JHRover

All going swimmingly well this season for the owners, their representative and the bloke masquerading as a chief executive: Another summer gone by with a negative net transfer spend and several 'big' earners off the books - Dack, Diaz, Kaminski Manager has tolerated their latest nonsense and not (yet) resigned saving them aggravation Results inconsistent but good enough to (so far) avoid any serious relegation discussion, which is when things start getting uncomfortable upstairs. Nice and steady down the middle of the road is how we like it. Saves expectations of any serious additions in January if not in a promotion push like the last couple of years. Another decent league cup run leading to a money spinner at Chelsea Academy lads' values and stats improving all the time, not to mention a potential jackpot with Szmodics scoring every other week Now that things are inevitably coming off the rails, thanks to the owners and their henchmen, all eyes and blame goes to Broughton and JDT either for not recruiting well enough or for not using the players well enough. Almost no blame from what I read and hear (other than a few on this website) directed towards the people in control. Happy days for the boys upstairs. Should have enough to limp along until May, a couple of big sales this window or next will keep the owners (or their bankers) happy and best of all they get no grief or hassle for any of it. JDT unlikely to be here much beyond May at the latest so they can then string us along through the summer 'give the new man a chance FFS' and rinse and repeat.

Agreed. Whoever is in the dugout it's just window dressing but it amazes me anyone would entertain Mowbray back here after his conduct the last time around.

What is also real is that from circa 2020 to 2023 (before there was any mention of Indian government involvement or restrictions) the club embarked on a substantial cost cutting process. This meant little to no cash for transfers, large scale reduction in squad size and wages and a borderline obsession with dipping into the academy at every turn rather than sourcing players externally. I know what is in the accounts. I've read them. That doesn't mean signing a few players for cash would immediately put us in danger of a points deduction or embargo, just as it hasn't for all those other Championship clubs who have posted far greater losses than we have in recent years. I find it odd you mentioned Boro reinvesting sale proceeds into new players. In recent times we've sold Armstrong, Raya and Kaminski and reinvested a grand total of about 15% of the money on Szmodics, Hyam, Brittain and Pickering, the rest they are 'unable' to reinvest due to an array of excuses which now includes FFP, Indian government and the best of the lot the club secretary (still employed) getting temporary amnesia and forgetting how to register a loan signing on deadline day. End result the same - reductions across the board.

I've explained what I don't understand and why it doesn't add up. I've seen it with my own eyes and applied my own thought process to it. It doesn't stack up. You've signed up and subscribed to the Venky/Waggott party line and it is clear you are treating their version as 100% accurate and indisputable. Just because someone paid by the club or connected to the club says something doesn't make it true. These people are employed to ensure the people in India are not blamed or criticised for the ills that befall BRFC. And they're doing a good job at it. You and many others are testament to that. I'm in a minority I suspect. You call it conspiracy theories, I call it independent thinking. 'We've done all we can' is the motto. Venkys have not just cut but have slashed the budgets. But they dont want us to think this is their choice. Its easier to pretend someone or something else is to blame.

Cost cuts began well before the Indian government got involved. Even before the government 'restrictions' Tomasson was told there was no cash for any signings and it was frees and loans only so I'm not having it that this 'development' has suddenly forced them onto a different track and all would be fine if it wasn't for the government. As recently as 2021 Mowbray was allowed to assemble a squad containing the likes of Brereton, Dack, Gallagher, Armstrong, Evans, Ayala, Elliott, Holtby, Johnson, Downing, Mulgrew, Williams and many more. It is an unexplained mystery how that was possible without FFP issues and yet a couple of years later we are supposed to believe that with a far smaller and surely cheaper squad we are 'at the limit' So no, I don't accept what Venky stooges have to say on the subject and I think anyone who believes what Waggott has to say on this subject to be foolish. The more plausible explanation is that Venkys have simply decided to cut their investment. That's up to them. Their money. Their fault when it goes tits up, not FFP or the Indian government.

