Fixtures out today for the Women (hopefully we will complete them!). I don't have any social media but the news article on the Rovers website doesn't actually give a list, just a summary, and the Fixtures page just contains a TBC note. Since Rovers seemingly can't provide a list, I shall. All fixtures are 1400 on Sundays bar the League Cup ties v. Hudds (H) and Chorley (A, at Euxton Villa), and Chorley (H) in the League, which are midweek at 1945. https://fulltime.thefa.com/fixtures.html?selectedSeason=665134431&selectedFixtureGroupKey=1_682618707&selectedDateCode=all&selectedClub=763334555&selectedTeam=&selectedRelatedFixtureOption=3&selectedFixtureDateStatus=&selectedFixtureStatus=&previousSelectedFixtureGroupAgeGroup=&previousSelectedFixtureGroupKey=1_682618707&previousSelectedClub=&itemsPerPage=25

Quite fitting for a man who literally has 'Talent ain't enough' tattooed on his neck, I suppose.

There was a half time show, featuring Coldplay and friends.

Too many games that aren't financially lucrative.

In fairness the present European champions winning it also makes a mockery of it, as it is what usually happened under the old format (that was done in a week / two games for Europeans!).

I have never been one for retiring shirt numbers for whatever reason, it implies that a given player is bigger than the club which should never be true. Clubs who retire number 12 as 'the fans are the twelfth man' should be liquidated and their directors imprisoned.

Steve Parish complaining should be a form of NHS treatment. Delightful stuff. It seems to me for once Uefa followed their own rules and, be those rule 'right' or 'wrong', it is the responsibility of the administrative staff at whichever Club to ensure they comply. Palace failed to do so and have been reprimanded accordingly.

Not forgetting the huge sums they are throwing at their plans to basically build the Midlands' answer to the Etihad Campus, 60,000-seater stadium included. For a city financially its knees, as Birmingham is, that kind of investment and regeneration is a godsend. Imagine owning a football club and investing not only to improve the team, but also the locale... The owners may have shat the bed initially but I doubt there is a Bluenose in the land at the minute not pining for the season to start. I suspect most will have forgiven them when they basically gave them an actual blank cheque to barnstorm their way out of League 1, at a canter we are unlikely to see again in any EFL division for a very long time.

I was in Liverpool in early May so went for a wander around Goodison Park as at that point it was due to be levelled. It struck me how every spare inch of the three sides that back directly onto roadside were covered in Everton shouting about themselves - massive pictures and names of legendary players on the Goodison Road side and a detailed timeline of their entire history across the Bullens Road / Gwladys Street ends - including a few Rovers references! There is of course also the Trinity statue in the one corner and a massive fans wall with dedications and memorials that faces onto the roadside too. Compare and contrast that to Ewood... (I have only ever been inside Goodison once, with Rovers in Feb 2006. It was infamous for Everton's stand-in keeper Iain Turner getting sent off within 10 minutes. We still lost of course and now that 'kid' in goal is in his 40s... an even younger 'kid' came on to replace him - John Ruddy!)

Got it - @rog of the rovers is spot on. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18.0&lat=53.74828&lon=-2.48457&layers=117746211a&right=ESRIWorld A side by side of the era, clearly marking the St. Leger Hotel where the Derian House shop now stands. (I accept no responsibility for hours lost on the website linked - lots of layers available for years gone by in the filters.)

Reading @rog of the rovers's post above, I was soooo close 😁

King William Street in the era of the St. Leger was continuous with Darwen Street - i.e. ploughing straight through what in recent years was Debenhams. As such, judging by the caption from the CottonTown picture, the Prince of Wales is roughly where the ramp goes up to the Mall from the bus stop on Astley Gate and St. Leger was directly opposite the Derian House charity shop, diagonally opposite from Greggs. (Per August 2024 Google Streetview.)

Football is prolific at this. All about being seen to show 'class' / 'respect' / 'one family' / '... at times like this'. Of course whenever anyone plays Liverpool next season they'll be back to Hillsborough and unemployment chants. I still remember the Saturday after the Queen snuffed it. Football shut down a la Covid whilst rugby league played a full card that weekend. A minute's silence beforehand was the only indication of a wider national event.

Some of us are so far off that we had to Google him 😬

Filey? Bit extravagent. We'll probably end up with a day out in Corporation Park.

In decades to come when some bod in Blackburn Museum is leafing through a box of old photographs from Rovers' 150th birthday, they'll probably spend most of the time wondering why everyone was waving plastic snakes about. Knowing our luck it will stick like the black cat in Sunderland's old team pictures and we'll get nicknamed the Adders or something.

I for one cannot wait for Google Arsenal Cannons vs. Microsoft Manchester Blues at the Super Awesome Life Insurance Arena in Kansas City in the 2035 Premier League. Americans will love this and old boys from Islington or Gorton who stood on the terraces at Highbury or Maine Road back in the 1960s should dry their misty eyes and be grateful some lads in Jakarta can watch it now. Of course, us Rovers fans will all have found other pursuits as the Great Franchising Act of 2032 saw Blackburn Rovers FC disbanded and moved to a field in Bedfordshire, as the newly established Disneyland UK were looking for a sporting outlet to boost marketing. Legacy fans will be gently encouraged to follow the remaining franchise in Lancashire, Red Rose Thunder, based out Deepdale in Preston, whose former North End FC were flogged to Quito as apparently Ecuadorians were mad into the English game and wanted in on the financial spoils. Those fans who can't quite get into the half time show, featuring Beyonce and Mariah Carey doing a reprise of the set they performed at Ineos Red Devils v. Todd Boely FC in Doha last week, will be welcome to tune into Sky's half time show, featuring Cole Palmer analyse Yamal's shitting patterns with the lucidity and thoughtful insight of a drunk toddler. Full steam backwards comrades.

Franchised clubs and closed leagues (i.e. no promotion or relegation) are also popular in American sport. I wonder if those such things were proposed over here, would they get the same positive reception from some quarters on the basis of broadening the game's appeal and appealing to overseas audiences...?

Why does football need such drives to increase its popularity? Its financial value is higher than most country's GDP and it is most probably singlehandedly the most popular recreational interest on the planet.

As a general rule of thumb, and not just for sport, I find it best to look at whatever pleases Americans and head firmly in the opposite direction.

Two excellent analogies there. Exactly how it feels!

The two comments beneath that video... 😑 The biggest conflict I have in all this is that the vast majority of Rovers fans deserve the club we were between 1875 and 2010, but a minority deserve all the utter shite that has come our way this past 15 years. They'd arrive home to find their partners shagging someone else and apologise for disturbing them.

Saw word on Reddit from a PNE fan who has allegedly seen theirs and apparently we are at Deepdale on 22 Nov and they are at Ewood on 21 Feb. Can confirm in 23 minutes!

Decent little ground that. I was there a few years ago and it still had a classic mid-terrace wall for pissing behind at one end. Happier, simpler times, etc.

Knew I shouldn't have tried to be clever and use Latin!