Gamst

But interestingly our owners are billionaires and probably a lot wealthier than our opponents who outspend us 10 fold.

I really struggle to see peak Ferguson getting a tune out of today's match day squad. It is appallingly threadbare and lacking all over the park and on the bench there is nobody to bring on who can change the game. The players that are on the pitch look exhausted and downhearted. The team has been downgraded so rapidly and we have gone from the brink of the playoffs to the worst squad in my 30+ years supporting the club. Absolutely terrible mismanagement from the Ewood stooges and continued ownership who are seemingly unwilling to sell the club out of some form of punishment for being egged at Ewood over a decade ago. I can only assume they are laughing at how miserable we all are. They will use the injuries as a convenient excuse, it's the lack of squad depth and quality that's really the underlying cause. They don't have the depth to rotate the squad and the excess physical loading that the remaining players have to go through leaves them at risk of injury. Most of the players they have signed on the cheap are duds and simply cannot step up to fill the gap. The old pros that were shipped out over the summer would have been ideal for the situation we find ourselves in. Other teams have injuries too but are able to put out a coherent team still on a Saturday. We have had injury crises before and we always still manage to have a competitive team but now we have exhausted players many of whom are well below the required standard. It's all a complete mess and I cannot see how this side picks up another point in the near future.

Hedges is a great barometer for how rapidly the squad has deteriorated. He has gone from being a much maligned squad player to a key cog in the dysfunctional machine.

Some thoughts. They have a dodgy keeper who has made a couple of bad mistakes in recent matches and we failed to get a shot on target at home. Our first choice keeper was sat on the bench whilst we were seemingly just waiting for Pears to mess up so that he can be replaced in the next match. Seeing as we have no goals in the team, a solid keeper is essential and we actually have one sat on the bench!! The team is so weak and there is nobody on the bench who can come on and change things. There was basically no way back once the first goal went in. Realistically we need 5 decent experienced signings across multiple areas of the pitch to actually be competitive. We won't spend enough money to do that and I doubt any decent players would want to join....if any prospective signings were at the match today I suspect they left at half time. Without the signings we are going to be relying on 3 other teams being worse than us and us managing to scrape together a few scrappy draws and lucky wins. 2026 is going to be another good one folks. .

Given how good Alebiosu has been I suspect they will be encouraged to spend any money on younger players with resale potential. The profit they get from Alebiosu is likely to offset any losses made by signing a few duds like De Neve and Tavares. Reyes Cleary would fit this model and it sounds like he has decent potential. I wonder if we will go back in the Bailey Cadamarteri at Sheffield Wednesday for similar reasons. I have no issues with signing promising youngsters, but I do worry that our current predicament is crying out for Championship experience and in terms of helping us avoid relegation I sense the money would be better spent on this. Of course ideally we would spend on both, but that's not going to happen.

Both teams decimated by awful ownership. A shameful advert for modern day football. On the face of it, its a poor result but in truth our squad is so poor and threadbare that it’s actually not a bad point and it helps us stagger towards safety. The lack of quality in the matchday squad is embarrassing and massively exposes our complete lack of depth. Responsible ownership/management would have multiple signings ready to complete on New Year’s Day. My guess though is that we won’t have a striker in until deadline day. I hope I’m wrong.

I feel what ultimately will make a difference is a strategy that gains a lot of publicity. I don’t think they will care about lost revenue as it’s a drop in the ocean for them. They will care about being publicly shamed. There has been some good early publicity for the boycott but it needs to gather steam in order to keep up the pressure. I’m worried that we will win a couple of matches and the momentum will be lost or the fans who are likely to boycott have already done so and only a few hundred less fans in the stadium won’t look much different to the pitiful turnout against Oxford. I think we need to do something before it’s too late though so in the words of Gary Bowyer we should ‘give it a good go’ 💪🏽

Would strongly advise others to ignore people who disagree on social media. Don’t be too disheartened or discouraged by their slightly desperate sounding protestations. You are never going to convince everyone and I really believe they are in a small minority now. They are entitled to an opinion so just ignore them and stay focussed on the task at hand.

The letter is excellent! Kudos and thanks to those who composed it. Professionally written and difficult to dispute the facts stated. I don’t attend Ewood regularly as I don’t live locally, but I will certainly boycott from now on. I do spend stupid amounts on merch for me and my son though…NAPM until they’re gone!! It’s time to unite as a fanbase to get rid of our traitorous owners and their stooges. Vive la resistance! 💪🏽

I completely respect you for going to matches as you clearly enjoy it and you should keep going if it makes you happy. You’re not a mug for pursuing what you enjoy. You should also respect those who want to protest or boycott as it makes some people miserable to see how the club is shrinking. I think if I lived locally I would probably keep going too. Regardless of off field matters, I can’t help but support the team. Apathy has set in to a degree but I still have the love for the team that is quickly rekindled with a couple of wins. My worry is where the club will be in 5 or 10 years. I’ve managed to convince my 8 year old son to support the club (poor thing) but with the rate of decline currently I’m worried there won’t be much left to support in the future. Rovers have been important in my life and I want the same for my son. I think this is a legitimate concern and as such I will support any (legal) protests.

I think what you are describing is poor footballers. It makes their footballing skills unlikeable but not them as people. That’s just overly harsh.

I think they seem alright. It’s not a lack of effort that’s the issue, they’re just not good enough. It’s hard to bond with the fans when things are going badly on the pitch.

Disappointing result but overwhelming apathy from me. Feel for the fans on the long drive home. Was important not to lose today against a team who are bang out of form and bang average. We seem to be buckling at crucial times which is a really bad sign. Losing so much championship experience is really costing us. You can play decent football but lose games like today due to a lack of championship nous. A previous poster mentioned how scandalous it was to sell Hyam at the last minute. Well his team just equalised in the last minute again whilst we failed to muster any sort of chance in injury time.

Pretty dire stuff but didn’t deserve to lose and should have won with the decent chances we had. The positives are that the match finished (not always assured at Ewood park and it was a shocking spectacle) and we didn’t lose or concede with the last touch again. Oxford not getting 3 points on our patch is important I suppose. Other than that it was a turgid affair with two poor teams who look like they will be in the relegation mix.

No doubt we’ll manage to get this match completed. The drains might be blocked but despite that this club is heading down it at a rapid speed.