JHRover

Season starts in less than 4 weeks and yet we've still not signed a single player and have a weaker squad now than the one that just about survived last season. This is a reason to be positive?

I don't believe that for a second. We've heard similar many times under Waggott's 'stewardship' - about how we are supposedly offering players better terms, trying to keep them here, bigger wages. Yet each and every time the player has moved on elsewhere. Either we aren't offering pay rises or we are but we are talking pitiful amounts that are never going to be successful. It works though, because in one swoop it shifts blame and responsibility away from Rovers who are now seen to be 'trying' to keep their best players and willing to do what is needed - and on to the player who is seen as to blame for not accepting what we are offering and forcing Rovers to cash in to protect the investment. A familiar old tale. The end result will be Szmodics sold, money disappears and muppets online saying we had to sell because he refused to sign a new deal and we 'did all we could'.

Brentford got £30 million for Ollie Watkins off newly promoted Aston Villa. He was 25 and had never played above Championship level and that was 4 years ago. So for a younger Adam Wharton we may have got to that figure or higher. Granted Watkins had goals to his name in the Championship but Wharton's importance to the team can be just as big, as Palace have shown.

£18, 22, still not enough for a kid getting picked for England. Palace had our pants down and Rovers are the ones left looking like idiots. To make matters worse they attempt to milk some credit from the situation on social media. Perhaps if there had been one single ounce of ambition to get to the level of mighty Palace he'd have been able to showcase his talents in blue and white in the PL. Unfortunately no such ambition or plan here, bundle him out the back door on deadline day to the first lot who threw proper cash on the table. We saw what JDT thought of that one. It finished him off.

There's nothing respectable at all with getting less than £20 million for a 19/20 year old lad who has played every week in the Premier League and been a member of the England Euros squad. In this day and age we are at least £10 million short, if not more. He'll be worth £40-50 million now, so Palace are absolutely laughing. Venkys and Waggott are laughing because that cash has saved their arses for 12 months. Blackburn Rovers and its fans are the ones who suffer, as usual.

We need to get Morecambe's secretary. They can sign 15 at once and we can't even click submit on one.

So long as he remembers which foot to put the protective boot on I remember Hanley had protection on one knee in the first half and second half it was on the opposite knee.

£20 million, £6 million, £1 million Whatever it is Blackburn Rovers won't benefit from it, all we are looking at is how much it helps Venkys do whatever it is they are doing.

The less we get for Szmodics the more Venkys have to find from elsewhere. That's all that matters. Forget about reinvestment or improvements, ain't happening in a month of Sundays. He's the last asset on the books. Once he's gone there's no more silver left to flog and the clock is ticking on the next lump of cash needed. Bring it on I say. £20 million would just mean more to help Venkys hang around for longer. The less the better if it pushes them out.

It's something different and I like the central badge, should do that on the home shirts IMO. Not sure why we have a third strip as should be totally unnecessary. Surely a pink away shirt and our halved home shirt would not clash with anyone else?

For years now Venkys and Waggott have been able to hide behind FFP as the big bad problem and reason why they can't do anything more. Unfortunately a large portion of the fanbase swallowed that hook, line and sinker. The events of the last 18 months, coupled with what we see happening at rival mid-table Championship sides where there is much lower transfer income yet higher spend on fees and cheaper tickets, proves that it was only ever a convenient excuse. It's gone now, finished. Everyone knows, or should know, that it has always been the decisions of the odious ones that have held us back, nothing more nothing less.

Perhaps he could start by explaining where the £25 million has gone since January Maybe a word about whether the club will still be in business by the end of the year. He won't know the answer to either, which confirms how pointless his presence is

I think basically Gestede is based locally, very keen to have a career in football 'management' after playing and to try and develop that career is willing to come and work here for a low salary. Music to the ears of Waggott and co. because they can shuffle the deckchairs, make it look like things are happening, all for minimal cost, and with the added 'bonus' of the ex-player free credit in the bank. Since Mowbray left Waggott has wanted someone else to handle the media side of things and keep himself sheltered from it. So Broughton filled that void for a while until he got fed up with being made the scapegoat, same with JDT. Will now fall upon Rudy and Eustace and then next summer at least one of those two will be gone and another comes along.

I agree with this. It is clear that the main argument Venky lawyers put forward to the Court was that the transfer of funds was essential to ensure the club remained a going concern. If the club brings in income from elsewhere that negates the need for a transfer from India then that argument disappears. So if there's enough left from the Adam Wharton cash, Raya cash or a Szmodics sale then the club won't need immediate cash from India, and won't be able to argue it is essential. So I can see this being put back to a later date when the money runs out again. This will happen, sooner rather than later, because we are somehow still losing £15 million a year and are running out of assets to sell to cover that. Szmodics, maybe Carter, then that's about it. It seems to me that their only plan down at Ewood is to get through month by month and hope that either the investigation in India gets dropped or that we have enough assets to sell to keep it going.

He was just given the standard script that they all come out with in their first media interview after joining. I wouldn't take any of it seriously. All rather pointless because even if he's a genius - big if - the people above him will ensure that any progress or positive movement is derailed or cut short. All a waste of time but keeps the circus on the road for another year as he settles into the role and 'assesses' the situation. Then we'll be through the summer and that's another window taken care of and another scapegoat for Venkys and the gruesome twosome to shield themselves with.

