No and no.

I think the club loses money on the home fixtures, and combined with the hassle of organising extra games and ensuring the pitch is ready 2 weeks earlier than it needs to be means we don't see many at Ewood. That doesn't bother me as such as unless we get a true glamour fixture like the Barcelona one we aren't going to get good numbers on home games. Even the Liverpool and particularly Everton ones last season weren't exactly well attended. Loads of empty seats even after the local tourists had turned up with their cameras. I imagine Rovers had to pay to persuade Liverpool to turn up or at least give them a share of the takings so doubt Rovers were left with much after that. It's a given that most fixtures will be local(ish) away games against lower division opposition. Always has been. Don't mind 2-4 games against the Bury's or Blackpool's particularly midweek. But we all need at least one 'curtain raiser' or big game to look forward to and whet the appetite ahead of the new season. If we get an away game at Rangers I think most people would relish that game and a trip up there. Sharpe seems to be putting his neck on the line as far as he ever does tonight with that one but I still have my doubts. The rest are very much 'meh' fixtures, not even the novelty of a couple of new grounds to go to and 3 of them we played in the league the season before. The fact that all have taken players from us recently, or in the case of Blackpool are managed by our ex-assistant, suggests they have been arranged off the back of those deals. Most frustrating for me is the lack of foreign match. The real curtain raiser for me was going away to Austria or wherever and watching us play a European side in a foreign ground. Fantastic. Used to look forward to it for months. For some reason we're one of the only clubs at this level to seem to want to avoid such fixtures. Presumably because those sort of games are harder to arrange than picking up the phone to the mates down the road. No good for those supporters who enjoy going though.

Guardiola is a big part of the dominance of City. Their entire operation has been assembled to work around him and with him as the icing on the cake. He is clearly in another league in terms of managerial ability with very few able to get close. Klopp has given him a run for his money at Dortmund and Liverpool but fallen short on both occasions. Mourinho can rival him for trophies and achievements but in the last 3-4 years has fallen out with everyone around him and picked a couple of poor jobs. As long as Guardiola remains City will remain dominant. The trouble for them is that he has no connection to Manchester and is only there for the project and vast salary he'll be on. As he showed at Barcelona he'll get tired and move on before too long. I don't believe he'll do a Ferguson and be there for many years. I reckon he'll walk after next season if they win the league again and don't win the Champions League. Then he'll have a break before picking another project. For City whatever comes next will be a comedown.

And the connection this time is we sold Tomlinson to them in January. Links like that through all of them so far. Would be nice if we could organise one without.

Mansfield away on 17th July (Wednesday). So only one slot left to fill. So far 1 Conference club, 3 League Two Clubs and a League One club.

Possibly. Though surely they've known for a long time they were going to be participating in those barring a disaster?

I was told that it was due to happen but that Rangers had pulled the plug owing to other options and as such we were left 'in the lurch' trying to find someone else to play. Hence the delay in announcing the other friendlies after the 4 already announced. Expect some dross instead. My bet is on one of Carlisle, Bradford or Oldham.

The trouble is it won't be sustained. If the likes of Liverpool, City, United and Chelsea went off to a Super League then that might see the back of the plastics and tourists for a while, but Sky would pull the plug or drastically reduce their funding. This would effectively bankrupt the Premier and Football League. Then from the ashes the beast would rise again, slowly but surely, as media giants would compete for rights and foreigners would come sniffing. Rather than it being Chelsea or City at the top of the pile hoovering up all the quality with all the money it would be Leicester, Everton or Wolves doing it. Eventually we'd end up more or less back where we are now, perhaps on a smaller scale without the current giants. The only way it is going to work is if the government or some other powerful body puts their foot down and restricts the ownership of clubs by mega foreign groups and comes up with some sort of system to make it work longer term on a more even playing field. In my opinion this would need the Premier League and Football League to be once again under the same umbrella rather than separate, with a more even distribution of prize money and media money, with proper FFP rules in place and serious sanctions for those who break the rules. Ironic that since the introduction of FFP rules spending by clubs has actually increased. I still shake my head when people go on about FFP rules for Man City when the only rules they are subject to are the UEFA ones. Nothing stopping them spending under Premier League rules. None of the above will happen so we'll get a middle ground of more and more European games gradually building towards a super league in all but name.

Very odd indeed. My interpretation is that Mowbray is playing everything safe pending the outcome of his Pune meetings. If he doesn't know what (if any) money he'll have to spend then he might regret it if he gets shut of Leutwiler, Conway etc. now. So safer to activate extensions and enter into talks just in case.

My long held suspicions about Holt's dingle leanings are seemingly well founded. Exactly the sort of comment a resentful claret would come out with. Of course he would deny any such tarring as it doesn't fit his Accy lad image. Not only very disrespectful but also incorrect. Walker's investments here were not gambling the clubs future but were putting in place infrastructure to enable the club to grow and thrive longer term. Also seems to be ignore the massive profits on player trading which is the hallmark of a well run and sustainable club. Ignorance but agenda driven.

