Come off it J*B who is reading that apart from perhaps when they join? If someone asks a question of a mod mid thread, surely you just answer without start quoting obscure site regs? Anyway, it’s your baby, feel free to respond to constructive feedback as you please, but just remember it’s the likes of Bruce that actually ARE brfcs.com

I don’t recall ever hearing you ask for ‘reports’, but ok...

How about taking the views of long standing posters on board, instead of a snide response?

Murphy’s nadir was that home game against Peterborough - three nil down after about 20 minutes. He didn’t lift a leg and was hauled off at half time. I literally cannot watch/listen to anything he’s on to this day, as he goes on about ‘work rate’ ‘desire’ Prick

Quite possibly, my point was more they could start the season with a squad akin to the one Bolton were repeatedly getting smashed 5-0 with this time last year... though I suppose Wigan will be just happy to KO the season at this stage....

We’ve hardly heard a peep from ‘the club’ since March apart from how to access ifollow (which is an EFL initiative anyway), a statement that killed two birds with one stone as it also bundled in a guilt trip about refunds. Didn’t expect a daily Downing Street style briefing with Waggott flanked by TM and Cheston (rotated with Suhail), but the near complete radio silence for 5 months does point to a club in suspended animation...

Article in their local rag makes it sound as if 12 will end up being the high point. Echoes of Bolton... https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/football/wigan-athletic-back-training-who-will-stay-and-go-2939624

Think they call this the ‘Bargaining’ stage...

He’s 26 in a few months, can’t really be put in the ‘prospect’ category. Maybe this is all there is with him and why being in and out of a middling Championship side is the best it’s going to get - technically gifted player, but he just hasn’t ironed out his weak points, most notably zero end product.

Let’s hope so...

With 10 months left on his contract? Didn’t United bid £20million last window? Surely it will have now depreciated markedly, especially with the relegation...

Even if it got us promoted?

? Arma can stay!

I’d long forgot it went to a tribunal. 25%? Is this confirmed/normal for such cases?

25% sell on fee? That’s some serious negotiation by whoever was sitting in the Chief Exec/FD/Venky dogbody chair that week in 2015...

King’s contract is now running down - 10 months left - how much is he still expected to be sold for that will leave us with a 3/4 million?

I’ve seen campaigns trying to push for that here... would finish the Championship off!

Since arriving he hasn’t ever been under any particular pressure to sell players - Raya being the only notable departure in three and a half years. That in itself is a very nice position for a manager of a club with our means to be in. He had the biggest wage bill in League one. On promotion he committed to deals worth £10 million on young forwards Last summer he spent £5 million more on another. Do we still get outspent by some other clubs in this league on both fees and wages? Without doubt, but ‘he’s had no money’ ? Do me a favour!

Aye.

Post Kean we’ve spent about a week in the top 6 in 8 years, we are therefore the very definition of also rans! It’s not particularly ‘too slow for me’ as I have no faith in how this club is run so edging up the table each year is as good as we can ask for. Ok... ‘paper wealth’ or otherwise, I’m sure you’d agree that they are substantially richer than Messers Fox and Bancroft - yet that version of Blackburn Rovers put together sides fighting for promotion year after year.

Well obviously I think the mighty Blackburn Rovers should be in the PL. But realistically it’s a very competitive league we are now in and there’s no gimmes, especially with the hollowed out club these owners have presided over. But once we accept that we can’t compete in this league either then it’s a slippery slope. For a sign of how tough it is to get back out, I imagine Forest and Sheffield Wednesday fans would never have believed they’d be down here for 20+ years. Thank these idiot owners for throwing our elite position away in the first place.

Year off and then straight into a club of Hull’s size. Played a blinder there son!

What has any of that got to do with my point? You said that said we shouldn’t expect to be in the PL, I agree, but there should be a belief that we can compete in the second tier. History tells us that isn’t a unrealistic belief - the other two full decades which we largely spent in this division we were always competitive at the top end, even though in the 80s we didn’t have a pot to piss in - we are currently (8 years and counting) also rans with billionaire owners.

I certainly don’t believe we have a divine right to be in the PL, but as a club we have always been a side in and around the top end when in this league for a sustained period. The 1950s and the 1980s were largely spent in the second division, but we were mostly competing at the top end of it. We’ve spent this past decade mostly where we are right now - mid table, never really in with a sniff and just treading water year after year (yet with owners richer than Bill Fox and co would ever have believed!). It’s no wonder the fanbase has become so apathetic.

If he’d have said ‘post War Rovers’, then that’s a true statement (though we still spent large parts of the 1960s, 1990s and 2000s in the top flight) and arguably more relevant, but the facts are we have spent most seasons of our history as a top flight club.