They finally managed to get in a good keeper plus and potential good back up. He put those down to the recruitment dept. Then in comes Pears from Boro and is automatic no 2. Defenders have been coming for years - except they haven't unless we've borrowed them. Then comes Ayala, from Boro, who hasn't played since the previous Jan, has a few games and struggles. Then he disappears somewhere inside his THREE year contract. We still need more defensive cover but old Tone makes sure there's enough left in the pot to bring back 36 yr old -ex boro- Downing. Meanwhile ex Boro Richie Smallwood who's been allowed to basically sit in the managers office for 12 months finally leaves. All after staying safe, staying fit and seeing his contract out. So he can further his career nice and ready to go elsewhere. Then there's Harry Chapman, er ex Boro ! Something isn't right about all this at all whether it's just him terrified of players he doesn't know or something a bit more interesting. He's been running his own show here for the last few years covered by his own CEO. It needs to stop.

Rovers 2 Bees 2 We'll score first then end up 1-2 behind before a Raya clanger gives us a point for that big half empty bag.

Considering the signings and money he's spent here, just to have us bang middle of the road i suspect he'd be taking clubs like that the other way. Maybe at Barnsley with a small squad he'd have to keep the same team so that might help keep them midtable. At Cardiff he'd have far more to rotate the arse off and mess around with every game. So i'd wager they'd be very similar to what we are now under him.

Lets hope things are monitored tighter than in Shaw's days then when amongst other things he not only signed off Bergs contract but changed the detail. I know all football related stuff is allegedly run past them but they were supposed to be having Waggot to oversee day to day stuff on the ground in Blackburn. I presume he has certain authority as a CEO to make some decisions. Besides just how it is presented to them and in what context we don't know. That's why i'm praying they give it some real attention.

If we'd missed promotion from league 1 and sat around 8th place there with the owners cutting funding to that level then yes that would be a great blueprint to 'try' and follow. It would be the only sensible one and that's when costs/wages start to get cut, training grounds get squeezed into one and land sold off. As we are now the way forwards however unpopular it might be is to sell Armstrong and put what money is left towards reducing a bit of debt and reinvesting in the team. We still need far better management at pitch level but really it's the only way forwards now unless they upgrade things, keep the players and go for it. To Mowbrays credit he has given us a good platform now to move on from, not downgrade and pull it to bits. If these owners want to pump 15 mill towards the losses ever season for as long as it takes then let them. They just need to realize it's going to take more than empty promises to make real strides forwards.

Right now we aren't talking about promotion it was always a fantasy this season. What we ARE talking about is this squad - even this season - doing better than it is. The fact that we've relied so heavily on one mans goals and a 17 year old loanee shows how poor a set up its been this season. Arguably last season in the absence of Dack we relied a lot on a 36 year old on a one year deal and a young loaned in defender who could pass it well from the back. Also another loanee who's now in the Prem. Combined those 3 probably cost round 3 million quid just for a season, that shows tow things. How much you need just to sustain yourselves in mid table at this level. And how flawed this management set ups so called journey really is.

Apologies but at first you were presenting it in a way that said we were improving because the passing stats were better than recent years. Then you get some agreeing saying we are on the right lines, you're all basically repeating what the manager trots out however results and league position strongly suggest otherwise. As for the above stuff on a plan forwards we were in a stronger starting position than Brentford. How many academy players have we had in or knocking on the first team door already ? Only real difference to them has been we haven't been buying cheap and selling for a profit to plough back into the squad. If we were thinking of following them we've already been badly mis-managed signing a kid for 7 million and another guy for 5 million. Plus they sold our highly rated but erratic young keeper for a modest fee.........to bloody Brentford ! To pull what we have now to pieces and rebuild smaller to follow them is plain crazy. Once Vs stop pumping money in they might never start again. Sorry but it's an absolute fact of life Championship clubs need outside money to be sustainable. Whilst we have it we should use if correctly not on whims, either way whichever route is followed it needs a very good manager and boardroom setup. Following your plan under Venkys is doomed to failure and lower league football.

Do they have to sign off the bill of sale though or can the CEO of Blackburn Rovers, the company the land belongs to not just do it ?

I also think if this gets pushed through it'll mean another 4 year contract for the midtable messiah. Then the water treading excuse will be because of the training ground upheavel whilst he works on implementing the 'Brentford model'. Surely with a cat 1 academy already in place and two sites on the go the likes of Brentford were aspiring to be us ?

