Thursday deadline.

[Vinjay]

4 hours ago, Biz said:

I actually think you’ve pretty much nailed it but there are two that I slightly disagree on;

1. Evans - I think he has played better at times this season and since we may look to play two sitting midfielders, he has the experience to be an able backup.

Well that's hardly bloody difficult!

Edited May 1, 2018 by Vinjay17

[47er]

Interesting Guardian article:

ck Venky’s puzzle with passage to India

Rovers’ manager secured a return to the Championship and will ask for money this summer to make the club competitive

David Conn

Tue 1 May 2018 17.39 AEST

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 Bradley Dack of Blackburn Rovers celebrates with their fans after securing promotion back to the Championship. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock

So Blackburn Rovers, the scrambled remains of the Jack Walker-funded club which once won the Premier League, have been promoted to the Championship, reversing the precipitous slide since they were bought in 2010 by Venky’s, the egg and chicken conglomerate of India.

After the recent 3-1 home victory against Peterborough United their manager, Tony Mowbray, told the Guardian he would travel to Pune, India, this summer to talk to the Venky family and ask them to invest some more of their money to give his team a chance next season. He did the same last summer after relegation and they released £1.5m, of which Mowbray spent £1.25m, including £750,000 signing Bradley Dack, the midfield craftsman whose performances have been outstanding.

Anuradha Desai, the chair of Venky’s known respectfully at the club as “Madam”, and her two brothers Balaji and Venkatesh Rao have not been to a Rovers match or even to Ewood Park for almost three years, since the dire and difficult fourth season in the Championship in 2015-16.

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“I will go to India and say in the Championship there are at least 12 clubs with parachute payments, with a minimum wage bill of £40m, some of them £60m,” Mowbray said. “Our wage bill now is £8.5m; we have to significantly improve that otherwise we will be struggling. The conversations in the summer will be: what is the ambition, what do they want?”

The answer to that question has been a head-scratching mystery, their knowledge of English football in doubt, their plans always apparently sketchy, from the moment they bought the club in 2010. Walker’s Jersey-based millions had rebuilt Ewood Park on three sides and bought a team to win the 1995 Premier League, but after he died his estate’s trustees funded the club modestly and reluctantly for 10 years. Still, Rovers finished 10th in the Premier League in 2009-10, averaging crowds above 25,000. In six-and-a-half years, Venky’s venture into English football brought two relegations, 10 managers, countless players, sundry advisers, and spending put at £120m.

 

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Some involved say the Venky family’s appetite to buy a football club was prompted by their enjoyment of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. They were introduced to the Rovers acquisition by Kentaro, a TV rights and sponsorship company now in administration, who had advised Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister, on his 2007 purchase of Manchester City. The prominent football agent Jerome Anderson, best known for representing Arsenal players over 20 years, advised Thaksin at City, working to bring in players who were mostly good value, including the Brazilian international Elano.

In 2008 Kentaro bought 51% of Anderson’s agency, SEM, for a reported £6.5m, so they were a formal partnership when they came to advise the Venkys on their purchase of Rovers. Desai’s father, Banda Vasudev Rao, founded the Venkateshwara Hatcheries in 1971 and developed a vision: “To see India in the No 1 position on the poultry map of the world.” In initial interviews Desai talked of the Rovers acquisition more for what it might do for his poultry business than for the football club’s future, saying: “I feel that the Venky’s brand will get an immediate recognition if we take over this club, and that is the main reason why we are doing this.”

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What followed has certainly brought Venky’s recognition but as a byword for bewildering decline, rather than an advance on global poultry domination. Supporters are still incredulous at the immediate sacking of Sam Allardyce and the elevation of his first-team coach, Steve Kean, an Anderson client, for his first managerial job. Anderson, advising initially on players, hoped to repeat the quality of signings made at City, but the arrivals of the Argentinian Mauro Formica from Newell’s Old Boys and Rubén Rochina from Barcelona’s youth system were not sufficient ballast for a club plunged into turmoil. Senior players spoke out in bemusement and soon the long-serving chairman John Williams and other directors departed, having complained to Desai that an established transfer policy had been abandoned.

