January Transfer Window.

[AllRoverAsia]

14 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

Hang on… are we skint? Or do we have benevolent owners who are only stopped from buying us the very best players by nasty FFP limitations?

Depends on what day if the week it is divided by prevailing gossip aka club leaks. 

[Gav]

23 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Chaddy, stop trying to defend the indefensible.

Even the keenest Rovers' fans, and you are probably one of them, should feel able to stand back and make objective judgements - the club and it's employees are not beyond criticism.

I think (and I daresay there are many others who think the same) the club's management operation is shambolic and I say that from knowledge and experience accumulated across industry, commerce, sport etc over a number of decades.  It deeply pains me what has happened to our club since 2010 and never, ever in some 60 years or so as a Rovers' supporter have I seen such a disconnect with the fan base.  To lose some 12,000 season ticket holders in some 10 years or so is absolutely scandalous and inexcusable.  Many, many previous 'diehards' have been lost and I fear they will never return.  

All this is very good and you're not wrong, but what do you expect with these owners?

You pop up every now and then throwing out the same lines, the same sound bites about poor staff like you're expecting something to have changed. 

Nothing changes until the owners sod off.

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by Gav

[Mercer]

12 minutes ago, Gav said:

All this is very good and you're not wrong, but what do you expect with these owners?

You pop up every now and then throwing out the same lines, the same sound bites about poor staff like you're expecting something to have changed. 

Nothing changes until the owners sod off.

 

Wow Gav, I may not post as prodigiously as you but 10k+ posts is a bit more than 'popping up every now and then'!

Well until we have a change of ownership, what should we do?  Sit on our hands with our mouths closed and pretend all is 'hunky dory'!?

We have two actions available to us.  One is to vote with our feet and some 10,000+ have done that already and the second is to express ourselves through social media.  I actually think part of the existing younger core fan base know nothing better than the situation we find ourselves in - sadly, to them it's the 'norm' and they are easily assuaged by the, IMO, copious streams of bullsh1t emanating from Ewood and Brockhall.  To me, one of the final 'convincers' of how rotten I think our management is was the 'secretive' planning of the disposal of Brockhall, or at least part of, to build houses on - to me, that stunk the house out. 

[LDRover]

7 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Well before this window whoever was deciding what pond to fish in should have made sure they had concrete assurances as to where they stood regarding finances. If those assurances weren’t forthcoming they should be reconsidering their position.

How can you do the job otherwise ? 

No doubt we'll end up fishing in the equivalent of Dickens Street pond. Right next to the shit pipe.

[ItsRoverZ]

I see Sunderland have signed a French lad from West ham, Blackpool sign Charlie goode from Brentford..

What the fuck is this new scouting team doing? We can all see what we desperately need, we knew month or so before Jan so why are we now a week or so away from the closing of the window and still no new bodies to improve the squad 

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

I thought you wanted Cantwell?

yes I did but at the post I didn't know he moved to Rangers

57 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Chaddy, stop trying to defend the indefensible.

Even the keenest Rovers' fans, and you are probably one of them, should feel able to stand back and make objective judgements - the club and it's employees are not beyond criticism.

I think your comments on GB and JDT you have posted recently are totally unwarranted, unnecessary and wrong that. You appear to have a vendetta against GB from the moment he joined the club and I think blaming him for the lack of January signings is baffling and bewildering to be honest. 

Just for the record if criticism is warrant and needed I will say so 

[chaddyrovers]

2 minutes ago, ItsRoverZ said:

I see Sunderland have signed a French lad from West ham, Blackpool sign Charlie goode from Brentford..

What the fuck is this new scouting team doing? We can all see what we desperately need, we knew month or so before Jan so why are we now a week or so away from the closing of the window and still no new bodies to improve the squad 

relax and stop going OTT over it. We will make the signings we needed before the window shuts

[AllRoverAsia]

13 minutes ago, LDRover said:

No doubt we'll end up fishing in the equivalent of Dickens Street pond. Right next to the shit pipe.

There's a small shoal of red herrings been spotted floating belly up in the river. No bites yet, understandable really.

Edited January 23, 2023 by AllRoverAsia

[roversfan99]

7 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

yes I did but at the post I didn't know he moved to Rangers

I think your comments on GB and JDT you have posted recently are totally unwarranted, unnecessary and wrong that. You appear to have a vendetta against GB from the moment he joined the club and I think blaming him for the lack of January signings is baffling and bewildering to be honest. 

Just for the record if criticism is warrant and needed I will say so 

So we have missed out now as far as youre concerned?

[simongarnerisgod]

i`ll wait until the end of the transfer window to vent my anger

[Danny O.Brien]

It's an absolute shit show and once again we'll be scrambling on deadline day picking up what we can. Imagine being linked with a player, making an approach and signing him. We get linked, hear nothing for days then another team come in and sign them 😂. Wheres the fucking sticker book? 

[Gav]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

Wow Gav, I may not post as prodigiously as you but 10k+ posts is a bit more than 'popping up every now and then'!

Well until we have a change of ownership, what should we do?  Sit on our hands with our mouths closed and pretend all is 'hunky dory'!?

