JHRover

'January ain't easy ya know' will be getting an airing soon, then it will be 'window doesn't close until the start of February so as long as we've got a few bodies in by then it's fine'. We needed defensive reinforcements yesterday, suicidal decision to sell Hyam on deadline day to the mighty Wrexham, potentially cost us Championship status there and then but hey, at least that money will help them meet their targets from the accountants back at HQ.

Is all this related to why the Rovers 150th exhibition was based at Blackburn Museum (oddly ending months before the actual anniversary) rather than at Ewood Park?

I'd be surprised if it actually happens. Maybe I'll be shown to be wrong but suspect this is as much a publicity stunt as anything. It gets their owners all over the news and loads of positive PR, wins people over. The cringeworthy media videos with Brady, Bellingham and Peaky Blinders. Yuck. But actually getting it done - shovels in the ground and chimneys built - takes a lot more than big talk and famous faces doing videos. Again might be wrong but I'd be amazed if they or anyone else were coughing up £3 billion or whatever it will be to build this in a derelict corner of Birmingham whilst they are a Championship club struggling to fill a 30k stadium. If/when they get to the PL maybe a different matter.

We can't afford to do that. But administration stricken still on negative points Sheffield Wednesday can. Great being owned by billionaires innit?

And all by design rather than accident

They think we are all stupid. I don't really blame them, the majority of the fanbase are. One look at the nonsense they've got away with over the last few years alone tells us that. When you've got people hissing and booing at the likes of Eustace and Travis and silent towards the likes of Venkys and Suhail it's no wonder they come out with this sort of thing. They could literally say or do anything and most of the fanbase would believe/defend them.

Yep but from their point of view it is nearly transfer window time and all that means is another opportunity to raise a few quid, earn bonuses and get the wage bill reduced. Top of the tree there is Cantwell. Probably top earner and likely to fetch a couple of million with 18 months left on his deal. The gangsters running the club will be salivating at the prospect of getting him out the door in the next 8 weeks and in one move meet their target. Reference to relegation suggests that league position/status is a measure of performance here, there's no evidence that anyone from ownership down has ever had any interest in league positions.

I'd be surprised if Cantwell was here beyond January to be honest. We've seen first hand over years now what the people running the club are all about and what their priorities are. Cantwell in no way shape or form fits the 'model' they are imposing and that's before we speculate as to his wage, which is rumoured to be substantial. No way on earth they are renewing or improving a big earner contract so they'll be looking at him, half way through his deal, and the question will be is January or the summer the time to sell? It staggers me that some people still seem to think this sort of thing isn't happening and that there's no way there could be more to it than meets the eye. There's been more than meets the eye on most of the departures over the last few years. Tends to be when it's the club and those running it trying to force people out to achieve their own agendas.

It's an interesting discussion. Just following on from the above. I think Mowbray's departure was botched. I don't think it was properly planned for or entirely expected. I don't think Waggott ever really wanted him gone, and the owners are so disengaged that they probably expected him to sit tight and wait for them to get around to renewing. Perhaps even the curtain twitcher was stopping or advising the owners not to deal with the expiring contract until the last minute. Anyway, whatever the reason for it I think there was a late scramble to try and persuade Mowbray to stay but he'd had enough. By that point we were into the summer window and suddenly a manager, assistant and effectively a whole structure down, because Mowbray had been allowed to oversee and control all recruitment and coaching himself (remember Venus being the weird hybrid assistant manager/director of football). So yeah, I agree that once Waggott realised Mowbray was a goner and time was becoming an issue he resolved to address it by going modern with a Director of Football and Head Coach structure. I actually agree with that concept here because with this crazy setup we need to divide the power and responsibility away from one man. So in comes Broughton and he had half an idea what was needed and very quickly went and got JDT. I doubt Waggott or the curtain twitcher had anything at all to do with that appointment. Presumably authorisation had already come from HQ that we could spend a few million of the previous years' Armstrong cash so we sorted the Hyam, Brittain and Szmodics deals out. Realisation of what a shambles the club is only develops over time once you are in through the door, see Paul Lambert and John Eustace. It's easy to talk a good game at the appointment stage and get the contracts signed, but actually sustaining a proper effort is another. I personally don't think - aside from authorising budgets - that the top owners (the gruesome four) have had any input into anything at Rovers since pre-Covid. All the rest is run through the middle men and curtain twitcher, who was shoved to one side for a while during Mowbray's days and with Waggott being here acting on some form of authority from India, but now they are gone he is free and in control again

The suggestion was that our initial allocation was circa 3800, and past 'sell outs' have been circa 5500, so probably another 1700 to go at in that end. This would suggest a full block and then the two small end blocks still to go.

