JHRover

The thing with Mowbray is that because he has the media lot hanging on his every word and thinking he's great with the old tea and biscuit routine reminiscing about life in 70s Middlesbrough he thinks that makes him clever and able to outwit all before him with his comments in the press. Unfortunately applying any scrutiny to his comments quickly reveals that he isn't as clever as he thinks, he's at best completely contradictory, and on other occasions rather insulting. Anyhow, thankfully he's gone and history around here, yet it seems he and others cannot let it go, still bitter that he was let go. It was clear at the time that he harboured a desire to stay on but that the offer wasn't forthcoming in a timely manner. In all likelihood another disgraceful performance from Venkys and the buffoons they employ but I do find it a bit funny that having had over 5 years of well paid employment and being able to run the operation as his own kingdom with little to no pressure or scrutiny from upstairs or the fanbase that he's now got 'pundits' spouting off about how hard done to he was here. He had it made at Rovers, and when the inevitable dip comes at Sunderland when they run out of momentum they'll offer him nowhere near the patience he got here.

It's clear he can hit his targets off 8000 ish ST sales at these high prices. We will probably limp our way there over the rest of the summer, but given the price increase even lower sales will likely see him hit his financial target. And that's all there is to it. Job done, arse covered, wage justified, bonus paid, box ticked and another year in the job until we do it again.

We can usually pick any 4 from Stanley, Rochdale, Oldham, Fleetwood, Morecambe, Barrow, Carlisle, or occasionally we have gone slightly further afield to Hartlepool, York, Grimsby, Lincoln, Port Vale, Mansfield etc. Suppose the interesting ones will be whether we bother with a home friendly, which I think is unlikely unless we manage to persuade a 'big' club to come to Ewood otherwise it won't be worthwhile for Waggott And whether we are playing a game overseas, which hasn't happened for the last 6 summers since we played in Salzburg v Sparta Prague ahead of the League One season. It would be nice to do something abroad again but expect as is the tradition Rovers will keep any such plans a closely guarded state secret until a few days beforehand making it difficult or impossible for any supporters to be involved.

Must have low operational costs 10 miles down the road, or maybe billionaire owners generously funding the club every year. One thing they won't do is spend £300k a year employing a spiv

The 'super saver' period not exactly delivered the results that you might expect from 'super savings' then has it? Another failed policy from Waggott....yet on he continues. Not a very good track record has he? Of course it wasn't a 'super saver' at all. It was a 5% reduction IF you bought early (before the end of the season) and in doing so you lose the £15 club cash that has been added over the last few years. I also note the usual silence from the Club on 1875 membership for 2023-24. Last year they made no reference to a membership scheme when releasing season tickets, only suddenly announcing 1875 membership at the 11th hour after most people had signed up for their season tickets. This then had the effect of forcing anyone who wanted priority on away tickets to cough up additional money. A cynical underhand money grabbing stunt. No news on whether the same will happen again this summer but I think it is important to know when buying a season ticket whether that purchase is going to put me in a position of priority on away tickets or whether that is going to be taken away from me by the late introduction of a membership scheme.

'Around' 7000 almost certainly means 'less than'. Better than expected after the horror of the 'hoping for' close to 6000 announced last week but still weary numbers all things considered. Less than 50% of what Bolton have shifted in League One. With the price now going up you wonder just how many people there are who haven't gone in at the lower price but will then sign up for the higher price.

Buyers will only ever come forward with serious intent if they can see there is a genuine intent from Venkys to sell. Just like buying a house, people don't go around putting offers in for people's houses unless there is a 'for sale' sign up. This doesn't mean that there is no interest and no alternative to the current ownership. Interested parties won't waste their time putting plans together to buy Rovers unless it is made clear Venkys want to sell. I don't think that will change with promotion. It might mean more people are interested in buying the club, but it doesn't mean for one minute Venkys will do anything to encourage a sale. If they wanted to go down that route they'd have acted on our strong January positions of 2022 and 2023 to try and get us promoted. I don't think much would change with a promotion. I think it would take the money men in India by surprise to suddenly have a surplus of cash rather than substantial losses to plug but I think they would carry on as they are at present. Silent, disinterested, doing nothing, club on autopilot, clowns running it on their behalf. At best the transfer kitty and wage bill would be enhanced but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one given the time it takes them to do anything.

