JHRover

I think Broughton was doing the best he could with zero backing or support from upstairs, and his only way to do that, bring in reasonable signings and at least try to maintain our league position was to structure it on the 'loan with option' basis, of course not then requiring any cash from India as it could come out of the club's own reserves if we got to the PL. Wouldn't have been necessary had the owners actually taken a shred of interest and wanted to support the manager in his efforts to get us promoted, but that's them all over. But even then when he'd done the hard yards and got such deals structured and agreed, shadowy characters did their bit to torpedo the moves. Not a problem we will be having for the foreseeable now that they've ensured promotion talk will be consigned to history.

Indeed. Attempts to get around having no money by tempting selling clubs to agree to a low up front fee with a biggie if we got promoted. Using the fact we were in/around the play-off positions. A serious club would of course have paid the going rate to get those players in during January to strengthen for the run in. But then again we were never serious about promotion, and that's why it slipped away in February and March when the players were running on empty and managers were let down.

Under JDT the MO for Broughton often involved the 'loan with option to buy' approach whereby we attempted to get players in at minimal initial cost but with an option or trigger clause resulting in a hefty payment if/when we got promoted. I can't remember names but there were a few where we offered to take a player on the basis if we got promoted or exercised our option we would pay a good amount of money for them. Obviously that little plan is now in tatters as we are in danger of going down. No player or selling club is going to listen to promises of future cash or promotion clauses that we are never going to trigger. So looks like we are back to the old favourite of a relatively small down payment with add-ons and extras later. Pretty daft expecting a club like Sheffield Wednesday to go along with that given their immediate financial issues - they'll want guaranteed cash up front. No matter, only our Championship status and club future in immediate question with 4 days left to sort it out.

Even if this is all family wealth funding it rather than company wealth, and assuming the family are worth billions and the family members are all content to keep on funding this, if they have a net worth of say £2-3 billion, which includes all their land, properties, shares, companies, cash the lot, circa 10% of that has gone down the drain over the last 10-15 years. Now that might not make a difference to them, as they can still afford to do everything else they want in life, but I know any businessman that loses 10% of his wealth on a still failing venture doesn't just carry on with it indefinitely for 'pride' or face saving. Their advisors would surely be telling them to stop the leak of cash and instead redirect it to investments in property, land, shares and grow value. Then there's the question as to their actual wealth - very little information available but seems unlikely that it is going up beyond £10 billion as that would put them into the Forbes rich list territory which they aren't. Infact they aren't anywhere to be seen in the top rankings of Indian families. It has long been believed that a lot of their wealth is in land and their shares, so not liquid cash they can easily just send to the UK to fund Rovers every year. No, I think this must be hurting them financially and that stacks up with what we have seen going on here over the last 3-4-5 years. I suppose the only question is whether there is a tipping point.

If the current situation is indeed purely down to them not wanting to admit their mistakes, saving face, not being too much of a burden on their overall finances it still doesn't add up. We are still costing them upwards of £10 million each and every year. According to their henchman that is more towards £20 million a year. That isn't going to stop unless we get to the Premier League. We aren't going to get to the Premier League because of their cost cutting attempts and running good managers out of the door every year. We aren't going to be self-sufficient in this league, or League One, unless we get very lucky with our player development/trading. They may think they can be after the deals for Wharton and Szmodics but that isn't an annual occurrence and their pocketing of the money for running costs is now going to cost us big time. Even if we can be self-sufficient - to what end? Who gains / benefits? As above, it comes at the expense of getting promoted, which they have proven is not their priority. Now if this was a passion for them - they enjoyed football, wanted to win, basked in the glory of owning us, came to games and enjoyed lording it over everyone, or had ties to the town etc. then I could maybe understand the enjoyment of all that might be worth sucking up that sort of loss every year. But they clearly get zero - or close to zero - benefit from this at their end. At best Balaji enjoys telling people he has a football club. And then when those people realise it is a failing 2nd or soon to be 3rd division club those people probably won't be impressed - if anything that would be a source of embarrassment as you'd want a PL club to really boast about it. Especially then when anyone who looks into it would see that they are the ones responsible for putting us here. I assume that they are surrounded by an army of lawyers, accountants, advisors, many of whom they trust to advise them on all aspects of their wealth and businesses. I can't believe that those people are happy with the drain and hassle of keeping this going. I presume that competent advisors would be regularly raising this arm of their empire and strongly suggesting that they get rid of it asap. £10-20 million a year is still a lot of money. Even to someone worth £1 billion it is still 1-2% of your whole wealth in liquid cash each and every year going into a black hole for which you get no pleasure/enjoyment/benefit. A £200million+ 'investment' and growing is one hell of a dint in people even with a net worth of £1,2,3 billion. There must be something somewhere along the line - be that financial advantages to their other businesses, or activities they don't want people from finding out about upon a sale, that make it worth keeping. Not wanting to admit failure or defeat just doesn't cut it. You'd get rid and just ignore it and start spending the cash on some other more rewarding venture and just keep quiet about it if your mates ask rather than carry on stumping up that sort of money to rattle around the bottom end of the Championship.

