StHelensRover

On paper, looking at the value of the squads, Southampton should muller us. Having said that, they've only won 3 games in a year or something ridiculous. Their confidence will be low, they will be really nervous. If we get a dodgy decision go for us or get a lucky break, we might just get something even if we don't play well. Football's just weird like that. Neither set of fans will be looking forward to this. I could see us somehow getting something like a draw from this game or a 1-0 and it will be like when Kean got that draw at Anfield or won at Old Trafford. It will release some pressure and the happy clappers will be back in force and the club will do the equivalent of an open top bus tour in the media and online. Sounds odd but we need the game to be 0-0 for as long as possible then hopefully score at the end. If we score first, we panic and collapse. If the opposition scores first, we panic and collapse. I really want us to win because I can't face what will happen to the club when we go down, but it's prolonging the inevitable if nothing changes in the dugout and upstairs. 1-1 Ohashi

We need to distance any protests against Venkys from comparisons with Jack Walker, because Jack Walker was a one in a million owner, local tycoon, every fan's dream. It will be easy for the owners and for neutrals and the press to bat back and say "you're stuck in 1995, you can't expect the owners to do what Jack Walker did, you're unrealistic and you're just unhappy with the owners because they're not Jack Walker." We all know this isn't true, but always got to consider optics and how these things are used against the fans.

Unfortunately for them, football is played on grass with real people and not inside spreadsheets and databases. Do they not realise the average fan doesn't give a flying F about expected goals and all the other obscure metrics that seem to be rife in the game these days? Throw it out with other stupid new terminology I'm forever hearing now like "low block, mid-block" - just nonsense new terms for tactics which have been around for a century or more.

I've responded to the survey, happy to confirm I've identified our benevolent owners as the main issue, as opposed to ticket prices etc.

Could be something like that. People could bring and hold up anything red really, as long as it's visible. Could be red carrier bag, envelope, buspass holder, anything someone could bring into the ground legally. All going to look the same from the distance of the directors box or a TV camera. Make it as straightforward as possible for people.

Does anyone think that a 'red card' protest would gain any sort of traction amongst the fans that are still going to matches? "Show Venkys, Pasha and Rudy the Red Card" Would enough people participate for it to get attention? Sheffield Wednesday did it recently with yellow cards, they have more people turning up to games than we do and they're more of a media darling than we are, but I remember it being reported. It's low cost it, doesn't disrupt the game, it doesn't attack the players (just back the lads FFS), it only has to be done for a minute (maybe at kickoff) for people to get photos of it and for it to make the point, anyone can join in. There's no way for the club to misinterpret it or spin it. My only concern would be that only a few patches of the crowd would join in and the smug lot in the boardroom would sneer that protestors are unrepresentative.

According to the table, only Norwich City in worse form than us across the entire division.. and they beat us! Sheffield Wednesday have picked up more points in last six than us, and they're fielding 50 year old Barry Bannan and a load of schoolboys. But according to some sources, we're playing great and just unlucky.

Shade over 3/1 now, we'll probably be evens if we lose Saturday. Some of those teams I expected to be down here with us like Hull, Charlton, Pompey etc all have a large points lead over us already. Wrexham and Oxford play each other tomorrow. A result for either of them extends their lead over us to either 5 or 6 points after just 11 matches. We have that game in hand, but we know what will happen there....

I think the crowd will definitely turn on Saturday if we fall behind. I will anyway 😄 Though I don't know if it counts as turning on him, if I never ever wanted him as manager at any point.

Bizarre stuff. Just looked and he writes for Yorkshire Post so he has no skin in the game, no reason to make anything up, so I wonder what on earth is going on at Ewood 😂

Coming in here hoping to see someone has summarised VI's post match comments because I can't bring myself to watch him without wanting to smash my phone! Who's fault is it this week according to him? Was it another fantastic performance?

In our last two matches he has looked like the only player in our team capable of playing in this division. We're in big trouble this season, staring down the barrel. He is the only good thing we've stumbled across this year. I bet he wishes he stayed in Scotland now!

I think he is, he stood half the match clapping furiously on the touchline, not sure what he was clapping, I wasn't clapping. His subs were bizarre, we played 10 of the last 15 mins a goal down with no striker on the pitch. The period where we had taken all the strikers off, we suddenly starting putting aerial crosses into the box. Was that his idea too? He's gormless. Edit - Sorry that you travelled such a long way up for the game to be served that as well.

I thought I'd also read that they did all the checks and scans and that it wasn't anything serious, so it seems strange he's out for a while when it was just about waiting for swelling to come down.

