There really should be something like this at Ewood on the hill. Not as a prank but as a photogenic promotional opportunity. If the club paid for it then the council ought to agree. The only reason not to is anti-publicity. 

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/18551251.mystery-solved-ossywood-five-prank-15-years/

4 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Can’t believe you still feel the need to respond and can’t grasp the context.

Funny thing is people look at the likes of Wigan and worry that it could be us when Venkys finally turn off the taps, yet also seem to think we have loads of time on our side.

We need promotion. It’s not about “one game of football”, it’s about the business end of what could have been a promotion season.

You just look at things through a simplistic lens. Of course family is important but he needs to provide for that child for the next 18 years, not for one day.

Was the baby even born yesterday?

They could have considered inducing too. Can't be risky parents do it quite often so Father can flatter his ego being present at the birth.

If people believe Lenihan should have been present they could always keep that opinion to themselves. Rather than patting themselves on their back on how they have such high values. People don't realise that fans act as promotional vehicles for the club. 

On 01/07/2020 at 19:57, Oldgregg86 said:

Can I just say I love rovers literally more than anything in life with exception of my one and only child. I would miss the champions league final if I was playing for rovers and they reached the final to be at the birth of my daughter. Lenihan has absolutely done the right thing

It's 2020 and there's cameras now. "Having to be there" just seems to be about ego really and patting themselves on the back. Far as I'm concerned parents should be judged on what their child turns out to be like (though in some extreme cases children will be a disappointment no matter what their parents do) not because they happened be in the immediate vicinity when the child was born.

Not sure what people expected from Lenihan though. He's not even a Rovers fan. His kid will be dressed up in a Man United shirt right now in all likelihood not a Rovers one.

1 hour ago, Lucimo said:

No you are right I don't care either. But I'd rather not laugh(publicly) for fear it will bite us on the arse at a later stage 

Should people never celebrate anything on the basis Venkys might pull out? I don't care about Wigan as such but you could say Whelan is Wigan. The club might as well be renamed Whelan Athletic. They never amounted to anything until the day he took over. FUP loving hypocrite who hopefully will now get his long deserved comeuppance. 

Did say recently that if the club focused on signing edgier, cooler personalities (the type who aren't interested in having a wife and bunch of kids) this type of issue wouldn't be a problem. 

Dack's said the images he posted of a frog and cup of coffee had nothing to do with Wigan.

Just now, Norbert Rassragr said:

This could be the start of quite a few clubs having issues, including us. There are only so many billionaires and rich Chinese business groups interested in buying a club, but plenty of shoddy con men and blaggers who can pass the tests. 

...and the EFL would rather open the door to them than billionaires with ambition. 

2 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

Whelan doesn’t own them any more and hasn’t for a while. I doubt his FFP stance would deter any buyers, unless you had a few quid lying behind your sofa....

Where did I say he owned them? I'm quite aware of that though wasn't aware they had another takeover just weeks ago! More brilliant EFL work. Perhaps if they spent less time bullying genuinely rich owners at crooked UEFA's behest takeovers like this and Charlton wouldn't happen. 

Thanks to Whelan's shamelessly hypocritical support of FUP they will probably find it harder to find a buyer. 

Guess what goes around comes around.

23 hours ago, rigger said:

didn't Gordon Lee have a similar policy?

What policy was that? He had a "no stars" policy at Newcastle/Everton but that was in a higher division. 

36 minutes ago, The Hypnotic said:

Another way of looking at it is that signing a player is a form of capital investment for a football club. I’m sure plenty of companies that have furloughed staff will keep investing in an effort to stay competitive with their rivals. Are football clubs any different?

Athletic Bilbao rarely pay transfer fees due to their policy of only signing basque players. Never been relegated from La Liga. I'm not interested in a "locals only" policy but with FUP what's the point in spending transfer fees? Sign players with edgier personalities, give them freedom and who's to say it wouldn't work? Bilbao manage it with such a limited catchment area compared to all of Europe like most clubs have. You could also have a policy of only signing young players on lengthy contracts. If they refuse to play at some point sue the hell out of them. Nobody would join under such circumstances? Who knows? Clubs should do things on their own terms only (those not crippled by FUP aside) and sometimes that's worth more than any transfer fee. 

I was surprised that Man United of all clubs offered refunds. Shame really considering most of their fans are lowlifes.

Just now, Mattyblue said:

The 1960 cup final ticket debacle took decades to get over. We have never recovered from the Kean nightmare.

As JH says, we could be staring down the barrel of mass non renewals. Only anecdotal, but the mood music on renewals I’m picking up from long standing fans worries me...
 

Then make it virtually free and be radical. Do anything and I mean virtually ANYTHING for publicity. It's either that or be a boring low profile club with the current league position and FUP.

In more recent years was involved with the Dan Williams takeover bid.

Why should anyone refuse a refund under the current ownership? Granted it's hardly putting money into their pockets.

