Waggott's interview with media

[1864roverite]

2 hours ago, gumboots said:

My issue with that would be that we are all concerned Rovers fans and all contribute to the site. I know it's a question of who you think you can trust with info but to share with a select few things you then refer to on here and won't disclose details of, not even a hint of why you feel new found mild optimism, is somewhat divisive. 

It is not divisive at all unless you want it to be. 

My point is that and it is a point I have mentioned so many times, rabid speculation when it is without foundation does more harm than good.

There are many on here that actively seek out the truth, have information contrary to what some believe and which is factually correct. 

Posting views is entirely correct as is posting an opinion of topical news.

You do often find on here,, as well as other forums, that those who do post "positive" news often get derided and the derision stems from believing information that they deem to be contrary to their own view!

[JimEdd]

23 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Come from Hull City and has been in place since July according to what I have research about him. Seems to have a good CV from what I have read

We don't make these appointment public anymore. 

Spoke ti Paul Fieldig 

 

ng

[rigger]

6 minutes ago, JimEdd said:

Spoke ti Paul Fieldig 

 

ng

It's a good job you didn't E-Mail him.

[DE.]

25 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

You do often find on here,, as well as other forums, that those who do post "positive" news often get derided and the derision stems from believing information that they deem to be contrary to their own view!

That hasn't been much positive to happen to the club in the past decade so you surely can't be surprised at that? People who have posted 'positive' news (including yourself regarding Derek Shaw sorting the club out a few years ago) have ultimately been shown to be wide of the mark. We had numerous people on here declare in the summer that Venky's had seen the light and Mowbray would 100% be gone. Yet here he remains. 

Now, that isn't to say that this time you aren't right - the law of averages dictates eventually something positive will happen at the club structurally - but to act like it's unreasonable for people to be wary of positive news after the past ten years of Venky rule is nonsense. What you've given most of us here is bones with absolutely no meat. Considering how often people who claim to have an 'inside track' to the club are wrong I can't blame you for being vague, but to pretend what you're saying isn't divisive and speculative is disingenous to say the least.

With all of that said I really hope this time you, Rev and everyone else who still believes in Venky's ability to do anything useful for this club are finally proven correct. Ten years and counting. 

[1864roverite]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

That hasn't been much positive to happen to the club in the past decade so you surely can't be surprised at that? People who have posted 'positive' news (including yourself regarding Derek Shaw sorting the club out a few years ago) have ultimately been shown to be wide of the mark.

And the above is exactly why I set about doing the proactive work that I have done. I did accept what DS said to me in two phone calls as he refused a face to face meeting, a mistake on my behalf that I failed to follow up or progress (but there are many reasons behind that).

I do not think for a moment everything is rosey or will be better in the immediate interim period although in saying that, I believe there is a solid future for BRFC and there are good examples of great work behind the scenes which fully support that viewpoint. There are things happening which many wont see nor understand, there are many who still believe there are huge cutbacks being made by the owners when in fact the opposite it the real truth, there are many who know very little about the academy progress, the plans and the future and yet, success is there for all to see. It seems to me that at times many on here and other forums and indeed our fan base, who just seem to rely on personal opinion, speculation and non founded stories. An example is the lack of getting a striker to replace AA, its simply not true that money wasn't available, it was down to medical reasons and nothing more. It is wrong to speculate as some do about Nyambe, Rothwell and Leneghan not signing contracts because of money/finance issues when it is simply not true.

The above are just simplified examples where people form an opinion on something they have read rather than having some credible evidence that would support their view.

As for positives in 10 or so years? I have to agree with you but there have been positives, promotion, establishing a foothold in the division we are in, progress off the park with the Academy, the best crop of youth players we have ever had, despite a pandemic and low crowds we still avoided a Derby FFP like issue and continue to do so. We are not in a position like Reading are in respect of a forthcoming points deduction and we are not hamstrung by being unable to sign players other than freebies. Even if you have no liking for the owners you have to have the view that without them BRFC would not be here nor would they able to survive. There is no external debt to any 3rd party.

