I hope he told Sunderland he'd have to do the school run every morning and how tired he gets every Jan/Feb (when in a non winning run). Also how he wishes managers could have two weeks off every mid season. No, i doubt he mentioned any of that but he might have said there's a lad called Johnson i fancy for the false 9 !

It'll be Jan and next summer when Mowbray and his new gang come sniffing.

He just knew he could rest on his laurels here after the first few seasons he's as crafty as they come. Unlikely to get away with that up there beyond maybe this season but he always tends to do well in his first full season at clubs. A two year contract he might well be tempted to just go for it next season although i don't think that is in his dna.

It was perhaps the stupidest waste of a use of a loan signing iv'e ever seen.

It needs mentioning if it already hasn't been that Neil at Preston out performed Mowbrays Rovers for a few seasons. Without 15 million worth of strikers, an upper mid wage budget and a top Cat Academy. A safe pair of hands for a season or two for sure who will make some shrewd signings particularly on loan. All depends what the aims are of Sunderland but i'd be amazed if he didn't finish in a respectable position this season. I'd also be equally amazed if he got them anywhere near promotion without very heavy backing.

Only assumption of course on my part but on the VH Group accounts is Venkys London Ltd which is just another oversees company owned by them. Theoretically it could just be seen as another business investment that is taking millions to keep going but at some point might make a return.

I wouldn't rule that out either the results can be transferred north of the border quicker than the player can get there.

But the club or Venkys London sits in a corner of the profitable VH Group who have to feed it millions and millions therefore in India it reduces the companies profits.

But in this set up Gregg should be his boss and he'll be Greggs patsy if he fails badly because he'll just say i got JDT the tools it's up to him to make them work.

This is exactly what i think they are comfortable nay actually need to lose a certain amount through the books per season. When it's got to 25/30 million they've got worried in the past but never seem to bothered with 10/15 million. Nixon described them seeing the club as a money pit when they were first rumoured to be buying it indicating they had spare money that needed channelling somewhere else. A Prem club was the ultimate advertising/accounting play thing and talk was of c5 million per window which brings us back to the 10 mill a year or so. If the club had more or less paid for itself then they probably would've chucked in similar amounts per season for transfers. The associated greedy scum they brought with them had other ideas though.

Yep didn't someone once show the conglomerate accounts where it shows the club as an oversees 'asset' that needs funding. So it is indeed just absorbing paper money and costing the owners themselves nothing it's just numbers on a balance sheet to them. The only time they'd have to worry about it is if the rest of the corporation suddenly lost its vast annual profits. Then they'd drop us like a stone never mind all this pride bull shit that so called prevents them from doing so. We are a drop in the corner of a multi billion Indian dollar ocean.

Then lets see the quote.... What we do know is the money Jack put in to underwrite whatever costs there was and the 3 million annual donations after he passed aren't too different to what goes on now. If Venkys were to so called buy 5 thousand season tickets now would it make much difference ? I doubt it because there'd probably other implications that prevent it.

Didn't we go down a similar pointless route with Jack Rodwell ? Is the 'marquee' signing of Barcklay going to put 3 thousand on the gates ? Is he going to be the final piece of a jigsaw that sees us promoted or in the play offs ? All very unlikely and these kind of signings aren't about the club or team they are all about the players themselves it's just pissing money into other pockets again. If you want to spend that amount in wages spend it on a top loan or two of people who you know will score goals.

They are never going to ask for it back though from anyone because it's an almost total write off. As daft as they are they know that much so it's not really a stick to wave at fans who still yearn for change.

Then don't put silly spin on it just tell it like it was. These lot are subsidising the club in a very similar way he underwrote the losses just the same as now except he regularly wrote off loans. Main difference is he put extra in to buy players but money went much further then whereas these lot have created a black hole that swallows the fees of several top players per season in just running costs alone. I'm not defending them the one and only thing that will fix this is a promotion that brings in monumental income increases overnight. Even if it's only one season plus parachutes that allows a complete reset of the books as long as they don't go on a crazy spending/wage increase. The main issue at Rovers remains the shocking way the club has been run and managed not just the actual funding.

Who are they going to ask ?

No he didn't that's a complete spin on what actually happened.

Well he didn't actually do that his trust fund made a 'gift' donation of 3 million per year to make us able to compete with clubs with huge Prem crowds. In turn we were usually one of the top ten payers in the league which allowed us to be competitive. This though was before the TV money went through the roof and wages on the back of that went into the stratosphere. You could argue even though you won't like it that Vs do exactly the same by under pinning the annual loses to the tune of c20 million. Problem is their starting point for that was the mess they and their mates created.

Iv'e seen nothing at all to suggest Cirino is ready to be near the first team.

I think the only time iv'e seen us win there was a pre season Lancs cup final and probably more Rovers there for that than there'll be on Weds. We better turn up for this one from the off. Blackpool 2 Rovers 2

Mowbray will have them eating out of his hand at first most new managers say all the right things. Combine it with some good results and he might surprise a few although he'll have to curb his Boro obsession. It goes wrong early doors and you're looking at something similar to how Rovers fans felt about Coyle i'd imagine. Plenty Makems registering their dismay already at an ex Smog taking over who's never said a good word about them apparentley. It's going to be interesting to watch it unfold and if he gets backing and takes them up it's going to leave some serious egg on Indian faces.

A strange signing at the time Richard Brown especially when we were throwing money around but he played his part. Always thought he was an ok player to be fair it was a big step at the time. If he'd stayed fit i could have seen him being another super Atko type cult hero maybe. Simon Ireland is another curved ball that springs to mind he might have done ok but got injured i think.

We'd actually discovered a lot of that for a large part of last season but losing Lenihen, Nyambe and Van Hecke really shows this season. They were all strong players no matter what anyone says about ability they got stuck in that's a hell of a lot of minerals to lose all at once.

I expect so but it all depends on what money they might be armed with, can they pay his wages.

I think it's nailed on his first port of call for signings will be here.