January Transfer Window.

[Mike E]

41 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

The strange thing for me, if I was to rank the latest episode it would rank a lot down the table in terms of the "darkest hours" under Venkys.

However the reaction to this is off the scale in terms of supporter opinion, im struggling to find (since the statement) a single person not baying for blood.

Who'd of thought?

I think it's because it's such a public and literally STUPID failure, whereas darker, nastier things can be explained away as 'clever'.

[booth]

1 minute ago, Mike E said:

I think it's because it's such a public and literally STUPID failure, whereas darker, nastier things can be explained away as 'clever'.

It will have opened the eyes of some about how badly the club is ran as a business. Worrying confirmation that it's being ran on a wing and a prayer.

[Penwortham Blue]

44 minutes ago, Atko's Engine said:

My email to SW:

"Dear Mr Waggott,

As a season ticket holder of 30+ years and as a long time silent member of the fanbase in terms of showing outright displeasure at the many failures at the club in recent years, I feel compelled to write to you to express my disbelief at what has occurred these last few days.

We are long suffering fans who have seen this club become a figure of ridicule, both within the fanbase and outside of it. To top off losing 4 top talents at this level for nothing across a 12 month period, we now learn that 2 signings (1 an ambitious short term one to try to help fire us to promotion, the other a long term one to further the "project"), failed to be registered in time due to incomplete and / or unsigned papers being lodged with the EFL in time.

There must be some explanation from the club to the fans as to exactly what happened to give rise to this scenario. I get deals need to be done in a short time sometimes, but to miss 2 deals in one go seems very shoddy indeed. The statement mentions issues beyond the club's control & that independent legal advisors were brought in to assist in the dealings. The club needs to provide more info in that respect.

I have been one of the more patient and understanding fans, accepting the period of transition the club gas gone through since our slide into league 1 was arrested. I've accepted the journey, I accept the project, I'm even at peace with the loss of star players for nothing IF Ben Brereton Diaz is the last of them and new foundations are built to grow the club into the self-sustaining premier league force it supposedly wants to be. But to now be in the situation we're in with these two transfers is, quite frankly, unforgivable and does nothing to breed confidence in anyone in any authority at Blackburn Rovers.

Please can you assure me that a full investigation will be undertaken to determine what happened, how / why and what lessons will be learnt, and that the findings will be made public as soon as it is possible to do so without prejudicing any appeal process? There must be transparency & accountability for what has happened.

We are a town club that has dwindled in significance in the last decade, fans have left in droves, we're competing against big city clubs with much larger fanbases, or with larger income from commercial activities, on field success or tv money. We cannot afford slip-ups like this, reputationally this is a huge own goal.

I would appreciate the courtesy of an early acknowledgement. I'm sure your inbox is filling up rapidly but I feel I deserve that at least."

Was as polite as I could be.

Was sent at 6pm, no reply yet obvs.

A great letter, befitting a legal eagle. Maybe they should have had you in by way of the external legal advice, someone with the legal expertise and a deep and emotional connection and incentive to get it right.

[tomphil]

47 minutes ago, 47er said:

A happy clapper will be saying this isn't the Club's fault! In fact there's a post on the LT site calling fans "ungrateful" for criticising the staff who've stuffed this up. They worked night and day to pull his transfer off and all they get is hostility!

He concluded that Rovers staff will be wondering why they bother!

PS---was going to paste that post but it isn't there anymore!

Yes pillocks like that still walk amongst us, i mean its BRFC isn't it we should all be grateful anyone actually turns up to work for it and do the jobs they are actually paid for.  They obviously do it for free when they really have better things to be doing with their time.  

[47er]

18 minutes ago, Leonard Venkhater said:

The EFL will be paranoid about a rake of challenges from other clubs that miss out on the play offs, should Rovers make the top 6.

They needn't worry!

[Ghost7]

It's different because deadline day is so well reported that for the first time every single Rovers fan received a minute-by-minute insight into the incompetency still at Ewood. We felt every minute. There was absolutely no hiding from it, no matter how many times they had to rehash the club statement. Deadline Day was almost a timelapse of the past 13 years, slight hope ruined by the realisation that your club is riddled with incompetence. This all stems from terrible ownership and the result this season couldn't be any clearer, the senior management team has derailed any promotion bid, hiked season ticket prices and lowered attendances. It's that simple. If the people involved in this aren't fired there's not a chance I'll renew my seats next year.

[47er]

46 minutes ago, Fraserkirky said:

Surely comment sense will prevail, the lad isn’t going to play for the next 6 months, 7 seconds, come on.

Let the deal go through, fine Rovers $50k and donate the money to a youth football program. 

EFL will not want to set a precedent, otherwise there won't be a Transfer Window anymore, just transfers without limit. We had all the notice everyone else had and we stuffed up--- twice!

