Not true, but that wasn't my point. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32512704

When new owners come into the club on a ticket to get Champions league football with a budget of £5m a season, the argument could be made that they deliberately relegated the cub in pursuit of that aim. They replaced the current manager with a coach, replaced the best chairman in the country with nobody, sold off all the clubs assets, or put them in the stands so as not to pay win bonuses and loyalty bonuses. Those are all very deliberate acts which resulted in relegation and the demise of this football club.

I'll be honest with you ojf, the scramble to paint Rafiq as the bad guy is unsavoury to say the least and its often from a position of not even knowing the facts relating to the claims. It may not be the intention of posters on this board to do that, but thats the way its coming across. As Jim said yesterday, being racially abused 7 days a week by your work mates, which isn't in dispute by the way, is a far different proposition than sharing private whatsapp messages with a mate, but both are racist. Throw the book at them all.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/19729241.tony-mowbray-blackburn-rovers-have-included-top-six-mix/ Very good interview with Mowbray, talking common sense.

Lets get this back to cricket. The first Test is in Brisbane on 8 December, before a day-night match in Adelaide on 16 December. BT Sports have bought the Tv rights, but won't be sending any commentators down under, we'll be getting the local commentary from Fox and channel 7 by all accounts. I think we'll get thumped, I don't like the side which should have included Mahmood at a minimum, I'd have also taken Parkinson and Livingston, who I know has very little test match experience, but we need fearless players in the team, not blockers. I think 4-1 is the best we can hope for, but we'll probably lose 5-0.

I hope you have Muslim friends and colleagues Silas, maybe you don't from the comments above. Would you ever get the lads together and pour red wine down an Asian colleagues throat? Of course we're heavily focussing on the Muslim aspect, Jesus wept. Rafiq turned to drinking alcohol to try and fit in with the drinking culture at Yorkshire, by his own admission, I hope that clears things up for you.

Are you trying to be Ali G?

Azeem Rafiq was pinned down as a 15yr old Muslim kid at his local cricket club and had a bottle of red wine poured down his throat. Can you draw me the comparison above that you're trying to make ojf?

That could well be true in the modern era..... But that wasn't the case before Jack came, we were far less accepting of shite on the pitch and in the boardroom and let them know about it. #Venkys out (Think bigger picture)

The Wurzels 1 Rovers 3

I remember Andrews, Chris Brown and Ward all being booed before the games even kicked off which is pathetic, shows a distinct lack of intelligence.

Whataboutery ojf with respect and no I don't agree. But what we do agree on is racism in any form is abhorrent, which they're all guilty of.

I'm not sure why you felt the need to drag up my condemnation of Ollie Robinson, my views on anti-Semitism and racism are well versed LD, abhorrent in whatever context. I do agree with Jim though, those texts are a million miles away from the abuse Azeem has received, which was on an industrial scale in comparison.

Booked this for next year, local to us, decent lineup. Working men’s club are a decent listen, local band, for local people.

I was a firm believer, being ever the optimist, that racism on this scale was a thing of the past. We are a much more tolerant and liberal society than we were back in 70's and 80's, then this rears its ugly head, at the top of one of our national sports, a sport we gave to the world. Some of the testimony from Azeem this week about being verbally and physically abused because of the colour of his skin, at work, in 2021......just disgusting. A 15yr old Asian lad being force fed red wine at his local club by another cricketer? He'd be first on the list for assault and prosecution charges. I'd sack the lot of them, they should also be cautioned by the police, send a message that this will not be tolerated in any shape way or form.

I’ve just watched season 2 of The Tiger King - The story just gets even more bizarre.

Why are we £140m in debt if wages are under control?

You told this board a few days ago that the club was right the throw Nelson and Salgado on the scrap heap: "We had to get wages under control" You said. Here we are 10yrs later with wages nowhere near under control, even by your own unicorn calculations (Ayala 30k a week is laughable) This isn't a Mowbray and Waggott issue, its a Venkys issue, they're completely inept and couldn't care less Rev. This notion that they're keeping the club alive, keeping us afloat is also bollox too, they're lumping debt (£140m+) into a holding company, we all know with the stroke of a pen that debt can move to the club, are you conformable with that? Posters on this board won't fall for the propaganda, we are all well versed in the business activities of these inept owners. Venkys out.

Football goes in cycles SG, this club will rise again, we need to plod along until these inept owners get bored and sod off back under the rock. Hang in there, our time will come.

It’s not like we haven’t been in this situation before, we were under embargo when Lambert joined, the buck stops with these inept owners, they hold the ferking purse strings.

I hear you ojf, but…. I would refer you back to Azeems statement, which is far more relevant than 2 white middle aged duffers talking about the rights and wrongs of this case.

Azeem Rafiq said he was hurt by Joe Roots statement, thats enough for me. I found [his statement] hurtful, because Rooty was not only Gary's housemate but, before he started playing for England, he was involved in a lot of those socialising nights out where I'd been called a P**i. In my opinion its naïve to believe Root never heard any of this, he's close mates with both Ballance and Hales and was in the Yorkshire dressing room for years where Moxon, Hoggard, Bresnan and the rest of them were using this language. Just my opinion of course.

You do wonder why said posters are adopting such an approach, when we are led to believe Waggott was telling anyone and everyone, in the Premier Suite after the game, that Mowbray was for the chop if he hadn't just beaten Sheff Utd.

I think the vast majority of fans are realistic, they're more than aware of the neglect and dumbing down thats been going on since 2011, its all around them on match days, in the empty pubs and across the large swathes of empty seating week in week out. We have the smallest inexperienced squad I can ever remember, we have more debt hovering over the club that we've ever had and the training ground has just been removed from the balance sheet, its hardly a model built for success. The majority of fans are happy plodding along, I'm one of them, can you change my mind and point to anything that would give me cause for optimism? A way in which we can challenge the likes of West Brom who had around £20m worth of players sat on the bench earlier this season at Ewood?

Joe Root issued a statement a few weeks ago saying he'd never heard anything racist, this despite sharing a house with Ballance and being in the dressing room throughout this time, smells of more Yorkshire CCC trying to cover up to me. Azeem said yesterday he was hurt by those comments from Root, not only was he in the dressing room, he was present at the numerous social occasions where this kind of language was normalised. In my opinion he doesn't come out of this well at all.