The clue is in the name. 'Trust' suggests there was a bit more to the whole thing than just selling the club to the first/highest bidder without a care in the world. My understanding of a Trust, or at least the one that Jack Walker set up, is that there was a bit more thought behind it and a bit more due diligence as the people involved were under an obligation to ensure that the best decision and course of action for the football club was followed, not necessarily the one that saved them the most money as quickly as possible. Fairly sure Jack Walker said that the profits from his other businesses would be used towards funding the club into the future. Not necessarily a business decision that the accountants would have been keen on but those were his instructions. The Trust have blood on their hands, and the small consolation is one or two of them might go to bed at night wondering how much more they could have pocketed had they held on for a few more years and sold the club now for hundreds of millions like smaller clubs than ours are valued at these days. Not so clever after all.

Henry Winter, quite a well respected and usually accurate journalist (unlike our friend) says Faria isn't interested in the Villa job, as he's enjoying a break from football.

I think he's in the 'I told you so' mentality. He's desperate to predict something that later comes true so he can turn around to his legion of fans and show them he knew it all along. Thought Radio Lancashire were wide of the mark describing him as a 'football reporter'. As far as I can see his work goes as far as a couple of sentences in the transfer gossip columns in the tabloids and whipping people into a frenzy on twitter. Without the transfer window to keep him busy he'd be about as much of a 'reporter' as I am.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/16372541.mowbray-gives-update-on-rovers-contract-negotiations/ To be fair he does say he will look at it again 'later in the year' but that 'for varying reasons we're not in a position to do anything on those because of the situation and the current cost' and 'as we get towards Christmas we'll look at it again' Apologies, it was late July he made those comments, not late August, so a couple of months ago.

Some turnaround really. Only about 6 weeks ago at the back end of the summer window Mowbray was clear that extensions for Evans and Mulgrew were out of the question at that moment in time given their demands. I'm always cautious about Rovers saying they're planning on opening talks about a new deal because there's a substantial difference between thinking about starting talking about a new deal and actually getting those deals done and dusted to enable forward planning to take place safe in the knowledge they are going to be here. I can't imagine either player will be particularly enthused if Rovers try to knock their wages down given they are first team regulars and could probably have their pick of other Championship clubs. I think both have earned new deals and both have shown they can perform in the Championship, yet of course there are risks with both as there are with most players. Neither have particularly good injury records, Mulgrew is no spring chicken. Evans is still a good age at 28 and vastly experienced and those sort of players aren't easy to come across but his time here has been punctured with fitness issues. Maybe at last with competition for places and a proper manager to guide him he's back to his best. Certainly his efforts since March have been excellent. Must say I'm surprised that in just over 5 years at the club he's made 150+ appearances, so more than 30 a season on average. Would have expected it to be less than that.

Plenty of players playing well and scoring regularly in the Championship. Certain individuals seem to enjoy or benefit from throwing stories out into the press at every opportunity.

Sadly it is much easier to fill the away end out with Leeds fans at £25+ a piece than it is to increase home crowds, so the focus will be on doing that. For little/no effort or cost they can pile 8,000 people in there at full prices, to get a few thousand more home fans on it would require much more effort and thought.

I see the dark forces are busy at work already. Barely out of September and they're already 'linking' our best player with a move away to a rival. Usually they leave it until December at least. Nixon was on Radio Lancashire last night and they allowed him to spend most of the segment on Rovers talking about Dack's future and attempts to keep hold of him. Dark forces. Fairly sure I haven't seen any media frenzy linking Sheffield United players with moves away this week, or Norwich, or Forest, so why are we so popular in the press all of a sudden?

Think even he had reached the end of the line there with unrealistic expectations, moaning fans and working for Ashley, so jumped at the chance to move back to London to a more conventional club where he was popular from his playing days. Remember the rumours that he got the Newcastle job because he met Ashley in a casino or something like that.

He walked out of Newcastle, which tells us a thing or two about that club, so that he could join Palace. Presume they must have paid Newcastle some compo.

