https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20235427.blackburn-rovers-ceo-encouraged-season-ticket-sales-figures/ Where to start with this. The lack of autonomy is frightening. Having to get permission from Venky’s to extend the “loyalty” period?!?!

Quartered design

To be honest Joe, I’m completely the wrong target market for a kit. Unless they were super retro they weren’t likely to be my cup of tea! I’m a bit mixed on the home kit. The collar looks a bit weird, but it might look good on. Happy with the shade of blue, red details and the halves being reversed. Jury out til I see it in a bit more detail. I’ve tried to find a comparison for the collar, but can’t seem to see anything that looks similar. I’d describe it as standard size, bigger than the one on last seasons yellow kit if anyone fancies channeling their inner Cantona, no buttons. To me this shirt looked a bit cheap and a little boring. The red one will be like marmite. Thinking about it, I bumped in to Paul Fielder at the Liam Gallagher gig in King Georges… he told me we were having an adidas Spezial kit this season designed by Gary Aspden. I obviously took this with an enormous pinch of salt. However, for all the people who bought the Blackburn Ewood Spezial trainers, the shirt will go well with them. Maybe there is some truth in what he told me, though I can’t see someone who works for adidas being allowed to design for macron. It actually looks like it could’ve been made by Pretty Green.

I couldn’t say for sure as the home kit was folded up. I’m guessing solid though.

That’s a hell of a typo! Not correcting that one!

Wow. If point three is true that’s shocking. I’ve always thought Venus came across as an absolute prick. I know Ryan is a placid lad and probably an easy target for a bully, but it’s a shame he didn’t batter Venus.

I’ve just seen the three kits. The home is traditional halves, reversed on the back. Red macron logos. This is hard to explain, but it’s got a weird neckline that is quite deep with a bit of red on it… I’ll check out other macron kits for comparison and see if I can provide better insight. Away is navy with a royal blue trim. Has an actual collar. Looks like a golfing shirt. Third is red with a royal blue trim. It’s got Lancashire roses worked into the pattern all over it. Update: so the collar on the home kit is like this. The blue and white is revered, so blue collar on the white half and vice versa. The bit in the middle and the back of the collar is red.

Yep. Remember when Hoilett was signing “any day now”. Some things haven’t changed much.

I’m by no means ITK, but I have taken a real interest in these negotiations, and from the bits I’ve heard, this seems on the money. Similarly with Nyambe, only wanted paying like an integral, regular first team player. I believe his initial contract offer from the club was an extension… no/minimal pay rise. Nearly half what Davenport has been paid for 4 years.

Clocking up 200 appearances at the age of 24 while “never being fit” is quite an achievement.

The year option fallback has been an absolute curse in these instances I think. Clearly all three players were happy to negotiate 2 summers ago, but Waggott showed no urgency because of the ability to penny pinch for 12 months. Keeping them around for an extra year on their low wages in the same period we slashed Holtby, Downing, Bennett and all the rest off the wage bill is going to show a massive saving on the wage bill for last season. Big tick in the box for Waggott and Cheston. Meanwhile our players feel undervalued, but the negotiations stop at the clubs end because covid. Reading between the lines, the negotiations were mainly the club trotting out the usual “we’ve done all we can” message. Lenihan has seen his predecessor as captain earn a couple of million over the space of 2 years for hanging around a bit and occasionally turning out for Wigan and Fleetwood. Nyambe has seen Davenport, a player of a similar age who failed to make the grade at a big club come in and earn double his money to mostly sit on the bench. Rothwell May be a bit different and likely always saw us as a stepping stone. He stepped up to us from Oxford for a minimal fee as there was no way he was committing his future to the long term, and increased his earnings accordingly. Done the same again, except Oxford we’re smart enough to get a fee. Particularly in the case of Lenihan and Nyambe, the pleading of poverty probably isn’t going to wash. They’ve been here long enough to see some bad players pick up good money. I doubt either of their demands were outrageous, but they know their worth. Whether it’s us getting our house in order finally, or another spate of cost cutting, why should they let it harm their earning potential? So much talk about their lack of loyalty… the year option really isn’t a sign of good faith, it’s a pretty unloyal tactic from the club. Maybe if we had people running the show with a bit more ability and integrity it wouldn’t be an issue. We have to sell Brereton this summer. If we end up in the same position with him in 12 months it’s even worse given the fee he cost and the relative short time he’s actually been any use.

In his 200 + games he’s gone up for about 3 corners. He stays back to defend, whereas I bet at least 5 of Del Boys goals were from corners. apparently it makes me out of touch, but I think a full back should primarily be a defender. We’ve just lost a really good one. I think the more relevant stat is how many points we average with him in the team as opposed to out of it.

