It’s a narcissistic character trait to wade into subjects outside of your own expertise (irony alert on this post) and there’s a clear case for business leaders who take a shining to the limelight to be narcissists, whether natural-born or acquired. The reason we see so much failure of football club ownership, I believe, is because the people who decide that owning a football club is something they’d like to do - usually despite not really being deep-pocketed enough, being savvy enough or even being fans of the club - aren’t up to it and are too stubborn to recognise their shortcomings, as is the case with a lot of narcissists. Whether you deserve the praise or not (and I firmly believe our current owners don’t, for example), when running a business that is successful, you’re liable to develop an inflated sense of self. What we’re seeing with a lot of the incompetent owners in the football system is the perfect storm of people who believe they cannot fail and market conditions that they simple cannot contend with. It’s not unique to football (see technology companies that fail after raising eye-watering sums and squandering it all), but it seems that football has unique outcomes. When a football club fails, a town and a community suffers. The very football pyramid itself suffers. When a startup that caters to a ridiculous niche serving little to no purpose fails, it affects the employees and investors’ portfolios but nothing much wider. There simply needs to be an evaluation of what a football club is, above and beyond its fundamental status as a vehicle for capital/limited company/“business.” I think I’d hoped the independent regulator/governing body/whatever that’s been mooted/proposed would be in effect and beginning to challenge the existing system. As it is, the body that governs the top level of our domestic game has fostered, promoted and sustained the existing paradigm, which is inherently unsustainable and very possibly a poster child for the question, “what happens when the worst people you can imagine chase the most amount of money, with the least amount of forward planning and oversight?” I think we’re all at least loosely aware of the “50+1” model in Germany, but even that is a one-club top league, basically, so there’s clearly no silver bullet. I believe football clubs are assets of community value and should have safeguards around them. Part of that should be community ownership and I think only when feckless owners can be challenged and punished for mismanagement (the owners, not the football club) will you see fewer chancers riding roughshod over the clubs, as we see currently. I’ll admit that it could be confirmation bias, but I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that Tony Bloom’s measured and sustainable approach at Brighton came from an owner who is a lifelong fan. Same goes for Matthew Benham. Of course, they’re very likely to be exceptionally capable (I know some that work for Tony Bloom’s firm and attest to that) but they are examples of what happens when owners think not what their purchase of a football club can do for them, but what they can do for their (in the sense that Rovers are “ours” as fans) football club.

Pears starting is a real head-scratcher, but he’s mentioned training performances and we know he expects consistently good performances there before he lets a player into the first team. I can only chalk it up to something on the training ground. Flip side (and this is a reach): he’s hanging Pears out to dry against an almost laughably proficient attacking side, in Leicester. He could concede a bucketload against them. After that, Pears would have no complaints being dropped. Think we’ll see Telalovic up top. My opinion on him after his initial introduction hasn’t changed and this is a very tough ask against the defence that Leicester has. Best hope for us is he can provide an outlet to hold the ball up and play in on-running midfielders, which to be fair to him, his through ball to Szmodics demonstrated he can do. The reactive move to facing Leicester would be Wharton and Tronstad in the middle. I’m not convinced Travis has the sense of positional responsibility to provide cover that I believe Tronstad has. I’d have liked Hedges in as an outball and catalyst for moves, as well as good cover for right back. JRC should start if we have the above middle pairing, to provide a body in midfield and someone with a bit of natural spark when carrying the ball. Brittain has been very solid, though and JRC hasn’t quite hit last season’s heights in his appearances so far. I expect Brittain to get the nod. Pickering is going to get targeted, meaning we need somebody tracking back from the left. Moran has done this to an extent, but I think Siggy was pushing harder on that front, in his cameos. Whether he’s got enough in the tank to start is probably the decider. This is a v tough ask, so I don’t think our season hangs on it and won’t be too concerned with a loss, unless we ship a lot of goals, which is a danger. Having said that, losing is a bad habit and three in the league is a confidence knocker. Hoping for a 3-2 win, expecting the reverse result.

I dunno. Seems an alright guy who really loves Rovers and is reposting goals to Twitter for fans who can’t see them for whatever reason.