Are these not positives to take?

TM and SW may not be well liked by many, I can understand that, I repeat I have been in the need for change camp so its not a case of blowing smoke up anyones backside.

[Neil Weaver]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

People who have posted 'positive' news (including yourself regarding Derek Shaw sorting the club out a few years ago) have ultimately been shown to be wide of the mark.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one to remember that!  So - like you (DE) and a lot of others I suspect - won't take too much notice of words.  Will wait to see evidence.

[JHRover]

9 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

As for positives in 10 or so years? I have to agree with you but there have been positives, promotion, establishing a foothold in the division we are in, progress off the park with the Academy, the best crop of youth players we have ever had, despite a pandemic and low crowds we still avoided a Derby FFP like issue and continue to do so. We are not in a position like Reading are in respect of a forthcoming points deduction and we are not hamstrung by being unable to sign players other than freebies. Even if you have no liking for the owners you have to have the view that without them BRFC would not be here nor would they able to survive. There is no external debt to any 3rd party.

 

I'm not sure I can roll with any of those supposed positives.

Promotion was a positive, but we should never have been in that division to start with and the horror of the Coyle season and relegation outweighed joy at getting promoted.

Establishing a foothold in the division we are in - again it is all relative. But having been in the Premier League, then supposedly tried returning to it all while losing £15 million every year I don't consider a 'foothold' in the second tier to be an accomplishment.

I'm not even sure there is that much progress with the academy, the main difference being that there is more reliance on it and more opportunity for players to come out of it and into the first team than there was previously. The academy has produced the goods for us for many years, going back to Phil Jones, Grant Hanley, Martin Olsson and co. before Venkys rocked up. I don't think it is doing better than before, just that due to the way they are running recruitment and cutting spending it is inevitable that more opportunities and time will be afforded to lads coming out of the academy.

We haven't avoided a FFP issue. I thought we were under an embargo earlier this year and then spent nothing in the summer to avoid getting into trouble? We also had an embargo in 2015 and sold all our best players directly leading to relegation to League One so we've actually suffered  multiple times under FFP with little to show for it.

We are hamstrung on signing players - we sold £15 million worth of talent in the summer and signed only loans and cheap ones at that with the exception of the kid from Lincoln.

There is external debt to the BOI. It is relatively small in context of the overall 'debt' but it is there and relies on the owners overdraft facility. The owners don't deserve credit for the debt situation - they have chosen to fund the club this way whilst other owners have written off their 'loans' or funded their clubs differently without putting them £200 million in the red. Bolton, Wigan, Derby, Portsmouth, Leicester, QPR, Birmingham all survived bad owners and came through it - not sure why we are different to that.. We've nothing in common with Bury, the only club to go bust, who were cripped with third party borrowing.

[Mattyblue]

Some kool-aid swallowing here 1864. You’ve viciously and consistently slagged these owners off for years and now you are decrying those that haven’t yet had your St Paul conversion as ‘negative’ or ignoramuses  that just ‘don’t understand’. After this disgraceful decade, said fans have every right to be sceptical about a few cryptic clues on a message board.

Oh and it must have been a pretty shit decade if not getting stranded in the third division is something to savour for a club that was a PL stalwart when they got their hands on it.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Mattyblue

[47er]

24 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

Even if you have no liking for the owners you have to have the view that without them BRFC would not be here nor would they able to survive. 

I don't believe that. There are enough people who care enough to ensure we will always survive. If it were not for those dopey owners (I'm being charitable) we would not have anything like that debt to start with.

But I'm not knocking you. I like good news and I hope that everything you believe will happen comes to pass.

In the meantime I just watch the great strides Bolton, Blackpool and Accy Stanley are making and shake my head in disbelief.

