He's 31 in November as well so at the wrong end of his career unfortunately. It's a shame he wasn't properly utilised when we brought him back to the club in the 13/14 season. Not a Bowyer type player sadly, with a different manager in charge he could have really helped push us forward. He only lasted half a season under GB. I believe Judge signed a new 2 year deal at Ipswich last month so I imagine he's there for at least the next season. If they fail to get promoted I could see him moving elsewhere if he has a good year. Evans/Travis/Davenport might be an acceptable three to rotate in those positions. If it was up to me Evans would never have been given a new contract but now that he has I fear we'll have little choice but to try and make use of him. As for Smallwood, unless we release him on a free I can't see much interest in his services. Another one whose new contract will hinder the need to move him on.

I don't think Raya will ever be that good, but the potential is still there to be a decent Championship level keeper. He's still young for his position. We need to bring in a proper keeper for Raya to learn from, and perhaps upgrade the coaching staff too - across the board. I'm not sure what they do on a daily basis but I don't think any of our players have improved on their weaknesses over the course of the season, in some cases they seem to have gotten worse. That points to a lack of direction and/or quality coaching on the training pitch, and is something that could really hinder our younger talents if it isn't addressed soon.

We absolutely have to stop with this 45 minute mentality. Failing to start games properly has killed us this season. The amount of 0-0 first half scores at Ewood must be close to if not a record? Hopefully Mowbray will bring in better players over the summer and have the courage to let them play from the first whistle. As it stands we handicap ourselves in many matches with poor first half performances.

Chapman has some clear ability but unfortunately with his injury record we can't go into a season relying on him as long-term first choice. Until he's had a decent period of full fitness and 90 min games we have to assume he will only be able to play a bit-part role.

He's had a decent enough end to the season at CB, but must not be considered first choice going into next season. We need a much better player to partner Lenihan long-term. Del is an acceptable back up but that is all.

Ipswich 3-2 Leeds ?

Well, on the plus side this will hopefully solidify in Mowbray's mind that we need massive improvements across the board, particularly in defence.

Conway's best period for Rovers was undoubtedly the 13/14 & 14/15 seasons. 13 assists and 4 goals in just 18 appearances when he joined midway through 13/14, then 10 assists and 3 goals the following season. His form declined slightly in 15/16 with 7 assists and 3 goals, and then 6 goals and 5 assists in 16/17. Obviously since then he's been on the decline, but he was excellent for us in those first two seasons and still contributed more than most in the 15/16 and 16/17 seasons. Well past his best now but still one of the best signings of the Venky era. Would be more than happy for him to stay on in a player/coach capacity if he wanted to (on a much reduced wage, obviously), but wouldn't blame him if he feels he can still go and contribute as a player elsewhere.

I think for that to be successful people would have to believe we have a genuine chance of going up. Considering our lower mid-table finish this season, and the fact we've never even broken into the playoffs under Venky's, I'm not sure those who are currently absent will have any faith in promotion occurring next season or in the near future. Didn't we have some kind of promotion pledge before we went down that promised either frozen or reduced ST prices should we go up? It always felt like a joke because the club was slipping further and further away from being able to realistically challenge.

Judging by Mowbray's comments I think the likes of Ameobi are probably nowhere near the level we're looking at. And I mean that in a positive way.

I don't think he's really impressed enough in the PL to earn a move, so probably a smart decision. It'll be interesting to see how Fulham get on next year. They splashed a lot of cash and got nowhere, but if those players can adapt to the Championship they could be a force to be reckoned with. Of course that rarely happens, so, it'll likely be a case of who is best to try and move on and who is best to keep/bring in. Cairney is a proven Championship talent so it's a no-brainer for Fulham to keep him.

Yeah, I have no idea what Anderson has gotten out of this whole sorry saga. He has made himself look like a total idiot, talking about tire kickers and time-wasters, then going forward with a clown like Bassini. You can only assume it was desperation, and the hope that somehow Bassini would be able to conjure up the funds he claimed to have. All it's done is made everybody look ridiculous and put the club itself into further jeopardy. Not that Anderson cares about Bolton, but you'd think he'd value his own integrity. I guess not. My guess is that they go into administration within the coming days and once that process is complete a buyer will pick Bolton up for a small fee and the whole circus starts over.

Come to think of it I'm sure I can remember Bowyer warning about an embargo coming quite far in advance of it actually happening. It's amazing that nobody at the club bothered to step in and try to fix things until it was too late. Just shows how rudderless the ship was at that time. I believe it was around that period that Suhail became more involved, getting rid of Bowyer, hiring Lambert and then by January we were out of embargo. So it was clearly something that was fixable, it's just for some reason nobody did anything about it before the summer. I believe the season after was when we had the emergency loan situation? Some very odd goings on around that time.

The problem we had in the Bowyer years was that we waited too long to start selling. We were already under embargo by the time it became apparent we needed to move players on. This should have been addressed MUCH earlier by whoever was meant to be responsible for that. If there even was anybody responsible. It probably fell under Bowyer's remit, as almost everything did back then. This time at least we seem to be more on the ball in terms of keeping an eye on our financial responsibilities and how signings affect the club's FFP obligations. Had we been more aware before the first embargo we might have been able to avoid it, and not been forced to sell Cairney on the cheap and do everything we could to shove Rhodes out the door. Although the latter was probably inevitable.

We probably only needed a decent centre back and maybe a left back in January. I don't think it would have been hard to upgrade on Bell or Mulgrew defensively. That said, if we'd known earlier that Williams would be so competent at CB we probably could have gotten away with using him there for an extended period. Unfortunately by the time this became apparent it was too late. With the way TM tends to bed in new signings I don't think signings in January would have made much difference. The bigger issue was letting Downing go without having any real replacement ready to step in.

