[Archived] THE BATTLE FOR PROMOTION....WON.

[Mattyblue]

If folk believe Rovers will steam roll the divison just because we are Blackburn Rovers, founder members, 1995 and all that etc etc, then yes that is disrespectful to everyone else and a bit stupid too when you consider the debacle that has been these past few years.

However, what is wrong in expecting that a club with large resources for this level be towards the top, not demanding, as there are no sure things in football, but of course there will be an expectation.

Man City et al expected to win the title in 2016, they didn't, Leicester did, but that didn't mean City were disrespectful to expect that their resources would have them at the top.

Leicester winning the PL, Burton Albion survivng at our expense and so on, loads of examples that show it isn't just budget that decides these things, so Shrewsbury going up is certainly not out of the ordinary, but you can still expect to be competing when you have the biggest budget and not be deemed disrespectful to your competitors.

[JHRover]

Just now, meadows said:

So the ‘disaster aspect’ is some stuff you just imagine will/might happen. 

I imagine if we don’t go up we regroup, maybe with the same manager, maybe with a different manager, and have another try. 

Whis to say which is right?

But labelling stuff which hasn’t happened yet and might never do as ‘a disaster’ seems a bit extreme to me. 

 

As I said, with a complete lack of communication the only thing we can go off is what they have done previously. No evidence either is right, but I know what I think will happen, and if it does it will almost certainly be a disaster for this club. For all sorts of reasons we cannot afford a sustained spell at this level.

Last time we missed promotion it took them just 2 years and they had us in League One through a catalogue of cutbacks, mismanagement and high turnovers in personnel. I've yet to see or hear anything to suggest lessons have been learned and a similar thing will be avoided. Its not something dreamt up as impending doom, and certainly not what I want to happen, but it is what happened to the club very recently under these owners, a fairly strong reason to think a similar process will happen again if we don't get up very quickly.

In football and financial terms we've already had several disasters on their watch over the last 5 years. I expect more of the same unless we get up.

 

[jim mk2]

15 minutes ago, meadows said:

But if my criteria or motivation for continuing to follow Rovers was based on the likelihood of nothing ever going wrong or having more money to spend than other clubs in the same division I don’t think I’d have lasted 25/26 seasons until that became the actuality for a brief period

This present lot who think it's a "disaster" if we don't go up this season weren't around in the 1970s when we flirted with going down to the fourth division and crowds were down to 6,000 or fewer and the club struggled to pay the electric bill  . It's the sense of entitlement that  really galls. 

[Mattyblue]

Maybe because we didn’t have an expensive ground, academy and training ground to fund in the 1970s?

We have a hell of a lot more to lose now than when we didn’t have a pot to piss in back then, surely you can see that?

[AllRoverAsia]

27 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

This present lot who think it's a "disaster" if we don't go up this season weren't around in the 1970s when we flirted with going down to the fourth division and crowds were down to 6,000 or fewer and the club struggled to pay the electric bill  . It's the sense of entitlement that  really galls. 

My first Ewood game was 1963, I've been there, done it, got the T -shirt too.

We are not a Third level Club and never have been, our 2 previous visits to this level during my time were brief.

Feeling we should not be at this low level, feeling that we should go up is not entitlement, a word invention of a few on this MB.

It is firm expectation.

[Boroblue]

 This is not aimed at you meadows . But I don’t give a feck what they thought 30 years ago or today. 

They are having their moment in the sun and I have it on good authority that the ginger one won’t be there next season. Let’s see how they do then.

We will go up and I believe we’re stronger than when we got relegated. Will we be ok in the championship yes because in the main it’s not very good 

 

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

2 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

This present lot who think it's a "disaster" if we don't go up this season weren't around in the 1970s when we flirted with going down to the fourth division and crowds were down to 6,000 or fewer and the club struggled to pay the electric bill  . It's the sense of entitlement that  really galls. 

Personally I feel it would be a disaster - as we would lose some/most of the players that have made this season enjoyable (at times). Yes next season I would look forward to seeing our U23 team progress into the first team - but the loss of players like Dack, Mulgrew, Armstrong etc would be a shame - and see our crowds dwindle more towards the numbers when I first started going to Ewood.

You can see in every match that we have the best footballers in this division - that doesn''t guarantee promotion in a league where hard work, organisation and a robust approach can hide a multitude of sins. IMO we have a team that is probably more suited to the Championship than it is League 1 - we definitely miss a dominant centre half - though Mulgrew and Lenihan are possibly the best footballing centre halves seen in this division for a long time.

