JHRover

I suspect that morale at the club at all levels is at an all time low, with really only the academy kids now in first team reckoning happy with the way things are at the moment. It cannot be a pleasant place to work with uncertainty on direction and even viability as a business, major departures and cost cuts throughout. This is probably just a relatively cheap and easy way to 'unite' the troops behind the new Waggott regime as the new season approaches. I feel the best way to unite the club would be for Venkys and their minions to exit asap and leave those of us who actually care for the club behind to rebuild from the rubble

Of course it's completely illogical. But then the only things Rovers will really be looking at is wage, signing on fee and contract length If Batth is now willing to come for less, or happy to take 1 year rather than 2, then Rovers will be interested as all they are focused on is cobbling together some sort of Championship standard squad as cheaply as possible. Actual fitness, game time last year, suitability, all irrelevant to calculations. Interestingly however this is coming from the Venkygraph, which suggests to me someone, probably Waggott, has drip fed it to them. Probably to alleviate pressure and convince the locals that we are in the business of signing people.

When they placed Steve Kean in charge of a Premier League side and left him in place after the near miss in 2011 most of us knew that relegation was the inevitable consequence. When they placed Owen Coyle in charge and left him at the helm until February most of us knew that League One was inevitable. When they starved Bowyer and Coyle of funding, forcing us to sign dross like Delfouneso, Feeney, Greer, Brown and others most of us knew that League One was inevitable. When they sell everyone of any value, spend nothing and hope to get by with a team of academy lads most of us know what the inevitable outcome will be. This lot couldn't care less because all relegation means to them is different numbers on a balance sheet each year If it isn't deliberate it is certainly an inevitable outcome of their approach and totally avoidable. The iceberg has been in view now for over 12 months and rather than change course they've simply changed the man at the helm whilst ordering full steam ahead towards it. A blind man can see it coming. Either they can see it and aren't bothered or they aren't even looking

Look on the bright side, there's a desire from some to see positivity after all: 20th August hearing can probably get adjourned off as no need for more money from India Waggott might get another bonus for 'helping' the owners save money They can spend the next 6 weeks pretending we are going to reinvest, but ultimately won't Venkys get to maintain their grip on the club for another 6-9 months What's not to like?

Assuming the slippery one turns up and the meeting goes ahead it will be the only opportunity that fans or probably anyone outside the club gets to put direct questions to anyone in a senior position at the club. All other lines of communication severed, and it seems requests from local media for interviews being ignored and fobbed off. I'd suggest it is essential that the above is raised directly with him. If this meeting comes and goes without it being raised or with the usual excuses and 'will look into it' fob off approach then it will be disheartening to say the least. Tonight is an opportunity to ask questions that genuinely concern the future existence of the football club, Not to discuss the new kits or season ticket sales.

I saw the fans / players meeting as a typical Waggott manoeuvre in response to feeling the heat. A relatively easy, cheap and small gesture but one he thought would head off trouble. Turn the focus away from the owners and their financial activities and on to the players and their thoughts about things, localise the issues to a meeting table in Lancashire, get together prominent fans who would hopefully be won over by the tea and biscuits and then head off online and to their groups and spread the word about it, filtering down to the wider fanbase, all whilst he barely had to lift a finger. Of course an open question event with hundreds of season ticket holders invited and free to put forward their questions to him and other directors would be a good idea, but he's never had any intentions of such exposure.