The Hemmings family 'unwillingly' inherited PNE from Trevor after he died. They've been willing to stump up the shortfall each year in the time since he died as custodians of the club and to allow them to remain competitive in the Championship, but probably haven't got the clout or interest to do it long term or make a big difference by Championship standards. A bit like the Walker trust - left with something they didn't really want but sensible enough to keep it ticking over. Despite that they have done things that our wonderful benevolent billionaires haven't such as looking after their stadium, not gutting the squad every window, not forcing out their managers every February, offering reasonable ticket prices etc. and all for lower annual losses then we manage, ain't it amazing how they do that? But they want rid if they can find someone so have made it known they are available and waited for serious interest to come along. That may or may not have happened with this American/Saudi bloke, or they may need to wait longer, but they will run the club properly in the interim. Unsurprisingly there is interest out there including from overseas in 'small' loss making Championship football clubs, just as those of us with any sense knew, which ought to put a stop to the 'who would buy us?' nonsense. A bit like the foreign consortium exploring buying Colchester United. The reason there is no public information about interest in Rovers is that nobody can get past first base, because we have a group of reclusive idiots who for some unfathomable reason seem content to keep hold of the club and run it into the ground whilst it costs them upwards of £10 million a year. You could put Bill Gates and Elon Musk together on a stage outside the Blackburn End with a loudspeaker declaring their wish to buy Rovers for £1 billion and it probably wouldn't make a shred of difference - because those creatures in Pune wouldn't hear it and even if one of them did they wouldn't deal with it in a professional or timely manner. The latest instalment of their reign of terror is going to be to condemn us to a prolonged spell in the third or fourth division, which of course will wipe another significant amount off their 'investment' whilst ensuring less interest from elsewhere in buying it, should they ever decide to sell.

The priority in those days of 2018-2020 was to 'stabilise' i.e. survive in the Championship and avoid risk of a return to League One, blended with a combination of 'rewarding' those senior players who had got us straight back up and 'developing' some academy products into mainstays of the team. I don't believe that promotion really ever came anywhere in the equation. But still, I much, much preferred that group of lads. A good combination of proper established senior players and some really likeable youngsters. I just don't get that feeling now.

Two things with West Brom - on paper they shouldn't be in trouble, and I don't think their ownership will sit back and risk their investment going down the drain and not act. I expect if this new manager of theirs doesn't shape himself quickly he'll be replaced. For some strange reason they seem to be wedded to this obsession with employing young inexperienced head coaches. But that will change if they are at serious risk of League One.

I think back to that squad we had between 2018 and 2020 Raya, Lenihan, Mulgrew, Nyambe, Bennett, Buckley, Conway, Dack, Evans, Reed, Rothwell, Smallwood, Travis, Armstrong, Brereton, Graham I don't know what it is but that was a much more likeable, relatable group than what we have now.

