Yet as things stand it's likely to happen.

Critchley doing extremely well at Blackpool on a relative shoestring. A few on here have been touting him as a suitable replacement for Mowbray for a while.

Ideally we need to keep all of the soon to be out of contract players and bin off the Coventrio Lowe and Benson. That's the only hope we have of seeing any success.

By far the best article Crooke has produced and even amongst a number of good points, by far his most pertinent one is why any of the soon to be out of contract players would wish to commit to a Club that merely looks to be trying to get to through this season.

Thought you were claiming that people were alleging the flight would have cost in the region of half a mill. Apologies if that wasn't the case. The cost isn't really the issue here for me, it's yet another example of Mowbray wasting the owners' money like water. If BB had started the game and won us the three points then I would have said an outlay of £85k could have been justified. However he was brought back to essentially sit on the bench so whatever money the flight cost was completely wasted Even if the per capita cost of the flight was "only" 10-15k. In just the same way we've spewed countless sums away over the last few years on new contracts for players who simply weren't up to it, for our previously highest paid player to play for someone else in League 1, on temporary contract extensions for players who had never figured in the first place, on a contract extension for a lad whilst he recuperated from injury who was never going to play for us again and on a new deal for a player who was clearly on the decline due to age and predictably barely featured. And the cry is always the same "It doesn't matter, they won't be on much". Is it any wonder that after years of such gross mismanagement we can't afford to offer our better players acceptable deals?

What's the point you're trying to make other than being your usual contrary self? Never seen anyone allege it cost any more than a total of £85 k to fly BB back, and you yourself have noted it costs "from" 60 k Euros to fly over the Atlantic so the figures would roughly tally up. As to whether it was worth whatever we paid then I'd say it would have been worth it had he started and made a significant contribution to us winning the game. I think only Mowbray though could agree to or request that BBD be flown back specially at a cost of up to £85k then leave him sat on the bench for 87 mins!

I'm as unhappy as the next man the Coventrio are still in situ but the statement above is simply not correct. We've already seen an attempt to rectify Waggott's calamitous pricing strategy by the introduction of the 17 game season ticket and offers for individual games. That said, for me all minor improvements pale into insignificance until the Coventrio, Lowe, Benson etc are removed.

Oops, sorry yes. I was thinking that near the end before they scored.

He'd have to go some to beat replacing Nyambe with Gallagher at RB, then hooking Gallagher 10 mins later.

Didn't see the game tonight. No efforts on target? Are we playing 3 at the back just to accommodated this bloody loanee CB from Brighton? Never seen us play well using 5-3-2 or 3-5-2. Two points from twelve ........ here we go again!

Well, they aren't selling their garages apparently (that comes from someone who works for them) so I suspect any rumours linking the Issa's to Rovers are complete rubbish.

And yet, if it is true that we we are contributing 10k p.w. towards the completely useless Poveda's wages (as J*B claimed) any payments potentially due to Butterworth or his entourage could surely only be a few week's wages for the dolloper from Leeds? As someone said in the comments section of my letter on the potential sale of Brockhall, the whole thing with Butterworth also stinks worse than a tandoori kipper. Comes on in one of the home games with Khedra, between them they transform it and as a reward Butterworth hasn't had a kick since despite the manager lauding him in the local press. Man of honour our Tony.

3rd worst run in our history if you're going to be pedantic about it .....

Those were my thoughts exactly at the time, and I also expect he's been told to say something. If he can get that prickly about chants so tame, he won't react well to some serious gip. Ramp it up lads and lasses!

I did say there'd start to be changes...... The longest journey starts with the smallest step and all that.

It wasn't a mistake in the sense someone typed it in to the system wrong and put an extra 0 on the end as you see occasionally - someone simply thought it wouldn't happen and got the odds wrong at the start of the season so I doubt they can or will void it. Nevertheless, I'd be tempted to cash out given his contract situation and the fact we might be tempted to cut our losses in January. If he signed a new contract tomorrow, I'd let the bet ride.

