Andy

Was that image from tonight?

If so, you'd expect the floodies being on is linked.

Intriguing...

1 minute ago, B16Rover said:

I know Val left under mutual consent, but I figured that was a pay off and leave ahead of a replacement being identified.  

It seems he genuinely left ala Eustace/JDT (broken promises - despite his general shit performance) and we're left in the lurch.

How do you run a football club with the record ours has, and not have a plan b waiting in the wings

Yep, if you have no succession plan in a standard business, you're creating your own problems.

If you have none as a football club administrator, you are - quite frankly - clueless.

Could be absolutely nothing and there may even be an event of some kind on down at Ewood - but I can see from my house that the floodlights are on right now.

Possibly doing some related to a new manager - interviews / stadium visit / photoshoot?

4 hours ago, bazza said:

When Sparky was here he had three helpers with him; Neddy Widersky (sp?) and two others. He's proved he cannot do it on his own. A bit like Clough and Taylor or Dalgleish and Harford.

One thing, if it's Russell Martin I'm out of this club.

I'd like Big Sam or Neil Warnock or Rowett or Johnson

 

Yeah, agreed and I've said this since he was with us.
Sparky was an excellent figurehead, but it was Bowen, Neddy and team who did the work on the training ground - and his Scouts who identified the Sambas and Nelsens.

Take nothing away from him, as the best leaders know how to assemble a good team around them, but it does highlight the importance of the right 'support' team around the manager.

Personally, I'd look at Will Still. Soton was a disaster, but he's the one who I think could possibly aim/achieve higher than just staying up each season (which is all I see with the likes of Rowett).
Forward-thinker and tactically flexible - I've followed his career loosely for years.

10 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

😂😂

This weapon has reproduced...?

Coleman would be bare-faced trolling of the fanbase and about as blatant as you can get in terms of 'look what we can get away with, here'.

And if he comes, you know who will be appointed as his number 2...

Similar to what's been said - 3 points is 3 points.

Thought we pressed pretty well and a bit more aggressive than usual.

Cashin was very good, goal aside.

Cantwell frustratingly poor, he's not just a luxury player at this point, he's wasting attacks and failing to make simple passes.

Baradji was heading that way towards the end (having had a decent game), but was clearly knackered.

That relegation was absolutely not on TM.
The rot at the club was deep and almost irretrievable.

He then did a lot of good work to pull various bits of the club back together, not least the relationship with the fans.

However, did indeed undo a lot of that in his final couple of years, with the points almost mentioned.

He'd have to do a bit of backtracking on the whole 'that NE to NW commute each week is too much' thing.

But I'd take TM back over VI every day of the week, certainly as a short term option.

I'd still take Big Sam over both of them, however long he's been out of the game.
We'd finish comfortably in the top half this season.

8 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I must watch different games to half of you.

He's running his socks off and always makes himself available for the ball. He's the least of our problems.

He definitely works hard - that element hasn't been in doubt since he's been with us.
And I've been a fan of him, though today he hasn't been great (even before the petulence).

Started poorly overall, but a pretty decent second quarter of the game.
Created a few chances and zipped the ball around a bit.

Performance-wise, probably the best we've seen for a while.

Hull fans singing 'Blackburn's a shithole, I want to go home' is the most ironic of ironies.

Hull is the definition of a shithole.

I had wondered where the money had come from, for the signings / bids this window.

Now it makes sense, they've been banking on making some £££ from Alebiosu.

1 hour ago, B16Rover said:

 

 

Turns out it's 'fuck b16' night 

Hope your wife (or husband) agrees.

6 hours ago, bob fleming said:

Let's be honest, you could put a bunch of dingles in charge and they'd struggle to do as bad a job. In fact they probably wouldn't have the brass neck to do some of the things this lot have done.

Stadium is looking shabby - shall we repair it? "Nah"

Shall we get rid of Sky in the Supporters Bar? "Yeah go on, but only tell them after we've sold memberships"

What about adidas next season for the kits? The fans would love that! "No, the fans would love that."

The pitch is liable to flood if we don't do something. Shall we? "No, can't be arsed".

Add your own. 

I've had this thought plenty of times.

If they were intentionally trying to sabotage the club and make the fans suffer, I'm genuinely not sure what else they could realistically do.

Almost every step has been either criminally incompetent or downright malicious.

1 hour ago, Miller11 said:

 

Macron’s deal is up at the end of this season. As of April 2025 Rovers were allowed to talk to other suppliers, but not before. As part of the deal Macron also have matching bid rights (they have to be told what any new offer is and be given the opportunity to match it).

That’s the facts, but just MAYBE the following happened…

MAYBEWaggott had been talking to adidas, largely due to Gary Aspden. MAYBE It was off the record but it got very clear they were very keen around October 2024.

MAYBE Suhail got wind of Waggott talking to adidas and tried to tell him that Yasir would be doing the kit deal and not him. MAYBE Waggott told him no, as he had the relationship with Gary and subsequently with adidas.

MAYBE As a result Suhail got in a strop and went off talking to Castore, and told Waggott to forget about adidas and that we’d be going with Castore “to keep the Issa brothers onside”.

MAYBE Suhail then went to Macron to tell them he was negotiating a really good deal with Castore, so they would need to put in a much improved deal. And MAYBE Macron went mad as this broke the exclusivity agreement and MAYBE threatened legal action.

MAYBE Waggott was planning on flying to Italy to smooth things over with Macron but eventually did it on the phone, but MAYBE they chilled out a bit. MAYBE Waggott explained the local connection to adidas and that they would be offering loads of things macron couldn’t match (Spezial kit, boot deal, exhibition at Ewood, new club shop, Spezial trainers). MAYBE Macron accepted that couldn’t be matched.

