I’ve bet on Gakpo to be the golden boot winner. I can’t work out the standard the Qatar team are playing at, but it’s not high. Perhaps bottom of L2 at a push.

He’s an inch (or two) offside. There’s two players there, both touch the ball. Watch it back.

Narrator: But it turned out that it was in fact, offside.

ALL THE ONES THAT I MAKE!

Couldn’t agree more. A local self made man bought the club, made a huge investment, won the biggest prize available and put a system in place to keep them competitive after his death. Phenomenal. Yep, we bought the League. And the League Cup! And wasn’t it great?!

Yes, but my point is United are a city based northern powerhouse. Much like Arsenal, Newcastle, Spurs, Villa and Liverpool. Huge city clubs with phenomenal economic power. Rovers aren't, weren’t and will never be that and it’s simply down to geography (with a touch of politics and culture - but that’s for WDWY). Comparing us against them is comparing apples with pears. As I posted earlier: Rovers spent more when owned by Jack Walker than any other comparable club whether that’s in transfers, wages or infrastructure. It cannot be denied and should be celebrated. How lucky we where.

Why are you lot getting so worked up? We spent more under Jack than we would have without Jack and won the league. We paid higher transfer fees, more in wages and more on infrastructure than other clubs in the league because we had the money. It should be celebrated, not demonised. What where we meant to do, burn it? Give it to other clubs to beat us with? No wonder they try and use it against it, I’d be incredibly jealous of it to. Just like I am that City get to watch De Bruyne and Haaland, that Chelsea get to watch Havartz and Sterling. Blackburn Rovers are, like most town clubs have the odds set against them by the organisations. We’re not meant to win things.

A fluke based on a combination of a well organised club taking advantage of a weak league that year. It’s exactly how we will get promoted.

Even if we use ours really wisely, it takes those with more to misuse theirs sadly.

Our revenue was 15th in the league last time I checked.

Simply put, because the odds are against us. Our revenue is lower than the majority of the league. Other clubs are earning more and have parachute payments on top. Money wins in football in 95% of cases. For us to go up it takes clubs with more resources to not use them wisely.

Some of these arguments make us look like we’re metaphorically holding on for dear life. Two very similar clubs, with more similarities than differences. Uncle Jack made us much better, Venkys made us much worse. Burnley where lucky that their period in the PL was when it was. They’ve essentially had a rich benefactors worth of investment due to the timing of their recent promotions. As it stands they’ve the better team and infrastructure based on how well Turd looked on TV, although I wasn’t there in the flesh. Ewood hasn’t had the basic levels of maintenance since relegation from the PL. Remember, we don’t own our own training facilities anymore, they do. Rovers fans are incredibly lucky they got to see the successes they did in the 90s and 00s. Despite the PL riches, the way football is run means that it’s more unlikely than ever before that Burnley will see what we’ve been lucky enough to see. If Rovers can somehow manage to fluke a promotion, the playing field will be even once again.

Someone’s job maybe?

To be fair the people reading from Venkys Towers seem to spend more time on each page than anyone else. Whether or not what they read gets reported back is another story.

This ‘club plant’ nonsense is getting boring quick. Whilst there are people at Rovers and Venkys reading this, I can see all of account data, they don’t post.

I’ve written this once, deleted it as I decided I was being dramatic, then rewritten it again. I’d lose every single game to Preston for the rest of my life to beat Burnley at Ewood.

Narrator: But they didn’t repay them in March…

I love watching England, especially away. It’s a fantastic weekend. And we’re not shit anymore, which helps.

Meh, don’t care.

Sometimes I want to pack this all in, close the website down and stop worrying about it. Then I realise way. Nice one Groundhog, don’t get too stressed, they’ll tonk us at ewood as well yet.

The biggest problem for the next derby is Burnley will go into January will a plan after a very successful first half of the season and a perfect Derby day. Their weaknesses are obvious, it’s all across their defensive line and keeper. So they’ll sign someone to rectify that. Add Jay Rodriquez into the mix and the Ewood leg will be a seriously hard task.

It’s not necessarily the holiday that gripes me, it’s the complete lack of awareness from the management. Pre-Venkys losing the Derby wasn’t a thing. Now it has become normal, acceptable behaviour. As has posting holiday snaps the day after a humiliating defeat. If they had any sense whatsoever or any clue about the culture within the town (see Season Ticket Pricing) they would have insisted that whilst players where going away for a well deserved rest based on the first half of the season, they categorically must not post anything on their social media accounts as it has a direct risk of winding up pissed off fans.

That’s sort of the point - Rotherham did the things they are good at well and Burnley couldn’t cope with it. We couldn’t even attempt to do the things that we can do well.

Which, to be fair, is to be expected when their team has either been signed for ~25m or last season was playing in the Premier League. The biggest issue for me yesterday was we didn't seemingly show any intent to win the match and certainly didn't do any of our own things well.

It's the day after but not much has changed. I still think Mola starting off the back of one good game against West Ham was a huge error of judgement, whether he is fast or not. I suspect the beating he took will end his career here, unlikely to recover from that. I still think Garrett starting in central midfield was a huge error of judgement. He's nowhere near ready for that sort of game. I still think Morton playing in the Szmodics role was disastrous and ultimately cost us the game. Neither Travis or Garrett could hold on to the ball and that played right into their strong central midfields hands. I still think inverted fullbacks is far too clever for the Championship. I can see the logic when you have Kyle Walker and Cancelo, but not where we are. I still think Hedges is absolutely wasted at left wing back. I still think Pickering was very hard done to. I still think playing out from the back doesn't suit any of our central defenders apart from Wharton. I still think not having a reasonable option off the bench when Gallagher got injured changed the game. Hirst clearly isn't trusted and Vale has no future here. Despite a decent set of results in the first half of the season, I'm now looking down at the table rather than up for after the World Cup. We're yet to get any sort of result after conceding first. We're still making the same mistakes we where at the start of the season. We're only 5 points above 7th place. I suspect a classic Mowbray-style breakdown in the New Year, unless we can address all of the below issues in January. 1) Dack has to go. I love him, but if he isn't trusted ahead of Vale then his time here is done and its best for all parties we remember the memories and wish him well. 2) Hirst must be returned to Leicester. There's perhaps a player in there best of the performances for Pompy, but as yet we haven't seen anything in him and he's being the awful Vale in the pecking order. 3) Vale must be loaned out. He isn't even putting the basic levels of performance in if you ask me. Needs a rocket up his arse, I wonder if he think's he's better than he is. 4) We must sign a fearsome central midfielder. What happening to Belik(?) at Barnsley? He would be a start. Doesn't have to be a fantastic footballer, an Aaron Mokoena equivalent would be perfect. Minimum 6 ft 2. 5) We must sign a replacement for Hirst and Vale that is a viable option immediately. 6) We must sign a deputy right-wing back and a quick (Khadra-type) winger either on loan with the option to buy or permanently. Over to you, Gregg...