite tried and tested tricks. It costs nothing for him to feed this BS to the media and for certain fans to swallow it, but what actually unfolds suggests it is nonsense. We are not a club that offers £22k a week to anyone anymore. They've just managed to get shut of Gallagher because he was costing them too much, they ain't saddling the club with another big wage straight after, definitely not on a 29 year old. Most of us know this yet they persist with trying to spread this narrative because they are trying to get free credit.

That's a medium to long term view though, which nobody in a senior position at Rovers seems to have any interest in. In their world it is all about the here and now. Cash in the bank, bills paid. They've zero interest in where the club might be in 12-18 months time and the longer term consequences of their actions (or inaction). Very easy to sit back and 'negotiate' the sales of valued players and watch as the cash comes flowing into the coffers and raking in your bonus from India for doing them a favour. Then when inevitably the chickens come home to roost from this short sighted cash grab they'll act puzzled and confused when we get relegated and lose more than they've gained.