Dreams of 1995

The Coalition has nailed its colours to the mast but I do think it has wider spread than the previous action group or Trust did. Plenty of people will join in I think the Coalition could do a much better job at putting the message out about the history of Venkys. Plenty of people still quoting £200m investment / £20m a year investment / “who will buy us”? There is a very easy win that none of the £20m per year is actual investment - it’s dead operating losses - and this can be demonstrated very easily in graphs and charts. PowerBI is excellent at this sort of data analysis these days - how Venkys have decimated us financially to be a stagnant and useless operation. It’s not good management and people need to see that in a way they understand The next step is showing where else true investment has happened in the FL. We are not asking to be Man City (but it would be nice) however it’s very clear other clubs with less of a history to us have benefited from smart and interested owners who want to see a sporting success. As a protest movement, it is my opinion this is what is lacking. Just my two pennies worth mind. If I can lend a hand and people want that, feel free to message me

On a positive if Henrikson gets booked I win 1200

This is probably more like it but even that is unbalanced. The three CBs we have at the club which may get/stay fit this year are - Wharton, McLoughlin and Pratt. They are all left footed.

We used to have a chap who could do a job at RB when asked. We sold him to sit on the Charlton bench

Wow Read that as: “Madam, without a Steve they are shouting our name. We need a Steve. We need a Steve to blame. We need a Steve to make accountable. Without a Steve, they blame me. Without a Steve, they blame you. Madam, we need Steve” Waggott must be howling. That bloke took hundreds of thousands from these mugs and all he had to do was bat it all off. Whoever we get will either be a short lived disaster or a bloke on wind down looking for a last pay day. This lot are filth

We are away We will win

I could see this being a disappointing night. Everything pointed that way We have the basics of a competitive squad but it is too imbalanced. Not enough competition in the right places, combined with injuries, has meant that we lack options from the bench to change our style and the game. I think we did well to get back into it and get a point where in times gone by we may have collapsed. Ribeiro had a poor game but has not played much. Tended to move backwards instead of forwards. We miss Hedges down that left-hand side for sure. I'm guessing that Gardner-Hickman got injured but he was a big miss in the 2nd half. Tavares just hasn't got it has he? I quite like it when a player looks relaxed but as I said last night, it isn't relaxation with him it is being lackadaisical. He gives the ball away too often and there were times he played these short passes with absolutely no purpose other than to move the ball on. I don't think he has it cut out to be a player in the Championship We were unfortunate not to finish the Gardner Hickman chance. He couldn't do much more and the keeper made a fine save. It was a lovely knock down by Gudjohnson. The Yuki chance was another which should have gone in. Except this time it was poor finishing instead of good goalkeeping. I think if Gudjohnson was there, it becomes 1-1. I am not overly enamoured by our defensive options either. McLoughlin is a bit slow off the mark and a couple of occasions him being turned back to his goal nearly brought problems. There's still glimpses of hope. We aren't as bad of a squad as I thought going into the season. We need to defend our box better and we need to be better and more ambitious when in possession. For sure in January we need a centre half but we also need a central midfielder who is prepared to take this game by the scruff of the neck. Take Tronstad out of the team and we don't half look like a pushover in midfield

Tavares is just too lackadaisical. Sometimes it’s the sign of a good player to never looked rushed….but he never looks rushed and always loses it. Infuriating

Just performed a rain dance

There is an air of arrogance around Rovers under Rudy Gestede and Pasha. Waggott was a bit of a cock who lacked ambition but was a canny operator. He'd have been all over it today letting us know the game was safe and get down. It comes to something when you start to feel like you miss a Steve Waggott type..

That is the scale of incompetence at this club Tomphil They have put in over £200m; they have wrote off around £60m. The remainder sits as a debt owed to Venky's. It will not be outside of their commercial mind that, should the club ever go under (only possible if they pull their funding commitments), then the minimum they can expect to recover is 25% of 140m - around £35m. That is assuming I am understanding the 25p in the pound rule by the FA. And herein lies the issue with our 'model'. The more money the Venkys put in simply to offset losses, the more they saddle the club in debt (albeit, 'friendly debt'), and ultimately the more they get returned on sale. Very, very, very little of the £200m debt saddled to this club has been invested. It is just dead operating losses. Our (BRFC) accounts show a net asset of -£118m. We are insolvent. VLL show a +£27m of assets. Assume this is the club. We are still a positive on their overall Venky's group accounts. Player trading - profit. Revenue - down. Wages - down. Everything is in the favour of Venky's except still, after all of this time, requiring £15 - 20m per year "investment"...it makes no sense. Now, we can talk about Pasha's talk of "benevolence". In pure accounting terms, it is true. In all 15 years VLL has never took a single penny out of the club in fees, dividends, rent or interest. But is that a big deal? And what does he mean by that model now being over? Does he mean that Venky's are now intending to take a return; hence the increase rents for the community trust, or do BRFC now need to pay the holding company for the training ground? I don't know. But this is the only part of Venky's ownership which so far has been good and their man on the ground is telling us that is over. WTF. Just in general downbeat with the whole thing. This drainage is just another fiasco: fax machines, western unions, family threats, crumbling infrastructure. Venky's came here to increase their reputation. They have certainly done that but for all the wrong reasons.

Fair point Mark. Maybe change that part for negative press then.

