That's ok if you are Real Madrid but we'd lose our best players every single year for free if that was the case...

Imagine you give the bloke a 6 year contract and we end up going on a 15 game losing run and a dressing room fall out? The pay off would be astronomical. Managers these days should be used to short contract lengths. 2 years, 3 at most.

I'd say playing a part in 13 goals in 10 games is getting more than involved in each game. ?

That's taken me back a bit. What makes you think that? And Kasey Palmer has scored 3 goals. He's not played badly.

There are lots of options out there in varying positions. It's of no doubt that, at this moment in time, there is an argument to be had that the £6m could have been spent better. Brereton may kick on and become the multi million pound player he's meant to be. However, you can't help but look around and see the business teams like Brentford, Norwich, Derby, Boro, Villa etc have done and be envious we spent such huge sums of money on a player that hasn't made an impact. Most may be loan signings but they are certainly loan with fees attached (Mount, Wilson at Derby or Kalas at Bristol City to name a few) they have certainly made better use of available funds. I hope Brereton kicks on and proves the doubters wrong. My only fear is that the first big outlay we've had in years under the Venkys may turn out to be a flop. It's far too early to be judging as such though.

Well his release clause of £2.5m is a pretty good guarantee

I genuinely still believe we can make a push for play offs. At the beginning of the season I was predicting lower table - survival being the aim. However on our day we tore apart Stoke (albeit nearly collapsing) and that first 60 minutes sticks in my memory. We've ground out some results, thrown others away and had 2 dismal performances, although both them have been against 2 teams almost nailed on for a play off push. Without particularly playing well we are still sitting in mid table and look a lot better than other clubs. If we can settle our midfield down and get our defence on the same hymn sheet we have a great chance of putting together a run of wins. January is important as one thing that has been missing is natural width and our final ball from out wide at times is awful. Bennett is an industrious player but he isn't the most creative. We have to develop a system that allows us to release the shackles of feeling the need to play Smallwood & Evans together. If this means investing in centre backs/full backs and dropping what we have then so be it. If Mowbray can't justify playing only 1 holding midfield at home then there's serious concerns about our defence. Last season we adapted after a poor start and went from strength to strength. I think we will do the same here. There's a lot of quality in this squad waiting to shine and a few players that must believe their chance to impress is coming. Rothwell, Palmer, Dack, Armstrong and dare I say it Brereton all have the potential to make this team a serious top half contender. I'd start with dropping Bennett from RB and playing either Travis or Reed there, preferably Reed. He did well at Norwich there. Play Evans and Rothwell in the middle and give Armstrong, Dack, Palmer or Bennett the freedom to move between the front 3. It's all a bit rigid at the moment. It will come though as the confidence increases.

That is some leap and a rather unfair judgement on Mowbray.

Marcus Maddison.

Raya Travis Lenihan Mulgrew (or Williams if Mulgrew out) Bell Evans Rothwell Bennett Dack Palmer Graham

Yep. There's a fine line between being hard to beat and making it hard to win. We need to find that. Ben Brereton has a long way to come to justify the money spent on him. He needs a long run in the team however, to do that, Graham would need dropping. It's a no brainer who starts for me.

This is the key to this debate in my opinion. The truth is that no matter how we try and dress up the figures financially it makes sense to keep the pricing structure as it is - it's why almost every single football club in England operates the same way. The onus has to be on the owners of football clubs to understand that TV revenue will continue to flow in and, in a sense, subsidise the tickets for going on the ground. People often bring in the Bundesliga as an example of how this can work. The chairman of Bayern Munich once said something along the lines of "the extra few million we'd generate from charging tickets like English clubs we'd argue about for minutes in a transfer deal so it's not worth milking my fans like cows". They understand that the money flowing through clubs means the ST sales is a drop in the ocean. Whilst this is true in leagues like the PL, Bundesliga, La Liga etc it is not so much true in the Championship - the money on offer in the aforementioned league dwarfs the competition prize money in our current league. Yet, even in the PL, English football clubs continue to rip off supporters and take advantage of the blind loyalty of a football fan. How can we expect the EFL clubs to change their pricing structure when the clubs who have no real reason to charge such prices (Arsenal...) charge extortionate amounts themselves? It's a matter for the FA, Football League and EPL. This gripe isn't synonymous with Blackburn Rovers as we are only really doing what 98% of clubs are doing. All club owners, FA directors etc have to realise that there is a risk, despite the increase in football 'support', of clubs like us losing massive volumes in fans because of the inaccessibility of match day tickets and the accessibility of TV. However all this relies on owners' generosity or the TV money being reliable long into the future. Initiatives like "all in tickets" (home and away), or if you are a repeat customer your season ticket price reduces accordingly etc can't be all that hard to bring into play. The money of football should stop being handed to agents and start being trickled down to the lifeblood of the sport: fans,

Do you think that if a fan on the day decided to walk on that an additional £3 charge would make him change his mind? A pretty good analysis of whether or not the surcharge works - in terms of the club having early bookings as opposed to on the day - is to see how many people book in advance of the surcharge compared to those that don't. If most don't and end up paying the surcharge then the club has a decision to either scrap it in favour of providing cost savings to supporters or continue in cashing in on supporters as they are doing now.

It was one of Nyambe's worst performances in a while. I hope he bounces back from this and the injury. I'd imagine Reed would be a direct replacement for him unless Mowbray trusts Travis out there. These stats from you really highlight how important Bennett, Graham and Dack are. They rarely have a piece of terrible play attributed to them. Fantastic players.

