I reckon we had a chance of winning the Royal London Cup with a full team this year. Sadly t'Hundred has put paid to that. We can't chase down any reasonable score with the batsmen we have left.

Interesting, I thought the opposite - most of the comments were knobheads with the odd fair one.

Resign, no? I wouldn't have made an outlandish claim that I was an honest man and I'd walk away if I felt I couldn't take the club any further. I'd bury in like a tick and expect my full severance package.

If he has senior managerial aspirations, being the assistant manager at a League Two side is a significant step up from being the U23 manager of an Academy. There's no conspiracy theory here.

I I had enough time in that last month to squeak the job over the line for that year, yes. Part of the reason I'm being brought in is to achieve that.

As I've said time and again, we have the worst owners in football. How they think that the solution to losing £70m over the last three years is to retain the morons who have been in charge during that time and sell off our second most valuable asset (after the stadium) - one that allows you to bring in young, cheap players who you can flip for profit - is beyond me. No wonder Bolton fans wouldn't swap places with us. We've done nothing as fans to deserve this.

He won 2 games in 17 and kept his job. Why would Mowbray feel any pressure to play Ayala? He's literally bulletproof.

Honestly I just don't think the media cares about us. We were on TV in the middle of that dire losing run. It was BARELY mentioned. If it had been Derby or Brentford, for example, they wouldn't have shut up about the awful form the team was in and would have been questioning whether the manager was about to get the sack.

And also 'cos he's a shit footballer.

Mowbray isn't the man to do it, but I'd actually be extremely happy if Rovers turned into an entertaining mid-table Championship side that blooded Academy players every year before selling them on for a profit. At least we'd have an identity. We've lacked that for over a decade. How I miss Hughes' Black-eye Rovers.

I think you are reading too much into it. The Academy lads are getting a chance (in pre-season at least) because we've let literally half a squad walk out of the door and not replaced any of them. Granted most of them were shit, but still it's a numbers game. Barr has left for a promotion - and so many Academy players in and around a Championship First XI is a glowing mark on his CV.

The most annoying thing is that these Prem youngsters aren't bloody cheap to loan in. It's just wasted money for an asset that isn't yours.

No, it's in his interest to leave on a free and earn a whopping signing on fee as a free agent.

Armstrong would be mental to stay if multiple clubs are sniffing around. I'm a die hard Rovers fan and I'd be looking to get out of this basketcase club in his situation.

He doesn't tick as many boxes as you think. The biggest myth around him is that he's rapid. He's quick, but he's not fast - I've seen him run down on many occasions and competent FBs have him in their back pocket when he's out wide. He's a head down player who has to be built around and accommodated for. I'd take £15m now just to get us out of this FFP nonsense we're mired in. Rather that than he leaves for £0 in the summer.

Still a baffling move for Kipre that. Wasted a season on the bench.

So how do you explain this new breed of England players then? Technically they're superior to their predecessors. That's only come about with the introduction of a comprehensive Academy system. It's the pyramid system - you have to have a wide base to create that elite peak. If you only bring through 1 of those U17s every other year into the First XI then the Academy is working. I think your problem is that you feel like Academies are exclusive - once you're in you think you've made it and 'better' players are excluded if they missed the cut as 8/9/10 year olds. I'm sure there's some merit to that - but that's where your local scouts come in. They should have the remit to bring in a couple of the more talented local lads into the Academy for trials - don't let them 'slip through the net'.

Awful that. The kit should always be quartered.

It's a marketer's wet dream - just look at the team mottos: “Spark the Welsh Fire. Burning bright with intense passion and relentless energy, their hunger will prove the haters wrong. Get ready to feel the heat.” 🤮 The ECB have evidently greased a lot of palms as the coverage is suffocating and overwhelmingly positive in the way that can only happen when it's bought and paid for. To compensate each County for having devastated the Royal London Cup (it's essentially a Second XI competition now - in a format that we're World Champions in) and the T20 Blast, they've been bought off with £1.3m. That's incredibly short sighted - albeit after two COVID hit years I'm sure their coffers are running low. The ECB hate that they didn't patent T20 and also hate that Counties bank most of the money from the T20 Blast. This is their attempt to rectify that mistake - but the horse has bolted. All it does is hamstring the Counties and devalue the product. In the 5 best weeks of the summer there's a great number of cricket fans that can't watch live First XI cricket. I haven't watched a second of it, nor will I.

It's 40% of the profit apparently. We bought him for £1.8m, apparently, so we'd be giving Newcastle another £5m if that £15m fee is correct. Sensible business all round, really. Allowed us to get the player at a cut price and allowed Newcastle to not get their fingers burned if he turned into a worldie.

The owners write off £20m a year to keep us running. As absent and incompetent as they are, I can't question that they put their hand in their pocket.

I've feared for the club for over a decade.

It's blind faith at this point though, right?

It's an odd move for him, but he's not a worldie so we'll recover. As I understand it he's had an injury on his left hand, which is why Vilas has kept for most of the season. It can't just be that Warwickshire have offered him the gloves. As for Lancs being one of the richest counties in the game - absolutely. We've also invested the money wisely. It's great to see Lancastrians in the team from our fantastic academy, rather than a bunch of mercenaries.

The sad thing is that the whole set up is primed for an ambitious Chief Exec / Manager to revolutionise this club. The owners continue to pump millions and millions in, but they're as hands off as you could possibly get - you really do have carte blanche at Ewood. Unfortunately this situation has attracted the Waggots / Mowbrays / Andersons of the world, rather than a Wilder.