13 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

I’m intrigued with the football side, certainly looks promising, but of course the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. A DoF and a title winning, CL playing head coach is a new direction and whatever happens it’s worth the gamble for a side that had got very stale. Green shoots? Definitely.

However, the commercial side is in a bigger mess as ever. Waggott has had four years at it, and failed badly. So that’s another area where we desperately need a new broom, and I’ve no idea why he hasn’t been removed, as he has admitted himself that he is repeatedly missing his own targets. Green shoots? No, just weeds.

 

I don’t think Waggot is the answer. Maybe he’s being utilised as part of the transition. The introduction of GB feels like the beginning of the end for him. My guess is that he will leave in the next 12 months to be replaced by a ‘Commercial Director’.

4 minutes ago, J*B said:

Tell you what you’re not entitled to do though - get your back stuck up when people say you’re ITK knowledge is wrong (e.g. Mowbray has signed to be WBA manager and is taking Rothwell and Nyambe with him) - then jump on other peoples ITK posts when they turn out to be wrong. 

Re read what I said Josh.
 

I never said I knew anything. I said that Joe Rothwells Dad had announced on the train to Coventry to a group of supporters (a couple in here corroborated) that his son was going to Bournemouth on 4x what Rovers had offered and that Venus had been telling Lenihan and Nyambe not sign for anyone else because they believed they were getting the West Brom job. The end.

I didn’t say I was itk, I didn’t hold back my ‘sources’, I didn’t even say it was true, just that the conversation had happened.

Just now, Mike E said:

He's backed up his rebuttal of your assertions with evidence.

Your assertions have no supporting evidence.

I wonder who to believe?

He’s backed up literally nothing mate. Zero.

I’m not saying I ‘know’ anything. I’m just saying how can you be so specific, go silent for 10 days and then return when everything has gone the opposite of what you’ve said and profess to have ‘got it right’ by filling in the blanks retrospectively?

Glen’s a good guy and cares deeply about Rovers. I just really don’t believe he was in front of this process. I don’t.

Im entitled to that opinion and no matter how many in here jump to his defence, no doubt hoping to be the recipient of another tid bit of info in the future, you won’t change my mind.

Imo the club are showing shoots of positivity and change, for the reasons I’ve stated.  

2 hours ago, glen9mullan said:

I went on Holiday Paul, which i am allowed.

Farke was the number 1 target, he was interviewed and walked away, i didn't do the interview and cant make him take the job, so your point quite pedantic.

I won't reveal the sources, (note i said sources not source).

I can assure you it is a fact, 

You seem intent on protecting those at Ewood, maybe because they've afforded you some time for a chat.

However they and they alone are the barrier to progression, not the Owners.

 

Waffle.

38 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

Believe what you want, its your perogative.

JDT has been perfectly transparent of when and who brought him into the process and how late it was.

It played out exactly how I said, and without looking  im pretty sure also the media stated the same. 

Green shoots you speak about, and remember we are discussing those at Ewood and not venkys.

1. Academy - what about it? Its been here a long time and has always been supported by the owners. So where does the swaggott green shoot come from?

2. Community work, has always been incredible from the community trust, hence I got offices in there for work, great people, work very hard and have done for as long as i can remember. Yusir's work has been great too, but again the club haa always done things like this pre and post venkys. Where does Swaggott get green shoots here?

3. Appointments look excellent and after ballsing the process up, we had to hire an external head hunter to find and negotiate broughton, who then in turn got JDt, please tell me the greenshoot here for Swaggott?

 

The reality is Venkys have supported all the above, paid thr bills, continue to fund the club, but are massively being let down by those at Ewood.

I'm shocked if your views differ to these, but "i dont believe" suggest i'm lieing and I do not tell lies, and have zero to gain by telling lies

Glen, I’ve been openly supportive of your knowledge but in fairness, the last time you were on this board you were telling us that Farke was the man. So bearing in mind what’s happened since, during your self imposed sabbatical, it’s difficult to see how you got any of it right. This time at least…

But unless you now have links with Farke and Carvalhal's team, then the ‘information’ you passed in that post feels much more like opinion to me. More to the point, whoever potentially told you was also passing opinions. I’m not suggesting the content was a lie, just that it isn’t fact.

1) Yes, the academy. A place where over the last 5yrs has been a more and more ‘go to’ place. The number of academy graduates in the first team is increasing, year on year. That’s progression. That’s positive.

2) I was referring to the work with with Yusir. If that work was done before then god help us…1% engagement / attendance before this scheme kicked off??

3) The external head hunter was employed by design, as part of the process of finding a DoF.

Of course the standards at Ewood have been poor….but imo there are shoots of positivity, fine if you don’t see it. We can debate this stuff all day. I think we see a similar picture. We just choose to frame what we see differently. 

