Totally agree. I think the owners were persuaded to employ Waggott on the basis he would pay for himself by cutting their input. I strongly suspect he is paid or bonuses are paid on what he saves. He'll stop at nothing and has no shame in doing it.

I think what you mean is when we see Wharton next summer the club will claim that the majority of that will go towards ensuring that we are FFP compliant. But remember, just because shysters employed by Venkys say something is true, doesn't make it so, no matter how many times Elliot Jackson prints it in his newspaper.

When you make zero attempt or effort to market or develop the club outside the confines of BWD (even though it is a fact that a substantial portion of our support base lives outside BWD) then nobody associated with the Club can complain about attendances. Make an effort - advertise, promote, transport - then you have the right to use numbers through the turnstiles as an excuse if they are low.

Isn't that about 5-6 draws in a row for Coventry now? Not looking forward to our game there next week. Think we can predict what happens there.

This is where selling a player or two at the right time and then reinvesting that money wisely comes in. It is the Brentford model. Unfortunately we are run by liars and charlatans who have no intention of doing anything of the sort. People who make it up on a whim, slash budgets overnight during transfer windows, who allow £30 million of assets to walk for nothing because they can't be arsed dealing with new contracts.

Maybe 'W4gg0tt' could spend Wednesday evening in his office rather than on his arse in the free prawn sandwich area and try to work out how / why we are looking like having the same or less on Ewood for a 3rd round game v Championship opposition as we got in the 1st round v League Two opposition, after a brilliant 8-0 win in the 2nd round. You would, of course, expect numbers to at the very least hold steady if not increase substantially, yet according to their own figures we are currently well short and the tone of their email seems to suggest they aren't expecting many more. Of course if we get less than 7000 rather than seize the opportunity with seeming relish to shut down a home section and save a few quid on paying less stewards and catering staff the appropriate response would be for the head of the organisation to investigate how and why the hell we seem to be going backwards on numbers despite advancing in the competition. Maybe, just maybe, the answer to that lies in his policies and schemes. Some recognition and acceptance of that would be nice., followed quickly by his resignation as once again his desperate bid to save a few quid in the short term has backfired and cost the club more in the longer term.

Muddled thinking is their speciality. I completely agree in this part. It is why I am rapidly losing patience with things. I feel that from every angle there is a piss taking culture in football. Rovers are at it all the time but also Sky, EFL, officials do it. Taking the loyal paying fans for granted all the time.

The 'broadcast footage' reference I think is important. I believe the 'powers that be' down there attach great importance to how the ground looks on TV. I've no doubt this was the motivation behind them moving the TV gantry to the Riverside, moving the family stand downstairs to the JW lower, shutting the upper tiers and increasing Riverside prices to make it less financially desirable to sit in there. Why, we can only speculate, but it seems someone wants to project an image to those watching on tv. As you say, that motive kind of falls by the wayside when you are then shutting the BBE. To finish off with 'should we progress further in the competition, as we hope to do' I find insulting. They don't care about progression in the cup and never have done. This sort of decision proves it.

Bournemouth, Fulham and Forest all went up the year before and all three survived last season. I would bet at least two and probably all three stay up again this season too.

Seems odd to me that the CEO of Rovers would have an email address in which letters are substituted for numbers. If nothing else it looks totally unprofessional.

Meite, Ramsey, Grant, Bowler Also experience signed from abroad

Cardiff turned a bit of a corner now and on a good little run. Amazing what happens when you invest and sign some proven quality.

Its a losing battle. Unlike most other clubs that have been run into the ground by negligent / dodgy owners, where the fanbases of those clubs were united in wanting rid of the orchestrators of their misery (Blackpool, Portsmouth, Coventry, Birmingham, Newcastle etc. etc.) here we have the opposite effect. What we have at Rovers is an extreme case of stockholm syndrome / indifference. It seems to me judging by the people I sit near and the comments online that the fanbase is predominantly made up either of people who think Venkys are either good or at the very least indispensable and then a large number who simply don't know or care about what happens at ownership or board level. It is a fascinating situation in many ways, it seems purely through the passage of time and payment of bills they have attained respect / gratitude / appreciation from the majority. That's the losing battle part because if that is all it takes to overcome and make up for everything they have done and continue to do as owners then there is no hope. It is almost beyond belief that we are now roughly 8 years on from when the shadow man started effectively running the club on behalf of the owners in which time there has been no interview, no forum, no investigation of him or his background by media, a couple of photographs and minor references on official media. This might be of no importance to some but it is important to me. I long since concluded there is no hope on this front with such a large number of people signed up to the Venky appreciation society. So the only way of dealing with this is to reduce my financial and emotional investment in this because ultimately it is doing me no good at all to carry on. Every week I find myself getting very angry at fellow supporters. Reading comments after the game blaming JDT for the state we are in yet not a single mention of the real problem at the club and the second the subject moves to the owners they are 'off limits' as far as criticism goes. People quite happy to spend their days lambasting JDT and the players for in game failings but completely unwilling to discuss or criticise the architects upstairs.

