They had planned to go overseas, Portugal I believe, but that hasn’t panned out due to Covid. So instead they have gone to the University of Stirling because it was about one of the only places with availability at short notice. So for no reason at all, the powers that be are wasting money, using vastly inferior facilities to those we have at Brockhall (remember Mowbray telling us he didn’t want players training on artificial surfaces as they cause injuries when they wrecked the Ewood pitch), and going to Scotland even though I’m pretty sure visitors from Blackburn were banned by Nicola Sturgeon.

I watched the second half last night as I couldn’t sleep. For all the complaining a few hours previously about the Italian antics, they have nothing on Neymar. Kick and run and jump on the floor. I don’t think he’s anywhere near the levels of the great Brazil sides. I think look ordinary in the 1994 side. Poor game from what I saw of it. Brereton again dropping deep and drifting wide a lot but not seeing enough of the ball. Cracking header, and I hoped that would convince Chile to try using him centrally and hitting him with crosses.

Poor lad might have a bit of a wait if the club are sending him a shirt!

I think any delay is probably due to empty shelves

To be fair to @Bigdoggsteel, it was a pretty commonly held opinion amongst Rovers fans around that time that Dack was better than Grealish. Wigan fans kept throwing Powell into the argument too.

“Unfortunately, at the minute, I cannot give any confirmed dates for their reveal, as there a number of factors that impact this.” Two paragraphs later… “The Roverstore has had a full refurbishment and this has been ongoing for the last month or so. We’re on schedule to reopen in line with when we plan to launch the kits.” Spot the contradiction.

Someone is trying to shift their recent concourse buys on eBay. Think he might have to accept a best offer on this one… https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blackburn-Rovers-Umbro-Full-Zip-Hooded-Jacket-Player-Issue-BEN-BENSON-GK-COACH-/313585578222?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

I’m struggling with specifics off the top of my head. Sitting watching every game on a screen in the same setting has meant they have all blurred into one largely disappointing mess. I think Buckley has a great first touch, good feet, a lot of awareness and is a good passer off the ball. Most of his weaknesses appear to be physical, which can be worked on to a degree, certainly more so than technical ability.

I’m really hoping for big things from Buckley this season. I’d love to see him and Travis as a long term midfield pairing for us. I felt he maybe failed to grab the opportunity a couple of times last year, but I think he will be a key squad member when it clicks. Time to turn those glimpses into consistency.

Chapman signing another year is very surprising, and it leads me to thing a proper embargo is looming. Extending deals of players whose registration we hold is permissible while bringing in new players is more difficult. He seems to be a player Mowbray doesn’t really want, and was likely on a better deal with us than he could hope of getting in League one. He will probably be happy to make up the squad numbers for another year on double the basic wage he’d command elsewhere.

Losing Cat 1 would’ve happened if the proposed plan to sell off half of our most valuable asset had gone ahead. Raya was the most recent player lost on the cheap, soon to be followed by some/all of Armstrong, Nyambe and Rothwell, maybe others. I’m not saying I’d welcome administration, but those arguments aren’t strong.

Let’s see if the prick responds…

He will love Venky’s… they let him pick all our managers!

Why should we “let the fee shit go”. We look to be heading into an embargo this summer, which may well impact on our survival in the second tier, so we have every right to question it. I’m happy enough for Brereton to be getting these opportunities (although I will be annoyed if its cost us another million quid to Forest), but I don’t give a shit about the Chilean national team in the medium or long term. I care about all aspects of my club though. And as for your comments about us being a stone in his shoe, and Brereton being surrounded by mediocrity… we have had hundreds of better players than Brereton even in my lifetime. He isn’t even anywhere close to being our best player currently. If he hadn’t got this call up he’d have only ever have gone on to be talked about in discussions about worst ever signings along with Kevin Davies and Corrado Grabbi. As it is, he will probably go down as in interesting curiosity and the answer to a trivia question in a decades time. You talk about him like he’s a stifled Pele. You are by your own admission not a Rovers fan. You are a Brereton obsessive, so stick to the Brereton thread. If a Preston fan came in here making comments like that they’d be banned from here.

Under a different manager, Ainsworth for example, I’d actually be happy enough with this. Excited even. No expectations of promotion this year, but I’d fancy us to stay clear of relegation if we kept hold of the likes of Nyambe and Rothwell, and players like JRC and Dolan to improve and excel. I’d see this as a genuine start of a “journey” and a long term plan I could get on board with. Unfortunately we’ve got Mowbray, who would certainly rather pad the squad out with never-has-beens and seems more interested in developing other teams players than our own.

