JHRover

Surely they'd be less likely to walk away in the PL (if they ever allowed us to get there)? Overnight their annual losses would stop and even an immediate relegation would take away the financial pressure for a few years. No doubt they'd also bask in the glory and turn up for a game against Man Utd / Liverpool with their mates as well. No I'm convinced the only way it ends is through financial or legal necessity. I had hoped the legal 'issues' in India were the start of the end but it seems not. So instead I'll just have to go back to hoping that their empire collapses and can no longer sustain the cost of this pointless project.

He seems to have links to a few different firms in Switzerland / Zurich area involved in finance circles. Photo on those websites matches from his playing days. Always interesting and thought provoking when snippets of information emerge about their activities.

If getting back to the PL was even remotely of interest or on their radar then they would have conducted themselves very differently over the last 3-4 years. Like offering a drop of support to the 3 managers that got them within touching distance, not sold off all their best players, not undermined them, not allowed the last two to engineer moves away mid-season. That sort of thing. So we can safely drop the notion that they are waiting for a miraculous / unexpected return to PL riches. They've made it as clear as they possibly can they aren't interested and will actively sabotage our prospects of promotion if they can.

'Money in the kitty' We just can't spend it because no player is going to agree to join a sinking ship where we are offering wages more in keeping with a League One/Two club than an established Championship one. So all the Venky bingo boxes ticked - money available, nothing wrong with the owners, ready and willing to spend, targets being worked on, don't blame us blame the greedy players and agents End result we've all seen before. Excuses and issues, not enough to show for it.

A club whose league status is in serious jeopardy and has a squad in the state we have acts first to get quality in, and worries about nonsense like 25 man squads later when we know what we've got to work with. We can sit here until deadline day talking about who gets into the 25 - what matters is getting some quality in before another 4-5 games are wasted with us playing the reserves.

As per usual no issues or problems in getting people out of the door / off the wage bill / money in, but never so fast in getting people in especially where it requires cash or a permanent contract. So with that in mind we are now almost at the half way stage of the January window and have actually reduced our options in this joke of a squad. That is not to say Gueye was any good, but he's another option gone and as yet not replaced. I really don't take kindly to the local media supporting our transfer activity on the grounds we 'need to make space' in the 25 man squad either.

We don't even need to 'do a Wrexham' or even a Sheffield Wednesday or Birmingham (yet). For now we remain a Championship club and still have some vestiges of modern-day club infrastructure - 3/4 of Ewood Park, Brockhall and the academy. That's Jack Walker's legacy, which they've tried to destroy but bricks and mortar not so easy. Many of these other clubs - Wrexham, Birmingham, Wednesday, even Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth - needed so much more - multiple promotions, new stadiums, new training grounds, major works. We don't strictly need any of that, though the facilities and background do need some major renovations and investment. What we need to be looking for is an owner that wants to get to the PL fast which only needs one good season. Sadly these owners are going to ensure that this selling point is quickly removed by taking the club into League One, immediately making the job twice as long and difficult, requiring two promotions and more rebuilding. At least when we are there the nay-sayers will have more ammunition on the 'who would buy such a club?' game.

I'm far from Mowbray's biggest fan and have slated him on numerous occasions over the years, but I'm still struggling to comprehend why he would turn down / refuse to spend a transfer budget in January with the club sat second in the table, with his contract expiring in the summer. It makes no sense. No manager in world football would have done that in the position we were in at the time, especially when the likelihood is that it was going to be his last 'make or break' season with us. I'm well aware of what Waggott was telling people, which conveniently diverted blame and attention for transfer inertia and falling away from promotion away from him and the owners and onto Mowbray who they knew was probably leaving in the summer anyway. Nope, I'm not having it. Mowbray got 2-3 years of relative luxury under these owners (although I still am convinced that even then the 'big' buys of Gallagher, Diaz and Armstrong were all investment signings for the purposes of recovering their money with interest later rather than with a footballing target in mind) but then after that he was left out on a limb like the rest of them.

Well that was the party line yes....though I'm of the view he was prepared to say that or not bothered about correcting it as it served to 'protect' the Indians from criticism. I find it all too convenient that for owners who have shown zero appetite to invest that they managed to find what must have been the only manager int the world who 'actively discouraged' them from doing so. More likely Mowbray knew he wasn't getting anything/wasn't worth asking but he and Waggott weren't going to upset the apple cart by telling fans that it was Venkys' fault. He knew better than that. It's the only way of getting sacked around that place. They clearly haven't been prepared to back managers in the last 2-3 years when sat in the top 6 in January, so much so that both managers have forced their way out within a fortnight of the window closing, so I find it unbelievable that they were prepared to back Mowbray but for inexplicable reasons never seen before in football he chose to turn it down. Far too convenient.

I wonder sometimes do Mowbray, JDT, Eustace ever read or hear these sort of comments and chuckle to themselves that the current manager is experiencing exactly the same nonsense, and coming out with exactly the same problems and excuses, as they were forced to put up with in their time in charge. It seems Ismael isn't yet fully versed in the way of things here. He will be by month end.

When the results aren't there they will turn to other 'metrics' of performance hence reference to average age and academy appearances. Of course the reason why is the negligent and unacceptable approach to squad building in recent years, but they'll paint it as part of the project and suggest it shows it is working.

I have some sympathy for him in terms of players missing and disgraceful regime he's (chosen) to work for but 1 win in 11 and counting is sacking territory for any manager at any club, regardless of circumstances. Here though? Not a hint. Distract the masses with transfer gossip instead.

Such a policy allows Ismael, the Regime, Nixon and local media to tell everyone who can be bothered to read/listen that there is a decent kitty available for players It will never get used, because none of our targets will entertain our derisory wage structure, but for minimal effort and zero cost they can pretend that there's a good Venky budget sat there Heard and seen this before. All very convenient.

As mentioned before there's always another rung down the ladder to go in competitive sport. More wage and cost cuts, it becomes addictive. It's certainly easy as offloading quality that other clubs would have and turning to the bargain bucket/abroad/academy to fill the void anyone could do. If we are heading in the direction of less than £10k a week wage cap then there will be plenty in League One outstripping us on wages. And then when we get there, which we will, that figure will drop again and again, until it is less than £5k a week. There's always another step to be taken on the self-inflicted race to the bottom, especially when sporting performance/achievement is no longer even claimed to be of any importance here.

I do wonder with these owners. You'd think that they would know that their policies are going to result in a long spell outside the top 2 divisions sooner rather than later. But by the same measure I wonder whether their dogsbody has simply told them to leave it to him and he'll cut their costs whilst delivering the same outcome - mid-table Championship - for much less money. Who knows. It really wouldn't surprise me if the dogsbody had gone to India and sold them a dream - that he could run it all for them and save them millions on what it was costing under Mowbray and the end result would be the same as we were getting previously. No doubt a nice bonus tucked away for him in there too. Up to this point that plan must have gone swimmingly as the remains of Mowbray/JDTs squad have been picked away at every window, a few million here and there, significant wage cuts, no serious new contracts issued. Amazingly JDT and Eustace managed to overcome that and annoyingly get us into promotion contention, raising expectations and demands for investment, most inconvenient. Now the dogsbody has got his own little gang together to remove any 'unreasonable' demands and fully support his 'project', but unfortunately the chickens are coming home to roost soon as years of negligence and cuts come back to bite. Or the flip side is that Venkys are the ones instructing him on what to do and due to their own circumstances are enforcing these cuts, still not learning that this will cost them more in the longer run if they don't sell up when League One arrives and there are no more assets to sell for profit.