It was just a bit of a crude calculation really. Not to be taken as fact in any way but I just wanted to highlight the other side really. There is just as much money to be made from depending on walk ons, however sad it is.

At what cost? The young lads haven't been coming to Rovers week in week out for years and simply won't do just because we half tickets. It's not an over night process. There's a hundred factors out there to as why they aren't showing - the biggest one being that we are no longer at the level the young generation have been accustomed to.

Nottingham has double the population we have and a large student population. It makes sense for them to try and attract that age of fan. As a bit of an example: if we go by our 9600 current ST holders at an average of £350 (I don't know if this is the avg - just a guess) then our ST sales - £3,360,000. If we halved our prices, and let's say this attracts another 3 thousand, so 13600 at £175 = £2,380,000. We are essentially losing £1million because, as history tells us, that approx 9600 will buy a ST year in year out regardless. You may have the argument that the approx. additional 3000 people will spend more on the bar/facilities but that means an average spend of £15 quid every game pp. Not even taking into account the additional overheads that comes with catering for them. However, if we argue that there was 3000 walk ons yesterday at £30 pp then you've already made near enough one tenth of that £1 million you'd lose through having them in the ground every game in walk on fees alone and you've still maximised your ST sales. And we have another 22 games in which to capitalise. It is a sad way of looking at it but the truth is that money talks. The real question would be to evaluate which is more of a concern to the owners: a full ground, atmosphere and a product that "sells" or the bottom line on the accounting sheets. Clubs like Huddersfield, West Brom etc all know that they don't particularly need the additional revenue from high ST sales so rather sell the event, I bet at times at a loss - like some Bundesliga teams do.

Dean Henderson. Prick. He'll get some respite this season for one half probably backed by a large Sheffield away following. Shame really - he was a nob of the highest order and deserves all the stick he gets. Both teams to score - draw is a pretty good bet for Rovers this season. Would have earned you a few quid if you backed it. On that note, another 2-2 is my guess. Would be delighted with a win and this squad is certainly capable of beating the "better sides" (Brenford, Stoke)

It wouldn't be shrewd business if you can get them for free 6 months later. We are doing fine without them. I wasn't saying it to disagree with Chaddy at all. I'm sure even you remember how often I expressed doubts at Chapman's fitness. Now that Bauer has also done his ligaments in his knee I'd be looking elsewhere in Jan. I think Chapman is a good player but his list of injuries at his age is concerning!! Besides, with Bauer's knee injury I'd argue he'd be struggling to get back to fitness up until Christmas. Would you be signing an injured player? I'd rather we didn't. Them ligament injuries have a nasty habit of reoccurring not long after being "healed".

Why would we be signing someone who has hardly got a minute this season and a lad who has just done his ligaments in? I'm confused. We don't need either of them, we need better.

I've found myself no longer rushing home to get back for the mid week games. I've watched our mid week home games on Sky despite having a ST and I actually live just off Livesy Branch. Last season I was leaving work early to ensure I beat any traffic, getting in and changing and going straight out. This season that willpower to drop everything I am doing at work and rush home (I work quite far from Blackburn usually) hasn't been there. I'd often find myself getting to about 5pm and thinking "oh well, I'll get back to mine probably just after kick off, maybe just before" and continuing to finish what I'm doing. What is the point in me increasing my workload the following days when I can still catch the game? It's a predicament I thought I'd never be in when I was younger but responsibilities soon take over - combined with the fact that it's now convenient to catch it on tele! I could probably still rush down Livesy and catch most of the 1sd half, only missing the first 15/20 some days, but why would I?

Our money has been spent on depth. You should really try and include the bench in that calculation. Our bench now includes the likes of Rothwell, Davenport, Brereton, Palmer, Armstrong and soon to be Davenport and Rodwell. That is a lot stronger than last season. We of course still have areas to improve. I don't think Mowbray could land a centre half in truth - he must have tried. It is reasonable to expect more from Brereton than we have seen but he is a new signing and has yet to really have a true run in the team. Signings like Reed, Palmer and Rothwell have all been successes in their relatively few appearances.

Waggott obviously has the business idea out of making the most from what little he has. He's obviously decided that by charging the remaining 10 or so thousand that go regularly more he'd make more money than halving the cost of tickets for a possible extra 2 thousand. The truth is that people want to watch quality. We haven't had that for years and, with the off field issues also, it has led to a demise in attendance. I'd bet my last quid that if Rovers can still get play offs then the final 3 or 4 home games will see a rise in attendances. Likewise a return to the Premier League will see crowds of 20k returning also. The boycott has died a death. There are of course a few hundred, maybe even a thousand, still actively "boycotting" but most that began the boycott now simply don't go because they have found other ways to fill their time. I would go as far as to say that even if Venkys went tomorrow we may see a boom in attendances for a few weeks but it would slowly dwindle back down to regular levels. We have to understand that as a club we are in a competitive area. The town is small, and a fair portion of the population have no real love for the game let alone the club, and it's become less of a youth pursuit to follow their local club up and down the country. Short of making it to the PL we'll only really have attendances like we used to have (20k+) for derbies, big cup games or games like Oxford where there is a real chance of winning something.

And what hasn't made you happy? His worst performance was against Bristol City when in truth everyone that day had a bad performance. Every other game he's either been good or average. He certainly hasn't ever stood out as the worst player in any game he's played in.

West Brom? (I double dip super promise it will be on time this time - roverseas won't steal my limelight twice)