26 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

FFS, the rebuttals to the anti Big Sam brigade as shown just on the past few pages on here shows that statement to be complete BS.

Any supporter? You don't speak for me!

You ok hun? 🤣🤣🤣

30 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Brilliant, anywhere else I wouldn’t believe you, but at Rovers anything is possible.  What a joke of a club. They’re appointing a manager of a football club not the deputy head of a local secondary school ! 

I personally don’t believe it.

As I see it, and knowing footballers, Farke and Carvalhal were interviewed as part of a designed process. During that process, they received more lucrative / better offers and took them. No drama, no bad blood, no ‘fault’ just life…

We can’t hammer the club for being so shit for so long and then go after them again for going through the most rigorous plan they’ve EVER made resulting in what looks like a refreshingly positive new dawn.

And fir those saying they stumbled on it…they might have. Sometimes you do stumble on great luck and fuckin hell it feels great…but often that luck has been earned through hard work and because you were brave enough to stick to the plan.

The academy, community work and the recent appointments and clarification on the vision are signs of green shoots of optimism for me. Now I want to see continued shoots and delivery…COYB

4 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Winning surpasses anything else in professional sport. Success on the pitch (or lack of it) pretty much dictates everything that happens elsewhere in the club. The feeling of winning in any manner massively outweighs the feeling of playing nice football and not winning.

However each to their own.

Winning is the be all and end all of professional sport (and life imo). But we’re talking about style of football here and people are struggling to separate the two.

If you enjoyed that style of football then good for you. I love to win too…but I still know how I choose to win. I rarely compromise on either.

2 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

I enjoyed it, but then I always enjoy watching my team win!

Season tickets under San were great value for money!

I enjoyed winning too Kenny. That’s why I’ve said I would’ve kept him in context. It’s why I’ve said sacking him was arguably Venkys worst decision. He was certainly the man for that moment…but as a separate point, I (and thousands of others across the country) stand by our point that his football was vile. Anti-entertainment.

My hope for this season is to see us winning and playing high tempo, entertaining football 

4 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

In your opinion, Paul. 

I enjoyed it, loads on here are literally telling you they enjoyed it!

I respect that you didn’t, game of opinions, but don’t start telling everybody else what they did or didn’t think!
 

 

 

I’m really happy you did. Quite frankly, it made my eyes bleed.

I pray to God JDT plays better! 👍🏼

2 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

I watched a lot of their games, and found them very entertaining.

Ultimately though its a results game, id take any brand if the end result is success

Sound 👍🏼🙄

1 minute ago, Mattyblue said:

Massive generalisation based on folk you know.

You are literally seeing a load of posters right now saying they enjoyed it.

Eh? I’m seeing a load of Rovers fans saying what they think Bolton played like. Meanwhile I’m providing opinion from Bolton fans (about 20 or so - unfortunately for me) about a period in their history.

Im not seeing anyone saying that they enjoyed Sam’s brand of football at Rovers. Sure we enjoyed being a mid table PL but we were awful to watch.

18 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

100%, you use what's in your toolbox.

During his Bolton days and the JJ Okocha, Hierro etc period they played excellent football.

Results always first, and I was very disappointed when he was removed, it hadnt even crossed my mind that he would get potted.

We've suffered ever since for that decision, and everything which has come since will always go back to that one decision.

They really did not.
 

Most of my family and all of my wife’s family are Bolton fans. They all love Sam. He’s a Bolton legend. But they still say his football was terrible and when comparing to their all time great teams prefer the exciting football of Rioch in the Mcginlay era.

Sam was a one trick pony, and a bloody good one at that. But ask any supporter at any club he managed whether they enjoyed the football. The answer is always the same…

3 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

No it was often a bloody good win at Ewood. 

If you stopped enjoying being a comfortable PL side with a fantastic home record and a packed Ewood that’s up to you, I loved it and knew the day of his sacking where we were going to end up.
 

I loved being a mid table PL side. But I hated the football. HATED it. It literally made me feel like not wanting to watch.

For the record, there’s no way I would’ve sacked him. Sam, Williams and Finn were Venkys golden ticket. Their decision on that trio has genuinely cost them £200m 🙈

13 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

‘Deflated’ walking out with 25,000 fellow fans after another one of our internationals put the gloss on a 3-0 win, checking the table and seeing us in the top half of the Premier League… ‘first world problems’, I think they call it.

The problem was, it wasn’t 3-0. It was usually walking out feeling deflated after watching the most horrendous match of your life before a long punt upto Samba in 88th minute had been headed down for Diouf to bundle over the line and make it 1-0….and those were the exciting ones! God forbid we go 1-0 in the 70th minute and you’d be treated to 10 at the back for the remaining 20 mins 🙈

Its the first and only time in my life when I stopped enjoying us win. Like a weird form of torture.

