Eddie

I'm worried that Eustace is choosing Dembele as his hill to die on. A very underwhelming signing if we pull it off. I won't repeat myself on my other concerns surrounding his involvement in transfers.

I'm not usually one to be much affected by 'celebrity' deaths, but Sven Goran Eriksson dying has made me a little sad. He's not much older than my parents, so it's one of those that hits home that little bit closer. On top of that, he was England manager during my early teens, that ideal sweet-spot as a football fan. Not only have I never cared more about football or followed it more closely than I did during those times, but it coincided with a good period for Blackburn Rovers during the Souness and Hughes eras and tournaments for England that, whilst ultimately disappointing, were filled with plenty of highs. I have such fond memories of the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004 and nothing will probably ever approach them in terms of their significance and the care-free enjoyment that I was able to get out of them. As a result, Sven has a somewhat special place in my own football history. What's more, he seemed like a genuinely nice man. It was hard not to be touched by how excited he was to manage Liverpool for a friendly match last season. To have achieved so much within the game and still maintain that level of enthusiasm for that kind of opportunity is rare. A very sad end to quite a remarkable life and career, but he handled it with the same charm that was ever-present through his various managerial positions and turmoil.

A say? Or the final say?

You could flip it as well. So our recruitment team focus on bringing in new players, but could ultimately get the sack because the manager insists on bringing in players he's already managed? There's a reason why this has become a modern approach. Eustace has better things to do than be out there scouring the globe for talent. Nor do I trust that he has the analytical abilities to process large datasets (that isn't meant as a knock on him).

Regarding your first point: no, nothing to do with it. I'm not super impressed by the current reported transfer hold-ups or the insistence of - once again - turning this club into an old boys' club for pals of the manager (had enough of it under Mowbray). Regarding your second point: what do the best clubs in the world do? As with any business, the idea should be to take inspiration from better-run organisations and replicate what they do. Are we trying to break the mold by remaining old fashioned? In response to both of your points: my feelings on the subjects are further strengthened by the fact that the current scouting and recruitment departments appear to have done a good job so far this summer. Far too early to qualify any of our summer signings as a success, but they are certainly showing early signs of promise. The one's that aren't? The uninspiring signings that are either jobs for pals or from the same old lists we had hanging around from months ago. 'Refused' is a strong word. He didn't start. He was a squad player and was used at times. Eustace didn't use him even when we had no other options available.

Telalovic actually played a bit under JDT. It's Eustace who refused to play him in the second half of the season. It's a little bit of a worrying trend.

I really disagree with that. First reason being that you should have specialists in place that are better at analysing that data and scouting players than the first team coach will be. Second reason being that the man most likely to leave is Eustace. So, if you give him that kind of final say over transfers you are heading towards a situation where you have a squad built for him, not built for a long-term vision. He should obviously have input, maybe even have the occasional veto, but he shouldn't be able to hold up transfers like this or have his heart set on specific players to the degree that it disrupts activity. That, quite simply, isn't his job.

Ugly win. Possibly slightly undeserved, although we were the better side in the second half. Oxford will feel hard done by and they could have easily been 2 or 3 clear at halftime. All that being said, an important win. Especially ahead of some tougher fixtures.

Great finish from Siggy! 2-1. Can we hold onto a lead?

It's worrying to see how little we are creating. We've had a decent chunk of the possession in the second half and a lot of it has been in their half, but we've created virtually nothing.

Dolan finally off. Sigurdsson with 15 minutes to impress.

So impressed with Ohashi. Really puts in an effort and tries to win the ball back even after he has lost it. The kind of player where you can overlook the faults. Hopefully, he can find a goal to cap off one of our few good performances today.

Slight improvement this half, although we had small periods like this in the first half. We still look very vulnerable every time Oxford get forward.

The sooner we can get Dolan off, the better.

Somehow 1-1. Not pretty. Not deserved.

Deservedly behind. We've been awful and we're lucky to only be 1-0 down. Terrible at the back, totally disjointed in midfield and up front. Difficult to see us turning this around.

