Old Codger

Well, if VI is complicit in project 'new broom' he will only have himself to blame if the experiment backfires and he and the team bear the brunt of criticism during and after games from our blinkered and easily hoodwinked fanbase. Should a miracle occur and Rovers actually do well this season (we wish!) imagine the impact on all the rest of the teams at this level - bloated squads and overpaid prima-donnas will be jetisoned in favour of lean and hungry teamsheets and cheap makeweights around dressing rooms, with everyone clamouring for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th tier players from overseas... Disruptive innovation, I believe it is called (when it works). Stupidity and asset stripping, I believe it is termed when it all goes tits up... I know where my instinct tells me we are headed (although I'd be delighted to be shown to be an old codger and a buffoon) And yes, the above isn't 'tits up' it is down.

It is perhaps a tad disingenuous, as Mr RTMO8 suggests, but then again, football is a horrible business, full stop. As much as we may feel aggrieved that Adam has matured into his status as a football hot property, it has taken place under Palace's roof, and we never had an icecube in hell's chance of enabling him to develop to the level he has reached, due in spades to the incompetent, short-sighted, non-football savvy and genuinely disinterested in anything that is in the best long term interests of Blackburn Rovers ownership and management arrangements at the club. Palace are just fortunate to have had decent business people who are passionate about football holding the reins for the past 20 years plus, whilst we have been hamstrung by bewlidered, befuddled, remote, retarded owners who know about as much about football as Donald Trump knows about diplomacy and discretion. They didn't steal Adam Wharton - we THEY gave him away cheap.

They are ALL confidence players. When faced with adversity and a run of poor results, heads tend to go down, rather than these pampered primadonnas pulling up their socks and girding their loins. However, such is the nature of the game of association football, it can happen that a team on a downer meets another in an even worse state (e.g. Hull vs Rovers last week) and that can be enough to create a pattern interrupt that begins to spiral upwards, although apparently not in our case, based on yesterday's ragbag result. Anyway, the boss has a couple of weeks solid time with the lads to drill something into them, around whatever the new master plan happens to be. Let's hope that is long enough for some mettle to gel in the ranks. Buckle up Dorothy, Kansas is about to go bye bye...!

More a case of chronic amnesia, puerile blinkered syndrome or simply a huge dose of the WUMps. I get the sentiment, but it disregards the vast amount of life experience (and long history of supporting Rovers) that many posters have, with which they are able to form valid judgements rather than vacillating around unjustified optimism. Bah. Humbug.

He is Alex Da Costa reincarnated, FFS.

We used to have a Kargbo type player in my University team back in the day (about a million years ago) called Alex Da Costa. Alex could run with the ball in any direction you pointed him, and was difficult to dispossess, but as soon as he got anywhere near the penalty area he would go to pieces and start shrieking stuff like, 'And he is in!!, Referee, that man is touching me, it is a clear penall tee' and blaze over the bar. Not joking, in around 30 fixtures over 2 years I never saw him score, and whilst he was always on the team sheet because his pace disrupted the opposition, we always used to groan when he went on any of his runs. In the time honoured 'Beamo' fashion, spectacular failures to score have always been known as Alex Da Costa moments in my household..

Isn't goalkeeper one position though where an emergency loan or unattached player (of which there are several at Premier League level available at the moment) can be added after the window closes? Vague recollection of this being in the rules. However, most things are a bit vague with me these days, so I've probably imagined it..

Hurrah! An actual human being acting like a decent soul! On this message board too! Sir DeeCee of Birthday Drinks Land, I salute you! We have all been there (some of us have the MB bans to show for it) and it takes a decent human being to acknowledge an error and seek to correct it. Yours, Old Codger (a youthful 63, I tell you)