We have two actions available to us.  One is to vote with our feet and some 10,000+ have done that already and the second is to express ourselves through social media.  I actually think part of the existing younger core fan base know nothing better than the situation we find ourselves in - sadly, to them it's the 'norm' and they are easily assuaged by the, IMO, copious streams of bullsh1t emanating from Ewood and Brockhall.  To me, one of the final 'convincers' of how rotten I think our management is was the 'secretive' planning of the disposal of Brockhall, or at least part of, to build houses on - to me, that stunk the house out. 

You don’t go to Ewood, so you’re one of those that has given up, that is your contribution until Venkys go by your own admission.

I also have to take exception to your characterisation of our younger supports who do attend games, are all over social media and probably better placed than you or I to judge what’s going on at Ewood. To dismiss those supporters is unwise in my opinion.

My original comment comes from your criticism every transfer window of anyone that works for the club, often without any foundation whatsoever.

It’s all about opinions though Mercer and I’d rather be reading yours than some fabricated bullshit about insider information .

Edited January 23, 2023 by Gav

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

Chaddy, stop trying to defend the indefensible.

Even the keenest Rovers' fans, and you are probably one of them, should feel able to stand back and make objective judgements - the club and it's employees are not beyond criticism.

I think (and I daresay there are many others who think the same) the club's management operation is shambolic and I say that from knowledge and experience accumulated across industry, commerce, sport etc over a number of decades.  It deeply pains me what has happened to our club since 2010 and never, ever in some 60 years or so as a Rovers' supporter have I seen such a disconnect with the fan base.  To lose some 12,000 season ticket holders in some 10 years or so is absolutely scandalous and inexcusable.  Many, many previous 'diehards' have been lost and I fear they will never return.  

Hear hear! Despite the confounding factors such as changing social norms, different expectations and values, alternative channels for entertainment and leisure pursuits, the fact is that football teams still sit deeply embedded in the heart of many communities throughout the world. Except in Blackburn, there seems to have been a concerted and deeply cynical push to dis-embed and disenfranchise our club from the people in the local area. Going to the Rovers isn't what it used to be, and maybe it never will be again what it once was. But look around - Bolton, rocking again; Sunderland, (even with a gurning chump at the helm) massive crowds; Middlesboro, building towards a real run at the Prem. - Plenty of evidence that football is alive and kicking, and that we, ladies and gentlemen, have been sold a pup.

[BankEnd Rover]

You’d like to hope the less activity we produce this window leaves us more for the summer…

Im sure we will see a striker come in this window and if budgets are that tight then we will have to leave it at that & make do….
Like I said if it means more money in the pot for summer, I’d rather us wait & bring in players then.

Edited January 23, 2023 by BankEnd Rover

[roverandout]

23 minutes ago, Gav said:

You don’t go to Ewood, so you’re one of those that has given up, that is your contribution until Venkys go by your own admission.

I also have to take exception to your characterisation of our younger supports who do attend games, are all over social media and probably better placed than you or I to judge what’s going on at Ewood. To dismiss those supporters is unwise in my opinion.

My original comment comes from your criticism every transfer window of anyone that works for the club, often without any foundation whatsoever.

It’s all about opinions though Mercer and I’d rather be reading yours than some fabricated bullshit about insider information .

I gave up going but I was one of those who attended every protest whether it was snow rain or sunshine.  Did you?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

7 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

You’d like to hope the less activity we produce this window leaves us more for the summer…

Im sure we will see a striker come in this window and if budgets are that tight then we will have to leave it at that & make do….
Like I said if it means more money in the pot for summer, I’d rather us wait & bring in players then.

We won’t be starting next season in 4th place.

[bluebruce]

6 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

We won’t be starting next season in 4th place.

You're right - the tables before games are played will show us in 2nd I believe 🤣

[tomphil]

Being able to bring 4 players in in Jan is a luxury not often afforded at Ewood under this ownership so enforced the point Mowbray was quite fortunate last season.

Even more annoying he made a balls of it and it doesn't look like JDT will be so lucky.

[bigbrandjohn]

“ Well let’s get more company in before the deadline” said the Big Panda. 
 

From the book: Big Panda and Tiny Dragon by James Norbury

[Gav]

24 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I gave up going but I was one of those who attended every protest whether it was snow rain or sunshine.  Did you?

Yes. 

Please don’t think I’m criticising fans that don’t go, this is Mercer specific based on his quarterly criticism of new managers and staff after crying out for new managers and staff 😀

Edited January 23, 2023 by Gav

[Mattyblue]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

Wow Gav, I may not post as prodigiously as you but 10k+ posts is a bit more than 'popping up every now and then'!

 

Or is it one post ten thousand times?

[Atko's Engine]

All this talk of the project, the longer term, forward planning etc. being criticised, for me brings to mind something Jack said when we won the title. Through tears of joy, he said that we'd achieved his goal of winning the title a year earlier than planned. Great, we all thought, and it was a truly fantastic 4 years.