 

[Hasta]

32 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

It is wrong to speculate as some do about Nyambe, Rothwell and Leneghan not signing contracts because of money/finance issues when it is simply not true.

The above are just simplified examples where people form an opinion on something they have read rather than having some credible evidence that would support their view.

When we've read it as a direct quote from Mowbray it hard not to form that opinion.

Quote

"It's out of my hands but as long as the players know that I want them at this club, they can improve our team and we can help them to help us, that's where it stands.

"If ultimately, and there's a little bit of this going on at the moment, I've spoken to all parties - the players, the CEO - where does the club set its parameters of what it can spend? How much can the top earners of our football club earn?

"Are we going to break our wage structure for this player or that player? Because once you break it for one player, you have to break it for this player or this player.

 

[Silas]

31 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

 There are things happening which many wont see nor understand,...

I'm sure it's not your intention, but comments and tone like this are coming across as a bit rude to me.

Basically saying-  you thickos don't have the mental capacity to correctly deal with this information. 

31 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

It seems to me that at times many on here and other forums and indeed our fan base, who just seem to rely on personal opinion, speculation and non founded stories. 

You could make this statement about any of the 92 football league clubs. Mainly because football fans are often kept in the dark. (For good reason sometimes.)

Also feels a bit like you're asking us to fully believe your non-founded half story, because you're telling us it is way more credible than all the other non-founded stories we've heard recently. Surely no surprise you're getting a bit of pushback here. 

Your prerogative to keep your cards close to your chest. But calling us out for not being more positive about the news you haven't given us is slightly bemusing. 

[1864roverite]

14 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I'm not sure I can roll with any of those supposed positives.

Promotion was a positive, but we should never have been in that division to start with and the horror of the Coyle season and relegation outweighed joy at getting promoted.

Establishing a foothold in the division we are in - again it is all relative. But having been in the Premier League, then supposedly tried returning to it all while losing £15 million every year I don't consider a 'foothold' in the second tier to be an accomplishment.

I'm not even sure there is that much progress with the academy, the main difference being that there is more reliance on it and more opportunity for players to come out of it and into the first team than there was previously. The academy has produced the goods for us for many years, going back to Phil Jones, Grant Hanley, Martin Olsson and co. before Venkys rocked up. I don't think it is doing better than before, just that due to the way they are running recruitment and cutting spending it is inevitable that more opportunities and time will be afforded to lads coming out of the academy.

We haven't avoided a FFP issue. I thought we were under an embargo earlier this year and then spent nothing in the summer to avoid getting into trouble? We also had an embargo in 2015 and sold all our best players directly leading to relegation to League One so we've actually suffered  multiple times under FFP with little to show for it.

We are hamstrung on signing players - we sold £15 million worth of talent in the summer and signed only loans and cheap ones at that with the exception of the kid from Lincoln.

There is external debt to the BOI. It is relatively small in context of the overall 'debt' but it is there and relies on the owners overdraft facility. The owners don't deserve credit for the debt situation - they have chosen to fund the club this way whilst other owners have written off their 'loans' or funded their clubs differently without putting them £200 million in the red. Bolton, Wigan, Derby, Portsmouth, Leicester, QPR, Birmingham all survived bad owners and came through it - not sure why we are different to that.. We've nothing in common with Bury, the only club to go bust, who were crippled with third party borrowing.

Sunderland, Ipswich and Wigan? All suffered additional relegations we

 

20 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Some kool-aid swallowing here 1864. You’ve viciously and consistently slagged these owners off for years and now you are decrying those that haven’t yet had your St Paul conversion as ‘negative’ or ignoramuses  that just ‘don’t understand’. After this disgraceful decade, said fans have every right to be sceptical about a few cryptic clues on a message board.

Oh and it must have been a pretty shit decade if not getting stranded in the third division is something to savour for a club that were PL stalwarts when they got their hands on BRFC.

t. So getting out and then staying up is a positive in my view. With low crowds, lower income and a supporter base that has almost seen 50% leave the club added to lesser tv money we could easily have collapsed further down the leagues.