 

[JacknOry]

Love this word 'entitlement'

I think you are looking for'expectation' when we have 4/5 current internationals, the highest wage bill in the league, the largest outlay int he transfer market and that we have not sold any of our better players. 

It's been quoted a hundred times but TM himself said he 'wont be much of a manager if he didn't get this squad up' and don't forget that this was before the likes of Armstrong, Payne and Bell.

The manager expects, the club expects and so should the fans. If the club expected mid-table mediocrity - fine. They didnt and neither should we.

[47er]

9 hours ago, meadows said:

We could win eight & draw one and not go up, making it one defeat in 35. How would that be ‘things going disastrously wrong’?

 

That would be "things going comparatively wrong!"

[Rover_Shaun]

I think Rovers fans are entitled.

Entitled to better.

Entitled to hope for better.

[The Gull]

At the end of the day we were expected to get promoted before a ball was kicked, have a look at the odds below for finishing top two as of now:

Wigan 1/12

Rovers 1/3

Shrews 6/4

Now bookies very rarely get things too wrong and there is a clear expectation that we will finish top two with them, anything else would be seen as unexpected, maybe even a shock.

My thinking is line with the bookies.

[arbitro]

I didn't realise that Wigans game at Portsmouth on Easter Monday is live on Sky as is Bradford v Shrewsbury on Thursday 12th April.

[JHRover]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

I didn't realise that Wigans game at Portsmouth on Easter Monday is live on Sky as is Bradford v Shrewsbury on Thursday 12th April.

Bradford are becoming the Leeds of League One with the number of Sky games they've been on recently.

[JHRover]

22 hours ago, meadows said:

Yes we all heard Nixon & Ian Battersby, both far more in the know than any of us, spend an hour and a half last summer banging on about what was and what wasn’t going to happen, who wasn’t going to spend anything and who wouldn’t be able to sign anyone 

All of it turned out to be stuff & nonsense, total poppycock, no more accurate than the predictions at the other extreme we’d be up by February once we actually did spend a few bob  

People were predicting further relegations, administration...everything short of Blackburn disappearing into a huge sinkhole leaving a five mile radius hole in the middle of Lancashire

When was this time we ‘missed promotion’? In 5 years in the Championship we had a vague flirtation with getting a play off spot once, for not very long. At no stage have I ever felt we’ve ‘missed a promotion’

It’s very disappointing for a supporter of any club when you’re not doing very well. 

This hasn’t  been a season where I’ve felt disappointment  much. If we don’t go up, I’ll accept it, congratulate those who do, watch a bit of cricket and hope we have another crack in August when presumably the ground will still be there. 

Different manager? Reduced transfer/wage budget? Maybe. 

But if my criteria or motivation for continuing to follow Rovers was based on the likelihood of nothing ever going wrong or having more money to spend than other clubs in the same division I don’t think I’d have lasted 25/26 seasons until that became the actuality for a brief period

 

Its got nothing to do with criteria or motivation for continuing to follow Rovers. Its nothing to do with how much money we have to spend. If support was determined by selling our best players and not investing I'd have given up years ago under previous owners. I know you'll be there regardless, as will I, as will the majority of those currently going to Ewood. That doesn't mean missing promotion wouldn't be very damaging for this club. Finances, attendances, atmosphere, product on the pitch would all drop significantly, unless these owners decided to bankroll another crack at it and even then it would be more difficult than this year. Whilst the club will likely still be there and we can all enjoy our Saturdays watching the football, the overall stature, structure and health of the club would be harmed by more time at this level. The academy, for instance, currently enjoying a brilliant season, would likely have to close or drop a category. Whilst that prospect might not fill many people with dread and it would still allow everyone to go to Ewood on a Saturday, I still think it would be damaging and upsetting were that to happen. It might not do, if Venkys continue to throw millions at it every year, but sooner rather than later it won't be sustained in the 3rd division.

That isn't conspiracy theories or scaremongering. Its something I'm very worried about this club having to adjust to long term.

When we came out of the Premier League the owners surprised most by budgeting for promotion. Through continued negligence they put that budget in the hands of a bib and cone man and a Malaysian TV pundit, but nonetheless the outlay was clearly with a view to bouncing back up immediately. Then after missing out and almost achieving back to back relegations they continued to shoulder massive losses for a couple of seasons, partly sustained through TV money, enabling us to retain the likes of Rhodes to try and get us promoted.