Ah the good old council. Rather than putting empty land at Ewood to use by allowing people to park there in safety they build a gypsy camp there and leave the rest to fall into rack and ruin. Then put extra parking wardens on duty and drop them all off ahead of the game to try and issue some fines to boost the coffers. Trying to exploit Rovers fans for extra cash. Disgusting. Meanwhile the town goes to the dogs. The council are complicit in the difficulties.

Why do Preston as a club have multiple bus shuttle services designed to help football supporters get to their ground on matchday and we don't? Are we so good that we don't need to and can just rest on our laurels?

https://www.pnefc.net/news/2017/september/matchday-shuttle-bus-services-confirmed/ Have a read through this and ask yourself why Rovers don't have a similar facility in place for these areas/Hyndburn/Ribble Valley. Bone idleness and penny pinching would be my guess. Probably saves a few bob and makes life easier but long term it will only do one thing.

So what are you saying? That we should be afraid of Brentford or that we should be selling our players to them? Their crowds and income are smaller than ours and we will have to finish above them next season if we want to go anywhere. As it happens I wouldn't be against selling Raya, if that is what Mowbray has decided to do. I certainly think better keepers will be up for grabs this summer if we are shopping in that department with decent cash. I do however have concerns. Not about losing Raya but when I see things appearing on Sky about selling players to divisional rivals I get flashbacks of Cairney being offloaded behind the managers back at the 2 year mark of his time at the helm. I just hope if there is truth in this it isn't being done in an underhand way or Mowbray isn't being forced into it to satisfy the accounts people in India before he arrives for his meeting.

We can be sure Brentford wont be spending big on goalkeeper. Talk of 5 or 6 million is laughable.

Completely agree. Sadly I don't think the accountants do. Even though the likelihood of a major profit is surely higher with those sort of players.

Not yet he hasn't. He's been offered terms or is in discussions over a new deal and is thinking it over whilst also being free to talk to other clubs. Pen hasn't touched paper yet.

Yeah, he'd get the perks up there - closer to home, more money, a proper chairman who can make decisions when needed. The drawbacks would be that there would be more pressure and expectation and less independence for the manager. Also perhaps a few characters in the dressing room harder to handle than here. In theory Middlesbrough should be in trouble with FFp but wouldn't surprise me to see them do a Derby and attract some decent players without selling much and appoint someone like Hughton or Jokanovic and be up there next season

I'd be concentrating my efforts on finding players who know the Championship and know how to get out of it. Not enough of them in our ranks. We've done the whole thing about signing younger end lads and hoping they make the step up. For those observing Sheffield United, how many League One players did they sign last summer? They signed experienced pros who knew the level. First port of call is to go through the free agents from Premier League and Championship clubs and see who we like. Sadly we'll be towards the back of that queue because our manager and entire executive staff are spending the next week in India trying to persuade the owners who are losing 15 million a year to back them to get promotion. Then Mowbray goes on holiday. Deservedly so. But unlikely any serious offers can or will be made until he's back in June. Mowbray's stated desire to get his signings done and dusted early won't happen. Mowbray needs to have a system and stick to it and build on it. Too much chopping and changing personnel, formations and approaches last season to have the consistency required for promotion.

Interesting that as the game went to penalties two police officers intervened and appeared to inform the referee which end the penalties would be taken at, which so happened to be at Charlton's home end and not the 50/50 split stand. I wouldn't be happy in the slightest if i were involved with Doncaster.

Strange old career that lad. Seemed to be a favourite for Huddersfield as they won promotion. Then gets loaned out to Oxford down in League One before joining us. Then goes back to League One at Bradford where I've not heard or seen much of him as they got relegated. EDIT - sounds like he might be joining Barnsley now Huddersfield have released him.

Don't think Barnsley are really in the business of signing players on their last legs. They're a very clued up operation these days with their new owners and structure in place and I think will be signing players from all over the place, most of them young end. A similar recruitment policy to Brentford. Someone like Rotherham or Doncaster would be more likely for Conway.

Conway and Smallwood will be on a Championship level wedge or at least top drawer League One wages. Stanley will be paying bottom half League Two wages.

They will be going harder if their manager knows his budget and has the ability to get decisions made now rather than in 2-3 weeks time. Our manager it seems is limited to scouting and tentative discussions with potential people rather than being in a position to put money on the table and get agreements in place.

Really? So there's a 16 year old kid who is still trying to make a career for himself and is in our academy but riddled with injury issues which have prevented him from having a run in the team. Do we keep him on forever with the view that it's the right thing to do and if we let him go he will struggle to get a deal elsewhere? How many players do we do it for?