Yes. Unless they pull a rabbit out of the hat with a takeover they're either going to have to risk liquidation on Wednesday or go into admin before then, which I presume will get them off the hook with the winding up petition with HMRC forced to accept less but will see a 12 point deduction. It's astonishing how Bolton/Anderson/Bassini thought they could get the takeover done. Its clear to anyone that Bassini doesn't have remotely near the cash required to sort Bolton out and fund them moving forward, surely they knew the EFL rules on proof of funding. Appears to have been a massive waste of time. I can see why Bassini would try it on as he doesn't really lose anything out of the whole circus but I'd have expected Anderson to have seen right through him from the start. Unless he is so desperate to get rid he'd hand it over to anyone willing to take it on.

I was quite surprised at the tone of Mowbray's comments last night regarding defenders at the club. Whether he is genuinely at his wits end with them or whether he was playing it up for the audience and cameras I'm not sure. Once again we hear that he's planning big things for the summer and a high calibre of player being targeted, but we had all that last summer when he rubbished the Armstrong and Chapman rumours because he was after some big hitters and then we signed them anyway.

Hopefully with a positive start the summer in terms of transfers the fans respond by beating last season's sales. Get through the 10,000 mark would be a nice start. Good that they've kept prices frozen (though would have been daft to put them up) and good they've focused on the key 18-25 group.

It might affect bonuses. I'm not sure what sort of clauses there are in contracts but I don't suppose it's unrealistic that some of our players or PNE's might have something in their deal that they get a few quid extra if the club finishes in the top half of the table. Same goes for sponsors who might have to pay more if the club reaches certain levels. I hope Bolton have the book thrown at them for this. If they go into admin that's an automatic 12 point deduction, but they've committed two other breaches - firstly by failing to play the Brentford game when it was due and secondly by failing to play it on the rearranged date that the League asked them to. The least I would expect to see is 6 points deducted for that. I expect they'll get the 12 for admin and the league will try and wrap everything neatly under that and argue that the 12 points is sufficient. It goes beyond not playing the game, it's bringing the league into disrepute and damaging the competition, Very lucky that it's only happened now for the last couple of games and the teams they are due to play aren't involved in promotion/relegation.

Bolton/Pompey/Leeds are the once in a decade example of when things go horribly wrong at a 'big' club. Generally speaking the vast majority of top 3 division clubs are sold or transferred elsewhere before that sort of trouble unfolds. Also worth bearing in mind that for all those clubs problems Leeds and Pompey have rebuilt and are looking forward to bright futures under new ownership. It remains to be seen what unfolds at Bolton but one or two rumours that a few groups are waiting for admin to clear the decks then take over a healthier situation. It isn't clear whether the move towards 'self sufficiency' is being driven by the owners wanting to reduce their spending or whether it is being driven by FFP requirements. Waggott very clear that the club needs to boost income and reduce reliance on Venkys, fair enough, but is that because Venkys are trying to stop pumping money in or because they have to boost income for FFP reasons? Seems strange that they've brought Waggott in with this remit and then go out and spend £7 million on Ben Brereton which in one swoop wipes out any income growth Waggott will have delivered. I'm not criticising them for investing in players but it doesn't seem to stack up. I'm still not clear on the season ticket situation. Waggott claims he wanted them out by now and the delay has been due to 'collecting data'. On that basis I look forward to seeing some changes/imagination in the pricing and categories rather than a straightforward repeat of last season.

Rangers have hosted home games v dingles and Wigan in the last couple of pre-seasons so I would like to think it's a possibility. Refreshing to hear that Mowbray has already sorted out the friendly games but it would be nice if the club could release this information as soon as possible so people can plan ahead.

I don't really understand this. So they are saying that the club has to get the game on for Tuesday next week, but that if they go into administration before then the game doesn't have to be played? Because the administrator would have enough to deal with without sorting a match out? So what happens then? Bolton and Brentford end the season on 45 games? I'm sure clubs have been expelled from the Football League for that sort of thing in the past.

Try and get the club on the cheap, through their desperation? Free publicity, enjoying the media spotlight for a few weeks? Seems his plan has come crashing down as he's been forced to provide evidence of funds to last two years, which comes to £14 million, and he simply can't do that. Wouldn't have had to do it when he went into Watford as the rules wouldn't have been as strict back then.

