The bit in bold 🤣🤣🤣 You're absolutely spot on, we've been without a morsel of well-formed dialogue for 12 years!! Have you considered that some well-formed dialogue from the club might assist in getting a positive response from the fanbase, rather than the other way round? How can you expect fans to engage in well formed dialogue via the available communication lines of twitter, unread email inboxes, a once in a blue moon evening with Waggot and comments on the LET webpage. Get real.

Hmmm, was it a meltdown? I stand by what I said. The Rao's bought one of the best run clubs in English football... 12 years later fans are getting giddy about the prospect of their son, with absolutely no experience in football, coming in at boardroom level. Your comment on Waggott only really reinforces my point. Adopting an 'anything but him' approach. Forget appointing a proven, experienced candidate, yon lad can't do any worse, give him a try. I mean, have we all just forgotten what a proper football club looks like? ** As for comparisons with the John Williams model. Williams was appointed by Jack Walker - the man who transformed BRFC, took us to the very top of the football pyramid and had the very best interest of the club and the town at heart. No doubt he made mistakes during his ownership, but he quickly rectified them and you could never, ever question his motives. The Rao's on the other hand.... **EDIT - Apologies, misread the Waggot paragraph, realised you aren't recommending him for that role, more mocking how hopeless Waggot is. Still I maintain, what kind of company position is a 'snidey go between' to spy on the CEO THEY employed 🤣 it's fucking bananas and once again reinforces my point that our expectations have been eroded away to the point of complete despair!

I know, I did spot that and couldn't be bothered to change.

You may be right Phili, but can you believe it's come to this? They're so petrified of being rinsed again that the only people they choose to trust are their driver, or their son. Neither of whom have ANY experience or expertees in the world of professional football. Pathetic.

What about this one: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6459615/Britains-YOUNGEST-football-boss-19-inherited-1M-West-Ham-Womens-team-billionaire-dad.html

An extraordinary marker of how just how far we have fallen as a club, but also how it can, over time dumb down the expectations of the fanbase. To think John Williams was chairman 11 years ago. Now we've got genuine positivity about the owners son, fresh out of a top uni, taking a senior role on the board.

What about a sporting director?

Stuart Pearce just left West Ham..... He must have something lined up.

You must have a new source then? I can think of at least 65 reasons to doubt ANY of your previous ones. I do tend to remember the occasions when you're completely wrong.... I won't start reeling them off. But can you point to any occasion in the last 10 years where one of your ITK titbits has come to fruition?

I highly doubt that this is the main or only reason for not having already made an appointment, but isn't there a likelihood that someone like Farke might hang on to see who is relegated before committing to a job like Rovers? He may already have been told not to take another job quite yet... Sometimes it's easy to think the only barriers to an appointment are created by the owners or their merry men. Might not necessarily be the case.

Pearce's managerial record leaves a hell of a lot to be desired BUT, he is a huge advocate for developing the younger generation - he peddled the importance of the younger England teams for many years.... failing miserably with them at many a major tournament I may add. If the V's are looking at this idea of utilising and developing the academy, Pearce may be someone you would look at for a role upstairs. I always think he speaks well when I hear or see him on the media, seems to be an intelligent guy.

Better than Mowbray.... who spent less than £20m in five seasons and (about £0.00 net) and is still criticised for not reaching the playoffs. I am always uncomfortable with this thought. If the coach in this DoF scenario isn't heavily involved in the identification of transfer targets in my opinion it's a recipe for disaster. Your explanation above seems to be that a player just turns up with his boots one day and Carvalhal asks what position he plays. The detachment of any blame (or indeed praise) for transfers to and from the club is a get out of jail card in my opinion. Anyway, I was quietly impressed when we was mentioned the other day (like you, I remember his Sheff Wed stint and it seemed impressive) - just noting some caution given the reasons above. I had no idea of his recent success in Portugal, so that's a positive.

Seemingly he didn't succeed with an expensively assembled Sheff Wed side, not just transfer fees but also on wages - Barry Bannan for example, Aidan McGeady, Callum McMannaman. Whether his signings or not, he was there to get them promoted and failed. @supernikohas made a good case for his recent record, so not all lost - I was just surprised to see you put him as your preferred choice alongside Farke.

