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Backing? A loan from Brighton that they are probably covering the lads wages for game time , a player for a few hundred k who hasn't been playing regularly and a million to 1.5 bids in for a couple of players of which we will only sign one is hardly Backing More was probably spent last January on kargbo and the loans if we were paying 20k a week of Dennis wages which reports suggested

Nowhere near broken even, but 100% yes on not giving manager Championship squad

Yeah, but that was probably that we offered him £2 a year and no game time..

That isn’t remotely a true description of who was still there for Watford. I know plenty that still went and not one is ‘pro Venky’s’.

They arent backing him in terms of a competitive Championship wage structure though. I suspect we have at best broken even on fees. Not in any way a defence of a terrible manager.

At least Dapo can’t be any worse than De Neve, surely?

Alternatively, they offered to back them in the same way and they were smart enough to realise that that "backing" would have us in League One very shortly.

Doesn't sound like a supporter of Blackburn Rovers to me. More like a dingle. Fortunately for him, when the club drops down to the bottom half of league two there'll be no more folk there complaining about how shit the club is. Just a bunch of empty heads rattling round in an empty Ewood (assuming that they haven't flogging the place off for housing by that time)

Absolutely infuriating that they are backing a total dud in Ismael but 2 good managers in JDT and Eustace either had the rug pulled from under them or just weren't backed at all.

An excellent summary of just some of the disfunction goings on.

If these "reports" are in the public domain then I have certainly never seen them. I cant believe considering where we are now that people are still willing to credit Venkys for putting forward money and blame staff at the time for declining it.

I think it's time to give these stooges, the Steve Kean treatment

How anyone can be anything but anti Venkys is beyond me.

Nixon saying the Mowbray story / rumour is not correct…

Except they do. For various reasons, I feel very confident in all of the statements that I made.

"Reports" dont say anything of the sort. They are paying more in fees although how much is guaranteed is anyones guess. And that might be because Suhail has all of the power now. But its all offset by a consistent slashing of the wage budget beyond competitive levels. And a more than usual aggressive shedding of any senior players we had on reasonable wages. Afolayan I suspect will be a nominal fee. Totally out of the picture at St Pauli.

Maybe I am. This is on Fotbal. It says sum but maybe they missed a zero somewhere

Do you think I was lying when I said I was told Waggott said there were funds available, or my acquaintance was lying to me, or Waggott was lying to my acquaintance? The promotion bonuses seem to have been an actual thing though. It would have been odd for Waggott to tell the truth about the bonuses but lie about a fictitious war chest imo.

Can we please move all the Tony Mowbray said/didn’t say chat over to the Mowbray thread so I don’t have to read it, it’s incredibly boring…….I am waiting for this thread to read “Ismail Sacked” although I may change my name to ‘not so optimistic’

Martin Samuel, missing the point in the Times. Hated us when we won the league, hated us when we were the Bully Boys, hated us when Kean Out..how hes paid to write I dont know, but its what we are up against. Jeerome must have had a word..

In fairness, all reports point to the fact that Mowbray was allowed to spend, but decided not to. When and why aren't things that you can figure out at this club. The reality is that Gestede and Pasha probably hold good sway with the owners. If they wanted to spend more, they probably could. The project that they have presented is one of a 'financially sensible run football club'. They don't talk about success on the pitch. Now, it's possible that this is a directive from the owners, but that would imply that they are seriously invested in anything to do with this football club. The more likely scenario is that P&G have pitched the idea and are justifying everything else by claiming success on the financial front. They're probably also using some Trumpian economics to present those incredible savings and improved revenues.

Every time we transition and overhaul the squad it seems to work out quite nicely for certain agencies I notice... Whatever is going on it's certainly not with the football club in mind at the very least.

Don't think the club paid more than say £200K - £300K for an unwanted player with an expiring contract. Cheap but doesn't fit the bill of what we need (which is a target man). Ridiculous how bad recruitment has been this season, offloading Championship experience and replaced it with a bunch of L1 players basically (De Neve, Henriksson, Tavares). Compare that to Hull who has been under transfer embargo and yet signed better players than us on a free. My prediction for deadline day: - Alebiosu will be sold (reckon £5-6 million will be enough to get him which would basically mean a 10x on what we paid) - We get Cadamarteri I guess but is not what we need - We replace Alebiosu with a last-ditch loan or cheap signing (the other guy from St. Pauli perhaps?) Club is self-destructive in all possible senses: - Self-imposed wage cap, making it tougher to attract good players - Destroyed reputation domestically and made a laughing stock with botched transfer deals (O'Brien, Brierley, McGuire) - Refusal to extend player contracts or not offering enough salary (Hyam, Travis, Dolan, Batth, Brittain) - Refusal to give Eustace any money last January when in a play-off spot but will happily spend reportedly £3 million on a single player (Jorgensen) when in a relegation spot - Refusal to pay compensation to get a good manager / head coach after losing Eustace. Instead, they get a head coach who was out of work for a year (Ismael) - Have an 'acquired taste' of getting players who are not match fit in January window, thus limiting potential impact for remainder of the season (Dennis, Afolayan, Woodrow, Forshaw) - Refusal to reinvest into the squad after big player sales (Szmodics, Armstrong, Wharton) - Refusal to sack head coaches / managers when change is desperately needed. Instead, they rely on head coach / manager to offer resignation themselves or terminate contract by mutual consent to pay as little compensation as possible We keep changing project, direction, formation, style of play and constantly being in a transition phase. But the owners are still the same a**holes they were 15 years ago; nothing has changed behind the scenes in reality. It's all a smokescreen to trick us fans into believing that next time will be any different.

I don't know what more evidence is needed on this it's from his own mouth. Also absolutely nails why we never went anywhere once he'd made us a solid Champ team again. No real desire nor ambition other than water treading thinking those budgets we had at the time would last forever.

Even the grandkids matches are too fast for me, both under 15's, one boy one girl. The lads especially are rapid, I've retired this season, I do try to do it properly but they're simply too quick. I've every sympathy, I always think that if var has to put the lines on, the lino has done his job whether he's proved correct or not.