I agree. People reading far too much into this if they believe that Rovers have the option to make it permanent but aren't obliged to. Can't see one reason why Forest would ever agree to such an arrangement. Why not just send him on loan and see how he does?

Plus add in the ones moved to inconvenient/unattractive times. So far we've had Reading midweek, Villa Saturday tea time, Leeds Saturday lunchtime, Sheffield United was midweek, we know that Preston at home is going to be Saturday lunchtime and Wigan and Derby at home are going to be midweek, and Swansea at home on the final day of the season is going to be an early kick off for TV. So even now we know that at least 8 of our 23 home games are moved, and that could easily go past ten if we get a couple of TV games chucked in which is likely. It's not just the fact that all of those games can/will be available on Sky Sports, but also that those times are all inconvenient for a lot of people. Those who work or who live a fair distance away have their patience tested by midweek kick offs and having to rush home, rush back out, not get home until late. Saturday lunchtime folk are having to leave just after breakfast to get to Blackburn and park up for a noon kick off.

Open up a bar with a choice of 2-3 decent real ales and glasses at a reasonable price and I'd be there every week. I ain't going to spend £4 on Fosters or John Smiths. I'd like to know why/how Accy Stanley have a deal with Bowland Brewery to serve 'Accy Ale' at their ground yet you can't get a pint of real ale in any of Rovers' various bars.

The FA are the real culprits in all this. They conceded far too much ground in the early 90s when the Premier League was set up. They could have retained control of the beast. Now clubs have so much wealth and power it is going to be nigh on impossible to stop them. The threat of a breakaway league could also be immediately stopped if FIFA/UEFA/FA simply point blank refused to sanction such a thing.

It's been shut every other game I think. Presume the trial last season wasn't too popular and so they aren't bothering with it.

They've opened the Legends Lounge for Leeds fans. Promoting it as the 'away fans lounge' and offering admission for £100+vat. Those who go in can either watch from inside or have a seat outside.

The more I observe Waggott's actions and read his interviews It certainly appears that his primary remit here is to increase revenues and reduce costs. That's great but he needs to be careful how far he tries to push it, no matter how positive things are at present. The main worry that I have is that Waggott and Mowbray have gone to India in January/June and said to Venkys 'back what we're trying to do and the fans will come flooding back and the club will perform much better' on the basis that thousands more would have bought tickets off promotion and now that hasn't happened they're getting nervous ahead of the next summit meeting when Mrs D might wonder what is happening and why crowds are the same or only slightly more despite buying into their vision, handing over a decent wedge of cash this summer and letting them get on with it. Hopefully I'm reading too much into it and this is all nonsense but i'll always have these sort of worries with Venkys. It does all seem a bit bizarre that Waggott is so keen to boost revenues through daft things like the 1875 club and £50 price increases whilst the owners were seemingly desperate to make a statement by spending multi-millions on a teenager. Once again lends weight to the theory that the owners want the club to wash its own face in as far as it can but then every now and again they'll chuck some extra cash into the transfer/player wage pot. So whilst Waggott and Cheston scrimp and save and come up with various ways to grow revenues and the stadium looks a mess due to zero investment the football arm of the club receives its cash for players and wages.

I find it interesting that Waggott says the top question he gets from fans is about when the owners will next be coming to Blackburn. That is surprising to me as not only is it not really important whether the owners attend or not, but also I would imagine a large chunk of the support base would prefer it if they didn't attend. Whatever they do they will be criticised - that's not trying to sympathise with them but is reality - if they continue to stay away some will complain that they aren't interested and if they start coming back some will say that they are shamelessly trying to piggy back on the positive progress recently and are distracting away from the manager and team. I personally couldn't care less as long as they don't start meddling and wrecking things again, I think there are much more important questions for Waggott to answer rather than when the owners are next coming to Ewood. I still have concerns about this whole 'trust' thing that both Mowbray and Waggott always reference when talking about the owners. It certainly seems that we're still stuck in their bizarre way of doing things where they have to build up and establish 'trust' in the staff before any serious progress can be made. Of course I'm pleased if Mowbray and Waggott have managed to establish that trust and that bond with the owners, but I do worry about what happens if things take a downturn on the pitch what happens and also what happens when one day we need a new manager whether that person will have to embark upon a multi-year trust building exercise with them before they have enough faith to let him do the job. Of course it's good that they don't want ripping off and being taken advantage of again and long may Mowbray's positive stewardship continue but I worry that there remains too much of this personal trust/bond and all hell breaks loose if that bond breaks down or ends and a new face arrives on the scene who has to win them over again.

