JHRover

I'm quite petulant about these things so if I were Rovers I'd be doing whatever I could to ensure we got more than 22,000 on for the game. It is sad that this would be a good effort in this Waggott / Sky TV era but at the very least it would eclipse what they had on at the Turf for the reverse fixture. That would essentially require a completely full JW, BBE Lower and Riverside. Unlikely, especially when we can't even be arsed to get tickets on sale.

In typical Rovers fashion there is still no announcement on tickets/sales for home fans. We must be the only club in the country where we can sort out away allocations and the away club before we do anything about selling to our own fans. This should have been ready to go weeks ago, instead we are now less than a month from the game and not a peep. I fully agree with the approach to away fans but would at least expect some sort of effort from Rovers to get as many home fans in the ground as possible.

Things are undoubtedly better and improved from where they were 5-10 years ago. If you don't pay much attention or come at things externally as supporters of other clubs do then you might be forgiven for thinking that things are normal here and that Venkys are doing a good job. I certainly wouldn't go that far. Things are better, I'll give them that, though I'm not sure that is entirely down to them suddenly deciding to do things properly and more due to them finally allowing some decisions to be made and some sort of structure to exist on the ground without their interference or undermining it. But I think results and good management by JDT and, yes, Broughton, are to a large degree masking what remains a relative shambles behind the scenes. The signs are there - Waggott still allowed to remain in situ despite everything, ST numbers and attendances dropping, commercial suicide with no merchandise in the shop, decaying ground and pitch with zero investment, assets being allowed to leave for nothing with zero response from India, Mowbray allowed to remain in place until the very end with zero response from India, then they tried to persuade him to stay at the 11th hour - quite clear that there was a wall of silence and those on the ground were stuck waiting for instructions. It has worked out well for them because they agreed to bring in Broughton and he had the good judgment to turn to JDT. But it could just as easily have been a failure. One look at what happened in January tells us all we need to know. And I'm sorry yes the owners remain ultimately responsible for that - they didn't provide backing to strengthen or if they did the people they pay to run the show failed to get it done. The end result is it could undermine our promotion bid and I don't believe for one minute that is all down to someone forgetting to send a form off.

It will never happen. For as long as we remain outside the PL there is nowhere near enough demand - particularly with Waggott's punitive pricing & their clear desire to make the JW the 'shop window' of the club (levelling up prices, moving the cameras). Therefore all they will ever say is that there's no point to doing it - we don't need extra seating and that we should be investing all our efforts into promotion not 'pointless' projects such as these. Then if by some miracle we get promoted the narrative will shift - we will then have to survive in the PL for it to be viable, only when attendances inevitably increase they will then say it isn't feasible because it will require relocating lots of regular fans elsewhere and in doing to cutting our capacity and income. Then if we came back down it would go on the backburner again. Of course there are reasons to do it other than simple capacity issues - facilities (matchday and non matchday), improved supporter experience, improved atmosphere, improved media/corporate/revenue options, fully covered stand, no obstructed views, concourse provision, disabled access. The ONLY thing that gives me any cause for optimism is that if we did ever get promoted the PL would immediately insist that we took steps to upgrade our media and disabled facilities - they would not tolerate disabled spectators being sat in the rain on the walkways at the front and would insist we took steps to deal with this - clubs have had to spend fortunes addressing this. For Rovers there would be one obvious and relatively easy way of doing this whilst addressing all the other issues and that is within a new Riverside. Sadly with Waggott he's more likely to put some cheap scaffolding up in a corner or rip out a portion of the BBE/DE to do it as a cheap alternative instead.

An eye for an eye - they give us a small allocation they get the same in return. We would have sold the entire Cricket Field stand had they provided it as they have in the past, instead they refused and provided a small allocation. One set of toilets open for the entire away following too which was a disgrace. For once I fully support this decision, my only 'grievances' are not putting them upstairs and giving them 250 hospitality tickets - I sincerely hope those people won't be behind me in the JW stand jumping up and down or banging on the glass like they have in the past. I am pleased however that those hospitality tickets have effectively come out of their overall allocation, reducing standard tickets to just 2000. There's too much history with this fixture, too much riding on it from Rovers' point of view with our league position, to hand over a huge allocation to them. Nobody else provides 6,7,8000 tickets to away teams, let alone their biggest enemies, so not sure on what basis we should be expected to do so. Next stop is to make the day as unpleasant as possible for them as they did to us - no beer sales, one set of toilets open for the whole lot of them, and a zero tolerance approach to any flags being brought into the ground. And if they don't like it they can start by asking questions of their own Club who were the first to do all those things. As for dingles 'turning up' in Blackburn or at Ewood - really? You'd have to be real weirdo to not have a ticket, yet spend your day travelling to Blackburn for no reason other than to hang around causing bother, especially when your team is on tv and you can safely watch it from home/a pub in dingleland, yet you'd rather miss watching your team play to hang around like a spare part in Blackburn? Sounds like a real fun day out. Almost as though they aren't actually interested in watching the match....

