13,000? We should be so lucky. It was all so avoidable as well, all they had to do was listen to the people who'd run the club brilliantly for many years. No wonder the fan base are apathetic... they're bloody lucky they aren't apoplectic and causing more of a stir! Many have simply voted with their feet and won't return now. As I said yesterday, short of tearing down Ewood and Brockhall, this ownership have essentially taken us back 35 years.

"A place where we all belong" "Where your background doesn't matter" Which football club does that not apply to? I can see the angle they're going for with our diverse community, but it's still Marketing guff and flies in the face of the continued disconnect many of the fans feel since the Rao's bought the club.

Who wrote the script?!? "Other fans won't know what it's like to have that connection, that real connection with your club".... What a load of bollocks, and actually a bit of a slap in the face to the fanbase, many of whom feel less connected to the club than ever. This is just empty platitudes... Marketing guff written by someone who has zero understanding of the last 11 years. Define a connection with the club... To me its uniting all stakeholders in a continued vision, communicating as strongly as possible, engaging with the fanbase and community, taking pride in the club and its assets, doing things properly. More fiddling while Rome burns. Some connection the club have with its fanbase. We've sold less season tickets than all of our local rivals... Stanley aside I dare to presume. The kits horrid as well.

How many times have Rovers fans said this in the last 11 years? We're the famous Blackburn Rovers, we're a miles bigger club than 'X'. Blatantly untrue, frankly. A city club with an average attendance of 27,000 last season, the highest in the Championship..... our average was 14,000. What other measure of club size are there? Financial - Two years in the prem and support from parachute means they're superior.... not to mention the woeful mismanagement of our finances through the years. Infrastructure - Probably our strongest suit (Thanks, Jack). The stadium is slowly rusting away.... the training centre is top class... Sheff Utd are hoping to have their own cat 1 before long anyway.... History - bit of a nonsense argument, because no-one cares apart from the club's own fans. No-one wants to be the next West Ham, embarrassingly regaling rival fans of the great Bobby Moore and co that won the world cup. No-one gives a shit, just like no-one outside of our fanbase really gives a shit that we won the league in 1995. Anything I've missed? From that centre halves point of view the only thing that matters is how much money he's getting paid and then I suppose likelihood of success, prioritised in that order... unlikely we're going to match Sheff Utd on either of those fronts this season. Short of burning down EP and the STC, the Rao's have more or less managed to obliterate Jack's legacy, never mind 'absolutely respect it' as they promised, along with bold claims of making Rovers a 'truly global brand'. When they bought the club it was unimageable that we'd be considered equals with Preston, Blackpool, Burnley and others.... Well, here we are. Short of making us a truly global brand, they have essentially taken us backwards 35 years.... difference being, at least in those days we had people running the club who genuinely cared about it.

No one is asking him to. He said he'd share the email with Damo when he received a response.... He hasn't done that. I'm quite sure the email didn't simply say "Meet at EP, 08.00 hours, 6.7.2022" There must have been some content, some acknowledgement of his questions.... He's being cagey, that's all.

That's not the reply, that's the eventual outcome.... Have you perhaps been asked not to post the reply on here?

So what was the reply? You promised you'd put it in here. Looking forward to seeing it. Hope it sheds some more light on the topic!

Is it that for the first 15mins of the Stanley game, before Ayala inevitably signals to the bench?

I cannot comprehend why seemingly beneficial (non-routine) maintenance/improvement of the much maligned playing surface would not be communicated to the fan base. Surely it would be seen as more positive news and a sign of progression in this new era for the club. Or perhaps it's just the fact that it may be viewed as a big step-down from the level of investment promised some 20 or so months ago....

I'm guessing no news?

I really don't believe either of them. Mowbray waxed lyrical about the owners and their extraordinary support before they completely disrespected him over the contract palaver - then he came out and gave us a bit more an insight in to the chaos behind the scenes. It's all nonsense, it's all covering arses, it's all self-preservation.

Do you mean several different journos/papers/sites/twitter accounts quoting Waggott and Mowbray's comments? Because that would be the same source, via different channels.

CEO being Waggott? Manager being.... Mowbray or JDT?

1. Based on what evidence? The only facts I see to date are that they have both turned it down. 2. This sounds like pure conjecture. Has Nyambe come out and said that? Has his agent?

Unless I've missed something, no-one on this messageboard knows that for a fact. The only facts we do know are the following; Rothwell has signed for a PL club Lenihan has signed for a Championship rival who finished 1 place and 1 point above us last season. Nyambe has decided to walk away with no immediate destination decided. We also know as you rightly point out that Brereton has also refused a contract offered by Rovers. That's not a good strike rate. Factor in Gally, Travis and Kaminski and there has seemingly been an improvement, hopefully enabling us to avoid this absurd situation in the future. Lessons learnt perhaps... try to avoid the players (and their agents) holding all the aces.

