I’m not expecting anything more from BB than a basic level of competence and some decent touches and passes.

No it’s a mess, the lad’s confidence is at rock bottom and he’s considerably weakening the side every time he comes on. This kind of spell could seriously derail his career. It’s awful to witness and even you can’t put a spin on it.

Not like that around us. Palmer got a load of ‘lazy’, ‘show pony’ ‘send him back to Chelsea’ etc etc. BB it was more worried looks saying ‘we’ve made a rick here’ and groans on his many, many poor touches. Personally think he could’ve received much worse at Ewood so far, considering.

Indeed. What a mess.

Yes it makes a difference to how bad a signing this is looking. Like Kevin Davies before him. Chris Brown was shite, but he was free, a squad man and you can kind of look back and laugh. Davies was brought in to be the talisman and was a disaster for the club. But it doesn’t change the fact a 19 year old isn’t anywhere near good enough for the side and needs to be away from the first team squad for the foreseeable.

Seen a few posts worrying about the other end of the table. Only positive is the teams down there aren’t winning many either and 11 points is still a decent buffer. Been a real poor run since QPR that means we are even thinking it...

Mark Atkins on Radio Lancs was cutting - ‘out of his depth, making basic errors that tells me he isn’t ready for this level’ The way I look at it is this. If he was our own 19 year old academy lad, what would we be saying? ‘Raw, not ready, needs more time with U23s or a loan out’. So, just because he’s got a price tag shouldn’t make a difference- currently he is nowhere near ready for the first team and needs taking out the firing line immediately for the good of the team and the lad himself, because today was painful for all concerned.

Slightly bigger than usual, as expected.

Of course it will be ‘a flop’. Its £21 in the Riverside for every Cat B game (which this game has now reverted to). In essence you can pay your standard admission but in a nicer stand like like the Jack Walker, which is nice for the regular attendee, but it won’t pull in many more.

£15... on Boxing Day! Well there you go. Big crowd, big away following, big atmosphere. The marketing is the product itself and some of the floating fans getting a taste of that will be back for more. Whereas, in Waggott world...

It won’t be an exact science, but various chairmen have gone on record to say it’s what they request.

They do. But there are just a hell of a lot of southern clubs in League 2.

I’d say the 400 was more common, but relegation has really reinvigorated a long dormant away support . We’d have never have taken 2,000 to West Brom or Stoke in the later PL days, plus we generally have close to a 1,000 at every weekend game - again no chance in those days.

As an example Birmingham at home to Stoke on Boxing Day. The club could easily rip off their own fans and a potential big away following - nope, £20 everywhere and they are expecting a sell out.

It is their prerogative, my point being you are more likely to offer it as the home club if you are sold out. Looking at that list, Norwich is sold out and Birmingham is about to as well.

Probably because he thought WBA would bring a decent amount. However, they aren’t renowned for Villa or even a Sheff Wed level of away support, so it will be a pretty pitiful bank holiday crowd.

Any game that is Category A is only set at that level because the club thinks the away team will bring 2,000+ fans to nab £27 off. Ergo West Brom being that price. Nothing to do with it being an ‘attractive’ fiixture etc. Only thing is, WBA haven’t sold many so far and considering Rovers won’t either at that price it is just a missed opportunity all round to attract some floating fans for a traditional fixture on New Year’s Day - not that the present execs care less about that.

Ahem... Touché

Exactly. Any club that cannot get close to filling the ground, agreeing, in essence, to have not far off half their games shown on Sky is just utter madness and so short sighted.

Oh I know, my point being West Brom will be next, even though our ground will be half empty...

They will, I imagine they’ll pull away in the new year.

Didn’t Short write off the debt as well? Absolute no brainier for a takeover. Two years of parachute payments left, 30,000 gates and no debt. They are another club that will end up in a better place after a year in League 1.

Indeed. As an example, we’ve just seen with Leeds that it is now up to the home club if they allow red button/i follow coverage on a bank holiday. Now if the club’s priority was bums on seats to improve the atmosphere and help the club long term in rebuilding the fanbase, there would be no chance they’d agree to such a thing for NYD with so many empty seats to fill (and it wouldn’t be £30 to start with). But as it is all about revenue, I’m expecting an announcement soon...

Had 5 live on. Paul Hurst was being interviewed saying he was disappointed by the standard of the Championship. How bad must his lot have been then!

Red button too by the looks of it. So much for Boxing Day being exempt. Looks as if the home club can allow it at their discretion (I.e ticket sales going well).