The gist is the owners haven't pitched this the club have - the club being Waggot, Mowbray & Venus.... They don't even know how much the new facility will cost and don't appear to have a guarantee from India to make up the difference. If that difference is too large what happens then ? What's the next step in the grand plan, sell players to cover it ? Take it from the 1st team budget ? Or just cut corners and downscale the refurb rendering it pointless in the first place ? Bullshit of the highest order this is, they just want that stamp of building approval asap then get the money in and go from there by sounds of it. No owner or director in their right mind would sign this off its been cooked up in the boot room at Ewood. More worrying is do they actually legally need approval from India to push this through ?

Downing is Wasserman who have a few in Rovers but not sure about the others.

Or shelve it, cram everyone in and use the (already swallowed up) money for something else. Running costs including contracts for ex Boro players. Then exit stage left.

And what if the owners couldn't find the extra or just plain said NO ? Nice potential buck passing there by Steve.

I'd be very careful about throwing big wages at Trybul but he hasn't looked like he's trying very hard sometimes. Definitely a capable replacement for Evans but needs to be a sensible deal so we don't get lumbered.

He's trying to deliver........ a land sale and a state of the art downscale. Everything Waggot does is squeeze what you have till it bursts, he isn't about ambition or building he's about streamlining. That's why he was at both Coventry and Charlton because they were down scaling to the lower leagues. Totally the wrong man for where this club needs to be the evidence was there after promotion when there should have been a real drive. I hope the owners wake up to this and soon.

Finally detach from Evans and put that wage towards Trybull would be my priority. Evans will never get another gig like he's had here though so he'll take some shifting. Hopefully when Mowbray humanly offers him another deal it's one he finds derisory and fires off.

I thought beforehand the way they played might suit us and it did, more time on the ball in some key areas etc. Swansea are similar to us just better at it, if only more teams in this division played that way we'd be up there. Sadly they don't and that's half the problem.

Put it this way if Venkys ever totally cut funding or took their debt and fired off that's exactly the model we'd be left with. To actually scale down from what we have now to that is beyond crazy and a sure fire way to become an established lower league club. Dreaming of being midtable in the championship propped up by billionaire share issues.

It's well written and all that but as mentioned above very naive it's the recipe for a league 1 club. If the sum total of our ambition is to run that model we might as well pack in now. Just look at what it takes just to keep the club and others at the current level. Although it's a bit misleading trying to say it's taking 20 million to finish 15th as a lot of that is covering accumulated losses from years past. And still paying for a few players as well as pay offs. What it needs is the best making of the backing the owners are happy to give, despite a couple of good efforts recently that isn't the case. Can't help thinking this kind of stuff is finding it's way out of the club as a bit of propaganda on the back of the training ground stuff. Perish the thought if the owners are being fed this stuff and beginning to swallow it, no disrespect but a 15 year old could come up with such a fanciful plan. It is in every sense a big downgrade from the model we have now which as long as it has finance just needs tweaking. It needs running like an ambitious set up not one serving the level of those running it because it's all they can do. The same account has been pushing the possession stats telling us we are better than previous seasons because the passing stats are better. That's how naive it is.

To get to the Prem is supposed to be the ultimate aim and get back established there. What happens if that came true and the operation needed expanding again ?

It's not what you'd associate with a team or manager trying to get into the top end of the division. More of a set of people happy to drift on win some lose some then see where we end up. Which is very much were we deserve to be, middle of the road.

That's another thing under Venkys we've rarely had proper sponsorship of made the best of the corporate stuff. They've just never seemed bothered about sorting proper sponsorship. Strange seeing as we are always told how much the club needs money at ground level. If i were in charge i'd maybe be looking to sponsor the academy instead of looking to squeeze it down.

1.9 mill per year the club have to find is a bargain really considering what's come out of it recently. If the club had to find over 3 mill a year that's a big ask but nearly half of it is paid in grants. If a club took JRC or someone like that from another club they'd pay nearly that in compo. They should be expanding the thing not dumbing it down !

He was probably very hungry then but here he's been very comfortable.

If he'd kept us up he'd have got hearty plaudits for that but not quite the footballing messiah status. Then most likely we'd have had a consolidation season and 3 underwhelming ones by now. Not much would be different and the picture would be a lot clearer as to his championship abilities.