I can see what motivates the club to do it. Unfortunately going watching Rovers in the 2nd division on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon is very different to buying train tickets/flights or festival tickets where you have to buy in advance to ensure you can go and where there is high demand and limited supply. At Rovers where we've 20,000 empty seats most weeks we aren't ever going to have more demand than supply. Many people will simply go and do something else with their spare time if it is too much or too difficult to get in. Its only a football match, they'll take it or leave it, decide in the spur of the moment. Maybe if the weather is nice, or if other plans fall through, or if the kids/girlfriend/mates change plans. It's just something to fill a few hours. Actively trying to deter people from making a late decision to go, by bumping prices up even more, I think is self-defeating. Ultimately Rovers aren't in a position to try and discourage on the day buyers, they should be gratefully welcoming anyone who is willing to pay to watch us and do whatever is needed to get as many in the ground as possible. We survived perfectly well with pay on the day with no surcharge for years and years. This surcharge nonsense has only appeared in the last few years. All done to make life easier for the small group of people who are paid well to run the operation on matchday and not done to get as many people into the ground as possible. They aren't even that heavily discounted. £15 is reasonable and decent value these days for the Championship but it isn't exactly cheap for a dead rubber that is live on TV for many people.

Good old Football League have effectively given the go-ahead to owners to 'sell' stadia to other companies for a hefty profit to allow them to spend heavily and dodge FFP sanctions! Some way of 'protecting' clubs against overspending - encourage owners to sell off assets to raise cash! Birmingham have 'sponsored' their training ground and stadium. I'd have no objection to Brockhall becoming known as the 'Venkys training centre' if it meant they could chuck another few million in through the back door.

Every manager says he wants to get his transfer business done early and in an ideal world everyone would. No manager is going to say he's relaxed and happy to wait until August to do his signings as fans would be in uproar. For a variety of reasons that isn't usually possible. Of course we are at risk of losing some of our players, and might have to wait for things to fall into place for our signings to arrive. But given we've already allowed 3 weeks to go by since survival was mathematically secured and yet Mowbray seemingly has no idea as to his budget and that it won't get looked at until he goes off to India I know where I direct accountability for our late dealings - Venkys. In terms of pre-season i'll be disappointed if there's no foreign game(s) once again. There was nothing last year either. I love to go to Europe in early July to watch us kick off our friendlies against unusual opposition in the warm weather, and we must be alone in the top 2 divisions to not arrange any matches abroad. Once again is this Mowbray's preference or just a lack of planning and imagination at the club? I suspect the latter given we also didn't have many games abroad under Bowyer. We seem to do things back to front. The manager somehow working to two budgets until he discovers whether he has successfully persuaded the owners to cough up the funds required. It should be the other way around - owners decide what they are spending and manager does as he is told.

Bank of the PFA have intervened and 'loaned' players their wages to enable the final two games to go ahead. Once again off the hook at the 11th hour. More lives than a cat that lot.

I reckon as it stands it is either the Bassini deal or nothing. It sounds like Anderson was close to putting them into admin until he reached agreement with Bassini and now surprise surprise the money hasn't materialised/he hasn't got proof of funding. I expect Anderson and the League are desperate to pass the club over to Bassini to avoid admin and any more embarrassment but the League are bound by their own rules and will require evidence of enough cash from Bassini to keep it going, which he presumably doesn't have but is frantically trying to get. They can't keep this going forever with the fixture crisis, unpaid wages and the winding up petition next week so he'll have until this time tomorrow and if he doesn't provide the evidence I reckon it will be administration. An automatic 12 point deduction for that PLUS what should be a further deduction for failing to fulfil their fixtures and they'll be staring at League Two.

Swansea's away form is atrocious. Hopefully we can finish off with a win and end up in the top half and above the noisy neighbours.

Was Mowbray at the Awards Night last night? Or was he away in Europe scouting?

The other advantage to Luton and Barnsley coming up and hopefully also Doncaster/Peterborough is it takes away another excuse from Rovers. If it were Sunderland, Portsmouth and Charlton coming up you can guarantee there'd be talk from Waggott and Mowbray about how tough it is to try and compete with these clubs and their support. Mowbray has been at it frequently this season talking about other sides having 'full houses' even though they don't. Luton and Barnsley are the two latest examples of smaller clubs showing that reputations and crowds are diminishing in importance as they've left Pompey and Sunderland in the play-offs. In no measure can either of those clubs be considered better placed than Rovers. Two less examples for us to hide behind. With Huddersfield, Cardiff and Fulham coming down none of which get substantially bigger crowds (or at least won't when the Premier League numbers have dropped off).

