AvRover

Is it just me who's increasingly cynical of the game? You've got the PL shelling out more and more money with the big boys dominating every competition with their inexhaustible pockets. Meanwhile, most club Championship and below are in permacrisis and financially struggling. Do we really want to tough it out for the next 20 years for the privilege of being PL whipping boys for 12 months?

We are where we are. It's been coming for probably 5 or 6 years. Maybe a prolonged spell in the pits of League 1 or 2 could be a good thing and rid us of these owners. We've had 10+ years of purgatory in the Championship threatening nothing. At this point another season in the Championship = more Venkys

My feelings exactly. The club is being killed by stealth. We've managed to stave it off somehow but the spectre of ending up where Bolton and Wigan are (but worse) has loomed large for years. The business model of football just doesn't care about clubs like ours. We're an inconvenience as much as anything as we take support away from the City, United and Liverpool.

It's been evident this season was going nowhere for some time. At least Hull showed we have some fight and we're capable of winning six pointers. We're on for a weaker season (eg Preston last season) rather than a season with an off chance of the Play Offs. Will it change - not until the ownership changes. Even then, football finance is f****d so it's an uphill battle. Nor do I see an ownership change in the next couple of years. They don't want to sell nor is anyone likely to want to spend over the odds buying a tired club in a deprived region.

I've said before, our relative success in recent seasons is based on the players being grafting lads pulling together. If there's disquiet in the dressing room that's a major red flag. ⛳

It's dull nonsense. Most Championship clubs have had a PO campaign or something in the last 10 years to shout about. We've had no POs, we're the biggest club in the EFL never to have played at New Wembley and the highlight of the last 10 years is runners up in League One. With all due respect even that achievement wasn't built upon nor that exciting as a fan. We're in purgatory waiting for whenever the Venkys have had enough and let us collapse. Bury, Macclesfield and Wimbledon may have been playing minnows, but it was a fun ride and the fans felt engaged and part of something. It's the community asset ethos the game is all about. The hopes of a revival wither with every year of purgatory as people drift away.

There's a lot of dross in this division and crisis ridden clubs - that's our saving grace. Even at this stage of the season, Hull next week is a big "do not lose, should be winning" fixture.

Beating the better clubs isn't necessarily needed realistically where the club is at atm. We just need to be better than three other teams and beat teams in the bottom half. That's the model we're running on until the ownership changes - stay in the division. Rovers is fundamentally a house of cards. We just have to hope we get a good new owner one day, rather than go down the "Morecambe route".

We've been living on borrowed time for probably 7 years. Unless something changed, it was inevitable reality caught up with the club.

Given our spending levels and the calibre of the administration all that's really been proven today is that we're not utter chaotic dross destined to go down. Unless we get a bit of luck, once again we'll be nowhere near those Play Offs! Let's just be grateful given the situation behind the scenes that we're still solvent and able to field a competent, serviceable squad.

Agreed. Imagine if what had happened to Rovers happened to Newcastle! The decline of Rovers was allowed to happen 'salami slice style', surrendering an inch at a time. The frog has now well and truly been boiled, yet many still have their heads in the sand.

The question needs answering as to why the owners don't bail... 1. Can't admit they failed - well, they've dug themselves a deeper hole and the shame grows daily. 2. Recoup investment - seems poor business sense when they're clearly competent with the chicken business. They've poured money in for over a decade. Would £100m from a promotion to the PL really make up for it? 3. Fun - they're absentee so I doubt they're just enjoying the football! If they really wanted to wash their hands of Rovers, there'd be someone willing to buy. Even if the new owners were worse than the current regime. You do have to remember, too, that even after the best part of 10 years in the PL culminating from over a decade of exceptionally competent management, Burnley only managed to sell a bit of equity to some exciting American investors. I want good owners for Rovers as much as the next fan. But chances are, we'd end up like Hull, Cardiff, Sheffield Wednesday or Reading. Rovers aren't investable. No parachute money, relatively small fanbase, infrastructure in need of an overhaul, small declined town in a saturated region 100s and miles from the South East. There's a reason Palace, Brentford and Brighton have been able to do it yet we haven't! The proposition isn't there for Rovers.