1 hour ago, JoeH said:

Yes very worrying. David Lowe's famous pre-season fitness challenge is often talked about in a bit of a comedic tone by former players (see David Dunn's Undr The Cosh podcast on YouTube), but perhaps in 2020 it should be taken a little more seriously and there should be someone evaluating the actual quality of running in that way. 

Considering Dunn's predictable failure as a manager what right has he got to mock other people's methods? Or anything related to fitness for that matter.

36 minutes ago, Stuart said:

If Venkys stop funding the player wages then the club folds. That’s just life, sadly.

That should not stop any of us expecting to be treated as valued supporters. Nothing that ‘the club’ has done since Waggott arrived suggests that. (I expect you’ll dismiss it but do you remember when the club used to win Family Club of the Year awards, for instance?).

If the club hadn’t furloughed staff then it would be infinitely more acceptable as Blackburn people’s livelihoods would be dependent on it. But otherwise they have their cake and want to eat it too.

iFollow could be about to sign up to a lucrative deal to show Championship matches on a much wider scale. All clubs should stick together and insist that 2019/20 ST holders get those games they’ve paid for free. Doesn’t cost anything to anyone, meanwhile iFollow get an increase in market share. Wonder if they will do that?

Did in League 1 for what that's worth. Hardly surprising with the facilities compared to other clubs in that league who also don't have a room filled with games consoles. Staff were quick to self congratulate.

On 26/05/2020 at 10:06, DE. said:

Honestly I've just stopped watching modern wrestling entirely. I still watch the odd Nitro or Raw from the 90s if I want something playing in the background that I don't have to pay much attention to, but wrestling without crowd reactions is just boring to me. I'm not sure I'll watch again until crowds are allowed back into the arenas. 

Have to wonder how the crowed may have responded to Tyson/Jericho pull apart. As someone old enough to have watched the Tyson/Austin incident under similar circumstances it was always going to come across as a weaker imitation especially with no crowd. JR's commentary reflected that as well because it was almost impossible to capture the same intensity as that moment. Jericho's a star but he's not Austin. Tyson is noticeably calmer these days as well (even after his daughter's death) so there's slightly less of an aura there. Of course if you're gonna bring in Tyson it makes sense to have him involved in a confrontation. Perhaps he will be in a match and that will certainly get some publicity. 

Just now, roversfan99 said:

Not sure it is wise to be sniffing around gooch.

There's a headline! It's a weird term anyway what's wrong with "looking at" or "interested in"?

...and what about the clubs that had little financial choice in the matter? Of course Venkys probably wouldn't be included in that financial category but it's not like the staff are doing much so why not furlough them? The club has done absolutely zero to gain publicity in the current environment. For me it would be a good excuse to fire some of them and bring in some creative minds to shake things up.

55 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Mowbray has been the most staunchly supported manager we’ve had for a long time. Rarely been a murmur against him in 3 years at Ewood, and we’ve seen some horrendous runs of form. He’d have been hounded at many other Championship clubs.

Ewood Park as a place that is ’Very fickle’,  a ‘tough environment’ that ‘quickly turns’ is just not true in the slightest.

Some people are scared of raising any form of dissent. The morons who tried to disrupt the Kean protests and drove many people away. Granted it's not comparable to that but people know that any form of protest would be treated with derision and threats of violence.

On 27/05/2020 at 08:09, JoeH said:

Lost all hope of the Women's game having any kind of integrity a few years back when they made up those new divisions based solely on reputation and money rather than who'd won the Divisions and the Cups. Abysmal from the people involved at board level there.

About as fair as UEFA. Man United and Liverpool are on the same page when it suits them. Liverpool actually outdoing Man United fans with their whining about FUP in recent months. Would rather see the season continue in some fashion though (as long as it's finished in 2020) so Liverpool can get closer to reclaiming the most titles record.  

They were lucky that Rovers were meek enough to accept being robbed of promotion without taking it all the way to CAS and beyond.

1 hour ago, JoeH said:

Well yes that's a very separate discussion but absolutely a consideration. I don't think the Rao's are going to struggle big time financially, but I guess there's always a fear they could just cut us off. I don't think that looming possibility will ever go away though, that could happen at any time despite a worldwide pandemic. Scary to think about them walking away without writing that debt off. 

Of course you can't trust anything they do but if they aren't gonna sell now when will they? If something happens to Balaji perhaps since he's rumoured to have been the one who wants to keep it? His son would appear to have an interest and perhaps would have a cleaner slate than the rest of the family. 

Not to mention there was that story about an attempted kidnap on Venkatesh. That's something I would really like to know more about. I doubt 100% that had anything to do with Rovers fans. An opportunist who felt they were idiots and an easy target perhaps?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4480682/Who-guilty-trashing-historic-club-like-Blackburn.html

Mike Tyson will appear live on Dynamite this upcoming week. Rather underwhelming appearance at the PPV but at least it looks like something bigger is planned. 

Another reason why Academy is a waste of time.