In time I might be. I realise so far it isn't quite going to plan, yet you are third. Imagine if he can get a couple of players in, those missing links. Kompany has done amazingly well to gel a new team - but in some ways the blessing is he could bring in exactly the type of player he wanted. Personally I wouldn't be writing JDT off yet - but I accept it isn't my team and I don't see the performances week in and out. The way this league has gone it is more than conceivable we are both PL next season - or that neither of us are.

😁😁😁 You are lettting your bitterness cloud your view. Firslty he inherited an Anderlecht side in big financial trouble, he brought through youth players and took them from 8th to third. It was no easy task and he did it with aplomb - a read here if you are really interested https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/analyzing-vincent-kompanys-anderlecht/ . As for his splurge - he spent about what you guys did on Diaz As for he will move onto bigger and better than us. Well of course he will, only fool would imagine he is anything other than ambitious. He's also astute, he will go when it is the right opportunity. I have no doubt he has a pretty clear career trajectory in mind. But if he leaves because they've come calling it means he's done well, ergo we've done well. Our fond memories will hopefully be putting your guys to the sword twice, a promotion, maybe being Champions and, with a huge slice of good fortune he stays next season in the PL and can guide us to safety. I imagine his stay will be 2 or 3 seasons depending how we finish this season.

Kompany gets it:

Very much so. With so many players out of contract any kind of rebuild in the PL would have been very difficult, perhaps financially impossible. 100%, the last few seasons of Dyche were painful and perhaps things had their course. I don't really blame Dyche, he just "cut his cloth", the previous board who built up 60/70 million in the bank rather than strengthen when we were doing well, they killed it. Aye, with our own money, that we earned 😁

I was going to share the Alex Crook diatribe - Maybe I should have done as I do share your disgust in The Daily Heil and all the other right wing media types and gammon we have in this nation of ours. Severly dislike Talk Sh*ite as well though.

The first 15 years of the PL they didn’t share a penny of the TV money with the football league - prior to this tv money was split 50% for the 1st division, 25% for division 2 and 12.5 for each of 3 and 4. This dried up over night, league teams had to survive with significantly reduced incomes. None of the PL clubs at the time - you included - gave a toss about those you were ‘leaving behind’. Now we’ve managed to claw our way from near extinction to the top division (briefly) and have completely rebuilt the club you think we should feel bad about it or feel it’s unfair? Creating the PL has brought great things to our football. It has also poisoned it but please don’t try to convince me that if you were still in it you would believe it was unfair or be crying out for Burnley to be given a bigger slice of the pie. As for me, we won’t be around it forever, we are not a big city club so I’ll just have to enjoy it whilst we can.

But we did. It is a business contract we entered into that comes with agreed payments based upon certain outcomes. We earned it by virtue of reaching the PL - and that option remains available to all 24 Championship Clubs. It doesn't stop other clubs doing what they want to do - indeed Our promotion in 13/14 was achieved without parachute payments. You benefited in exactly the same way for years in PL and post relegation. I am willing to bet you never returned a penny of the money you got from the PL or complained about it at the time. It galls you now because it is us getting it - and using it well. Fair enough, I absolutely felt the same back in the day before we benefited. No issue admitting to being an absolute hypocrite. It won't stop me enjoying this season immensely whether we get promoted or not. If we are Champions there will be no "*" in the record books - just as there isn't if I look up the 94/95 season - and I will celebrate it like I did our more recent Championship promotions.

Wagner to Norwich. His first spell at Huddersfield aside - and even that went South - what else has he achieved? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64161503 Wouldn't have been top of my list - then again I doubt I'd have sacked Farke.

Not sure this is right - the definition of buying the league for me comes from spending money your were gifted rather than earned - so City for example. I have no issue with teams outspending us because they earn more then we do, twas ever thus. That site you quoted is guessing at best - and is clearly wrong on many wages. For example Cork signed a new contract in summer and his wage will have dropped. Same with Rodriguez. They show Sander Berge as earning less than Brownhill - they paid 22 million for him, he's earning more than any Burnley player. Rhian Brewster is another, we looked at him when he went to Sheff Utd, we were in the PL but couldn't afford his wage demands. So whilst I accept we will have a higher wage bill than you, largely because of those PL wages we couldn't shift off the books, I don't accept it is what that site claims. But regardless, it is funded by our trading activities. Our owners take money out of the club not put it in.