The problem though is you still have to have possession of 1875 membership. So if you don't want to pay the extra fee you are running the risk of not getting in. You could have 40 years straight of being a season ticket holder and going to every away game, but not want to pay extra for 1875 membership, and not be able to go to a game. Of course the likelihood is that a fan of that description would pay the extra £10 but the club are playing on people's loyalty to the cause to squeeze extra cash out of them. Really possession of a season ticket along with a history of buying tickets and points allocated on the number of tickets bought over the year should be the measure and test of priority, not whether you are prepared to cough up even more money on top of the basic amount,

Davenport joined them in January 2018 and made 17 appearances in League and Cup and they were relegated at the end of it. He's not experienced and the limited experience he has had was of struggle. I'm not criticising the lad but he's a long way to go for me before we can pin our Premier ambitions on his shoulders.

1200 out of 2000 total tickets? I'm fairly sure there's only one turnstile or one set of turnstiles at Leyland anyway, so unless they put a temporary turnstile in at the other side it seems all fans will be using the same one and then be split once they are through. My guess is they'll send one set of fans left towards the top end and round to the top half of the stand and the other set will go right to the bottom end with the seating area split down the middle. Only one set of toilets for spectators too so won't be easy to split off. Everyone enters from one side at Leyland so they can segregate inside the ground all they like, any trouble could easily flare up on the car park outside where fans will be free to mix. The LFA car park is usually full for bog standard league games with a few hundred on so can see it being chaos next week with almost 2000 there.

Prefer Luton and Barnsley to get up than Sunderland, Charlton or Portsmouth. Just have to hope that either Doncaster or Posh can do the business in the play-offs!

It sounds like the alternative is administration. I suspect the EFL are well aware of this and so are trying desperately to see if Bassini can come up with the goods when it is clear he doesn't have any money himself. The EFL will absolve themselves of responsibility by turning around afterwards and saying they've given him every opportunity to come up with answers and instead blame Bassini/Anderson.

I know where you're coming from Matty, the difficulty is that I have always had a habit of booking them as soon as they go on sale and a bit of paranoia on my part that one day something will happen and I won't be able to get a ticket. For example, this coming match next week v Burnley at Leyland - only 1000 tickets - I've no idea how sales are going but it might sell out, so I had to move quickly to get one as soon as they went up. I don't want to leave it to chance. Next season @ Luton - small allocation, expect it to be a popular one - might well need membership to secure a ticket. Most clubs have loyalty points or purchasing history as criteria but is seems Rovers are happy to ignore and discard all that and make priority for those who pay extra for it. Not nice really.

It's clear that the League will do everything they can to help Bolton get through to the summer solvent. They've managed to get to this stage without any sanctions and the League have offered to fasttrack them through their tests to complete the takeover more quickly than it would usually take. Conveniently their two fixtures remaining are against two sides in no promotion or relegation trouble. Would have been very interesting indeed if they were playing Derby/Boro/Bristol City.

The only reward that season ticket holders have had is a 17% price increase and potentially more to come again this summer, whilst long standing season ticket holders in the BBE Upper, JW lower and DE have all been forcibly relocated after years of being in those areas. These the people who have continued to buy and support the club despite almost a decade of failure and misery and the club sticking two fingers up at its supporters for most of that time. Some thanks. The only reward away day regulars have had is free coach travel to Norwich for a 7:30pm Saturday night tv game, even though a large chunk of those at that game could not benefit as they don't live in or around Blackburn. There were 3 official coaches plus a few independents with almost 800 Rovers fans at the game. Do the maths. Well under half of those present will have gone via coach. My thanks for buying every away ticket is to be told that my purchasing history is redundant, loyalty counts for nothing and the only way I can ensure I get tickets for every game is by paying an additional fee to become an 1875 member so I can buy tickets during the first phase of sales. Cheers.

Because some clubs want to be proactive and positive whereas others want to be reactive and just go with the flow. We're firmly in the latter. As you say - if you want to sell more kits you get them on sale earlier, particularly during the warm summer months when people are going off on their holidays and will want to buy. You don't leave it until August when most people have been away and come back and Autumn is rolling in. If your kit supplier can't or won't provide the new kit earlier then sack them off and take your business to one that will appreciate the importance to the club. We're ending up retailing our home shirts at £50 a time because our deal with Umbro sees them take home a huge amount per shirt, meaning we have to put the price up to this to make anything ourselves. Then we end up with a load of surplus stock in April that has to be sold off at £15 a unit. Season tickets - the whole point of an early bird window appears to be lost here. You try to get people to cough up and commit as early as possible so they're tied in. Particularly if you're playing well and have some momentum and people enjoy what they're watching. Once again most other clubs appear to recognise this basic concept and sales windows are getting earlier and earlier. Some are putting them out as early as January. What harm is there to the club in doing this? If nothing else it will save work for the staff in July as the more that get paid up in April the less needs processing later on.