Eustace will have taken the job because despite what these horrible people have done the name of Blackburn Rovers still carries a lot of weight in the game. Someone in his position after a little over 1 year at Birmingham City to be offered a 2.5 year deal to come here, established Championship club. On the surface a complete no-brainer. Potential new staff members and players will of course assume that even with a very limited budget there remains a determination to get somewhere and some degree of ambition and a plan to make it work. It won't become clear to them until their feet are under the table and the games start that there is zero ambition, zero plan, owners who are beyond belief when it comes to a lack of interest and a board of directors dominated by shadowy characters none of whom have ever spoken publicly (some I'm not sure have even been to Ewood before). Then there's the other slippery character labelled as CEO but is more of an administrator measured purely on his cost saving schemes who I wouldn't trust to go and buy me a Lancashire Telegraph if I gave him a couple of quid. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that in the chaos (self inflicted) of late January and early February, after they forced the last manager out yet still dragged his exit into a multiple week long process, and with Broughton half way out the exit door, there will have been a degree of panic and with that a 'tell him what he needs to hear' approach. Obviously telling the truth as to the real situation isn't what is done here. We've seen that with the lies and deceit towards paying supporters and probably players over the last 12-18 months since this crisis escaped the bag. First they pretended that it was all due to changes in Indian tax laws, then it became clear that it was actually due to the owners being under investigation. They've claimed also that the court hearings are a minor issue, not really anything to be concerned about, a formality, yet it is obvious that isn't the case. So absolutely 100% believable that they will have painted a rosy picture to Eustace, allowed him to believe there would be jam tomorrow if he kept us up, money will come, this lot never refuse a cheque. All sounds fantastic. I bet JDT got similar, as did Broughton, Lambert, all the rest. Then we get the moving goalposts, silence. Some types of manager are fine with that, they've a contract and will sit tight and collect their money and hope it one day changes for the better or they get a better offer at some point - Kean, Bowyer, Mowbray Others simply won't put up with it and will actively seek a move away - Lambert, JDT - because they know they can get work at a professional football club so why allow this mob to make a fool out of you It remains to be seen which group Eustace will fall into, but I certainly bet thoughts have or will soon be going through his head. I'm certain it is one of Waggott's favourite schemes. Tell potential players/agents, managers that we can offer x,y,z or will be able to offer something later, get them in the building, under contract, committed to some degree, then change it and shift the next move onto the employee - take it or leave it and call their bluff. Hope they just shut up, take the money and put up with it. With the way they have run the club and treated paying supporters I cannot imagine how bad it must be to actually work for them. Awful, awful people.

Essentially because their owner wants to invest. Where there is a will there is a way. Hull have done similar in recent seasons. Can always sell a player to address it if there's an issue down the line but will probably be promoted by that point so worth it. Others just want to use the rules as a convenient excuse to reduce spending, only when you bring in £30 million from sales and spend less than £1 million even those previously taken in by it will be finding it hard to believe.

Make it self sufficient or as near as possible to it by reducing the club down to a level more in keeping with an amount the owners are comfortable putting in and to where people like Waggott are more comfortable- Leagues One and Two.

How many people have lost their jobs since 2011 due to multiple self-inflicted relegations and Venky/Waggott cutbacks?

Park is an old mate of Waggott's and was in his phone book. We know from experience that Waggott will turn to his old mates when the need arises (Totally Wicked, Watson Ramsbottom). With Broughton going Waggott needed a quick and easy solution. Answer is to go to previous. Easy Cheap That's it.

Which people do you identify as currently employed by Rovers who would be made redundant by an administrator? Do you really think Waggott is keeping non-essential staff in employment right now?

How do you know that? Why are we signing players to be third choice? You keep saying what Eustace wants. It's irrelevant what the manager wants. JDT wanted many things and didn't get them. He had the balls to resign rather than allow the lowlife to take advantage of him. What actually matters is what Venkys and their minions are willing to do. We all know, as will Eustace and the rest of the staff, what we need and what we want. I think you know the chances of getting it are slim which is why you keep saying 'Eustace wants'. He's not in control of this rotten vessel.

Abundantly clear to anyone watching last season that the GK position required urgent remedial work. If that work consists of keeping Pears at No.1, selling Wahlstedt, pocketing the cash and replacing him with a free agent 22 year old with 0 senior appearances then it seems even my admittedly low expectations might need adjusting even lower.

I'd like Waggott to explain why the club aren't holding league-mandated supporter consultation meetings nor shareholder meetings.