From a Rovers perspective, I think another 'standard season' of mediocrity is the best we can hope for. Just stay away from the drop zone! Let's be honest, short of a change in ownership (which isn't foreseeable), the absolute realistic ceiling for ambition is to scrape sixth and lose to a parachute payment, moneybags club in the PO semis. Plenty of clubs, eg Cardiff and Hull, thought they had enough to stay up but didn't. That has to be the key concern. I'm just too ground down and fed up by 15 years of this s**t to hope for any better! As much as we the fans deserve a competitive side after all these years and (finally) a trip to new Wembley, the owners DON'T.

It's the same old same old. If we find a real gem - we get Play Offs. If the signings are duds and we get injuries - we go down. The likely scenario is recruitment is ok and we finish about 10th. This has been the recipe largely for 7 years. With PSR and parachute payments automatic promotion is not attainable for a club in our position. The club's best shot of getting back to the PL is to get a bit of luck and sneak into the Play Offs like Huddersfield or Blackpool did. With the poor ownership and current climate, buying another season in the Championship with our recruitment model year after year isn't actually that bad. Yes it's frustrating, yes I want to see more vision and development of the club. However, it's better than being where Wigan and Reading are atm. It's unambitious - but let's just just get a squad together for next season that's capable of comfortably staying up.

In a strange way its consistency - which is keeping us in the Championship!

Who knows. I think we can bumble along for the rest of the season now and hopefully see out a top half finish. Regardless, it's going to be a summer of change and as usual there's no ability to build and improve. As with this season, it's just "keep away from the trap door and anything else is a bonus". We *did* have the killer instinct with Szmodics, but, alas, our "Groundhog Day Model" meant he had to go.

Agreed, does feel rather flat and pointless - what could've been if the ownership had led from the front. It's been clear for a few years, though, that the club has a knack for recruiting grafting lads who'll put a shift in and pull together. I don't think there's been much to complain about with the application and attitude of the players since the start of the Mowbray era. That's seen us through on multiple occasions. Shocking really for Luton to be where they are - surely their aim for the next 3/4 years should've been to establish themselves in the top half, get the new stadium built and try and bounce back. Idk where it's all gone wrong - keeping Rob Edwards too long?

It's apathy. Sheer apathy and the slow death of the club. It's the "salami slice" technique of advancing an inch at a time. The whole BRFC community needs to engage now to get rid of the regime. No matter how disengaged they've grown over the years.

If you're an optimist you'll think an excellent, historic brand like Rovers would attract a caring, benevolent owner who'd pump millions in every year. However, given the Venkys record and the experience of other, similar sized clubs (Coventry, Reading, Charlton, Hull) we'd be out of the frying pan and into the fire with a new bunch of charlatans. The reality is BRFC in its current state is likely only to be desirable to asset strippers.

No one will want to buy a League One/Two club with an oversized, ageing, expensive stadium. In a region saturated with successful football clubs, suffering from economic hardship, with a small, apathetic fanbase. Then you have to put £20m+ a year in to stay solvent, and service an unsustainable debt. Blackburn Rovers FC really do be f****d.

Abso-f*****g-lutely shite. Politically, Ismael has to go. I'm not usually one to leap to proclamations like this but there's nothing even the most deluded person could cling to here to defend him. His position is totally untenable - keeping him in post now would be tinpot. I feel this is just the start of the club's troubles too, next season will be an utter farce and 24th will flatter us. Then how far the decline goes idk. The club is dying. There's been no real exciting reason to go to Ewood Park and watch Rovers for 15 years.

Exactly. Any talk of being "thorough" is to cover for the fact they don't know what to do. They're trying desperately to find a candidate who won't totally embarrass them whilst being relatively cheap.

It's so far up their sleeve, at a point where continuity and time is of the essence, it's taken them nearly two weeks to extract from said sleeve? The silence and shifting odds indicate they're running around like headless chickens (if you'll pardon the pun!)

Absolutely, as good as Lowe may be, you also have to consider the politics of his situation. Will he be there next week? Who's got authority to tell a player who's contract's running down he'll be there next season? Does he have the experience at this level for a PO run in? Will he get the job if he wins another game? These questions would eat away at even the best coach's position.

Ah, so another day is done, no manager appointed. 10 days since the Wolves game when news broke. No Time for a new manager to establish himself with two full days training before Swansea. Oh what a circus! Unity and cohesion was needed to galvanise after Eustace's departure, get a new guy in efficiently and go again. That window is now passed. Instead the club appears to be falling apart from the top down - will the rot hit the players by Saturday?