I think signing Yorke was a mistake. Him and Cole were a top pairing for the red rats, but by the time Yorke came to us I think his hunger had gone. Some of his traits seemed to rub off on Cole at times too. I can only remember one good game of Yorke's off the top of my head. Villa away in the FA Cup when we won 4-1 and he scored two.

I remember being impressed by the £8m fee as the words "club record signing" were mentioned quite a bit in the papers, on news reports etc. The reality of the fee and wages probably didn't really sink in due to being young. It was also the Champ Man 01/02 era and I was glued to that game at the time. I thought signing him on there for Rovers was an impressive feat, as it was difficult to do. Then when it happened for real...wow! 😁. I agree though, the mess of the last 12 years really makes me appreciate the signing, and those days, all the more.

I am currently part way through reading the fantastic Issue 107 of 4000 Holes, on the Rovers' 2000-10 era, and having read an excellent piece on Souey and "the myth", I felt inspired to make this thread in order to reminisce about one of the finest strikers in Premier League history. A man who wore the famous blue and white shirt and scored the key goal to land Rovers the League Cup in Cardiff. The man? Andy Cole. This thread is also a show of support for Coley, after he recently hit out at online critics for disrespecting his name by comparing him with Darwin Nunez. I think he is often viewed unfairly due to silly comments made by Hoddle on his finishing ability. He was certainly no Jason Roberts in the finishing stakes, and 187 Premier League goals tells us that. Link to the Nunez story here: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/andy-cole-nunez-liverpool-comparison-28815421 It still makes me proud to think that a top Premier League marksman like Andy Cole played for the Rovers and played a major role in the club being successful. I remember hearing Coley say in an interview, how he regretted leaving Rovers and wished that he had stayed longer. This is backed up by 4000 Holes, where he is quoted as saying "I so wanted to see out my career at Rovers. That picture in my head had seemed so perfect - great club, family club, great team, scoring goals - but it had gone". Those last four words are in relation to a bust up he had with Souey, which forced him to leave the club. The sad thing is, it was just Souey being silly and petty at the time which forced Cole out. He would often call Cole "a myth" and ask him how many European Cups he had won. Banter, maybe? An attempt to gee up Cole, maybe? This spilled over one day during a training ground bust up between them, and that was that for their relationship. On a brighter note, Cole revealed that Souey apologised to him for what went on at Rovers when the pair bumped into each other at Euro 2016. Water under the bridge now, but damn! It was all so avoidable. Anyway, a few questions: How did you feel upon hearing the news that Rovers had signed Cole? Shocked? Excited? Stunned? Was there anybody, apart from Vinjay, thinking "I don't want that United #@/:;"! anywhere near Rovers"? I'm getting excited thinking about it even now, and he signed almost 22 years ago! (Where have the years gone?) What a signing though. What a statement of intent that was. I was absolutely buzzing at the time about the fact we were getting a top striker in. The reported £8m transfer fee only added to it all. The United link didn't even come into it for me. What are some of your favourite Cole memories in a Rovers shirt? Top 3 Cole goals in Rovers colours? Apart from the cup final goal. I will name my three after having a think, but the goal of his at Loftus Road against Fulham is up there for me. Yellow HSA shirt, Tugay lofted through ball over the top, Cole chests it and smashes it into the net. I simply love that goal. Quality and clinical. How did you feel when he left the club in 2004? A clip to remind us of some of his goals. Tugay is the main subject of the video, but it has a few Cole finishes within it. Cole made 99 appearances for Rovers, scoring 37 goals. He helped us to finish 10th in our first season back, helped get us into Europe twice, scored the winner in Cardiff, and played his part in ensuring we stayed up in his last season here. Worth every penny. Thanks for the memories, Coley. What you did for the Rovers, especially in the cup final, won't be forgotten around these parts.

