If this is taken from the career statistics on his Wikipedia page (which does show him as only having 17 Championship appearances), it also says above the table of statistics “As of match played 10 January 2021”. I guess his agent hasn’t updated his Wikipedia stats in a year and a half - that’s all - hence the different appearance figures being touted on here.

Far-fetched and illogical? They bought a football club not even knowing that the league the club were in had relegation from it! They are a ridiculous bunch of quarrelling siblings and the club has been a victim of their dysfunctionality for over a decade. There are lots of examples of them behaving in contradictory ways - not sacking Mowbray, yet not throwing money at him, is a relatively logical action compared to, for example, not sacking Kean yet at the same time employing Shebby Singh to undermine him. Contradictory behaviour is a significant and consistent feature of their tenureship. I am shocked that anyone could be surprised by it after all these years. I hope, btw, that making good appointments with Broughton and JDT, yet then not sanctioning any signings so that they eventually piss off and leave - Lambert style - is not going to be another example of their long list of what you describe as far-fetched and illogical behaviour.

Which is closer to any Premier League action than Hedges is going to get.

Does anybody have a clue how much tickets for either match will be please?

It’s true Ryan, we love you, please come home. You’re my twelve year olds favourite player.

Absolutely- I’d rather the entire budget was spent on two top quality, permanent, young additions in those two positions, as oppose to four cheap journeymen and five PL loans.

I do feel there has been a tendency on this board, for many years, towards statements like ‘we need half a team to be signed or we’re getting relegated’ or ‘seven new additions needed urgently or we’re doomed’. That kind of attitude (not necessarily from posters on here) holds back the development of youth players. I am glad that Broughton recognises that. Many thought we we’re doomed last year at the start of the season, having to rely on kids like Wharton, Dolan, Buckley, Pickering and BBD. We touched second place with those guys, and if it wasn’t for Mr Gloom boring everyone to death from the dugout, we would have definitely made the playoffs with that team. We need a centre back for sure, if Diaz goes we need a forward too. We don’t, however, need to start panicking. We do need to start believing in our academy products. It’s the only way forward. We also need to cut back on the huge number of loans that persistently hold back our own kids. Yeh, Elliot was good, but now Dolan has essentially a season less experience because of him. JPVH was brilliant, but was pointless without promotion*. Tosin was class, but we could have been advancing Wharton’s progress and value instead. We don’t need a ton of signings - we need a few. What we need is a ton of is faith in our own academy. *That said JPVH would be the best loan signing of all time if Broughton and JDT could pull a rabbit out of a hat and sign him permanently. If you’re reading guys - that is the centre back we need. Whatever he costs he is guaranteed to turn in a profit for the club. Not cheap but a sure-fire safe and profitable investment. Please sign him, please.

I would like a poll - perhaps for any visiting Burnley fans, as well as ourselves. Question - Who would you rather have as Rovers manager? Option A - Vincent Kompany Option B - JDT I know where my vote is.

Apologies for the pedantry, but your dating is wrong. About 500bc many Greek mathematicians would, I believe, have been postulating and trying to prove the Earth was round. A mad theory it was not at that time.

They are not organised enough for window dressing. Window dressing would also imply they gave a shit what people think of them - they don’t. There’s no secret plan, no secret strategy, no hidden nefarious intent, they really are just useless. Just completely and utterly useless. They inherited some chicken farms, a lot of land and a hell of a lot of money. That doesn’t make them business people. They’ve owned a football club for over ten years. It doesn’t mean they’ve learned anything, absolutely anything, about running a football club. We’ve seen them interviewed - yes they really are completely stupid, totally dysfunctional, quarrelling siblings. Proper, bona fida, thick as two short planks, super dumb, very, very rich and over-privileged idiots. That is all there is to see here - incompetence, disinterest and idiocy, However, we still have one hope with the managerial appointment - luck!

Another classic piece of tea leaf reading from the charlatan fortune teller formerly of this parish. You have to love it. Nixon predicts the future manager might be a surprise, but then again it might not. Ohhhh! Cryptic! edit - spelling

If we were to go up, buying VH would be my number one priority. Even if we didn’t go up I would be advising Barry Rao to make a personal investment on the player. Short of injury, his stock can only rise. Combined with Lenihan and Wharton they’re a potential championship winning defence. I can only dream.

Van Hecke is the first name on that list for me too. I hope that next season, assuming he goes, we don't see a return to the perennial leaky defence we're used to for many years. I think VH is immense. I think he makes a huge difference to our team and will only get better and better. He makes the odd mistake - young centre backs do - but once he has a few years of experience under his belt I think he will be a superb player.