Don't think the club announced it, but then again announcements on the u18s and u23s are hard to come by. I understand that the game v Man City which was played on Saturday morning was due to be played in January, the game was suddenly brought forward without any public announcement from Rovers.

The IFollow fiasco is going to be just as damaging as the red button. Yesterday once again, despite originally claiming that there would be a blackout on live broadcasts on Saturday afternoons, all League One and Two games were available via IFollow for £10 in the UK. So for half the admission cost, plus no travelling, food, aggravation, UK fans can watch their team from their armchair rather than go to the game. Just how much loyalty do they think they can exploit? It might not have an immediate impact but over a few years as more people try it I'm sure it will drastically impact upon crowds. Thing is I don't think the League or Clubs particularly care. All they measure success on is cash. We've only got to look at what they've done to the Football League Trophy and taking the Premier League coin to see what their motivations are.

More recently than us developing Ewood we've seen Wigan and Bolton construct brand new stadia whilst outside the top division - 28000 at Bolton and 25000 at Wigan. Even PNE are at about 23,000. None of those clubs remotely as successful as this one over the last 25 years and PNE/Wigan not as well supported yet all aiming for the mid-20's capacity wise. Should Blackburn Rovers have a smaller stadium than those clubs? Jack Walker had the ambition. He could have built it smaller but saw the club dining at the top table and so built a ground fit for that, even planning for a redeveloped Riverside to go even further. Bold, ambitious yes, optimistic maybe, but had things panned out how he expected it to we might well have needed that capacity. Easy 20 years on after his family and the Indians have taken a wrecking ball to his club to say he was wrong to build it that big. If we'd have restricted it to 24000 then we'd be turning people away. Empty seats by the thousand are a fact of life for fallen ex-Premier League giants. A sign of more successful times and those seats will only be re-occupied if success returns, not after a decent start and 4 wins from 12 in the 2nd division. Positive times at the moment but baby steps in the scheme of what's happened here Our job is to get back up and fill them then.

Not sure. It would be interesting if they had included Jack's private room on there but they haven't. Jack's room is next door to the directors lounge and has a door to access his outdoor seating area. There are definitely a couple of photos of the Desai parents hung up on the rear wall of Jack's box. I've been in there a few times but not recently, the last time i think they had kept all of Jack's things as they were. Think there is a proper painted portrait of him and also pictures of his mum hung up. Infact i think the lounge is named after his mother.

People say that our ground was built too big. But I don't think it was. Given our status at the time it was a sensible capacity and even as a mid table or bottom half Premier League club it was a sensible capacity. The problem is when we are outside the Premier League. But find me an ex premier league club that doesn't have a massive surplus of seats. As an example, Sheffield Wednesday usually have 16 or 17 thousand empty seats, similar to us on a poor day, I don't see their fans saying Hillsborough is too big. Everyone's ground is too big in this league, except Brentford and Millwall who haven't had Premier League crowds to provide for. The magic solution is to get promoted.