In April they opened up to tender. MAYBE Macron, adidas and Castore put in. MAYBE Macron and Castore both offered an upfront payment - basically a guarantee of 400k, rather than an extra payment. MAYBE Suhail went to adidas and asked them to match it, MAYBE they said they don’t offer guarantees to anyone, not even Man Utd or Real Madrid - they just sell lots of kits.

MAYBE Suhail then went back and told Macron they were going with Castore - MAYBE Macron said they wanted to keep Rovers and offered to match Castore. MAYBE Suhail’s response was “No you should’ve offered us more in the first place. We are going with Castore.”

MAYBE Adidas were not getting good vibes since Waggott left, but MAYBE Suhail then reapproached adidas asking for a half million upfront payment to “buy out macron” - effectively pay them off cos they will sue. MAYBE Adidas reiterated their stance of no upfront payments - MAYBE Suhail said “Well Castore are willing to pay the legal fees”.

So MAYBE Macron are seeking compensation for 2 separate breeches of contract.

Castore have bought out Umbro and need clubs for their second brand. MAYBE we’ve agreed to being Umbro with off the peg kits slightly Roverized.

Maybe Suhail is a fucking imbecile.

Either that, or he's (maybe) intentionally sabotaging the club.

Either way, he has no place at our historic club.

Going back to the 90's again, Billy McKinlay was one who liked a tackle and didn't back down from a confrontation.

But yeah, otherwise Todd, Batty, Flitcroft, Hendry, Nelsen in my lifetime.

2 hours ago, RossendaleBlue3 said:

In no way do I think this is ITK transfer guru know-how... 

But I fully believe every reported fee that we've paid is with every bonus and add on possible included

How much did we "pay" for Sidnei, I know he hasn't played much, but the small sample size (and the fact he hasn't played anywhere consistently for his whole career) says he's tripe and not worth the apparantley fee

((Happy to be proved wrong, but he doesn't exactly exude the high energy front foot football that we've been promised)) 

I suspect Jorgensens up front fee isn't anywhere near what's been said either. Another way for them to appear as though they are trying, and not cost cutting at every opportunity 

Agreed - though we have been doing this for a long time.
We never got near to paying £5m for Gallagher, or £6m/£7m for BBD, as that would have required promotion / etc.

The same way that our outbound transfers are add-on or clause heavy.

And, for the record, I think Broughton had a strategy and it was clearly hamstrung by interference within the club.
Szmodics, Hyam, Brittain, Tronstad are all significantly better than anything we've signed since.
As someone else has already said: O'Brien and Undav arrive in that transfer window and we're probably still a Prem club now.
 

44 minutes ago, Tomphil2 said:

Maybe because he prefers living in the North ?

Some do you know.

I'm not sure where he's originally from (midlands?), but you're right that it's a factor.

I'm a northern boy and it would take a huge amount of persuasion (and money) to even make me consider moving down south, in this context.

16 minutes ago, alcd said:

Makama is tearing up the Championship with Norwich. He's a powerful central striker aged 21 signed for £1.2m from Lincoln at the beginning of August. Gestede should have been all over that earlier in the summer. 

There are gems in the lower divisions.

The lad that Ipswich are about to buy from Bristol (I think) came from L1 also.

Based on how poor most of the Gestede foreign gambles have been, surely we could have picked up a few unpolished diamonds from L1/L2?

10 hours ago, ... said:

Genuinely starting to think it's spite. That rich they can just say fk that lot. Alot of India is poor, I've seen them at all these parties etc leaving in the Rolls Royce etc I bet they feel like Kings over there.

Is that how they are looking at us, like we are peasants too and just able to forget about us?

Said this for a long time and I'm convinced of it.

And I'm equally convinced that the snowball was the pivotal moment.

18 minutes ago, ... said:

You Owd gits 😉 

I love hearing older tales like these I try to form a mental picture with the all.

Bet it was weird everything in Black and white back then ...

That'll be our generation in 30/40 years, talking about the olden days of 'Super Atko signing for next to nowt from Scunny', or 'Jason Wilcox, took some stick that lad', or 'Ryan Nelsen, big Kiwi literally on a free', or 'eee, who remembers Michel Salgado'...

You get the idea (pass the Worthers Originals).

1 hour ago, rovers11 said:

This may have been mentioned in another thread, but for anyone on X/Twitter, there is a prank call with Gestede that is going to be released by @BRFCPrivy7414. One has already been released with Pasha who said Pearsy is for sale but "Gestede is the one to speak to about transfers".

It could, of course, be AI generated (who can tell these days!) but it seems legit. 

I did see the first releases earlier today, but my first impressions were that it was an attempt to divert heat away from Pasha.

'See, it's all Rudy this mess, nothing at all to do with me...'

We'll see, I guess.

5 hours ago, Ricky said:

I feel that winning the battle in the middle of the park can help set the tone for the whole team. We can’t do that with the current players. Baraji looks skillful on the ball but doesn’t have any fight at all. Loses the ball and watches the player run away from him, Cantwell does exactly the same. 

Yeah, this was one of my takeaways from recent matches, especially last night.

Games are won/lost in midfield and we can't rely on players ilke Cantwell and Baradji to be that type of player in the middle of the pitch.
Tronstad as the deep/holding player works well, but we need at least one Travis-style player in there - high energy, box-to-box.

Woeful and we are going down.

Swansea were a poor side, we were a few levels below them.
De Neve, Ohashi and TGH in particular were so bad today, we could have played U18 players and they'd have done a better job.

We either accept relegation is inevitable, or we sack the manager. Tonight.

Absolutely dreadful.

Ohashi might as well not be playing, he's just making zero positive contribution.

And you cannot tell me that we don't have a better right wing back than TGH in the Academy; he is diabolically poor.