alex l

A local sponsor is nice, although I actually see it as a sign of a club's declining appeal. Generally speaking, the lower down the league you go, the more likely you're to have local companies be your main sponsors. Vaping isn't an ideal sponsor, but I see it above gambling firms. Vaping can be positive, if it stops people smoking tobacco. But at the same time it could easily be a gateway to cigarettes. We've seemingly taken a financial hit by moving away from gambling firms. For those against Totally Wicked, would you accept a smaller budget and less competitive team if we had got another sponsor?

Whilst his success rate is questionable he correctly called out the DoF appointment happening before the Head Coach and said it was imminent days before the DoF was unveiled

A company isn't going to want to pay sponsorship for their logo not to be on the prime position. Any time a crowd shot or picture is shown, it's potentially dozens of ads for your brand. The sale of a few hundred more shirts wouldn't likely make up the difference in lost or reduced sponsorship funds if we went with no sponsor or negotiated to not have them on replica shirts.

this will be why the club shop ran out of stock on lettering towards the end of the season - change to the font for the coming season EFL's Terrible Kit Font Is History - Footy Headlines

Pep and Klopp dream team?

Jokes aside, this could indicate the EFL are changing font again or we are not having red names/numbers

Need to sort the manager situation out first. Whilst not impossible to make signings, can't imagine too many footballers (especially decent ones) would sign a contract without knowing who they're playing for.

There seems to be some on here who are happy for TM to be going because they feel he has blown our chance at promotion. Were the same people seeking for him to extend his contract when we got into the top 6 and then top 2? Because that would appear to be the logical balance to wanting him gone due to us not making the play offs or better. Yes the drop off was awful. But the level of hatred and ill feeling certainly didn't seem balanced with positivity toward him when, quite frankly, we were over performing.

I'd argue the pressure to get promoted from league 1 at the first attempt dwarfs the pressure of trying to get us into the prem. As bad as things are in some ways now, I dread to think how much worse they'd have been if we got stuck in the third tier for another year and perhaps beyond. This isn't excusing our post new year form, only pointing out the evidence of where pressure was handled well. Not to mention how we started that league 1 campaign somewhat indifferently, to put it mildly.

For venkys to leave, we either go into administration or we get a buyer. Would ideally avoid the former. We'd be a much attractive purchase in the premier league. Its quite sad how wanting the team to be supported at games and not just behind screens is seen as trolling.

If this doesn't convince boycotters to, at least momentarily, set aside their unhappiness and go support the team, nothing will.

Glancing at the data on the article below I would say our pricing is pretty much in line with the average cost in the division for both season and marchday tickets. Had tickets been £20 yesterday we'd have needed to sell a further 4500 tickets approximately to make the same income, but with that comes increased income and expenses for a potential larger crowd. It's a very tough balance for the club to try and strike. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/efl-championship-expensive-season-tickets-24759569

Rovers have historically had an income to wage ratio of 100+%, even in the pre venky days I believe. If the current regime had put an end to it, how many fans would be in uproar with the poor quality of player that would likely have meant at the club? As for the offer to Arma, they admitted it would have broken the structure, but on the reasoning he would have commanded a higher fee either this year or in future, assuming he continued to score at a good rate. All this discussion goes to show is that running a football club is a balancing act and far from easy. Yet some seem to think it easy and don't consider all aspects.

I don't think it's the weekly wage budget per se which is the issue but the structure. Otherwise the Arma funds could easily add a few grand to each offer. Apologies for going a bit Football Manager, but if player A is rated at an Important Player we might only offer those 10k a week max, because that's the limit for an Important Player. If you suddenly cave in to 13k a week, all the others at that level will want an increase. We work at much lower levels but look at Barca. By continually increasing Messi's wage, all their other signings and contract extensions also pushed for more. As much as the regime is hated by some here, they're trying to show a degree of financial control. Lest we forget the days of Murphy, Best, Etuhu.

Whilst I agree it's early to be reading massive amounts into league position, would you say or feel the same if we were bottom? I doubt most would be claiming it's early etc and be calling for Mowbray to be sacked even more than they are now. Therefore it's only fair to say we've had a good or at least very solid start, which probably defies the expectations of most on here.

Mulgrew was such a disaster. Further back - what a joke Tugay was.

Sods law the club shop have run out of 's'

If you're determined to have an anti TM stance then I likely won't be able to change that. However I'm trying to look at this with a degree of balance. Arma had earned his prem chance, he couldn't do any more in the championship. Also don't forget he reportedly took a pay cut to sign for Mowbray - as did Gally. Irrespective of your opinion of Gally, he signed again for Mowbray, on less money - hardly screams a boss you don't want to play for. Dack I seem to recall signed back up before getting injured again, he may have thought he owed the club after the first injury. But again, do you do that if you don't like the gaffer? Chapman reportedly had interest after his productive loan spell - why sign up for Mowbray again if you don't like him? You're entitled to dislike Mowbray, but the actions of a few fair of our players, recent past and present, indicate he is a decent bloke.

If this is correct why did Arma sign for him 3 times, Gallagher return, Chapman re-sign, Dack extend when he could have soon moved on for free? By all means criticise what happens during matches, we're all entitled to a view. But unless you've been party to a decent number of Rovers training sessions and player meetings, this is pretty baseless.

I don't think anyone can deny we need to extend Brereton's contract, especially if he goes for free. But had we extended his contract last summer, before the performances of last season and Breretonmania, how many would have branded it ludicrous, undeserving etc? I imagine a good fair few. If you extend too early, you're likely paying a higher wage and then stuck with the player if they don't come good. On one hand we're trying to be more responsible and sustainable, you can't carry on at 190% ratio of income and wages. However the very nature of being sustainable means we can't give out the wages these players and their agents think they deserve or can get elsewhere. It's a big balancing act.

Not even last year as such, that was the period with 3 months of covid. I expect the full covid season figures to be massively higher, 400% perhaps?

Is it the manager's fault a contract wasn't signed earlier? I'm not sure it is these days, don't think they're involved in that side of things anymore. Same with the sell on clause - and if it wasn't agreed, we probably couldn't have afforded him. What TM did do is create enough impression on Arma for him to sign up again twice for us. And it was in a TM team that he scored a boat load of goals to get a prem move. Deny it and spin it however you see fit, but the facts are Arma clearly takes to Mowbray and Mowbray took a player from 1.75m to at least 15m in a few years.

Whilst I am inclined to agree, you never know. Would have thought the same about JRC but not long after the option was taken by the club, he signed on. Perhaps Brereton out of all of them will appreciate where he has got to under TMs management and commit a few more years.

Amarii Bell any time he had the ball in the opposition half.

I agree it's not in our interests. Few players continue to perform well in their final year, particularly if they wanted to go. Gamst and Tugay come to mind of players who continued to put their heart into Rovers whilst in their final year, but few and far between.