Simply not true. They were putting in substantially more under Bowyer and more recently Mowbray and to my knowledge that spending didn't break any rules. Recent cost cuts entirely their choice.

And if those figures are correct I'd love someone to explain how we are regularly among the biggest loss makers and continually under apparent threat from FFP. Why aren't all those other clubs with similar incomes yet substantially higher wage bills under embargoes, e.g. Preston and why can almost all of them charge less for season tickets....

Thought WBA were skint and them and Birmingham also under the same FFP rules as us? Or have they found a way around it.

Or even better if they win such an award I presume the Club will take a delegation down to London to be presented with it at the annual awards night. No problems with the environmental impact of those journeys.

I looked at Hull with envy last night. A couple of years ago beset with problems. Unpopular owner cutting costs, ridiculous ticketing policies, dwindling support. A takeover comes, now they're investing, attendances up to 20,000 a week, reasonable prices, proper sponsorship. A united club looking to the future. Other than perhaps 15,000 fans like Preston or Bolton I task anyone to tell me why we couldn't follow their path to the future.

This discussion was had on here over the summer amidst claims from some that Travis wasn't compatible with JDTs style or good enough to play in his system. The facts dispel this. He's played more than almost anyone under JDTs management and has been captain throughout. I could begin to consider that Tronstad's emergence may have recently escalated him above Travis in the selection stakes, but the recent stubborn determination to keep him out of the side at all costs, even when options are so scarce, tells me there is much more to it. They want us to believe this is all about football, styles and philosophies. I think it is all about money. The way of getting a player out the door quickly is to put the ball in his court and force him to look elsewhere. The cynic suggests that's what is going on here, as it has happened countless times before under this rancid regime

What would be really funny is if every Rovers fan who hasn't yet bought a ticket simply turns up on the day at the away ticket office and buys a paper ticket to go in the Cambridge end, refusing to participate in the ludicrous and discriminatory 'digital only' scheme for home ends. This way those people could still have their paper ticket, still watch the game and Rovers would still get the same income, but it would send a message to the imbeciles upstairs and cause them quite the headache trying to cope with it on matchday.

Unfortunately JDT, GB, fans and players don't matter. The people that do matter don't care what the above want or think, and they are happy to discard the the lot of them. The biggest problem is Venkys. Everything else you have named starts from them, nothing else.

At the end of the day I don't even think football comes into it anymore, They are just working their way through, offloading anyone and everyone who fits the 'criteria' The 'criteria' is all to do with age, experience, wages and transfer value. In the case of Travis he's 27 next year, a contract for a couple more years after this season, he's got bags of Championship experience and is a senior player. The events of the last 3-4 years prove that those sort of people get ushered out the revolving door at Brockhall. They aren't interested in the impact this might have on results, performances, morale, leadership. All they are interested in is ideally getting some sort of transfer fee but at the very least a substantial (relatively speaking) wage off the books and avoiding having to offer the same or better terms for a renewal, as this contradicts the massive cost cutting process they have been on. I suspect that the pound signs started flashing in certain eyes when the Millwall / Luton interest came early last summer, which was rejected as those offers were ultimately dismal for a player of his value, but they probably expected them to return with improved bids and they didn't. Looking through the squad now, with the exception of Szmodics and A Wharton he will be one of the few they know they can flog to another club and trouser the proceeds, all whilst cutting the wage bill further and replacing him with a loan or academy graduate. It has been the way of it for years.....Lenihan, Rothwell, Evans, Dack, Diaz etc. etc. Gallagher will be the same but unfortunately his injury woes and wage levels might make it impossible to attract buyers at this stage. I worked this 'project' out a long time ago, yet people still persisted with believing Waggott's lies that we were offering those experienced players bumper contracts. It just isn't the case. They are just working their way down the list, cutting, reducing, diminishing on value, quality, age, wages. Results and league position utterly immaterial to those orchestrating it.

All questions only the scum in India can answer. But I think to argue that there is nobody in the world with the desire or means to buy this club, given what we have witnessed elsewhere, is pushing the limits of believability.