That's exactly how I see it. We always have been a big fish in this Division, yet for some reason certain former managers, members of the hierarchy and some of our own fans like to think of us as a small club fortunate to be competing at this level. I totally understand the arguments about the number of televised games from a season ticket and attendance point of view. However, when looking at Sky putting us on so much, in isolation, it points towards the club moving in the right direction. Something special is happening at Rovers and Sky and other media sources are sensing it too. I see it as a good thing that they want to show our games so much, especially at the business end of the season. After being the forgotten club for so long, I view this as Rovers finally waking up and the likes of Sky cottoning on to that being the case.

Chelsea in the FA Cup semi is the biggest one for me. We had them on the ropes for a while. Then that Morten header happens. None of us are likely to forget it. Imagine how Morten must feel whenever he thinks about that game. Another one I was gutted about, might be a bit left field. Birmingham away in April 2006. We entered April with a genuine shout of nabbing 4th place and with it Champions League football. We were only 2 points off 4th at the start of the month. However, draws against Wigan and Portsmouth set us back a bit before we got to that Brum game. Big club away was our game in hand on 4th placed Tottenham. Win and we would cut the gap on them to 4 points with three games remaining. Lose and our top 4 chance was as good as over. We lost 2-1 and I can remember feeling particularly gutted that night. Might have been me being greedy, I suppose, but it points to the brilliant job Sparky did. To go from trying to avoid relegation a season earlier to achieving a top 6 finish the following season, with a player like Bellamy in the side and us landing a number of blows on the big heads. Superb. One of the best and exciting Rovers teams and seasons in my lifetime.

I agree. Whilst it's difficult to have much sympathy for City, this is a case, imo, of the Premier League trying to flex its muscles because its beloved cartel of clubs has been broken up by a club that isn't supposed to be up there. A club that has won 4 out of the last 5 titles and has left United in the dust. A club that has seen off Liverpool, who look to be falling away now. Arsenal, who before this season, weren't even a thought for City. The bigwigs can't have their dearly thought of brushed aside like this, so something needs to be done. If City are found guilty of breaches then fair enough, they will have to face the consequences. That needs to apply to the other big heads too though. There's no way Chelsea can carry on spending as they are, I'd like to think. Those two clubs are, imo, mainly responsible for the crazy levels of spending that are required nowadays to win the Premier League.

Sounds oh so familiar. Their latest manager, Gattuso, walking away after half a season due to a failure to sign players in the January transfer window. Hmm. How far away are we from that scenario? A Valencia based journalist has said the following in that article, let's see how it matches up: 1) "No manager in the world will be able to succeed while the current owner and current management model are in place. Absolutely nobody". Snap! 2) "They're doomed before even starting. Valencia isn't run as a proper club and the owner isn't invested in the success of the team". Snap! 3) "The squad is getting weaker every season, and taking everything into account...relegation is inevitable. It will happen eventually, even if not this season". Snap! 4) "Maintaining a good relationship with the club's supporters has never appeared to feature highly on the reclusive owner's list of priorities". Snap! 5) "The owner is sitting on his sofa playing with Valencia as a toy. Nobody understands why he bought the club. Fans are ashamed of their club because of him". Snap! 6) "Valencia will continue to sink as long as the owner stays, because he has abandoned the club to people who don't know about football. The only future is a change in ownership and to pray that the next one is better". Snap! Every single one of those quotes could have easily come from Rich Sharpe, talking about Rovers. There's a common theme that springs out of that article, and seems to apply to almost every club that finds itself in a mess: The owner having too close a relationship with a particular agent or agents. Maybe it's just a strange coincidence.

What a load of shite. Some football fans and YouTube pundits are lost and have forgotten what the game is all about. A promotion chance is infront of them and their response is "but, erm, yeah, erm, not sure, maybe it's too early, erm, yeah, maybe we need two more seasons to build, erm, we'd only get battered in the Prem, those nasty billionaires, erm, I prefer this Division". Bollocks. In two years time the club could be on its arse, heading in the wrong direction and you're looking back thinking "why didn't we go for it". There's no time to wait around and pick and choose in football.

