10 minutes ago, RoverDom said:

Bodies is what we need tbh. Square pegs in round holes would be an improvement right now because atleast we'd have some pegs. 

That's what signings are for, where's the ambition in keeping players who can't do what is provided just to avoid signing ones who can?

1 minute ago, jim mk2 said:

He was a good player for Rovers, a championship quality right back. We now do not have one - nor are likely to before the season starts, and possibly beyond. How can that be a good thing? 

Wanted more money than what he was worth, wasn't very good for us and doesn't fit what we need, if he was available on a free from another club I wouldn't be remotely interested in signing him. Time to invest in a right back who fits the system.

6 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

Except we don't look like replacing him 

Aye I'm sure our intentions are to not sign a right back...

34 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Not having a go, as I'm not sure there's a right or wrong answer but hypothetically would you rather we got £20m for BBD this summer but went down, or kept him and we didn't.?

It's not my money so as a fan my answer would be unreservedly the latter. It's no use having money burning a hole in our pocket if any envisaged replacement won't come for the wages we're offering.

(If that's the reason we're struggling to get anyone in).

We're not going down  either way

19 minutes ago, Neal said:

Can't say I want to see us waste any considerable amount of money on a player who's 30+ and didn't particularly shine at Cardiff. Few 100k is fine but it's certainly not a signing filling me with confidence so far. 

I'm happy to see whoever JDT considers part of his plans through the door, need some experience in the squad

34 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

He's just read what unleaded has posted on here and regurgitated it online hasn't he?

Think it's far more likely he's just heard the same things as unleaded.

Alternatively, a less likely scenario is he has seen what Unleaded has claimed and checked that to his sources, unlikely but either way Rich isn't going to report on things he isn't confident in the validity of, so the idea that he'd report stuff off the back of the forums is nonsense.

52 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

If @unleadedsays we are interested in him then it is a genuine player we are interested in. 

well given that JDT is away in Scotland with the majority of the week and will Gregg Broughton being going up there to watch games or still at Brockhall to bring in signings and other personal? 

If Rich says something then there's a 99.9% chance there's something in it, he's smart enough not to publish things unless he knows they're accurate

11 minutes ago, islander200 said:

Still would have required the player to agree to come here.

Whatever about Dembele absolutely no chance Wallace was signing here

Yeah no chance on Wallace, think dembele joins without Bmouth interest

4 minutes ago, islander200 said:

Wallace wasn't coming here Paul.And Dembele wanted Bournemouth from day one didn't even discuss a deal here according to the Peterborough owner 

Apparently Bournemouth were willing to drop interest in Dembele if we sold them Rothwell

2 hours ago, RoversClitheroe said:

It feels like Waggots adding another layer to protect himself and lie the blame of failure at GBs feet. 

Or taking a step back and letting the football people handle the football stuff, thankfully

12 hours ago, Torgeir said:

Pickering was our second worst performer after coming back from injury, second to the super cameo false no. 9 Mr. Bradley Johnson. He's got a decent left peg but physically weak, positionally not the best and lacks pace for a modern fullback/wingback. Pedersen is strong and versatile but a bit old fashioned - no real pace on him either.

I'd rather play and develop a young player who struggled coming back from injury after a promising start than pay higher wages for a poor left back in his prime years

21 hours ago, bluebruce said:

You're right he's better than Pickering from what little I've seen, and it's a move I'd be happy with if the budget allows, but our priority has to be in other areas. By the time we know if we have money to spare for positions like LB, Pedersen will probably already be fixed up. If he has announced he is leaving he has probably been sounded out, maybe even agreed to join somewhere in principle.

He's awful, I'd take pickering every day of the week

2 hours ago, Silas said:

Doubt we'd make top 5, all things considered. 

Stumbled across this(how are we not on that list?):

https://fanbanter.co.uk/worst-owners-in-english-football-6feb20/

because we shouldn't be 

1 hour ago, Miller11 said:

@1864roverite here’s my thoughts following my interactions with those at the club.

Despite some ill tempered run ins in the past, I find Steve Waggott is approachable and attentive. He asks the right questions and seems to want to improve things. Whether his hands are tied, or he’s just giving lip service, the improvements don’t come and very little materialises.