Reading the Club statement I'm struck by how flimsy it sounds. Every transfer has legal, financial,teachical issues, ours are no different.

Other clubs maybe have better  staff who can meet deadlines....

Anyone else assuming we have no chance?

[booth]

14 minutes ago, 47er said:

EFL will not want to set a precedent, otherwise there won't be a Transfer Window anymore, just transfers without limit. We had all the notice everyone else had and we stuffed up--- twice!

Reading the Club statement I'm struck by how flimsy it sounds. Every transfer has legal, financial,teachical issues, ours are no different.

Other clubs maybe have better  staff who can meet deadlines....

Anyone else assuming we have no chance?

I think if all was in order it would have been okayed already.

Appealing is a belated PR exercise to dupe some fans into thinking they tried their best.

[Miller11]

1 hour ago, Atko's Engine said:

My email to SW:

"Dear Mr Waggott,

As a season ticket holder of 30+ years and as a long time silent member of the fanbase in terms of showing outright displeasure at the many failures at the club in recent years, I feel compelled to write to you to express my disbelief at what has occurred these last few days.

We are long suffering fans who have seen this club become a figure of ridicule, both within the fanbase and outside of it. To top off losing 4 top talents at this level for nothing across a 12 month period, we now learn that 2 signings (1 an ambitious short term one to try to help fire us to promotion, the other a long term one to further the "project"), failed to be registered in time due to incomplete and / or unsigned papers being lodged with the EFL in time.

There must be some explanation from the club to the fans as to exactly what happened to give rise to this scenario. I get deals need to be done in a short time sometimes, but to miss 2 deals in one go seems very shoddy indeed. The statement mentions issues beyond the club's control & that independent legal advisors were brought in to assist in the dealings. The club needs to provide more info in that respect.

I have been one of the more patient and understanding fans, accepting the period of transition the club gas gone through since our slide into league 1 was arrested. I've accepted the journey, I accept the project, I'm even at peace with the loss of star players for nothing IF Ben Brereton Diaz is the last of them and new foundations are built to grow the club into the self-sustaining premier league force it supposedly wants to be. But to now be in the situation we're in with these two transfers is, quite frankly, unforgivable and does nothing to breed confidence in anyone in any authority at Blackburn Rovers.

Please can you assure me that a full investigation will be undertaken to determine what happened, how / why and what lessons will be learnt, and that the findings will be made public as soon as it is possible to do so without prejudicing any appeal process? There must be transparency & accountability for what has happened.

We are a town club that has dwindled in significance in the last decade, fans have left in droves, we're competing against big city clubs with much larger fanbases, or with larger income from commercial activities, on field success or tv money. We cannot afford slip-ups like this, reputationally this is a huge own goal.

I would appreciate the courtesy of an early acknowledgement. I'm sure your inbox is filling up rapidly but I feel I deserve that at least."

Was as polite as I could be.

Was sent at 6pm, no reply yet obvs.

We don’t always agree, but that’s a cracking email 👍

[M_B]

1 hour ago, simongarnerisgod said:

i`ll make it as clear as possible

happy clapper keeps wooping and cheering whatever the circumstance

non happy clapper tells it how it is

I just see it as people having different opinions, I don't know why one group has to take the moral high ground. 

[AllRoverAsia]

3 hours ago, bluebruce said:

I read that somewhere too.

Page 302 of this thread has a copy of Nixon's patreon post that gives a timeline and includes that Rovers had agreed to cover full wages in the loan part of the deal.

That's full PL wages .... no mention of any loan fee.

So, if Nixon and a Google search are correct, we agreed to pay wages of £65k per week as a skint Championship club when also failing to get a proven goal scorer ... I am in need of some suspension of disbelief.

[Bbrovers2288]

Vote of no confidence 

I want answers 

[DaveyB]

1 hour ago, Fraserkirky said:

Surely comment sense will prevail, the lad isn’t going to play for the next 6 months, 7 seconds, come on.

Let the deal go through, fine Rovers $50k and donate the money to a youth football program. 

Not excusing the incompetence from those responsible at Rovers, but no one will ever convince me that such a hard & fast deadline, with seemingly no grace for either human error nor technical issues, is the best system that those running football could have come up with for these things. 
 

Rovers have lost out on 2 players, Rochdale (and to a lesser extent Forest) have lost out on vital income, O’Brien is going to lose 6 months of his career and the young lad from Rochdale is losing out on his big move - all for the sake of a few seconds??

