Is it because he and his family are deciding which house to buy near (but not too near) to Luton?

I thought he did too, on the back on a con scheme. Feel for the fans there, but surely if he was both owner and benefactor (I think you are right and that he was), they are in trouble

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-66099646 Fleetwood Towns owner has been jailed for 13 years for fraud. Any chance that the fact that he once employed Joey Barton as manager sparked initial reservations and investigations about his moral character?

I meant he looked hard working and a tryer, yes I agree that Poland created little if anything,

The Polish forward (Pienko is it?) looks quite lively

This may be more than a bit dry for some, but I found it quite interesting (and it helped me put off a job that I don't want to do, lol), even if it does just reinforce a lot of what we already know. It's the reported wage bill taken from most recent accounts (figures are in Million £s) of all clubs who were in the Championship in 22/23 and/or 23/24 Due to accounting dates, these figures are essentially for the 21/22 season this will mean that the figures from some teams will be from whilst they were in either the Premier League or League 1 It does show that Rovers are essentially a middle of the road wage payer, aside from those who have spent time outside the Championship over this period, we are amongst a glut of teams with roughly the same wage bill. There also seem to be a few basket case clubs (Stoke, WBA, Birmingham, Cardiff) who are seriously underachieving based upon wage bills. Middlesbrough also spend more than most but seem to do much better than the others mentioned. Special mentions to Coventry and Luton who show that a good league finish can be achieved without overspending, but as both teams recently spent numerous seasons below the Championship, it may be that their wage bills will catch up with others soon (Luton's probably this season in the Premier League) Just for reference, in League 1, Rovers wage bill was £16.8M, which jumped to £22.4M for their first season back in the Championship. So it would not be unreasonable to assume that the 'bigger' clubs who were in L1 at the time of these accounts (Sunderland, Ipswich, Sheff Wed) now have wage bills which are at the very least comparable to ours. Also worth noting Hull seem to be changing their buying strategy since these numbers were publicised and have spent big money on wages on international players last season (Darlow, Pelkas, Seri, Tufan, Estupinan, Traore, Tettah and others) 21/22 Season wage bill (in £M) Division at the time Leicester 180.4 PL Southampton 113.4 PL Leeds 103.5 PL Burnley 92 PL Norwich 91 PL Watford 78.6 PL Sheff Utd overdue (previous accounts state 56.5) Champ (previous figure used was when in PL) Stoke 35.6 Champ WBA 37.5 Champ Birmingham 31.1 Champ Cardiff 29.2 Champ Middlesbrough 28.4 Champ QPR 24.8 Champ Swansea 24.5 Champ ROVERS 24.4 Champ Huddersfield overdue (previous accounts state 24.6) Champ PNE 24 Champ Bristol C 23.8 Champ Reading 22.4 Champ Millwall 22.3 Champ Sheff Wed due end of July (previous accounts state 21.1) L1 (previous figure used was when in Champ) Sunderland 16.1 L1 Ipswich . 16.4 L1 Coventry 15.7 Champ Luton 15.6 Champ Wigan 13 L1 Hull 12.7 Champ (promoted previous season) Blackpool 10.3 Champ (promoted previous season) Rotherham 5.8 L1 Plymouth 5.5 L1 Please note that I am NOT an accountant, all wage figures have been taken from a (very quick) glance over the accounts (so feel free to 'fact check' me) as reported here. Wage bills quoted are totals for all staff at the clubs, not just playing staff https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00053482/filing-history I have no idea why Sheffield Wednesday's accounts are not due until the end of this month

Fingers crossed it does. Nothing particular against Cardiff (although I do find this whole refusing to pay that fee to be quite distasteful), more so that it negatively impacts one of our rivals, so more chance of success this season

You will be interested in this then, others probably will be too https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2023/june/30/finneran-shines-for-club-and-country/ He has been named Ireland U15 player of the year, sounds like he has his head screwed on right too

Enjoy, hope it is a good game for you, let us know how our guys get on please

Hosts apparently https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_UEFA_European_Under-19_Championship

And they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids

Oh? I was right on a finance question? I feel all proud of myself

I am more than happy to defer to your knowledge in these situations

By 'that loophole', I meant selling club infrastructure to subsidiary companies. As I said, I'm not 100% on this (I'm sure someone will be along shortly to either confirm this or tell me I'm wrong though) , but if that loophole has been closed, we cannot sell further sites to other Venky owned corporations

Pretty sure that loophole is now closed, which is why we did it when we did (last chance to do so)

I think I still lost 😉

lol That being said, its all arbitrary, I almost started arguing with my original point, lol

Maybe, but Rovers have won a few things since the Prem started, and even in terms of number of years spent in the top division, pretty sure we are a fair way ahead. I know PNE, Huddersfield were very successful pre WW1 But pretty sure its only Rovers who were one of the big boys then, and have recovered to win things since the Prem years.... still only half way through that coffee though so still non committal 😉 Edit - could make an argument for Everton maybe?

Indeed, I suppose Rovers are a little unique in this regard, they fare quite well with honours won over "all time" or with one of the arbitrary cut off points (Premier League formed), but if someone's cut off metric is the war, then we become a middle of the road club at best. I cant think that many other clubs (if any) would be similar in that regard? But it is early and I need more coffee before I commit fully to that statement 😉

Talk of "big" clubs does get silly, everyone has their own definition, normally based upon whatever metric makes someone's own club bigger. Trophies won (usually with an arbitrary cut off date point, but not if you are a Rover because most of ours were won in the early days of football), Crowd size (so that fans of clubs in big cities, with huge catchment areas or even Plymouth Argyle can claim they are huge because their crowds of 15000 or 16000 in league 1, conveniently ignoring that they are the only club for about a gazillion miles in any direction and don't have a host of Premier League clubs on their doorstep, or Current standing (for me, history has to count for something, Brentford, Brighton etc are good, well run clubs, but they are certainly not big clubs)

I wonder if this administrative error was caused by the same person who couldn't use a fax machine in January? https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23620502.administrative-error-behind-blackburn-rovers-director-announcements/

Yep, he looked like a neat and tidy one with a good engine who could kick on, real shame, fingers crossed he can get fit and playing at a decent level even if its ultimately not with us (very hard to come back after a 2 year break from playing at his age I would think) Good to see the club supporting young players in situations like this though

Whitehall has signed a 1 year contract, looks like its to help him during recovery https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2023/june/28/isaac-signs-new-rovers-deal/

lol, Surely they don't think Potters stock has fallen to such an extent that he would even consider a Championship team? Would have thought he would be one of the first names on the list for Mid/Lower Prem teams? The mess at Chelsea seemed to be more a case of a ridiculous scattergun approach to transfers, and no firepower, neither of which were Potters fault in my opinion (Director of Football Model/the owner playing real life Football Manager 2023)

Getting it down the channels and banging it in the box is a way to win.... he has also just spent years watching Pep at Man City. So I am sure that Wilcox is aware that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Also I am fairly certain that as academy director at Man City Wilcox's remit would have been as far away from 'get it quickly down the channels' as you can possibly imagine! It might be that Southampton have the biggest budget in the division and that 'Martinball' works wonders with the biggest budget and best players in the division That being said, I think Martin is a hilariously bad appointment. and a very dislikeable guy too, so I really hope he fails