Venkys are a terminal illness that's not going away and there's no escaping whats inevitable so might as well buckle up and try to enjoy the football. An appalling state of affairs but I'm with you, let's win this and worry later.

Cometh the hour cometh the man 😉 I bet you won't be able to help yourself just like the rest of us poor saps.

Agree with everybody else. Detaching myself from the madness I've been awake all night trying to think it through. I put myself in the shoes of everyone at the club, could I do anything better: Waggott/Suhail/Gestede - hapless yet well meaning incompetents. Besides their lack of skills they have no levers to pull. Their hands are tied by the instructions from Pune. They could improve by being honest and communicative but that won't actually change anything just make us more informed. The players - sorry they are just not at the required level. Nice guys, good pals in the changing room everyone gets along and is having a good happy clappy time. Bottom line is we need new players. VI - A silk purse / pigs ear problem. He took on a well placed but going backwards team, the rot had well and truly set in before he took over. Is he competent, is he the right guy, I've no clue but he is an experienced manager and a good ex player so at worst should be meh. Unarguably there's a ton of constant injuries to key players, how do you stop the rot when the club won't buy players but wants to promote kids. He's not doing well and is looking really bad but no one coaches to go goals down in the first few minutes of a game, that's on the players (or lack thereof). Venkys - I can stop right here can't I. Unfathomable ownership. They couldn't do more wrong if they were actually trying. Every decision they take is wrong. We don't even understand why they want to be in charge. Footballs worst owners bar none. Their exit is the only chance the club has. They're just hopeless. The fans - How do we feel about ourselves. Are we better fans by staying away bankrupting the club, admin, start again or by staying away do we still qualify as fans and have a right to an opinion. I love Rovers always have always will yet even I don't know who I am any more and which camp I sit in. Such is the Pune effect reaching into all our lives. What happened to the fun of the weekend, a few pints with your mates, banter before the game, the game, the working mens club after, few more bevvies, a good argument about the match, fish and chips, home, get ready for work on Monday. Seems so long ago.

No words. Goodnight.

Will the players applaud the crowd as usual after the game.

Not quite comfortably numb yet but working on it, what else is there.

Tried that, doesn't work.

Win the battle lose the war. Started the night on G&Ts but now I'm hitting the cask strength Scotch, still not helping.

I want to give whoever threw that snowball a smack. Venkys really really hate us. Is there any explanation that makes sense.

Unfair mate. Apathy - lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern. Really?! Read my posting history. I believe in defining the hell out of the object, defing the success criteria, listing the options evaluating each and deciding on the way to go. The object is Venkys out, do you really believe protests of any kind will make a hapeth of difference. It won't. Like a mate of mine used to say about his job, working in this place is like peeing in your pants, gives you a nice warm feeling inside but no one ever notices. There are better ways than protest. Stop attending may work.

Hey I'm not criticising, each to their own, if you think it will make a difference then go for it. For me when I watched that interview I was just struck by a) how lost they all looked and b) how they had no idea how to move forward. I'm reminded of that Churchill comment about nice guys which I'm paraphrasing as: They're modest men with much to be modest about! They are labouring under a system of delegated budget limits. Put the two things together and what do expect to get. Exactly what we've got. Chasing them down is just flogging a dead horse mate. Venkys leaving is the only thing that will make any difference at all, and that's not happening.

To what end? They ain't going nowhere and they already know how we feel about them. John Williams, Bob Coar and St Jude would struggle under this ownership. Flogging a dead horse perhaps, have an extra pint at the game instead.

Watched the interview, there's just so much you could write about it but a message board isn't the place to write essays so I'll try to precis what I think but I know it's going to be a dissertation, apologies: - As strangers and away from football I'd happily have a drink and a game of arrows with all of them, they 'seem' decent guys. - Witnessing their work over the years the kindest word I can find though is naive, a stronger one is incompetent. - The admin cock-ups of the last few seasons is unforgivable and as owner I'd fire Waggott/Suhail Shaikh, although I shouldn't have to as they should have walked by now. - That's easy for me to say though because they have to earn a wage, feed and shelter their families and with their track record other opportunities would be few and far between. - How would a competent board deal with Venkys ownership, it's an impossible task, no one could succeed, it's a hiding to nothing, another reason to walk. - Venkys run things as a star/hub business model, each business has a Venky family appointee with delegated authority to do what it takes to 'twine the handle', manage to pre-assigned budgets and they take update reports periodically to consider the various additional funding requests. - Venkys have zero understanding of football, they treat it like any other business in the group. IT IS NOT A BUSINESS VENKYS, ITS A FOOTBALL CLUB! - Anyone who thinks success comes from running a development model and 'renting/leasing' players is deluded and shouldn't be anywhere near a football club and certainly not OURS (yes it's ours not yours). - What I want from an owner is honest dealings, transparency, share our passion for the club, respect it's history and strive for the highest level. Excite us and give us a reason to buy a season ticket - Venkys don't and never will understand this and for this reason the Waggott/Suhail/Gestede axis will never get beyond painting happy time pictures and future promises of excitement that can never arrive. The only fix is for Venkys to sell. Nothing else works, nothing else matters. As passionate as I am about the club even I couldn't run it properly with those people in charge.