We need to stop making comparisons to what we were getting in the Premier League. We aint ever going to get to those sort of numbers in the Championship. Mowbray is deluded if he seriously believes we'll get 20,000+ home fans on in this league on a regular basis. Maybe for one off huge games or celebrations but not for your bread and butter mid=table clashes with Brentford and Millwall. The comparisons we should be making are to what we were getting in 2000-2001 when at this level and also what we were getting in 2012-14 when we came out of the Premier League and were getting more home fans on than we are currently. Where have those people gone? We know there is an element of 5000-10000 fans who will only turn up for the Premier League. That applies to every club in the land although proportionally probably higher for Rovers than most. Forget those people, focus on the 2000 or so who were coming in 2012-13 but who might have stopped. Focus on trying to indoctrinate youngsters who won't see the Premier League as the be all and end all in life.

Whole thing needs breaking down and simplifying. BBE lower, Riverside and JW lower should be the same price. A nice round £20 per match if buying a ticket in isolation. Talk about undercutting ST holders that works out at £460 a season if buying match by match so significantly cheaper to buy a ST. Only area that should cost more on matchday is JW Upper central which is the 'premium' area and should cost an extra £5 to sit in. If you are intent on having category games then have 2 categories, A and B. A for Leeds, Boro, Sheffield clubs, Wigan, Bolton, Preston, Villa, WBA, Stoke, Derby, Forest, B for Swansea, Bristol, Reading, QPR, Brentford, Millwall, Ipswich, Norwich, Birmingham, Rotherham. Preferably don't bother with the categories and just have a flat rate. If you want to charge more for away fans e.g. £25+ then you can do so by allocating them the upper DE at 3,000 tickets and charge them as you wish. Of the 23 other clubs in this league only about 6 will ever need more than those 3,000 - Preston, Leeds, Sheff Weds, Middlesbrough, possibly Stoke, WBA and Bolton. Abandon the matchday surcharge. 1875 members qualify for a discount of say 10% or even £5 off a matchday ticket. Even if that means £15 every game for 1875 members x 23 that is £345 so similar sort of value to having a season ticket, albeit without the benefit of being 1st in line for away tickets and without the benefit of having a seat secured for the full season. Introduce a cash only turnstile. Encourage people to buy in advance via the ticket office but don't penalise those who don't want to or can't commit to doing so. £15 for an unreserved area or £20 max for a reserved seat. Cash only blocks in the wings of the Riverside (virtually empty at present).

Noticed this on the Rovers Business Twitter page, you can 'tour' around various parts of Ewood Park on your computer. I found it quite interesting. https://www.businessatrovers.co.uk/virtualtours.aspx

I suspect there could well be hundreds, particularly those who live a fair distance away, who will make the decision to not bother for this one. A 3pm kick off gives people plenty of time to travel in on the bus/train/car, meet their mates for a pint etc. A noon start will see people having to set off after breakfast, relying on appalling public transport, not much time to have a drink etc. Of course Rovers will play the victims in this, moan about home crowds and claim there's nothing they can do about the kick off, which I simply don't believe. Meanwhile I think a lot of people will avoid the hassle and watch it on TV instead.

I'm not concerned about our crowds at this point. They've risen over the last 2 years, slightly, and i would expect them to slowly rise further as the season progresses if we continue with positive momentum around the club. If the club makes more of an effort then they will rise further, but that would require them to put more effort in than they are at present. My only worry is that Mowbray and possibly Waggot have sold their project to Venkys on the basis that it is making the fans happy and that if the fans are happy we'll see much bigger gates. They both seem to be under the deluded impression that we'd be getting 5 or 10 thousand a week more on than we're getting. I wonder if they've gone to India with this pie in the sky expectation and the owners expect similar and will be disappointed if it doesn't happen? Then again they might not bat an eyelid.

Got to also say that this isn't something limited to Rovers. Wigan's crowds are similar or possibly lower than they were last season in League One. Bolton's and Preston's are similar or lower than they were in League One. Clubs need to look at the bigger picture - stop taking fans for granted and realise that those decisions made on the annual ride out to Portugal all expense paid trips might, just might, have an effect down the line e.g. Ifollow and selling out to Sky Sports - enabling fans to sit at home and watch without the need to travel - all for a lower price than it is to buy a match ticket.

