Mattyblue

So not a back injury now?

I don’t think he’s injured either. ‘Back spasms’, ‘calf strains’, par for the course for these lines to be trotted out by a club when a player has had his head turned in a transfer window…

I’d say so, yes. But very strange things tend to happen in the last days of January. Still don’t think he’ll go, but it wouldn’t shock me.

Footballers regularly make moves that appear nonsensical… often easily led by agents.

Get into St Albans, only about fifteen minutes on the train, nice place and I know a fair few Rovers fans that are staying there.

Noticed on their website that they are saying ‘Must now have a buying history to buy a ticket for tomorrow’… so they’ve probably twigged that there will be a fair few non regulars in there.

Top of the league, Saturday 3pm, tiny allocation, big interest from southern based fans, only played there once (with fans) in decades… Yet nobody at Ewood seemingly spotted there may be big demand. Naive is putting it mildly, shows once again that a lot of folk working down there don’t really understand their own fanbase and what factors create big demand for Rovers away games.

Then if the ones that have made it so good, have tickets… then surely said superb support will continue?

Course they will, the away support is superb.

To be fair, a ‘must win’ would only be if not doing so would mean you can’t get in the top two/play offs/get out of the relegation zone as a result. Games in January aren’t ‘must win’, though of course we shouldn’t be settling for a point against the likes of Luton Town when sitting second…

The South American fifth place will play the Asia fifth place…

It is the ‘fault’ of a club if a raft (not just one) of players are sold or go on a free with contracts running down. Said club obviously can’t offer sufficient wages or ambition to convince them to stay. Disclaimer - from a Rovers perspective it’s all ifs and buts at this stage as they haven’t gone yet and the contracts are on the table.

Would go nicely outside the Blackburn End, such events… fat chance!

Love Kenilworth Road, so horrendous it has a charm of its own. The stand that is just portakabins, turnstiles through folk’s back yard, wood benches, the Eric Morecambe Suite… marvellous!

I actually had to rack my brain then to remember who the feck ‘Douglas’ was… completely blanked last season out of my mind.

The thing is with a lot of modern refs, and those at Stockley Park in the PL games… do they understand the game? It’s all well and good saying they are ‘crap’, ‘terrible standard’. I think that’s true from my perspective, but are a lot of these constant unfathomable decisions (to us at least) not actually something they get marked down on? Case in point both the ref on the pitch and more refs via VAR giving that penalty to Liverpool at Palace.

No, I’m looking for SG to use the size and strength he already has better. I like him, works hard and the tools are there for him to improve, but come off it Gav, he isn’t an ‘excellent player’ currently.

Without doubt. Scoring goals has never been an issue under TM, clean sheets have. He’s obviously always wanted to play this formation, he has attempted it intermittently throughout, but we just didn’t have the players, until now.

Reading their forum, same thing as usual. Obviously has talent, but doesn’t work hard enough, not fit enough… https://burtonbrewers.proboards.com/thread/4813/chapman-departs

Indeed it does, but ‘excellent’ he currently ain’t.

He’s not ‘excellent’ at this level, but he’s certainly a decent finisher. But he has lot of work to do when it comes to control and using his height and strength.

The club can go for it, why not. But multi match bundles offered mid season don’t work here, never have. Which makes sense, as if you wanted to tie yourself down as a floating fan to multi games including night matches, you’d have bought a full or half ST by now. Many of said fans ‘pick their games’, I.e a Saturday afternoon they fancy. So, for me, I’d be doing what we did in 2001, target a couple of matches and price it as a £10 a ticket in all areas, Operation Fill Ewood.

Pretty much the case from reading their forum… big missed opportunity.

They had a big demand when in the PL, large waiting lists for tickets. However, they never capitalised on it by extending their ground and building up the fanbase when the interest was there.

Especially in the Jack Walker Lower with two sets of club doctors and physios literally yards away! Great news, Davey!