JHRover

I have some sympathy for him in terms of players missing and disgraceful regime he's (chosen) to work for but 1 win in 11 and counting is sacking territory for any manager at any club, regardless of circumstances. Here though? Not a hint. Distract the masses with transfer gossip instead.

Such a policy allows Ismael, the Regime, Nixon and local media to tell everyone who can be bothered to read/listen that there is a decent kitty available for players It will never get used, because none of our targets will entertain our derisory wage structure, but for minimal effort and zero cost they can pretend that there's a good Venky budget sat there Heard and seen this before. All very convenient.

As mentioned before there's always another rung down the ladder to go in competitive sport. More wage and cost cuts, it becomes addictive. It's certainly easy as offloading quality that other clubs would have and turning to the bargain bucket/abroad/academy to fill the void anyone could do. If we are heading in the direction of less than £10k a week wage cap then there will be plenty in League One outstripping us on wages. And then when we get there, which we will, that figure will drop again and again, until it is less than £5k a week. There's always another step to be taken on the self-inflicted race to the bottom, especially when sporting performance/achievement is no longer even claimed to be of any importance here.

I do wonder with these owners. You'd think that they would know that their policies are going to result in a long spell outside the top 2 divisions sooner rather than later. But by the same measure I wonder whether their dogsbody has simply told them to leave it to him and he'll cut their costs whilst delivering the same outcome - mid-table Championship - for much less money. Who knows. It really wouldn't surprise me if the dogsbody had gone to India and sold them a dream - that he could run it all for them and save them millions on what it was costing under Mowbray and the end result would be the same as we were getting previously. No doubt a nice bonus tucked away for him in there too. Up to this point that plan must have gone swimmingly as the remains of Mowbray/JDTs squad have been picked away at every window, a few million here and there, significant wage cuts, no serious new contracts issued. Amazingly JDT and Eustace managed to overcome that and annoyingly get us into promotion contention, raising expectations and demands for investment, most inconvenient. Now the dogsbody has got his own little gang together to remove any 'unreasonable' demands and fully support his 'project', but unfortunately the chickens are coming home to roost soon as years of negligence and cuts come back to bite. Or the flip side is that Venkys are the ones instructing him on what to do and due to their own circumstances are enforcing these cuts, still not learning that this will cost them more in the longer run if they don't sell up when League One arrives and there are no more assets to sell for profit.

Standard transfer window then. Big talk at the start, no problems shipping people out to bring in money, but unable to bring people in due to Venky constraints. Ismael's first targets missed, 3 players in by the Hull game, business done early. Managed one easy loan. Anyone surprised?

We all know that nothing significant will happen to the pitch even in the summer. By significant I mean more than the annual essential relaying which happens at every club, every summer and will have already been budgeted for. I'm talking serious infrastructure replacement - Isn't going to happen no matter how 'unhappy' the owners are claimed to be. Pretty much everything there about and from Ismael could have been written in 2017 shortly after Mowbray came in. Literally nothing has changed from 'nice family bloke' being transparent with the fans, plans for the squad that won't be realised, project talk, jam tomorrow. It's a road to nowhere (or should I say League One). Ismael is but a small footnote in a decades long horror story, so I don't blame him for coming out with all this sort of stuff. Some of it may well be genuine. But we've seen and heard it all before, it won't last, it can't under this lot.

Not sure it does. The owners damage Blackburn Rovers, the fans attending or not is likely immaterial to their decision making one way or the other. Likewise I often hear about a big crowd motivating the players. Again I'm not sure that's correct. I suspect it makes very little difference and we've frequently performed poorly with a big crowd on

Made little difference to Luton last year when he went into a struggling side and failed to keep them up so strange that Oxford are going down the same route with a weaker squad than Luton had. Unless they're putting one eye on next season potentially being in League One.

And still have a chunk of the fanbase eating out of your hands

Mowbray got 5 years of running the place on a relatively big budget and was left in place without pressure despite numerous long winless runs. JDT wanted out and offered to go, even publicly took the piss out of the Chief Executive, and was left in place to derail the season as he didn't want to be here and forced his way out. That nearly relegated us and he only went after turning on Venkys and their stooge. Eustace wanted out and was in talks with other clubs yet they were happy for him to cart on in the dugout. Seemingly he had threatened to walk in the summer before they caved in to his demands. So to have Val here, playing along with the 'project', not kicking off, 3 years on his contract, even giving up his free time to hold Q and A sessions at £35 a pop, yeah he's as safe as you could ever imagine, as long as he's happy to go along with the ride. Football results? League position? Performances? Why would anyone take an interest in those things? The owners and board haven't done for many years.

There was something seriously off with his never-ending injury run here over the last 18 months or so and I find it odd that he has now suddenly got over those and is performing and scoring. I had no qualms really letting him go in the summer based on his 'injuries' but now find myself asking if there might have been more to it than that given how quickly things have changed for him once he's out of the Ewood/Brockhall cesspit.

Our conduct over the last 3-4 years demonstrates that this club WANTS to sell / offload its best players. Evidence? Look at the list of departures Look at the lack of contract renewals Look at the money pocketed and not reinvested So when Elliot Jackson talks about Everton-Alebiosu in terms like 'Rovers have a strong hand' that implies Rovers would want to Keep the player and that it isn't in the regime's interests to sell him quickly for a good profit. I don't believe that. I think they'd love to do that as quickly as possible. And that is why we need regime change as quickly as possible, because their agenda and interests do not correspond with Rovers having the best side possible for as long as possible.

