This is UEFA though, not the EFL.

My bad, you are correct of course.

Not true. Reading had a points deduction just last season.

I don't know exactly much leeway clubs are given as regards to covid, I think it is 5+5+2.5m for the three years. Some sources claim that the EFL are looking at a 4-year cycle for years affected by the pandemic instead of the usual 3. Also remember that not all losses "count" (academy etc), so a few million over 45 should be ok. I took a look at the three clubs, and as far as I can tell here's the deal: Middlesbrough - borderline. Must improve in 2022. Season ended 2021 2020 2019 Losses 25m 30.5m 2m profit 3Y FFP losses 53.5m Bristol City - ok for now but something must happen in 2022 (2019 profit wiped) Season ended 2021 2020 2019 Losses 38m 10m 11m profit 3Y FFP losses 37m Stoke City - different numbers floating around, have sold training ground AND stadium. Bad situation. Season ended 2021 2020 2019 Losses 5m 70m 15m 3Y FFP losses 90m Note that selling stadiums is no longer allowed, so that is not an option for rovers.

Long post warning.. I feel that many posters are not aware of the actual financial reality of the club. The club must survive first and foremost, hence the focus on being a sustainable operation. In the short term, as long as Venkys are willing to fund the club's losses, being sustainable means to comply with the championship's profitability and sustainability rules, often called FFP. To comply with said rules, clubs must run at a loss of no more than £45 million over any 3-year period. As an aside, be aware that a season or two in the PL during this period will dramatically increase this figure, giving clubs relegated from the PL another huge advantage ON TOP OF their parachute payments (which are counted as income) if they have owners with big wallets. Looking at Rovers' accounts from the 20/21 season we had at the time a loss of approx £46.750.000 over 3 years, which is over the FFP limit. We can deduct spending for the academy, ladies team etc from this figure, which means we were within our £45m limit by some margin. There was also probably a significant covid-related deduction for which I don't know the details, maybe enough to make us compliant for 2020 but seemingly not for 2021. Hence we sold the training centre, which raised a £13m profit which is included in the losses mentioned. Obviously we can only sell the training centre once, so it's not really sustainable. Season ended 2021 2020 2019 Losses 6.6m 22m 18.2m 3Y FFP losses 46.75m 57m 38.8m When the 2022 accounts are filed the 2019 numbers are no longer relevant for FFP, so those 18.2m losses are wiped clean and replaced with whatever loss we have for 2022. The maximum loss for 2022 we can live with within FFP would be (45-22-6.6) = 16.4m. The Armstrong sale, the return of matchday crowds, and the siginficant cull of senior players on big wages last summer should all help the 2022 accounts so I don't expect any problems there. Now this is where it gets interesting. 2022 accounting is done (although not published), so we have to focus on 2023 where we can wipe the terrible 2020 loss of 22m away, to be replaced with the 2023 accounts. What we know is that we have cleared around 70k/week off the wage budget with the players that have left this summer. We also expect a big sale with Brereton going. Unless we sign a lot of expensive players we could potentially be looking at actually turning a profit this year (we won't, because we'll sign players). Keep in mind that one good financial year helps the club comply with FFP for 3 years, not just one, and that money paid towards transfers are spread out over the length of the signed player's contract. As long as Venkys are happy to provide the maximum amount of financial backing that they can (and they have until now, make no mistake about it), we should indeed be looking at, in GB's words, "a healthy budget". This is surely one reason to be optimistic. But the signings need to be right, we can not afford to take big losses on players. So I'd rather the club takes its sweet time getting recruitment right. We might not have an Armstrong or a Brereton to sell next year and we could easily be in the brown stuff again in a couple of years since our baseline operations are far from sustainable. Note that if Venkys should withdraw their funding entirely, FFP requirements would go from a £45mill loss to a £15mill loss, and we would have to make drastic cuts across the board and probably not be able to sustain a championship level operation. I can't see this happening though as they would need to achieve PL status to have any hope of recouping their expenses.

Welcome Jon and team, happy to have you here! Much better than I expected / feared and great to see some positivity around here.

I don't think OGS would come. Not a big enough club for him anymore, and he probably doesn't like us due to the rivalry back in the Ferguson days. OGS absolutely adores Ferguson and Man Utd.

Deila is going to Standard Liege and is out of the running at Rovers.

Updated with today's news: Rothwell, Johnson, Chapman, Davenport confirmed gone. Butterworth, Magloire, Eastham retained.

Rothwell has also confirmed now that he is leaving.

I get that but have you forgotten all the relegation talk on here in the summer?

8th place it is then. Disappointing given the first half of the season obviously but compared to pre-season expectations not bad at all.

Bizarre indirect free kick for us inside their 16 now after the keeper handled a backpass

Someone said it, I don’t really care who it was. Don’t get your pantalons in a twist because someone has a different opinion than you.

Now you are talking about the team, I was talking about individual players and the ridiculous statement that only van Hecke deserves any credit for this season.

I’m starting to see why Tony bigs up our opponents every week, it’s clear that the team only perfoms when there’s no pressure

Wow Diaz is back

A better season than we all expected given earlier performances. Kaminski I’d agreee with although you could make the case that he was even better last season so I didn’t include him.

Several players have had a better season than ever. Brereton, Wharton, Travis, Buckley (now).. They certainly deserve credit for that.

Holy *%# Buckley!!

And the players don’t deserve any credit for getting us there in the first place?

That’s extremely harsh on the team, we wil finish top 10 after all

I hope not to be honest. Won’t doubt his passion but the theatrics are not befitting a captain IMO.

Not the worst half really, Bournemouth are just a better side. No wonder given their purchasing power.

Not sure why people are getting on Hedges' back. He looked good to me last night, especially considering his lack of game time for us.