and will get his reward....

Presumably they twist your arm!

Worth his weight in gold to us. Wish he were CEO!

Sp---did you mean ruining?

Shearer has lamented the plight of the club in the past...

Well its working!

The primary role of the Academy should be to provide players for the first team once they've proved good enough. That would save the admin a massive amount in transfer fees. Instead the primary role of the Academy now is to produce players to sell so that the club can continue operating. Why should anyone pay to watch that process? With Clayton, Douglas et al, we worshipped them as kids, that's partly why we kept going back. Now the kids invest their emotion in a player like Wharton or Smoditz and they're off in a trice. No héros----no club.

So we watch a development team but pay real team money for the privilege?

Season ticket sales are going to derail the plan I think and hope. If we've seen what they're offering and don't buy it then something has to change.

Well he's obviously going to. The only +.... he's not Waggot. We lose either way.

They go early as teenagers before they can command a decent fee and the new club is thereby able to offer them an even better deal. We've lost how many this way? We do all the work and bigger clubs reap the rewards. Its a recipe for bankruptcy.

His mantra that "we have to better communicate with the fans" seems not to be spot on! The problem is, without any genuine good news, its all bullshit.

and no hope....

Nothing personal at all, I just wish he'd been somewhere else. And with the players he had we should easily have made top 6. We've come close now with nothing like the squad Mowbray had.

If he did it was only on a temporary basis!

Mowbray benefitted from a time when Venkys did seem to have some interest in promotion. He had funding to buy players capable of getting us up and he made some very good choices, but he seemed in no hurry to make promotion happen. His on-field tactics----"false nine" crap, players out of position etc and poor selection choices (eg Raya) cost us what should have been an easy road to Top 6 at least. Instead he was here for years and never made it. I'll never forgive him.

Its not "investment", its paying the unavoidable bills. If they had invested £300M we would have something to show for it. Example---£7M was invested in Diaz and they lost all of it.

Season 1963-4, up to (and including Christmas Day!) was the best time to be a Rovers supporter I ever had! We scored for fun. Then, as usual the admin sold the best striker in the English game at the time and the season dribbled away. We really have had more than our share of needless suffering.

Like those early European cathedrals that took hundreds of years to complete. By the time they were finished everyone who started out on the "Journey" were long dead. The difference between that example and Venkys?----the cathedrals were eventually finished.

I know that giving away 4 of our very best players for nothing when they would command £10m in transfer fees is just bonkers. They apparently don't.

It ought to be though.

Some of us worry it won't be in our lifetimes though! 😱

Have you tried to get in touch with Matt Smith, Glen? He would be a great asset publicity -wise and I think he'd be up for it.

He's explicitly stating he wants to stay. Since he's arguably our best player the Club should be saying "thank God for that--sign here." But no reaction at all. I'm convinced we are going to lose our best players to "rebuild". Since they're out of contract and we won't even get the money to keep the lights on, what the hell is the point of that? It can only be to cut the wages bill---because there's no money from Pune. This is suicide. Way past time to bring this farce to an end.

Worst record (jointly with Luton) for points gained after conceding the first goal.