Sorry rigger, thought you said they probably didn’t have our numbers of elderly supporters? As you’ve actually no idea either way on that score, it’s not really a basis for an argument on why they could sell plenty and we can’t...

And why would Luton be any different?

Your rationale for that being?

What’s Luton’s percentage of elderly supporters?

End of the day, they aren’t going to be put on sale, so we may as well just ‘move on’ and leave them to it. But what I would say is if the likes of Luton Town can sell 6,500 in the midst of a pandemic, there must be some pent up demand here too, but seemingly the club would rather not give itself a headache with the logistics of it currently. Fine, there’s certainly merit in that approach as at least the club will know exactly what product it’s selling when the time comes, doesn’t need to worry about sorting out pro rata refunds, seat allocations and all the rest of it. It’s Waggott and Cheston that oversee the finances and they have obviously deemed we can cope without an income from ticket sales at this time and they’ll wait and see. That’s their choice, but I also don’t expect to hear any bleating about ‘cash flow’ or how selling Player X is ‘necessary to get us over this short term funding issue’.

Think a few have on here, arbito for one...

Maybe ‘99 is biased against Joes?

Overdramatic? Pot and kettle You are one of the biggest tantrum-ers on the site! But you’re damn right, I’m very upset about the neglect of this club this past decade (note past) and that’s why I have little hope for future initiatives, in a way I envy younger fans like yourself that knows little else but this stripped down operation.

Sorry both thought this was a Rovers discussion board? We can’t talk about the future? Best lock half the threads then. Our next big milestone as a club is said event, so when JH mentioned anniversaries it reminded me that ours will be here soon enough and IN MY OPINION, we’ll do feck all about it. The club themselves did bugger all about PL25, so we’ll see more of the same. If you think they will, good for you, but as proven Joe, when you got abusive at everyone for not trusting the club ‘who were all working hard’ on packages to give us all a choice of refunds/deferred tickets etc, then apologising the day after when it was ifollow or nowt, you have more faith in the set up than me. Anyway we best leave it there, as it was merely a wistful looking back to a great time for the club in 2000/01, though the ongoing faith that some still have in those running the club (against a decade of evidence) that they give the tiniest shite about the club’s heritage does amuse me (see the piss poor approach to the remembrance of past players, as another example) , but there you go. Back to the topic of the exciting kit reveal of more Umbro half arsed-ness.

The club did very little for PL25. It was a council initiative to rename the street as part of the Pennine Lancashire road development programme (and that was 5 years ago anyway). The dinners (and Ewood match day appearances on the back of them) were organised by the Former Players Association, one in 2015 when most of the squad returned and one this year for a title winning edition of the Hall of Fame. Video packages and posting grainy VHS footage on social media, you say! Can’t wait for more! Who’s in a huff? I’ve told you what I expect, going off the evidence this past 8 years as we’ve been hollowed out, that those running the club will do the bare minimum and it won’t hold a candle to 2000. Love to be proven wrong, but I predict it will be the work of the likes of the FPA that make the effort.

.

And a real confidence booster for Bell. ’We’ve looked for someone else, can’t find anyone... so you may as well have another year’ We really mean business...

Funny you mention anniversaries, it’s our 150th in 2025. I look back to the 125th, when we were also a Championship club, yet that’s where the similarities with the present set up ends. The team played in a special vintage kit against Wolves that you could buy, there were commemorative books, a parade of legendary players from pre war to some of the title winning side, etc etc. 150 years for a founder member and a club with such a rich heritage should mean an even bigger effort, a real occasion. But does anybody expect anything apart from maybe a banner on the big screen? I can cope with an average team, that’s football, it’s the neglect that really saddens me.

Sure that’s a fairly old quote, from last summer, maybe.

Think that’s what’s called a ‘drawer article’, i.e to pull out and fill some space when there’s feck all happening in the close season...

Massive reaction on social media. I think it’s sometimes forgotten how local evening news still pulls in the ratings. North West Tonight and Granada Reports are some of the most popular programmes on TV up here. So it really hits people when the likes of Tony and Diane Oxberry pass away.

From... to...

Just saw that Bolton have taken a young keeper from Fleetwood on loan. If you’d have said 10 years ago to a Bolton fan that they’d be getting hand me downs from Fleetwood Town...

If everything was done with data there would be no scouts. Of course data plays a pivotal role in the modern game, Brentford run a successful operation with an analysis based approach, but seasoned coaches/managers/scouts ‘spot’ talent with their eye; the player has a strut, he’s a leader on the pitch, seemingly more time than others on the ball, a composure, a great attitude, even if the stats of a particular player when it comes to ‘numbers of interceptions’ etc aren’t anything to write home about.

Yeah I saw that, though I imagine there’s a chance someone will buy the gym’s, one of the discount chains, for example. The shops will be finished though, you’d expect.

Still think Steele was worse.

Take a bow Phil. It’s like you’ve been looking into my soul.

What does one of the world’s biggest clubs throwing what is loose change to them at a quota signing before they go off to win English, European and world titles got to do with Rovers trying to compete in the second division? There’s many issues with the hollowed out club these owners have overseen and many relevant comparisons to make with our peer group when it comes to competing on wages and the like, but that ain’t one of them...

Now it feels like summer. ?

Didn’t say you did think people were biased, we know who that was. Difference is that I take everything I read on here with a pitch of salt. This place is not at all representative of the fanbase...and as for Twitter, troll and crank central. Social media you either see ‘he’s shit’ or you get the uber fans who refuse to countenance any criticism at all (think we know who they are on Twitter), there’s little middle ground. At games I see real pride in the graduates, in fact I’d say far more than was on display in the days of Wilcox or Broomes or Tiny Taylor, because most now realise that the academy is now vital to us as a club in a way it never was in the 90s and 00s. But yes some grads will get more groans than others, always been like that, ‘our fans are historically quick to write off players’, bit of a sweeping statement, I didn’t write off Wilcox and I presume neither did you, some did, of course (handbags and the like), but plenty thought he was a raw but promising winger, so it just amuses me when it’s made out like Ewood is some negative bear pit, not giving leeway to young lads, when in reality it’s just a standard football crowd - some folk have no patience, some just don’t understand the game, don’t get that they are still developing and will make mistakes etc etc. Fans also realise that £7million for BB is a hell of a lot of money, so there’s a desperation for it to work out and a level of denial (“surely he must get better, I mean 7 MILLION”), with people clinging to whatever they can, I.e the fact he resembled a footballer in some of those post lockdown games, I think it’s fairly clear that most realise he’s been very poor for the most part, can’t speak for where you sit, but around me it was getting beyond criticism to almost embarrassed laughter and knowing looks - but it’s the manager who should have sent him out on loan, but he hasn’t, so fair play to the fans for continuing to get behind him.