Of course we shouldn't be daunted by playing Ipswich or Coventry. A side fresh out of League One and a side winless in 5. But playing the way we are particularly defensively we are going to face problems. A lot of it comes down to experience and know-how. Starting games at this level with teenagers across the pitch and having kids on the bench to turn to when struggling it is a big problem. One that was warned about but in the fervour to 'give the academy lads a chance' has been overlooked.

Clearly the way to do this, if cost cutting is the primary concern, would be to stick the Cardiff fans in one side of the JW lower tier, close the Darwen End, let home fans have the rest of the JW stand and the BBE. This is something I could understand even though my season ticket seat is in the area likely to be allocated to away fans. Opening even a quarter of the DE for the sake of 300 or so away fans would be daft from a financial and logistical point of view. But even if the gate is a poor one there will certainly be more home fans wanting to go in the BBE than there will Cardiff fans coming. So surely the numbers say shut the DE first. Trouble is the only language people like Waggott understand is that which ruffles their own feathers. He's got away with everything in his time at Rovers because there has been barely any scrutiny or discontent. He has only to deal with a handful of supporters at the forum meetings and friendly in-house / local media. I bet he can't believe how easy it is to do these things and get away with it.

The thing is I gather that the current 'effort' has cost the club thousands of pounds to install. Not only that but the moment we play a side with 5000+ fans, which Waggott will be hopeful of, those bin liners are going to need removing, and then relaying again afterwards (or chucking in the bin). It must be a time consuming job to pay people to go up there and cover thousands of seats up (even if you aren't bothered about it being off centre). I've no idea how many Sunderland have shifted but expect they will be touch and go for the upper tier, so if they need removing for tomorrow night then the display will have only been in place for 4-5 home league games. Surely it wouldn't have cost that much more to simply purchase white plastic seats and pay someone to do the job properly, in doing so it would look better, it would be permanent and allow use of the upper tier without the pain of removing and replacing it? How many would be needed? 1500 or so in an area of 3000 seats? How much would they cost per unit? I'd be surprised if it was more than a couple of quid per plastic seat when buying in bulk. It just screams typical off the hoof short termism like everything else down there. It is almost as though he doesnt have the authority to do anything of permanence so instead has to resort to these plastic temporary ideas. It just looks naff and causes more problems in the longer run.

Rovers had / have a large number of fans outside the boundaries of Blackburn with Darwen. Has been the case for a long time and I imagine has only increased in the last 20-30 years both with the PL days and the migration of people out of Blackburn to other areas. An outsider like Waggott won't understand this, he seems to believe that all our fans live in BwD and that areas outside of this, Rossendale, Ribble Valley, South Ribble, Hydburn, are nothing to do with us and do not deserve or require any effort to be made. There is also a belief down there, which I know from speaking to employees about this, that Rovers are not allowed to promote themselves in areas deemed to be other clubs' territory. Whether they are being told this by the authorities or simply using it as an excuse to limit their efforts or avoid upsetting rival clubs I don't know, but it certainly tallies with the non-existent attempts in these areas. Negligence in these areas probably something you can get away with in the PL but not in the Championship.

No normal Championship club would shut their home end and definitely wouldn't for a match against Championship opposition. No normal Championship club would significantly increase the price of their season tickets in the middle of a pandemic and cost of living crisis. Most have reduced or frozen prices. No normal Championship club would spend thousands of pounds to have white plastic bin liners placed over seats to spell out lettering. Most would pay a bit more for real white seats and do it properly/permanently. No normal Championship club would cut their transfer and wage budget overnight in the middle of the summer. No normal Championship club would conduct the business we have done in the last two January windows when well placed and in with a real shot at least of the play-offs. No normal Championship club would employ Steve Waggott as CEO. We aren't normal and won't be until these awful owners depart.

