JHRover

So Wilder's return to Sheffield Utd confirmed. Has there been a more pointless and ridiculous series of events than what we've seen there since the play-off final? Sack a bloke who got 90 odd points and a play-off final, appoint a young coach with minimal experience of the Championship/promotions, it's a disaster and then go back to the bloke you sacked a few months later? At least the owners there have had the courage to admit defeat and go back to a safe pair of hands and sensible appointment. Would have been easier for them to turn to someone totally new rather than swallow their pride and go back to Wilder but his record there speaks for itself. Expect them to climb the table quickly and I'll be having a little bet on them making the top 6 again.

Almost as though between April and summer he concluded that staying here beyond next summer was no longer an option. Perhaps linked to the fact the club has been unwilling to extend any senior contract and has sold off everyone else of quality.

Sondre Tronstad makes Blackburn Rovers contract admission | Lancashire Telegraph This interview. April 2025. Yes I will blame the club. They are responsible and the one constant in years of shambolic activity.

Pointless asking questions at the Fans Forum. Even if they answer them we have good reason to believe that they won't be genuine honest answers and even if they are won't be accurately minuted so that everyone can read them. I have zero interest in whatever fanciful figures you want to throw out there for what we spent in the summer. I do not for one minute accept or believe that we spent that amount and whatever we did spend was comfortably covered by what we brought in. Some might call that astute, but if it means we finish 10 places lower than last year where's the benefit? Venkys could send money over, they chose not to. Choice. Difference being the owners of Wrexham, Derby and Middlesbrough were willing to put money in.

Question - why, when we've sold over £50 million worth of players in 4 years (averaging out at £13 million per year, convenient that this is roughly the amount we lose each year) - are we not able to afford to pay our players as much or more than Wrexham or Derby? Please answer me that one.

Yes. Because it is important and directly affects how the club performs. Must be nice to just want to sweep things under the carpet and pretend everything is well and gross negligent chronic mismanagement doesn't matter because 'it's in the past'. Gestede, Ismael and Pasha would just love that if everyone fell for the 'new era' spiel again and forget all about the chaos of the last 4 years that they have delivered. If only life was so straight forward. Unfortunately unless we finish 7th or above there should be an inquest into what has gone on here and why and serious questions asked and answers demanded. Not just a shoulder shrug 'it's in the past' routine. The club will never, ever get anywhere if it doesn't at least accept and recognise past failings and ensure they won't ever happen again. Under this regime it is just being set up for the same in a couple of years.

Tronstad has said more recently in a local media interview that he was very happy at Rovers, loved being here and would like to extend his stay. So which one is accurate? With Travis you are doing exactly what the club want people to do - making out as though the club is nought but a powerless spectator in the debacle. You're contradicting yourself here - suggesting his comments about wanting to stay at Rovers weren't true and yet attaching importance to his recent comments to BBC Derby which of course are going to offer a different narrative. The club is to blame for his departure. Surely you can accept that basic principle?

90+ points, 2 points deducted, play off final, arguably unlucky to lose late on to Sunderland. If that had happened at Ewood the manager would be given years in the job off the back of it. Wilder clearly the best man for that job, the new owners there very foolish but falling for the laptop / football manager spiel like so many others have in 'modern' football apparently needing a 'head coach' and 'structure' and 'alignment' but in doing so have cost untold time and money. No. You need to just support a good manager when he's done well. Bit like us with Eustace.

Why not appoint Coyle then? Or George Burley, Nigel Worthington or Micky Adams?

The club engineered the Hyam, Brittain and Travis situations in the same way they have engineered the Tronstad one - they made no serious efforts to keep any of them. Firstly they stubbornly refused to even discuss new terms when the players were excelling last season, even when Eustace threatened and eventually did walk out over it, and then when they did get around to 'discussing' new terms (which is a stretch, I suspect there was very little negotiation or discussion) it is clear they were offering appalling terms to such players to the extent I've seen moves to Wrexham and Derby described as 'life changing'. Anyone associated with Blackburn Rovers accepting this should be ashamed of themselves. So they certainly aren't going to get a shred of credit or acceptance on my part that having deliberately allowed the contract situation to develop that they then hurriedly cash in close to deadline day to eke out a few million rather than nothing. Again, if they had dealt with the contracts appropriately and interest had materialised we could have commanded a far better fee or simply rejected it with no serious consequence.

