Tomphil2

I'd much prefer it and it'd be much better if 15k home fans turned up every home game so we'd average 18k over a season then it would remove a lot of ready made excuses by those inside the club.

At 20k per week Cantwell has been a luxury signing and a lot more is needed from him. On a 2 year contract that sadly isn't low expense and i'd get rid immediately if it meant that money could go to keeping Dolan and Batth.

You might well be right there and if Ismael could chose he'd probably want a bit more pace in that position but as it stands the squad without Batth would be significantly weaker.

Yep and i fully expect they'll try and replace him with someone less experienced on cheaper wages but a potential sell on value. False economy is a speciality at Ewood but selling an Armstrong, Szmodics or especially a Wharton covers over for the waste created elsewhere.

No we don't all we have to go on is what players say and the evidence before our eyes of players not re-signing. I'd say it doesn't paint a great picture. Also Gestedes title is a farce he's head of nothing he is just carrying out instructions given to him from above and how many Heads of Football operations have the catering staff reporting to them ? 🤣

He went on the razz though and gave Hoddle the excuse he was looking for.

Mahonney, Bennett to name 2, Lenihen off the record. Gives a clear idea of how the approach things whilst Pasha has been in charge. Rudy Gestede by the way started on work experience then was given the title of Head of Depts but now i presume he's called Sporting Director but he hasn't got the DoF title. The guy is in charge of catering and everything else judging by his No Tippy Tappy podcast so i'm not sure what use he'll be negotiating contracts.

Exactly. Numerous players have spoke about the negotiating process here.

I doubt they are offering wages that reflect the potential though and given they are academy products the starting point won't be very high to begin with. Plus you are talking about having DoF whose job it was to do the contracts, we didn't have one before and haven't had one since.

I think here all the focus is getting them into the first team whilst they are still on youth wages. Then just hoping the odd one is worth big wonga before they have to be paid a big enough wage to keep them here.

Derby who will no doubt surpass us next season on a similar budget just like Sunderland did. Meanwhile we have billionaire owners and have sold 40 million quids worth of talent whilst letting around half that walk for nothing in recent years. But yeah we get low gates so it's always that to blame obviously.

Batth is worth an extra 5 grand a week because he brings the best out of Hyam that's a good partnership and shouldn't be broken up.

Yet the previous talk also mentioned a policy of higher wage short term contracts for experience being Eustaces preferred method ? Seems Jackson has done a bit of a 360 on that now. I think Weimann will have been on a decent wedge at Bristol and i'm sure there'd have been other interest in him so i'm not sure he'll have signed for peanuts to come all the way up here from down there. Batth maybe a bit different given his career trajectory was on its way down - something i hope he remembers when Rovers rescued him - but similarly he'll have been on good wages at Norwich previously.

Look Danny we want you to stay you are one of our main men and will play every week as long as fit and in form. Here's the same wage for another year and we'll give an option for another year on top for you as a bonus if you hit x number of starts. Nothing simpler as that but you can bet your backside there is some low balling going on or talks have stalled altogether due to the Indian court situation. If Derby are offering thousands more then we'd have to swallow it but i really can't see them taking that risk so football wise hes no need to leave here but he has to be made to feel wanted obviously.

Their lawyers will be awaiting instruction from their clients and as we know that never happens quickly.

His contract will probably run to the end of June so nowt will probably happen until then but i wouldn't be surprised if he's the first loss of the summer.

Yeah and he looked it when falling backwards into the net. Should have been dropped after '86, people can say what they want about the hand of god but that was awful goalkeeping.

Pasha is the man behind a lot of the downgrading i have no doubts he'd be happy being the big cheese of an easy to run league 1 outfit. It's all about him in the eyes of the owners 'look look we've cut the budget, finished 8th and sold players to pay the bills' That kind of thing gets pay rises and bonuses, asking for multi million pound signings and missing or losing in the play offs probably gets the sack.

Hes not rocked the boat for seven and a half years he won't start now.

So reading that North west business magazine article it sounds like the new model on the horizon is a COO working with Head of Commercial operations to increase increase income. Presumably via corporate stuff, sponsorship, commercial sales etc. So what about the football ? Who runs that the novice Sporting Director ? Haven't they actually twigged yet that it all revolves around the stuff on the pitch, get that right and everything else will follow.

I mean who would care if some firm offered a few hundred grand for the women's team ? I doubt anybody would bat an eyelid in fact knowing the finances most fans would say good at least it leaves the club a few extra quid in the pot. So this 'fans would be angry' rubbish doesn't cut it at all it is imo yet another excuse for the ownership who have rebuffed even the mere suggestion of outside investment at every turn. Also happy to sit back and see big local company stand sponsorship withdraw without speaking to them and also happy to have no shirt sponsorship for a season. This blame the fans for everything narrative is now becoming a bit tedious seeing as they've never taken a blind bit of notice for 15 years in fact actively sticking their fingers up to us at times.

Under SwagHail AND Broughton they couldn't get twp incoming signings involving good money over the line. Benefit of doubt says they made cock ups although a lot would say there was more to it than that. However it still points to how amateur and odd it can still be behind the scenes at Rovers and now there is no real DoF nor experienced administrator in a CEO. To go from that to the shadow boss and his tea boy is a recipe for disaster imo regardless of feelings towards Waggot. They got away it seems with the training ground loopholes but what next if they are flailing around looking for short term money ? It's those kind of cock ups that can become very expensive and lead to points penalties that's why clubs have to pay people like Waggot in the first place.

Of course it could be an issue if he doesn't know what he's doing, that's the whole point he isn't an experienced football administrator. I was referring to if something goes wrong at this end due to poor or incorrect administration the football authorities will then become involved. That's the danger of having novices running the show.

I very much doubt the likes of Derby are offering more per week to a player like Batth, give or take a grand or two. Think the key to this will be having an option of a further year to get him to stay, at least he knows he's likely to be first choice here when fit.

Until we find out hes already been running it from his laptop via Pasha for a few years. There's a lot gone on in the last few years when before that nothing went on for years so something changed a while back and i've often wondered why, beyond just the court case obviously.