Miller11

Eustace and Waggott wanted Cantwell. Gestede didn’t. Waggott and Eustace met with him early in the window but it didn’t progress due to finances - probably Suhail putting a block on it. It became apparent towards the end of the window that he was available on the cheap - 250-500k - so Waggott went rogue and had talks with Rangers - whoever he was dealing with up there said something along the lines of “Thank god, we’re desperate to get rid of him” so Waggott revised the offer to zero. After about 2 days of wrangling they agreed that it would be zero upfront with a big sell on clause and various appearance/promotion payments. Announced as undisclosed to appease both sets of fans. Getting him on a free allowed Waggott to make the case to Gandhi Babu (circumventing Suhail) to pay the required wages and get the deal signed off by Venky’s, as did claiming he would be worth 7 million if he could rediscover his form. It’s certainly plausible that an appearance trigger is approaching. It’s also plausible that the man who never wanted him in the first place and thinks paying any player more than £10k per week is unnecessary might want rid of him.

Very likely. Remember this deal dragged on for a while when we signed him. We paid nothing at all up front and it was all based around him hitting certain numbers and a hefty sell on clause.

All this comes down to now is their arrogance. They don’t like being told what to do. They sold off our best players rather than put money in a bond that they objected to. Now the requirement for that bond is gone they have no inclination to improve our situation or reinvest any of those funds brought in back into the squad. lets be 100% clear, neither the Indian courts or FFP/P&S rules are preventing investment in Rovers - they just don’t want to.

Shit day. Shit anniversary celebrations. Shit line up. Shit pyrotechnics. Shit players. Shit performance. Shit manager. Shit attendance. Shit staff. Shit owners. Shit club for the last 15 years.

Here’s a little snippet from the programme. The usual amount of care and attention has gone into it I see. Absolute husk of a club.

Someone on Twitter is correct. No prizes for guessing which genius at Rovers made the decision to delay it til after Christmas.

The only people who deserve any boos on the day will be in the directors seats, corporate lounges and in bed in India.

Paul wrote a superb letter outlining the clubs unique achievements and importance to the game of football over the last 150 years. There had been hope/expectation that we would be actually making a big deal of celebrating our anniversary so inviting representatives from the above bodies as guests, or to open exhibitions etc seemed like a good idea.

You’ve definitely not misinterpreted. I’ve attended a total of 3 fans forum meetings. The first one saw Steve Waggott, Christina Haines and Lynsey Talbot sat amongst the supporters. At Suhail’s instruction an additional table was dragged over so him, Gestede, Yasir and others could sit at the head of the table, very separate from us mere mortals. The disconnect between Suhail and Waggott was evident, but the meeting was conducted professionally despite some robust discussion. The last 2 have seen the most senior member of Rovers staff lose his rag within the first few minutes and act in a bizarre and unprofessional manner. The issues with the minutes have been well debated on here, and I’m sure will be again. The entire tone has changed and blatant bare faced lies are being told by club officials. Aside from the fans forum meetings I’ve attended dozens of meetings at the club over recent years. From my perspective the culture is absolutely horrendous at the moment. Plenty of previously warm, engaging and competent staff are like frightened children. Everything has become combative and disingenuous. Worst of all there is a complete lack of accountability throughout. I get the feeling that any sign of contrition would be viewed as unacceptable weakness - which gives the impression of most people there being completely arrogant, which coupled with low levels of competence is a dangerous thing. It should be no surprise - it’s a top down thing. The owners are like that, and so are their staff.

It should be a 30,000 crowd. The fact it will be not much over half that just shows how much contempt our owners and their trusted employees have for us. We must mark the occasion by showing them how much we want rid of them.

Uwais Patel. Trustee of the Community Trust.

WATR have already met with the head of the regulators office. It won’t be a quick fix, but lots of what we said raised eyebrows and was very much of interest to them. It was definitely a very positive meeting.

Feel free to use this graphic anywhere you like. Plaster it on social media. Respond to all the clubs posts regarding the anniversary with it. It should hopefully be all over Ewood on the 8th

Watch this space!

We went for the hollow 15 to symbolise how we have become a husk of our former club.

Not sure where you’ve got your info from Carl, but I certainly wouldn’t agree.

I’m not sure anything was made up. Make a monumental fuckup, big backlash, quickly change plans, deny and pretend it never happened. That’s the Rovers way.

Pretty much. Or watered down to the extent they might as well not bother. As you can see the vast majority have been ignored anyway.

