Miller11

There’s enough (unfounded) optimism in that interview to last a lifetime.

So it was a complete and utter waste of time asking that question then wasn’t it. You don’t necessarily qualify as a fan just by following a Facebook page or a Twitter account. The issue is the club have made putting out surveys on these platforms their entire “engagement” strategy and are dodging all the recommend and mandated forums for fans to ask meaningful questions of ownership and senior management. The questions “selected” weren’t even close to middle of the road.

Owen also eventually stated in the fans forum fiasco that he didn’t believe it was possible to become a sustainable club and remain in the Championship. Not sure he’s 100% “aligned”.

It’s even worse than that. All 3 of them refused to answer one of the incredible soft ball questions - they wouldn’t commit to which signing they were most excited by. Although Ismael did trot out the Scott Wharton is like a new signing cobblers.

They really do think we are stupid. A completely transparent unsubtle propaganda piece that will appease a good chunk of the social media masses, but you don’t have to scratch very deep to see much of what the more observant fans were thinking was bang on the money. Wage bill cut, wage structure problematic, all about “sustainability”.

In the latest episode of Jobs For The Boys… Jordan Rhodes has been appointed our new Loans Manager

His full name is Suhail Anwar Pasha Shaikh. He was regularly referred to as Suhail Pasha in the early days, then more commonly Suhail Shaikh. The former seems to have stuck with fans.

Pasha definitely is.

Might ask when he is serving his ban from the training ground for refusing to play while a contracted Rovers player.

This implies that the players aren’t backed on the pitch, which I think is an incredibly lazy false narrative, usually peddled by fans on social media who rarely (if ever) attend games at Ewood. The team gets 100% backing and support from the crowd (the crowds aren’t big enough, but that’s the fault of Venky’s, Pasha and the brain trust), and the crowd is what matters. Criticising the regime causes no detriment to on pitch performances, just as delusional positivity towards them does no good.

Don’t underestimate how aligned things are behind the scenes right now. There is very little point trying to differentiate between Suhail and Gestede - they are both very much on the same page. They are extremely close, holiday together, socialise etc. They might have different roles and responsibilities, but they are working towards the same goal. Same applies to the senior people still employed and recently promoted at Ewood. I was told just after Eustace left that Rudy had decided that there was no need to pay more than 10k per week in wages and that would be the policy this summer, and Suhail was right behind it. Waggott was trying to push back on this - going as far as calling it a “suicidal strategy”, look how that worked out for him. Nobody in the “senior management team” is remotely interested in doing anything that might rock the apple cart. Everyone who did has gone… Waggott, Fraser Read, Eustace, LOADS more whose names aren’t so well known but were frustrated/bullied out of the door. I have absolutely no reason to doubt @glen9mullan’s info on what’s happening on the playing side, and I’ve got plenty of first hand accounts to suggest it’s just as toxic on the off pitch side of things.

Yep. And this will be dressed up as fan engagement.

Survey is here - knock yourselves out!

Waaaaaay more to it than that. And it’s unbelievably ridiculous.

Can’t announce Hyam’s exit til he’s filmed his hostage video.

Check your inbox

Lucky it wasn’t an hand grenade.

No, not til January. Which is 100% a good thing for the market as a whole to stop badly run, shambolic clubs like ours wrecking the plans of other teams and the careers of their own young players.

This is the result of Suhail’s power grab. He had to interfere and obstruct from the sidelines while Waggott was here. As soon as he’s got rid of the CEO and promoted/hired similarly arrogant, incompetent and unpleasant people in roles of relative power it was always going to end in tears. There is no desire for the club to compete, let alone progress. If our transfer business and blatant cost cutting on the playing side isn’t proof enough, just have a look what’s happening off the pitch. Shitty online surveys masquerading as fan engagement. No attempt to improve attendances, just a constant hard sell to season ticket holders to upgrade to hospitality. Ewood Park falling further into disrepair and the only “improvements” being a few rails drilled in to satisfy the safety executive and a couple of plastic birds on strings. The owners don’t give a shit. Suhail is the common thread that has run through the club like a poison since November 2010. Unfortunately he is now feeling emboldened enough to wander round like a minor celebrity on match days with his brain trust in tow. The semblance of near normality we had for a few years, and the finishes just outside the playoffs were far below what we should accept, but in all honesty they were a miracle all things considered. And that relative success was all in spite of Suhail and his pay masters, certainly not because of them. The one man most responsible for all the pain of the last 15 years is still here, and he’s calling all the shots.

Suhail wants Hyam gone. Hyam will be going.

If the Aberdeen interest in Gueye is real I expect we will be pushing him out of the door. He’s paid far too much to be our “C” striker.

From my limited interactions I’d say Gestede conducts himself professionally and shows basic manners, which is a step up. However, people whose word I trust tell a very different story when it comes to their interactions. I’m a lot less interested in what he has to say than Suhail as I’m a lot more concerned about what’s going on off the pitch (Suhail’s remit) than on the pitch (Gestede’s remit), and any on pitch problems are likely to have a root cause of Suhail anyway. That said, much of what he has come out and said publicly isn’t great. He appears happy to dumb down under his mates instructions. The clubs stance against Travis supposedly refusing to play seems highly hypocritical on his part.

And plenty of people who actually care about Blackburn Rovers, pretty much all who have met him in fact, have said he’s the exact opposite.

That was absolutely grim. It would’ve been daylight robbery if we’d got a point there. The Hull performance appears to be the exception rather than the norm. Goals are going to be hard to come by. Special mention for Tavares who was spectacularly shit. I thought the early proclamations that he was an upgrade on Travis seemed daft at the time. If he’s not going to put himself about much he needs to really look after the ball. On first viewing I had concerns about how well he’d do when he was under any pressure - today his passing was miles off even when he was afforded time and space. More like a poor man’s John Buckley. Kargbo looks dreadful whenever he starts games. Coming off the bench and running at players he looked somewhat useful. De Neve is now about 7th choice winger. Alebiosu has really grown on me over the last couple of games. A bit raw, but positive in his play. Hope to god Watford, or anyone else for that matter, don’t come in for Hyam. McLoughlin got the right runaround today, the sending off was 100% deserved. Gueye was useful for a period last season, but he’s never going to be any good playing off the last man’s shoulder. He can’t stay onside for one thing, but giving him a ball to his feet 40 yards from goal is mostly going to result in comedy. Nobody can convince me that we wouldn’t be several points better off if we’d had Travis, Dolan and Batth in the side.

There’s another big factor when it comes to Suhail. Probably not quite as big as his ego, but he will bend over backwards for his friends. Up until now he’s held most of the people he’s worked with in absolute contempt. He remains feared by most rather than respected. He has a couple of allies now, and he’s installing as many more as possible. Gestede and Suhail are as thick as thieves, so where in previous years he’d deliberately put barriers in the way of new signings, Gestede will get much more leeway and support - moral and financial. When the details of the 26-27 kit deal emerge it will become abundantly clear how true this is. He’s happy to put his personal relationships well ahead of good commercial decisions. For now we just need to hope Gestede has an eye for a player.