JHRover

Lets remember that the owners didn't want Waggott or indeed anyone as CEO. They were quite happy to drift through the first 8 years of their ownership with nobody. Unfortunately despite their best efforts it started to get a bit uncomfortable for them and their man in the shadows when Mike Cheston, the last man standing in executive capacity at the club, was left having to deal with disgruntled supporters and the press whilst doubling up as the financial director. Then the FA came along with their mandatory once per year fan consultation meetings (anyone remember those? Set up by the authorities to ensure a channel of communication between ownership and fans, conveniently abandoned under the guise of Covid and never mentioned again, just like shareholder meetings) Big problem in those meetings, Cheston wasn't up to the job of handing the fans and was out of his depth. They needed someone else and quick otherwise the anger and focus was going to turn to India and the shadow man, which must be avoided at all costs. So after employing snake oil salesman number one for 6 months during the relegation season before he packed up on relegation they needed another. Only this time around the manager they had taken a shine to was able to recommend someone willing to do the job and play the Venky game, someone who had been happy to do similar at crisis clubs Coventry and Charlton and who had been moving around doing short term 'consultancy' work for those bastions of stability and transparency Southend and Gillingham. Seems Steve doesn't get offers to be CEO at normal functioning respectable clubs but manages to find work at all the laughing stocks. So I think he's here to box tick and maintain an edifice of normality for the authorities, press and fans, whilst tasked to ensure his costs are covered by the fruits of his labour in increasing revenues and cutting costs. Win win for those in India who never really saw any need for a CEO but if he pays his own way on his salary why not. When he finally, finally retires (that day can't come soon enough) we will be back to the owners trying to make do without a replacement or promoting an existing inadequate staff member to the role and fudging it.

It's about this time where a block of 200-300 in the JW upper tier mysteriously become unavailable overnight. Wonder if we will get another 'prize draw' if we hit 8000 (remember when it was 10,000?) Probably not if he's hit his target there's no need for anything else

They're just bonkers down there. I'm glad to see that the £2 surcharge on season tickets was discussed. So the club appear to think it is justified on the grounds they are recovering their costs due to Ticketmaster. That's helpful. Presumably they'll also be attaching a surcharge to tickets and merchandise moving forward to recover their costs due to the gas and electricity providers? Incredible that the CEO of Blackburn Rovers appears to take pride - at least that's the impression I get from the minutes - from selling a pitiful 7300 season tickets and although almost 1 in 5 from last season have failed to renew he doesn't seem too bothered.

It had passed me by that Cardiff are also once again looking for a new manager with Lamouchi leaving. Thought he did a good job getting them out of trouble.

We are no more up against it than we have been at any other stage in the past. We've lined up opposite similar clubs every year in the Championship over the last 10 years and competed just fine. Whatever advantage Sheff Wed might have in numbers of fans clearly isn't much given their performance over the last 10 years during which they have finished below us or alongside us. Same for Sunderland, in return for their resources and fanbase they've had 3 years in League One and then finished level on points with us in the Championship. What is more important for the non-parachute laden clubs is a plan and determination to stick to it, which is where I hope Broughton will deliver. Leeds, Wednesday, Sunderland and more recently Leicester and Soton have been all over the place on recruitment and managerial appointments. Hopefully that continues although Sunderland seem to be getting the big decisions right these days. Luton, Brentford, unfortunately dingles have all got those right over the last few years and have succeeded despite small fanbases and resources in comparison to teams around them.

Take it Leeds / Leicester won't be getting sanctioned for FFP breaches (sure they both breached on losses in getting promoted out of the Championship)

Each and every summer we hear the same lines It's only going to get more difficult Some BIG clubs coming down / up All the usual stuff all aimed at putting us down a few notches on expectations before a ball is kicked. We'll be watching Bournemouth v Luton and Brentford v Burnley in the "best league in the world" and still there are people reckoning it's really tough and we're going to struggle before we've even started. What they are actually doing is measuring strength on attendances / stadium size which as the years go by only becomes less and less important than it once was, as the make up of the PL shows.

He's better than anything we've had under Venkys and I reckon we'd struggle to get better if he left. Of course you're right, nobody could really blame him for wanting out after an utterly disgraceful January transfer window that still hasn't been explained and as yet still no heads have rolled.

Still got the potential problem of Leeds and Leicester looking for new managers, especially if relegated. I hope that the India trip happens and he can convince Venkys to spend.

Hopefully this latest Spurs failure means they turn to Kompany as their next option For some reason these sort of Clubs never go after the dingle manager.

Doubt it, there's a few who have managed both including Koeman and Advocaat although it would almost certainly rule out a direct move from one to the other.

Rooney has won a measly 32 of his 114 games as a manager (28%). At Derby people were quick to point to their off the pitch issues but not sure what the excuse is at DC United. Anyway definitely not for me. I don't want him at this Club and his record doesn't suggest he's good enough.

Maybe those that they don't want to sell because they fall behind the pillars and have an obstructed view of the goals?

