JHRover

Fundamentally clubs that have brought in a fraction of the cash we have in the last 12 months are still spending substantially more than us. That's before we talk about wages which we really should be right down at the bottom of the league on too. Sales like Adam Wharton and bonuses like Raya together with substantial reductions in numbers and wages SHOULD open the door to a comprehensive rebuild and refresh, investing that money in new assets that will retain or grow in value and then either launch a future promotion push or at least lead to future sales to reinvest again and on it goes. No evidence of that happening here. No plan other than a wise move by the manager to target some experience as he knows how precarious our position is. We haven't reinvested. We haven't even spent the Gallagher and Gent money let alone touch the Wharton and Raya dosh. Even if we manage to survive or finish mid-table (hooray what a cause for celebration) we are soon going to run out of saleable assets. Let us hope that when we do the owners have nowhere left to turn and this breaks them.

Another thing that irritates me about your comments is that you attempt to compare us to other clubs - in this case Hull and Boro. You are attempting to normalise what has gone on at this club over recent years by comparing it to other clubs. It isn't normal, it isn't acceptable, and it cannot be justified with reference to a set of rules the league brought in. For years you banged the drum that our 'plan' under Mowbray and Waggott was the right one. You parrotted their claim that we were doing things 'right' by building 'sustainably' and that in the medium to long term we would be laughing and all these other reckless clubs - Boro, Bristol, Stoke, Hull and others - would suffer the painful consequences through points deductions and embargoes. Never happened. Infact we've sold off far more talent and value than any of that lot in recent years yet remain in a far worse state in terms of squad, expectations, finances. The difference between us and those clubs is that they actually have tried to get somewhere. If they are having to make some cuts due to FFP those are temporary blips in their ultimate aim to get promoted. It is absolutely nothing like the fire sale and financial chaos we have witnessed here over the last 2-3 years. I am well aware of FFP but it seems you are only aware of half of it. Income and revenue is just as important as sales and cost cuts yet this receives very little focus other than a shrug of the shoulders 'it is what it is'. Having brought in upwards of £30 million since this time last year (Kaminski £2 million, Phillips £2 million, Wharton £20 million, Raya £5 million, Gallagher £1 million - all at a considerable undervalue I might add) it is utterly unacceptable to be in the position we are right now having spent such a small sum of money on 2 players and signed a few free agents. Like with Armstrong a few years ago such income should have funded a comprehensive rebuild of the squad. Now we are cobbling together a team for the season in the hope we've got enough to survive whilst Boro and Hull are among the favourites for the top 6. Why can they do that and we be in such a dismal situation? It teaches us that FFP is irrelevant here, I think it always has been, we have evidence before our very eyes that even when we bring in a vast sum of money very quickly there is no intention on the part of the hideous people in India to put that back in. It has been a sham from the word 'go'. Like with FFP, like with rogue secretaries and inept staff, like with all sorts of other lies about the situation fundamentally they will always find an excuse to not reinvest and you stand ready to accept these excuses and repeat them as fact each and every year.

Always an excuse for not spending what we bring in, isn't there? It used to be that we needed to sell before we spend. We did that. Then you used the old excuse of FFP rules preventing it and meaning we had to use the cash towards running costs. Then the last few windows have utterly destroyed using FFP as an excuse you have adopted the 'we only receive it in gradual instalments' line. Whether we do or not the same could apply to incoming signings so it is as broad as it is long. Also nothing stopping our great owners from stumping the cash up in advance to enable spending and them later recouping it from future instalments. I'm intrigued by your default determination to avoid just accepting the truth that they are now funding the club through asset sales. And no, the two cash signings made are likely well short of even the money received for Gallagher, Wahlstedt and Telalovic. The fee for the Japanese signing has been widely reported as very low.

Much of it comes down to location and timing rather than being a 'big club'. Also the willingness to perhaps pay or make the effort when it comes to certain teams. For example our fixtures to me - with the exception of Nuremberg in Austria - have been typical local, lower league sides. Easy to sort out. Teams grateful to be playing us as a higher level team and probably selling quite a few tickets off the back of it. We rarely dabble in the home friendly market because to make it financially advantageous you really need to play a big club who will attract large numbers. Preston did it with Everton, we did it a few years ago with Everton / Liverpool. A lot comes down to who is in the area at any given time. In Austria there are dozens of English, German, Italian clubs on training camps within a relatively small area, so it is relatively easy to arrange a match at the end of a week's training camp and find a venue to host it. Others require a lot of advance planning or well connected people (we have neither here), or some sort of financial obligation / risk that our lot aren't willing to take. I'm sure if we took this seriously there would be a large number of potential high profile sides willing to come to Ewood or a neutral venue to play us. Only a few years ago Stanley arranged a game with Marseille at the Salford rugby stadium.

Would prefer to see him move to a genuine European giant playing in the Champions League than moving to a club that we were recently in a league above and who have quickly overtaken us purely through being properly managed.

We're spending much, much less than we have brought in. I'm not going to congratulate the club or believe that our finances are stable just because we've spent a bit of the Gallagher / Raya cash on 3 foreign signings. I agree there are certain players on a list and this list is set way above Eustace. They've been working their way down this list for the last 3-4 transfer windows. We've effectively been on an outgoings before incomings model for some time so I suspect Eustace has been told that if he wants an established midfielder the only way that is going to be permitted is if one of the existing ones are offloaded prior to or as part of that.

