Not even what I was saying, at any point of the discussion we had. I absolutely am letting it drop now, as I tried to in the last post, but here you are again. Keep it up if you want but I really am done, no more replies from me, you do what makes you feel best.

Another pathetic reply Tomphil, where you confuse your petulance and overreaction for being mine, and standing by your flimsy argument, so I agree, I'll leave you to it and move on.

Wow. Yeh really disproving the notion that you're the one being a dick here eh? Firstly I didn't say it was 'seriously' provocative, I said it was provocative. Which it is, because it's a demeaning reply rather than actually giving your counterpoint. It's not how polite discussion works on a messageboard. I responded in kind, and the fact it got you wound up enough to start calling me a dick only shows that's not how you start a discussion unless you want it to devolve. Don't give it if you can't take it Tomphil. Anyway you finally 'explained it' but you seem confused. You start by going on about budget, which wasn't really the discussion, as I never mentioned what our budget was in League One, or how well we did, only what our gates were. You had initially said that if it came down to gate money dictating budget, we would be mid-table in League One. So I took all those other factors away that you're adding in now, and kept to your own point of gates, and showed we had the third best in League One. So no, if it came down to purely gate money dictating budget, we would have the third best budget in League One, based on our last stint. 7th based on last season's crowds in that league which have since gone up, still firmly in the top third rather than squarely in the middle. This also ignores that there were also 9 teams in the Championship this season who had worse crowds. I see your version of me not thinking it through involved you tossing in unrelated matters, future speculated decline based on being in and staying down in a league we aren't even in yet, and other budgetary factors to your initial point, as well as ignoring other clubs' potential for decline under the same model, so I can see why you confused yourself there. Now I'm not sure what's gotten into you today because you're not usually like this, but you should probably go and do something relaxing as the lack of transfers seems to have put you on edge.

Oh please. As if replying to my post with 'Not really thought that through have you' wasn't provocative. And giving you some snark back makes me the dick, even though you're the one throwing an actual insult at me. And refusing to back up your claim, which the evidence refutes. I'll let others decide who is being a dick here.

I'd question the drive of anybody who, at 31, just spent two seasons in China.

Oh do enlighten me. What with you having said we would be in the middle for attendances and me presenting the fact we were third, I'm curious how you think I'm the one who hasn't thought this through.

I think we got an indication at some point, something like 15-20% I think. Could be misremembering though.

Berget having contract talks with Malmo. And Birmanevic thought to be outside our price range as other European clubs circle. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20270780.jo-inge-berget-malmo-contract-talks-amid-blackburn-rovers-links/

Well we were 3rd for attendances in the season we spent down there, so I don't think so.

Are you referring to the UEFA changes, which I assumed only applied to clubs who qualify for European competition? I was under the impression the EFL sets its own 'FFP' rules.

Those who think promotion is on the cards are in for a long season.

He has never played a Premiership game. It would be a risk for any such team.

Same reason we have done it repeatedly in the past.

Yep it's called selective memory. I wish I could forget everything I have seen happen to Rovers since Venkys appeared!

Let's not pretend that if we had sold him the club wouldn't have had dogs abuse for selling to a rival during a promotion push. The sale would just have taken the blame rather than Mowbray.

I don't agree with that interpretation of his words. Pretty sure he is saying England is a different market to operate in, rather than that we are not operating like other English clubs due to our new setup. But who knows. It's not his first language.

Are you and Gregg working together to strengthen the team where you can? "Yes, it's not like normal in England. I know what I want and the club has to provide it and they are working very hard." It's 'not like normal in England' does suggest he is surprised or frustrated at it being harder to get deals over the line. Seems like for now he thinks that's an English football problem more than it's a 'our club moves at a snail's pace under Venkys' problem.

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/tomasson-blackburn-rovers-transfer-dack-24445338 Transcript of JDT's words after the friendly. "the club are working extremely hard to bring players in." Are you confident they will be coming in soon? "I don't think it will be Christmas." 🤣

Match ratings from Lancs Live: https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-player-ratings-accrington-24445321 Players they gave a 7 to: Ayala, Buckley, Markanday from first 11, and Pears, Carter, Edun from the second 11 (Vale got an 8). Just one person's opinion of course. Not sure why he didn't give Garrett a 7 as his comments about him are only flattering. Hedges too really.

I don't think those quotes suggest he isn't happy with the club. I can see him saying them if he wasn't, but I can also see him saying exactly the same thing if he accepts they're doing the best they can.

Thing is, if it's just a friendly and all that matters is fitness, which I can accept, then it's also pretty irrelevant how well Garrett, Wharton, Phillips and Vale performed.

Same as us.

I assume the second Stanley team is also their worst one?

Second team is far worse on paper. Thankful we won't have to line up with that in the Championship. Were we really as bad in that first half as some said? Neophox said we had a goal disallowed for offside, hit the post and had another cleared off the line. Doesn't sound as terrible or dull as I'm being told.

Correct me if I'm wrong lads but here's what I think happened here.... Tom talked about how this kid has scored for us from the halfway line, but showed a clip of him scoring another good goal from distance for someone else in the past. Then Arbitro has thought he was talking about the goal on the clip (which looks 30 yards ish), but he meant this other goal. Then Tom, who hasn't actually seen the goal, has assumed Arbitro has seen it and is correcting him? I heard he scored from about the halfway for us too, which is more like 57 yards.