Kean’s team did beat Liverpool 3-1 in January 2011 and finished 15th but in 2011-12, despite beating Manchester United 3-2 at Old Trafford, Rovers’ 11-year tenure in the Premier League ended in a bitterly rancorous relegation.

 

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 Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray talks to his players. Photograph: Steve Bardens/Getty Images

Kean was backed to sign nine players in the summer of 2012 including the £8m striker Jordan Rhodes, but there were tensions with Shebby Singh, an Asian football TV pundit whom Venky’s appointed as “global football adviser” and Kean resigned at the end of September with Rovers third in the Championship. They went through two more managers that season, Henning Berg and Michael Appleton, and finished 17th, Gary Bowyer made steady progress but was sacked after a difficult start to the 2015-16 season; Paul Lambert kept Rovers up that season but activated his own release clause as the new finance director, Mike Cheston, warned that spending had to be reined in because Premier League parachute payments had finally been lost. Owen Coyle, formerly manager at their nearest rivals Burnley, did not cheer the Ewood Park stands and left last February with the team second bottom in the Championship; Mowbray could not effect a rescue last season and Rovers dropped into League One.

Yet throughout, the Venky family have continued to fund the club and fend off financial collapse, loaning £95m in total, as the club lost £36.5m in 2012-13, £42m the following season and £17m in 2014‑15. Home crowds have halved; 11,679 watched the Peterborough victory, the hardboiled core in the Blackburn End stubbornly chanting “barmy army”. Mowbray spoke of needing to rebuild supporters’ enthusiasm and trust, and hoping to prompt more engagement from the owners when he travels to Pune. “I haven’t seen them for a year; I speak on the phone every now and then,” he said. “I met them last summer; they are nice, humble people; I think they have been poorly advised and the club has been managed poorly. I’m just trying to bring some honesty, integrity and hard work. I think financially they can do it.

“But they have been burned so much, maybe they need to get a bit of love and enjoyment back in football, and hopefully this year might reinvigorate that.”

Perhaps it will; as with much of Venky’s approach in the calamitous years since they decided to buy long‑established Blackburn Rovers, it is all a bit of a puzzle.

 

 

[Lie_still_Rover]

Gk: Raya 

DL: Bell

DC: Mulgrew

DC: Lenihan 

DR: 

CM: Smallwood- wouldn't mind an upgrade 

CM: Dack 

CM: 

ST: Armstrong

ST:

ST:

I'd keep Graham but I think he's on his last legs. Could do with a big mobile striker for Armstrong to play off (assuming we get Armstromg)

I'd like to see us sign:

Carey

Sonny Bradley

Sam Gallagher

A real destroyer in the cm

Payne

Armstrong

A right back

 

[Admiral Nelsen]

12 hours ago, JacknOry said:

Evans has put in a few decent performances of late as he has done over the years but due to injuries and whatnot, they have never been consistent. As for Samuel, he seems to have the physical attributes but lacks mentally.

i just wouldnt be too hasty with outgoings anyway - dont want to disrupt the core of what brought us up. Strengthen around it and get rid of the more obvious deadwood.

Basically think that's right, especially about Samuel who looks like he could be a handy player if he was a bit more mentally robust.

Do think you're being slightly generous to Evans though. He's had big injury issues in his time here, and he has had a couple of good games recently, but sadly I think it fits far too much with the pattern of the last few seasons; he doesn't put any real stamp on games until the point when people are ready to write him off, then he puts in a couple of better performances to keep him in the frame.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty worse than him, and I wouldn't be absolutely desperate to get him out of the club or anything like that. I'd imagine, however, that he's one of the bigger earners, so if we got an offer for him I definitely think we could use the money better elsewhere. 

[Tom]

Think there’s a decent chance of Mowbray being backed to get a couple of prime targets

 

He can use Dack as an example, £750k fee with an asset now worth maybe 10x that.

They are business people (maybe bad ones) that sort of thing will appeal to them 

[JacknOry]

2 hours ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

Basically think that's right, especially about Samuel who looks like he could be a handy player if he was a bit more mentally robust.

