2 minutes ago, booth said:

They'll scrap them the year we scrape into the PL, and relegated the following season. You can bet your house on it.

Knowing our luck I can see exactly that happening. I do think they need to go though for the long term health of the game.

3 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Burnley are 17 points clear of 3rd place, Sheff Utd are 10.

Fulham finished 8 clear of third last season, with relegation sorted with a couple of games to go.

The number of teams that get promoted on parachute money is stark.

The play off format gives more something to play for, but it can't be the most competitive in the world.

Don't get me started on parachute payments. I believe the EFL are keen to see them scrapped to level the playing field.

There's not many businesses where you effectively get a bonus payment for failure (bankers excepted of course..)

1 hour ago, tomphil said:

So what ?

We could spend 20 million and storm this league then still get painfully folded like a deckchair most weeks in the Prem.  All this build for a sustainable Prem club is such BS it's like selling a bridge to the Yanks.

The ONLY way for Blackburn Rovers to become a sustainable Prem club is do whatever it takes to get there first. Then you bite the bullet and start the new rebuild with the parachute money or if you're lucky enough to stay up.  One season up there no matter how painful on the pitch should financially reset the whole club.

Somehow i think some will need reminding of this in a season or two when we are likely dossing around in lower mid again still having 20 mill a year run through the books.

All well and good and you'd like to think so, but as I said earlier, getting there in itself guarantees absolutely nothing as several clubs who have sucked from the golden tit before have already found out..

These days, I struggle to really understand what the actual 'point' is of the professional football pyramid system.

17 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

You can't just decide when to go up though.

If we snuck into the top 6 on the last day and ended up going through the play offs, I certainly wouldn't look at that and think "well this is catastrophic".

 

I take your point - if we somehow went up then obviously you roll with it and accept that the following season will, in all probability, be like slowing down to rubberneck at a car crash.. 

2 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

So you don’t want to be promoted but instead just butt against a glass ceiling indefinitely (with the odd bad season possibly leading to L1)? 

What would be the point then of any of this?
 

No, that's not what I'm saying. 

Promotion this season, with this squad would be catastrophic. You make out that going up is nirvana - for every Burnley there's a Leeds/Sunderland/Bolton/Derby. Look at Huddersfield and Cardiff, in the Premier League as recently as 2019 and now 3rd & 4th bottom respectively in the Championship. Cast your eye over Norwich, for all their yo-yoing they look no more fit for promotion than we do and how much money have they received and spunked away over the last few years? 

The 'point of all this' ultimately is to support are club,no? The point, for me, isn't the Premier League in itself, at all costs.. 

7 minutes ago, booth said:

Shocking statement. I'd take a car crash if it meant a massive chunk of the clubs debt was taken care of along with the parachute payments a year later, and reset on FFP.

I think you speak for a lot of fans though.

It's just an opinion and you know how the saying goes about those. It might be shocking to you but I'm comfortable with it. I'll expand on it though a little.

For me, the Championship is probably the most genuinely competitive league in the world. Most of the teams in the division will, over a season have genuine claims on either promotion/relegation/both of the above, sometimes at the same time. This makes nearly every game meaningful in a way you'd never really see in the Premiership (I'll  accept this season is something of an outlier given how well Brentford, Brighton and Fulham are doing). 

Chasing the money guarantees nothing in terms of our situation given our peculiar set-up and there's something soulless and morally bankrupt about the premiership promised land. A fair chunk of the owners there leave a particularly nasty taste in the mouth.

Have a read of the article below; for sure it'll make you laugh in places (it did me anyhow, Delia Smith at #15, for example). By the same token, after reading it I felt grubby as fuck, in need of a shower and reminded yet again that money doesn't buy class....

https://www.football365.com/news/ranking-premier-league-owners-morals-bin-salman-abramovich-mansour

Just now, TheRevAshton said:

Anyone reckon we'll bother bringing in any of the free agents?

The list is a bit 'meh' as a whole, but some of the names on there could still be considered improvements on what we have.

Personally, I'd run with what we've got now. Genuinely blood the youngsters - see who's made of what and then hopefully we're clear on who we're going to retain in the summer and who is surplus to requirements.  

I see no benefit in promotion if I'm being honest as I think it would make next season a car crash of epic proportions, but I would prefer to see the likes of Leonard, Wharton, Garrett etc. all being given genuine chances to show if they're going to sink or swim. If you're good enough you're old enough.

At this point, irrespective of any appeal outcome (we all know how that's going to pan out), I'd take some humility, honesty, self-reflection and a clear sense of what changes are going to be be put in place to prevent this type of thing happening again.

We've made ourselves look like mugs and this mustn't happen again. I'm not a big one for scapegoating and prefer openness and a commitment to putting processes in place to ensure it never happens again. Having said that, if the whole debacle did result in some degree of staffing 'reconfiguration' I'd be okay with that as we do have some muppets working for us unfortunately.   

A solid victory tonight will help me to try to start focusing on a potential good second half to the season as opposed to our propensity to 'death-spiral'. 

1 minute ago, tomphil said:

Lambert didn't exactly resign in protest he waited until his clause was exercised then left, he was also heavily vested in trying to get another big job that was available.

Without that clause he wasn't resigning and walking away from his wedge.

He had such a stellar career after he left us too...

10 minutes ago, neophox said:

Well we did sign a striker in the summer: 

That was a great watch - we looked full of goals. Play them tomorrow night, I say..

6 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

So let me get this straight.

We had Hirst as a loan to buy.

But can't afford to buy anyone?

Is the loan to buy a façade of having fuck all?

It's a fair question as I see no evidence we ever planned to buy any of those we loaned under that proviso...