I don't agree with 1864 about the contract situation, Mowbray more or less admitted himself in the LT that the players in question hadn't been offered improved deals when they should have been because he didn't want to upset the rest of the squad. Well - tough for them - not all players earn the same. We've also run a vastly bloated squad for the last few seasons and inferior players have repeatedly been given deals when they shouldn't have been. There's only so much money we're allowed to spend, Mowbray and Waggott are paid to manage the squad, they agree the budget with the owners and it's their job to sort it out. There's also the likelihood that said players aren't inclined to sign new deals under a lame duck manager, coaching staff and CEO and might be prepared to take a bit less if they thought we were going places under a different manager. Nyambe in particular, Rothwell and Brereton have all been appallingly treated by Mowbray at various points as well - it's probably a case of trying to shut the stable door well after the horse has bolted with them but we're a new manager to come in they liked you never know.

It worked in League 1 but perhaps the penny has finally dropped even with them that we're not getting very far at Championship level and that chucking money at it in isolation won't suffice and that they need to approach things somewhat differently?

Yes, a mate of mine's mum is in there and he mentioned TP is in as well. He said physically Tony still looks very fit and is out for walks every day etc.

I've given Sharpe a lot of gip on here for various things but there is a reason why he is in all probability correct on that point. If Waggott also thought there was a possibility that him and Mowbray could have hopped on a plane to dicuss a new contract for Tony then that fills me with hope that they're both completely out of the loop. The sooner he goes the better though. OIther than saving a few quid in compensation there's absolutely no benefit to having him around. The sooner a new man can come in and properly assess the squad and start to rebuild the better.

Which staff are you referring to?

Couldn't care less about Mowbray's demeanour on the touchline if we were getting results, however three years in the Championship with generous financial backing have shown that he clearly isn't up to it at this level. I don't know why you keep making excuses for him. Furthermore, no matter how many times you claim he was hamstrung in the transfer market this summer and try to blame the owners, nothing will change the fact that to the extent he was hamstrung it was entirely the fault of him and Waggott mismanaging the Club's resources over the last few seasons just as it's primarily their fault most of our better players stand to leave for next to nothing. They are paid, and paid well, to make these decisions.

Bit of a difference. My "speculation" is my opinion based on what I've heard from several different people with experience of Indian business culture. The other speculation about "skeletons in the Cupboard" has remained innuendo for the best part of eleven years and if there was anything whatsoever in it some concrete evidence would surely have surfaced long before now. If anything the opposite has occurred as they haven't cut and run and have continued to plough money in way beyond everyone's initial expectations demonstrating genuine financial clout. Albeit it has gone to waste and will continue to do so unless major change occurs.

Fair enough, but that's nothing whatsoever to do with having anything illegal to hide which was the original accusation you were waving about without any basis.

There's a lot of absolute tosh being put out on this thread imo. People are letting their personal dislike of the owners cloud their judgement and they simply aren't thinking objectively or rationally. I'd summarise it as follows: 1) Overall, the last eleven years have been terrible despite phenomenal financial backing from the owners. 2) However IF we had a top class management team in situ at Ewood both in the dug out and behind the scenes we'd be far better off with Venky's financial backing than without it. (Or any other potential owner of equivalent wealth - trouble is there aren't any of those about) 3) I'm led to believe that changes are in the offing at the Club. However, and this is just purely my personal opinion, there is absolutely no point fiddling around at the edges and doing a bit of window dressing. If we are to prosper major change is necessary: I.e. - the best manager and coaching staff we can attract need to be brought in - a competent CEO needs to be brought in. - Players need to be looked after based on their ability, our better players should earn more than the rest of the squad and the squad as a whole needs to be a lot leaner. If the other players aren't up to it they need to be cut adrift far sooner, not simply be given deal after deal because they have families and mortgages to pay etc. - We also need to concentrate on our Academy not concentrate on selling it. And on the progression of our own youngsters into the first team. Not that of other Club's youngsters who are in the main no better but deemed to be so because they've been offloaded by a PL Club.. - A complete revamp of the commercial side of the Club is needed. We need to increase revenue rather than just simply look at cutting costs by downsizing the operation all the time. - There needs to be a massive effort to re-engage with the fan base as a whole and I think that this is only possible with a change of manager who will fire the fans' imagination, an innovative CEO, a change to a more attractive pricing policy and an acknowledgement that those on the ground at the Club got it badly wrong at the worst possible time over the last couple of years. I'm led to believe that one or two of these sort of changes are already being implemented and there's a lot more planned. Who knows whether the changes will be wide and far reaching enough at the end of the day? I think if we haven't seen any noticeable change in 18-24 months then it's fair to assume it's unlikely to happen. Let's not chuck the baby out with the bathwater in the meantime though.