Mattyblue

Maybe I’m in denial, but I still see Blackburn Rovers as a big deal and wondering to where and when our best players will be sold is too small time for me.

In today’s Times. With us 3 points outside, that play offs plan would make the no-show at Derby stick in the craw somewhat...

The wider game I’ve increasingly disliked over the past decade and I’m not missing it one bit, and it’s antics this past month has only reinforced that. I am missing seeing friends and family at Ewood, that routine I’ve followed for decades, that joy and excitement of representing ‘the club’ on away days etc. In general the sense of belonging to ‘Blackburn Rovers’, the ‘club’ not being carpetbaggers like Waggott who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, but that feeling of being part of something, bound up in family ties and a link to your town and heritage going back nearly 150 years, Bobby Robson summed it up so well However, a lot of Ewood attendees aren’t fanatics like me and you, they go out of habit and once it’s broken (along with health and financial worries) many will drop their ST without hesitation. For a match going fanbase that has never recovered from the Kean debacle, it will be further decimation (unless there is a hell of an enticing offer on season tickets).

Of course it is the optimum decision for public health. And as if we didn’t know already, this pandemic has proven that it is only a game However, potential vaccines are renowned for failing, so it takes 2/3 years for mass vaccinations and fans to return, what then? Most clubs will surely have long gone.

A fair few elite players do go into coaching, no? Think of the Italia 90 team - Shilton (had a go), Pearce, Butcher, Waddle (ha!), Robson, Beardsley. Euro 96 - Campbell, Adams, Southgate, Pearce, Neville, Ince, Shearer, A load of the ‘66 team had a go. Keegan, Hoddle. Top players in English football - Blanchflower, Dalglish, Toshack, Souness, Speed, Keane, Zola, Klinsmann, Bergkamp, Henry, Even now with all the money in the world you have the likes of Giggs, Lampard, Gerrard, Zidane, Kompany, Terry, Rooney. Plus some of the all time greats - Cruyff, Gullit, Rilkard, Van Basten, Maradona, Beckenbauer, Matthäus, Puskás, Platini, Di Stefano, Zico, Hagi Etc. All with varying degrees of success. As someone who played for Hoddle said, ‘he could never understand that his players couldn’t do what he could’, but they all had a go.

Same reason Brad wasn't on the keeper list... because he played for Rovers.

You always struggle to join the dots Vinners. It is the fact Rovers have such a great heritage that we are ‘marketable’ in the first place.

Probably because your view was blocked by the cars parked behind the goal!

Used to live there myself! Number 22 on the corner!

‘We doing Singles or Doubles?’

Only one of the modern ‘Big 6’ in contention. Liverpool limp to 6th, the others in mid table.

Come off it chimp! We’d just become champions of England! The fact we all went from panic to ecstasy in about 20 seconds made it even better!

Fairly obvious the PL/EPL don’t have the first clue of what to do, there’s a different potential plan emanating from them every other day...

If Shearer had have stayed fit, would we have seen a Cloughie Forest style promotion followed by top flight title?

I enjoyed series 1. Thought season 2 saw a big drop in quality (possibly because the writer changed) and looking at the reviews I won’t be bothering with season 3.

Nice of the club to do it for him instead of the press.

Don’t pull at that thread IR... please!?

I still remember the advertising for the orange one... ‘our new continental style shirt’ Made me feel very cosmopolitan wandering down Livesey Branch

Ozark is a great watch on Netflix. Season 3 was recently added. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul if you haven’t already.

Talking to the father in law last night. He’s 70 and adamant he won’t be buying a season ticket next season (he goes with his wife who would be stopping too). This is a fella that has been a regular since the late 1950s and hasn’t wavered at any time during the Venky reign of terror. However, he doesn’t want to expose himself to infection in, say, October or whenever a new season would begin. His standpoint did take me back, but it is a concern that the next set of ST sales could absolutely tank with a perfect storm of health worries, personal financial problems and folk generally just not missing it.

It was a shame to lose against Leverkusen, but I went to all 4 European away ties that season (RB Salzburg, Feyernoord, Wisla Krakow and Bayer Leverkusen), and was a time I’ll never forget (and I was skint after!)

Squad rebuild? Club and sport re-build first...

Yeah that season showed a quality second division side on its last legs - as proven when we nearly went down the year after. Then our knight in steel armour arrived, and the rest...

I noticed it was nearly all filmed with fans and Exec staff, very little with the players this time...

Indeed they do, as proven with £10 Wigan, a December Sky night game, being our biggest home turnout in the Championship since 2012, yet the club will always piss about with deals proven not to bring folk in.