Mattyblue

We are now in agreement, so proof that you are open to other views. Good to chew the fat with you on day whatever of lockdown.

It’s been very productive, as your initial post was miles off beam to the realities of the Rovers fanbase, you’ve now toned it down to a more realistic view.

I always looked back thinking it was more stressful than it was due to my dad disappearing to the concourse for the last 15 minutes, chain smoking as he couldn’t face it after the trauma of Selhurst Park...

‘We can be a bit fickle, sometimes’? Thought we were ‘very fickle’?⬆️ OTT? That was you I’m afraid. Ewood is not ‘very tough’, we are not ‘very fickle’ and the Blackburn End doesn’t turn on players ‘very quickly’ You’ve obviously realised you were OTT as you’ve now toned it down to a ‘bit fickle, sometimes’. Which is fine, as that’s football fans for you.

I think we look back thinking we were under the cosh due to a few trademark Braveheart Big Col moments. No doubt we were the better side. Would’ve been cigar time if Newell has bagged the second pen.

1) I was making a general point about Ewood on a match day. You don’t seem to grasp it, fine. 2) Offended by what? I’ve already said I don’t get on players backs. 3) Your original post made no sense then, as it talked about Rovers fans being ‘very fickle’, Ewood a place that ‘turns quickly on players’. Firstly, that’s not true, so I disagree with the thrust of your post and said so, a pointless dig at the fanbase that have been great this past decade considering the shite we’ve been served up, an insinuation that his struggles are partly down to our fans (when he’s got cracking support). Secondly, you say it’s the same elsewhere, so it’s a top level football issue that BB has and will continue to have then? Nothing to do with the mythical bear pit that is Ewood Park. The buck stops with TM and BB, ‘if you can’t stand the heat etc...’

1) in talking about what Ewood is like to play at, so a relevant comment. 2) I didn’t take it personally as I don’t do what you inferred 3) It wasn’t ‘clearly pointed out’ that Ewood is just like everywhere else as you talked about Rovers fans being ‘very fickle’ and they ‘turn on players quickly’. Just not true, we’ve been largely crap for a decade and the fans have been great considering what we’ve lost as a club, as has the fantastic support BB has received. I don’t get the point of your original post. You buy players for £7million, there will be expectations. It’s a failure of club recruitment that BB doesn’t have the mental strength, nothing to do with a ‘tough environment at Ewood’, that’s top level football and something BB would have to cope with wherever he went for that kind of fee.

It wasn’t unviable, we were PL champions and those were players/managers lined up to come and would be sold on for profit. We wasted far more money on shite in the late 90s

Ewood is not a tough place to play, for our players or the opposition, if you think it is, then you need to get around the country. Ha, some excellent passive aggressiveness there, no, I’ve never booed the side or barracked a player in my life, but I’ve been to enough football grounds and spoken to enough fans to see that Rovers fans are no different than the supporters of any club of similar stature. Indeed I would go as far to say there is far less abuse of players by the collective than many of our rivals - BB would’ve been hounded by now at many Championship clubs. Of course Ewood was toxic in the early 2010s, it had every right to be like that, but it was rarely aimed at players (likes of Orr/Murphy/Best aside), but at the ‘custodians’. Of course we have higher expectations than Burton Albion, they are a similar sized club to Accrington Stanley. P.s daft example as Villa were on the beach that day.

As have I, and most weeks in recent times with this past decade of largely rubbish. Not quite a year behind closed doors though, is it?( even if some midweek games have felt like it...)

It’s all about what you think a football club is. For me, fans ARE the club. Players aren’t the club, Venky’s aren’t the club, the executives they appoint aren’t the club. WE are the club. We are the custodians that pass the ‘club’ down to the next generation. It’s why AFC Wimbledon are the spiritual successor of Wimbledon FC, not MK Dons that were it’s legal successor. Players largely come and go, which is fine, as whilst they are here they are employed to hopefully progress the club. But watching players with very little real connection to the club or the area playing out fixtures in empty grounds for months on end I imagine won’t be the same for me. Yes they are still wearing our shirt, adding points to the league table, but what does any of it mean if the connection to the supporters isn’t there? I get it will only be temporary (well let’s hope so) but months (a year?) of seeing journeymen/mercenaries play behind closed doors IS different and I imagine I won’t be having the same buzz. But who knows, maybe I will and let’s hope the team adapts well as a promotion, even in these circumstances would be fantastic for the long term future of the club.

He’s deemed a broadcast ‘journalist’, so thus on the list.

Ewood a ‘very tough environment’? Heard it all now

As an aside, Piers is a key worker. So get that test son!

I’m certainly not anti-Rovers, so I get the need for the top divisions to get back as it could well be financial Armageddon otherwise. But it just sticks in the throat that we’ve got to this position that we are scrambling to play sterile games at empty grounds in the midst of a global pandemic, instead of just drawing a line under this season and trying to salvage 2020/2021, solely to satisfy TV contracts. It’s so dire that any break in payments or rebates could collapse the whole operation, it seems unbelievable with the money pumped into the game this past couple of decades, but of course, hundreds of millions are pissed up the wall every year.

https://youtu.be/kEcV8FZH4mI

Neither side usually get close to filling it, apart from the Milan Derby and Juventus games. The upper tiers are closed a lot of the time.

Works both ways Rev. You either snap back into an old habit as you say, or you pick up new habits and old ways become obsolete - the decline of the high street a prime example.

Indeed, doesn’t take long for humans to get used to new ways of doing things and develop habits accordingly.

Probably shouldn’t have used you as an example Paul, as like you I’ll be back, whenever that is. However, the point stands, I believe crowds have now peaked in this country after 30 years of growth and will now decline sharply, especially in the EFL (we were ahead of the curve on that score!).

Made me laugh that the chadster liked Rev’s post about folk falling for every bit of government PR and ‘treating it as gospel‘. Self-awareness not his strong point, obviously.

Didn’t look that way on Southend beach...

I have read them, and I have spotted a big change in tone. It’s called managing expectations and is a big part of PR and crisis management. But I’ll bow down to your inside track of 47 Championship and League 1 boardrooms (in various stages of financial collapse) garnered from an EFL press release.

Chaddy before you start trying to patronise people, try to stop taking every bit of PR guff as gospel and at least try to read between the lines.

Looks as if postponement is becoming increasingly likely then. But they do seem insistent on playing the play offs, not sure why those games should be exempt, but there you go. The ‘C’ below stood out, with one of those 4 teams being us if we’d actually turned up at Derby... 2. This means that, in the event of an early curtailment: a. Final divisional placings should be determined on unweighted points per game (if required). b. Promotion and relegation should be retained. c. Play-Offs should be played in all circumstances but should not be extended (beyond four teams).