Another thing which highlighted the damage done by this regime for me. We get thrashed by the Dingles in embarrassing fashion, yet there were some on here and elsewhere trying to brush it off as "it's only one game", "it's not the end of the world", "we weren't expected to beat them" and "we're still third". If that result and performance doesn't bother you, then what will, was my thought about all of that.

You're right and this isn't a comparison between the two, but it has been an issue from day one under these owners. The bald rat couldn't get rid of Nelsen, Salgado, Samba, Roberts etc quick enough. Strong characters and leaders who see through the bullshit scare managers at Venky owned Rovers. Characters and Easy Street don't mix. They scare the hierarchy too, hence the stream of yes men that have been a constant feature throughout.

It does look particularly bad at that point. The six yard box a muddy and watery mess infront of Flowers. The weather played its part too. I can't remember the exact awards that were given out for the pitch, but there was something awarded towards the end of the 90s. Best pitch in the Premier League or best maintained? Something along those lines. Might have been around the 1997/98 season. Somebody else might be able to recall it better. The pitch was excellent for a good while from summer of '95 onwards though. Bring back those box nets from 97/98 too, I say.

Yeah, both were bad from a pitch point of view. The pitch improved drastically from the summer of '95 onwards. Two games against Chelsea here at Ewood, both from the year 1995. The first clip is from March, the second is seven months later, in October. Look at the difference in pitch quality seven months later:

The look on Broughton's face. That's the look I have had on my face for 12 years where Rovers are concerned. I think he's starting to realise what many of us realised a while ago about the mess at the top. Either that, or it's the fact he has to front up again when the appeal most likely fails that has him concerned.

First time I've seen it in this form, despite knowing about most of its content. Two examples here to illustrate a point: 1) A few years ago there was an agent alleged to have too much influence at a North London club. A few of his clients turned up as signings and and key figures in the boardroom. During this time the club spiralled, dropping down to 8th, facing embarrassment on the pitch, increasing fan anger and protests against the owners. Sound familiar? Anyway, the club later decided to, basically, tell that agent to piss off and now no longer deal with him. Some of those clients are no longer at the club too. That club is now flourishing and is top of the league. 2) The same agent in the above story, is then alleged to have started having an influence at a Merseyside club by having the ear of their owner. That club has become a total mess over the last couple of years, facing a relegation battle for two seasons running, with fans fuming, protesting, and wanting the board to be sacked. A familiar theme, it would seem. Only 10 days or so ago, the agent concerned, was challenged on air and admitted to having had dealings with the club before, but that the owner didn't always listen to him. He also stated, when pushed, that he would advise the owner to appoint Bielsa as their next manager. Guess what? Bielsa only flew into London a day or two before this radio interview took place, to have talks with the owner. Coincidence? The owner ended up going for a different manager in the end, and already after one game we can see how the mood has lifted at that club. Going against the advice of certain agents seems to act as a cure for teams in a mess. Who would have thought it? Meanwhile, in the land of make belief, movie directors want viewers to believe that there are no issues, despite 12 years of bullshit and despite there being clues of the problem makers still being around. Oh, and I have to commend filmmakers for their recent portrayal of errors involving paper as always being genuine mistakes, which must always be forgiven and promptly moved on from. Great news for those of you who work in admin roles! These movies and their fantasy plots, eh?

Even Sky know the score tonight. Co commentator saying we needed O'Brien plus 3 or 4 more in addition to make a real push for the play offs. The January window will baffle many, especially those who don't buy into the "woe is me" script.