I've suspected for several years that the gruesome twosome on the ground at Ewood are quite comfortable with how things are and don't want that to change any time soon. If they can get pats on the back and bonuses for saving the owners money then happy all around. Waggott can produce spreadsheets and data to show what a terrific job he's doing with season tickets holding steady / slightly increasing, media income through the roof and academy products sold for millions. Fans happy, or at least they appear to be to those who don't visit places like this. If you were a clueless disinterested bunch of morons based on the other side of the world you'd think this lot were doing a fabulous job. Of course this is contingent on staying in the Championship....carry on like this and that's looking less and less likely I can't express the disgust I have for the whole stinking lot of them.

I don't think we can even give them that. If they were taking such advice then surely they'd have made some sort of serious effort to get to the promised land when two glorious chances dropped into their lap in the last few seasons, but rather than try to get there they did the opposite and actually sabotaged it.

It is more important to them that they keep hold of the club. Even though they clearly get no enjoyment out of it, even though they cannot / will not fund it, even though nobody really wants them here, even though their continued presence continues to drag the club further and further into the mud and down the divisions. All because it is easier or better for their egos to do so. They could be sensible adults and recognise they need to get out of this quickly whilst there is still a Championship club with some semblance of foundation underneath it. This would set us free, give us a chance of a new era, hand it over to people with some interest or ambition, relieve the 'burden' on them and call it a day. But that would be the mature, reasonable, normal thing to do. Nice, generous, caring people my ar5e. It's all about them, their financial activities and egos. Always has been always will be. They would rather rule over a rotting carcass of a club than do the decent thing and let someone else take over.

Agree. Were those two the only cash buys last summer? Coincidence? I doubt it.

Every pre season should have at least one 'glamour' tie. That might be a home game against PL opposition such as Liverpool or Everton like we had a few years ago, or might be a foreign side as we've had in the past to add some intrigue and interest. I suppose this summer we've got the Austria fixture v Nuremberg (2nd division opposition) but unless you are very keen you won't be going to that, so those in the UK will have to make do with Stanley, Morecambe, Wigan and Stockport, of which one might yet get cancelled and I'm sure that one of Morecambe or Wigan will be the youth team. Not exactly thrilling. A quick glance around what our peers are doing. QPR host Spurs and Brighton, Hull play Newcastle, Leeds play Valencia, Sunderland play Forest, Sheff Wed play Werder Bremen and RB Salzburg, PNE play Everton, West Brom play Mallorca, Swansea play Wolves and Stade Rennais, Cardiff play Hamburg and Hertha Berlin, Millwall play Murcia, Norwich play Club Brugge, Standard Liege, Hoffenheim and St Pauli, Coventry play Werder Bremen and Getafe So there's plenty of options but now never seems to be the right time here, always late in getting things sorted out

We might not even be doing that if the Stockport game is cancelled due to the League Cup game. Don't forget Tranmere behind closed doors and Morecambe on the Friday night!

All of what you say seems correct. We did sign players in those windows, we did spend some money on occasions. The point I made originally was that the two previous managers were not properly backed by the owners despite having put us into excellent league positions in the last couple of years. I think you have simply confirmed my point by highlighting those signings that we did actually make. Merely bringing people in and spending some money does not equate to backing. If you bring in 15 players but none of them are any good or add anything to the existing group then that is no good. If you look at those signings under Mowbray in 2022 I would submit that not one of them brought or added anything to the group during the second half of the 2021-22 season. Hedges barely played. Zeefuik was mere cover for Nyambe. Giles could have been good but rarely contributed, Brown was a waste of time, Markanday was yet another project signing that is still ongoing, he was never going to come in and deliver in the last 20 games of that season to get us promoted. None of those signings, bar possibly Giles, I would suggest were signings that a side chasing PL promotion would make in January. If you look at the action we took in January 2023 I'd say it was simply laughable to only add Sorba Thomas on loan when in the position that we were. If the funds and wage budget, or indeed overall approach of the owners when it comes to authorising signings, is so poor, then that means they haven't backed their manager. To me I'd expect to see engaged serious owners banging the door down in December asking the manager what they need to keep it going and get us promoted and to do everything within their power to make it happen, not just sign a couple of loans, youngsters and see what happens. I'd also dispute that Ayari and Chrisene were good signings. For me just more of the same old. A short term fix that comes and goes, not what you need to take the club forward medium to long term. McFadzean and Fleck - short term patch up jobs whilst we are now left with more work to do. This summer Eustace may well get his 4,5,6 signings. But that doesn't immediately mean he has been backed. It depends on what sort of signings they are and whether they significantly improve us or not. If we panic and end up signing 3 loans and whoever else is happy to come for the wages we are offering then that isn't backing in my book. We've a rebuild to commence.

If there's anything in the Fleck deal I suspect he's willing to play for next to nothing to try and get himself fit again and that's the attraction to Rovers and Waggott. Getting some much needed experience into the camp for a very small cost. Some might call that shrewd but when the player in question has suffered those sort of injuries and lasted 15 minutes on his debut for us it is clear that we should be looking elsewhere. It says it all about the plight of this club that we are even remotely considering new terms for him.

They failed to back Mowbray when he had us near the top two in January 2022. They failed to back JDT when he had us near the top two in January 2023. They failed to back JDT in the summer of 2023 after we had gone within a hair's breadth of the play-offs and FA Cup semi final. They failed to back JDT in January 2024 when we were just outside the play-offs despite sabotaging him the previous summer with budget changes. I'm surprised you had any expectation whatsoever that they would ever back Eustace or allow him to get us into the play-offs. We've seen their 'action' when a manager does well here.

It should be fun. It used to be fun. They've taken that away from us. Even the brief moments of joy are cut short knowing they'll find a way to wreck it.