And over-reliant on “data”. I get the distinct feeling we spend longer looking at pages of statistics than we do watching footballers play football.

Would’ve liked Undav. None of Gelhardt, Porteus and Haikin would be the solution to our obvious current problems, so I’m not too fussed on missing out on any of them three. The worry is we seem to have put significant time and effort into at least two of these and failed to get them over the line. Hopefully this isn’t at the expense of achievable targets we actually need.

I don’t know much about him, but Thomas looks like a proper winger. Likes to stay wide and deliver the ball into the box. Quite excited about this one providing he doesn’t get the same treatment that Giles did last season from Mowbray. Championship ready players are what we need - nothing wrong with a bit of well directed short-termism to try and secure a spot in the playoffs. We do need to address the fact he’d have nobody to cross to, but that’s as much about tactics as personnel.

It’s long been the case that Rovers needed to better engage with the local Asian community. Yasir obviously has a fairly specific remit to try to engage with a very underrepresented demographic in our fanbase. He’s doing an amazing job, not only in bringing in more supporters, but also in the way he’s drummed up sponsorship for the initiative. There’s no cost to the club, aside from Yasir’s salary - and he’s worth every penny and some. Lovely to see busses full of kids heading down to Ewood, smiles on their faces, waving at fans walking to the ground, obviously feeling very excited, and importantly feeling safe and welcome when they get here. Of course the club needs to be much better in re-engaging with lost support, widening their efforts geographically, and generally trying to fill the ground again. But credit where it’s due, the Ewood Express initiative is brilliant.

You said the same thing last January.

Hang on… are we skint? Or do we have benevolent owners who are only stopped from buying us the very best players by nasty FFP limitations?

He’s said as much. Dolan and Markanday are only ever praised for “taking less touches”. No dribbling, he’d prefer it passed back to Kaminski.

Probably the best thread to add this… I’ve just tried to sign in on the Rovers website, but having entered my email address and password I get an error message telling me to please confirm I am not a robot. Happy to… however there is no CAPTCHA or indeed any means to prove my humanity in any way shape or form. Anybody else having this issue? Shit website is preventing me spending money with the club.

Very fair point. Until there is change at the very top not a lot is likely to improve.

Maybe not John Williams level, but I think it’s fair to say many of us were pleasantly surprised to see them bring in a DOF and manager who appear competent and somewhat sought after. A CEO with a similar level of pedigree to JDT and Broughton shouldn’t be beyond us.

Most players back themselves to break into the team where they are going to. Even if they don’t, I think I’d be happy being paid a million pounds a year to sit in the bench rather than playing regularly for 300k when I’ve no emotional attachment to either team.

Brereton up top, Dack in behind. Get Hedges on the left and Dolan on the right with the instruction to get the ball in the box. We’d score a damn sight more goals than we do with at present.

Completely agree with that assessment. He’s miles off it. Not even any nuisance value and positioning is very questionable.

A couple of good crosses went in today, Brereton should certainly have converted one of them. I don’t understand why we don’t do this more often. Overall though we didn’t get into their box often enough. The one time Morton took a bit of a gamble and committed in the box, look what happened - Dack was superb for the goal, started and finished the move. We’ve got some effective players, but they seem to be playing to specific instructions where scoring goals is very much a secondary objective

Our tactics are far more of a problem than our personnel.

at least that’s the end of the Kaminski and Raya debate.

The only thing Brereton has ever been good at is running inside with the ball, or getting on to a through ball. Now all we are ever doing is encouraging him to play pass and move stuff. He’s technically really poor and gets by on his pace and power and frightens teams with his unorthodox clumsiness. His technical limitations explain (but don’t excuse) that miss too. If he’d got there before it was bouncing up he’d have bundled it in.

= a nothing player

Massive problem with modern game mindsets. People don’t give a shit about fullbacks being defensive liabilities, as long as they can pass a bit.

Nice bit of play there, Hedges did well. Brereton should be burying that.

His effort and commitment levels make Danny Murphy look like Robbie Savage. Pulls out of 70:30 balls in his favour. Got his new deal at Liverpool so can’t be arsed to try.

Hopefully Wharton’s enforced absence will have given him time to sort his head out. Dolan unlucky not to start, Markanday can feel very aggrieved not even making the bench. Gallagher can have no complaints, but toothless Vale leading the line and bollockless Morton in the middle doesn’t fill me with a lot of hope.

The fact half the squad went straight to Manchester airport from Turf Moor suggests you are right. Hopefully we can have one of our inexplicable good days.

What’s one of them?

I haven’t slated Broughton over it. The root of the problem lies 4,000 miles away. I’m slating the club, and by association them based on the real outcomes - players leaving for nothing. The club failed to accept the bid. Assuming Brereton would’ve refused to move is as hypothetical as it gets.