Thanks Venkys, as Waggott is always quick to point out that without their support and benevolence none of this would be possible

There will be a lot of sh1t stirring from Radio Lancashire and Lancashire Telegraph in there as well. Quite why they are raising his future as a topic for discussion on the day of the final game of the season I don't know, but can safely say they wouldn't have been asking Kompany about whether he will be staying where he is. In their desperation to find something to talk about they will fan the flames of speculation and rumour. They do it with our better players all the time too.

He's accomplished more in his first season than Mowbray managed in 4 years at this level with less money, less time and less options at his disposal. We can but wonder what this manager might have made with Armstrong, Elliott, Rothwell and others at his disposal. Nevertheless 7th represents our highest league finish in over a decade of Venky created misery coupled with our two best cup runs in a long time, and but for the finest of margins in cup and league it could have been considerably better. The bloke has done very well in my opinion, and I really worry about the future if he departs or if there is no backing in the summer. Leaving the club in the hands of the shysters upstairs and further cuts will leave us looking over our shoulders.

It is obvious what is needed, and if there was a determination at the Club to succeed then confidence could be high ahead of next season. Having missed out by the finest of margins with a young squad experience and learning should take care of a lot of things, but 3-4 additions of course essential. Unfortunately with these rancid owners and the likes of Waggott stinking the place out for another 12 months and raking in his salary/bonus we will see more excuses and frustration. Talk about revenue and woe be us whilst waving off investment Brereton for £0 just a year after losing £10 million of assets for nothing. Any heads rolled for those debacles yet?

These are the questions Waggott won't want people to be asking. Doesn't fit with the 'woe be us' narrative of having no money, low income, completely reliant on Venkys and that justifies screwing the fans for every penny. This TV money isn't a bonus or prize, it's compensation to offset against inevitably lower attendances when people prefer to watch from home rather than buy a ticket. We know it will go straight into the coffers with no mention of it from Waggott, but if he was serious about things they'd be using some of this money to reduce ticket prices and encourage people to still come to Ewood. Instead we still have some of the highest prices. One of the reasons we've been selected so many times might be because, contrary to the party line, we are actually a well known and well followed club by the standards of this division and whilst we don't get droves turning up at Ewood we are actually seen as a better bet on viewing figures compared to most of the dross in this division.

He did the hard part and got a small, young squad into the top 6 heading into the second half of the season having only arrived late in the first place due to ineptitude in replacing Mowbray. The 'powers that be' failed with the easy part, which was to back him during January with a couple of half decent additions that might have made the world of difference and got us over the line. If they failed to back him in January, when exactly are they going to back him? Answer = never. And he knows it. Bowyer and Mowbray put up with it because putting up with it was their only ticket to being a Championship manager. A bloke like JDT, with contacts across Europe and a stellar playing CV behind him will have plenty of other options coming up and he isn't afraid to give up a good number (Malmo) in pursuit of something better. Lesson to learn = these cretins have no intention of changing their ways or making the effort to get promoted. It's autopilot mode with the club doing what it can with whatever Venkys set in the summer and that's your lot.

Who or how is it decided that Brentford get home advantage in the final? Already got train booked back from Millwall

So the Premier League Cup final v Brentford has been confirmed as taking place at their ground on Tuesday 9th May, 7:45pm kick off Annoying for a few reasons. One is that we seem to have agreed to surrender any home advantage by playing a 1 legged final at their ground - in the past these have been 2 legged finals. It is also annoying that it comes the day after our trip to Millwall, making it a nightmare to get to and it will be hard to get a train back from there at night. I'd have liked to have gone to the final and also to Brentford's new ground but seems Rovers are happy to just go with the flow.