So there's another example of Rovers bullshit exposed - the suggestion that we can't subsidise away tickets - proven to be wrong This sits alongside the recent proof that we can charge home fans less than away fans and in doing so get more into Ewood whilst protecting away revenues. They'll tell us anything but it doesn't take much to catch them out.

priority 1 is to keep JDT at the Club regardless of what happens over the next 9-12 games. After 3-4 years of treading water and listening to Mowbray's drivel it is fantastic to dream and have an ambitious manager in the dugout delivering the results. Priority 2 is to equip him with the resources to keep us moving forwards. Unfortunately we have Venkys and Waggott running the show here and as the January window proved they can torpedo even the must simple and basic of good things so my expectation is they muck him around again and he's gone before next season kicks off.

Another reason why STs should have been on sale weeks ago with a proper early bird scheme in place. Some people are going to need every incentive going to renew with the Sky Sports nonsense taking over and causing havoc with our fixtures, the best way to get people to commit is if they are doing so during a fantastic run of form and if they think they are making a saving. But no, good old Waggott and Rovers will leave it until April/May at the earliest, probably time the release to coincide with disappointment or end of season and then 'freeze' prices (which will still represent an increase for many). It is high time the club used some of the vast amounts recieved in additional TV money to give something back to the fans. They will have collected huge sums of money from Sky and through the healthy cup runs yet none of that will be used to reduce ticket prices - why not? Question for the next Forum perhaps. I also think it is bizarre that they claim Venkys have already approved a budget for 2023-24 regardless of what division we find ourselves in but yet STs are still awaiting 'sign off' from India - how can they agree and approve an overall budget for the year and yet haven't even approved pricing on season tickets, which is surely a central element of our budget?

So just to recap on season tickets we are now over 5 months on from Waggott's claim that plans were well underway with an intention to release earlier than in previous years. We are 'pretty much' there but awaiting owners sign off and now talking about Easter release. Also seem to be canvassing opinions on using the Riverside as a cheaper option (what a groundbreaking idea - didn't Waggott get rid of just that very thing?) They're just playing for time. No intention of releasing or pushing STs. Just do it last minute and squeeze the 8000 for as much as you can get.

The only games that I wouldn't be confident in are the dingles and away at Millwall. The rest we should be embracing and being confident of winning. Some juicy looking games coming up elsewhere this weekend and next - Luton's next 3 are away at Sunderland, home v Watford and away at Millwall Millwall are at West Brom next weekend and then host Luton, also host Preston soon Norwich are at Stoke, then host Sheff Utd before coming to Ewood. Also at Middlesbrough soon. I'm quite looking forward to 2.5 weeks of no league action to take a breather and let the others scrap it out and then hopefully we can deal with Birmingham.

He's having to extract everything he can from the senior players he has left. This is the main reason the likes of Trav, Szmodics, Gallagher are running themselves into the ground playing every week. If the Club had backed him with a couple of additions in January or even a free agent or two since January then he might have the luxury of being able to throw someone with experience on for the last 20 minutes in games but he wasn't backed and we don't have that option. So far it has caused Dack to be out long term when the manager tried his best to balance game time with keeping him out of harm's way - he was booed and jeered for trying to do so - and we've had to manage without Dack for the last month just as he was hitting form.

I said a couple of weeks ago - we need to win our home games and if we do that then there is little pressure on the away games. Probably need 5 wins from 10 to secure a play-off position. 74-75 points ought to do it. Reading is must win given its at home and they are in disarray.

Club just announced only 150 remain. Some take up there

Final batch arrived from Sheffield this afternoon and will be on sale imminently I believe.