With respect, you aren't a credible source - this isn't the lots in black and white is it? You're an alias on a fans message board, people would be crackers if they just believed what they read on here. I'm surprised the club haven't communicated the works done, particularly given the criticism levelled at them in recent years for the poor playing surface and the absolute state of Ewood generally. Would be good to have Waggot or the club communicate the works carried out,

Can you point us to it? With a quick google search all I can find is Sharpe saying pitch maintenance started earlier due to the cancellation of that festival (https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20222407.blackburn-rovers-set-portugal-trip-part-pre-season-plans/) Then a load of info from September 2021, about them stitching bits of the pitch.... "Although I couldn't get the full refurbishment with the £2m funding that we needed, I will be looking at that over the coming months because I would like to get a Desso pitch in there. We've stitched a couple bits of it, the goalkeeping areas and some other areas with Desso but we still need a full refurbishment so we're looking for funding on that." ...Waggott, September 2021 - https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-ewood-park-waggott-pitch-21650777 I can't see anything on the Rovers website, despite looking back to the end of this season.... have I missed something? Based on the above, there would be zero reason for Waggott to keep such an investment to himself. So, do we have a full Desso pitch now? Seeing as he admitted to seeing the fans thoughts about the season ticket prices, perhaps this topic may reach his eyes and ears too..... STEVE.... please, please provide an update on the standard/level of maintenance that has taken place this season? Is the pitch now fully woven, or is it still 'a couple of bits of it' that are stitched?

You've an impressive memory. To be honest, I thought Sheff United was our first foray into a back-5,...seemingly not. Anyway, you think he's decent based on two games, I think he looks ropey based on two games. Perhaps we'll find out more in the coming months.

The best possible deal or the best possible outcome for their football career? They're not always the same thing.

Sorry, Edun. I have reservations about Pickering too, mind you. He's horrendously slow and allows too many crosses in to the box.

Can you recall a game where he played well at left back? In fact... how many times has he played in a back four? He looked like he wanted to cry when we got murdered by Fulham - I don't remember him playing in a back 4 otherwise.... Vs Boro when we won 1-0 he was our weak link and was targeted over and over again. That was as wing back, where arguably I would expect him to be more comfortable, perhaps that isn't the case. Point still stands... how many times did he play left back adequately/well for you to be telling us he's decent? I look at Edun and actually wonder where he's supposed to play.... does he actually have a position or is he a pro based on the fact he's a bit of a jack of all trades? Maybe this season will reveal all.

I was absolutely gutted when Bellamy left. I was desperate for him to stay. There's a really interesting quote in his book where he says he went to meet Rafa and nearly called quits on the move because of the meeting they had. I bloody wish he had done! Having said that, any club in their right mind would have paid £6m for him - he was an absolute bargain for that price, so he'd likely have gone anyway.

I'll be one of those late renewers that you're talking about. Sad fact is if sales match or are even slightly higher than the numbers last season, those upstairs will view it as a success. Doubt there'll be any comparison of similar sized, local clubs or retrospective assessment of whether the process was in any way the best approach or whether it could be improved in the future. We're more or less only seeing uptake from the die hards or the apathetic, habitual, begrudging renewers now. I don't know a single person that is purchasing a ticket this season that didn't have one last - maybe I'm not speaking to enough people, but there's nothing enticing about the frankly insipid price framework and general marketing campaign around the new season. Spoke to a Preston fan last weekend who'd renewed for 300-odd quid for his usual seats, taking advantage of the brilliant earlybird offer. Sad to see they'd sold £11,500 by the time that offer ended on June 4th. Granted they're a league below, but Bolton's early bird offer saw over 12,000 fans purchase with the highest season ticket costing £289. In my opinion our 'loyalty' offer was simply a begrudging acknowledgement of the fact that it's customary to 'show willing'. A cursory, uninspiring, deflating, frankly insulting scheme that even if unsuccessful, would result in the loyal mob of 6,000 - 8,000 renewing regardless. I mean, £30 - what the fuck is that for an earlybird offer really? It's nothing... in my opinion a complete unwillingness to show any creativity or desire to grow the fanbase whatsoever. It's a nonsense. The only thing to perk the fanbase (and therefore sales) up is the appointment of JDT and Broughton. I dread to think what sales would be like had we not been embarking on a supposed exciting new era for the club, and were simply continuing with an existing management team/structure.

😂😂 This is great. Have you been speaking to Mercer?

No-one. We'll have had/will have the best out of Dack - he's at his highest level now. He won't make a Prem move, so unless we go down, or for some reason he's unhappy, I can see him staying for his best years.