The second to last thing this club want is this game not to go ahead The last thing they want is for the game to be abandoned halfway through I would not put it past the club to be eering on the side of postponement to save themselves the hassle of a pissed off fan base Agree with all other posters - turnout is going to be shocking. If you were Oxford, why bother? If you're Rovers, stay in the warmth and throw a few beers in the fridge This is what Venkys FC looks like chaps. A thoroughly unpleasant product with a careless board and a budget you couldn't run a doggy day care on properly. I'll say it again - £6m in infrastructure investment in 15 years. It is no surprise things are creaking. 400,000 a year on the Rovers estate is survival money only. It paints over the cracks, gets some filler in and throws some lovely foam into areas they want to patch up. It does not improve

Someone get into that headwall and block the bloody thing some more. If Oxford is abandoned, Val is going to hit the roof. Would be cracking to see him floor Rudy and Pasha. Can't believe I am saying it, but him walking would not be a bad thing either. The Club only feel shame when it is in the press - see the LT ban. Us talking on here or telling them they are crap from the stands doesn't matter. Val walking on the back of crap facilities along with the JDT / Eustace situation piles on more pressure Whilst writing that I realised there's absolutely nothing I would not do to get rid of the Rao family. Must be one of the worst things to ever happen to Blackburn as a town, let alone the Club

Yeah not so much a "pitch drainage expert" but my career is in construction, namely civil engineering Drainage is an easy concept though. If the river level on Saturday was not actually stopping the outflow then it is likely drains are blocked. It would be relatively easy and cheap to check this - a CCTV / Jetting crew is usually around 2 - 3thousand per day at most. You could have had them in on Sunday and by tomorrow dinner time you'd have found the blockage and jetted it out. It just seems so shoddy by the Club. I can't believe they haven't fixed the problem. We need to be realistic and understand that they won't invest in the long-term of this club, so the required improvement works will never happen. But to not even address the issue in a temporary state - pumping, jetting or whatever - is just pure negligence. They just don't give a crap. Whatever those rollers were on Saturday were useless. You could see on camera it was just dispersing water back on to the pitch. Think someone posted they cost 1k each and they had 4. For that 4,000 you could have hired a pump for the day and overpumped water out of the system and down the river and it would probably have been enough I suspect we also have a maintenance department that has been stripped of budget and experience.

Has anyone been near Ewood or seen any work ongoing? The drainage has been poor at Ewood for a number of years. I assume there is a non-return installed at the discharge points, although unsure how many discharge points there actually are. Does all pitch / stadium drainage go to a single outfall? Installing the outfall extension in the way we did suggests they thought there was an issue with the non-return valve on that particular headwall. That is clearly what they blamed Ipswich on. In isolation, it is not a bad fix but evidently there's better options for the long-term Unsure whether there's an attenuation system at Ewood. If not, that has to be the only viable solution here. They can be installed relatively quickly but the design / drainage amendments could be severe. Assuming at present all drainage runs down into the River Darwen, there would be quite a piece of remedial work required to change the flow of the drainage into a crate system, unless one can be installed between the back of R/Side and River Darwen. Probably best if they used a series of smaller attenuation crate systems to create that attenuation capacity. Evidently, the current capacity is not good enough to deal with a relatively minor deluge. Typically these systems now are crated with a 1:100 year event in mind. I very much doubt Ewood were held to those standards back when it was built It's a dereliction of duty by our 'stewards'. They should really be seen as that now. £6m in infrastructure investment in 15 years. Pittance. They are not owners, they are stewards, offsetting losses and plugging gaps but never investing to improve. Things will keep falling apart whilst they own us. The drainage, the stadium, just another of Jack's legacy's not being respected.

More of the same isn’t it. Since 2010 we have had £6m invested in to infrastructure. That is the round sum of nothing for the size of the Rovers estate We we are seeing consequences at Ewood

Can’t believe I’m not hearing a Venkys out chant here

This is getting called. Can see it a mile off

That was a great way to end the first day. Every time a wicket comes for England you fear the worst - a collapse. Luckily Root played his own game today and didn't throw his bat around. Starting to get a little irritated with Brook. What a talent but he's throwing it away with this pursuit of ultra-aggressive batting. If he plays his way in he can score loads of runs. Root showing at the end what to do. There's a time and place to be aggressive. Him & Archer's partnership could be game defining. There's two thought processes for tomorrow - one part of me wants to stay in for as long as possible, maybe reach lunch as at the best case we can do. The other side of me says that may tire Archer out. Maybe it's best to keep throwing at it tomorrow morning with a hope to get a quick 30/40 runs and keep Archer fresh to come steaming in. Certainly a more interesting game than the first.

I cant say I particularly like Val either. I can give him credit for changing the formation though. Before that, I felt like he was the type of manager to be stubborn and expect players to adapt to his system For that I give him credit. Get us in the play offs and I’ll warm to him 😎

I think we need to bring in a central midfielder to come and cover Tronstad. The problem is, it’s unlikely you’ll sign his replacement in January. Not unless you’re willing to spend a bit over the odds. We won’t It’s likely we will go for a centre back and then look to supplement the squad with what is available. A centre back and centre mid for me is the priority.

Wouldn’t have happened with data analysis Rev 😉

We were good all over the pitch yesterday. Well done George Pratt - fantastic game young man and looked ever so comfortable. His passing was on point and a couple of very important blocks. Didn’t look out of place even when that lump of a man Smith tried to drop on to him Gudjohnson is becoming my favourite player. He’s a real poacher. But for those criticising his play - the chance for Smith was made harder by Gudjohnson strength. Fantastic save by Pears, but only possible due to our Icelandic super star Morishita got in the way down the right hand side early doors. He was making good runs to underlap down the right, but that was into Alebiosus space. Once Morishita played more narrow and left that right hand side space for Alebiosu we roasted them. A small tactical switch that turned our attacking fortunes around Lovely win and we climb up the table again

Miller putting McLoughlin through it. He’s got to improve on the ball