Feels good. Two goals. What a rush!

Would require owners who follow results.

Are you being serious? He played a defensive midfielder upfront, and choose to not even put the youth team striker on the bench - when we’ve scored two in ten and our only fully fit first team centre forward is beyond atrocious. Really? This is Gallagher at right back ridiculousness. The only thing dafter is that earlier in the season I thought Mowbray had changed, that he’d started making an ounce of sense. Wow!

I think Derby can smell blood here.

I don’t normally type whilst watching the match. I like to watch. However, can’t take it anymore. This is torture. Glad to see Gallagher dropped - but Johnson up front?!??!?£?!??!? Who would have thought it - he’s shit up there. Gosh! Sorry for not reading earlier posts, but guessing Vale must be injured?

I started a Sky subscription just after Christmas, so I could watch all the Rovers matches that were scheduled. I can’t help but feel it’s somehow my fault. Christ we need Dack back ASAP. Playing upfront. Just someone who can bloody score. I’ve had enough of watching Gallagher to last a lifetime tbh. Totally sick of him.

Too soon to clear off the debt of the past ten years and to come back down with parachute payments to enable us to compete with the bigger spending clubs in the championship? I don’t think so. Our financial situation is getting more perilous every season. Is it too soon to keep the wolves away from the door for another ten years? Of course not.

For me the balance is no problem - IF Rovers win. If we get three points I’m happy, charming, loveable, fun to be around and generally a pretty good husband and Dad. Thus, the Mrs doesn’t mind me watching the football under those circumstances. However, loses lately see me irritable, short tempered, intensely annoyed at everyone who tries to speak to me and feeling like I’m an angry and desolate teenager, reliving those three heartbreaking play off loses of the late 1980s. It’s the hope that kills you! I’d adjusted to being shit for like the past ten years, but now I’m dreaming of Wembley in May and watching Rovers on MOTD again. It’s not conducive to harmonious family life tbh. For God sake Rovers (if any of the team are reading) - either be shit or be good - one or the other - give us time to adjust. You can’t be really shit, then absolutely amazing, then really shit again - it’s killing me and making me not the well rounded individual I was hoping I’d matured into. Thank you.

Very good post indeed - and your first two paragraphs in particular are spot on. The mistakes of the past decade have created an ultimately unsustainable level of debt. Unsustainable, that is, unless we spend at least the odd season every ten years or so in the oligarchs playground. One season in there wipes the debt and then gives us parachute payments to start to rebuild as a genuine top championship/yo-yo club. Any thoughts of going up and recreating Souness’s or Dalgish’s years are fanciful. We don’t have the worst manager in the world, but a football genius miracle worker he most definitely ain’t.

Listening to the crowd on Rovers Audio - before the commentary starts. Cleaning my fish tanks and I can hear the Rovers fans all the way from Kenilworth Rd to Inverness. Superb Rovers fans. Making me feel more confident.

I have thought this for some time. Mowbray might be better as DofF rather than first team coach. His acquisitions have been more positive than negative - no manager’s purchasing record is perfect. He has overseen/been in charge whilst there have been significant improvements in scouting and production of players from the youth team. He is not the worst ‘manager’ in the world. However, please can somebody else be given responsibility for selecting and setting up the team on match day. Why, after finally coming across a winning formula, did we abandon it last night and drop Buckley in to replace Travis - when we pay a wage to Johnson and Davenport to provide back up in Travis’s position? He’s not terrible, but please can somebody at the club, do the tactics for him. It’s such a debilitating weakness for him.

Hmmmm. I think they have lots of knowledge of the crooked underworld of football and it’s agents. Maybe they lack a bit of understanding, but knowledge, no I’d say they have lots of ‘knowledge’ of each other. Almost in the biblical sense of the word. What they have no knowledge of is actual football - the importance of defence, setting a team up right, how to choose and deal with managers, not pissing off the fan base, the importance of winning, what happens to teams that don’t win, how the English league system works, what a league table looks like, how to get to Ewood. I could go on. I am not convinced they have any knowledge of business either. I don’t buy into the commonly heard fallacy that because you’re rich you must have at least some brains. These guys prove how ridiculous the modern capitalist world is - stinking rich, yet utterly incompetent, dumb as fuck and totally bent. It isn’t a conspiracy btw - they genuinely are as stupid as they seem. So no knowledge of anything useful at all actually, except, of course, crooked underworld agents and shysters who have their ears.