Again, I’m not seeking to excuse the mess that Rovers have made of this - but there just doesn’t seem to be any common sense applied at all (and there are other clubs and other players in a similar situation too)

Surely all that should matter is was the deal agreed between the 3 parties before the deadline? If it was, and a player posing for a photo with the shirt of his new club would suggest that it was, then the paperwork being a few seconds, or even a few minutes, late, shouldn’t cause the deal to be quashed. It just seems overly pedantic to me 🤷‍♂️

[yellowsubmarine]

It's a shame. We should be celebrating the closure of the transfer windows with a couple of promising loans, got in a striker who can put ball into the net, overall strengthen the team and make us capable of retaining top 6 before we head to the playoff at the end of the season.

But now we have the same group of players, no improvement, and a dark cloud hanging over our Ewood management. This is so-Blackburn Rovers in the Venkys era.

[Upside Down]

3 hours ago, Atko's Engine said:

My email to SW:

"Dear Mr Waggott,

As a season ticket holder of 30+ years and as a long time silent member of the fanbase in terms of showing outright displeasure at the many failures at the club in recent years, I feel compelled to write to you to express my disbelief at what has occurred these last few days.

We are long suffering fans who have seen this club become a figure of ridicule, both within the fanbase and outside of it. To top off losing 4 top talents at this level for nothing across a 12 month period, we now learn that 2 signings (1 an ambitious short term one to try to help fire us to promotion, the other a long term one to further the "project"), failed to be registered in time due to incomplete and / or unsigned papers being lodged with the EFL in time.

There must be some explanation from the club to the fans as to exactly what happened to give rise to this scenario. I get deals need to be done in a short time sometimes, but to miss 2 deals in one go seems very shoddy indeed. The statement mentions issues beyond the club's control & that independent legal advisors were brought in to assist in the dealings. The club needs to provide more info in that respect.

I have been one of the more patient and understanding fans, accepting the period of transition the club gas gone through since our slide into league 1 was arrested. I've accepted the journey, I accept the project, I'm even at peace with the loss of star players for nothing IF Ben Brereton Diaz is the last of them and new foundations are built to grow the club into the self-sustaining premier league force it supposedly wants to be. But to now be in the situation we're in with these two transfers is, quite frankly, unforgivable and does nothing to breed confidence in anyone in any authority at Blackburn Rovers.

Please can you assure me that a full investigation will be undertaken to determine what happened, how / why and what lessons will be learnt, and that the findings will be made public as soon as it is possible to do so without prejudicing any appeal process? There must be transparency & accountability for what has happened.

We are a town club that has dwindled in significance in the last decade, fans have left in droves, we're competing against big city clubs with much larger fanbases, or with larger income from commercial activities, on field success or tv money. We cannot afford slip-ups like this, reputationally this is a huge own goal.

I would appreciate the courtesy of an early acknowledgement. I'm sure your inbox is filling up rapidly but I feel I deserve that at least."

Was as polite as I could be.

Was sent at 6pm, no reply yet obvs.

That's a great email.

It's a shame it will be totally ignored.

[RevidgeBlue]

Was busy last night, wow, just wow. Where to even start with this?. I think many posters have expressed themselves brilliantly on this so apologies if I'm   repeating many of the same points.

1) The Club "Statement". That should be a stackable offence in itself without even going into the fine detail of what happened. How did that even get passed for general release? In the first place the Club are in a very sticky situation on this to say the least, and they can't even be bothered putting out a grammatically correct statement that looks professional and reads so as to make sense.

2) Far more importantly however the thing I found most astonishing about the "statement" is the complete absence of contrition. Not the merest hint of an apology to either the supporters or the players involved who have had their careers wrecked in the short term. A real "Fuck you, we've dropped a monumental bollock here and badly affected the lives of a couple of players but we dont give a shit as we still get paid at the end of the month" if ever there was one.

3) I would say Rule *1 in a situation like this is if you-ve made a mistake, come completely clean, own up to what's happened and apologise. It might not change the outcome and you might still deserve and get the sack but at least people will respect the fact you had the balls to admit the mistake. Instead we get this whiney sort of tale of self pity insinuating the EFL are at fault for being too pedantic. I fully expected something like this would be coming but it's none the less unedifying for being entirely predictable. WE filed incorrect paperwork and missed a crucial deadline. No-one else. End of. Waggott sounds like a middle aged Vicky Pollard:

"Yeah but no but yeah but no but it isn't even our fault, we didn't even do anything!"

4) The lack of communication with the fans about what is going on should come as no surprise whatsoever. It's nothing new. The Club tried to sneak the Brockhall plans in under a veil of secrecy and only commented when an Eagle eyed fan (Matty Blue off here) spotted the planning application which had been submitted to RVBC. It took us over a week to comment on the departure of the previous manager after he indicated he was leaving, and we've had the wall of secrecy about what happened at the end of the window. All indicative of a complete disregard for the supporters.

Sack the lot of them apart from JDT and his assistant and start again.