It can feel like it’s insurmountable, it really does, most of the time. Personally, I silently hope for a series of unfortunate events to befall the family and any number of co-conspirators, such that we end up quickly being handed off to a better custodian by whoever’s handling their estate. It’s in vain, but I also irrationally play the lottery, so that probably provides some insight. It can feel a bit like Venkys won the battle when the Action Group waned. They corporate-bullshat their way into some respite, with no real intention of change and it shows the contempt they have for the club, really. They’ve just waited the grief out, grinding down any resistance. We used to tie Rovers flags to chickens and put them on the pitch (bit divisive, but an undeniably effective mode of protest). No longer. It’s not sustainable, something has to give eventually, their personal economic realities will become impossible to ignore. But we could’ve said all that at any point in the last 13 years and meant it. I hope something does give, but I am unfortunately very confident that this asset is being strung along to be passed on to a second generation of Venkys sprogs, as their father’s business was to them. He built that from scratch, he had a right to it. Some spoilt brat coming in to play FIFA Ultimate Team with this club might even be a final straw for me. Quite whether I stop watching or go postal, even I’m not sure.

I think the iffiness from Hyam recently has been Pears-related. I think it takes time for the relationship between the back four and Leo to develop but I have to hope that he’s at least as good with distribution and leagues ahead in terms of everything else. Which he might be, right? Right?!

Pickering is a bit of a mystery, I tie myself in knots over him. He’s capable of excellent moments both defensively and - as seen today with his cross for Leonard - offensively. Increasingly of the opinion that he’s stuck in the gap between League One and Championship. Arguably too good for League One, where the inadequacies in his game wouldn’t be punished as often or as severely but isn’t good enough on average to be a left back for a team aspiring to the playoffs. Someone has to be the weakest link in a team, no matter how good they are and opposition managers intentionally target our left flank so often. He’s potentially being shown up simply by virtue of being targeted so frequently, which might exaggerate those inadequacies. He can motor on for days, never looks tired, never looks like he’s uninterested. At 24, there’s still time for him to learn and be more composed but it’s a lot to learn and add to his game if he’s to compensate for the exact lack of pace he has.

Tired play at the end. Been a taxing week, but we’ve not had the stamina to make something of them sitting in. They’ve played quite well today and clearly been well-prepared. I don’t think they’re in a false position, but their form is likely momentum-based. I think they’re likely to finish 8th or so, they’ve not got much quality in any position. Clarke’s probably scored the best goal of his career today. Looked like a Sunday league bruiser. On paper, it’s a poor result, but there are some positives from certain performances today. Even Pears’ performance might be a long-term positive, if he never starts a league game for the club again. Give him the cup games and just show him the 8 goals he conceded this week when he complains. Problems to solve: Travis not digging in at the back when needed. Pears being paid to do this job. What to do with Wharton and Szmodics when they’re tuckered out. Pickering and any defensive support. Working out once and for all if there’s still a player in Tyrhys Dolan and what to do to if there isn’t. Again, Pears having a professional football contract with the club.

We’ve punched ourselves out and to be honest, scoring three away from home should be a win. We can’t legislate for a keeper that’s contributing to the opposition’s xG. The rally early second half is good, Siggy looked good, Leonard looked good, Szmodics is on a good run of scoring. Those are the positives, at least.

Ten minutes in this game is a tough ask for Semir.

That has to be Pears on the bench, now. He’s liable for three goals today, the job is to try and prevent goals going in, not set the opposition up.

This is an exhausting watch.

Trav for Tronstad, although JRC is v tempting in a game like this

That is a banger of a goal, an absolute banger.

They’re here to be taken, they are not managing this well. They’re trying to break and making poor decisions in the final third, but they won’t do it forever. We have to make something count in the next ten.

Also on a yellow after a rash, reactionary foul, but agreed. Another 15 of him and we might have had a couple here.

At least positive to see a number 9 that’s getting on the end of crosses and working the keeper with his end result.

Harry Fucking Leonard, good lad, good striker’s play.

I’m not sure Tyrhys Dolan on current form is the answer to any question we might get asked today.

Siggy looks a classy footballer. He and Wharton are being doubled-up on and without them, we look pedestrian. If we could adapt to that and not have conceded 3 before half time (huge ask, granted 🙃) then they’d be blowing out their arses second half and we could push on. As it is, they’ve borderline won this by half time. Based on their approach to the game so far, their game management will probably be solid. Ultimately, getting their rewards for tailoring their approach to our threats, with a little bit of luck as a bonus (although a couple of viewings of Pears and any coach would be telling their players to shoot on sight). Hedges for Moran, Pears for Leo, JRC for Pickering. Push and press for an early goal, otherwise, we cut our losses and move onto the next one.

They are so bad at trying to play out, we have to punish them for it. Front four have to be all over them to make something happen before half time.

Sub Pears, they’ll end up with a cricket score based on the opening 25.

About 5500 miles outside the broadcast area for Radio Lancs, currently, unfortunately

If anyone could let me know which this is, just so I can make sure I stay away from any illegal activity today, that would be very reassuring.

How are people watching?!

I managed to watch the Sunderland game in the bloody plane here, so if it turns out I can’t watch this with my breakfast, I’ll be cross