Good old EFL eventually imposing a sanction that will have zero impact on the Club. So there's no point to this other than the League being able to turn around and use this as 'evidence' of them taking things seriously and adopting a zero tolerance approach. Of course there is a way around this - the embargo is carried over into the summer and enforced in the PL - or at least reinstated once they inevitably return to the EFL. So that's Burnley and Sheff Utd both under transfer embargos yet both likely to be outside of EFL jurisdiction in the next few months so meaningless. Huddersfield, Wigan, Reading and Birmingham up to all sorts of financial/organisational nonsense yet no sanctions imposed. EFL not fit for purpose.

Almost as though it is possible with a small squad to push for promotion and take the cups seriously at the same time despite being told for years that it must be one or the other.

The request for the additional 1000 tickets that Spurs got should have been made last week. There is no reason for Sheff Utd not to give them to us - they cannot allocate those seats to home fans and with it being a 12pm kick off surely they wouldn't suggest stewarding or policing issues. I would be ringing them up now and telling Sheff Utd that if they don't give us those seats then we will restrict their next allocation at Ewood in retaliation.

They can't allocate that corner to home fans, as it shares the same concourse and turnstiles as the away end. So they either need to leave it empty or let Rovers use it. I imagine part of it will need to be used as a buffer zone but can't see any harm to them of releasing the rest if we need them.

There's a reason we pay 'experts' a huge amount of money each year - that is to form judgments on players and personnel and address contracts appropriately. The purpose is to protect the Club's investments. If the Club decide to do something to try and protect said assets, then that might at times raise eyebrows or question marks, but if it is being done with the future of the Club in mind, with the best intentions and is a decision reached by people who should know best and certainly better than people on here, then that's their call. If a player signs a new deal and people don't like it then it might mean a few whinge or question it on here or in the pub but it really doesn't matter - what matters is that the Club does what it needs to do to protect its assets and growth. Personally I am a little bit concerned about the direction things have taken off the pitch since last year - but delighted with how things have gone on it. I say I am concerned because after an initial flurry of activity under Broughton with transfers and new contracts things seem to have gone quiet of late. We've also had the shambles of all shambles in the January transfer window and this week our Head of Recruitment has walked out after 6 months in the job and no summer window to oversee. I know enough about Venkys and the last 10 years to have some concerns about this. I think a new deal for JRC or Carter, or both, soon, would settle the nerves a little bit.

Not sure about that. He's had a well travelled career both as a player (Denmark, Holland, Italy, England, Spain, Germany) and as a coach/manager (Holland, Denmark, Sweden, England) It comes with the territory if you are ambitious and want to progress. I expect to see JDT coach in an array of European nations in his career It shows what sacrifices need to be made to be successful rather than the plod along to nowhere with Uncle Tony gracing us with his presence. Mucking him around like we did in January is the sort of thing that will see him on the plane out of here.

Interesting that he refers to his wife and kids both living in the Netherlands and him not seeing much of them. Some sacrifice but goes to show what people in football do to progress and take on good opportunities. In stark contrast to the last mon who made out like 90 minutes down the road from Middlesbrough was the other end of the world and that he was doing us a massive favour being here.

I know that, but it puts me in a position of unnecessary risk, because I will have to wait and time my purchase to when they get around to selling the upper tier, they won't announce this so will have to rely on word of mouth and the risk is that once they are on open rather than restricted sale they will get snapped up quickly. My view is that ST holders and 1875 members should get allocated best seats first, but more often than not they get allocated the worst down in a corner somewhere because it makes it easier or preferable for the Clubs to do it that way.

Online sales suggest still selling in the lower tier, which will be filled before they open the upper tier sales, so a good chunk of the allocation still available. This is annoying, as the lower tier offers a quite terrible view of the action whereas the upper tier is better. Once again those regulars who get their tickets first and are 1875 members will be allocated the worst seats.

Agreed with most of your post but who regards them as a big club? 5 years this time since they were in the PL. Not really recent. They're a middle of the road Championship side like 10-12 others these days, ourselves included. Tend to have enough to keep clear of trouble but haven't threatened promotion.

I'd sooner be going to Stoke or another one of those middle of the road clubs (Birmingham, Bristol, Swansea) who are safe but not getting play-offs than I would to Blackpool Huddersfield, Wigan, Rotherham right now who are in the last chance saloon for survival. I think we are made of stronger stuff these days under JDT whereas under Mowbray this would be a classic collapse after a few good results. Nevertheless we will drop points and lose sooner or later and they will be bouncing after their big win but hopefully they continue to be plagued with the inconsistency they have had all season.