roversfan99

None of that addresses my points regarding the growing inequality, the total lack of competiveness and thus excitement in this Premier League season or the growing unsustainability regardless of a clubs ambition in running a football club in spite of increasing TV deals and ticket prices. Teams come up to the Premier League, spend lots of money but such is the gap between the leagues, stumble back down in embarassing fashion.

Do you have confidence in any in particular to be up to the standard of playing Championship football as soon as next season? And would you feel comfortable if there is an expectation to give them a certain number of minutes next season, especially if its done whilst perhaps signing one or two less more established players? To me it is undoubtedly another cost cutting exercise that they are trying to glamorise. Montgomery got a few cameos when Brittain was out and Tyjon one token cameo but otherwise none of the others got a sniff last season at a time when Ismael up until the last couple of games regularly talked about planning for next season. But I would be interested to know if there are any in particular that you have reasonable confidence in being ready now. For example, would you be happy to see us let say Pickering go in the confidence that Powell can step up? Would you happily forego signing a midfielder as you deem Montgomery ready? Would you avoid signing a centre back in favour of having Litherland as a first team centre back? Or any others.

Of course the pyramid is fucked. Its not just ambitious teams looking for quick success that are showing big losses, basically every team is. We are unambitious and not arsed about success and we show big losses. TV deals grow bigger, fans become less important, ticket prices go up yet the losses get higher and higher. This will be the second season in a row where all 3 promoted teams have come down and none of them have been competitive. This has to be up there with the worst Premier League seasons ever. The fact that Ipswich spent so much and yet the conclusion was that they have spent to build a really strong Championship side in the following season shows how big the gap is. All the money goes to the top and creates a chasm in quality.

Giving a head coach an artbitary target whereby he has to give graduates a certain amount of minutes very much screams bringing youngsters through for the sake of it. Even with Montgomery, I am not fully confident that he can be counted on as a Championship level player yet based on a few cameos and a solitary start in which he got sent off, all out of position.

Do you think they are ready for first team Championship football now? And do you think there are a flurry of kids that are ready now as it seems likely that they are going to be pushed through ready or not. You know much more about these players than me but I noticed that Powell couldnt get a game for Altrincham. And do you agree with Gestede that we should have an objective of 3,000 minutes for graduates that needs to be met?

The 3 teams that have come up this season are all going down in embarassing fashion because none have anywhere near enough quality to compete. The gap between Premier League and Championship is as big as it ever has been, the whole pyramid is fucked financially. Southampton are celebrating getting to 12 points. Ipswich signed quite a few top players at Championship level and have been miles off

Blackburn could soon have a pressing need to bring Yates to Ewood Park if young striker Joe Boggan is sold by the Rovers, after Football Insider revealed that five clubs across Europe want the 17-year-old. Great journalism. We could have a pressing need to replace a kid who has never played proper football with a journeyman 28 year old Championship striker. Yates is average, would probably prefer Ohashi. Would be better competition than Gueye but I suspect he wont be coming here anyway and that is a dodgy source linking a million and one teams with him.

The Premier League has been terrible this season. The champions and the bottom 3 all sorted with so many games to go has removed any sort of spectacle. We are just in a position where teams go up and come straight back down with really low points totals. The likes of Fulham, Brentford, Bournemouth and Brighton will be probably comfortable for the forseeable with the same teams yoyo-ing between Premier League and Championship. You then have a pyramid that is also fucked, desperately chasing the latest increased sky deal, constantly increasing ticket prices and willingly inconvenicing fans yet losing more and more money year on year despite this with the money all landing in the pockets of the players and agents.

Didnt Cantwell only get loads of stick becuase of his personality rather than ability/inability?

Dolan? Based on? You keep saying those 2 countries for our incoming signings too.

Obviously not.

We shouldnt sign Sanderson permanently and certainly not for £1m. And theres no chance that we have 90% of our business done at any point of pre season. Managers always say they want business done early but wont happen especially here when we will be begging for loans late in the window.

The thing is, it implies that their current ticketing policies will definitely generate more income. For example, abolish this early bird shite and you would have a full summer whereby its much more likely that people will eventually decide to buy season tickets. Also, you are always battling quantity v price and hitting a sweet spot. Reducing prices will increase quantity short term, so its getting not only that balance. But realising that increasing numbers short term will likely get more people in the habit to then buy season tickets going forward, as well as more additional purchases eg things like food/drink and merchandise.

He would fit the criteria of being 5x worse.

I genuinely dont know where to start with this. I dont know what world you live in. Anyone who just sees last season as a massive overachievement with absolutely no dissent towards anything else regarding the club clearly hasnt been paying attention. But that doesnt take away from my point that hiking prices here at this particular football club as a second phase is IMO a terrible commercial decision. The commercial side was the one aspect of the club you would willingly criticise and even then you are now back to defending the club on that. Wont someone think of the increasing prices of gas and electric?!

No. We shouldnt be signing a striker who was 5th or 6th choice for a side in League 1, behind players like Jay Rodriguez, Steven Fletcher and Jack Marriott.

The TV money keeps going up, at the inconvenience of the match going fan. Those increases far exceed minor increases relative to a football club such as energy and national insurance. Dont let the sob stories from Waggott and Suhail fool you. Problem is that clubs pay far too much in wages, its not an increase in gas and electric or NI that is causing football clubs to be so reliant on owner investment year on year. But either way, whether other clubs do it or not is not the point. Those clubs are in totally different situations to us. Our fan base dwindles and dwindles, those other clubs can do it because their sales are higher and their grounds are far more full therefore its far more justified. We also have a lot of angry and unhappy fans who may have cooled off in the summer or decided that they missed going. But now, they will be much more unlikely to then buy at a higher price. If you sell 12k or more of say a possible 23k season tickets at the end of a first phase, with a fan base that isnt full of unhappiness. Its fine to then not necessarily sell many more after it, for it to just tick over with a few more sales after which is more likely if the fanbase isnt already angry at having the piss taking out of it. If you sell 7.5k (and boast about it) of a possible 23k season tickets, with an unhappy fanbase. To then bring in a second phase of higher prices is just preventing that majority of empty seats from being sold. Its such a flawed mindset to shrug your shoulders and say well some other teams are also doing it. Its simply not comparing like for like. If we scrapped the phases at our club, I would be pretty sure that yes cash flow in might become slightly more staggered across the summer, for the sake of a month or two, but the overall sales income would be higher.

I dont really care about other clubs, it doesnt excuse our shitty policies. Other clubs are in different situations. Not the same supporter unrest, not the same whittled down fanbase, not the same economic conditions in those areas, not the same lack of demand and number of empty seats. Bolton for example will have sold miles more in that first phase than we will.

Disgraceful pricing, these phases are a joke. Just ensuring that from a mere couple of weeks after the end of the season that no further sales will be made.

I think they do get it. Its clear that he will be here. That doesnt mean that he is good enough or that he should be given a deal. If someone isnt good enough, rather than just shrugging our shoulders and going yeah he will have to do, we can still have some standards.

Either way, we shouldnt sell Pickering. Need them both.

Dont see why we would sell our best left back and Cantwell isnt going anywhere.

Isnt that a risk though, in that his contract having signed for a fee is presumably at least reasonable at Championship level, so he could sit on it or it might put off suitors only able to pay a % of his wage?

Clubs at the level that would see Markanday as an asset would struggle to pay a fee. Better off just letting him go rather than activating his extension and risk being stuck with him.

Maybe he will end up at Barrow. I think I am right in thinking that the former data analyst of this parish went there and they seemed to sign a few former Rovers.