I’m not clicking on any link to the website of that vile rag, but I’m presuming this is Nixon reporting? If so it’ll be lazy journalism in a publication known for untruths. Certainly don’t take it as gospel.

If we had a decent amount of money to spend I’d be testing Luton’s resolve with a bid for Allan Campbell. He’s the type of player I wish Travis could be.

I’ve just been walking through the town centre and passed the totally wicked shop. Theres a big decal in the window with Rovers crest saying something like “Official partner of Blackburn Rovers”. I had a quick look through the window and saw some shelves “dedicated”to Rovers merchandise, and it was one of the most pathetic sights I have ever seen. Empty shelves, 4 Rovers pint glasses, about half a dozen Rover the dog teddy’s, and a couple of other bits of tat. I should’ve got a picture. Once again something done so half arsed it’s embarrassing to all concerned.

My latest one is a player lying on the floor behind a wall. My instruction would be to chip the ball and hang it over the wall and the big lads to trample all over the pillock.

I think 28 would be a problem for Rovers. He’d have no resale value at all, and despite the fact we are terrible at moving players on at the right time anyway, I expect that would prevent us from investing in a player with one decent contract left in them. This is in no way an endorsement of our supposed transfer model/strategy by the way.

While I doubt they would turn their noses up at stumbling to a promotion, there’s been nothing to suggest they have tried to make it happen in a decade. Crazy talk is hardly surprising. Everything about Venky’s ownership remains illogical, nonsensical and crazy.

The problem last year was lack of any sort of coherent, logical plan. The apparent lack of ambition is just a symptom of complete ineptitude - the story of the last 12 years. Winding down a managers contract but still allowing him to make “project” signings, and fail to reinvent loanees as something they aren’t. Then paying a fee for someone coming on a free in a few months anyway, but never playing him. Then there’s refusing to let him move on and replace a wantaway player. All topped of nicely with a shrug of their shoulders while all the potential rapidly evaporates before their eyes. Idiot manager, supported by idiots at all levels, employed by idiot owners.

At 32 he’s got the potential of a couple of good years still. His age and experience I actually see as a plus point.

Those stats are probably skewed quite heavily by the fact Morton takes a lot of set pieces. I don’t think there is much between Buckley and Morton at the moment, but I’d be picking the one who is actually ours and whose long term development may actually be useful to us. Obviously we can’t when he’s picking up 3 match bans for acts of petulance though.

It mattered enough to you to arrange a summit with our CEO to discuss didn’t it? Pretty sure pitch upgrades was on your initial agenda?

That’s true. But understandable as he was toeing what he perceived to be the party line.

They are literally the only three players I can remember him criticising while they played for us. Being constantly critical of Nyambe while he played for us the past few seasons, but refusing to have a bad word said about George Hirst can’t be a judgement based on their abilities or contributions. Like I said, it’s strange.

Some deeper underlying issues with some of Tony’s cronies, particularly Mark Venus. Failed a medical at Boro. Wigan weekly wage is a substantial increase in what Rovers offered him. We could’ve done with him at several points this season, particularly when we ended up with Travis playing right back. Obviously as soon as any player leaves Rovers they are shit/dead to you. However, you have never offered any sustained criticism to any Rovers player while they remained contracted to us, except for Nyambe, Mola and Bell. Strange that.

Reminder to all… YouTube highlight reels are not the best indicator of what to expect if/when a player actually signs! You need only cast your mind back 12 months to the Zeefuik ones. Look how that turned out.

There’s also “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. There’s no doubt we have looked improved when we have mixed it up a bit, and if we continue to do so I’m sure most fans will be happy enough. I’m struggling to think of any goals for that have come as a direct result of our playing out from the back… plenty in the goals against column though. Being so rigidly stuck on that style of play killed us against Burnley and Preston, the timing and the opponents making these the worst possible games to collapse in. The worry is that we will again stubbornly persist with it (to our detriment) when the pitches get better, or the personnel changes.

