Well done Glen. Any mention of protests and ideas for action and one poster on here always comes on and tells us it’s all futile and a complete waste of time. Anything is possible and Venky’s will be ousted. It just needs a concerted effort and a determination to succeed. A pity there aren’t another twenty or thirty supporters like you mate. If that were the case, Venky’s would have been history a decade or so ago.

The take up of the early bird offer will be so poor that, at this moment in time, they would be mad to tell us what the prices will be in the next phase. So poor, in fact, that there may well not be a next phase. The negativity on social media, against both the ownership and season ticket prices, is gathering momentum and if there is an expected drop in sales now, they’ll hardly shift any in proposed next phase. It’s coming home to roost.

Bolton had sold 14k on 21st March, just before their early bird offer finished.

Doh! 😂😂

That was the problem last night Matty. I watched a pre match interview with Tuchel, where he was inferring that the team would play in a more British manner. Long ball if needed, with strength and physique, pace etc. None of them play this way week in, week out. They’re still all programmed in to the horrendous, backwards-sideways-backwards, monotonous Pep-ball. It will take them a while to transition into a different style, if that is what Tuchel indeed wants.

To take that a stage further, we are the only club to have won major domestic trophies (plural) in three different centuries.

Made me laugh that. Never a truer word. From being 15 years old or so, I had a season ticket for the following 40+ years. Venky’s plus a 100 mile round trip, when we moved house, caused me to jack it in. I take in 2 or 3 games a season now and that is enough. It’s astonishingly easy to get out of the habit of going. I never thought it would happen to me but it has. If Venky’s were to sell, I still probably wouldn’t buy one but I would come to several more games each season. 4k adult season ticket holders this season tells its own story and next season this will probably fall to 3.75 to 3.8k. Abysmal. Venky’s couldn’t give a f*ck either way but Waggott and Suhail must think the fans are f*cking idiots. They certainly treat us like we are. I think Waggott senses there will be supporter unrest gathering momentum and he’ll be wanting away before too long. That massive hike (and I mean massive) in his annual pension contributions from the club has convinced me of that.

The tide is slowly turning. I read the Rovers Facebook post regarding season tickets for next season. Previously, in the comments, there would have been a 70/30 split in favour of the ‘happy clappers’ shouting down the Venky’s Out brigade but now it’s the other way round. I don’t think it will be too long before there are several banners on show at games and the start of protests as momentum gathers pace. I never thought I would be able to type that.

Haha, yes, I shouldn’t have bothered with AI. I’ve just come on to suggest ‘knowledgeable’ but you’ve beaten me to it. We Are Not Knowledgeable.

Just thought of a collective term for the executive team/directors down at Ewood. Thinking about the forthcoming season ticket prices and the fact that they definitely won’t be as cheap as those at Preston and Bolton, I was looking for a word meaning clever, beginning with the letter ‘k.’ AI came up with keen. Was hoping for a better one but it will suffice. Obviously, they will now be known officially as the Wankers.

The main purpose of my original post was to highlight the appetite in the US to purchase football clubs outside of that country due to the high numbers of billionaires there in relation to the minimal amount of clubs - and other sporting institutions- available. They are looking to buy abroad and this dispels the myth that ‘nobody would buy us.’

I watched a very interesting podcast on YouTube a few weeks ago regarding the increasing number of football clubs, in the UK and beyond, being taken over by investors from the United States. You’ll have to forgive the Celtic slant on this as, in the main, it’s a discussion between Tino of The Celtic Exchange and his guest David Low and their thoughts on the possible takeover at Rangers by the San Francisco 49ers. The discussion has a much wider relevance, however, because David Low outlines some of the reasons for these takeovers and just what happens once the investors take control. David Low for many years has worked in the finance industry. In the early 1990s he was an investment analyst and was instrumental in being a member of the ‘rebels’ who ousted the old board at Celtic, paving the way for Fergus McCann to takeover and drag Celtic kicking and screaming into the late 20th century. In the podcast, he outlines the fact that there are numerous billionaires in the US who are looking to invest in sporting institutions, whether they be football clubs, baseball clubs, ice hockey, American football and so on. Far more billionaires than available clubs over there and that’s why they have been turning their attention to the UK and elsewhere. If the takeover at Rangers were to go ahead, he thinks it will follow what he calls the ‘little cheque, big cheque’ method. This is where the investors purchase the football club with a little cheque. They don’t invest much in the team but they do improve the stadium facilities, the corporate structure etc and use their expertise to streamline the club and get it in a much better financial shape. Having done all this and made the club more attractive, they then sit back and wait for another bid for the club further down the line. They then sell and receive their big cheque. This is what is currently happening at Leeds, where the SF49ers have also recently taken control. A bit different at Leeds (as opposed to in Scotland) as the riches of the English Premier League await if, as expected, Leeds get promoted either this season or in the very near future. The 49ers may choose to sell, once Leeds get to the promised land and, therefore, get their big cheque or indeed stay in control if they feel they can milk the club further. Not all takeovers follow the little cheque, big cheque method. They’re all different and some investors are in it for the long haul, although others will always sell after ploughing in considerable millions if the price is right. There was talk, a while back on here, of two approaches made to BRFC by supposed interested parties (unaware if they were from the US) but they probably never got past the phone call stage, as Venky’s refused to take matters forward. The relevance of all this, to us, is that it dispels the myth that there would be no one waiting in the wings to take us over. The myth that 98% of our support trot out if ever the discussion arises. We are an attractive proposition. Other than a thorough cleansing, we have a decent sized, attractive, relatively modern stadium, a Category One status academy and a part dormant support that would return both if we again got to the PL and/or Venky’s got shunted into oblivion. How nice would it be to also shunt Waggott, Suhail & Co into oblivion, to be replaced with a competent, forward thinking board and start to grow the club again. No wonder the above approaches never got past the telephone stage. I’m not too good at doing links but the podcast mentioned above is on YouTube, the account on that platform is The Celtic Exchange and, if you scroll down/across, it’s about the 8th one down with ‘Transatlantic Takeovers’ in the title.

Fuck the game mate. Let’s just have a big party in Stoke town centre.

The figures from the accounts are for the executive directors. These are listed on the club’s website as Waggott, Gandhi Babu and M Sreenivasa Rao. Suhail Shaikh is a ‘mere’ Chief Operating Officer.

There’s a more than hefty jump in Waggott’s pension contributions, year on year, £12k to £159k. Wonder if the latter figure includes some form of terminal bonuses and he’s now reasonably close to retiring?