Tomphil2

Can see it now on the horizon..... 'V's cleared from providing bonds and guarantees but the war between India and Pakistan means no funds can be sent as they're needed at home' - Steve Waggot - June 2025 But the good news is the sales of Callum and Dom and the wage bill cuts mean we can fund ourselves till Jan 2026, the war should be concluded by then !

War chest....

They probably won't set a budget until this is resolved and if not it'll be whatever budget the club can provide itself so strap in folks an interesting summer ahead.....

Sod all they'll just get about 5k pwk of his reported 8k to reinvest in a loan or something then the beancounters will chalk it don as a result. A small fee received and a wage saving.

Release him and possibly waving goodbye to 1 million compensation isn't the right way to go he's 100% leaving anyway and his contract will run till end of June probably so nothing will happen before then i don't think.

I doubt very much hes been dropped when playing well although it could be tactics but if he was doing so well and was a good player at that level he'd have been back in. Same thing has happened twice now so there's a reason for it although never rule out it could be to do with money and possible appearance fees. Either way it's character building which is 50% the reason why young players get loaned down the leagues in the first place.

If you're a young player you just want to play and prove a point there's a career to be had wherever you end up so iv'e no sympathy. He's either not up to much in reality or thee is an attitude problem for which case a kick up the arse does no harm. Strikes me as a fiesty character from what we've seen on the pitch so doesn't look like a head down type but the clubs that took up obviously just did so for back up.

Jury is out but yeah strong lad maybe Nyambe style who physically was ready for the first team way before he got in it. Doesn't say much for some of the others though.

Really surprised Garret hasn't shone in the lower leagues which is not a good sign he should have been capable of doing well. I like him for his tenacity but he's also a liability and desperately needed games to find some sort of rhythm but that loan has been pointless. The next crop of academy lads out in loan have in general looked to be nowhere near ready for even lower levels of first team football. I hope goofball Gestede isn't thinking of pushing 3 or 4 of these onto Ismael this summer.

Getting a tune out of Cantwell is a good challenge for Ismael. If he can get him in a system more that allows him to be in and around the box more and not leaving any gaping holes that could be a real bonus.

Weimann has to prove himself fit before anything else and i assume the contract they offer him would reflect that. It's a tricky one with him and will probably be a late decision but i don't see hes much option either although Swaghail specialise in signing unfit players short term.

Impossible to predict because absolutely anything can happen in summer and i think we got away with one this season in terms of bettering expectations. We had Eustaces hard to beat mentality and still a touch of JDT's flair sprinkled in there but sooner or later that'll begin to leave us as it's coached and and players change. We also will not keep getting away with selling every player of value whilst filling the squad with kids and freebies. Going into next season as we are now i'd say 11-15th place, which those drawing their big wages in head office would be delighted with. As always home form will be key, pity the club and owners don't help their head coaches and team by trying to fill the ground up.

Well it's the 3rd time its happened so it's never been part of any plan all they've ever done i buff the squad out they've never gone for instant impact. I do suspect someone somewhere thought Dennis might deliver that this time to be fair but whoever it was needs keeping away from bringing people in in the future. Amazing how they got that over the line despite the cost but somehow totally screwed up TWO previous big signings....

Of course they are but the starting point here was lower and the impact higher than a lot of other places. Historically outside of certain big city boroughs smaller places like Blackburn suffer more in hard times.

I just don't understand how and why a club that watches the pennies so much and constantly bemoans lack of income goes out and plays russian roulette signing the likes of Fleck and Dennis. Easily a million quid wasted on those 2 for absolutely nothing and their recent resumes screamed the chances of getting games out of them was 50/50 at best. Utter stupidity but yes someone somewhere will be doing alright out of it.

But the main point here surely is Blackburn Rovers are in Blackburn with Darwen, not Norwich, not Stoke or Swansea. The tickets simply have to be cheaper to get more in regularly, ok Bolton are a league below and have less running costs so we'll ignore them but Preston have shown the way. If we did the same deal they did a few years ago we'd pull in more than them we did before they cut their prices.

Not really a catchment area now though and hasn't been for a long time, yes there are fans still there but this regime doesn't care about lapsed fans. When Jack started building Rovers up back then outside of the Manchester and Merseyside giants there hadn't been another north west club in top flight for decades never mind a successful one. Hence the rebuilding of Ewood to such a size, hence the hiring of John Williams and just as importantly well priced tickets. The area was huge and it worked for a while then plateaued out before this lot ruined it. Now though they are right to concentrate on a more realistic market but many locals are priced out or put off ST by kick off times and cack handed running of the club. If you can't offer Prem football them you have to offer tempting and affordable Championship football and a bit of ambition. No reason why we can't average 15k home supporters they are out there but nobody seems arsed we'll just host them a few times a season and get match by match prices off them.

Limited catchment area, vastly altered demographic from when we were drawing big crowds, constant worsening cost of living and poverty crisis within the borough, many Rovers regulars, former regulars and casual fans now live a few miles away, low wage economy and of course constantly disillusioned fans. You simply have to price to your market and ours is slightly different than a lot in this division or indeed England. Never the mind the fact we have at least 15k empty seats most of the time but we do actually have potential for more attendees even at this level.

They represent experience given Gestede will likely push the age of the squad right back down again plus they fit the bigger wages but short deal category. That' 'the model' now 🫣

Boro reinvest and despite bigger gates so bigger wages i assume Gibson still has to prop them up so they can reinvest in fees and and wages. There's a downside to everything though as i reckon a lot of players go there purely for the wages they pay. If our lot were still putting money underwriting costs in then when unavoidable big transfers do happen a good wedge of that could be reinvested but oh no there's always a problem or excuse here.

If we are struggling by next Jan and he needs some backing and doesn't get it he'll probably bail out before he gets a relegation on his cv. Ditto if we are doing well then players start dropping like flies mid season and he's told there's nothing in Jan he'll get the feelers put out for another gig and Rovers will happily gobble up the compen before scouring the scrapheap again. If we are plodding along going nowhere and a firesale of players is brewing nicely he'll probably get an extension.

Riverside is going to look a bit better for the players walking out by the sounds of it but the JW will look sparse. All i see is people saying they are moving there, even from the BBE, only at this club could they create musical chairs with the same set of fans rather than new ones snapping them up. Costing themselves in the process by people moving to the cheaper stand, might as well just have reduced other areas and tried to actually get more in instead of creating fresh empty seats. Unreal lack of brains.

I wouldn't go near Dennis the red flags were there long before these lot decided to throw away at least half a million on borrowing him.

Pointless with 7k already sold. Boycotting now for anyone's own personal reasons then fine fully understandable but biting a nose to spite a face won't make a jot of difference unfortunately. No matter how angry or fed up of the ownership and gravy train riders some get they can't even force themselves to boycott one game never mind a season. The support is and has been for a long time now split into 3 camps, hardcore, part time (for varying reasons) and stay aways (odd game aside). Of course if they'd sold less than 5k i'd take a different view as that would be a statement.

Without checking i'm assuming it's more than last season in the first phase considering it only limped over 8k by the end of summer. Now just imagine if they showed a bit of ambition in the next few weeks, Ty-ing down Dolan would be a good start !