FFP issue for Rovers was account based only and outside of any transfer window.

We are not hamstrung on signing players far from it. A smaller squad was needed, big earners were needed to go and a process undertaken to lower the average age of the team and to allow progress from the academy and u23 teams. I believe that this is bearing more fruit than ever.

As I said I am not blowing smoke nor have I ever said that I have changed my view on the ownership and what has gone before. I remain steadfast that without them we would not see Rovers in the top 6 of the Championship, at the very best we would be in Div 2.

MB where have a slagged off any of the members of this forum or referred to anyone as being an ignoramus? All I have alluded to is that negative posts often come without sound knowledge and/or understanding or are based on speculation and word of mouth.

I have always stood by my viewpoint on the owners and management and I retain those views for advocating change at the club and that means anything that realises better management of the club across all aspects of the football operations.

St Paul conversion? That really made me chuckle. I think I am intelligent enough to do full research on subjects before being able to challenge answers which I did and was able to. In fact, before I received my St Paul experience, I was armed with more answers than were need courtesy of research, courtesy of other members of this forum and others who like me have done some solid background research. The information that I was later given is corroborated in many ways.

There remains many issues for me, season ticket prices and sales, match day pricing and food sales not to mention communication with the fans which I believe is the biggest factor at the club but at the same time I am aware that the club and owners have priorities like any business has in coming out of this pandemic. 

We cannot change the last 10 years, its a decade of rueful dross, mismanagement, sadness, lies and thievery and the raping and pillaging of our club. Blame lies at the feet of many and the owners do not avoid any of the blame. What can change and what is planned for change will only and can only be for the benefit of the club and its supporters.

Many say and will continue to say that we have heard this at fans forums, that they have the word from within the club, that they have heard this and that and that they don't believe it. I have been there done that and got the t-shirt, I have read it to death in ff notes and chatter at home and away games.

If what I have learned doesn't pan out as being truthful and right then at least I am armed with the information to get it out there and to tell every Rovers fans the reality of the situation as I am sure others will also do.

 

[1864roverite]

10 minutes ago, Silas said:

I'm sure it's not your intention, but comments and tone like this are coming across as a bit rude to me.

Basically saying-  you thickos don't have the mental capacity to correctly deal with this information. 

 

Utter rubbish, I am not rude nor have I any intention to be so., I certainly have never referred to anyone as being thick! I was in the same boat as every other Rovers fan until certain things were properly researched and then quantified in an interview/meeting.

[Dreams of 1995]

These “changes” had better be radical because being honest radical change is the only thing that can be viewed as positive 

We are a skeleton club with a massive chasm in leadership roles. We have 0 scrutiny of our operating procedure and have seen a decade long demise of everything from match day experience to operating staff (ie ticket office and club shop)

Nothing at this club is better than it was 12 years ago. Absolutely nothing. So if we are to view any aspect of Venky ownership as positive, and if indeed “change is on its way”, then I have to be honest to share the optimism of 1864 it has to be a change in ownership. There cannot possibly be any other news to be positive about when you consider how everything is done with Venkys. 

[Silas]

5 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

 I was in the same boat as every other Rovers fan until certain things were properly researched and then quantified in an interview/meeting.

"....one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I can see."   John 9:25

[Mattyblue]

Yes, a St Paul conversion…

 

[RevidgeBlue]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

Some kool-aid swallowing here 1864. You’ve viciously and consistently slagged these owners off for years and now you are decrying those that haven’t yet had your St Paul conversion as ‘negative’ or ignoramuses  that just ‘don’t understand’. After this disgraceful decade, said fans have every right to be sceptical about a few cryptic clues on a message board.

Oh and it must have been a pretty shit decade if not getting stranded in the third division is something to savour for a club that was a PL stalwart when they got their hands on it.