Some valuable lessons and teachings for us Rovers fans there, arbitro. The theme of the article is "the noble man" and revolves around a selfless character named Greg Broughton. For those not listening at the back this is what this piece of literature is trying to tell us. You'd do well to pay attention to this as this is likely to come up in future exam papers: 1) He is a noble man, who cannot put the club at financial risk. 2) Making it all about the play offs and persuading the owners to go for it is an ego thing. 3) They could do that if they wanted to, but him and Jon aren't about ego. Vying for promotion and demanding it are the works of the spoilt, the unruly, and the impatient. 4) The noble man is deeply pained by the failure to sign players like Ahmedhodzic. He wants us to know that parachute payments are the cause of his pain and that this is why the club lost out on the player to Sheffield United. Be in no doubt, he certainly wants quality players in too. If only those parachute payments didn't exist. Sigh. 5) But, but, the noble man also wants us to know that parachute payments and signing such players aren't the be all and end all. Please consider what potentially can happen to those clubs who show some ambition. They might get the player, but at what cost? Transfer embargoes, as in the case of Sheffield United. That is the cost. They got the player, but was it worth it? You must consider this. What good is promotion if thou hast to face a transfer embargo along the way? 6) He is the noble one, who has come to save the football club, by doing things differently to what other promotion chasing clubs do. Remember, it's not about victory, it's about honour. It's not about winning, it's the taking part that counts. Most importantly for you all, as well as for the noble man, it's all about development, development and more, development. Right, class. Your homework for Wednesday is to write an 800 word essay on what makes Broughton the right man for Rovers and why you think he will be a success. There is plenty of material in this regard on twitter, facebook and brfcs. I am happy for you to look at these resources as part of your research, but do not plagiarise. We will find out if you have done so. Good luck, and see you on Wednesday.

Big Dunc revealed the other day that he came close to landing the Rovers and Boro jobs in the summer. Of course he did. Not doubting what he has said or a slight on him, just that I don't like what it possibly suggests. Personally, that says enough for me as to what we can expect should JDT leave. It'll be somebody like Woodgate, who will probably be grateful for the opportunity and jump at the chance to take on the 'project'.

He's persisting with Vale for two reasons, in my view: 1) There's little other choice 2) He's trying to increase Vale's value by giving him some playing time. It isn't because JDT was a top striker, therefore he must see something in Vale, and us plebs know nothing. It is all about the project and trying to add player value.

Waited until today to post my thoughts and have only just caught up with the last 20 odd pages of the thread. A lot of this has already been said. Apologies in advance for length of post. An absolute farce of a situation and one which leads me to the conclusion that nothing will ever get better under these owners. Anything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Chance after chance to kick on passes us by. Embarrassment levels only increase. When that keeps on happening for 12 years and counting, what else is there to conclude apart from this club being cursed? There's no luck under these either, although luck has nothing to do with this debacle. There have been many lows under this regime, but this one is particularly low. All summer and for the last few months others and me have been calling for us to go and get a "proper midfielder". To then have the best midfielder in the Championship in recent times ready and willing to sign for us...a scenario which none of us would have deemed realistic on January 1st...but to mess it up due to some dickhead, with SEM links, not getting the paperwork right? It's unbelievable and raises many questions as to what might have happened. This is not the first time such a thing has happened either. Glen's recent posts on Silvester were interesting and concerning at the sane time, and have helped to add a few more pieces to the jigsaw in my mind. Others who feel the same way, may also be joining the same dots. Sadly, the club is finished, unless we can get this lot out or they decide to sell up. Nothing gets better until all of the poison is removed from the body. My ire is aimed, in particular, towards Silvester and Pasha. The two with old ties. Anybody else at the club with SEM ties is fair game for me too. Get them all out. Rovers have been a shambles since late 2010 and it's about time we tried to establish what the root cause is. I refuse to blame the fall guys any longer for this mess. Why was Bala's so called, right hand man, not overseeing such a big deal by being alongside Silvester? A deal which potentially involved £10m. I find that strange. If not him, why was the CEO not overseeing it through to the finish? I actually feel for Broughton and JDT in this situation. I don't blame the former for this. He did his bit by having the O'Brien deal lined up. I liken Broughton's work in this instance to what Cheston did a few years back, when he worked diligently to have Neil Warnock lined up to manage us. Only for Cheston's good work to be undone by tossers deciding Owen Coyle was a better idea. I wonder who suggested Coyle, and why? Now, we have a similar situation where we have missed out on a top player at this level, who will probably never look at us again. Was somebody spooked by the money that was about to be spent on O'Brien in terms of wages and future transfer fee? Was it deliberate or a genuine error? I find it hard to believe we were going to pay him £40k plus a week for the next six months and commit to a £10m permanent transfer when we have been scrambling around for cheap deals for years. Broughton says the "process" was set up 10 years ago. Firstly, by who? Secondly, who has been overseeing that process for the last 10 years? The answers to those two questions are crucial to understanding why the club is a mess. He's not going to see this, but I'd like to apologise to Lewis O'Brien as a Rovers fan, in any case. This shambles is not the real Blackburn Rovers that we all know and love. Our club has been in a bad way for a long time and is a mess in the way that it is ran. We hope you get to play again this season for a foreign club, if that is possible. Silvester should be the first one out on his ear, IMO. He's not likely to be going anywhere though. Him and Lowey were appointed way back and have remained in place despite all kinds of ins and outs at the club over the years. A bit strange, that. They must both just be very good at what they do. That, and Bala being a loyal guy too, of course. The real issues are stemming from above the heads of Waggott and Broughton, imo. They are the only ones we see though and who front up. Someone mentioned patsy, Broughton is the patsy! A cynic might say that's exactly how some would like it.