The timing of all this hasn’t really benefitted Rovers. It would’ve been madness to offer him a new contract this time last year. Even 6 weeks ago there’d have been a decent enough argument not to offer him one this year considering his form over three seasons and our current financial position. We’d have likely been in a position where we only offered him a year extension on the same money due to the fact we’ve already invested in him so heavily. Now he’s become a hot commodity completely out of nowhere and he holds all the cards. If a bid comes in from a top flight club, or even a second tier club that harbours genuine promotion ambition, he will likely fancy it. Playing in the Copa America probably also increases the number of potential suitors dramatically. A Spanish team may fancy a punt. If we turned down any moves he isn’t going to sign a new deal, and would be hacked off. If there is no concrete interest he might fancy his chances of a decent Bosman move in 12 months. If there is no interest now, there probably will be if he has a decent season next year. If he is crap next year, he might stay. Not sure I believe the Leeds link, but you can bet his agent will be busy. If we could get near what we paid for him I think it would present a huge piece of good fortune for us.

What are Brereton’s attributes that would make him effective through the middle? He played on the left of a front 3 for Chile against Bolivia. They looked to change their shape slightly against Uruguay, but Brereton spent most of the game drifting wide and dropping deep looking to get on the ball. He’s far happier picking up the ball wide and deep and running towards goal than trying to get on the end of things in the box - he just doesn’t do this. If we go into the season expecting Brereton to lead the line as a centre forward, we are bang in trouble. Maybe the reason we saw some improvement in him last year was the fact he was one of a very small number of players Mowbray actually utilised correctly.

I was thinking that Waggott had been quite cute in really looking after the young adult age fans. I thought maybe he realised they were less scarred than the older fanbase and that they might be easier to get and keep onside. Seems I’ve credited him with far too much nous. The pro-rata credit thing I can almost see the justification if you got iFollow passes. The cost would cover your iFollow access. The multiple tickets in one household thing is a bigger issue as there is no benefit at all for any household buying more than one ticket and the club should show some reciprocal good will for those who did. The mosaic thing seems petty, and changing the age bracket seems sneaky and/or grasping.

There’s a few reasons why I get “uptight” about it. I must have missed the subsection in the FFP rules where £7 million “gambles” were permissible and don’t impact your sustainability. It’s become a favourite tactic of Waggott to try and keep the fanbase subservient by dangling the threat of FFP sanctions or financial oblivion over us like a shit sword of Damocles. The first time the radio silence coming out of Ewood is broken, I guarantee Waggott will be attempting to guilt trip hard up Blackburners into parting with £399 they can ill afford. Does it become our business if the club decide to, I don’t know, claw back some off the losses they have made on failed Venky gambles by flogging the training ground? Somewhere today, just like yesterday and every day before for the last couple of years, some Rovers fans will be peddling the narrative that “we will be the next Bury/Bolton” without Venky’s, or “we wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for them. There’s a whole bigger discussion to be had about why this is a load of old bollocks and a lazy argument that’s insulting to all involved, but in short, they aren’t protecting us from oblivion, they are the cause of the prospect of it. We as fans also stand to lose a lot more than Venky’s thanks to their constant and continued mismanagement of all things Blackburn Rovers. They clearly don’t care that much about the relative pittance they continue to piss away year on year, but there will have to come a time when that changes. It would’ve happened by now if they weren’t more bothered about losing face that hundreds of millions of pounds. Meanwhile our pride has taken a hammering already, thousands of fans have disengaged with something they loved deeply, and we’ve had to endure dumbing down of every single aspect. We are in danger of losing OUR club.

I didn’t watch the whole game very closely, but from what I saw it looked like Brereton was playing the left side of a front 3, as he tends to for Rovers. His movement was a lot better, and that header in the first half was what I’d like to see more of from him. The movement of those around him helped too - the midfield were willing to get up and beyond him and give him an out ball. He was a willing runner as usual, and it was a nice tidy finish Plenty of things to knock Mowbray for (spending 7 million on Brereton in the first place is probably one of them), but lets acknowledge that he has utilised Brereton fairly effectively this season, hence the upturn in his form. Probably the one player our system suits. The lad is most comfortable wide in a front three, and it plays to his attributes far more than playing centrally would. There an argument for him playing as a target man here I suppose due to his height advantage, but not against seasoned Championship centre halves. It’s still surreal to me, so it must be mental for the lad. Looks like he is grabbing the opportunity with both hands though, fair play to him.

No problem with that between them as mates. Fans referring to him as a club legend is what I was referring to.

Few other points worthy of discussion… Waggott came out during the 2019-20 season and said he had “gone to bat” for the fans and kept the prices down. Did he fail to do that last year and this? If this is some sort of compromise and Venky’s wanted even higher prices it’s really worrying. It also begs the question of why Venky’s are involving themselves at that level and what is the point of Waggott. I think it’s also pretty transparent that Waggott thinks upping the price in the Riverside means people will move from there to another area if the price is the same. He just doesn’t get it. He will be hoping this is the case so he can bang on about his crackpot pipe dream of a hotel “like we had at Coventry”.

The whole narrative of a price freeze is misleading. When the prices were hiked last year only 2.5k renewed, many of which will be concessions. The majority of existing season ticket holders didn’t bother - wise decision in the end as they wouldn’t have got to go all season. Those in the Riverside will now be expected to pay £399 as opposed to the £319 last time, if they want to renew.

Middlesbrough is A++ ⭐️⭐️