Poor indeed. No mention of the elephant in the room - him arriving at the club and immediately deciding to impose a £50 price increase in all areas. He's quick to point out that Leeds are bringing 7,500 but then doesn't raise that the club's agreement or willingness to see kick off brought forward by 3 hours might have some sort of effect on the home crowd. I'm getting the distinct impression it isn't his remit to grow crowds. It's his remit to grow income and reduce losses and if that works with more bodies in the building great, but the priority is more cash and that means bumping prices up for those who do turn up and making it as easy as possible for large away followings. Shame but he made his position quite clear in the summer with the double whammy of a 17% increase in cost and closing a home stand on the back of promotion.

There were a few games at least after Allardyce's departure and following Kean's 'caretaker' appointment that he was being heralded as some bright up and coming coach who would improve our style of play whilst maintaining/improving results and a lot of Rovers fans embraced that as they were delighted to be rid of a so-called old fashioned 'boring' manager with a 'negative style' of play. Most people knew it was only going to end one-way and that Allardyce was the best man for the job at the time, but allowed dislike of the man or his football style to come before acceptance that he was our best bet. Similar sort of thing at Villa now. Dislike of Bruce or his style of play is coming before acceptance that his record in the Championship is exceptional, and likely to be the best bet of promotion any time soon. Mick McCarthy labelled old fashioned or boring because he deployed an effective and successful style at Ipswich. Meanwhile 'head coaches' who have nothing to their names in terms of success or track records but 'play nice football' are heralded as bright, progressive, ambitious etc. Fair enough Kean had no track record and his reasons for getting the job far more dubious and sinister than Smith's are at Villa, but similar sort of process where an effective, experienced and capable manager has been shown the door and replaced with someone whose main selling point seems to be that he'll improve the style of football on offer. The Villa press release for Smith immediately referenced him being 'known for his attractive and exciting brand of football' which suggests that was the reason he got the job. It will be interesting to see if they're happy to sit around in mid-table for a few years if he needs that time to adjust and build a side capable of doing it or if they'll fire him off after a few months if he doesn't work miracles and get them promoted playing swashbuckling football.

Rumour is that Villa are going to follow in the footsteps of 'Frank Lampard's Derby' and rename the club as 'John Terry's Aston Villa Football Club'

Will Villa fans be happy if he 'plays the way they want' yet they sit in mid-table for 3 years like Brentford have? It's lovely to talk about nice football etc. but Villa need promotion, everything else is secondary. They've just got shut of a manager who has 4 promotions and a play off final in his last 6 seasons in the Championship and replaced him with a 'coach' who has never done anything except play 'nice football' at small clubs. Substance over style in this league. You need a manager who will stick to the basics to grind out results every week. Some call it 'boring' or 'poor football' but more often than not it is those clubs and managers that get promoted. Might be wrong of course and this could be a genius move but if I were a Villa fan I'd be cautious. Always apprehensive when a new manager comes in and all the talk is about the football his teams play rather than his results and achievements as a manager e.g. promotions. We had it under Kean when some people welcomed his appointment as he played 'good football' compared to Allardyce.

Pretty happy with the Smith to Villa news. Put it this way, I expect Brentford will struggle to replace him easily and him going into Villa is unknown territory stuff, could be a masterstroke but could easily struggle under the weight of expectation and size of the club compared to plain sailing low pressure at Walsall and Brentford. Two weeks ago I wouldn't have fancied us to finish above either. Now I'm confident we can finish above both of them. If I were a club wanting promotion as quickly as possible I'd be going with Bruce all day long, Smith is a big gamble seemingly built on the premise of the style he's delivered at Brentford (a club with a very unique set of conditions). Be interesting to see who Brentford bring in. I suspect it won't be a big name, it will be someone to try and build on what Smith has done and a 'head coach'

As predicted Sky Sports are now promoting this game as being a live match on their channel. The game was never selected as such and yet because it falls outside the window of 2:45pm to 5:15pm they are allowed to stream it to Sky Sports subscribers. Something very wrong with all this.