Rumours that Rowett is on the list for the next Leicester manager. Would be a sensible appointment for them to guide them through the next few months especially if they get a points deduction.

I'd suggest that the identity of the players' agent/agency is the more significant issue here than whether the player is the best we can get. Yes lots of options around in the lower leagues. But is their agent friendly with the regime? If not move on.

Predictably both Norwich and Sheffield United make changes, bring in good managers and underperforming players start to haul them out of trouble. So down to the dross now. Us, Pompey, Oxford, Charlton and maybe WBA/Leicester if they continue to sink though I suspect both have enough quality to keep their heads above water.

Agreed, which I think is more or less what they did in 2015 when the penny dropped with the top dogs that this was going to keep on costing the family a ton of cash, so they took a step away and Balaji and his mates sidelined Bowyer and got control of things again. The top dogs then got a grip on it again after relegation - bypassing Pasha and summoning Mowbray to India for face to face talks - and because of Mowbray's skills around the table 'wonderful human beings' routine he tempted them back in - they liked him and his talk so agreed to throw their weight behind him on the basis he'd get us back up and in the mix. But then they lost faith with him after a couple of years of big losses and decided they'd had enough again, probably for good this time. The only other element to this arrangement was Waggott, who had got himself set up here with the top dogs in similar fashion to Mowbray - a seat at the table in Pune and audience with Madame - and by virtue of that was untouchable to some degree - allowed to carry on with his hefty salary and some autonomy, including on recruitment (Eustace) and signings / expenditure. This was a problem for those in control now because he had the ability to act as a counterweight and carried some clout, which they wanted rid of. I'd be intrigued to know how his departure came about and whether he saw the writing on the wall and got out before the real trouble came or whether those in control now finally managed to get those upstairs to get shut of him. I keep on thinking back to Pasha talking about a new CEO and how that would be something he would find out about if/when it happened from India - that's because appointments of that nature have always been reserved to the top dogs and I don't think he's acting on their instructions any more. He'll find out like the rest of us if/when they ever get involved again.

I still think there are two camps in India. One is the Balaji/Suhail camp which is running the show today and has run it in the past. The other is the Madame/husband camp which ran things when Bowyer and Mowbray were in charge. When a manager gets the ability to go to India and meet the top dogs he comes back with power, money and ability to run the club in a semi-professional manner. That's because the top dogs can override/overrule the underlings and sanction spending that allows us to compete. Bowyer got it after his flight to India in 2013, Mowbray got it after his flight to India in 2017, and Waggott got a long tenure as CEO after his flight to India. When the top dogs are disengaged, as they were from 2015-2017 and as they have been now since about 2020-2021, into the void Balaji and his chums are able to play, albeit on a much smaller cost base than when the top dogs are involved. No big wages, no major outlays, player sales are needed to fund it, but between all that just do what you want, we ain't interested. Last time around it led to relegation to the third division but stopped there because they summoned Mowbray out to India and he got his feet under the table and was allowed to run the club like a professional outfit. This time around that won't be happening because it seems the top dogs are well and truly out of the loop.

I think this lot - Pasha and Gestede - are arrogant They have seen what Waggott and Mowbray were doing, and to a lesser degree JDT and Broughton, and think they can do as well if not better than them on a lower budget. I think this arrogance continues today - a refusal to backtrack or make changes despite it leading us into the bottom 3, a refusal to seek a change of manager or change in transfer approach. I think they think that we genuinely are in a 'false position' based on injuries/back luck/statistics and that we will eventually get enough to get us over the line and they'll get a pat on the back from the money people running the show at the other end. As you say - this is playing Russian Roulette with the club and its future. If it works then they get another year on the gravy train, a bonus and they can argue it was worth getting rid of Broughton, Eustace, Waggott and all those players because we've still got Championship income and significantly reduced costs whilst bringing in millions from sales. But if it doesn't - and I don't think it will - we go down and there's another £10 million gap in the finances to plug. I don't think the owners or stooges will have seriously thought about this