Mattyblue

Heard an interview with the EFL acting Chief Exec on Five Live earlier, thought she came across very poorly. Bury ‘are an isolated incident’, ‘what about Bolton!?’ ‘Totally different issue’ ’Our fit and proper test is sound’ ‘strong governance’ ‘more popular than ever with fans’, ‘no chance any other club gets into trouble this season’. Appalling organisation.

Is offering suggestions on how they could improve things ‘negative’ now? How Orwellian.

Well there pretty much wasn’t until you brought this one back!

Maybe they were still ‘naive’.

The spit and sawdust pub is finished. But there is still a place for pubs. Blackburn is not a normal market. 6 pubs on Livesey Branch Road. Now 0 on Four Lane Ends/Revidge Road, as an example, when there were also 6 on that ‘run’ 15 years ago tells you that.

They are ALL closing? Depends where, surely? Blackburn for many reasons is in a bad state. Rural areas many pubs are heaving. Micro pubs are popping up in every town.

He’s talked about ‘chemistry’ between the two Irishmen and how important it is at centre half, so presumably Tosin is out the side for the foreseeable...

I’d say it was the other way round. The shite pub selling crap beer and little else are closing rapidly, whilst your quality pub with a good selection of beer and food are growing.

And the BB signing will help us get there? Not sure what you are talking about, to be honest.

Dack was quoted at £20 million in January, bet we don’t get £10 million... we can all play this game!

Small beer? Which other clubs are spending £7 million on forwards that aren’t getting a sniff of a start?

I’m talking about game plans and generally teams plan to be more on the front foot at home. Ergo he’ll pick Graham, obviously doesn’t mean the match will unfold that way.

Graham will play most home games when we are largely on the front foot with more possession in advanced areas and we can play off him. Will be on the bench for a lot of away games.

Always had a soft spot for Paul Gallagher being a Blackburn lad and sharing an alma mater. Still full of class.

Obviously an attitude issue. A fair few big time Charlie’s there. We know all too well how that can work out in this league...

They must hate having a BB2 postcode and 01254 number then...

I imagine a lot of kids do...

Indeed, they served Wainwright’s in the late 2000s, sold really well from what I remember. Then they got rid of Thwaites as beer supplier and that was that.

I’m taking about Smallwood, not both of them. He’d gone back to Rotherham, say, and you’d be on here slagging off TM over it?

Though if he’d have left you'd have praised TM for his ‘evolution of the team’, I’d wager!

Evans fine (he will be one of our top earners, by the way, he was signed in the parachute days and has earned 50 international caps since). Smallwood can’t make the bench and that’s with Davenport injured. He should have left for his own career if nothing else.

I don’t drink in the ground phil , I go to watch the Rovers and they are doing ‘basically ok’, but for a lot of fans they do like to put their money into the club by purchasing food and drink on a matchday. I dislike the piss poor product and service they are receiving and a better product would actually bring more money into the club. Surely the issue is three fold. 1 - prices have gone up massively in one summer - £3.80 to £4.50 a pint is a piss take from where I’m standing. 2 - The service is terrible and facilities that should speed things up are not used properly - i.e contactless and multi pint pourers or just a simple idea like ‘how about pre pouring some pints in the run up to half time?’ 3 - The club still thinks just providing one basic lager is sufficient in 2019. The club hasn’t altered its offering since the new stands were built in the mid 90s. That was a pre Wetherspoons/pre CAMRA/pre micro brewery time when pubs largely served Carling/Fosters/Xxxx/Carlsberg on draft with a John Smiths/Boddingtons esque ‘ale’ keg also on draft. Tastes have moved on massively over the last decade, the club hasn’t. Doesn’t seem a big issue to sort to me, but it won’t be as we have a management team without the initiative to do it.

It will be £15 million for all 3. Armstrong will be worth it at £1.75m rising to 3. A steady Championship player. £5 million for Gallagher is fairly risky free as he will make an impact in games and I believe will improve. The millstone around the club’s neck is the £7 million for BB, doesn’t look remotely close to making an impression, and unfortunately I foresee it going down as a disastrous signing for the club.

That song just fit his name, even in League 1 it was known he was limited but did a job at that level. Not good enough for the second tier, there’s no ill will towards him, just the realities of football and he should have been released in the summer.

Our friendly last month could be the last ever game at Gigg Lane.