Almost an identical record to his time at Watford in his last job: 41 games, 12 wins, 14 draws, 15 defeats = 29.27% Rovers: 38 games, 11 wins, 10 draws, 17 defeats = 28.95% No excuses at Watford about owners, injuries, transfers etc. Yet his record dismal there as well.

In recent accounts we have assumed that Waggott was the 'highest paid director' and on £400k+ a year to be Chief Executive. Now that he's been sent packing and we are 8 months into the old routine of having no CEO it is going to be interesting reading the next set of accounts to see whether that 'highest paid director' figure has significantly changed. Of course it should have dropped massively by virtue of Waggott leaving and not being replaced and having no CEO, so if it has stayed constant or even increased it leads to more questions about who is doing what down there, especially when the curtain twitcher has allegedly spent quite a long time recently out of the country, during the busiest time of the season, just before a critical transfer window, which begs the question of how he is performing the role he is getting paid very handsomely to do.

They're not doing a very good job of it then because they continue to say £20 million+ a year is needed even after all the steps they have taken over the last 4 years and massive cost cuts. Maybe time the owners entrusted their cost cutting to people who actually know what they are doing?

Indeed. Lets suppose there's truth to this Alebiosu-Everton rumour and it happens. That immediate profit and success will override any results or performances we've had this season. Gestede will be able to point to that alone and state to the owners/finance people that he's delivered on his project, with Gudjonsen to come next. The fact that results have been appalling, most performances have been appalling, crowds collapsing further, and our Championship status is in danger are irrelevant.

Leicester fans right now are probably about where Rovers were in 2011. A year or two into grievances against the ownership, and by virtue of them being successful and in the PL so recently they still have that energy/good number behind them to shout and act. Not that their owner will ever get to Venky levels of negligence but I'm sure if they continue on their current trajectory for the next 12-13 years - flailing around the middle/bottom half of the Championship, maybe hit League One, remain under the same ownership/management and no change at all other than a mountain of debt and ever diminishing product then their fanbase will collapse too, as will the appetite among those still going to do something about it. Eventually they'd end up beaten into submission like many at Ewood are. It won't ever reach that point though because their owner will either turn it around or pack up and sell. That's what owners do see, they either try to turn the club around or they admit defeat and give up. For some reason people in the Rovers support base think we should do neither and just exist under Venkys whilst every other club moves on in life. I'm sure there won't be many Leicester fans pointing at their own and shouting 'who would buy us' and 'we were crap in the 80s so what are you moaning about?' despite the fact they've had a decade or so that 99% of other clubs would have loved to have. No, they'll be demanding better and new ownership if they don't get it, just like everywhere else other than the head-in-sand gang at Ewood.

Let's hope Darren Fletcher gets a reaction out of them in their next game and then he's moved aside and they appoint someone like Southgate or Carrick instead.

The owners will have no idea. Their financial team would take note of lost ticket revenue in the event of relegation or a serious fall in season tickets. Suhail may be put under some pressure to explain why and crucially won't secure his bonus. Then they'll sell a player or two or cut wages to plug the gap and carry on. The only potential unknown here is what happens if/when we reach League One or stay there for a while whether the drop and further £10 million+ drop in revenue is sufficient for the top owners to take notice and action e.g. leave, or whether it just involves further cost cuts and sales to plug the gap. I suspect the latter but we will find out in the not-too-distant future. You might be able to compete at this level on a limited shoestring budget and non-benefactor model if the ownership and board are competent and engaged. But combine it with what we have and you've no chance. You might be able to compete with clueless idiots running the club if the money being pumped in is sufficient to assemble a good squad. But make futile attempts to be 'self-sufficient' at this level it will end in failure.

Like him or not he'll be gone by the summer at the latest. He doesn't have the right background or profile for this regime, plus is on too much money.

The other 'board members'?

So you'll be annoyed / angry if by Sunday next week we haven't signed a striker?

This will just be a standard January in the land of Venky Rovers. Despite all the bravado back in the summer about not going down the loan route any more due to value blah blah blah that is precisely what we will do, because the summer's activity and wage commitments have cleared out the cupboards which are now close to being bare. We will not go to the owners and request additional funds for decent signings because that isn't allowed here. Cast your minds back to Mowbray's days when he and Waggott were publicly thanking the owners for allowing us to add to the budget to bring in the loans of Harwood Bellis and Branthwaite. That's where we are at. Pasha will be allowed to commit to a manageable transfer fee or two on an investment signing, like the Barnsley lad, but only if for some reason they agree to let him go for a knock down fee. If they stick to their valuation we ain't getting him. So with no/very little cash left and a maxed out wage bill, it will be loans and try to move out people like Pickering and Gueye to save on wages. The league table won't be a factor here.

The only interesting thing about this window will be whether Ismael walks in the days after it when he realises he's been conned like his three predecessors. My bet is not as he won't have other options lined up like JDT and Eustace.

Presumably these same people would have turned Jack Walker and his plans away and stuck with the status quo of being a perennial 2nd or lower division club with no money. Quite a sad state of affairs but as I've said previously it's not hard to see why the club and town have both ended up in the state they are when plenty are content to accept rubbish and never seek change or improvement. And I've been called negative...yet I'm not the one making excuses for an inexcusable situation or wanting us to stay in this state.