Not sure anyone has had "a St. Paul conversion". I'm still of the view that massive change is needed and the proof of the pudding will be in the eating where all that is concerned. Think 1864 is as well.

The point is, there does seem at least to be a recognition behind the scenes that where we're currently at is nowhere near good enough and there do appear to be changes starting to be implemented and in the offing.

Whether it all comes off of course remains to be seen but at least it doesn't seem to be a case of "This is our level and all we're entitled to expect" etc which you might have thought if you were listening to the manager towards the end of last season. 

[RevidgeBlue]

23 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

These “changes” had better be radical because being honest radical change is the only thing that can be viewed as positive 

We are a skeleton club with a massive chasm in leadership roles. We have 0 scrutiny of our operating procedure and have seen a decade long demise of everything from match day experience to operating staff (ie ticket office and club shop)

Nothing at this club is better than it was 12 years ago. Absolutely nothing. So if we are to view any aspect of Venky ownership as positive, and if indeed “change is on its way”, then I have to be honest to share the optimism of 1864 it has to be a change in ownership. There cannot possibly be any other news to be positive about when you consider how everything is done with Venkys. 

I agree with everything you've said above except the last four or five lines.

IF we were properly run on the ground, and admittedly it's a massive "if" I can't see any way in which we'd be better off without Venky's financial backing than with it.

[Mattyblue]

To be fair to you Rev, you’ve seen the positives in this ownership throughout, which has been a very lone furrow at times on here, so no issue with your optimism, it just rankles to be lectured by others who have been far more militant in their anti-Rao beliefs than most on here (until they were flattered with some tea and cakes and platitudes in recent times, by the sounds of it) but now are decrying those as ‘negative’ that are still wary of this lots ability to change. ‘Fool me once… fool me about 36 times’.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Mattyblue

[Giant]

Information about the Rovers Fan Wall for those who bought season tickets for last season has just been sent out. It will be sited “ in the heart of the Jack Walker Stand”.

[Bad Boy]

3 minutes ago, Giant said:

Information about the Rovers Fan Wall for those who bought season tickets for last season has just been sent out. It will be sited “ in the heart of the Jack Walker Stand”.

An excellent initiative from Rovers 👏👏

[RevidgeBlue]

8 minutes ago, Bad Boy said:

An excellent initiative from Rovers 👏👏

Should it not be outside where everyone can see it?

Did they ever change the policy whereby young fans who had purchased were to be left off it?

[Bad Boy]

Just now, RevidgeBlue said:

Should it not be outside where everyone can see it?

Did they ever change the policy whereby young fans who had purchased were to be left off it?

I believe it should be outside (like Liverpool) and yes the young fans should be included; if you pay your money you should be included.  I just wish the club would revert the fans pavement to bricks around the outside walls of the ground, I have been to many grounds where the bricks are around the stadium and they look excellent (eg. Sunderland).

[Dreams of 1995]

31 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

I agree with everything you've said above except the last four or five lines.

IF we were properly run on the ground, and admittedly it's a massive "if" I can't see any way in which we'd be better off without Venky's financial backing than with it.

But when you look at Venkys you have to look at their past behaviour as well as finances 

They have the ability to hire almost any name they can realistically attract to Rovers but so far we have been in the market of cast offs or dodgy pundits. There’s not many who have had a good CV come through the doors in their time. In that case it is hard to think of whatever positive could be happening behind the scenes. Especially when one of the biggest chancers we have seen in Waggott is still sat on his spinning chair. 

I seriously cannot understand any optimism in Venkys business but hope you are right. It would take some doing though - hiring good folk into and restructuring a club they’ve torn apart. A serious investment and not one I believe they are willing to make. 

 

[windymiller7]

12 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Should it not be outside where everyone can see it?

Did they ever change the policy whereby young fans who had purchased were to be left off it?

My daughter is 16 (15 last year obviously) & has been sent an email with an invite so I can vouch for the fact that that age group is included.