Ok, so here come the Canaries, flapping into fortress dilapidated and dated Ewood for a 3pm showdown with our ragbag of unknown unknowns, 'why is he here' stars, quiet as a mouse muscle-men, and I'll toe the line for £10k a week underperformers, all cobbled together under the vengeful and unhinged watch of Mr Sideline Shadow Dancer, Please sir can I go to the toilet Teaboy, and Cross Me at your Peril eyebrows Ismael. What are the expectations for the afternoon? A glorious reprise of a famous 7-1 demolition? A whingeing crowd murmuring in hollow discontent at the lack of anything to enjoy and an absence of A3 baggage? A salutory reminder of the vagaries of amateur football club management as a substitute for structure and strategy? Hmm..yesterday at lunchtime I was (for about a nanosecond) more optimistic that there might be an actual plan. Pasha, buffoon and clearly in need of a damned good enema, put paid to that (we are told) by taking a last minute.com dump on Harry Leonard's last chance saloon. So, back to square one, as the professional snakes (sic) and ladders player in me likes to revert to in times of great confusion, like the last 14-15 years under the absent shadow snake charmers. Quick question - what would you or I be prepared to do for a £500k per year wage? Rhetorical, of course (East Lancs wages have stagnated since the 1980s) but if someone gave you that much wonga and a script that said simply squeeze costs and say nothing, what would you do? (I'd probably squeeze costs and say nothing, to be fair). I digress. Looking forward to this afternoon (I'm not, of course, don't be silly!) My gut feeling is that the bad egg smell behind the curtain gets up the players' noses and leads to a less than carnival atmosphere for the whole game...('s funny, isn't that where that Pasha bloke stands..?) Canaries in a coalmine - Rovers 3 Norwich 0 Can air y pin drop around Ewood - Rovers 0 Yellowskins 3 Canairdly bring myself to type this - Reverting to tripe Rovers 0 Huffskipuffski yellows 0 COYB! VENKYS OUT! (naturally - they don't give a shit and don't belong here, and are a blight on football) Cowardly deal quashing-career stalling-prospect ruining SHADOW WANKERS OUT!

Amateur hour all round here, Chaddy. The idea is plausible, but the evidence in support of it is not even paper thiiiiiiiiiinnnn! Yet Rovers still need to sign a striker. Enter Tea Boy - Superhero, to the rescue!!!! The tea boy, behind the mask..

I getcha. I do forget sometimes that to the outside world we are just a football club. And yes, I also forget that £10k per week is a half million pounds a year wage, which isn't to be sniffed at (particularly round here, where wages have not kept pace with inflation for the past 30 years). So, fair point. I getcha.

Seriously, this holds true for most conventional clubs, but Batshit Crazy Blackburn Rovers whose reputation is in shitting tatters, whose 'Can Pay - WON'T PAY' philosophy is emblazoned on every decision so far this transfer window, and whose 'senior management' comprises a half-witted shadow dancer taking a massive salary and an over-promoted work experience trainee.... Hmm, come to think of it, Azerbaijan is very pretty in the autumn...cost of living is a fraction of the UK, tax regime is malleable.... Yup.

Fuck me, the bastards have dug Jack up 😞

Bestriding Ewood like a colossal twat in a onesie, Big Suhail shares his football wisdom with all who dare to listen.. COLOSSAL TWATS OUT!!

Only Rovers Pasha & Rudy could mess up a weekend as badly as this. Club's PR department (haha, do we have one?) is a shambolic mess. Recruitment appears to be being done on a whimsical fag packet. Pasha's tantrums, if OssyDave is to be believed (and I'm inclined to do so) are verging on the pathetic - does the bloke actually have a remit to piss people off (I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was being paid to twist the sodding knife). I guess it is a case of 'more fool me' for beginning to think there might actually be a plan and a potential silver lining in the offing, with the mooted approaches for Gudjonsen etc, and the apparently shrewd bit of business to offload Harry Leonard.. but nah. I do keep forgetting we are a basket case, not a sodding football club. PASHA 'I CAN THROW MY TOYS OUT OF THE PRAM IF I WANT' - OUT!! VENKYS OUT! Tools. The lot of ye.

Do they play all their games behind closed doors?

That's the spirit - let's talk about players who might come in, rather than this awful navel-gazing about those who have gone.. As I said, there are some very experienced goalkeepers without clubs, from the top flight. We could benefit from some experience and calm heads / steady hands as back up. No doubt Mr Fruity and Bad Tempered Shadow-Boy are hard at work plotting some unexpected coup in the striking and goalkeeping departments... Not long now till we find out.. Tick Tock!