He clearly has very specific financial targets. Making minimal savings seem to be far more of a priority than league position, commercial growth, or fan engagement. It’s pennywise, pound foolish, just like our wage structure… more on that later.

A prime example is our differing views on the catering at Ewood. To me, Sodexo offer crap service and crap products, I’d like to see a much more imaginative offering. To him it’s cost effective and easy to tender it out, he sees the long term deal with them as good business.

In my opinion, Waggott spreads himself too thin. He seems to spend more time at his Brockhall office than his Ewood office. Maybe he likes the whole back and forth with agents better than the day to day running of operations. Perhaps this will be remedied somewhat by the appointment of Broughton, but that leads us on to another issue…

I’ve long since thought the structure at the club is an absolute mess. It’s completely convoluted and unclear. We do know that Venky’s have the final say, and I strongly suspect they are micro-managing via Pasha. This leads to things being done at a glacial pace, or not at all. Mowbray’s parting comments all but confirmed this. As soon as he is no longer interested in self preservation, we got the truth of the matter. He was desperate to tell us Waggott has no real power, rather than banging on about Venky’s being knowledgeable, humble and supportive.

The club have finally started to make strides in engaging with the local Asian community. It’s long overdue and the efforts of Yasir have been fantastic. It’s seeing more tangible benefit than I thought it would. Kudos.

Enticing new fans and re-engaging with lost ones are two very different things that require very different strategies. Unfortunately they are doing nothing to mitigate the drop off of long-standing fans. I’ve discussed this at great length with people in the club. It’s always acknowledged and I’m asked for solutions, which I’ve made suggestions on. So far nothing has happened. I’ll be interesting to see if there are strides made over the coming months though.

Nobody at the club understands the fanbase. We’ve made a real effort to remedy this, from history lessons of 1960 to presentations about lapsed season ticket holders. I’m hopeful this will change, but not at all confident.

Here are some things a senior employee in a confusing marketing role told me:

- There’s nothing special or unique about Blackburn Rovers

- Kids aren’t interested in going to football matches, we’d be better off selling them NFTs

- Why should a child or senior ticket be cheaper than an adult one? A seat is a seat.

- Pretty soon nobody will go to matches, they will watch interactive things in their phones instead

There is little wonder there is such disconnect between the fanbase and club!

Onto our current situation… the jury is very much out on the managerial appointment. I’ll wait til it has actually played out, because I’ve gone over this in depth. If we get a good appointment, I think it’s props to Waggott. If we get a HSH pick, he needs to resign. In my opinion the process has become so drawn out it’s farcical. I can’t say for sure why that is, but I am not in the least bit surprised it’s happened.

All this talk of implementing a vision and long term strategy is trying to run before we are even crawling. Those idiots in Pune get no credit for not liquidating our academy, it’s been a money spinner for them, not an expense… but they are ballsing that up before our very eyes. Our supposed sustainable long term strategy is not working as evidenced by Lenihan and Nyambe going for nothing. Our wage structure is inflexible and nonsensical. We absolutely should have a wage cap, but the current approach is not fit for purpose. The can kicking approach we seem to favour of triggering year options rather than properly negotiating in a timely manner was always going to come back to haunt us. Pennywise, pound foolish again.

What I will say is Waggott acknowledged the importance of this appointment and that the club is at a pivotal juncture. How much he can actually influence things though is questionable… and he’s supposed to be our CEO.

As out of touch as those on the ground at Ewood undoubtably are, they still have a far better handle than 3 billionaires on a different continent who surround themselves with people who slavishly obey. Venky’s do not delegate effectively, and we remain at the mercy of their whims. They never learn and continue to be “badly advised”. It’s their own fault of course, they generally sack anyone who tells them anything they don’t want to hear.

Thats my opening gambit. Happy for you to tell me how and why I’m misguided.

 

 

From what i've seen of waggott and and my understandings of him I think this is a fair assessment, he's not done a great job here but he's done a far better job than those prior to him since 2010

18 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Yep he highlighted them a few times when they were doing ok in the champ.

Now though that's exactly where their model leads though unless you have a miracle worker on the touchline and don't get any injuries

Wasnt this the Brentford model youre thinking of