10 minutes ago, only2garners said:

You could say that about an awful lot of footballers Matty. Rothwell has huge talent but not a great football brain. When he makes the right decision he looks a world beater but time and again he makes the wrong choice about when to pass. It's no good gliding effortlessly past several players only to give the ball away.

Oh I agree, be it attitude, a bit of nous, it’s that little 1% that separates a huge chunk of similarly talented players, some reach the PL, some get to 27 and have never been higher than mid table in the second division. 

Oh I imagine so and it doesn’t surprise me one bit that Championship clubs are all for it - but I’d be shocked if the Andy Holts of the EFL are just nodding it through…

Notice there’s a lot of ‘no sales on the day’ this season - ‘’cos o’ covid”, obviously!

And we’ve seen the collapse of crowds for midweek games.

Of course, money talks, always. But they need to think very hard about decimating match going fanbases across the country, as once they’ve gone, it’s bloody hard to get them back, as we know all too well.

At Championship level it may be less of an issue as TV money makes up a a pretty large slice of club income already, but get to L2 and gate receipts/food and drink income is absolutely vital.
 

You can only imagine it’s a negotiation tactic to get more cash out of Sky… or the clubs really are that stupid.

Rothwell is a consistent final ball away from having the lot.

35 minutes ago, islander200 said:

Plus we had mowbray saying last summer he didnt want to talk about contract extensions with the pandemic yet he still brought in 12 players that summer through loans ,free transfers and permanents.That 2k a week we spent on trybull could have been added to Nyambes package.

 

Now playing in the German fourth division by the looks of it with Hannover reserves …

That press conference had excellent BRFC 2011-2013 vibes.

BB is a different issue as he would command a sizeable fee, but why on earth would you sell any of Rothwell/Lenihan/Nyambe if sitting in 6th/7th in January? You would get bugger all for them with just four months left on their contracts and you could sabotage our own season and potentially cost the club hundreds of millions!

40 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Maybe not, leaving on a free means a signing on fee at a new club, which would make signing for similar to what we are offering more attractive financially elsewhere 

Of course, and that’s the same everywhere.

My point is that there looks to be something more to it here when numerous senior players are happy to let their contracts run down at the same time. That isn’t something I see regularly elsewhere or indeed previously here as you become accustomed to seeing contracts signed on a fairly regular basis through the season(s).

Are we still able to offer competitive wages to experienced Championship players? If the answer is no, or indeed if we have chosen to pursue a new ‘model’ of young lads, lower division signings and loanees, all within a strict wage ceiling, then ok. In some ways it’s admirable and a business coming to its financial senses, but it is certainly a risky one and perhaps a naive one as it doesn’t change the realities of the league you are operating in and we know where it can lead in such a relentless division.

Nowt to worry about then as such mediocrities won’t be getting any better offers, so they’ll soon come round to their senses and sign

Three senior pros out of contract, three haven’t signed.

Those are the facts, and ‘improved offers’ means bugger all if they aren’t at the Championship going rate.

The club is obviously at a cross roads if it the case that it is longer competitive when it comes to wages at this level.

What a cracking attitude to the game he has.

I can only compare him Chapman, a lad with plenty of skill, but a really poor attitude and looking at him, a poor professional too.

He should take a long hard look at what Dolan is making of his career before he ends up out of the game completely.

Of course some players run down contracts, but at normal clubs you don’t have all senior pros that are in their last year nowhere near signing with only a few months left.

There is obviously an issue here, be it wages, be it club ambition

I’ve personally always felt that TM can spot a player… it was his own muddled tactics and how to deploy them that was the issue.

This season, a smaller squad seems to have focused his mind and stopped the relentless tinkering, let’s just hope he keeps to it.

Bloody hell, people actually listen to manager pressers?! Pre match manager speak is even more cliche-ridden and inane than post! 
 

‘Be a tough game’

’Manager X is doing a good job’

‘We’ve trained well’

’Lads are full of confidence/have put last week behind us’ (delete as appropriate).

🥱

12 hours ago, SuperBrfc said:

L

It always winds me up seeing players apologising on twitter and posting things like "we're desperate to put it right in the next game". Bennett was bad for it. Just bloody do it on the pitch. I'm glad there was none of the social media crap around when we had real players like Tugay, Duffer and co. We were able to enjoy it without any of the false online posts.

And the best bit is that the top level players actually pay social media advisors to post that inane tripe!

On 21/11/2021 at 01:23, Sparks Rover said:

They have on average 7,000 more people to sell food to.

Accy Stanley have one man and his dog to sell to and they still put infinitely more effort in than the time servers down Ewood…

You aren’t looking very far, Woody, there’s the Ewood WMC outside the Jack Walker, Fernhurst across from the Darwen End, the Fox can be seen as soon as you look up Livesey Branch Road from the ground, plus the Moorgate, Brown Cow, Lord Raglan and Navigation all walking distance on and around Livesey Branch.

Now Blackburn certainly isn’t what it was for pubs (and that’s putting it very mildly), but around Ewood is one of the few areas that you can certainly still have a bit of a crawl.

I don’t boo, but if the lot of them get booed off, manager included, at full time after a stinker then fair enough.

But of course you shouldn’t boo players in the middle of a game, what a ridiculously counter-productive thing to do.

Agree with that JH, however we need to remember that a lot of fans aren’t like us, they can take it or leave it, they simply want to watch a decent side, a bit of excitement, a potential promotion push every now and again etc. 

Spending a decade generally about 10th to 18th in the second division is not going to attract floating support, especially considering season ticket prices have pretty much doubled during that period.

Well it ‘gives us more flexibility for next season’, so all good then!

Though selling fixed assets to get through the next 12 months seems a very precarious way to run a business

Like we all say, I don’t gauge Rovers fans from this place, nowhere near representative, but there are some excellent erudite posters… or on the flip side from Facebook groups and their homages to St Anthony of Yarm… but I would say your regular match goer is a fairly decent yardstick and middle ground.

And you’re not an idiot, but you obviously like to stir the pot. You know it is disputed that this ‘crying’ ever happened- that lad on the video is literally just parroting a rumour from Twitter - not exactly a reputed source, is it! And you certainly can’t besmirch a whole fanbase on the back of it.

My opinion is that the fanbase has been largely, yes largely, not exclusively, because every fanbase has cretins,  been excellent with him, always got behind him after years of poor performances (yes, grumbles, rolled eyes when he gave the ball away for the twentieth time in a match, but nothing more, and absolute delight when he finally broke his duck against Bolton)  - and considering you always usually like to ‘take the positives’, it’s odd that you often do the opposite with the fans, a group of people that will still be here, long after BB, TM, Swag and all the rest have departed.