He does get done pretty quickly. Takes the opponents right wingers about 8 minutes most games.

There’s some really silly things being spouted about this, mostly on other platform. ”The contracts were on the table for 2 years” Yep. And in that time all the players have gained another 2 years experience, grown 2 years older and wiser, played another couple of hundred games between them. They’ve also had a one year option taken up on them meaning another year of wages below the level they can expect elsewhere. Even if we make allowances for the lack of timely negotiations, surely we should have been at the point this summer where we ripped up the previous offers and negotiated from the starting point of where the players are now, not where they were two years ago. ”The players are disloyal” If Nyambe, Rothwell and Lenihan have wronged the club, the club have by that logic done the dirty on Johnson, Davenport and a load of young lads this summer, and countless players before. ”The grass isn’t always greener. Ask Gestede, Marshall or even Phil Jones (!!!)” Or ask Raya, Cairney, or even Amarii Bell (!!!). ”Even Liverpool, City and PSG lose players on frees” And which of those claim their entire survival as a club is based on developing academy or cheaply signed players for an eventual transfer windfall? Funny how the same people who claim we can’t be spoken of in the same breath as times like Bournemouth, Brighton and West Brom are happy to make comparisons to absolute giants when it suits their narrative. Its inexcusably bad management to allow this to happen. One walking away, annoying, but ok. Two is really bad. But all three is unforgivably pathetic. I guarantee we spend more in the long run on what will turn out to likely be inferior replacements than we would’ve done if we’d offered them better terms. Broughton has a massive job on his hands, and needs the correct backing and autonomy to do so. Everything currently is illogical, cheap, and often amateurish. The saving grace might just be that we hit the start of a new “cycle” and the shortsightedness and stubbornness disappears for a year 🤞🤞

If that’s the case the model we are trying to implement is doomed to fail from the off. If the only players that have any value are a Brereton or Armstrong, unearthing one of them every year or two is going to be a really difficult task.

So Nyambe makes it three for three. ”The model” we are trying to operate on is broken. Badly. It’s a mammoth task for Greg Broughton to fix. Penny pinching, can kicking and a complete lack of foresight has led to three valuable first team players walking away for nothing. Our two longest serving players gone, both academy graduates, and both who statistically improve results massively when they play. We’ve also lost our only two remaining players who pre-dated Mowbray. It’s a good job they have gained some good will with the recent appointments, because this situation is extremely poor. If we still had Mowbray or had appointed another dullard in his place there’s be absolute uproar.

I’ll be happy enough if we see Dolan crossing the ball over for Gallagher instead of the other way round.

I’ve bought mine. I’ve spent too long previously denying myself of something I have enjoyed for almost my entire life in what I recognise as a futile protest. I still think the pricing is badly misjudged and the offering woefully inflexible. There also needs to be added value around match day experience. The disappointing (and even if we beat last seasons total, sub 10k in poor) sales show that the club needs to address these issues, but repeatedly fails to do so.

Good question! I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive, so possibly a bit of both. He definitely doesn’t just blindly agree with everything, there are always points of contention, decisions we question and he defends, and disagreements. I’m hopeful that going forward we can see some of the things we discussed come to fruition. To echo what I read on another thread earlier, actions speak louder than words.

Nothing from the owners, but we have recently discussed the marketing prospectus and the fan led review at length with Steve Waggott. We’ll be communicating our next steps and some upcoming projects after the AGM.

👏👏👏 spot on!!

I think this will be a good early indicator of how much backing the new set up will get. Broughton clearly rates Nyambe, and if Tomasson prefers playing a 4-4-2, I can’t see many better options out there. Obviously Mowbray never fully backed him and the contract offer reflected that. If he does stay it would suggest we’ve allowed the new guys to improve the offer, and that we are paying him at or near the going rate. If he ends up at a club on a similar footing to us, like Lenihan with Boro, there’ll be the start of faint alarm bells.

I’m hopeful that Waggott will now give up his Brockhall office to Broughton. He needs to now stay at Ewood 99% of the time and concentrate his efforts on the issues there. So many reasons to be positive about what is going on on the pitch. I think it would be very hopeful to expect anything really radical, but serious effort needs to go into fan engagement, ticketing, sorting out the ground, marketing, commercial etc.

Oh I know Gav. Unfortunately our head of commercial spent about 2 hours telling me how wonderful they were and how they would replace tickets sales as a revenue stream for Rovers.

Who wants a season ticket when they could have a JDT NFT!