The 80s were a different time, much more of a rock up on the day and buy on the turnstile culture than modern football. So no point using that period. Season ticket numbers haven’t declined in recent years, they have risen, albeit modestly post the Coyle season - as have crowds as a result. Season ticket sales drop, gates drop. They are the facts at Blackburn Rovers. You are simply incorrect, sorry Gav.

Depends how you define ‘die hard’. There’s fans that go every week and a few away games, but don’t really give the club much thought outside a match day. Then there those like many on here, may not go every week or ever to away matches, but spend far too much time discussing all things BRFC seven days a week! (Or those beyond help that do both, like me!)

Just wait until his well timed upswing of results up to his fourth anniversary as manager in mid February. The LT articles and FB groups will be rejoicing at the second coming...

But overall crowds will reduce if STs do, that’s how it works here, i’m a geek with this kind of thing and I’ve tracked it for years. We do not see an uptick in walk-ons to offset drops in STs. We still sell 2/3k match tickets, but with fewer ST holders beside them. In 2008 we had 20,000 ST holders and 3k walk ons. Last season we had around 8.5k ST holders... with around 3k walk-ons. Our season tickets fell massively in 2012, as did gates. They then stayed fairly steady until the Coyle season, sales then fell again, so as a consequence so did gates that year. ST sales have improved slightly since, as have gates. It is how it works at Ewood and has since the 90s. Unfortunately your last paragraph isn’t the case, fans who stop buying STs, in contrast to those that always pick and choose games, tend to disappear once they don’t renew.

PL is a totally different issue, of course that would get folk through the turnstiles, but promotion is for the birds with this set up, so that’s not the crux of my view We don’t sell many walk on tickets, our gates are heavily made up of season ticket holders. If season ticket sales fall, gates fall. If Waggott puts prices up, that drop is more likely, so don’t get your reasoning that what he does doesn’t impact it? If you think we’ll still sell 8/9k season tickets next time at near £500 a pop in this unique environment of 18 months away, habits broken, pandemic, recession and a poor on pitch product, then fair enough, we won’t know until the time comes. But I desperately hope you are right.

Well well, so it looks like unweighted straw polls on social media don’t accurately convey public opinion, who knew?

It’s in your blood, Gav. It’s in mine, I’ll be there regardless. But many aren’t like us, they go out of habit and can often take it or leave it - the habit is now broken. If prices go up again (getting towards 500 quid, even more in the JW) alongside a recession, a still rumbling health crisis and 18 months out of the ground and we won’t be close to selling 8/9,000 STs which is what we need for ‘gates to stay the same’. Waggott’s decisions over the next few months (if he’s the one actually making them) are therefore vitally important for the future of this club and I can only hope he finally gets to grip with the Rovers fanbase and the demographics of the area, because he hasn’t looked remotely interested in doing so thus far...

I’ve always thought watching other people play computer games is one of the most boring pastimes known to man... yet with YouTube channels and e-sports it’s one of the biggest growth industries out there. The modern world seems a perplexing place to me, Christ knows what those in their 80s must think

Nevermind the BBEnd, we went a fair way to filling the DE for a while too...

Do we have one?

Pretty much retired from club dealings, hasn’t he?

The couple of hundred grand for Bell is the only fee spent on a defender in donkeys years, and it shows...

If the enthusiasm of the likes of Parson are on the wane, then we really are up shit creek...

Need an early goal in that busy opening 10 minutes spell we often produce before we revert to the mean, or it could be a very long afternoon...

Does the club even still have a historian/archivist? Always strikes me when a player from the 60s/70s passes away and there’s a Tweet saying ‘the club is saddened...’ Who at the club is? Who is still left in the hierarchy with any connection to the area or a pre Venky time?

Premier League I agree, though I do think the EFL, in particular, Blackburn Rovers are about to head into an existential crisis over the next few years - though it’s down to more than Covid at this club.

Most of what you say will undoubtedly prove true Joe... bloody sad though, ain’t it.

Every chance that season he left, the game was evolving quickly and Souness’ personality just wasn’t suited to it.

We will be 18 months out of the ground (that’s a lot of folk out the habit) in the midst of a big recession and Covid worries still around, I’d imagine. Couple that with tickets going on sale after another season of bumbling around in mid and prices being substantially higher seems a perfect storm to me. Certainly nothing to be so complacent about, Ben.

Oh his race was run by the time he went, but it wasn’t season after season of mediocrity, just a poor final 12 months after a fantastic three years - no comparison with what we see today.

Did we hang on to Souness ‘way, way too long’? In his first 3 full seasons he got us promoted, won a cup, then top 6 in the PL. 2003/04 was therefore a disappointment, but surely he had enough credit in the bank to last that season? And then he went to Newcastle in early September 2004. Now if he’d have staggered on till Christmas without JW pulling the trigger, especially with the rumblings of player unrest, then fair enough, but we’ll never know...

Ayala was, on paper, what was required and I personally think his performances have actually been ok considering he can’t ever have been fully fit since arriving - however his injury record has got worse over recent seasons and now in his 30s you can’t imagine that improving - you have to look at the overall package with a signing, especially as Williams and Lenihan always miss a sizeable chunk of games. Just doesn’t seem to be any kind of real strategy with building the defence, always seems to be essay crisis mode, unlike with what he’s trying to do with the team in an attaching sense.

It is a decent signing, as was Tosin. But ideally we need an experienced old hand back there (and some proper coaching by the look of it at times), and young lads, of course, will make mistakes and that will just add to the keystone cop antics that ensure we never threaten the top 6. But it is what it is, for a club that rarely spends fees on defenders and a manager that just doesn’t seem to see building from the back as a priority.

Getting on a bit is John Curtice, was wondering who was going to replace him...

Though Mogga is quite apt at keeping a slight fire burning at this stage of the season, and his social media army purring... until the wheels come off prior to the run in.