I had a look at the stats earlier and from recollection we gained very few points from the games Mulgrew scored in, so I don't think losing his goals would make much difference. I'd much rather be stronger at the back and have the midfielders chip in with more goals.

This is an unprecedented scenario at this level so all options are on the table. I can't see it coming to expulsion though. I assume Bolton will be given the choice to either go into admin or be expelled from the league if a takeover hasn't been agreed by a certain date. The EFL already agreed Bolton wouldn't have to fulfil their final fixture if they went into admin beforehand, so there seems to be some wriggle room there. Worth keeping in mind they have their court date with HMRC next week. It was delayed on the basis Bassini would be in charge by the time it happened. This situation appears dead in the water now and there isn't enough time for a takeover between now and the court date. So, if Bolton went into administration I'm not sure how that would affect things. Possibly another adjournment? Administration seems like the only way out now. They're surely out of options otherwise.

To be fair mate it's more on FB/Twitter than here. Somebody started a topic in one of the Rovers groups saying it's time to get behind Venky's, forgive them, etc... over 100 likes, full of comments from people saying they were duped, learned their lessons, we're on our way back, etc... it really wound me up. The discussion on here tends to be more balanced.

This was the obvious outcome. What did the EFL think was going to happen with Bassini out of the picture and Anderson refusing to put up any funds? So if Bolton go into admin they'll start on -10 points, then even more to be deducted because of this fiasco?

There is a lot of talk of forgiving Venky's and welcoming them back, which is quite frustrating to me. People talk about them funding the club like it's some kind of charitable donation. They own the club! It's their responsibility and duty to provide and care for it, that's what they signed up for when they bought the bloody thing. It's gotten to this weird point, and I don't know if it's a Stockholm Syndrome thing or what, where people genuinely seem impressed and amazed that the owners continue to fund the club rather than just abandon it. As if it would be perfectly okay for the owner of any business to just stop paying bills and employees because they don't feel like it any more. They've made no effort to sell and have always said publicly they have no desire to sell. We have to assume then that they still want the responsibility of owning the club and representing Blackburn - therefore paying the bills is just a part of that accepted responsibility. Yes it could be worse, but how many owners in recent history have simply pulled the plug and stopped paying the bills at this level? It's pretty rare. Normally a club is sold well before it gets to that stage. I'm judging them more on how their decision making affects the club, and it still doesn't seem to be right even after nearly a decade. We're still far too reliant on the manager wielding huge amounts of power and influence, whilst also having travelling to India to beg for money every six months. Until that system changes I do not view Venky's as sensible custodians and I do not think they've really learned anything. They just keep hiring different people in the hope it will one day click.

Yep, at the supporters' meeting a couple of months back he made it clear he knew exactly what needed to be done. A huge summer ahead for TM.

"I’d call an overhaul of the squad from overblown contracts, short term loans and older frees - to a squad chock full of potential in several positions a major positive." Most of those contracts ran out or were terminated early, so whilst it is a positive I'm not sure how that can be given as a positive towards the owners (which my entire post was geared towards). They sanctioned those contracts which only added to the massive debt we've accrued along with the embargo in 15/16 which helped seal our fate in the 16/17 season. We're in a better position now more by default than by design. Most of the huge contracts came in the first two and a half seasons, after that the treatment of contracts and salaries has been largely consistent. The short-term loans/free transfers era coincided with the transfer embargo and emergency loans. God only knows what was going on there but it still makes me uneasy. "Id call the hiring of an actual managing director at Ewood a major positive" Well, that will depend on demonstrable benefits to the club. Just hiring somebody isn't a positive. We've had a cycle on people in various similarly titled positions who spoke a lot but did very little. I think Waggott is a step above those but time will tell. "Id call staying up this season as a respectable expectation matched too" Sure, but it doesn't negate the point that we're just back to where we were before. There has not been any serious change in fortunes yet. "Id call promotion from the third tier a major positive. I’d also ask Sunderland and Portsmouth fans if promotion from that tier is “worthwhile” too" You can't compare us to Portsmouth. That's disingenuous. Sunderland may yet come up, but if you look on their forums their fans are pretty furious that they haven't gone up automatically with the resources at their disposal. Rightly so too. "Its difficult for me to ignore all that and simply reboot “stability ffs” 2.0 if I’m honest." Not asking anybody to do that, just wondering why the owners are suddenly deserving of all this praise when they have only taken us back to a place we were five years ago? I'd direct my praise more towards Mowbray than Venky's. They've just been doing the same as they've always been doing, he's the one who's actually come in and tried to make a difference within their inane structure.

I don't see how the current situation is substantially different to where we were in 13/14. Nice guy manager who has the ear of the family and has a hit and miss transfer record and questionable tactical skill. A squad with a mixture of decent youth prospects and a few star players. "Stability". Mounting and impossible to pay debts to the owners, with multi-million pound annual losses. Talks of having to sell players to avoid embargoes if we don't get promoted soon. Suhail still lurking in the shadows. The only major positive change in the last two years is getting promoted out of League 1 - a division we should never have been in to begin with. I don't see this incredible revival that everybody else does. Finishing 14th means we're exactly where we have been for 90% of Venky's tenure - treading water in the Championship. If we'd just missed out on the playoffs this season then I'd understand the positivity to some degree, but for goodness sake, let's at least achieve something worthwhile before rushing to give Madame and the bling brothers hugs and kisses.

Seems to be the common consensus now tbh. If Venky's had known that all it would take to get people back onside was promotion from League 1 they probably would have relegated us much sooner.

How did Cheston end up funding the club with emergency loans a few seasons ago if money has never been a problem? He's still employed so one assumes the fault wasn't his.