150th Anniversary Working Group Wednesday 23rd April 2025 1. Brett Baker, Head of Football Administration, took us through possible pre-season friendlies and those clubs we have been in touch with regarding our 150t Anniversary (Hibernian and Birmingham also celebrating their 150th Anniversary) Athletic Club unable to play this pre-season but could look at pre-season 2026. Queens Park approached but possible dates too early for our pre-season schedule. Brett would also be making a request to the English Football League (EFL) special consideration for a home fixture on or close to the 5th November 2025 as possible. It was proposed we should also contact SKY regarding their scheduling of games for the first half of the 25/26 season 2. Steve Waggott, CEO, had been in contact with Elliott Charles of Old Etonians with a view of staging a re-enactment of their FA Cup Final along with inviting Darwen F C to also be involved in these games that we would be looking to stage in one of the International breaks during the 25/26 season (September, November or March) 3 . An official club letter had now been finalised with the view of sending to various governing bodies (FIFA, UEFA, FA, EFL) and possibly members of the Royal Family ( a copy of which was circulated to all attendees) Phil Riley, Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, is also working on a Royal Visit that could include Blackburn Rovers. 4. Steve Waggott had approached the English FA to give permission for us to have a full size replica trophy to commemorate us being the only club to win the competition over three consecutive seasons in 1884, 1885 and 1886. We await further discussion with them on this 5. Just awaiting completing the final piece of the 150th Anniversary Book to enable it to got to print. 6. An 150th Anniversary Club video is nearing completion and the group will be updated once final cut is done. 7. 150th Anniversary Web page / site is now under construction and the club will look to finalise it come the end of the current season to enable events / projects to be posted and promoted. 8. Anna Melia, Head of Marketing, highlighted the 150th logo now being used plus informed the group that she had now sourced Commemorative Caps should they be required. The group felt i t would be beneficial to contact the Former Players Association to get their thoughts on who should receive a cap should we proceed with this initiative. 9. Steve Waggott proposed that the Blackburn Rovers Community Trust be our nominated charity for the 150" Anniversary year which was approved by all the group. 10. Nick Cooney and Mike Jackman advised the group that it had now been agreed with the club that the whole of the second floor of the Darwen End for the 150th Anniversary Exhibition. Work would commence as soon as possible on redecorating the rooms on the second floor with cabinets and design of rooms being discussed with external organisations. Discussions were on-going with the Heritage Lottery Fund for a smaller grant to facilitate certain parts of the larger unsuccessful bid. 11. Lynsey Talbot, Head of Operations, outlined the possible club events including a fireworks display on or around 5 November, a Gala Dinner and a summer 2026 Music Festival. Lots of other planned / themed events will be developed once fixture lists are released. Other potential partners had come on board followng the call to arms at the recent Blackburn with Darwen Partnership Forum including BwD Children Services Department and The Exchange in Blackburn. 12. Yasir Sufi, Head of Commercial, updated the group on a 150thLimited Edition Kit and also possible mural on the Watson Ramsbottom building in Blackburn Centre using local artists. Other sites were also being considered for further murals along with the need for consideration of appropriate 'Blue Plaques' locations. Jamie Holman was also looking at a musical performance in the Blackburn End with a choir of all ages. Darwen Terracotta had also stated an interest in being involved in the 150th Anniversary with Wayne Wild being a good contact t o discuss further. The use of LED Lighting of 150 being projected on to Ewood Park and other appropriate buildings would need to be discussed with the Council. 13. Paul Salmon proposed reaching out with our club letter to the Royal Family to see if there would be an acceptance of either Prince George or Princess Charlotte becoming an Honorary Club President. He also thought that the unveiling of a new piece of artwork could be linked to a visit from FIFA to unveil whatever we thought would be appropriate for our 150 Anniversary. Darwen Terracotta was mentioned again as a possible partner to look at this proposal. A time tunnel around Ewood Park was also suggested subject to funding. 14. Duncan Miller on re-engaging with supporters proposed Supporter Groups championing a player; flags with players and supporter group logos; introduce a limited printed matchday programme for the 25/26 season; develop a Fan Advisory Board (FAB) or Shadow Board 15. Steve Williams, representative of We Are The Rovers (WATR), informed the group that more military personnel had been found who had been former Rovers' players. He felt any exhibition should include a military section. He also said h e was available to help as and when required on heritage initiatives / projects. 16. Anna Melia highlighted the fact of having an inclusive approach on gathering ideas and opinions from younger supporters/ Junior Fans Forum especially around what the club and Town would look like in another 150 years. 17. The meeting ended in a general discussion around seeking appropriate sponsors for various elements of the initiatives being proposed. Date of next meeting - During May The follow up meeting to this was in July, not May. By that time Steve Waggott had left so no minutes were ever circulated but a number of the above ideas were completely taken off the table with no discussion. There has been no follow up meetings or even any email correspondence to the committee since.

Exactly this. And it’s all part of a bigger issue. Nobody at the club will ever admit they got anything wrong. It’s always bad luck, or someone else’s fault, or beyond their control. Top down arrogant, shit attitude. The culture Venky’s and their incompetent trusted employees have created.

Give over. He’s been the best referee at this level for a good while.

There was an initial plan to actually do something quite interesting with this idea, but it seems like it was too much effort. my best guess is Old Etonians were promised something ages ago and we are obligated to make a game happen, so very recently David Dunn has been tasked with cobbling a team together. Shoehorning it on to the end of the Derby game means none of the staff at Ewood have to work an extra day. Suits them, suits Suhail. They are all delighted they don’t have to do Sundays as the women’s team has been bombed off to Clitheroe, and that we only had one pesky league cup game.

That point papers over a few cracks. The biggest worry is that it took us ripping up Ismael’s “tactical plan” and throwing the kitchen sink at them for us to look remotely competent. 12 minutes in and I could see what Stoke’s game plan was. 9 games in and I’m still struggling to see what Ismael’s is. I don’t think we really contained them, they were pretty wasteful with their final ball. Alebiosu had his toughest test but also pulled off an unbelievable bit of defending. Miller a good shout for MOTM. Midfield bypassed too often, Gudjohnsen mostly anonymous then fluffed his lines. Impressed with De Neve and Kargbo responded to recent criticism in the best possible way. Also worth mentioning that Ash Phillips looks like he’s developing into an absolute monster of a centre back.

Signing an injured player does look as though it was the plan. Obviously it’s an absolutely shit plan though. The plan has contributed to us being in the relegation zone by the beginning of October, was that the plan?

Well… I’ve never looked forward to reading an Elliott Jackson match report until today! That was absolutely dreadful. 3-0 flattered us. Charlton squandered loads of really good chances. They absolutely bullied us, particularly second half. No positives to be taken out of that shit show. Hopefully Forshaw is fit soon as I genuinely think he makes our strongest 11. What a testament to Gestede’s recruitment.