Double swoop for out of favour Everton players.. Asmir Begovic Position: Goalkeeper Age: 37 2024/25 appearances: 0 Dominic Calvert-Lewin Position: Striker Age: 28 2024/25 appearances: 26 Oh, and we are sniffing around the stinking pile of shithousery called Danny Ings, from West Ham too.. But seriously, there are some excellent goalkeepers available from the top flight...

Does that mean he'll be training by himself? I'll get my coat.

How do we know this? Have you got spies in the Indian camp?

And? They're gone. We are still here - so glad we are 'In' 😉 Just saying.

People are suspicious of Gestede possibly because of the way in which he arrived in a relatively low-key role but was suddenly and dramatically propelled into a senior one, without any explanation (notwithstanding that being the modus operandum of the current regime). Coupled with that there is the clear and obvious drive towards a low cost model that has left fans scratching their heads due to the disappearance of familiar (and loved) faces, again with little or no explanation from the club. What is absolutely clear is that Gestede has the reigns and weilds considerable power in the current set up, despite there being no obvious rationale for his ascendancy into such a pivotal role. He certainly has few credentials, little or no relevant experience, no ownership interest, and poor communication skills in person and asynchronously, yet has been allowed to architect a veritable revolution with an apparent free reign. What remains to be seen is whether this is a desperate gamble on the part of those behind the curtain to salvage something from their tenure, or whether it is all a bit of a Frankenstein's monster - lots of disparate parts cobbled together with the remote hope that life may ensue. And this has all taken place during a period of sustained uncertainty for the major stakeholder group of the club - the fans (us) who have been treated as an afterthought (WE AREN'T! - Why does Blackburn Rovers exist in the first place, FFS!). So people have every reason to be suspicious - an untried experimental poorly communicated process led by an inexperienced and autocratic shoe-in, with unclear objectives and questionable tactical decision making that has created sweeping change despite there being no explicit rationale.... Hmmmm.. what could go wrong? Now, if it was all to somehow go right, and miraculously transform the fortunes of the club, wouldn't that just create more problems (e.g. a manager who would be considered hot property, a model that would be rapidly adopted by other clubs, potential poaching of key staff etc)? Or perhaps this is just one of those Business School case studies in 'Disruptive Innovation' that will do the rounds in future years - 'here's how Blackburn Rovers became the first small town club to regain the Premier League title' - We Wish!! Time, as they say, will tell! Arte Et Labore!

What hasn't changed is the fact that football is a results business, and the patience of those with the purse strings wears thin very quickly if the results don't meet expectations. The confounding factor that we have had to contend with at the Rovers since the Venky era began is that there doesn't seem to be any clear set of expectations. The closest we got recently was the odious Waggott claiming that survival was the goal a couple of seasons back. No wonder we lack direction, there's nobody setting a Vision, so the Mission is confused and contradictory. Basic strategic management. Absence of. End. That's what is most frustrating for those of us who have lived through eras where there WAS a clear plan, there WAS a coherent strategy (even if it was shoe-string stuff) and there WAS a clear identity and cohesion on the pitch week in, week out. It's about time we had another era where we all felt like we could pull together.

On recent years' form, Hedges can be comfortably discounted now for a couple of seasons, in terms of any attacking contribution. If you are reading this, Ryan, prove us wrong 😉 All we want is for our players to give everything on the pitch, and to be good at what they are paid to do, with reasonable consistency. After all, the mighty Mr Shearer didn't score every week, did he? But we always knew we would get a shift from him, regardless of the opposition. Anyway, I suppose the upshot is we are beginning to now have options where there were none, which moves us a lot further on than many had anticipated for this season (including me)! I'm not getting optimistic and misty-eyed yet though, as it is a long hard slog in this league, and some of our new recruits are in for a nasty shock! On that front, what the actual fook is going on with the Yuki-bashing this season? Refs seem to think it is ok to have open-season on him, including (on Saturday) getting kicked in the chest without there being the slightest chance of a foul being awarded. VI needs to school him in the dark arts and get some of these cynical cloggers called to account for their bully-boy tactics with our Oriental maestro (maestroes now, I guess). Watching on with interest... COYB!

We could offer a 'contribution' to wages to reduce the overhead for Ipswich.. But thinking about it, he'd never reach those dizzy heights again, the way this team is set up..