That would depend on the finer details. I don't think the be all and end all here is weekly wages. For example if they can persuade Stoke to exchange + cash then I think Rovers would be delighted to grab the lump sum even if that meant putting Baker on the same or higher money. All about immediate cash flow. It is clear that there is a push on this front, as there was to get him out the door in January and as there was to get Buckley out last summer. I also think we are pushing to get Szmodics sold off, there's zero intention at Rovers end of him being here next season and Eustace appears to have been blocked from playing him pre-season to keep him out of harms way. All sorts of shenanigans going upstairs on much of which we will never hear about.

He said that after the club had sanctioned the eyebrow raising departure of club captain on loan. I'm struggling to think of what else he could have said without getting sacked. We saw what happened when he started to shine the spotlight upstairs, he was gone within a week. In early January he was still trying to keep going.

I'm looking for the truth rather than just blindly accepting what people say, especially when they have an interest in a certain narrative.

Is this your opinion or what you have been told by someone else? Either way, you don't know for certain that it is fact.

Indeed. I think Nicko gets his Intel from 'higher ups' behind the scenes (not Eustace or coaching staff)

Having started him as captain in the past few pre season games and stressed his importance in interviews I'd be questioning Eustace's competence if he's done that despite 'wanting shut' and thinking he is shite.

That would depend on other factors including contract length and fee. If Stoke are happy to be shut of Baker and his wages and are willing to give us some cash on top then Rovers will be tempted. I don't think putting people on reasonable wages is necessarily a problem, but getting a lump sum of £1 million+ will be tempting.

I suspect this goes way above JDT and Eustace. I think he knows that he's on 'the list' of people identified for departure due to a combination of his wage, contract and market value. The 'powers that be' will see a 7 figure fee and relatively large wage out the door and will be conspiring to make that happen. Many others been in a similar position over the last decade under this group of people. Hard to come back from that whatever your thoughts on the manager/club.

I find it odd that you consider signing a number of players in a short time period to be a barometer of whether you think things are bad or not. I don't see what the relevance of this is or why it convinces you that things aren't that bad at the club. I think we are all relieved to see some transfer activity at long last after nothing all summer and getting alarmingly close to the start of the season without reinforcements. We are a long way off being able to say whether these signings are any good. But whether they are good, bad, middling - it still doesn't tell me that the club is in anything other than short term firefighting mode in dealing with a major financial crisis. We are signing people who are big gambles and people who are coming to the end of their Championship careers. Some will say that's just the way it has to be for us. But it doesn't, our activity as recently as 2022 with Hyam, Szmodics and Brittain shows that we can actually spend some money and sign people from Championship rivals or top end League One players. Getting a few signings over the line is good, necessary and hopefully these players work out ok for us. But that doesn't mean the club is in a good or healthy place. It just means we've used a very small % of our income on some attempt to strengthen what was a woefully short squad.

I believe the desire for Szmodics to be sold is likely greater at Rovers' end than Szmodics. They want their next heap of cash to pay their bills until January.

Barnsley were offering a six figure cash sum for Gent The only surprise to me is why anyone is surprised when we take the money. It seems the financial crisis engulfing the club has passed some people by.

Because he'll be either the biggest or a top 3 earner now they've got shut of Gallagher And as we know our approach to incomings and outgoings is determined by who costs the most / least. Combine that with him being able to command a fee of some description from other clubs and the Venky stooges will likely have their eye on him next, regardless of what manager or player want.

Anyone else notice the discreet passing mention that moving forwards tickets for all away games will only be available online? https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/august/01/ticket-news--norwich-city-v-rovers/

Who's moaning? I think Batth and Weimann are solid signings. That doesn't mean I have to be pleased with the overall window and nor do I have to believe there is any sort of plan or method to what is going on other than to ensure costs are lower come deadline day and funds brought in.

If either leave it will be because Rovers want their wages off the books / a fee for them because another Championship side will want them Which is more than we can say of any of our signings which are very much last Championship chance saloon / unheard of In the state this club is in I very much doubt Venky stooges will be keeping big earners or rejecting cash bids for players regardless of Eustace's view of things He'll stand in line and take what the stooges serve him.

One glance at the Facebook and Twitter replies to these signings is enough to want me to question my own sanity. I am so grateful that at least on here there are people of sound mind. Since our current financial position appears to be similar to that of Oyston's Blackpool and we are now operating a model requiring a departure before an incoming can be approved letting Garrett go out on loan is a sensible move. Sensible in the scheme of things because one look at the squad demonstrates we do not have the required depth to be loaning people out. But better than selling off an established player again.

Carter was given the captaincy in Austria. Suspect Eustace will be keeping up appearances and holding an 'audition' for the part in pre-season. Personally I wouldn't be giving it to Hyam

I really do wonder at times who is behind some of these signings. O'Riordan handed a 4.5 year deal and then hasn't played since he arrived. Who was behind that one? Not JDT I'm sure of that. Broughton? I doubt it.

Why 15th? I thought a few weeks ago you said you thought Eustace could have us in top 6 contention? What has changed? If you think we now need a season of 'stability' (a.k.a plodding along going nowhere like under Bowyer and Mowbray) then why when prior to last season we'd had 2 play off pushing campaigns? Why the regression?