We've brought in almost £55 million in player sales since 2021. Why can we 'not afford' to pay our best players as much as or more than Wrexham, Derby or Middlesbrough? Why could we not have instigated contract negotiations earlier than May/June? (If they ever actually happened, which I don't believe). You're getting mixed up again. Venky/henchman choices are not the same as what we can afford ad could do if we wanted and they allowed it. If they allowed us to spend the money we brought in we could have offered these players the going rate. They chose not to allow this. It is their decision, and the consequences are on their heads. It isn't bad weather, covid, FFP, small crowds, bad luck, location or any other ridiculous excuse you and others want to hide behind. It is Venkys and their mates. Enjoy.

I think it is clear that the sole objective and barometer of success for the summer transfer window was to successfully offload certain players - those with cash value, expiring contracts and larger wages. The timing, impact, effect of those departures totally immaterial and of no concern to the owners or their henchmen. We are now a club that measures success based on how much (if anything) it can bring in from selling important players and whether it can cut costs further. That's it. Quite clear from the interviews with Gestede and Ismael that there is no footballing objective here - no pressure on either to deliver certain results, league position, points, improvement. If we limp our way to 21st they will be more than happy ahead of another summer and year in the job.

If they were serious tickets would be on sale now for the Derby game with every tom, dick and harry associated with the club being sent promotional material, adverts, offers to try and get them back in for such a special occasion. This includes everyone on the database, lapsed season ticket holders, and the general local population of East Lancashire - posters, digital adverts, etc. What we will get is tickets being put on sale 3 weeks before the game at Category A prices with standard 'efforts' made on twitter and Facebook and that's your lot. That they are seemingly expecting to be able to rinse people for hospitality for a 12:30 game against Derby County, suffering the humiliation of our former management team, captain and numerous other players turning up, tells it's own story.

You forgot the 'range' of 'Macron' anniversary merchandise released a couple of weeks ago, including these two classics Simply laughable stuff.

What a desperately unlucky club we are. I suppose that's what happens when you are owned by billionaires and located in a total backwater like Blackburn (less than an hours drive from Cheshire/Manchester and same commute as players for Liverpool/Man City/Man Utd). I mean in the space of 6 months we've lost our manager to Derby because he wanted to be nearer to home so much so that he cut short a 3 year contract and dropped a chance at PL promotion to join a club at high risk of relegation to League One. We've lost our mainstay CB to Wrexham on deadline day because he wanted to move on elsewhere (despite publicly stating the opposite earlier in the summer) We've lost our mainstay CM captain who had been with the club since being a teenager because he 'wanted a change' and move down the country to a Derby side unlikely to be any more than mid-table this season. We've lost Batth who played every time he was available last season, who had zero qualms about joining Sunderland, Norwich and Rovers quite recently, apparently because he wanted to be closer to home at Derby. We've lost Weimann for the same reasons despite him having about 5 years down in Bristol. We're now publicly preparing for Tronstad's departure because he wants to go back to Scandinavia (despite him publicly stating earlier this year that he was very happy here and would love to stay). Awful back luck really. Shame. Also quite odd how this misfortune doesn't seem to occur at any other club in such significant, large numbers, even clubs that haven't got billionaire owners and those based in far flung locations like Norwich or the NE. Ever so slightly convenient that it is absolutely nothing at all to do with any of Venkys, their henchman, Gestede, Ismael or anyone else working for the Club. No sir, nothing to see here. If ever you want to know what idiots they take us for just think about the above. Their assessment of supporter intelligence is such that they think people will buy all this. Sadly some will, and those people deserve what is coming.