J*B

Hello members. It's that time of the season where BRFCS makes no money because everyone is on holiday and we're not signing anyone, so ad views are way down! As a reminder, BRFCS offers a premium monthly membership (available here: https://brfcs.com/magazine/premium) which gives you the site without ads. It also means that @Herbie6590 doesn't worry that we're going to go bankrupt, as a not for profit we run it close to the wire! It also gives you exclusive giveaways, rumoured to include some classic pin badges and whatever other merch Ian creates this year! Cheers.

Currently on holiday - will reply in due course!

Yes — and it was a nonsense! Which is why we (BRFCS) have rejected further proposals.

Nobody knows because rather than official communication they opt to individually tell different people different stories in private.

Both of todays players i’m in favour for on the assumption they’re SQUAD players. We do not have options from the bench and desperately need some. Neither are good enough to be first team regulars and next time someone mentions Garrett as a viable option I’m going to burst into tears.

Agree on all of this. To follow it up, let’s assume the funds don’t come and Rovers spend 5-10M this summer after generating circa 40M in the last 12 months (increase from tv revenue = 4M, Wharton = 22M, Raya = 3.35M, Szmodics = ?). If that plays out, then either: Waggott told the Trust dud info under a MOU or Waggott was told one thing and the owners did another (again)

Quite a few people know the kits - I don’t - but I know users of this site have been involved in the design process with the club.

Are we suggesting Waggott has managed to make one persons responsibilities role into two roles?

I’ll take you word for it and retract my comment - maybe they just need better pictures!

Nice brochure - but can I say on record that the Shearer lounge described as “the most premium lounge” looks like a cafe in the town centre. They’ve probably been given fuck all to make it work and it shows.

I’ll bet Steve the cost of a season ticket he has less uptake this season than last. And with cheaper prices, the only reason for that can be he’s made the product worse.

Let’s agree to call this “a step in the right direction” rather than celebrate it as a success story. In my opinion tickets are still £100 too expensive, which is a hell of a lot of money in our region. Do we know if it’s still the same credit supplier? Hopefully we’re now using one that actually accepts people.

Relegation. Not enough once you take into account Szmodics, Gally, Sigurdsson and Dolan likely leaving.

Don’t believe a word that comes from that account all summer. It’s absolute garbage designed by wheel in interactions from desperate fans.

Out of interest, specifically on the Phillips point, what exactly would you have liked him to do? Phillips was 6 weeks away from walking away for nothing and earning multiple times his salary at Premier League clubs. Rovers were not due a penny and there was nothing we could have done to stop it. He managed to get him to agree to a deal which saw us get 2.5M for him. Quite incredible work in my opinion.

At this point 7m is nowhere near enough to plug the gaps and be a mid table side.

In which case the “project” which was instructed to be the direction of the club from the top was decimated within 24 months and those involved in the change of direction should be sacked.

PS: I know none of this is your fault @Miller11 and its unfair to shoot the messenger. All I'm saying is in my opinion there's no evidence of this club progressing under its current structure and constraints, so whilst the messenger is reporting back the state of play as per information from Waggott, I am loathed to believe it.

Steve has said in recent notes - perhaps with the Fans Forum - there's nothing stopping Venkys making investment anymore. From what I can see there's been no update with their court case as it was postponed again, but he clearly knows more than me, so I look forward to a transfer window of investment as the squad is desperate for it.

I'm unsure Chaddy - probably. All I know is: We're not going to be able to keep developing these players and selling them for millions. At some point we will have a period where we don't have the immediate talent ready to step up. Ewood Park needs major investment and to my knowledge, hasn't had any significant improvements in over 10 years. We almost wen't down this year - infact, if Leicester had something to play for I'm confident we would have gone down - and that squad needs major investment. On average our ground has as many empty seats as it does have people sat in them which is hampering the club both on and off the pitch and I can't see any sort of plan to combat this.

So the commercial numbers have genuinely increase, which is good. RE the financial targets, I agree with the first sentence but thats entirely his own doing. If he's unhappy with that he either 1) should have demanded a different set of circumstances or 2) walked away from his job as the structure you describe is destined for failure. In addition, he's getting 4M quid extra this season due to the new TV deal. Thats enough to knock £350 off every ST holders ticket. Unless of course the 4M quid is coming off Venkys bill. Finally, I'm not sure how cashflow can be a bigger issue. He's just got 18M guaranteed for Wharton, 3.25M for Raya, 2.5M for Kaminski, 2M for Phillips and historically had 15M for the training ground, 17M for Armstrong and rejected over 10M for Brereton. I make that almost 60M since 2022. If we've got cash flow issues now frankly the business is insolvent.

How much of that 1.3M increase was directly via the owners as they increased their marketing with more ground presence, training wear and sleeves? We can’t possibly be counting successful commercial gains if they are “we sold advertising to ourselves”. This seasons STs will be significantly down. Almost every game is on TV, the majority of fans are not excited by Eustace like they where with JDT and there’s a rumoured average price increase!

Watson & Ramsbottom I heard.

We where not signing him outright, yet agreed to do exactly that for 2.3M quid before pulling the plug?

Like all footballers he will sign for whichever club offers him the most money and ultimately chance of progression to a top league.