A football club is supposed to be more than just a first team. It is supposed to represent its community and offer a service to its supporters. Most of it not remotely profitable. Be it a programme, be it Radio Rovers, be it Rovervision, be it the club shop in town, be it attempting to knock down the academy to put houses on it, be it not having the club locked down on a working day every week, be it fans in the Darwen End, be it fans in the Blackburn End upper tier, be it a Blues Bar now stripped of Rovers memorabilia (so they can put on Liverpool nights)… or be it a women’s team. All gone, all further reducing this club to a sad shell.

He’s struggling to differentiate between a league with the ‘most expensive players’ and a league that is the ‘best competition’.

Wharton and Phillips came through because they were young footballers with the obvious ability to thrive at this level or higher - JDT gave the rest a chance (because he couldn’t fill his squad with the experience he obviously would rather have had) and they couldn’t take it, as they aren’t good enough (Barnes possibly harsh to judge, bad injuries, however he was 23 when he left and had never played a league game outside non league.) If you are good enough you’ll get your chance, if you aren’t, you shouldn’t and should learn your trade elsewhere, the likes of Vale and Garrett never were and wouldn’t have got a sniff at a normal Blackburn Rovers.

Pedantically correcting my post… but accidentally emphasising the point I was making, so thanks for that 👌

Not part of FFP, so obviously no issue with funding a women’s team as they never refuse a cheq…oh!

Amazing mental gymnastics to defend the regime from Masher here.

This the same Masher who was banging the drum at Glen insisting on female representation in any fan consultation group... weird then that he doesn't think the club should extend the courtesy to female representation for an actual team.

The Cat 1 Academy is no guarantee of anything. You ‘blood youngsters’ if they are good enough for the level you are playing at, if they aren’t, you don’t, simple as that - you instead either send them on loan to a lower level or release them. Harry Leonard is a prime example, his development has stalled (will be 22 a month into next season) due to him having to hang around the periphery of the squad (as we’ve had very few striker options) instead of getting games in League 1.

It hasn’t ’been like this for years’ at all. Before this season you’d see three EFL games maximum (often two) a week on TV - now there’s five at 12.30 on a Saturday alone. Next season will see every non 3pm Saturday game in the PL on TV, which considering there seems to be more games on MOTD2 than MOTD these days will be far more than ever before. It has never been like this.

To be to Leicester fans they do see Forest as their local rivals, so why not have a bit of craic on a sunny afternoon away from home.

You really are Captain Obvious at the moment. Yes, I’m quite aware that Brentford deserve to be in the PL, a very well run football club. However, for me, *personally* (I.e this is a forum for opinions, not just stating facts) I would like a better geographic spread in the top division, if that’s ok with you?

Half the league has turned into the likes of Fulham and Brentford. 😴

The AI vibe is strong through all their comms… not a good time to be a ‘social media officer’, you’d wager.

Can’t call it that for obvious reasons. ’Mega League’, ‘’Elite League’, ‘Cartel League’, maybe?

The fallout from the Trent booing, I’d imagine…

Noticed that Red & White Kop (which is the most self-congratulatory forum you’ll ever come across) has locked itself down. Obviously struggling with the self reflection that, nope you aren’t a ‘special’ fanbase ‘rooted in fairness’ and ‘Shank’s socialism’ and whatever other delusional BS they come out with, you are just like everybody else.

YNWA, ay…

Thank you for explaining that FA Cup winners don’t get a CL place. Again, you need to read what folk are actually posting.

Aye ok, you only edited it for my benefit. But good lad, we don’t want to lose harmony on the transfer thread when it’s still only May, do we!

‘You lot’. Lovely way to debate, not antagonistic at all.

To be fair at least you’ve won a competition to get a CL place, far more of an achievement than coming fifth… should do the same for the FA Cup winners (they won’t, of course, Palace in the Champions League over City or Chelsea - ha, like they’d ever vote that through).

So what’s your point? We had crap sales 7 or so years ago - I.e when we first dropped to c8k under Coyle, we are back there now (despite three seasons out of four towards the top end of the league). Bonuses all round, I’m sure! 👏

Yep, yet another one under this regime a country mile out their depth strutting around the lounges in their club tie.

Stakeholder 🚨 I find K-Hod on the FF (pulling together ideas from this place) and WATR (I’m a member) already do raise good ideas re ticketing so are representing me very well, but thanks for the suggestion. Tell you what though, for someone that a month or so ago was saying our commercial operation was crap it hasn’t taken you much to fall back in line - anybody would’ve thought we’d turned a corner on that score instead of being days from the early bird deadline with a pathetic 7,500 STs sold.

You what? I don’t work for the club, why the bloody hell should I be thinking of their financing packages. (But actually I do provide them with ideas anyway, as plenty at the club are avid readers of the board - Hi Yasir 👋