The top teams are on low points totals. Usually after 12 games and 36 points available you would expect at least one team to be pushing 30 points or more yet Sheffield United sit top on 25 which is just over 2 points a game. Decent but not exactly trailblazing. They've also lost more games than we have so far and have conceded more than a goal a game. Looking at the bottom clubs nobody is really adrift. With 1 win in 12 you would expect Ipswich to be marooned yet they are well in the mix in that bottom group.

Different for players and managers though. Players are assets that will be picked up by rivals if we don't keep them. Plenty of clubs collect players and generally speaking with your better players the longer the contract the better in terms of keeping them and getting a big fee if we sell them. Managers very different. Nowhere near as much demand elsewhere for managers, nowhere near as much pressure to have a manager tied down long term, much lower financial incentive to do so as compensation wise it won't be anywhere near what we get for a player.

For the first time we have a manager with all the necessary attributes to make this work under Venkys. We've had the incompetence and dodginess of Kean, the madhouse of Berg and Appleton under Singh, the inexperience of Bowyer, the high maintenance of Lambert, the incompetence of Coyle. Mowbray has a bit of everything required. He has the experience of this division which has always been essential in the power vacuum at Ewood. He has the bad experiences of Coventry to fall back on - knowing how bad it can get under poor ownership - he has the fact that he was damaged goods before coming here and so knows that he could easily have been on the managerial scrapheap had we not offered him a way back in. He's also a big more of a diplomat than Lambert was. I'll maintain my belief that Lambert is/was a good manager for this club from an experience and know-how point of view but he was too high maintenance for these owners and this club. Lambert's demands, whether unrealistic or based upon what he was promised before taking the job, were too great in terms of wanting to do it overnight and wanting a big budget to work with. Mowbray doesn't appear to have such demands and is more than happy to work within their unusual structure and be a bit more patient with them, probably more willing to travel to India and try to talk them round to his vision whereas Lambert wasn't prepared to. Different personalities altogether. Mowbray will never be the sort of bloke to throw a wobbler and walk out if he doesn't get what he wants.

I said in the summer that we should hold back on offering him a new deal as it still had 12-24 months to run and I wanted to wait until Xmas to see how we adjusted to the Championship before handing out new deals. I think we've performed well enough so far to be confident that he is the right man for now and has done well to build on last season with a good solid start to this. For me I'd give him a decent wage rise whilst extending it to 2020 with an option of another year. Like Bowyer and Kean he's worked out that the best or only way of getting anywhere with these owners is to establish a relationship with Mrs D and to frequently travel out to India to speak to her. As long as that link remains in place, combined with Mowbray's experience over Bowyer and his integrity and honesty over Kean, and we should be able to make it work. Lets just hope she doesn't lift the drawbridge again!

We've heard it all before from the club. Season tickets have always been late on sale for as long as I can remember, it was never going to suddenly change for the Oxford game because we had a bumper audience. Who knows why we like to be last minute but it goes right back to the John Williams era. The excuse for the early kick offs is that the police insist on it. That won't change now. Even if it is true the club should have nipped it in the bud at the start. Having allowed it to happen for the last 3-4 years they'll struggle to reverse it. Likewise if it isn't true the people or person responsible for making the decision to noon won't raise their head above the parapet as they know they'll get grief. The price hike has already been put down to trying to bring us more into line with other clubs, which I suppose is fair enough, but it is still a significant increase all at once which might well have persuaded some people not to bother. We've had the excuse for shutting the Darwen End which doesn't really make any sense. We all know that it is to try and save some money. The cash turnstile idea could be introduced but presumably they'll have some reason or another why they can't do it as they want everyone issuing with tickets.

Sky Sports and their friends have been in overdrive today linking various people with the Villa job. I suspect they're trying to stir up the betting market again after Henry looked to be nailed on yesterday, especially as they enter a 2 week break for the internationals. Can't begin to imagine why either of those would leave very cushy numbers with Celtic and Belgium to drop into the bottom half of the Championship. I don't rate either of those managers. Neither knows how to organise a defence which is Villa's biggest issue. I'll repeat yesterday's statement. Give me Mick McCarthy or Steve Bruce for a Championship promotion push over Henry, Rodgers or Martinez.