1 hour ago, LDRover said:

I have heard second hand from a staff member that JDT is indeed unhappy, has interest from Germany and is keen to leave. Don't shoot the messenger.

Well done on kicking off the meltdown with not a lot in the overall scheme of things... 

1 hour ago, roverandout said:

I know I'm not jdt biggest fan but if he walks out in the summer similar to lambert then a full protest needs to go ahead. Sick of the lack of ambition at the club.  Venkys need to go. They've rarely done anything right

Talk about covering all your bases: you don't rate him but will be kicking off if he walks.

Sounds like either way you're ready to go ballistic in around 4 months time. Maybe time to practice a bit of mindfulness...

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

Probably a tad more than you given I've done consultancy work at 3 football league clubs (2 in England and 1 in Scotland).

Bury, Rushden & Diamonds and Gretna by any chance?

23 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Personally I’m sick of loans, know it’s the modern way but still not the same feeling getting a loan deal in than a permanent transfer.

if we end up with a prem league youngster it’s all a bit meh 

Sadly, the whole loan (shark) ponzi scheme is a construct of the greed at the top of the game whereby the big clubs, not simply content with hoovering up all the best current talent, then can't resist getting their grubby hands on the next-gen talents too.

Frankly, it stinks, and the sooner the footballing authorities do something about it the better for the game as a whole. 

Personally I'd limit the maximum under of under -21 players they can sign/register and also stop their ability to ask for loan fees and/or wage contributions  if only to level the playing field just a bit... 

34 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

36 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

Report about Ike Ugbo and us interested. Think there could be a good shout that he comes here. I know he’s know Edun well if that’s anything to go by…

One stat I picked up from this link was Dwight Gayle having scored1 goal in 21 leagues so far this season. IIRC he was being touted as a good transfer option by several people on here pre-season. Proof that every transfer is a risk ultimately....

46 minutes ago, Atko's Engine said:

Accepting the fact that Morton has made some individual errors that have proved costly (yesterday chief amongst them, it was right in front of my temp seat in the JW Upper & was suicidal), he's not alone in that.  Can I suggest to those criticising why we signed Morton that they listen to GB"s interview with the Assoc of Sporting Directors that is posted elsewhere on this forum?

It explains exactly why he was signed, which was to bridge the gap between experienced midfielders leaving at the end of last season & the likes of Wharton & Garrett coming through. He's 12 months ahead of both in his overa development & age, so a 12 month loan made sense given the budget & timescales GB & JDT had to work to, but next season will likely be founded on Wharton, Garrett, Travis& Buckley plus 1 other. To me that's rational, common sense, forward / succession planning which has been missing from this club for a decade.

Additionally, Morton himself has said on record that he wasn't expecting this many appearances, so it can hardly have been written into his deal that he gets them! The main reason for that has been the drop off-in form of Buckley & Travis, which proves that reliance on just your own (younger) players isn't always successful so loans are required to supplement that, like all other clubs at our level given the fact that established Prem clubs have about 40 senior players in their books at any one time

Why does everything have to be a conspiracy theory about penalties for lack of minutes, jobs for the boys, stats over eyes etc??

 

Edit: that post wasn't directed at you Exiled by the way, I realise on re-reading that it could've come across that way!!

Always nice to see a bit of balance.

Morton is clearly the current whipping boy when plenty of others in the team have regressed somewhat. Morton will have a good career but admittedly requires further development in decision making and physicality. 

Anyone suggesting he's League one standard at best I think will ultimately be proved wrong.

12 minutes ago, booth said:

And that fat prick Waggott allowed it to happen.

If you'd speak to him like that if you were to meet him him in the street then fine, but I'd suggest it says more about you and not in a good way..

I appreciate it's a forum and different opinions are encouraged but sometimes less is more.   

The only way anything is now salvaged from the Brereton Diaz fiasco is if Diaz comes to the fore again and helps take us to the promised land.

If this did happen, and I appreciate it is very unlikely, then I'll wave him off, wishing him all the best and also say well done to Venky's for playing a blinder! 😁   

18 minutes ago, JoeH said:

I think we both know that's not true. Out of a recruitment department that's now extremely large at 15+ people including all the part time staff, only around 2 or 3 have a data focus. Rovers are out at more games than pretty much most teams in the Championship. They have more live match based scouts than most teams in the Championship. Again, it's not an issue of identification, it's an issue of actually convincing those players to come here. We don't have the budget and we don't have the pull we once had.

Joe, whilst it's good to hear that, belatedly, there's an increased focus on scouting the obvious response to your comment above is that surely they need to focus on scouting options which we have a decent chance of getting over the line. I see absolutely no benefit in having a list full of players who can and will do better elsewhere (wages, facilities, ambition, trophies etc...).

I'm still surprised there hasn't been more of a dive into the scandanavian market for instance. I appreciate there will be work permit issues for some but wages certainly won't be an issue.

Also, not that I particular want to heap praise on Kompany and and our six fingered sibling shagging rivals, but it has to be pointed out that they seem to be utilising the Belgian market very effectively.  

2 minutes ago, Shirley Crabtree Wrestler said:

Oh for a sniff of a juicy 11 o'clocker 🙂

Now all we can sniff is the acrid smoke of reverse gear around the club's outlook for the season.

Sad.

...or the stench of shattered dreams and suffocating disappointment.

2 hours ago, roverandout said:

Big deal.  I use the word feck

Of course you do...

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

Have said before on here, I'm not one of the Twitterati  and even if I was, if I had any info, why the feck would I just not put it on here like I normally do.

I've been wondering why I've begun to think of Mrs Brown whenever you post and I think I've nailed it... maybe time for a change of avatar?

Breaking their press pretty well but final ball rubbish.