I’m certainly not complaining about any improvements to the Riverside!

I’ve just received the following update from what I posted last night: “This was the reason the murals were behind the riverside at the match. We were waiting for our memorabilia guy to work with our maintenance team yesterday to install across the back of the riverside. Just a shame they weren’t the other way around which gave supporters the impression they were just being dumped.”

For absolute clarity, my best guess would be to knock off several zeros!

Not directly, but I believe our immediate financial situation is much improved and I’d expect incomings to bolster the squad.

Only to reiterate how unpopular the decision was. We discussed at length and provided examples of feedback and proposed solutions previously.

Perhaps Travis isn’t happy here anymore. Maybe he thinks he should be picked ahead of Wharton/Tronstad and makes his feelings on it known?

Update from meeting with Waggott tonight regarding the pictures and Liverpool Legends night… Regarding the pictures dumped at the back of the Riverside: It’s not acceptable, nothing should be getting dumped there and especially not pictures of Jack Walker. Thanks for bringing it to his attention and he will get it sorted right away. Things that are being thrown away should be in skips, but these could be put up around the concourses or used elsewhere. Asked me to forward him the pictures. They are definitely from blues bar and were taken down several years ago (pre Covid) when the blues bar had a refurb as it was in need of one, it had got tired and a bit of a mess. It had a full refurb with new floor, seating booths, and obviously walls were decorated. He found out about the Liverpool legends night via the Rovers media team (who had picked up on it yesterday or today). The booking of Rooms is done by Sodexo and a third party company has hired the space as many do every month. There is supposed to be a process where any sensitive/commercially conflicting bookings are flagged to the club. This hadn’t happened. He didn’t seem very happy that it was taking place and agreed with all the reasoning we gave that fans were angered by it. The use of Rovers name or IP in any of these externally booked events would be a breach. The entire matter is being looked at.

Hilton Duru Gamble Wharton Batty Travis Garrett Gilsenan Leonard Telalovic Ennis

In little over a month Alan Shearer is doing a legends night in Blackburn… at King George’s hall rather than Ewood Park. Less than three weeks on from that the club where he became a legend and won his only major honours is hosting three Liverpool players. Our community trust are reluctant to do any work to build our fan base in places like Chorley and Great Harwood at the risk of upsetting PNE and Accrington Stanley. It’s pretty undeniable that we have lost far more potential fans to Liverpool and Man Utd via Sky TV than we ever would to any team on a bus route from Ewood. So as well as it being insulting having glory supporting fans roaming round our ground listening to tales from other teams players, it’s also facilitating and encouraging the exact sort of football “supporting” that damages clubs like ours.

I think we’d need a full back considering the amount of time Travis and Hill have both played there. Maybe Buckley will be seen as the Travis replacement in midfield? I know he can’t really do the same role as Travis, but Garrett could.

All the pictures in blues bar came down and the walls were painted magnolia a couple of years ago. I may be wrong but I think it coincides with when Sodexo took over the running of the place. There is the odd picture on the wall including one of Mowbray and one of Elton John, but the murals have been gone ages. How long they have been sat at the back of the Riverside I can’t say.

I didn’t really register, but you may be right. Carter definitely made a big effort and walked right down the Riverside deliberately applauding the fans. Looking back he may well have been making a point.

I’d swap most players in our squad for Sean Morrison. He might be 32, but if he’d been playing for us today and not Rotherham we’d have won comfortably.

The JDT era was supposed to be the start of something better, with a new “model”. The old model was rubbish and poorly executed. “Polish them up and sell for a profit” fell at the first hurdle due to a nonsensical and arbitrary wage structure that meant players walked away for nothing. The new model seems to only expand on and double down on the old one, and while better use of the academy and a better approach to contracts should lead to improvements it’s still doomed to failure. Our coaches aren’t good enough. Let’s take Ben Benson as the most obvious example - without even going into his lack of experience, he is in charge of goalkeepers and set pieces. We are terrible at defending set pieces, particularly our goalkeeper, and the only time we score from a set piece is when Adam Wharton puts a corner on his brother’s head. Our entire coaching set up is cobbled together, inherited and no doubt cheap. Questions have to be asked about our injury problems too. Our signings have been mixed. Tronstad is clearly a well thought out addition, Sigurdsson a good addition, and Hyam is good championship centre back. Brittain is nowhere near Rankin-Costello - the only fullback fit for JDT’s purpose - who was on the verge of being shipped out. We’ve wasted money on Markanday (who’d have been released by Spurs by now and playing non/lower league), Wahlstedt (plenty of reliable keepers available on frees), Telalovic (no need to relitigate), Ennis looking disastrous. Our loans are invariably more young players when we are bereft of any nouse and experience. And most of the young lads coming through aren’t trusted to get a kick even when we are stretched to the limit. Perhaps it would’ve been different if we hadn’t had the budget debacle this summer, but I’m not sure. The deeper this model is embedded the worse things are getting. The squad gets less experienced every window, we are shifting players in the cheap to keep the lights on, we are wedded to a style of play that is completely reliant on and only suited to a few players (take Adam Wharton out of this side and we are completely useless). How aligned JDT and Broughton are is questionable. Looks like Travis is off, didn’t bother warming up today, which in theory would be fine. However when he’s replaced with teenage loanees it weakens us.

The other full back is far more of a liability.

5/1 on a Rotherham win, 8-1 Rotherham win and both teams to score. Rovers win, I’m happy. Rotherham win, I’ll win more than enough to drown my sorrows. 0-0 draw incoming.

Wahlstedt (reluctantly) Travis Hill Carter Pickering Tronstad Wharton Garrett Szmodics Sigurdsson Telalovic

The red card is completely on the manager. Hyam is clearly miles off full fitness, he was labouring after about 30 minutes and needed to come off at half time. Brittain is a waste of space, I used to think Tyler Morton was the softest player I’d ever seen but Cowardly Callum makes him look like Vinnie Jones. Hill looks a lot more comfortable at full back. Wrong subs too late. Were a soft touch and were too thin on the ground squad wise, but that was absolutely woeful. Again.

First goal from a ball over the top catching them out. Second one we attacked with a bit of intent, didn’t overplay and got a shot off quickly. Abandoning the principles has served us well when going forward here.

Low bar though it was, why leave out our best 2 players from Boxing Day? I don’t understand why we haven’t made some subs yet considering this silly 5 rule. Looks as though a lot of the players aren’t on board with these tactics any more.

Whoever is playing on the left for Hull will have a field day against Markanday and Brittain.

Doesn’t deserve to be in the squad. His lack of commitment and effort is ridiculous.

An ok signing on the surface, nothing to get too excited about, if it happens. If it’s the sum total of our January business though it’s a joke. Seems a strange area to invest our limited funds in when you consider the glaring weaknesses in the squad.

This is kind of the worry. I think there is potentially a good keeper in Wahlstedt but his current form is frightening. If he continues to give goals away we risk him being ruined for Rovers, if not completely. I think he needs taking out of the firing line for a spell, and I expect he’s nervous as hell about another costly mistake - when that worry creeps in it tends to become a self fulfilling prophecy. I’d give whichever of our young lads has the most potential a go and let them concentrate on the basics.

I want a keeper in who isn’t throwing soft shots in his own goal. In the last 2 games we’ve conceded 3 goals that were tamely hit straight at the keeper. Current form is cause for panic.