Its been 11k ish this season though in the home sections i think most of the exceptions have been when they've been doffing out to schools and freebies. Core support without any bells and whistles seems to be closer to 11k than 12 this season so you'd assume it'll be closer to ten next season.

Jacks mantra in business as well as football was surround yourself with the best you can get for every role. Pay them well, back them but if they don't live up to your requirements shake their hand and get someone else who will. That's never ever been in evidence with Venkys its only ever been get in SEM/Kentaro or affiliates people or recommendations and line all their pockets one way or another. Getting in the best has never entered their clueless heads unless you count the best puppets and yes men. That's the main reason we'll go nowhere not TM, Bowyer, Lambert or any other but that lots policy of who they bring in to run their hobby.

Nicky Reid used to sprint towards the BBE end like he was going to jump into the crowd and nut somebody ? At least they looked like they meant business ! Think it was the 'Premier League' handshake that set the rot in though stupid idea slowed everything down.

It was a long time ago and i was a kid but i don't remember the team running out to music in the 80's. Think they just used to start with the tv sports program Grandstand or World of Sport theme tune about 2.30. Then a few announcements, a few top ten records, the teams and that was it. Teams came out separately to cheers from the fans and actual songs that started 5 mins before kick off like a ritual. Pre match atmosphere i think it was called ! All in front of 4 to 7k home fans mostly, these days 11k ( allegedly ) can barely be arsed to applaud sometimes. Not unique to Ewood any of this though.

The large wage bill when Bowyer was here was bloated by still paying ex players etc. They were getting those off the payroll whilst he was building a team on championship wages let's have it right. Yes he had the luxury of a 45k pwk striker who as long as they set up for him delivered the goods. The wages of what he brought in and others he used would be pretty similar to what TM has had. He's had DG, Mulgrew, Evans, Armstrong and now Gallagher to name a few on at least 15 grand each per week. He's also been able to bring in Downing who was on at least 30k pwk at Boro

A realistic aim is 13k + regular home fans just like a realistic aim for the team is in the 10th to 6th place bracket. Given what we went into the summer with and the ability to build on it. Neither has panned out that way and the two are inextricably linked. Food for thought for those in Pune if they take any notice.

Apathy spreads in Blackburn quicker than the plague when it's obvious there's little ambition other than just to tread water. Sadly it's one of those areas you have to keep spiking the interest alongside keeping it affordable and what's affordable round here is often viewed as cheap in other places. It's never been any different you need a manager with profile and ability to get a few players in that catch the imagination. Especially when you have a half decent source of finance. I know Archibald type signings are impossible these days but those who remember how Don Mackay breathed new life back into the club when he first came, with very little finance, will understand that's what the club is crying out for these days. Just something to jerk it back into life, TM 7 co threatened that with bouncing back from lge 1 but it quickly became job done. Back where we were so foot off the gas. Lambert threatened it when he came in but it quickly fizzled out with the Rhodes fiasco etc but as the Oxford game showed there's enough out there to get far better gates than we are doing. They need something to buy into though, buying crap players and wasting money then looking for every excuse in the book doesn't cut it.

Some just thrive off faux outrage and sometimes need to remember that these guys get very well paid to play football and get results. And the manager and his coaching staff get handsomely rewarded even if they underachieve or get sacked. They are doing what they are paid to do they haven't elected to come and play for or manage BRFC for free despite loads of better offers because they love the club. Perish the thought paying supporters might want to discuss their observations without getting on their knees praying to the managers shrine.

Some of the criticism goes over the top but so does some of the refs to the injuries. Yes its turning into a nightmare and may well hamper where we finish. However we weren't in the top 5 and have fallen away because of that yet you'd think so reading some of the stuff around. This season a 15th to 10th place finish has always been on the cards given all the usual variables you get at every club every season. so it might now end up closer to 15th than 10th but above that wasn't happening. Not without a serious effort to push on, better recruitment and management, certain key players form and yes a reasonably clean bill of health.

He doesn't need to asses Samuel, Mulgrew, Smallwood etc during the remainder of the season either but he probably will....

Indeed, it's just about as patronising as you can possibly get. Going off him admitting the 10k for 10 k was a bad idea based on a whim it really doesn't fill you with confidence when these lot are looking at players. You can very much see how easy it is for incompetence to waste huge fees on some . And hand out contracts that have lumbered us again with others.

Let the trust buy it for a modest sum with an agreed sell back clause. That money goes to the manager with instruction from the trust to put it towards a right winger, nothing else. Then Vs buy it back for a large amount. Therefore putting a wad in the pot and resetting FFP etc. Winner all around and next best thing to fan representation ?

