RevidgeBlue

I can't believe casual staff are expected to pay £15 for parking. What's the point working there for next to nowt? Wonder if we'll at some point this season be the first League Club in the Country not to offer any food or refreshments in the concourse and /or Struggle to fulfill any fixtures due to a lack of stewarding. I wouldn't be surprised given the direction the Club is heading in.

Of all the things you could accuse the Club of "lying" is possibly a bit strong in that context. "Economical with the truth" maybe? I think it's a lot worse that they're dressing up this latest and frankly quite pathetic round of costcutting as an attempt to look after the fans and provide "great value" when I assume the reality is: 2024/25 Blues Membership fee £X p.a. Sky Sports available 2025/26 Blues Membership fee STILL £Xp.a. but no Sky Sports "Great value" indeed.

Good to hear it. Mine were never substantially altered as I recall but there was a strong Burnley influence on the Sports Desk at the time and I think they deliberately edited in some mistakes to make them read badly. Burnley counterpart Stephen Cumming's columns always read perfectly and were mistake free. I was also rebuked by e-mail once off someone on the Sports Desk for cracking an "obtuse reference" to relaxing with a can of 7 up (on a weekend when Burnley had coincidentally lost 7-0) which I took great exception to. They might have actually meant "obscure" but hey ho.

The bit about Travis refusing to play is probably bollux anyway - but If we suspended him for say a month and in the meantime he said he was willing to play again and we refused Id say that would be a fundamental breach on our part entitling Travis to treat his contract as null and void and to walk out for nothing.

If he refused to play, we could simply refuse to pay him. If he has refused to play (which Im not sure I belive anyway ) and we suspended him for a fixed period and then he said he wanted to play again but we said "No you're suspended" we'd be the ones in the wrong.

Thanks. Is there still a membership fee for Blues and is it the same cost as last year?

I was thinking exactly the same.

I took that article to read "The Club is for sale at the right price" as opposed to the definitive "It's not for sale" we had in the past. The problem is if they continue to be completely unrealistic about what they can achieve price wise it will be a position of constant stalemate.

Not sure if I believe that, and not even sure if that would be legal in the first place.

Always been the case, otherwise the LT would have square root of naff all in terms of content. We used to know someone on the LT years ago who said if they were stuck for a few column inches to fill they'd put in a story about a chip pan fire. Times are a lot more serious now though than back in Williams' day - the very future of the Club is at risk. We need the LT to stand up and question forensically what's going on not have a tame lap dog like Jackson blow smoke up their arse. If they did go on collision course with the Club we might see a bit of improvement in things but even if not Im sure they'd gain a lot more readers or subscribers than they would with us having to read bollox about the market being "difficult" or suchlike.

I wasn't a fan of Saxton tbh he was way too loyal to players who were past their best.

Sounds about right.

If it is £15 extra every time you want to go into Jack's - can you imagine any Pub saying "Yep it's £15" if you want to be in here at any point when the game's on" "But dont worry - we'll chuck in a few sandwiches at half time!" They wouldn't remain in business 2 mins.

Yes, several times. John Williams didn't like a headline I'd done relating to the ticket allocation for the Celtic away game and wouldn't speak to the LT for 2 weeks - they were cacking it! Unsurprisingly I was replaced at the end of that season and they didn't even have the courtesy to let me know. I found out in passing from someone else. I suspect it was "suggested" I be replaced. I was however invited onto the FF and face to face I got along fine with JW although I didn't agree with a lot of what he did such as the policy of filling the DE with away fans for big games. I argued the only way to fill Ewood with home fans on a long term basis was to give the likes of Liverpool and Man Ure smaller allocations for those games and try and sell the rest to Rovers fans and get them hooked. Involved more hard work though so was never done.

It is a weird one. Prior to the Court Case Id have said it was feasible Pasha was keeping them largely in the dark but since then they've taken steps to reduce net funding dramatically so they can't now be completely unaware of what's going on although I doubt they know Sky Football has been axed in Blues sort of thing. I think that as a Premier League Club we were a useful vehicle for the Venky's brand and the upcoming launch of Venky's Express but that never happened and since relegation we've been no actual use to them just a drain on their resources. As such whatever interest they ever had has gradually tapered off. They seemingly had a temporary burst of enthusiasm after the promotion from League 1 which Mowbray managed to extinguish. Thereafter it was plodding along on the road to nowhere for several years until the Court Case which seemingly ended any interest they ever had. Now they're putting in the absolute minimum possible by combining selling anything they can with cutting costs to the bone. Presumably still wanting to avoid the shame back home of a business going bust. Obviously from Pasha and Gestede's point of view it's well worth spinning them this fairy tale about how they can spend no money and retain Championship status to keep themselves in lucrative employment for as long as possible. Where this ends for us as a Club is anyone's guess. We'll be lucky to retain League status the rate we're going and I dont think it will be gradual.

Nothing I wouldn't have thought.

Mckinnon played away at Sunderland I think -for some bizarre reason I was there, a mate of mine made a totally random decision to scream up there in his XR3 i about 3 hours before kick off. I think you're probably right with the date of the demo against Saxton and it's the one Merce and I are referring to.

Errrrr.......I think you've answered your own question there!

So if that's the case - what's in it for Venky's - nothing whatsoever seemingly other than the opportunity to run up a mountain of debt secured against their assets.

Is that an extra £15 every time you go in Jack's or a one off £15 charge as part of a seasonal upgrade to your Blues membership?

After we got relegated to the old Div 3 in 1978 (?) everyone flooded onto the pitch to show support for caretaker boss John Pickering who,despite being dealt a very difficult hand and being given no financial support, was actually very popular. Could it have been that? Then we got Howard. What a turnaround.

I posted last week that just when you think we couldn't sink any lower they somehow seem to manage to surprise us time after time. This is only a relatively small thing but arguably it's another of those times. Just so we know exactly what we're talking about, how much is membership for Blues this season and how much was it last season? Im guessing that you still have to pay the same membership fee as last season and they've simply removed the Sky offering rather than them removing Sky and scrapping any membership fee by way of compensation? Despite all the old tosh about offering "great matchday value".

I thought the replays were pretty inconclusive. Would err towards it not being given the significance and stage of the game but if the same thing had happened at the other end everyone would no doubt be saying it was a nailed on penalty.

I remember that - used to sit right behind Fox/Bancroft/Coar in the old Nuttall Street Stand. They shot off down into the sanctuary of the Boardroom faster than a badger down a rabbit hole when they saw the fans coming over. I was killing myself laughing! Edit: Thought it was during Saxton's time 40 ish years ago?

Ive been saying for years that the Club has ceased to become a football Club where the aim or priority is to win football matches but is merely a place where certain people go to earn a lot of money. For me it's been like that ever since we got back to the Championship to an extent, with at different times The "Coventrio" of Mowbray/Waggott/Venus Broughton, Gestede, (and of course Pasha throughout) all having their snouts in the trough. From a supporters point of view, what is the point in a Club with no aspirations of success whatsoever, and whose only function is to scrape together enough money together to pay the wages of the people working there? There is none. And now seemingly, you can't even watch the football when you're having your pre-match pint!