He's systematically cut, reduced and hollowed out the club on a step-by-step basis since his arrival all those years ago. Each year that passes by he unearths another little scheme which in the immediate short term might save a few quid but anyone with an eye on the bigger picture or the longer term wouldn't entertain it. The CEO of the organisation should be a strong leader who innovates and grows/develops the organisation. He does none of this, he just sits behind his desk thinking of new ways to try and cut costs every year, with zero regard for the impact it has on the fanbase, individuals, the team's performance or the reputation/image of the Club he 'leads'. Therefore, this is just another example of how he isn't really a CEO. He's a pretender, occupying an office that he shouldn't and wouldn't hold had he not had the good fortune of the worst owners in football giving him a job. Of course this all starts and ends with the repugnant Venkys who could remove odious people like Waggott in seconds if they had any interest. But of course they don't. There are only a few things they want from a CEO. A yes man who won't rock the boat, who will tolerate their mental ways of operating, who will cover for their nonsense with the fans and media, who will ensure compliance with regulations and who will save them some money. Hey, it beats 'consultancy' work at Southend United and Gillingham and working in Charlton's Community Trust. Another one promoted way above and beyond his station by idiots who prefer those who talk a good game rather than those with track records of achievement. It's clear to me that JDT has sussed him out. Took a few months but he knows what he's dealing with and he's worked out that Broughton is another mere pawn in this sorry regime. Unfortunately for us Waggott will hang onto this particular gravy train for as long as he can, by which time JDT will be long gone and he can oversee more hollowing out of a once great club. I wonder what will be left by the time he has finished. I hope the fans give him hell but don't expect they will or that he will be bothered by it. The only occasion I've witnessed any sort of vocal opposition to him in 6 years now was the first half away at Watford last season which came soon after the January calamity.

Seeing that charlatan on the Ewood pitch with Coar collecting an award commemorating 5000 league games made me feel sick Should be nowhere near the club IMO never mind the public face of it for such a historic occasion.

Trying to think of other areas we can make savings. Maybe we could write to Cardiff and ask if they'd like to kick off at noon instead? Gets them home afterwards nice and early, means we don't have to let any fans in and don't need to switch the floodlights on. Or how about we just forfeit the cups like Kean used to? Savings galore with less fixtures to play. How about we shut the shop and ticket office on the night so we don't have to worry about employing staff to man them for 4-5 hours?

Inconvenient for the 'natural level is mid 2nd division because that's where we were in the 80s' brigade.

Now come on, they're marking this milestone by releasing a commemorative mug (produced and sold via a third party company). We've done all we can. Anyone wondering what grand plans there will be for our 150th anniversary in a couple of years' time need only look here. What we will have is some tacky overpriced memorabilia (mugs, t shirts) and these video clips with ex-players. Low cost and low risk. Forget about the Club actually incurring expense or doing something large in scale.

None of the measures Waggott has introduced since his arrival nearly SIX years ago (almost £2 million down for the service) has led to any improvement or growth at the club. Even though (no thanks to him) most of the last six years the club has been on an upward or at least steady trajectory footballing wise. A promotion, positivity returning to the Championship, now fresh off two serious play-off pushes. Yet I get the impression that none of that comes into his thinking. He isn't here to improve, grow or progress the club. He'll point to little schemes he's overseen and probably roll out some massaged figures showing what a great job he's done. He'll say how season ticket sales are higher than the season before he arrived (under the wretched Coyle) so all's good. He's got a few million extra from JDT's cup runs to use towards his figures and will probably collect a nice bonus off the back of JDT actually taking the cups seriously unlike his buddy Tony. Fundamentally though all he's here for and all he knows is how to squeeze and cut. Drag the club down to a level more in keeping with his dismal footballing CV working as a 'consultant' in the lower leagues and with crisis clubs. He's just not an operator that suggests PL or Championship standards and his record proves he's done next to nothing to move the club forward. Just manage a hand-to-mouth existence, celebrate meeting bill payments on time and paying for the grass seed when it arrives and collect a share of the spoils each summer. Make no mistake, the BBE will be shut now for all home cup games bar those against PL sides. The decision has been made (another without involving the fans, contrary to their disgusting claims to consult with supporters on major issues). Just like they took no fan input on board when shutting the town centre Roverstore, when ditching a matchday programme because they couldn't be arsed putting one together, like when they shut the DE and BBE upper to home fans, closed down Radio Rovers, hollowed out the club in the name of saving a few quid. I can think of a quicker way to save a decent wedge. Axe this CEO. We could afford a new signing then.

What about those people who have paid for membership and access to the Blues Bar at half time in games? Will provisions be made for them to travel from the JW stand to Blues Bar and back again? Or is this another occasion where the club take people's money and then don't provide what was promised?