You and me both, @jim mk2. The Full Members' Cup in 1987 and Cardiff 21 years ago were both, in their different ways, a bit special. But as one who had even less chance than most fans of a Cup Final ticket in 1960, I would really love it if we got to a F.A. Cup Final; and, at least, competed with whichever team was in the other dressing room. Being there to witness that is one reason why I pay Waggott's Poll Tax - £10 to be a member of the "1875 Club" - to, more or less, guarantee a ticket for a "Must not miss" game like a Cup Final.

Given (not referring to a former Reserve keeper, btw!😉) the way that the Borough Council commemorates the club: ★ at least two former players' - and Jack Walker's - names are commemorated in street names; ★ Rovers are mentioned on the identity boards on all roads (afaik) leading into the Borough from neighbouring authorities; ★ the Arkwright Bridge is painted blue and white; ★ last year, The Shuttle (the Council's magazine which was distributed gratis to, afaik, every household in the Borough) had an article about establishing trade links with Conceptión - Chile's 3rd(?)-largest city on the back of BBD's international development; there may well be scope for involving them in any celebrations of Rovers' 150th anniversary - definitely Lancashire's Most Historic Football Club (as I take every opportunity of reminding my Burnleh-supporting former schoolmate in New Zealand) during our Sunday WhatsApp phone conversations.

We were dealing with legalities here - "dotting the i's; and crossing the t's" - and I can't imagine that the club's adminstrative staff haven't had to cope with such pedantic issues in the past as the EFL oversaw "Deadline Day transfers". I find it difficult to imagine, before our distant owners purchased us, that John Williams and Tom Finn would have gone to watch a match 100 miles distant from any means of ensuring that transfers went through before any deadline without having left behind at Ewood at least one member of staff capable of ensuring that any hitches that stemmed from what we now see as the EFL's pedantic attitude could be "sorted" before the 11.00 deadline.

He shouldn't be. Imo, it the club’s Chief Executive should be requiring the resignation of the official whose responsibility was to submit the necessary forms to the EFL before the deadline. In many organisations, common decency might require that official's supervisor to accept some responsibility if the deadline was missed, especially if the supervisor was about 100 miles from the office as the deadline grew closer. But it sounds like that common decency isn't in plentiful supply in Rovers' administrative staff.

Insomnia, caused by another problem - not Rovers-related - has brought me to this thread. Surely, while the first of those two points is valid, @RoverDom, I don't know where you're going with the second. I've never been a qualified solicitor, but my "day job" used to be as a para-legal; and it's with that background that I ask, "How could the EFL 'cock up' a transfer?" Isn't it the responsibility of the two clubs to ensure that the paperwork they submit to the regulatory authority - which is surely what the EFL is when it comes to transfers - is correctly completed? And as the keeper of those records, the role of the EFL is surely to do no more than verify that the paperwork is indeed correctly completed by the deadline it imposes on clubs for a transfer to be valid.

As the late Mrs. R0verb0y used to say to me from time to time, "If wit were s*it, you'd be constipated!"

Bet his listeners couldn't quite believe his description of the state of training at Pleasington before Uncle Jack's revolution!

I seem to remember asking on here - but not seeing a reply - as someone who's very far away from being an ITK, what rights a borrowing club has when it comes to loaning youngsters. Can we specify which player we'd like to borrow for a season or do we have to take whoever - e.g. Liverpool - are prepared to lend us? And once we've got that player for a season, are there penalty clauses if we don't have what the lending club sees as a valid reason for not playing the loanee week after week? For every Elliott, there seems to have been some dross who's played a season in blue and white.

That almost sounds like a line from "Les Miserables", @bazza!

Having known you as long as I have, @Leonard Venkhater, I must confess I've never seen you as a canary!! 😉

I can't speak for @Ianrally, who was responding to my earlier post commenting that, like Everton, Watford also come onto the field to the "Z Cars" theme. Although there's a kind of logic in Everton coming onto the pitch to that theme - "Z Cars" having been set in (I vaguely remember) in Skelmersdale, where many Scousers settled - I don't know why Watford also do that. @Ianrallywas, I guess, suggesting more relevant themes for Watford to come onto the pitch.

Next season won't be the first time I haven't renewed my season ticket; but there were extenuating circumstances on each of the two previous occasions - (i) getting married and living about 20 miles from Ewood; (ii) 25 years later after Mrs. Roverboy had died, having to travel the 25 miles to/from Ewood by public transport which meant leaving home at 11.15 am & not getting home till 7.15 pm, because of bus timetables. I moved back to live in Blackburn last year and while being close to Ewood wasn't my main reason for moving - honest! - I was excited by the appointment of JDT as Head Coach and looked forward to an upswing in Rovers' fortunes. The way we lost our last game before the World Cup break, followed by the inept way the club conducted its business during the recent transfer window, has brought me back to earth. What's the point of following a struggling team whose owners frankly, my dears, "don't appear to give a damn"? At 77, there are more enjoyable things I could be doing than watching a team playing football with, metaphorically, one arm tied behind its back. Even if they're still, nominally, the same club whose colours I wore so proudly as a seven-year-old schoolboy among my tangerine-shirted schoolmates in our Blackpool Primary school.