3 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

They are post early bird prices. Preston for example sold most of theirs at around £280.

Whereas even our early bird started at £400 - £500 for existing ST holders, £429 - £529 for new and returning.

Fair enough, but we’ve missed those now anyway. So I say crack on and add as much value as possible…then next season, offer a proper early bird offer in January and continue the positivity into the summer to top up…

The problem commercially of course is that if PNE have done 10k at £280 and 2k at £450 (£3.7m) and we do 10k at £450 then it makes sense (for the money men) to stick to their guns. Though from a playing point of view, and extra 2k guaranteed in the ground would be ideal! Argh!

1 hour ago, Wheelton Blue said:

Sales of season tickets is just basic 'supply and demand' economics.

Unlike say Luton, the supply is effectively infinite. We'll never, ever in a million years shift 31,000 season tickets at Ewood.

The demand is also evidently not there.

Therefore, to increase demand, either the perceived value of the 'product' needs to increase, or the price needs to drop.

Waggot either needs to add more value to the product - a free shirt for example - or reduce the price.

Exactly - based on some of the comparable figures I’ve seen for northern 2nd tier clubs, I’m now firmly in the camp that the club MUST continue to add value and increase engagement, comms and motivation.

The costs are more or less aligned with the likes of Burnley and Preston. Clubs that we will expect to compete with and beat.

Interesting if correct….doesn’t look like the pricing is off? 

3 minutes ago, goozburger said:

The cost of living is hitting us all hard. Prices are going up everywhere and will continue to do so. It'll make people think twice about buying a season ticket at £400, especially when that's probably the extra amount needed to cover rising costs of oil, petrol, services like Netflix, and so on. It all adds up and eats into precious monthly income.

The club needs to rescue the situation. Rovers will have had their JDT boost, but I'll be amazed if we sell an average of 39 a day and get close to 10,000 unless something changes. Sharpe suggested something might be afoot with a rethink the other day. I guess we'll see.

Fingers crossed. We want as many people in the ground as possible…but re-funding is a huge gamble at this stage. Give 8000 people £100 back and only sell an extra 1000 st’s at £300 and you’ve absolutely fucked it! 🙈😩

10 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Me too, we could get a crack team together from ‘negative brfcs’ that could do more for ‘positive’ sales than any of the clowns they appoint down there…

Negativity on BRFC’s????? Those days are long gone!!! 😊

8 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Last year was also £400 - £500.

 We won’t sell close to 10k.

We did 8k whilst still in Covid-ish and the most dour, drab vibe ever with most fans expecting a relegation fight….of course we can do 10k this season!! 💪🏽

Just now, Mattyblue said:

Love the enthusiasm Paul, but you are just not getting big numbers through the door at this price point for second second division football whatever bells and whistles are provided.

Now reduce the price to go lockstep with a side at the top end of the table and you will see a healthy increase. A winning team is the momentum builder for STs, reduced pricing seals the deal.

 

* Though this is all a moot discussion anyway as this club just doesn’t have the commercial wherewithal.

Hmmmm I reckon we could do it!

Though your last point runs truest of all. I’d honestly work for free if they’d listen! 😩🤣

2 minutes ago, Tom said:

Now would be the perfect time to announce a reduction along with an open training session at Ewood / family day in the first week of school holidays and blitz it with promo material 

The iron is hot, time to strike 

I’d love some money back, but we only sold 8k last season at an average of £300?? We’ll potentially do 10k or more at £400 with the renewed positivity….would you reduce them and hand money back or turn up the positivity and hope we trickle up to 11k??

The Family days with guest appearances from GB and gorgeous Jon are a great idea though! 

3 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

This season? No chance, literally zero. Perhaps in the future though, but not at these prices.

Going forward, hopefully the kicking and negative press they’ve had over STs this close season, plus the obvious success of our neighbours reporting big jumps in sales means we won’t see such ridiculous pricing again.

Honestly, I don’t think you need to drop prices if you provide tons of value to the customer and improve their lives. Make them feel proud to be a Rovers fan again. Make it cool…give people more for their money. More value, better entertainment, clearer communication, a team they can relate to, excitement, pride!! People will find the money, just like our parents (my Dad) did for us / me back in the 80’s and 90’s.

16 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

To make the necessary changes it requires brain power and effort. The people running the club have neither.

It’s not that hard mate….honestly, I reckon an hour or two with some of this forum would do them the world of good….

I think I could set up implement a direct emailing campaign and a supporting eco system inside two weeks / a month max that could get us to 12k st’s - research and segment the target audiences, create the copy to enhance each group separately and roll out our new darlings (GB & JDT) - BOOOOM!

Ok, I’m getting overexcited now….it’s just such a shame they’re so average at this.