You're right. Fans of other clubs see us sat in the play off places and take the lack of public protests and unrest towards the owners as a sign that things are good now. That the owners have learnt their lesson and should be given credit for still putting money in after all these years. If they knew how much of a shambles the club has been, and still is, under these owners I think they would be stunned. It has been utter shit from the moment they walked through the doors. Now we have another moment for others to laugh at. Other clubs have had it bad too, and there is certainly competition for this lot in the 'worst owners ever' stake. However, 12 years of this crap, with things getting worse, more embarrassing, more ridiculous. I don't think I've ever seen anything else like it.

I imagine they then spent 90 minutes arguing over who was going to ring Barry and tell him there's a £10m obligation fee involved. "Steve, it's your turn". "No. I rang him last time. Suhail, can you do it, please. Tell him he would be best midfielder in the Championship and that he would be an important signing for us. He'll listen to you". "Erm, Gregg, you're incharge of signings, I'll leave it with you, if you don't mind. You know the ins and outs more than I do". After all the back and forth, they suddenly look at the clock and realise it's 10:50 pm. "The time! Ring him now. Quick". Barry's phone keeps going to voicemail and panic is setting in. Then Suhail drops the bombshell which almost causes Steve to pass out. "Guys. Shit! I forgot. It's 4 am in Pune. The boss is in bed by midnight every night". "What! How could you forget that? What are we going to do now?" "Just send it. Send it. Get the deal sheet in, we've got 5 minutes left, we'll have to deal with the questions in the morning". 10:58 pm: the deal sheet goes in. The three amigos exit the building silently, the distress visible on their face. Feb 1st 2023: It's the morning after the night before and Barry has woke up to the news that he might have to pay £10m for a loan signing. He has never paid that much for a player before and isn't about to start doing it now. Nobody has seen or heard from Steve, Gregg and Suhail this morning, but more worrying are the noises coming out that the EFL is to blame for the O'Brien deal not going through. Disclaimer: Fictional.

A good feeling after years of early cup exits. Sounds like Pears, Carter and Dack were excellent tonight. Dack was getting into dangerous positions and could have scored 2. The old Dack is slowly returning. Looking forward to the Leicester game, which should be televised. We have a chance of doing them. They have some quality players, but have been cold in numerous games this season too.

I assumed he was a Stanley fan as he covers a lot of their games, but I'm not sure, to be honest.

Neil McDonald has been a good addition on Co commentary duty tonight. It's as if he is a Rovers fan, urging us on at every opportunity. Radio Lancs need to have him on more. Knows his football.

I would love for that to be true. Thomas, O'Brien and Undav would be excellent additions on a seemingly limited budget.