Well if I thought Broughton and JDT were just more of the same like Mowbray then I wouldn't have renewed my season ticket.

Not too fussed tbh - as long as the transfer is completed quickly and reinforcements are brought in.

What False 9 play? Szmodics is playing as an AMC. We're currently playing 4-2-3-1 (with Hedges being the 1). If we get enough CBs in we might play 3-4-3 at some point too.

Ah man I didn't realise it was Saturday, I thought the game was on Sunday. 2 days rest between matches is brutal. We're going to run out the kids against Bradford midweek.

'Developing kids' IS our ticket out of this league. Our Academy is our big advantage on most other Championship clubs. We can't compete with the parachute clubs financially - look at what Bournemouth did last year (they rolled the dice because their parachute payments were about to stop and bought promotion). Look at how we got blown out of the water for Anel Ahmedhodžić by Sheffield Utd who are also in the last year of their parachute payments. Quite frankly, with the state of our attendances we're going to struggle to match the finances of the big city clubs soon too. I haven't seen enough either way out of Broughton to form an opinion - I love that he's hugely qualified (THE most qualified guy we've had for a long time) and that he talks a good game and comes across as professional. The proof of the pudding is in the eating though - I'll assess him once the transfer window closes. 4-5 shrewd signings and I'm confident JDT can have us competing for the Playoffs. If we only get 2-3 in then it's going to be a long season.

The football pyramid is irrevocably broken.

Probably why he couldn't get them on the phone when he wanted a contract extension in the Spring.

Suddenly everyone has sources that they've been quietly sitting on for 500 pages. 🤣

Do you really think our pitch would hold up to that?! After the last couple of seasons I certainly don't.

Venus was our de-facto Director of Football and Mowbray had almost free reign. As I've said multiple times on here, the Blackburn Rovers manager job is an incredibly plum one. The optimist in me thinks that transfers are so slow to get over the line because Broughton and JDT are carefully planning for the future with the wage structure in mind - I don't like to buy into the conspiracy theories that the taps have been turned off and we're penniless.

The project is to get us back into the Premier League. He talks about having to be patient because he's walked through the doors of Brockhall and seen the lads on the pitch. He knows we're well short, but he also knows it's not a great league and promotion is attainable with the right acquisitions. That said, that semi-permanent smile on his face will disappear if the transfer window shuts without significant reinforcements through the door. He didn't leave Malmo to take us on a mid-table journey.

We lost 7-0 at home to Fulham last season.

The Rovers commentary team were saying last night that Ayala thinks Long is the most difficult opponent he's played against at this level. It was a baptism of fire last night for Phillips.

Sorry, which players have gone backwards?

Didn't he come on as a sub against Hartlepool?

Absolute insanity. I hope they go down.

It's only little old Blackburn, they don't care about accuracy.

Edun isn't the answer, he can't play FB in a back 4. He can sort of play WB in a back 3 if you're desperate.

In that case, 7 men. Vale shouldn't be playing in this league and Dolan is an impact sub at best.

I think Szmodics is getting a lot of undue stick. He was brought in to play the #10 role - link up attacks and pop up with the odd goal. He's clearly a tidy player who plays with his head up. We've not had the ball the last two matches through no fault of his own.

WBA were just playing cross-field ball after cross-field ball against Pickering. They identified his lack of pace and isolated him - it was painful to watch.

Give over, Brereton runs his blood to water.

When you say 'poor team selection', you mean a complete lack of squad depth, right? Gallagher was knackered on Sunday. Hedges was clearly very tired. It's just a shame our backups are Dolan, Vale and Markanday (who's injured AGAIN I believe?). Two games a week with this squad is brutal.

How far off is Batty? He's the next wonderkid in our Academy, right? Edun can't play there. Pickering struggles to play as an attacking FB (essentially a WB) in this formation.

Watch how often there's acres of space for him to carry the ball into and he has zero interest in doing so. He's meant to play like Brittain, but looks for the easy pass instead - it completely ruins the balance of the team.