Why Carvahal, may I ask... what's he done in his managerial career? Spent £37m in 3 seasons at Sheff Wed with £1.22m of outgoings in that entire time. £10m of that was on Rhodes who would have been MASSIVE wages as well. £5.3m on Adam Reach who's hardly done anything since... Gary Hooper and a few random players from Portugal. No wonder they're in a mess financially. 20 jobs in 24 years as a manger... what case can you really make for him? Genuinely interested to know if I've missed something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Clement_(football_manager)

I did in certain games during the Kean era - particularly when it felt like the pressure was mounting. I was sat there considering whether a win would adversely affect us, medium/long term. I was right - we were relegated, and at no point in that season did we look like surviving. A scarce win here and there wasn't going to mean anything. On reflection, was Kean's position even remotely results driven? Probably not, so there's an argument I was wrong to think like that.... Those that want us to lose tonight would do well to ponder the fact that it's likely the same situation with TM. Those making the decision probably couldn't care less what happens tonight.

I think plenty of people had this feeling around the Kean era. The odd win wasn't going to do anything more than solidify his position. Celebrating a goal/win was always accompanied and 'punctured' by the gut-wrenching feeling that it wouldn't change the course of our season, but it would strengthen Kean's position, even though it was crystal clear he would take us down. I used to argue quite a lot with people who'd sit there with their hands in their lap saying 'support the team', not realising that all they were supporting was a side more or less guaranteed to go down and a club with a very grim future. Personally, I wasn't able separate the immediate matters on the pitch from the achingly obvious (and likely illegal) destruction of the club... it felt hollow to be cheering on an almost trivial matter such as a goal, when clearly our beloved club was being taken to the cleaners. I'm not comparing the two scenarios, I felt far more strongly about Kean than I do Mowbray. We're now 6 points from the playoff places with 3 games to go BUT it is still mathematically possible, therefore we all should in theory be hoping for a win. Defeat tonight would kill off even the faintest hope - I think a lot of fans would then go in to the final two games hoping we get beat, in the hope that it would offer no opportunity for positive spin.

“Why should the manager go to the club and ask about his future? It’s not my job to go and say ‘are you giving me a contract?’ That's an absolutely ridiculous comment. Of course it's his job to seek clarification on his future. We're 3 games away from the end of the season. How could any self-respecting manager NOT seek assurances from the owners. How can he plan potential transfers, plan pre-season schedules and any tours? Any half decent manager would be insisting on a meeting with Waggott, Pasha or whoever the fuck else is involved, with an ultimatum of "I need a clear answer by 'X' date or I'm walking now." A shrug of the shoulders, 'not my problem' is precisely the issue at the club. Imagine an Alex Ferguson, an Antonio Conte... a Sean Dyche even, taking such a half-arsed approach. Unacceptable.

For four months, not forever - he can demand whatever wages he wants and ask for a considerable signing on fee in June. And sorry if my memory is playing tricks on me, but wasn't it common knowledge on the final day of the transfer window that Bournemouth pulled out of the deal with Rothwell already on his way down there? The story I recall is that they plumped for Keiffer Moore instead? Has it since become common knowledge that our illustrious owners did indeed veto the deal? Is there any evidence for it? His Dad sounds like a bit of a clown to be honest. I bet he wasn't bad mouthing Rovers when we signed him and paid him a stack more than Oxford would have been doing - if Rovers did reject a deal for him then they were completely within their rights and shouldn't make any apologies for doing so.

Yeh I don't really go along with this idea that Rothwell has been a complete nonentity since February. He's the only midfielder we have that will actually go and get the ball off the defence. Travis is a workhorse and a breaker up of play, but he hasn't got a creative bone in his body. He might be inconsistent, and like all of our players he hasn't been able to maintain his strong form of the first half of the season, but I don't feel like he's been missing in action. As I say, he's the only one who consistently shows for the ball, travels with the ball and tries to make things happen. We were much improved once he came on and actually offered a bit of ball retention vs Stoke. Oh, and we'll be worse off without him next season because he'll be bloody difficult to replace.