But then what happened?  We finished 7th, then mid table for a couple of seasons, then went down. We were rubbish in 99/2000, then found Souness and lucked out with the likes of Dunn, Duff & Jansen coming through. Hughes also benefitted from that, but was also able to buy in decent talent. We competed really well over a decade in the Prem under Williams' guidance before Venky's came along & threw it all away.

My point, in this context, is that we grew too fast, faster than expected, such that we fell away almost as fast, faster than any other title winner. We didn't have the foundations to be sustainable in the longer term. Jack knew this and admitted as much, hence the funding of the academy. After his death, that academy, plus good club management from Williams, kept us up, but it only took 1 bad appointment by know-nothing new owners to ruin it all and since then.... well, we all know what's happened since then.

This summer, for whatever reason and at whoever's behest, the club took a new turn by opting for the DoF & Head Coach model. It happened at a time when 3 senior pros left for free, 2 first team loanees left, and half a dozen squad players moved on. The club was riddled with holes, not just on the squad but in the backroom team too.

On arrival, GB made no bones about this being a project, the brief being to make the club sustainable in its own right, to build a solid foundation over a period of time which would stand the test of time and the vagaries of the modern game. It was to be (re)built from the bottom up, relying heavily on the academy, good scouting & shrewd investment.

JDT then arrived. He perhaps didn't know the recent history, the antipathy of the owners, the mistrust between the club & fans, the false dawns, the promises, the journey. But he did know we had a shoestring budget, he knew we had a strong academy, he knew we had a team shorn of experience & numbers, with 1 star player who was only likely to be around for one season, the other still recovering from 2 seasons out injured.  "I was looking for a project, the project found me". He nor JDT couldn't have been clearer about their remit.

He then had what, 6 weeks to get to know the players he inherited, in a pre season he said wouldn't have been his choice, plus contribute to identifying incomings. One of his backroom team died within days of his arrival. Then the season started in earnest, 24 games crammed into 3 and a half months. He had to rely on blooding youth to get through that, giving 5 players their senior debuts. It's not surprising that some things didn't come off (Hirst being the standout flop) or that results have been inconsistent.

Despite all that, the team clearly over achieved in that spell, to the point where now, even after 3 wins in 10 matches, we're still in 4th, which none of us predicted, expected or demanded in June. All to play for.

There's 1 week left of the January transfer window. We clearly have targets, some known, most probably unknown. JDT and GB will be trying to push for the best deals for now, whilst also planning for the future as per their remit, which they knew when they arrived. Every manager hates the January window, good deals are tough to get at the best of times, even for non-dysfunctional clubs like Rovers.

I've rambled on a bit, but looking through the prism of history GB & JDT just cannot be judged harshly now, or at the end of this season, on the back of faults of others before or above them.  The Prem winning year was built on weak foundations which crumbled just as quickly, & Venky's ruined the stability of the Williams era. If it takes JDT & GB 2-3 seasons of rebuilding, of trading, of instilling a togetherness & an identity back into a broken club then great, 'cos it was a shambles when they arrived. And that's not giving up on promotion this year by the way.

[Miller11]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

relax and stop going OTT over it. We will make the signings we needed before the window shuts

You said the same thing last January.

[WacoRover]

2 hours ago, Shirley Crabtree Wrestler said:

Hear hear! Despite the confounding factors such as changing social norms, different expectations and values, alternative channels for entertainment and leisure pursuits, the fact is that football teams still sit deeply embedded in the heart of many communities throughout the world. Except in Blackburn, there seems to have been a concerted and deeply cynical push to dis-embed and disenfranchise our club from the people in the local area. Going to the Rovers isn't what it used to be, and maybe it never will be again what it once was. But look around - Bolton, rocking again; Sunderland, (even with a gurning chump at the helm) massive crowds; Middlesboro, building towards a real run at the Prem. - Plenty of evidence that football is alive and kicking, and that we, ladies and gentlemen, have been sold a pup.

SCR, I believe everything you say; so, what gets the people back- is the only way for the fans to return, for the current owners to sell? 

It just seems to me, “once a fan, always a fan”.  The last time Ewood was packed was promotion day from League 1 (I think). So, there’s still 18,000 to 20,000 casual fans, who return when Venkys sells? How about if Rovers promote- will that effect numbers? (I’m not being a wise guy… I live in Texas, I’ve always lived in Texas. I am a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, I live 100 miles from Cowboy stadium, I will NOT attend their games while Jones’ are in charge… so I understand plight of Rovers fans, but there is no possibility Cowboys will  go under, if I do not attend. Rovers could suffer, if fans don’t return). 
 

I guess what I should’ve asked, was, how many people on this board currently attend Rovers games regularly, despite owners; & how many live within easy travel distance of Ewood, who will NOT attend, because of the owners/current mgmt?

I appreciate you all, for your forbearance of this Texan Rover. 

Edited January 23, 2023 by WacoRover

[roverandout]

1 hour ago, Gav said:

Yes. 

Please don’t think I’m criticising fans that don’t go, this is Mercer specific based on his quarterly criticism of new managers and staff after crying out for new managers and staff 😀

No worries.