JHRover

Players don't generally want to leave a club that they can see has the ambition to get somewhere in the game. They are happy to stay and be part of it. Players do want to leave financially stricken crisis clubs that are going nowhere and have no plan. Players left behind see good quality teammates being bundled unceremoniously out the exit door by the club and shadowy individuals running it and see vastly inferior alternatives being brought in. They then wonder about moving on themselves to a club with actual ambition and some semblance of a plan. I seriously reckon that we have about 6 players under contract who 10+ Championship rivals would happily have at their disposal. Szmodics, Gallagher, Travis, Hyam, Carter, Tronstad. Add JRC to that if he could keep fit for more than half a season. I don't think many, if any, of the other lot we have would attract anything more than passing glances from other Championship sides. That tells me something. About 3 years ago I'd have said we had 12+ of such players, adding in the likes of Diaz, Dack, Rothwell, Armstrong, Lenihan. The number is dwindling each year. We now seem to be well on the way to getting it down to 3-4.

What an amazing coincidence. Then it will be Hyam or Sigurdsson, next down the wage earner list. Though they might already be working away behind the scenes on the Sigurdsson one...

Recruitment is being motivated by finances. Those leaving or being pushed out are those who can fetch interest and bids from elsewhere or those on the biggest wages. Those coming in far, far cheaper. When your recruitment is dictated by savings and cost cuts you end up taking huge gambles and unless you are very astute go on a downward spiral. I don't think Venkys, Waggott or the rest of them are very good. Actually they disgust me and should be nowhere near any professional organisation. So where does that leave us moving forward? A perfect storm of cost cuts, negligence and a race to the bottom.

Things can always be worse and under this regime they usually are.

It's terrifying that such people exist. I wouldn't hold out any hope of a UK regulator doing anything. As far as the wider public are concerned Venkys are wonderful for keeping the lights on every year. Without their benevolence a 149 year old institution would cease to exist.... The authorities can't even enforce their own rules on holding consultation meetings which is why Waggott has been able to ride roughshod over it for the last 4 years.

Why aren't Stoke spending some of that £1.5 million on Gueye if he's so much better than Gallagher?

Burnley aren't allowed to give us 1500. They have to give us at least 2000.

If you look back over all the summers under their ownership there have been similar patterns. We are rarely proactive or quick in our business, it is usually later on. In the past we have done nothing until they have held their annual summit meeting in India at which they sanction an annual budget. Then the manager goes on holiday and things click into gear once pre-season is up and running. It is the Venky way. Of course just one of many, many reasons why they need to leave the club because we will never be organised and settled heading into a pre-season under them. They won't allow it because they aren't quick or decisive enough and this puts us on the back foot straight away. I agree that there has been a clear marked change in the last week or so where prior to that there was radio silence and now links and deals of all sorts of shapes and sizes being mentioned. But fundamentally I suspect this is largely contingent upon getting shut of Szmodics. Once they've banked another £10 million there then even Venkys will have had their fill for the time being and will have no reason not to allow at least a portion of that back to the manager. The feeling at present is that the deals closest to completion are McFadzean, the Japanese lad and the young French lad. 3 very low cost and simple deals which should be more than manageable with some of the Raya funds. My belief is that nothing of any description could happen until India authorised an annual budget. They've finally done that which will allow some minimal funds from the vast amounts banked already into the squad. We might sign 3,4,5 in the next week or so but suspect it will be insignificant in the scheme of things.

You've mentioned several times various changes and overhaul behind the scenes and how Nixon was spot on with his information. Seems a bit pointless to me if we are just going back to old targets and players here last season. Anyone on here could throw free agent McFadzean and easy cheap loan Chrisene forward as options.

Super duper new recruitment team in place and you're talking about re-signing McFadzean and Chrisene, two signings desperate in January and even more so now. Interesting is one word you could use for the next 32 days. I'd rather use depressing, concerning, anxious, terrifying.

Lets be honest I doubt many of those that remain are particularly happy at Rovers. If you are one of our remaining 'senior' players - Gallagher, Travis, Hyam - people who could easily get offers from other Championship clubs - why on earth would you want to hang around this sinking ship? The only people happy will be the u21s who are going to be thrown into the Championship and given regular game time, good enough or not, simply by virtue of being cheap and already in the building. This will give them an opportunity to prove themselves at Championship level, again good enough or not. The club have already made their intentions and ambitions for the future quite clear this summer. No intention of getting anywhere, improving, being ambitious. The only intention is to cut costs even further by offloading the few remaining 'big' earners and replacing them with kids, loans and cheap desperate signings. Imagine being in the prime years of your career and turning up at Brockhall for pre-season, a threadbare squad, no investment, no signings. I'd be on the phone to my agent for a move ASAP, especially if I'd recently had a taste of playing at a professional club and seeing what a difference it makes.

Injection of cash wholly dependent on selling Szmodics which will cover the outlay at least 5x over....

