longsiders1882

It would have been like Blackburn lending us a few bob back in '87 ... But yes, ultimately as fans, owners and clubs we need to accept we are responsible for the whole of football, that ultimately our health is very closely aligned to the health of the total game, grass roots up. The reason, IMO, why the premier league has traditionally been so popular is because of the strength of the foundations below it in the football league. We ignore that at our peril - and that is what we are doing. That said we also need regulation that actually stops rogue owners overspending, saddling clubs with huge debts then bailing out. Of course it won't happen because as fans we are very self centred. We hate people "buying the league" until its our club the billionaire wants, then we don't care. And we don't care about any knock on it might have on the wider game. In the main only when it starts to unravel do we start to cry foul. I guess it comes to this - do we care about our club only or do we care about our club and football as whole. I'm not sure what the answer to that is if I'm honest.

Don't go blaming us! The whole ownership structure and regulation in this country needs an overhaul with something akin to the German model coming in.

Nice touch to throw in the real story of the FA rebrand.

The team was more than capable of winning, bearing in mind we have a game a few days later I thought his selection was ok to be honest. I know, it’s just a bit of fun and if you got us in the cup this year you’d probably win! I would if the situation was reversed ?

If you can believe it loads of fans kept saying they wanted to go out as it might lead to our relegation - I just can't understand that mentality. I would swap relegation for an FA Cup, League Cup, Europa etc every day of the week. I can't imagine in 10 years I'll be reminiscing about the time we finished 14th in the Premier League.

As in I don't have one you mean? Work hard and pay my taxes my friend. Yeah lots of fakes available in the grand bazaar lol.

Lol - how many years is it now ...

Who's lying? I got a trip to Aberdeen which was actually great fun and their fans were awesome, home and away - great banter in the pubs around Burnley when they came down too. And Istanbul was an amazing place to visit. Aye indeed I did - and (as you'll see above) loved it - proper football team and ground Aberdeen.

The players and agents at a guess. I enjoyed our European jaunt - would have been nice to get to the group but cest la vie. Back to the day jobs now.

So far we've looked poor defensively which is the biggest worry. Played very well last night but whether we can take that into the league, we shall see. Sundays game is a tricky one because United are a wounded bear right now. If the players want Jose out (as some are suggesting) then we might just sneak something but if they give a reaction could be a pasting - I think a better indicator will be the 4 games after Sunday which are all games where you would target points when the fixture list comes out (Wolves A, Bournemouth H, Cardiff A and Huddersfield H) you'd want 6 minimum and ideally 7 from that. But most seasons are likely to be relegation battles for us until we actually go down so it's no surprise to me we are where we are. On the posts above about some of the "Dyche" out type idiots. I can only assume they've jumped on the PL bandwagon because no one who enjoyed the 4th division days etc would come out with such nonesense. As for he's lost it, has he hell and for me if we are rock bottom all season I wouldn't dream of getting rid - if we went down and did a Sunderland, only then for me should we look to change. Oh and we did strengthen, spent about 30 million, thats still a lot of money for us, and we still have Brady and Defour to come back.

Sad news - Always gave his all, cult hero on the terraces.

I imagine he's stayed because the right better offer hasn't yet arrived. In this country there are a handful of jobs currently "better" than Burnley for him. Here he has a largely free hand to do as he wishes, he earns (I hear) very good money and he's largely unsackable. So of course he's ambitious but change for the sake of it? Maybe he sees the Europa as shop window for European teams so he can go abroad a few seasons, earn a reputation and maybe would then be considered for a "top 6" job? Twas ever thus - Ask big Sam.

The rest of the fans in Istanbul (be they Galatasaray, Besiktas or Fenerbache) hate Basaksehir. They are owned by their ministry of sport and most locals feel Erdogan is financing them with government money. They honestly could not have been more welcoming. Now its on to Athens. I can't make this one as it clashes with GCSE results day and so have to be here for my son in the event things don't go well. It's hard to see how our journey doesn't end here. Olympiakos have a real pedigree and I would expect them to have too much for us - shame as I'd have loved to get to the group stages and do at least one more trip.

Nah - was just having a laugh about the attendance stuff - he’s a dick but provided a bit of mild ammunition for fun - we’ve got plenty of them of our own. yeah I went - I’m still here, fly back tomorrow. It was I thought a respectable turnout considering cost and distance - plus the Turkish reputation. They were technically pretty decent to be honest but couldn’t score - certainly not convinced we will win next Thursday.

More tongue in cheek

Tomphil mentioned it a post or 2 before mine. As for moral high ground - I would hope most Rovers fans don’t share his sentiment- hence the quotes around fan - animosity is one thing but wishing people stabbed? I wasn’t suggesting he represented most Rovers fans and if you thought I were my apologies.

This obsession with our attendances really isn’t healthy lads. For the record no one got stabbed (I know a ‘fan’ of yours was wishing for that on social media the tool) as far as I know and a great time was had by all - but the game was poor. Still 0-0 away, mustn’t grumble.

I've heard a rumour that our wage bill for the season just gone will be a staggering (IMO) 60 Million. So when people were touting Benitez as a challenger to Guardiola and Dyche for manager of the season what planet were they on exactly? 112 million in the championship? That is mental.

Any bitters are on this board lads This started as a bit of a joke on a sandwich board outside the Prinny Royal - a notorious haunt locally. Their actions this season have got them on Sky Sports and the BBC a few times so they are loving it. That said we haven't made the Europa League yet so it may not happen.

I thought the ref got all the decisions right - even the willian one, looked like he was already on his way to me. Trouble is we are used to referee's giving all these decisions where the pundits say 'he'd every right to go down'.

I don't think even a Burnley fan could have dreamed up that script! As for filling our boots - however poorly you may be playing, we are more than capable of 'throwing one in'. We should expect a reasonably comfortable win but ( as I said) this is us, it's Blackburn V Burnley and nothing would surprise me, not even a 5 yards offside goal from Dunn! From our end I believe we've sold the 5K allocation so maybe that will encourage a few more to attend at your end?

Most of us (I think) were sensible enough to know that briefly being above you in the league did not undo decades of under investment/decades of solid development - it should have been obvious to everyone there was a clear quality difference all over the pitch and off it. On the columns - always assumed they were listed alphabetically ...

Good day all - long time no speak and all that jazz. Thought I'd drop in and see what your views were on this game. Be interesting this one, first game in 4 decades where we haven't been the underdogs. We might be favourites and in a higher league etc but all the old cliche's apply, we've failed spectacularly in cups recently losing to teams lower down the leagues than us. For me I'd prefer not to play you and give you a chance to reset the clock - something we were denied for 17 years! Not sure how Dyche will approach this with selection - he may well play one or two fringe players, though if he does he is completely ignoring the mood of the fans. I would expect us to get the win but this is a real derby and its a cup game so who knows.

Makes no difference who the money is owed to. Bolton must be on target for well above FFP losses for this season and next (assuming they don't get promoted) which leaves the owner with a choice of pumping equity in (and incurring a huge fine) or taking a transfer embargo etc. I did once read that about 10 million a year was being added to the debt in interest payments etc - not sure if that was accurate or true. If it was then I guess well over 100 million of their debt could well simply be interest rather than actual money spent!

Surely us dingles are not about to get yet another Xmas pressie from your owners .....