We'll sell Szmodics either soon before or soon after that date. Even if that means taking £6 million we'll get whatever we can and this will be enough to keep things going until the end of the year or beyond with the Raya money with it They'll then get another court date months down the line and we'll be having the same discussion in November, and they'll have to find another one for the January sales. They've been lucky with these players to sell. That won't last forever. Then it will get interesting.

They'll just be stringing Eustace along. Ain't daft this lot. They'll be worried that he'll do a JDT and throw a wobbler before the new season starts. So they'll be playing the good old tried and tested 'jam tomorrow' game as they have so many times. Telling him money coming, just not quite yet. I think they did the same with JDT, cutting his budgets then keeping him here telling him it would soon be resolved and back to business as usual. Waggott's already tried that one with the fans, trying to convince them that all is fine when it clearly isn't. Wouldn't put it past them to have told Eustace when he joined that he'll get backing in the summer if he kept us up. As we've seen here talk is cheap. May well be a game being played. They won't want Eustace to walk and suspect he's not the sort to do so as unlikely to land a better job any time soon, but probably made assurances to him since February that as yet haven't been delivered on. Wouldn't put it past this regime at all.

I'd be interested to know how many days a week Waggott actually goes to Ewood Park. My bet is not very many. Between 'home working' and his office at Brockhall I suspect his visits to Ewood are quite infrequent. But when you've previously worked at Roots Hall and Priestfield a bit of mould and grime at Ewood won't be causing him any concerns.

You don't have to accept it by pretending it is right or supporting it. You can still support the club whilst not accepting how they are doing things. As far as I am concerned part of being a supporter of a club is demanding better and not accepting whatever it is that they come up with when it clearly isn't good enough.

Waggott the only CEO in the world of business / sport that isn't held responsible for the direction and performance of the organisation he leads.

So our failings of the last number of years are nothing at all to do with budgets set by the owners and everything to do with failings on the part of former employees Mowbray, JDT, Broughton. If Waggott and Suhail could pick their favourite sentence in the world this would be it.

Any potential signing would be wise to remember the horrendous way we have treated potential new signings in recent transfer windows. It wouldn't be the first time, hell it wouldn't even be the second, if we lined a signing up, got nearly all of it done, got the player wearing the Rovers shirt at Brockhall and having his photo taken, only to be pulled at the last minute. You'd be a brave or desperate man to sit back and have faith that this lot are capable or serious about getting a deal finalised even if we show serious interest. Would I want to join such a club and be utterly humiliated by having my photo in the shirt plastered all over media and announced as a signing only to then be told to pack my bags and go back to where I came from? Certainly not. Any agent would be aware of this and advise their players of it before even speaking to this gang of charlatans. Oh but of course Broughton and Silvester have gone now so lets just forget about the reputational damage and appalling conduct of the club over the last couple of years. Nothing to worry about but the same owners, same CEO and same shadowy individual are all still here. Same people = nothing changes. Some might want to delude themselves that corrective action has been taken, that we are now in a bright new era where the admin errors don't happen again and all is in the past with that. But it is very easy to develop a reputation whereby people/clubs/players/agents don't trust you and don't want to do business with you and it takes a long time to get it back. Of course anyone with a braincell at Ewood will know this and know that their shenanigans in January 2023, January 2024 (and presumably many others that didn't play out in public) will have caused serious medium to long term damage to this club's reputation in the game. Not that they give two hoots about that.

As depressing as those names are we won't be getting them. We play this game every transfer window, in the end permission won't be granted for funds to be spent or 'large' wages added so that's the end of it. Keeps people like Nixon relevant and it might even be correct that Eustace would be interested. But since when does a manager get backed with his own signings here.

'A coup' might be pushing it for someone who spent last season at one of our relegation rivals. We do need experience and cannot start the season without a new goalkeeper to knock Pears out of the starting XI but I think it is desperate times when we are looking at people not far off 40 as good signings

On the contrary if you work weekends you'll probably not miss that many with all the fixture changes to come from Sky.