I mentioned the Soverign Wealth Funds as well - but Jack was also part of the distortion, perhaps the first one to invest so much so quickly. No reason he shouldn't but it sure distorted the competition in your favour - including to get you promoted. Following your logic Watford and Norwich should be top 2 as well - both receive parachutes and both have more money than us and both kept the majority of their PL squads intact. Money is undoubtedly a big factor - so is management, of the team and club. We signed players in the main no one else in this league wanted or had heard of like Benson, Zaroury, Vitinho, Churlinov. All signed for about what we sold McNeill for. It isn't about me accepting it - we all knew the rules of the competition when we entered it, we earned our promotions and the financial rewards of a sustainmed stay in the top flight Actually you couldn't - it would be 3 years as teams relegated after 1 season now only get 2 years parachute payments 😁

But the size of the deal has always dictated the salary expectations. Not disputing it has improved but the payments have always skewed things but less so than wealthy benefactors like Jack Walker and todays sovereign wealth funds. You think this is going to raise its ugly head again? I see it from the money mans point of view but as a fan I like the EFL structure. It isn't perfect but it's blooming entertaining. That said I do agree, if it is happening (and I can easily buy into your reasoning) we need to make sure we are part of it. Your Feb looks especially difficult.

And you received parachute payments didn't you? And they were at a level commensurate with average wages etc at the time. We've been relegated, are carrying some salaries at a level we wouldn't have at this level had it not been for the PL TV money. We've also had to pay off debt, not football debt but debt as a result of a leveraged buyout. In a strange way we were helped by the club allowing so many contracts to expire, made the wage bill manageable. But if the mood is to stop paying them then they should do so - and probably stop the solidarity payments at the same time. But clubs will forward forecast based upon what revenues hey are expecting. You would simply need to pick a season and say any team relegated from this point will not receive payments. I suspect you'd need to give a 3 years window for existing clubs but could start for newly promoted teams almost immediately. Solidarity payments could also be phased out over the same timeframe. The downside, it would make it even more challenging for smaller clubs going up to compete as any players they want to sign would be restricted in both quantity and quality as they might have to meet their obligations with compartively tiny incomes the following seasons 😁Haha, I'm not big enough to threaten anyone

Bit salty last night J*B? 🧂 Lol, it isn’t a routine. It’s a mix of self preservation as it is always the hope that kills you and being respectful that this is a Rovers not a Clarets forum. If I saw you in the street and you pushed me I’d say it would take a catastrophic turn in fortunes for us not to finish top 2 and our race now should really be for the title. The caveat always the same, what are the January player and managerial movements.

Yeah more else guaranteed safety now. The thing with the stats though. Currently a site I like (five thirty eight) gives you guys only an 18% chance of making the play offs - but you are in third FFS. Yes I keep reading on here you are sh*t etc but the fact remains you are third, by earned right. Why can’t you produce a similar performance in the games left? Our assumption has to be that we will, why not you?

Can you imagine what you guys would make of it if we became a phoenix club? Or indeed vice versa? I suspect legal and technical details would be called into use quite regularly.

lol - I’m being serious. Stoke were physical and we struggled to cope. And Swansea have just put 4 passes who were probably most people favourites to win this league.

14 between first and third as well 😉

Tough game tonight but we’ve managed to handle it and come out with a narrow win - possibly an ominous sign if we win when a long way from our best. 17 points from 7th, 14th from third. Still a lot of football to be played but so far, so damn good. Swansea have smashed Watford tonight and we are there next. Will need to be better than we were tonight - mind you a different challenge and probably a style more suited to us.

Lest we forget Burnley did survive for 6 seasons with a comparatively tiny budget

Ah right - I thought it was due in 2023. Well that is one thing to not worry about.

Praise indeed - thanks guys. What Kompany has managed is quite something. Yes he was able to spend 21 million but he did so on the back of losing 15 players. For that money he signed 11 players. He was also able to attract some excellent loans (Harwood-Bellis, Beyer, Maatsen and Tella). Our style has undergone 180 degree switch. There is hope we can improve HOWEVER we do face losing Tella back to Southampton and Zaroury to the Cup Of Nations which could weaken us. Also a risk teams come in for some of our players in January - or worse our manager! We've also only really had one "bump" in the road, the Sheffield United game. Can we respond if we lose a couple on the bounce, do we have what Dyche called "a strong jaw"? I wish the season could end tomorrow but we still have 22 games to play and everything can change yet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64111067 No idea what the interest rate is - I know the 65 million ALK borrowed to buy is was a fairly eye watering rate and in general they've gone up since then. Always believed WBA were a tightly run business but this suggests otherwise.

Fair enough - it was just on the surface it seemed a little unbalanced.

Looks like far and away the best side in the division will need to wait a little bit longer to be top of the division. Quite a dirty side Birmingham but that’s another game, another three goals and another 3 points. 11 ahead of third now and just wish January was over so our squad can’t be disturbed. Just on the attendances thing - Bolton is about 3 times bigger than Blackburn. Ipswich, whilst it’s direct population isn’t much bigger than Blackburn, there is literally no other league team near - Norwich is about 50 miles away. Is it really a fair comparison?