I do think the flurry of signings pre-sale made it seem like the club might actually be about to go through period of increased activity. There was always the risk that they were pre-spending the Szmodics money, but it wasn't unreasonable to believe that at least some of that was going to be made available for further signings. Maybe it still will be, but it is becoming increasingly unlikely with each passing day.

Agreed and it is a dangerous thing to keep around - particularly for new signings.

But would it surprise you?

I'm always happy to sell non-young players one season too early over one season too late. I've loved watching Szmodics play for Rovers. He seems like he genuinely cares and last season was pretty magical. But there's a far stronger chance that last year will be the outlier in his career and not the norm. I don't think he's really a Premier League player and if we had just been promoted I would be very disappointed to see us investing serious money in bringing him in. I wish him the best of luck, but I think there's every chance that he's back in the Championship next season with Ipswich after a non-event of a Premier League season. I don't begrudge him trying to get the move. It will undoubtedly be a huge payday and a chance to prove himself at the top level, but I think this is good business from us. I'll also say that his attitude at the start of the season has seemed off. It was notable how unhappy he seemed during the cup match. There's always a risk that this sort of thing can rub off on other players and it's not worth keeping him around. Now we will just have to wait and see how much will be reinvested. If we can get another 5/6m in players coming in then this will feel like a decent summer. But there's every chance that the Szmodics money was already used to bring in the last batch of signings and we will be left scraping the barrel with loans.

I'd rather have the link-up play and be missing the finishing. We have finishers elsewhere in the squad, but our play up front has been severely lacking for some time. With good build-up play and a good positional sense (which he seems to have) he will find himself on the end of chances and get goals - especially in the air. I think he will be 15 goals this season and he already seems to be a huge improvement on what we got out of Gallagher. There will certainly be some frustrating misses, but Gallagher was never even in a position to miss a chance, let alone take one.

I'm sure you'll tell me that I'm missing your point again, but this has to be addressed. In what world do you think we would go into administration with valuable player assets still part of the squad? It's one thing to think that administration is a viable way out of our current situation - although I think even that is insane - but there is no way in which we get there without losing every valuable player that we have. As the financial walls begin to close we would conduct a firesale and raise money as fast as possible to delay the inevitable. But I'll humour you, let's say we somehow get to the point of administration and still, somehow, had valuable assets. The first step would surely be to try to avoid administration with a CVA. You then have to trust that our owners and administration wouldn't mess that process up (see Bury) and that we wouldn't find ourselves kicked out of the league by way of sheer incompetency. A very likely outcome. Even if we managed to handle the CVA properly, we would still need to pay off all existing debts. Outcome? A firesale. If we didn't go the CVA route and just accepted our fate with administration, then the first step would be to pay off all of our debt. That would mean that the administrators would oversee a firesale as this would be the only way for us to raise that kind of money. Let's also be real here, only selling players in either of those scenarios would be a win. We would likely end up selling our ground, losing our training ground, and any other asset deemed even remotely valuable. Don't forget, Venky's own our training ground separately now and they would also be our biggest creditors. Basically, all roads lead to Rome on this one and you're pretending that we could somehow end up elsewhere. If you see administration as a painful solution to a very big problem then that is one thing, but don't be delusional. There is no eventuality in which we find ourselves in administration, free of our current owners, and with key part of our playing squad still intact. Best case scenario it brings with it a 12-point deduction and we lose every decent player that we have. Worst case scenario this club ceases to exist

I dunno, looks like they were fairly good just before World War II, but that doesn't count as that's not your 'vintage'. But it's alright, I just look forward to us getting promoted back to the Premier League someday and not being able to say anything to anyone born after 2005ish when they say they can't believe that tiny old Blackburn Rovers are in the big time.

I never really understand this kind of logic. There are plenty of football fans who see Blackburn Rovers as a small club. Does that make them right? Should we be getting snide remarks on football forums from supporters who weren't born during our good times?

Significantly younger, some Premier League experience, and did well at Celtic on loan. Some of these comparisons are bizarre.