Do think you're being slightly generous to Evans though. He's had big injury issues in his time here, and he has had a couple of good games recently, but sadly I think it fits far too much with the pattern of the last few seasons; he doesn't put any real stamp on games until the point when people are ready to write him off, then he puts in a couple of better performances to keep him in the frame.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty worse than him, and I wouldn't be absolutely desperate to get him out of the club or anything like that. I'd imagine, however, that he's one of the bigger earners, so if we got an offer for him I definitely think we could use the money better elsewhere. 

Oh I would certainly snap someones arm off if we could get money for him, or even just off the books - I just dont see it happening. He will be on tidy wages as one of our more senior players now (in terms of how long he has been here) and he strikes me as someone that would rather keep earning them and then trying to find somewhere to go when out of contract. 

We did convince Sunderland to buy Steele though, so anything is possible.

[RoverCanada]

Interesting to hear Mowbray quote our current wage bill at £8.5m! Maybe he's not including backroom staff, etc., but that's much lower than the lower estimate I've bandied around of £12m! Also quite a drop from £22m last year.

I'd guess we'll aim for a £15-£20m wage bill next year, so that gives us a fair bit more flexibility than I had thought.

[alcd]

Just now, RoverCanada said:

Interesting to hear Mowbray quote our current wage bill at £8.5m! Maybe he's not including backroom staff, etc., but that's much lower than the lower estimate I've bandied around of £12m! Also quite a drop from £22m last year.

I'd guess we'll aim for a £15-£20m wage bill next year, so that gives us a fair bit more flexibility than I had thought.

With gate receipts/commercial income of only £7m and TV money of £5m that implies a trading loss of more than £10m. Venkys won't have that.

[RoverCanada]

1 hour ago, alcd said:

With gate receipts/commercial income of only £7m and TV money of £5m that implies a trading loss of more than £10m. Venkys won't have that.

Commercial income should be about £7.5-£8m (non-parachute payment clubs get £7.6m by default), gates will probably be about £3.5m, commercial £5m. Hence I think our baseline turnover will be about £16m (£18m optimistically). £15m wage + £8m other expenses, that's a £7m loss, or £12m loss at £20m wages. Those are 'reasonable/typical' losses for a Championship club. I'd certainly guess we're looking at a £15m wage bill rather than £20m, but just a guess. The latter would more likely be needed if we have a reasonably serious promotion push in mind.

It's hard to predict what kind of losses Venky's will 'allow'... they incurred £30m+ losses for a couple years, then seemingly needed to shut the taps off once parachute payments ran out. It probably depends on how they're able to hand the debt, which is anyone's guess, plus FFP considerations.

Edited May 1, 2018 by RoverCanada

[tomphil]

I'll be surprised if our wage bill was 8.5 this season if so they must've settled a load of ongoing contracts for people long gone in one swoop from the capitol injections or something.

Maybe the 8.5 was the target in relation to income in league one but i'll be surprised if they hit that with such a fair sized squad.

Either way i doubt V's will rise it much given how hard it was to get it down. As always prepare to be underwhelmed.

[Fraserkirky]

7 minutes ago, tomphil said:

I'll be surprised if our wage bill was 8.5 this season if so they must've settled a load of ongoing contracts for people long gone in one swoop from the capitol injections or something.

Maybe the 8.5 was the target in relation to income in league one but i'll be surprised if they hit that with such a fair sized squad.

Either way i doubt V's will rise it much given how hard it was to get it down. As always prepare to be underwhelmed.

That's 170k a week in wages.

In Fm2018, you start with around 205k in wages in league 1, so sounds pretty accurate. After Promotion it goes up to 305k I believe. For reference.

[tomphil]

Just now, Fraserkirky said:

That's 170k a week in wages.

In Fm2018, you start with around 205k in wages in league 1, so sounds pretty accurate. After Promotion it goes up to 305k I believe. For reference.

Well they probably play it in Pune towers so.........

[Mercer]

8 hours ago, Tom said:

Think there’s a decent chance of Mowbray being backed to get a couple of prime targets

 

He can use Dack as an example, £750k fee with an asset now worth maybe 10x that.