I think the majority of fans agree that the squad we had in 2013 and 2014 was of sufficient quality to challenge for the play-offs and underachieved in not doing so. Interesting to see that the key personnel in that squad - Cairney, Rhodes, Hanley, Duffy, Gestede - have since left and gone on to get promoted or have been very close to doing so at other clubs - which tells me they were good enough to do it. It doesn't really matter whether you or I felt promotion was likely or achievable, all that matters is it didn't happen and their response to that dropped the club down another level and set it back several years.

Whether we finished 3rd and lost in the play offs or finished 13th the outcome was the same - promotion missed and the consequences of that were no more parachute income and Venkys cutbacks. The result of those cutbacks was a disaster, as we dropped in the space of 12 months from a mid-table/top half side to relegated through selling off our best players. That is a fate I want to avoid at this level, which I think is likely to happen. It won't stop me going, it probably won't be the end of Rovers, but it isn't a pleasant prospect and it probably isn't going to be as simple as congratulating our rivals and looking to next season - there will be a lot of serious and tough decisions that will need to be made at most levels of the club.

Unless our owners decide to carry on regardless, which might happen, but there will be a point where they cut it back I'm sure. The reduced transfer/wage budget is fine if done sensibly and steadily, not when there's a firesale of assets and zero reinvestment because that usually results in further decline downwards.

[USABlue]

That's my main concern too.  That our best players bog off and we spend many more years in this league.  We really need to go up but I think we need lady luck to show up for us more than she has.  I just don't feel at all confident.

[Stuart]

6 hours ago, arbitro said:

I didn't realise that Wigans game at Portsmouth on Easter Monday is live on Sky as is Bradford v Shrewsbury on Thursday 12th April.

Not sure I can bring myself to watch either match! ?

[JHRover]

28 minutes ago, meadows said:

Again then, you’re worried about a lot of stuff you imagine might happen.  

Yes, and for several reasons I think those concerns are well founded.

[JacknOry]

1 hour ago, meadows said:

Again then, you’re worried about a lot of stuff you imagine might happen.  

Just look through history...it might not happen of course but you cannot lament others for going on history. What other barometer do we have with this lot?

[Preben]

Jeez, I'm sorry but I simply cannot reconcile the hundreds of words and fears on here for an elitist game when there is so much more going on in the town/world.

[blueboy3333]

47 minutes ago, Preben said:

Jeez, I'm sorry but I simply cannot reconcile the hundreds of words and fears on here for an elitist game when there is so much more going on in the town/world.

Sarcasm?

[AllRoverAsia]

1 hour ago, Preben said:

Jeez, I'm sorry but I simply cannot reconcile the hundreds of words and fears on here for an elitist game when there is so much more going on in the town/world.

Maybe because it's a match thread on a football MB? Just a thought.

[Norbert Rassragr]

2 hours ago, Preben said:

Jeez, I'm sorry but I simply cannot reconcile the hundreds of words and fears on here for an elitist game when there is so much more going on in the town/world.

You can always go to Facebook, and log on to one of those boring, puritanical, far left pages where people discuss whether competitive sport has a place in a 'true Socialist Utopia', whilst declaring yourself a vegan and teetotal.

[bob fleming]

7 hours ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

You can always go to Facebook, and log on to one of those boring, puritanical, far left pages where people discuss whether competitive sport has a place in a 'true Socialist Utopia', whilst declaring yourself a vegan and teetotal.

That would kill half an hour. Then what?

Pessimist v optimist v realist. You decide. 9 games to save the club apparently (from your armchair). Last summer and this last window were good. We retained and out spent the rest in this division. The previous 6 years were by and large appalling. Over all though absolutely anything could happen, that’s if we go up or don’t. 

I gave up trying to second guess this lot a while ago. I will say though that “they’re” never more than five minutes away from making a ridiculous decision. Let’s hope it continues to be always five minutes away.

[JBiz]

3 hours ago, bob fleming said:

9 games to save the club apparently (from your armchair). .

Not just me who finds this ironic then!  

[blueboy3333]

11 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Maybe because it's a match thread on a football MB? Just a thought.

He's the chap who said calling the Gillingham off was a good decision evem though he knew rovers fans were already there. He's a troll.