A 2500 capacity Riverside would look absolutely stupid sat opposite the other stands. It looks small and lop-sided as it is and that's with a 4500+ capacity.

Agree, but I think a lot of it stems from not having enough experience and nasty players around the place. This goes back to Mowbray - who seemed to only want to recruit 'nice lads' even when he went after experience, and then in the last 2 years the Club has embarked on a 'project' where they only seem interested in younger players whether that be from our academy or on loan from PL clubs. Going down such a route of nice young lads brings drawbacks as well as positives, one of which is that when the chips are down you tend not to have the know-how or doggedness to drag a way back into a game. Sometimes in the last 20 minute of Championship games when the chips are down you have to find a different way to do it - that might involve peppering the opposition box and hoping for a fluke like Preston got against us the other week, or throwing everyone at it and getting a lucky handball goal like Coventry. We just don't do enough of it and the results of it are there for all to see. We don't go direct or throw men forward into the opposition box. Even yesterday chasing a winner Hyam still preferred to go back to Pears rather than launch it forwards. It definitely comes back to recruitment and 'project' talk but I can't help but think if we dropped a Warnock into the mix things would immediately be very different on that front.

Not sure how that one will work unless they've come up with something unusual as the away stand has one concourse for both tiers

Presumably they advise booking online as they are charging an extra £2 to anyone who does. That and it saves them having to do it at the Club shop.

Lots of criticism of Leeds chopping and changing in a desperate bid to survive / achieve their objectives Sooner that than do nothing and let the inevitable occur as we've done under Kean, Coyle and Mowbray.

We just have to hope that lot at Deepdale do us a favour, though sounds like Lowe has thrown a wobbler after their Sheff Utd beating so they'll probably not turn up for it now.

Has Waggott or Broughton ever explained why, even if we are to accept the deadline day cock and bull stuff, we did nothing after that to bring in a free agent or two to bolster our options?

A couple of things that ring alarm bells with me One is the claim in the Fans Forum that budgets have already been set for next season. At a normal club you might celebrate forward planning but here it means that Venkys (or more likely their financial gurus) have already determined that the Club is getting very little if anything beyond essential funding. That means we are stuck with the academy and loan routine again. I don't think the talk about a 'project' comes from anything more grand or idealistic than simply realising that the only way we are going to assemble a side to compete in this league is going to be turning to our kids and hoping enough make the grade. One look at sides to make the play-offs recently - Middlesbrough, Luton x2, Huddersfield, Forest - not many academy grads knocking around their sides. Somewhere along the line you have to recruit experience and know how. Talk of letting Ayala, Dack and Kaminski leave fills me with dread TBH, not because we necessarily need them for the first XI, but you have to have some older heads around the place somewhere. A lot of people bemoaning recent form and slip ups, but that's what happens when you rely on inexperience. The other thing that worries me is that with arses to protect the henchman in the shadows / Waggott / Broughton may be tempted to 'cash in' on a few or be forced to do so by upstairs. After the debacle of losing last summer's players and now Brereton for nothing there's something of a gap in transfer income. To gain favour with India certain people may be tempted to cash in.

The thing is at the end of last season we knew that if the manager stayed it would be a repeat again the next season and the season after that. He'd proven he couldn't and wouldn't learn or adapt and would keep on making the same mistakes every year. With JDT he's inherited the Mowbray mentality here and we've outperformed Mowbray's best this season (tail off play-off push but at least with 2 good cup runs on the side). I've seen enough to believe JDT deserves a chance to see if he can better it moving forwards. Unfortunately the Club has done its level best to torpedo our chance at promotion and this will probably see us looking for a new manager in the near future. I'd certainly rather have Broughton, having appointed JDT, leading that search rather than Waggott or the same people who gave us Owen Coyle.

If there's 5 minutes to go at Millwall and Sunderland are winning at Preston by a couple of goals I'd want us to let one in just to knock Sunderland out of it. Couldn't cope with treacherous Tony sneaking into the top 6.