Fair enough, I happen to think it is a deterrent to people who make a late decision. As far as I'm concerned if the surcharge deters 1 fan from attending then it shouldn't exist. We need everyone we can get and aren't in a position to be putting people off or giving people reasons not to come. Yes there were queues at the Forest game and every other game because there will always be some people willing to pay extra on the day. I don't think I've ever suggested that the surcharge puts everyone off buying on the day, but I've said that those numbers could and probably would be greater if there was no surcharge. There are ways of allowing admission on matchday without needing to allocate seats. That was effectively the whole point of the Darwen End area - unreserved seating at a lower price than reserved seating - no reason an area of the ground couldn't be the same e.g. Bbe Upper tier. Season ticket prices are competitive but we're also in a very competitive region for football.

Is there any other club in this country that invites/encourages almost 8000 away fans to turn up? I suppose MK Dons are the only other one but I'd rather not compare our club to theirs. I mean come on, I understand the financial rewards of large away followings and agree that a large vocal away support improves the atmosphere and can make for a better occasion, but surely we could draw the line at 5000 or 5500? That would still be a bumper gate, decent atmosphere and would put us on a similar footing to the likes of PNE, Bolton, Wigan for away allocations. It would also avoid the need for 12 noon kick offs (if the police really are insisting that happens and it isn't just being done to make life easier for certain people). As far as I'm aware we're the only club that allows its kick off times to be brought forward purely on the basis of the large away allocation. It's clear to see what Rovers' priorities are here. More interested in maximising the number of away fans in the ground than they are about making the experience a better one for Rovers fans. One or two other fixtures usually kick off early like Millwall v Leeds but they are more to do with security concerns arising from years of crowd trouble. I challenge anyone to provide any evidence of widespread crowd trouble or violence when the away club gets the whole Darwen End. We welcomed Leeds for several years with a full Darwen End. Seems things changed after a few drunken away fans made a mess in Wetherspoons. What that has to do with anything I'm not sure.

Reckon Sunderland could fill the Crown Ground twice over when they play Stanley.

Stand closures, price rises, surcharges, database only admission, ticket only admission. Mowbray is right, it would be lovely if we could get to 20,000 home fans every week. Going to do very well to almost double our home crowds whilst doing all of the above though. A more sensible target would be 14000-15000 home fans, which I believe is an achievable target but will still require a radical rethink from the club which shows no signs whatsoever of changing its pricing or policies any time soon. The arrival of Steve Waggott has actually seen the opposite occur with more deterrents appearing.

I would fully support Rovers returning the favour when they come to Ewood and giving them tickets at £20 a piece. Suspect that won't happen as Cheston/Waggott will have that one earmarked for 'Category A' pricing due to their league position and likely large away following if they are still up near the top, so it will be £27 and a surcharge on the day.

No it isn't. Bristol City v Sheffield Wednesday was on the red button yesterday afternoon, though not advertised very well. You have to go onto the Sky Football channel where they were showing highlights and then press the red button. You wouldn't know it was on without trying it. Same when we played at Bristol City earlier this season on Sunday lunchtime. The curfew on live games only applies for 3pm kick offs, I think. When we played at Bristol is was early days in the season and there was no confirmation of the red button service until the Thursday or Friday before when it suddenly appeared on Sky's website. I suspect that was deliberate to avoid significantly reducing the crowd.

Exactly, they won't advertise it as there seems to be some sort of agreement or rule in place that they don't but I'm sure it will appear on the day when most people have bought their tickets.

If the game was at 3pm like it would have been up until 3-4 years ago then I reckon 24,000+, but at noon less will want to do it. Oh well, Rovers' choice.

At 12 noon I think we'll do well to get more than 20,000 on including the 7,600 from Leeds.