Mattyblue

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.

Amazes me that subset of Rovers fans that always try and downplay our heritage and standing in English football, like Leeds fans in reverse...

Wake up indeed!

Think it’s still a feature in Private Eye..

Bit like when Brighton fans travelled to Mellor of all places to confront their owner back in the day...

Bit of naivety from Pakistan. Young bowlers and an inexperienced captain. Where was the short stuff at Woakes? Especially as they weren’t finding any reverse swing. Wasim was going mad in the comms box. P.s. How nostalgic for the 90s does it make you when you hear Wasim and Athers commentating? Rovers champions of England and Lanky as cup kings!

Oh sorry I get you, it’s early. Well maybe three centre halves is the panacea, we know TM has been dying to try it since the day he arrived...

Very simple. You can bring in a Henderson every year (we won’t, by the way, just more Waltons), it won’t get us in the top 6 with our managers approach to the defence and the constant changing personnel (and Bennett).

There are no coincidences in Venky World!

Kinda the point!

But, but... Sheffield United! Conveniently forgetting their fantastically well drilled and athletic back 4.

Crap... then decent... then pandemic... then really crap.

Apart from the incoming Gareth Ainsworth, TM is the longest serving manager in the Championship. Not sure if it says more about this madcap League than our manager’s proficiency, but he can have no complaints on having the time (and the freedom) to mould together a side and way of playing. So with what looks like a wide open league this time, surely we need to now see a sustained assault on the top 6? *And of course, such freedom and stability means there should be no shortage of interested parties when there’s next a vacancy...

Exactly, so a release clause is a no brainer for both sides. I could certainly see him signing a new deal, the club has generally been better at this in recent years - though Nyambe is a worry, but expecting one to be signed without a clause? No chance for a player on a quick upward trajectory like AA.

But that isn’t what Chaddy was suggesting, your example shows a bit of compromise between both parties. Chaddy wants our negotiation tactic to simply be... ‘sign that, 4 years, no release clause’ Knowing that he is now on the radar of PL clubs, AA holds all the cards, so why would AA and his agent be willing to do that?