Interesting choice. Quite high profile for a club struggling at the bottom of the Championship with Club Brugge, Monaco and Rangers his last 3 clubs

The last time they were 'interested' ( and I use that word very liberally here ) was in 2017 when after 2-3 years of cuts and chaos under Suhail (Bowyer sacked, failed Lambert experiment, Coyle appointment, selling all assets, sound familiar?) we got relegated. Somehow that event, rather than being the death knell for their regime and ownership, spurred them into some sort of review or action. Probably because of the media attention it brought and another £10 million hole in income from less Sky tv money so the head honchos decided to sit up and take some notice and work out what had gone wrong. Fortunately for them Mowbray dropped into their lap, and as so many do with Mowbray they fell under his spell once he had got himself out to India and talked to them at length at their palace. Outcome? Mowbray was backed more heavily than any manager they've had here in 15 years (except maybe Kean) and was given free reign in that he was allowed to sign his own players, appoint his mate and even insist they bring in a Chief Executive for the first and only time of their ownership, at considerable expense. Anyway, I think Mowbray convinced them to turn the money taps back on for a few years, leave him alone to get on with it and that by the end of that period we'd be in great shape for promotion or at least have a squad of assets to liquidate to recover funds from. 3-4 years go by and we weren't getting any nearer, so they get bored with the cost of this and start to listen to others. Pasha is talking a good game in the background. He can deliver the same result - Championship football - at half the price and even better he's 'one of them' who they already trust and he will take care of all the boring bits like dealing with managers and executives and running the club. All they have to do is review the balance sheet every 12 months, tip in the difference required and leave him to it. He'll make sure things tick over and we bring in plenty of cash from player sales to minimise their losses. What's not to like? These people are probably bone-idle and have never wanted the hassle of running a football club. The idea that 'one of their own' will take care of it all for them and not rip them off whilst doing so probably sounds great to them. They get the best of both worlds - the 'benefits' of owning a significant football club, at much lower cost than previously, and most people think they are doing us a favour for it (I'm being serious by the way, most fans I speak to genuinely think they are needed here). So from their warped positions they are probably quite content with things as they are. Whilst we are all exhausted with the draining misery of their occupation of our club and the continuing lasting damage it is doing they are probably getting quite comfortable with their trusted man sorting everything out and it costing them a fraction of what it once did. Just remember what happened the last time the curtain twitcher was in control and allowed to run the show without challenge - relegation to League One - because fundamentally he, and nobody willing to work under him, let alone the budgets he want's to impose - are compatible with competing in a high standard league. We've seen it all before only some are too blind or stupid to see it happening again.

They're just bullshitters whose sole purpose is to retain their 'Head of' status, that they have no right to occupy to start with, for as long as possible because they know full well they wouldn't get anywhere near equivalent status at any other Club, in any other league. One look at their past roles tells us that. Yasir Sufi doing 'community development' roles for Lancs CC and Rovers, next news he's 'head of' commercial. Shadow man Pasha, I doubt even he knows what his job is these days as his title seems to change every time he speaks, but I'm sure his little kingdom beats driving cars for Balaji or whatever he was doing before coming here (does anyone know yet what his background really is?) Talbot, once secretary to proper executive staff, by process of elimination finds herself as 'Head of' operations Gestede, a random ex-player with nothing to do after hanging up his boots, suddenly finds himself 'Head of Football Operations'. His favourite excuse of 'the previous players didn't want to be here' shows him up. He's playing to those who still want to boo those nasty ex players and staff for leaving, without addressing the bigger issue of WHY all our players wanted to leave, which of course (even if true) ultimately comes back to the rotten regime at Ewood. Truly scary stuff but striving for excellence, growth, improvement has never been on the agenda here. I'd forgotten Brett Baker even exists The lesson to learn is that saying the right things and being willing to tolerate the freak show here sees you get a nice title and cushy number, the only inconvenience to which is having to turn up to these sort of meetings and blag your way through it with a litany of excuses and hard luck stories.

Maybe this time he will have found himself a serious football club, the type that reward good results and league position with proper backing, don't slash budgets half way through transfer windows or have slippery shadowy characters running around in the background undermining transfers.

Absolutely. No doubt at all in my mind that certain elements behind the scenes were actively working against Broughton. He did the hard yards - got those deals lined up, probably put in a painstaking amount of time and work to get them ready, then he was deliberately thwarted at the 11th hour. I suspect by the one who is now running the show and who has been there throughout. All part of the great Rovers mystery. Who was the one responsible for bringing Broughton in if he wasn't going to be trusted and empowered to control recruitment and was going to be undermined? Maybe the shadow man who wanted a puppet he could control and has now got that it seems. Maybe someone else at ownership or board level and shadow man spent 18 months working to remove that threat to his position. The fact that Broughton was prepared to sit infront of the media and take responsibility for deliberate sabotage from elsewhere says a lot about him - more professionalism and courage than any of the slippery liars that hide away in the boardroom these days. Just a shame a lot of the fanbase still can't see what is staring them in the face and believe people like Broughton and JDT were the problem here.