Hope the team - whichever one JDT picks - don't put your young 'un off watching Rovers away for ever, @robbo_rovers! And don't worry about the Z Cars theme before the game begins; we won't be playing a Dyche team! Honestly, even if I hadn't seen us at Vicarage Road once before, I think I'd be struggling to summon up any enthusiasm to go to this game. Or indeed any game, home or away, before we have another chance to begin properly strengthening the squad in the summer. Having said that, we all know how predictable in their unpredictability Rovers can be, so I wouldn’t put it past us to pinch a 1-0 win. But I’m not holding my breath!

He's one of a number of players whose best years were spent wearing blue & white halved shirts. Off the top of my head, there's a litany of players over the seasons from Tony Field to Roque Santa Cruz whose most productive time was spent at Ewood.

Okay; I get that. Time was when I felt like that. Rovers aren't my only interest; I enjoy doing quizzes; and if this match had been taking place on a Saturday afternoon, my walking sticks and I'd have been taking our place in the Riverside stand. As it is, however, ...

Nor am I. As the BBC TV Continuity announcers regularly tell me, "Monday night's Quiz night on BBC2." So, even if we hadn't had the week we've had since the 'window' closed; and hadn't the prospect of a game at Ewood - even against "the pie-eaters" - as an alternative to BBC2, I'd have been sending my apologies for absence. The events of last week have - temporarily, I hope! - sucked any feelings of loyalty to the club out of me.

That's a bit harsh, @Exiled_Rover. I'd like to think that most of us - me included! - on here are reasonably intelligent; even though my eyes cross at some of the higher finance "stuff" we read about on this Board.

Sorry, @Mercer ; you surely know that's far too honest for Waggott & Co.

As people can probably tell, it's only now that I can bear to trawl through the entrails of this disaster. And for me, the phrase I've highlighted above is key here. It isn't just you, @Andy, it's all of us on here ‐ we all give a shit about the club. We have an emotional attachment to the club which pre-dates Venky's involvement and is something that they can never have. The Indian Glazers who are our current owners are about money; sentiment for what they own is an alien concept to them.

I know you're angry, @onlyoneDuff, but isn't that a tad drastic? Terminate his employment, by all means; but . . .

And I guess we all knew what the odds were on that happening!! Well, why should things suddenly change under this ownership??

Can't imagine that of you, Lennie!!😉

I went to bed last night immediately after the Radio Lancs commentary from St. Andrews because I'm too old for all the hoopla of rumour and counter-rumour of Deadline Day. (It's not just Rovers; the obscene amounts that are being paid by Premier League clubs are so very different from the good old days when I made my way to Ewood as a teenager sixty-plus years ago.) So it was all grimly predictable when, an hour and a half ago, I counted back through forty-odd (forty very odd!) pages on here from about 10.00 pm last night. If there's a wrong way to do "Deadline Day PR" you - we! - can rely on our dysfunctional club to do it. The post I've quoted is the first one from 24 hours ago on here that I've reached with which I'm completely in agreement. It isn't the first time I've wondered aloud on here why our owners own us? What do they get out of owning Rovers? Are we some tax-deductible device for them? Do they not appreciate that what they own in Rovers means so much to a - diminishing - number of football? Do they tolerate the degree of slovenliness that the last 24 hours in the life of BRFC have thrown up by the managers of other parts of their business empire? And if they don't, why do they tolerate it in Rovers? (And if they do tolerate it elsewhere in Venkyland, how are they still in business??) Sorry, this is turning into more of a tirade than I wanted it to, so I'll shut up; but I'm sure it'll be recognised as the frustration of a long-time fan, who no longer recognises the organisation he's faithfully followed for so long. Even in the dark days of the 1970s when we first dropped into Division 3, we cut the Board some slack because we knew they cared about the club. This lot seem to have adopted the "Gone with the Wind" approach to football management. You know; "Frankly my dears; we don't give a damn!" And if that's their attitude, I fear it's going to permeate the club for as long as they own it.

Kind-of glad to see I'm not the only one not brimming over with enthusiasm for this game. Don't get me wrong; I want us to win and get through to the next round, but not to the extent of dragging my weary, aged bones down to Ewood for a game against opponents we'll have played at least three times by the end of the season. Hope we win and all that, but I think that reading - between the lines of - the January transfer window thread has depressed me too much.

Would you accept "bloody annoying", rather than "really frustrating", @BankEnd Rover? It feels like the club is diffusing all the optimism that was going around at the time JDT was appointed.