I did mention in my original post that it was the full interview on the official page I had watched. I'm also not taking any issue with anything Broughton had to say, my annoyance was with the approach taken by the interviewer

Interviewer "I guess we have to find a different way of working to compete with some of those sides who have the bigger budgets, we don't have that available" Broughton "That's fine, but we can't use that as an excuse, that is where it is, unless the Premier League, driven obviously by the work that is happening with the government white paper and the possible reforms reconfigures the parachute payments in the future, we know what we are in and we know how we have to do things differently. We've got a really good plan in place to do that, and hopefully we've made good steps this year towards fulfilling that" Interviewer "How important do you think that white paper is for football clubs like this?" Broughton "Yeah absolutely vital, not just for football clubs like us but for football as a whole, even if I go down to the Football Conference, if you look at Notts County this year, over 100 points, over 100 goals and then still rely on a play-off system to get promoted to the Football League when really now the National League is such a competitive league and has so many former Football League clubs in it that it has to progress...." Interviewer "How competitive do you think the Championship is going to be next year, because by the looks of things there are going to be three big clubs coming down from the Premier League, there are two big clubs and potentially a third coming up as well from League One as well, how difficult a division do you think it might be?" Broughton "Yeah I mean for all of those clubs to come in and have huge crowds and really drive up the attendances in the Championship" That's the part I was referring to, it can be found around 4-5 minutes into his interview on the official Rovers TV page. It clearly references both those clubs coming down and those coming up. Fair enough if you think that is an overreaction but I just think it shows what dumbing down and small time attitude there is around this club.

We only become a 'stepping stone' at the point it becomes clear we cannot or will not match the manager's ambitions. If the manager believes in what we are doing and is confident he can achieve his aims with us then we aren't really a stepping stone E.g. if we'd have got promoted this season, which we could have done, nobody would be talking about stepping stones because we'd be gearing up for a place in the richest and most high profile league in the world. But, because we messed it up and are a club with zero ambition and charlatans throughout it will be quite clear to JDT by now that he will have to treat this as a stepping stone.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy in exchange with PSV?

That's the point I was making. If the Club had backed him in January there's a reasonable chance we'd have got promoted and if we did we'd have the power to resist such interest. It didn't back him so now we are in a weak position. There will be plenty out saying the Club is blameless if he leaves. I disagree for the reasons above.

The line being pursued by the interviewer was that life is only going to get harder for Rovers because there are so many 'big clubs' entering the Championship and 'there might be another' which I took to mean if Sheff Wed beat Barnsley in the final. I think it is lazy to approach things on the basis that 'big clubs' are going to make life any harder or that 'it is only going to get more difficult' next year. One look at the top 6 and play-off final sides this season shows that if anything it is more open than ever with so called 'big' clubs Watford, Norwich, West Brom missing out altogether. The comment about playing better against clubs that come and attack us was added by Broughton in response. Anyhow, I just think it offers a glimpse into the attitudes of those employed by the club. Such an inferiority complex it is unbelievable and it seems they are trying to convince themselves and all those watching that we really are a small operator at this level. Won't be many collected more in media revenue than us this season I'd wager.

So what does 'big clubs' refer to then? Big by Championship standards but not by Rovers? I'd suggest watching the first 5-6 minutes of the interview again. It is quite clear what the interviewer is getting at.

He said 'big clubs'. Being an employee of Rovers talking about Rovers' prospects and aims for next season I'd say the comparison to Rovers goes without saying.

Normally I'd agree with this sentiment, especially compared to the dingles who seem to have the ability to avoid any interest at all in their managers who overperform every year. But in this instance the Club has to shoulder a lot of repsonsibility. It is lazy to simply say 'ah Feyenoord/PSV, he's always going to go there' If he'd been backed in January we'd have got in the play-offs. We might well be preparing for a day at Wembley and getting to the PL. I'm not sure he would walk away from a PL job / season to move to the Eredivisie at this stage in his career. But another long hard Championship season with us rummaging around for free transfers from League One and Two and the excuses about finances already in full swing yeah I don't think anyone could expect him to stay. What's the point, he could get us to top 2 or 3 in January and we might just 'forget' to do the paperwork again or claim FFP rules prevented us signing anyone as is the norm.

Only just got around to watching the full 'official' interview with Broughton on the Club website. Must say that it sticks out to me what sort of an attitude and mentality we have around the Club. Within the first 5 minutes of the interview there was reference to just what 'big' clubs are joining the Championship next season (since when did anyone at Rovers consider Southampton, Ipswich or Plymouth to be big clubs?) and how tough that is going to make things and then the interviewer moves on to asking Broughton about tabloid rumours of interest in JDT. That kind of sums up what a defeatist and small time attitude there is here. You might expect those sort of questions from the likes of Radio Lancashire and the Lancashire Telegraph, but to get them on official club media I think is disturbing. For the record Ipswich, Plymouth and Southampton are not big clubs compared to Rovers and I'd suggest anyone employed at Rovers who thinks so are in the wrong job.

Shame about FFP rules

The Russell Martin one doesn't take much dreaming up either. Broughton used to work at Norwich and Martin played there for many years.