Coyle was a total disaster of an appointment, not just because of results and the major role he played in us ending up relegated. The more lasting impact of that shambles of a season is the dumbing down of expectations across the patch - from the club, the local media and probably most depressingly, the fanbase. If we’d have stayed up at Brentford and meandered along since in the bottom half of the Championship, TM would’ve have long lost the fans, and we wouldn’t have the spectacle of BLACKBURN ROVERS fans being grateful for merely existing and not being in the third division.

February 2021 - ‘Waggott said, if we put in a complete new installation, that's from top to bottom, from the gravel pit to undersoil heating to new laying of the pitch etc with a new boiler, water storage is important and it's all got to be an eco-friendly basis. It's about £2m for a new pitch at Ewood. I've been pushing behind the scenes with it and we've gone through a tendering process, we've got the quotes in and I'm going to see two, stroke three of the quotes with the companies that we think will be able to give us a great service.’ “We're pushing ahead so I'm going to try and get that in place for next season, if I can finance the project.’ So just as flagged by a few of us on here weeks ago, the new pitch, that would’ve been ‘state of the art’, perhaps? Has been replaced with the; ‘it’s reight, a bit of new seed will sort it’ approach - got some nice headlines and social media comments though, so job done. If it isn’t radio silence for months on end from Waggott et al, any statements that are made are generally a load of total BS. And a telling example to why we cannot, EVER, let these charlatans loose on any other projects dubbed as ‘state of the art’. Getting royally fecked off with the nonsense down there.

Good job he told them to ‘slow down’, ay...

So he’s gone from supposedly chewing the fat with the owners after every game, to now not even partaking in the annual Summer meeting, Zoom or otherwise. That’s also the first time either he or Waggott have let on the real power structure of the club - Pune into Pasha. Obviously it’s the worst kept secret at Ewood re Waggott’s powerlessness, but quite the public admission regardless and possibly a sign that the Coventrio’s star is waning?

That was this time last year for Danny Graham, thought they were going to retire his shirt... I suppose a decade of mediocrity does this to a club (and fanbase).

Happy 72nd birthday Tony! (Wonder if Waggott can find the can he kicked right down Bolton Road re tribute?)

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I was taking generally, someone can stay up on 43.

Can stay up on 43 points, makes that 51 of ours even more galling...

The LT doesn’t have a standalone editor (or a Blackburn newsroom or sub-editing team) anymore. As well as the LT, the editor (Steve Thompson ) covers The Bolton News, The Oldham Times and The Bury Times. The newsroom is in Bolton and if you wondered why there are so many glaring mistakes when it comes to locations, street names etc, that’s because the sub-editors are in South Wales. A Blackburn and east Lancs operation, it ain’t.

Read a good stat in The Times this morning. Since automatic promotion and relegation was introduced between League 2/Fourth Division and non league in 1987, all 49 promoted sides stayed up in their first season. Shows the strength of the pyramid in this country and just how disgraceful the antics of the ‘big 6’ were...

Only saving grace with Evans is that he’s turning 31 in the summer, so he’ll be looking for one last sizeable contract (I imagine he’s one of the top earners now), so that may put the club off. I’m clutching at straws here..

Young lad from Crewe and Bell on one side. Nyambe (who may have gone) and an injury prone JRC (who isn’t even a full back) on the other. Lenihan and another crock as the only ‘fit’ senior centre halves in the squad as it stands after Saturday. Presumably he’s still here to oversee his fifth full season in August... and that’s the defence he’s put together.

Of course they do, but the decline of regional newspapers due to the structural change to the industry brought on by the internet, means local journalism is now too conflicted to carry out its age old remit.

Following on from my early post, Sharpe noted that ‘Lambert chose not to undertake a re-build’, whereas TM will. Hang on, isn’t if normally the owners that decide who gets to re-build, who gets to throw contracts, agents fees and all the rest of it around?

No idea if true, but wouldn’t surprise me. When the likes of Pears, a poor reserve keeper in a mediocre second division team earns more than the Prime Minister, it’s no wonder the game is in such a state.

It’s obvious that ‘normal’ owner/manager football relationships just don’t exist here. Apart from the madness of The Season of Five Managers in 2012/13 and Senior briefly putting the cat amongst the pigeons and getting shut of Coyle, managers here are given a contract and are just expected to get on with it. Results, performances, improvement, accountability etc etc don’t seem to matter. Simply subjective gut feels like ‘we trust him’, ‘he’s a good man’. Football management in the Championship can’t work, and doesn’t work like like that anywhere else - teams can decline, players can stop listening, relegation and financial meltdown can become a real possibility. Ergo, everywhere else, throughout the 150 years of pro football, managers aren’t seen simply as a PAYE employee like the club shop supervisor, but a contractor that can be removed ASAP, as the whole club’s financial well-being hangs on the performance of the bloke in the dugout. These owners are manna from heaven to any manager that ingratiates himself into their good graces, but they are not and will never be cut out to run a professional football club.

Oh dear. That mouth of yours is writing cheques your arse can’t cash. 😁 The last paragraph.. ‘we need a better manager’, ‘we need someone who can do more with the resources’, ‘it’s up to the club to find one’ Best knock it on the head for the night, Gav.

Whoa! Calm your horses! I’m backing you up! 😁 The final paragraph is pretty clear.

I found it in 45 seconds. J*B will be expecting a windfall, Gavla ...

Says the fella that gets in a right lather over a school next to Corpy Park. But go on then, what’s your thoughts on TM being in situ next season then, Paul?

‘I don’t see myself bringing in the Under-23s because I know enough about them, I watch them train, I get match reports if I’m not there at games, I see all the clips, I know all about the young players,” he explained. ‘ More absolute claptrap. He knows (well I bloody well hope he does) that U23 football does not compare one iota to competitive Championship football. You can find out so much about a young player’s progress and mentality by putting them in. Oh and I take it the bloody fool hasn’t realised he’s been doing the exact opposite of what he’s saying above on behalf of Liverpool, Man City and Everton all season?

Well the Telegraph comments swing-ometer is right behind him again by the looks of it, dead rubbers to the rescue! The narrative on there is now is just getting highly rated young loanees through the door in the first place is the win for Mowbray; ‘Social media likes from big 6 fans’ is another alternative league table we are winning, obviously. The team actually doing worse despite the patronage of our benevolent neighbours is neither here nor there...

Been picked for overseas broadcast. 🎶Islands in the... 🎶

But not enough of it to spend money or be in charge of recruitment for his own team, seemingly?