They are business people (maybe bad ones) that sort of thing will appeal to them 

and the Raos will say, 'we'll have some of that - will finance the club for another year without us dipping into our pockets again'. 

Assets will be made to sweat next season!

Edited May 1, 2018 by Mercer

[Pedro]

Has the amount of tv money in the Championship increased by quite a large amount? I'm sure I read it had.

 

I think one of the positives of us spending a year in League One is that It's been like a 12month scouting mission. Amongst the dross, there were some quick, strong and assured players in this League who could easily make the grade in the Championship.

[Norbert Rassragr]

2 hours ago, Fraserkirky said:

That's 170k a week in wages.

In Fm2018, you start with around 205k in wages in league 1, so sounds pretty accurate. After Promotion it goes up to 305k I believe. For reference.

 

2 hours ago, tomphil said:

Well they probably play it in Pune towers so.........

Cool, we might get Kennedy Bakirloglu, Mads Jorgensen and Cherno Samba depending on which year they're playing. 

[RevidgeBlue]

Excellent article on our recent history both pre and post Venky's from David Conn. Factual comprehensive accurate and none of the usual conspiracy nonsense about shadow owners and the like.

As for next season going forward the owners have absorbed a loss well in excess of 100m to date, I don't see any reason why they wouldn't accept a further loss of say 10m next season if they could be persuaded that by doing so further progress would be made.

[arbitro]

The window opens on May 17th and closes on August 9th. With players on holiday and pre season things will need to move quickly. In the past there has tended to be lots of movement towards the end of August when squads are settling down and players become surplus to requirements. We will need to be on the ball.

[DE.]

56 minutes ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

 

Cool, we might get Kennedy Bakirloglu, Mads Jorgensen and Cherno Samba depending on which year they're playing. 

Where's Freddy Adu these days?

[blueboy3333]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

and the Raos will say, 'we'll have some of that - will finance the club for another year without us dipping into our pockets again'. 

Assets will be made to sweat next season!

You said all this stuff last summer...you were wrong then...

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

You said all this stuff last summer...you were wrong then...

It'll need more than a repeat of last years dosh to make an impact next season.

[AdamRochina]

Since the all knowing overlord chaddy has told me never to mention Sunderland players ever again ..how about Marriott .. Carey and Ivan toney from this leauge to take with us? Pretty decent players ..if we can loan Armstrong again too ..would be in a stronger position 

[Acrover]

On 4/25/2018 at 13:41, ChrisPriceBaldSpot said:

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/championship/endendevertraege/wettbewerb/GB2

Some decent playets on thst list, also checked out the premier league list and theres a few that may be worth a punt,

Stephen Ireland

Charlie Adam 

And a few that I would love to see in blue and white halves but don't think we could afford atm.

I've read what you all have to say about this window and the likelyhood is they in pune can see the impact Mowbray has had and will invest even if it is a modest amount. If he is smart aboit his bueniss he can do it on a modest budget and make us competitive, we will need this year to find our feet in the league and if by jan we are in with a shout of the play-offs then he can demand more investment to get us over the line.  

IN MOWBRAY WE TRUST!

[Tom]

21 minutes ago, AdamRochina said:

Since the all knowing overlord chaddy has told me never to mention Sunderland players ever again ..how about Marriott .. Carey and Ivan toney from this leauge to take with us? Pretty decent players ..if we can loan Armstrong again too ..would be in a stronger position 

Welcome back, you weren’t done with the board for long!

Marriott looks pricey, Toney I wanted a while back and could do a job, worth a punt, I don’t know much about Carey to be fair.

[AdamRochina]

Just now, Tom said:

Welcome back, you weren’t done with the board for long!

Marriott looks pricey, Toney I wanted a while back and could do a job, worth a punt, I don’t know much about Carey to be fair.

Graham carey same as dack in regards to being involved in goals and assists 26 same as dack ..and I'm on everyday to read up stuff just thought I'd share a few players I thought of 

[Tom]

Just now, AdamRochina said:

Graham carey same as dack in regards to being involved in goals and assists 26 same as dack ..and I'm on everyday to read up stuff just thought I'd share a few players I thought of 

I’d take Otzumer as a Dackup option on a free