Had to watch this one from my sick bed, but very pleased with the win. Mixing the play up clearly works and gives us a chance even when we aren’t playing fantastically well. The carved up pitch might have done us a favour! Dack and Garrett were very good today, was very worried when he got that early booking but he approached the rest of the game in a very mature fashion. Praying Ayala stays fit, held the back 4 together well. Hedges is sometimes a bit of a victim of being a utility player, but he showed his quality again today.

I love the watching your favourite band analogy. At the moment Rovers are putting me in mind of the last time I saw Paul Weller. Everybody had to endure his new stuff that didn’t really go anywhere, it seemed stubbornly relentless Everyone in the place knew he was capable of belting out a Jam classic, or something off Stanley Road. A bit of Style Council would’ve been a really welcome change. But he persisted with the “new” to the point when he did play Wild Wood, everyone was just asking why he couldn’t have done that all along. Happy New Year all!

I’d love it if we played with proper wingers. JRC I think would make an excellent one in a 442, Hedges would do well on the left.

It’s the fact that nothing has changed. Mowbray bred apathy, Tomasson was the great Danish hope. There was a lot of positivity when he came in, however, our familiar slide down the table looks more inevitable by the day, and I think it’s more disappointment than dislike. He compounds this with his talking us down, despite our lofty league position. A bit of positivity might rub off on the fanbase, but nobody at the club seems to want that. Those no shows against Burnley and Preston either side of the World Cup break will anger people for a long time, and the lack of creativity and generally poor football certainly don’t help. Then there is the self inflicted damage of the pissing about/passing out from the back.

So you don’t care where we finish this season and don’t really think results are important. In fact you won’t even set any sort of target. Sounds familiar. I see you’ve got a new sound bite straight from the club to quote too. Yo-yoing once would give us more money than Venky’s have put in to this point, so I don’t understand why you’d take issue with it. Plenty of teams yo-yo for a couple of years and then stabilise in the Premier league. Why would that be problematic? A really disingenuous Mowbray comment. The real reason you don’t like seeing his name mentioned is that you were really reluctant to move him on, your support for him was unwavering for far longer than most fans, and you only committed to a massive u-turn once our season was in the toilet - and you hate to be reminded of that fact. It wasn’t a yellow card. Your selective interpretation has been proved wrong most recently by our failed appeal. You could make an argument that the rules need changing, but you aren’t even doing that. You are now arguing that the referees and an independent appeals board have implemented them incorrectly and you are unquestionably correct. I can’t believe the police paid you the slightest bit of attention, and hopefully it was just the lip service your petty display of bad losing warranted. I hope no Boro fans felt incited by Buckley throwing the ball… maybe your pal Susan will be having a word.

Oh yes!

I don’t really have any clearer idea on what sort of league finish you think would be acceptable. I’m afraid I don’t understand your Mowbray comment, Come on Chaddy, if it’d been the other way round and a Boro player had chucked the ball at one of ours you’d want him hung, drawn and quartered. You literally reported the Forest keeper to the police last year for much less!

You have a point here, but on the flip side, do we want players committing acts of petulance on the pitch all the time? Should bouncing the ball off the back of an opponents head whenever they are feeling a bit sulky become as commonplace as moaning about every decision? Does spitting on someone really do any damage? That time Joey Barton punched Pedersen in the stomach, it wasn’t really a hard punch. From acts like Buckley’s to the fact players dive and feign injury all the time, the scrutiny is always on the referee. Buckley and most other players need to grow up and be held accountable.

There is plenty wrong with refereeing standards. Personally I wish they would book players for exaggerating injuries, like they are supposed to. We’d see half a dozen a game. The inconsistencies and failings elsewhere don’t mean the officials got it wrong last night. As it was completely unnecessary to throw the ball at the back of his head, any force is excessive.

I think the excessive force is more around throwing the ball TO a player, Buckley threw the ball AT a player. He wasn’t giving him the ball back to restart the game, he was bouncing it off his head in an act of petulance. There was absolutely no need for him to be doing it, so it’s automatically an excessive use force.