JHRover

Has anyone checked the forecast for Saturday? Hopefully not raining so we can get a game in. I'd overlooked this was another one of those needless 12:30pm kick offs so that will put another dent in the attendance and atmosphere.

It's all so tiring isn't it? If I had a pound for every time a Rovers manager has talked about an upcoming transfer window and wanting bodies in the building early etc. only for that not to happen If I had a pound for every time I'd heard the word 'transition' and that things will be better in a few weeks, months, years. Ifs, buts, maybes, jam tomorrow not today. The never ending project and cycle. We've got a manager that is already beyond his career average for games in charge of a club who has got a 30% win record and delivered 1 home win in 10. We've got a regime in charge whose only interest is in cutting costs and moving players in and out quickly and hoping to turn a quick profit. There is no project or plan. It's just excuses from people now starting to feel the pressure as the enormity and severity of our situation becomes clear to even the more deluded bunch out there.

Mowbray was the perfect manager for Venkys. Not for Blackburn Rovers, but for Venkys. He was willing to work with their bonkers ways, traipse off to India and tell them how wonderful they are, handle more than a modern day manager should be handling, all the media, contracts, scouting, fans, even going as far as to appoint his assistant as director of football and Waggott as CEO to provide additional support. In return they got seemingly everything they've ever wanted in a manager - someone they trust who they could leave to get on with it, keep the fans quiet/content, perhaps most importantly plod for a few years whilst developing serious assets that would make a hefty profit in the transfer window and allow them to recoup cash from sales. I don't think we would ever have got promoted under him as he just isn't the sort of manager to go out and deliver that. But for a disgraceful operation like these owners want to preside over he was an ideal custodian for them to just sit there and do nothing and leave it to him. For reasons unknown they decided to cut him off. Whether that was them losing faith or middle men getting a hand on the controls again after a few years out of the limelight we will never know. My own suspicion is that dogsbody Pasha was annoyed at Mowbray usurping him in the chain of command as he did after relegation to League One and therefore set about ensuring Mowbray's access to the top table in Pune was severed. Ever since then it has been a gradual return back to the sort of skeletal joke of a structure that was in place from 2015-2017 when they removed good people from office (Bowyer, Myers, Biggar) and either didn't replace them or replaced them with dross. The parallels between then and now are startling. Whilst Ismael is undoubtedly a better manager than Coyle ever was he is working with a smaller and probably inferior squad. Either way the end / outcome of this is going to be the same. Last time around it took relegation being sealed for the idiots in India to summon people out there for a meeting, so I suspect the same this time around - they'll only even become aware of a change in league status after it happens. Unfortunately they've got even less interest and willingness to invest this time around so I'm not confident that anything will happen other than another radical round of cost cuts. Rudy will probably be the one sacrificed at that point.

If you're running a professional football club you don't take your holidays in December when it's the busiest time of the year for matches and we've a transfer window approaching, especially when we are floundering towards the bottom of the league. I know you want to excuse and justify every inexcusable thing this lot do but it just isn't acceptable.

How can he 'not be around' if he's being employed by the Club to be its' 'Chief Operating Officer'?. Surely such a role requires you be based at Ewood Park?

Who decided to appoint Gestede and why? What qualification or experience did that person(s) have to make that hugely important call? What qualification or experience did Gestede have to earn him a crack at running things? Decisions that are likely to cost the club its league status, thousands of fans and millions of pounds. I think it requires a bit more than a shrug and 'it is what it is'

It's still ridiculous to think we appointed him in the first place considering where we were when he got the job. Would anyone else have appointed this guy whilst sat in the top 6 of the Championship in February? Of course not. Even if we had been bottom 6 in February he was still lucky to get the job after his recent tenures. But then we should remember that promotion was never on the agenda here, so they weren't looking for someone to keep us up there or get us up. Eustace created a problem for them last season and everything they've done since then has been to ensure it doesn't happen again, forcing him out, dismantling his squad, selling key players to Derby, Wrexham, Middlesbrough etc.

And just think about what is going to happen come the summer if we do manage to avoid relegation. Gestede collects his bonus and then sets about offloading some more of our bigger earners and better players to make some money and reduce the wage bill further.

'Family reasons' all rather convenient at the club that won't extend the contract of anyone and cuts/reduces/offloads wherever possible. Proof will be in the pudding but I'd be surprised if he's playing in the Norwegian league come next year.

Oh I agree, my views on him have been made clear many times. Just from the perspective of the remaining regime, thrashing around as they are, I imagine things were much much easier for them when they had the shield of a Waggott there to absorb the boos and complaints and a Mowbray type figure to sit in the dugout and deliver competent results whilst tolerating their rubbish. Now without those two or even a JDT / Eustace to diver attention to results they're struggling big time.

I would even go as far as to say they are missing Waggott's 'steady hand' on the rudder That's not to say that slippery Steve was a suitable manager of the club or representative of it, but he at least had some know-how and PR abilities which enabled him to pacify the fanbase and dilute anger quite effectively. A human shield who was quite skilled in calming things down and giving people answers (even if nothing actually happened from there). Since he exited the scene the remaining lot haven't got close to his skills and so it has rapidly descended into conflict because everyone can see what they are really like down there now.

Just playing the victims again and trying to sow divisions between supporters, making out that those who complain/criticise are the villains here and are behaving unreasonably. Of course those of us with any grasp on reality know that when a group of people take a sledgehammer to a football club, run it into the ground, and drag its reputation and name through the gutter those complicit in it should not be surprised when criticism comes their way. I get the impression, like with Elliot Jackson, they'd love to ban/stop the 'problem' fans from attending games so they can just carry on dismantling in peace with a few thousand head in sand gang behind them at Ewood. Only it isn't so easy when you can't revoke access for complaining. I'd like to think they are panicking here - knowing the damage (and growing) done since the summer, the plummeting gates and atmosphere at Ewood - and they are really so daft they think a video like this is going to change the direction of things. I know I am and I'm sure many others are at the point where words are meaningless. They can promise the earth, release videos and all manner of other gimmicks it doesn't matter any more. The damage has been done and only serious action turns this around. That means regime change, no less. They're either completely and totally out of touch with reality and how people are feeling after what has gone on here or are deliberately on the wind up with stuff like this, knowing they'll provoke more outrage.

Pretty sure he isn't on the payroll at Rovers, so any perks he gets must be along the lines of comps, a free lunch and the status of being a 'director' although I'm not sure that really carries much prestige or weight in the world these days given the types we've had in the Ewood boardroom in recent years. Does he do anything with the FA anymore? Can't imagine there's that much benefit to being involved there. I'd just imagine/hope that a 70 something year old bloke, closely involved back in the days when we were a respectable and professional club, who surely isn't short of a few quid, would perhaps decide that a comfy seat upstairs isn't worth the hassle and more importantly the support and legitimisation he gives to a regime actively dismantling what was once a proud club People surprise you though.

Bob Coar running the club? Good heavens. Things are really getting to comedy club status if there's even a shred of truth to that. And if there is any truth to it I find myself asking, for the umpteenth time, what on earth does he get out of this sordid arrangement to make it worth his while covering for, assisting and legitimising this disgraceful regime other than a title and his lunch and drinks paid for every other week? Surely at his age and with his history at the club there's more to life than carrying on with this charade?

The fact that for the first 7 years of their ownership and for the last 7 months they haven't had any CEO tells us everything. Things only ever happen either when the pressure/relegation threat starts to get significant (Paul Senior, Coyle fired, Mowbray comes in) or when someone gets out to India and has a word. Route one of that is happening right now just as it did in 2016/17 so expect to see more of this for keeping up appearances.