With respect, The season ends in 3 games We are on the precipice of completely blowing a great chance of promotion having been second (and 10 points clear of 7th place).... 86 days ago The manager's contract runs out in about a month and we have no idea whether he's staying or going. We have at least 7 first team players leaving due to the end of a loan or contracts ending We're absolutely dead last in the form table We have no idea WHO would actually be responsible for the selection of a potential new manager Perhaps you'll excuse one or two for not entirely noticing or caring about the other aspects of 'football operation at Ewood'. The above are what people want to see and understand. Tangible results, real action, a clear and concise plan communicated properly to the stakeholders of BRFC. When all said and done, the reason we all sit in Ewood is to of course watch the football, but also to feel part of BRFC... feel of some value to the club - it's 12 years since any of us have had a fucking clue what is going on or felt like we matter one jot! I am reliably informed the Biryani is delicious, mind you.

Top class chairman would be my priority. Decent chance a good manager would then follow. Venky's biggest mistake in their entire ownership was belittling, ignoring and needlessly driving away John Williams, Tom Finn et al. Trusting Anderson was a disaster and something they've never ever recovered from. Agnew, Shaw, Cheston, Waggott.... Whoever else, they've all been hopeless yes men. IMO they're still nursing their burnt fingers and bruised ego's and have been terrified ever since to trust anyone. Bloody Mowbray got Waggott the job which is a disgrace in itself!

Haha, trick is to set your alarm early and enjoy an hour before she ruins your day! I’m about to weed and feed the lawn. Do take in to account though, that this is now… 14 years ago? The cost of football is more or less incomparable. Perhaps there is some ratio or formula would allow a comparison… rather like currency or monetary value over the years. Even so, if you’re outspending the majority of your rivals by double or triple, you should really be expecting to win the league. He did that, great, but let’s have the full picture if possible.

I haven’t analysed the League One spends in 2018 or whenever it was, but there’s good reason to believe that his two markedly successful campaigns as a manager have correlated with him having probably the highest budget and likely strongest squads in the league. Neither were a shock or an underdog story, so to speak. There is of course the argument that you still have to get it done. Souness would have had an enormous budget in Div 1, perhaps more than Fulham at the time, I genuinely have no idea. Although I seem to think they splashed big on Saha who was ridiculous in that league. Malbranque and Boa Morte too maybe?

This comment did prompt me to do a bit of research. Here are the final Championship league positions that season with the basic, outgoing transfer spend on playing staff. Source is TransferMarkt. Rather than plod through all 24 clubs Ive tried to take a cross section of those clubs who may have been higher spenders, I.e. former PL or larger city clubs. 1st - WBA - £20m 2nd - Stoke - £6.25m 3rd - Hull - £2.81m 4th - Bristol City - £3.78m 5th - Palace - £1.49m 6th - Watford - £9.38m 7th - Wolves - £6.75m 9th - Sheff United - £8.91 11th - Charlton - £12.18m 12th - Cardiff - £0.00 14th - QPR - £8.93m 17th - Norwich - £2.03m 20th - Saints - £2.81m 22nd - Leicester - £7.79m So, considering in the previous 3 seasons they had also spent a combined £30m with a net spend of £18m or so, it’s actually quite logical to think they may have had quite an expensive bench, certainly by Championship standards. WBA were big spenders and whilst TM clearly succeeded, it would have been a minimum expectation to get promoted I would imagine. He outspent all other clubs by close to double! This doesn’t take in to account net spend that season. They sold £29m of players in the summer, including a combined £15m on Diomansy Kamara and Jason Koumas, £5m on Nathan Ellington, £4m on Kusczack to United etc etc. But, on balance, £20m spend in the Champ at that time (on top of an expensively assembled squad from previous years) was quite a war chest! The following season they spent a further £22m but went down dead last with 32 points. So all in all, 3 seasons, £45m spent, one promotion and one relegation. Purely for our own nostalgia, in the 07/08 summer window Rovers spent £5.58m, most of which was on Santa Cruz. We finished 7th in the Prem. What a team that was!