jim mk2

Correct. What a waste of money for a club supposedly without any, three roles that could be abolished and done by people already within the club and spent in players instead. Good move by Waggott though - 3 people to blame when it goes wrong and deflect blame from him Waggott is 69 with millions in the bank but can’t even have the decency to live in the area. Why is he still working except for the love of money?

If the aim is to finish in 12th place then fans will rightly ask what is the point of going to watch and support the team. It's not just about money, the lack of ambition from the top is killing the club. Ipswich have gone from League One to the Premier League in 2 seasons with essentially the same squad that came out of League One having cost just £10 million.

Wharton will get more and more media coverage as the public latches on to him; I bet there's a fair few football fans who aren't really aware of him and will be shocked to see him in the squad I just hope Rovers and not Palace get at least most of the credit for finding and nurturing him I still disagree on complaints about the £18m fee: we set a purchase price and only one club was prepared to pay it.

Good signing for them. Looked an excellent keeper in the game at Ewood last season. I suppose it was always a fantasy to hope we might sign him.

Chris Wood scored twice for Forest. One struggles not to chortle

Wagner did a good job at Huddersfield and did well to get a tune out of a pretty average Norwich in taking them to the playoffs. I’d have him at Ewood instead of Eustace

For the Rovers - Celtic Uefa Cup tie back in the early 2000s for reasons best not explained I managed to get a ticket among Celtic fans, which was interesting to say the least but I was determined to go. Before the game I went with a Celtic supporting friend to a big Celtic pub, a brilliant and quite posh place in the centre of the city, and then walked through the east end to the game past boisterous Celtic bars and clubs. We went back to the same pub after the match. I have to say I met with no animosity anywhere and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, not the result of course but Rovers played really well and should have won the game. The return match at Ewood was completely different and gave a taste of perhaps what my Aberdeen friend was talking about with regards to "horrible" people. I saw Celtic fans hanging off lampposts (literally) and jumping on cars, waving Irish flags and swearing at anyone within earshot about "English b******" and "Protestant" this and that. It was deeply unpleasant and you can see why many Scottish clubs fears Celtic (and Rangers presumably) fans coming to town. The decline in quality of Scottish players is puzzling because kids in other countries have the same technology and those countries have continued to produce top players. In the past Scotland, like England, could rely on a ready and constant supply of talented street footballers but in the post-industrial economy those factories and streets and working class communities no longer exist. It requires hard work (and money) to produce top players now and as an outsider it seems to me Scottish football has been slow to come to terms with what is required with regards to academies and coaching.

The worst thing about Scottish football is, in fact, Celtic and Rangers, according to an Aberdeen supporting friend who says their fans are almost all “horrible people” and that they and most other clubs dread the games against them. They’d love to see both clubs disappear into a British or European league just to be shot of them. For what it’s worth, I follow Ross County if only because I watched a game there during a holiday in the area.

Immensely proud of Scottish football but not Rangers FC, eh? The advent of Sky money and the rise in power and wealth of English football doesn't explain the decline in the quality and numbers of players coming out of Scotland. Go back to the 1960s to 1980s and some / most of the best players in the British game were Scots but they are few and far between now. Why do you think that is?

If you read that article he clearly wasn't "impressed" on how we do business. Money talks however and we might still get him if we make him an offer he cannot refuse. Expecting him to sign after the January and with low wages isn't being realistic.

It's not THE worst - there's one I can think of in the 1970s that was worse - but it's not far off. Agree though that we need a total rebuild and serious money spent

The Bulls Head, now a Co-op ☹️

Yes, he's the best we've had to come through the ranks for many years. But people are / were getting carried away with his valuation at this stage of his career. We put a price on his head and there was only one club willing to pay it.

Dortmund took a gamble on Bellingham and it paid off. But they paid Birmingham what he was worth at the time and he could easily have been a flop. Wharton is the same; he's started well but there's no guarantee he will be worth tens of millions. Rovers got a good price for him and it was the maximum anyone was willing to pay. The real scandal is that the money has / will not be reinvested in new players

A luxury player is one who has oodles of talent but other parts of their game are missing. Sigurdsson isn’t that talented and doesn’t like the physicality of English football. He needs to leave this summer for his and our sake

David Moyes unlucky to be out of a job. Doesn't he still live in the Ribble valley? I'd bin Eustace tonight if Moyes indicated he were remotely interested.

Sigurdsson doesn’t like the rough and tumble of English football. He’s too easily dominated physically and disappears in games very quickly. In the away match at Millwall he got an elbow early on and spent the next 60 minutes complaining to the ref before being substituted. And he offers very little threat on the ball. Sorry I just don’t think he’s that good. I’d get rid.

I was probably one of those. Szmodics didn't look the part the season when he first signed from Peterborough. It was difficult to see what he offered and why we had paid so much money for him. He took time to adapt to the Championship and was probably played out of position in his first season . A free role as an attacking midfielder is where he excels and he played brilliantly in that role under Tomasson. Deserves a place in the club's history books for this season alone. Without him we would have been relegated.

RIP Yosser Hughes, aka Bernard Hill, a symbol of the 1980s war on the north and ordinary working people by Thatcher.

Time for a bit of honesty - we got away with it yesterday. We weren't unlucky to win the match because we played well on the day but with the other 3 teams winning we were very lucky not to be relegated. It needed an extraordinary performance from us and a Leicester team curiously having an off day for us to survive. We won't get away with it next season with this squad, with or without Szmodics. We need a wholesale revamp of the squad - and by that I mean at least 5 or 6 proven Championship performers in their prime, not a sticking plaster approach with ageing players and loanees of dubious quality Some decent money has to be made available - and it needs to be spent soon with players identfied and secured before pre-season training starts. No summer holiday for Gregg and his mates - they should be working now to identify targets. This might be all a fantasy given the way the club is managed but you can but hope. i don't want another season like this season, which has been agony.

Agree with this. The squad needs a complete overhaul.

I’ve been on a cricket field all afternoon. Couldn’t stand the strain. What a relef. Well done Sammie Szmodics

Burnley have looked certs for the drop all season but can still escape if results go their way. Conversely, there's usually a club that sinks from mid-table in January down to the bottom - we're this season's candidates

So by your reasoning we won the first division in 1995?

There would bound to be an inquiry into how Leicester fans managed to get into the Rovers (never Blackburn) end that would likely get the club into trouble and then there's the potential for trouble when those Leicester fans are indentified among the Rovers supporters - it's inevitable. It's a non-starter I'm afraid. Congrats on promotion by the way but hope the result is the same as the FA Cup tie on your middin last season when we quite frankly took your lot apart