Yes they're below us in the table but in the last six games they've picked up more points than we have and they've (re)appointed someone during that time who is regarded as a very good manager in this league. I don't think you could ask any neutral to look at the two teams and say right this moment, that they're a worse team than we are. I imagine their aim this season is to try and get into the playoffs, not to 'avoid the drop', which is our unfortunate remit. We will have to play very well to get anything from tonight's game.

On paper and in my brain I don't see us getting anything against Sheffield United or Southampton. As it's football and 'anything can happen', we'll probably end up drawing both games, which will prolong our misery and Ismael's reign as they'll be able to say "two great performances against two tough opponents, we're turning a corner" when really it'll be another two games without a win.

Maybe Baradji will end up taking his place in the team at this rate 🤔

It does look like AI slop. The bar is so low at this club. I don't know whether we outsource this stuff to another firm or whether it's done in-house but it has been shite for a while, embarrassing. This isn't an overreaction because this isn't a one-off. Everything we do with branding, comms, marketing is tone-deaf rubbish. Edit- it should go without saying as well that this is nothing to do with it being Diwali, I would say the same if it said Eid, Easter, Xmas, whatever. It's just amateurish.

If the poor form continues, the won't sell many walk-on tickets, even at the reduced prices. I really want to be able to enjoy the day, I really hope we can build some momentum from somewhere going into that match and I really hope we can get three points on the day, no matter how we do it. But my gut tells me it's going to be a half empty ground, feeling flat and generally fed up. I wish more than anything it wasn't the case.

I think someone Wilsden said on here over the weekend that this is our worst start to a season under Venkys. Very worrying considering during that time we have survived relegation twice on the final day and been relegated twice. Strap yourselves in.

When TM left he had taken us as far as he could and it was time for him to go. I'm grateful to him and for his time leading the team. I think he always did his best and wanted the best for the club, but it became stale and starting sliding backwards, we had a couple of very bad runs towards the end. Objectively he is a much better manager than Valerian Ismael and would do a better job, so bringing him in I think would give us a better chance of avoiding relegation. However, I think it would really divide the fan base, there are many who got very fed-up with TM and disliked him, if he didn't get results straight away it could get just as toxic as it's probably going to get soon under current management. Not sure whether it would be the right thing to do. There's also no guarantee he'd want to work here again after the way they treated him at the end.

Because none of them have any connection to the town and people of Blackburn, they're not Rovers fans, they're mercenaries employed by the Venkys, who also have no connection. So they don't really care whether we go up or down. They're getting paid an absolute fortune to coast along, it's a gravy train. If it all goes to pot in a couple of years time, they'll walk away from their roles very wealthy, will never need to work again. Why rock the boat by phoning India and asking for more money? On the owners themselves, I can't understand why they still own the club. I can only think we're such a small going concern for them, that they rarely ever think about us. The family are worth something like 2billion pounds, we occasionally (less and less often due to us selling players and not properly reinvesting the money in the squad ) cost them around £20m a year. I cannot imagine what it must be like to have that level of wealth, but I can imagine it's easy to forget about us altogether.

Those teams who are probably going to be in the mix with us, Wednesday, Hull, Derby, Oxford, Pompey, Charlton. Those are going to be the crunch games this season where we have to take 3 points off them home and away, if not, we're toast. Beat Hull away but then got a hiding at Charlton. The next run of games is a nightmare run, I would take a point in any of those upcoming matches before kickoff. Sad to have to say that, but I think that's realistic.

There are a lot of posts on this forum which say the owners and their representatives are deliberately trying to relegate the club and I don't agree with that. I think that's too conspiracy theory or supervillain to make sense in the real world. If they actually wanted to do that, to set us up to fail, it would be really easy and wouldn't have taken so many years. I think it's more likely that they either don't really care about league position, or have no idea how to run a club in a way which prioritises league position, or realistically somewhere in the middle of the two. Everything is done on the cheap and often in ways which seem amateurish, knee-jerk and for want of a better word 'tinpot'.

I'm the same, had a season ticket every single season since 1998, including covid (I know many others have been going since 60s and 70s, but I'm only 34). I also go to quite a few away games. I now feel like I'm turning up out of some strange sense of loyalty and duty. I always take the view that it's my (our) club and not theirs, and that somehow we can see them off and start enjoying following the club again. Apart from the league one season, it's not really been enjoyable to follow the club for the last 14 years. There have been odd matches which I've really enjoyed, but it's maybe only a couple of times a season, but I just feel flat about the whole thing. If I tried to explain all this to someone who doesn't also follow football, they'd think I was bonkers to carry on bothering. The club isn't necessarily deliberately set up to fail, but it's not set up to succeed or make any progress, it's set up to be as low cost, cheap and cheerful as possible, which inevitably will lead to failure eventually. We aim for mediocre every year, so in years where we fall short of that (this season), we're in trouble.