JHRover

It's just something that would never been seen or heard in public at any other professional football club, yet here, due to the void and silence, we have another manager turning to the media to get his message out there in the vain hope someone in India picks up on it and acts The impenetrable wall of silence and inertia between Ewood and India leaves confused and frustrated managers with only one option - wash our linen in public in the hope it makes something happen. It wouldn't be necessary or accepted anywhere else, because you'd have contactable owners with a drop of decency or pride in their systems, but here we all know these people are far from decent and have never had any pride. Ismael knows full well that the budget will be maxed out for the year and funding won't be forthcoming for remedial works at Ewood. So his only option is to try and balance it with an offer of a reduction to his playing budget. A crazy situation but the only chance he and we have of seeing this work get done in the near future. Otherwise all the money is allocated and there's no more. Head stooge isn't ringing Pune for more cash, that's not an option. More than his job is worth. Remember that when they shuffle the pack in January, wheel and deal, move a couple out and bring a couple in on lower wages, this isn't the owners investing. They're merely allowing the stooges to reduce outgoings by replacing higher earners with lower/younger/cheaper ones The club can manage all that in it's own budgets without input from Pune.

Hard to believe in 2025 that a Championship manager in the middle of December is publicly offering to cut his transfer budget to free up cash to allow the pitch to be repaired to ensure we can finish our home games when it rains. But this is Venky Rovers 2025, expect the unexpected. Just when you think the shame and embarrassment of being associated with this club cannot grow we have internal shenanigans playing out in the media once again, a p1ssed off manager and no doubt players demanding answers and action from a silent and invisible ownership and board. To make matters even worse we continue to have thousands of supporters who sit there like nodding dogs in the stands insisting that these owners are good or necessary to the future of this club, whilst the stadium rots around them and the pitch descends into a swamp and we can't finish home games.

Ismael's average game tenure as a manager across 8 clubs prior to Rovers is 27. His Rovers tenure is already at 31. So he's above average already here. Under Venkys the average managerial tenure (excluding Kean, Bowyer and Mowbray who established personal links to the gruesome people in Pune) is around 7-8 months. Those who haven't been afforded holidays to Pune to visit the palace don't last very long. Allardyce got 24 days, Berg got less than 2 months, Appleton got just over 2 months. Lambert got under 6 months, Coyle got 8 months, Tomasson got less than 20 months (and tried getting out after 12 months), Eustace got 12 months (and rumour has it was trying/offering to get out after only 3-4 months). Ismael has nearly managed 10 months now, he's had no jolly trip to India so he's done well to last this long. Won't be around much longer though, both his and Venky records show that.

Like him or not Ismael has worked at a lot of proper professional football clubs in his time in football. Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen, Hanover, Lens, Nuremburg, Wolfsburg, Besiktas, West Brom, Watford. Coming here he was probably under the false impression that he was joining a club of similar standing in the game. After 6 months at it he'll be learning the hard way about now as to what he is up against.

No %s for agency fees when spending big on a new pitch though....

Just shrug shoulders and hope it all blows over - that's the policy of this regime. They'll be panicking about tomorrow night yes, but then it will just be a hope that there are no further problems. They won't actually do anything serious to ensure it. Most we get is a fans forum comment that they are getting quotes/plans drawn up for the summer. Then it won't actually happen because they won't pay the going rate to perform such work and we will be having the same discussion this time next year and every year thereafter.

We now have a 'rainy season' apparently. Used to just be winter and a pretty wet part of the world to begin with. Here's my solution: Club statement tomorrow from the owners or at least the boss at Ewood: 'We want to apologise to our fans, players, Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich Town and the League. What has happened twice this season is unacceptable for a club of our stature and we have a responsibility to take action to ensure it doesn't happen again. We are employing specialists to immediately investigate and report on the issues and remedial work that can be completed both in the immediate future and at the end of the season to resolve this issue. As a gesture of goodwill all fans turning up to the replay will get a free drink/pie/chips and ticket holders for the original game will get free admission for the replay. Tickets otherwise will be £10 anywhere in the ground. This club and our fans deserve better and we apologize for the embarrassment this has brought and to the players for their wasted efforts' That took me 2-3 minutes. Yet it's far more than this lot will do.

I firmly believe that the owners have absolutely zero interest or knowledge in what is going on at the Club on a day-to-day basis and their little goon in the shadows is quite comfortable with that and running things as his own kingdom in their absence. I would be amazed if any of the owners were aware we were playing yesterday, or that the game was abandoned, and much less that this is a direct result of their conduct over many years. IF the club was to be fined by the League for this then all that will happen is the henchmen from the finance team and Suhail will have to juggle the numbers again, probably cut the transfer budget or wage bill or offload a player in January to cover it from the club's own resources. Owners won't find out about it. No way is he going to ring them up and ask them to cough up extra cash. On it goes.

An away tie. We've got a better chance of winning away from home. Plus at Ewood the game might not start/finish and we can ill afford more postponements and embarrassment.

Seems the priority for January is once again on cost cutting and reducing the wage bill further. That's all that really matters in the scheme of things here.

Move it to the Wham Stadium, should be enough space for everyone who would attend Ewood and we know that the game can both start and finish there. Matchday experience would be an upgrade too - easier to park, better priced food and drink, sound system

There's a closet full of skeletons. As long as they keep hold of it that closet stays closed. The minute they let it go, or even give potential buyers access, it's open and people find out everything that's been happening here since 2010. Potentially a very good reason to keep hold even when it clearly benefits nobody and costs them millions.

All the issues - poor squad, exacerbated injury issues, poor manager, late goals against, games off due to waterlogged pitch - come back to the owners and their investment/management of the club. You get back what you put in.

This problem has been years in the making. Last year (November time) we had a game abandoned against Portsmouth due to rain. Prior to that there were vague promises by the Regime (Waggott) about getting the pitch relaid to prevent future problems, which unsurprisingly never materialised. This is not a problem that has landed on the club unexpectedly overnight. It has been developing for years as a direct result of cutting corners, costs and avoiding significant expenditure on the facilities under these hideous owners. That - might- be excusable - in claiming we can't afford it - had it not coincided with circa £40-50 million of transfer cash flowing into the club due to them selling everyone they could get out the door. So to not spend a miniscule portion of that ensuring the pitch and drainage is fit for purpose is unacceptable and unforgivable. The excuses that the water has nowhere to go due to the River Darwen might 'hold water' if this had been a recurring issue going back decades. But history shows that it hasn't been until recent years, again due to neglect and cost cuts catching up with us.

Should have had 9 points in the last week, and have instead got 2. These are the sort of fine margins and hard luck stories that separate survival and relegation.