Forest, like Hull, wanted promotion from this league asap. Hence serious investment in improvements. Whatever Rovers want it isn't promotion, claiming so is an insult to those who actually try.

Yes, I suppose the point I am getting at is that last season he was often the one blamed for our issues and problems, but the fact is he played every week in a side pushing for the play-offs just as he is doing this season. Whatever we have done instead it clearly hasn't worked as we have regressed. The common theme here is that we often see people being shipped out of Rovers supposedly because they aren't good enough or we can do better but the real motivation is usually financial and the usual outcome in that case is regression sooner or later, as we are now witnessing.

Hull seem to have managed to get rid of a detested former owner and found a new owner with ambition and drive. Another example proving that there are options out there for Championship clubs to get new owners and rebuild. The problem we have is that with relegation to League One our options narrow drastically. We need rid of them whilst still in the Championship. I find it difficult to put into words my hatred for these people and the imposters in the directors box who rake in good incomes from this club, whilst the hard workers like Tomasson and Broughton are the ones inevitably facing the grief for it all.

We will quickly see what this football club is all about in the next couple of weeks. A serious club with a single ounce of ambition or determination would embrace the opening of the transfer window and use the opportunity to address the serious shortages that we have in our ranks, even if that means a couple of serious loan signings. Unfortunately we know from hard experience that the January window won't be used for proactive season changing business, and that we will be looking for kids as project signings and holding on hoping for a club to take pity on us with a cheap short term loan e.g. Sorba Thomas last season. The Club is a joke from top to bottom.

People were saying the same about Tyler Morton last season. He's now playing every week for a side pushing for the play-offs. Meanwhile we flounder. Travis will attract attention from elsewhere because he has attributes of value. That's why he's one of a small number who we have that clubs will bid for and that's why they are intent on forcing him out. I hope people realise by now that the 'replacement' will be inferior.

I suspect you are right. I've been privately suspicious of his absences for a few weeks now and tonight takes it to a whole new level. Conveniently he's a senior experienced player, likely now one of our top earners, capable of attracting cash bids from elsewhere as the Millwall/Luton links proved. Almost as though its all to do with player cost/value/external interest and nothing to do with what is best for Blackburn Rovers.

All it suggests to me is that it is very convenient. Isn't it remarkable how every single time we are ripe for some investment something 'beyond our control' comes along and stops them investing? If it wasn't the Indian government it would be some other excuse. What APPEARS to be the case is they have been singled out for restrictions due to past financial conduct which may or may not be dodgy. I don't think government agencies freeze assets unless they've got good reason to. So they haven't been persecuted but rather have attracted this attention. Could they get around it? Well they could likely have avoided it altogether if they had done things differently/properly from the start and it was accepted as legitimate by the authorities. And like with most things in life if they were absolutely determined to overcome the issue I believe they could find a way, but in the end it suits them down to the ground to convince everyone that they are powerless and 'doing all they can'. Of course there is a certain minimum that must be done which includes paying wages on time and keeping the lights on, hence the court case to keep things ticking over. Without that cash the whole circus comes crashing down and they lose control of their baby.

Or alternatively it suggests the financing issue was never really all it was claimed to be and they've always had the ability to make signings including cash buys.

Yes this is the Venky and shadow man model. Money only comes in if there's a 'business plan' argument supporting it. See Davenport, Edun etc. Interesting that the Indian government 'restrictions' seem to be eased for this one but of course prevent any signings of proven quality/ experience.

At the end of the day we concede too many goals. The second most in the division and it is now one clean sheet in the last thirteen games and only four all season long. Until or unless we sort that side of things out we are going to struggle. Unfortunately I genuinely believe that there is more interest at Brockhall in persisting with our 'style' in an effort to enhance individual reputations and values than there is resorting to a less attractive style but being able to grind out results. In times gone by I'd expect to see a focus on a clean sheet at Hull and if that means a boring 0-0 so be it but I just don't think there's any intention or desire to focus on that here.