As I said the other day it is either a deliberate attempt to get us relegated or alternatively they just care so little for our fortunes that they are again going to sit back and allow the inevitable to happen. Either deliberate sabotage or extreme negligence with scant regard for the consequences. Either way completely unacceptable and not fit and proper ownership or management.

Smart business if your sole concern is cutting costs and saving money. It isn't smart business if we have nobody else and get relegated to League One. Do you think the rest of our recent transfer business has been smart? I think it has been disastrous from a footballing perspective. Beyond belief that our strongest XI 12 days before the new season features Jack Vale as our only fit and recognised forward. It's almost funny.

Eustace wanted 5 last week. That was before we talked about selling Szmodics or Gallagher so can only assume that means we now need at least 7 if they both go. 0 signed so far despite twitter talk. 12 days until kick off.

Still playing the 'if we sell player x this will generate the funds for a squad rebuild' game. It's this period of departures and hypothetical arrivals that keeps people like Nixon relevant with people asking him every day what is happening. Newsflash. Selling Rhodes didn't fund a rebuild. Selling Armstrong didn't. Selling Adam Wharton didn't. Selling Szmodics won't. It's all a game. Come the end of the window there will be an array of baseless excuses and reasons but all that matters is once again we will be weaker. Running costs. Wage structures. FFP. Not enough time. Changing demands. New recruitment team. Been there done it worn the t shirt. Shame they are still fooling some but I'm glad it seems most are wise to the nonsense now. It's happened too many times.

God help this football club. I sincerely hope nobody acts surprised when League One arrives. The club are actively pursuing it. The suggestion that money is needed for costs is simply unacceptable when sat on £30 million of receipts in the last 12 months. Those who don't want administration need to ask themselves what difference it would actually make at this stage. We're effectively in administration and under a transfer embargo right now, self imposed by our glorious owners. All that matters is being rid of the poison. Unfortunately that means football takes a back seat until they are gone. Still they cannot hold their hands up and admit defeat. Walk away. That's what we need. Instead they cling on. More important to them to keep their skeletons hidden and their egos massaged than f!ck off and let us get on and try to sort out their disastrous mess.

My prediction is that the starting XI tonight will be roughly the starting XI from the second 60 minutes against Nuremberg e.g. our second string but with Buckley, Markanday, Garrett etc. Then the starting XI tomorrow to be the starting XI from the first 60 minutes against Nuremberg e.g. our 'strongest' XI apart from Hedges and Szmodics I am predicting this because it would make more sense to test the strongest XI against a League One side on a Saturday than it would against a League Two side tonight, and I expect he will want everyone to get 90 minutes sooner or later. The club media have also used photos of Buckley and Garrett for the promotional material for tonight which might be a clue. Could be wrong of course and it could well be a mish mash of both.

I suspect that only in the last couple of weeks have Venkys authorised the annual budget. Hence zero movement or even rumour up until the last week or so and suggestions shadow man went out to India not long ago to sort it out. So he's probably come back with permission to use a sliver of the fortunes brought in and some flex on the wages to add a handful, soon to be recouped in any event with Szmodics to be sold. It is the only logical explanation for nothing being done until now even the easiest of deals in McFadzean, which of course would have been wrapped up many weeks ago at a functional football club (not that I'm keen on it, it stinks of desperation to me).

I've watched us in pre-season against Accy Stanley and Nuremberg and I'm intrigued to hear more about what this 'certain way' of playing is, because I couldn't see anything of the sort.

The club has been gearing up for League One now for the last 3-4 years (at least). Owners who should be nowhere near professional sport, let alone the Championship, directors with absolutely no pedigree or qualification to be involved in running a professional sports club, budgets being slashed to League One levels, playing squad being systemically reduced to League One standard. That's before we get on to operating like a non-league outfit with amateurish conduct, skeletal staffing, no programmes etc. I don't think anyone would argue with any of that. I think this is all the fault of the owners whose decisions have taken us to this stage and continue to damage the club. Others want to convince themselves that it is the fault of the fans, or nasty FFP rules, or Blackburn being a 'small town'.

Which is what Venky Rovers want as it allows them to pin the blame and responsibility for the move on Szmodics and his agent for being 'greedy' or forcing a move leaving poor old Rovers with no other option but to move him on.

I do. And I very much doubt we will get £15 million for him. It sounds like he might have a release clause in any event. Of course the club will announce it as 'undisclosed' so they can pretend they got a good fee for him, not that it makes any difference to Rovers how much we get.

This will be a Szmodics out for £8-10 million and this lad coming in using 10% of the cash. The club will make a net profit of many millions of pounds and the owners won't put in a penny towards it.

Easy to go around making multi-million pound offers for other Championship teams' best players when you've raked in £30 million from sales. Except when you are Venky Rovers, in which case you are still destitute and ripe for the picking.