Brereton coming on for a few mins at the end serves no purpose to anything or anyone. If that's not about an appearance bonus for the sake of it i don't know what is.

If it goes ahead fasten your seatbelts it'll be a rollercoaster in front of barely 11k official att. Rovers 0 Hull 0 And a hearty shrug of the shoulders.

If Gallagher has taken a pay cut of 6k pwk it still makes him a high earner and signing him for the for the role he's playing makes it an expensive flop. Fact is the main budget of the last 2 summers has been almost completely wasted on BB and SG. They said they wanted young investment types to grow and be worth more yet that is what they've delivered. Then they decided to flex it on old experienced types for no fee but decent wages. They've delivered Downing, Holtby and Johnson, jury is out on that lot still. Downing is good as is Holby but one is old and the other is clearly injury prone. Mulgrew, Smallwood and Samuel continue to suck up a big set of wages combined. Non of this is evidence of building the team up yet it's costing a lot of money that is ALL down the pan. Yet now it's ok because he saying we'll be buying Euro talent for 2 to 3 million next ! There's a recruitment tombola running alongside the team one here. Yet it gets swallowed up without question, maybe there'll be some with the next set of excuses you never know. Aside from growing our own there is NO plan here they are absolutely winging it the evidence is overwhelming.

It's back to the old have the cake and eat it with some of these lot that's why it's not worth arguing really. Mention the lge 1 budget and say we should have expected promotion and maybe win the league it's no no no it doesn't work like that. Fast forward a year or 2 and it's ALL about the budget dictating where we should be ?

It's an easy one for fans, name the stand it's a no brainer. For those at the club though it's a bit more complex seeing as theirs only one stand left and it's been sponsored before. If Venkys said we'll set up another company and sponsor that stand for 5 million per year but we want the company logo all over it they've not much choice. It needs something proper though not an effing training pitch or a lounge that's prone to change name every time it's refurbished. Time for a museum or walk of fame or something like that maybe.

So the ones above us are only there because their budgets are bigger ( are their wage bills ? ) and the ones above us with smaller budgets are only their because they are unique in some way we can't be ? Aye ok, draw the blinds we'll sit in the middle for the next five years 'waiting' for something to happen and celebrate it like we've regularly qualified for Europe or something ! If you want something to happen you have to try and make it happen, you have to drive it forwards and push the boundaries as far as you can without risking a quick boom and bust. Our model is plod safely shrug our shoulders and just hope something happens. To fans it's called stability to those employed to run this low expectation model it's called job security or the comfort zone. Summer needs a new approach but it all starts from the top.

Must've been a good walk up today then, i know a couple who made the effort to applaud Tony who wouldn't normally have gone.

Come on you know damn well the few extra will have turned out because of Tony Parkes, without that today there'd have been sub 11,500 home fans. On the subject of falling crowds at similar clubs we only have to look at Hull and Stoke. Look at the size of those places but it's still the grind of championship football. It doesn't take people long to get fed up of their team going nowhere in these Northern working class areas.

He's now collected 3 yes 3 for the same role as for some reason he sees Gallagher, Brereton and Ssmuel as wide striker come wingers. They aren't they really aren't and 2 are well over 6ft it's bonkers and brings zero to the teams he turns out. Personally i think any one of them might settle into a role as right striker in a front 3 but we don't play that way. It's bizarre and you can only assume his idea having got them is just to shoehorn them in somehow. Even persisting with that system 3 into one doesn't go and all this talk by fans of assuming he's earmarked one to replace Graham is also wide of the mark.

Yep i think so in terms of trying to make something out of him he isn't. Although i hope he's doing one of his favours now and it's a shop window job . He offers naff all and never has apart from a couple of grafting performances before he was injured. We simply have to do better than the likes of him.

Mowbrays obsession with Samuel will see him to a new contract here i suspect. There has to be good reason he's still here. Totally and utterly predictable how he'll use him and predictably abject from the player we've seen all this shite before. The whole place needs freshening up now in summer but i very much doubt it will be.

Best team won i'm not sure it would have been any different with us at full strength as we'd still be relying on Dack. Fulham looking solid and competent, us looking uncomfortable and disjointed but grafting hard to cancel them out. A standard low quality groundhog Rovers.

Spot on, he'd have a fair argument but most of us realise that wouldn't have been the case if it comes to that. There's something missing about this regime that will continue to hold us back even when in good shape.