[lraC]

3 hours ago, Upside Down said:

That's a great email.

It's a shame it will be totally ignored.

Let’s make sure it isn’t ignored. If everyone on here pastes it and also sends it to Waggott stating they will be sending again,  every 49 hours, until an answer is received, he will see it as an uprising. 
 

Maybe even post it on the LT website and let our new found friend Nicko have a copy.

Great E Mail BTW. 

[arbitro]

7 hours ago, Aqualung said:

What is his email address please? 

swaggott@rovers.co.uk

[wilsdenrover]

7 hours ago, M_B said:

I just see it as people having different opinions, I don't know why one group has to take the moral high ground. 

As with most things, the reality is always somewhere between the two extremes.

Although at this moment in time I’d suggest the reality is much nearer one extreme than the other!

We need this to change and to change fast - a big step would be the reintroduction of people taking accountability for their actions, or being made to by others ‘above’ them.

But the club will always get somethings wrong,  it will never be to blame for everything either.

 

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by wilsdenrover
Grammar

[wilsdenrover]

8 hours ago, Mike E said:

I think it's because it's such a public and literally STUPID failure, whereas darker, nastier things can be explained away as 'clever'.

I think your point of it being so public is a very good one.

Most of the day to day ‘administrative’ running is done ‘behind closed doors’ without any spotlight on it at all.

It makes you wonder how often they make such stupid errors.

People bemoan, rightly, how late season tickets go on sale - maybe they just forget to do them.

Somebody mentioned there are currently no shirts for sale in the club shop - maybe the order for more suffered ‘technical difficulties’ too.

I’m sure there are countless further examples 

Edited February 3, 2023 by wilsdenrover
Rewording

[Gav]

6 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Page 302 of this thread has a copy of Nixon's patreon post that gives a timeline and includes that Rovers had agreed to cover full wages in the loan part of the deal.

That's full PL wages .... no mention of any loan fee.

So, if Nixon and a Google search are correct, we agreed to pay wages of £65k per week as a skint Championship club when also failing to get a proven goal scorer ... I am in need of some suspension of disbelief.

Absolutely no chance Asia, the £10m buy out clause if we reach the Prem has bullshit written all over it too.

Tell the fans what they want to hear and whilst Nixon is at it, maybe he’s found the £50m war chest!

[wilsdenrover]

 

6 hours ago, DaveyB said:

Not excusing the incompetence from those responsible at Rovers, but no one will ever convince me that such a hard & fast deadline, with seemingly no grace for either human error nor technical issues, is the best system that those running football could have come up with for these things. 
 

Rovers have lost out on 2 players, Rochdale (and to a lesser extent Forest) have lost out on vital income, O’Brien is going to lose 6 months of his career and the young lad from Rochdale is losing out on his big move - all for the sake of a few seconds??

Again, I’m not seeking to excuse the mess that Rovers have made of this - but there just doesn’t seem to be any common sense applied at all (and there are other clubs and other players in a similar situation too)

Surely all that should matter is was the deal agreed between the 3 parties before the deadline? If it was, and a player posing for a photo with the shirt of his new club would suggest that it was, then the paperwork being a few seconds, or even a few minutes, late, shouldn’t cause the deal to be quashed. It just seems overly pedantic to me 🤷‍♂️

Perhaps a 24 hour ‘grace period’ could be introduced but with the condition that the player cannot play for, lets say, the first fortnight.

I guess, as others have said, any leeway and clubs will try to push their luck even further.

Regarding O’Brien potentially losing five months of his career, this is only because the transfer fell through AND the 25 man squad list thing - in the past he would now just be fighting for his in their first team.

Surely, if nothing else, the submission of your squad lists shouldn’t have to take place until after the deadline for any appeals on failed transfers has passed?

I wouldn’t have the squad lists at all, I’m not sure what the purpose behind them is, or was intended to be.

Of course, we wouldn’t be discussing any of this if our club knew how to do basic admin!

 

 

 

 

[JHRover]

I've just been told by one mon on Twitter that if it wasn't for Venkys owning us we wouldn't be linked to signings of O'brien's quality. You really couldn't make it up.

[Guest]

We are in a sorry state of affairs, when our main source of inside info has reverted to Alan 'Nicko' Nixon.

I think there should be an annual 'fit and proper' test for owners and management teams in football. I'd love it if there was a way that fans could seek the winding up of what is clearly an unfit for purpose administration around the club (including ownership 'interests')

are you listening Venkys?

VENKYS OUT!

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I've just been told by one mon on Twitter that if it wasn't for Venkys owning us we wouldn't be linked to signings of O'brien's quality. You really couldn't make it up.

Tell yer mon on Twitter he is a trolling moron, and to fuck right off 🙂