Watched England v Latvia and was struck by how even a mediocre goaly (Zviedris of Riga?) dominated his box. Similar size and build to Pears but chalk and cheese in ability. This guy actually caught the ball, who'd have thought such a thing was possible. Wild flappy punches and diverting the odd one into your net was obligatory I thought. I know which one I'd prefer in the nets v Portsmouth's big lumps up front. Portsmouth 2-0 after 15 minutes, double yellow for one of ours and another season ending injury for a key player. Can't wait.

I think we're on the same page. I'd just add that whilst Travis, Carter, S. Wharton ARE mainstays of the team they shouldn't be. They try hard, they improve year on year, they're good guys but ultimately at any sensible club they'd be viewed as squad fillers. I think that's the point, when they were prospects it was exciting to dream about the future but now as mature players they really didn't make it big did they. I like good guys who try hard but any dispassionate assessment of how they turned out and should they hold down a place in team, mmm, I think lower level Championship is their level, which is why we are at that level too. We need better and we are not producing better. If we did we'd do what we always do and sell them. The Academy is only good for paying future bills. For guys actually playing for us and getting top 6 we need to buy finished the article. We don't, we buy goods past their BBD and sometimes past their Use Buy Date. Nothing will change as long as Venkys are in charge. It's what they do. It's what they believe. We can't lease our way to promotion neither can we breed our way to promotion. Jack's way is the only way which is why he was a genius who fortunately loved our club. I think we are agreeing n'est pas?

I'm saying what you already know. Every window we desperately write hundreds of pages on this board saying we really, really need good players in positions x, y and z. Consistently we are disappointed because no one of quality turns up. We end up with bargain basement journeymen usually at the end of their career plus the odd Liverpool junior loanee. Of our academy graduates we have only one success and we sold him as soon as we possibly could. Before that you have to go back to Phil Jones. Ash we never got to see so contributed nothing to our team. This leaves the likes of JRC and Buckley to drool over each week. A success? Really?? VI will get only more of this. You know it, I know it, we all know it. Whether VI is good, bad or indifferent is irrelevant because we don't currently have the players worthy of the badge and he won't get any from this shower Venky con-men. Hero managers from the past wouldn't get a tune out of this lot. Managed decline is the order of the day. VI is just here to rearrange the deckchairs on the good ship Venky FC, sister ship to the Titanic. So to answer your question, THAT'S what 'slightly' concerns me.

VI says "Because a lot of players will leave the club at the end of the season. And it's a chance to reset and to take exactly the profile of the player we need." Good, at least someone other than us recognises that we don't have players worthy of the badge. His challenge is extracting the money from Venky FC to buy decent players. Journeymen, loans and academy promotions is all he'll get. We know he doesn't (yet). Welcome to the mad house son. Enjoy.

I'm not looking to defend Ismael in any way but --- Every year we have a cheap, crap low cost January window, clearly the ownership's doing. Every year the January window delivers to us substandard squad filling bodies, clearly the board's doing. Every year we enjoy the January death spiral from play off aspirants to survival desperados. Who the manager is (Mowbray, JDT or Eustace) has had no impact on that, clearly hang that on the one remaining constant, the players. All this "the players need help" stuff just translates to they aren't good enough or they aren't fit enough or both. Who knows if the heavy winter rain sodden turf of Lancashire stresses leg muscle and hamstrings but you have to suspect that the amount of injuries we constantly suffer must be laid at the door of the back room staff. I remember the year we got relegated to league 1 we had a full team of starters on the physio's benches so nothing new there either. So whatever happens in the new year seems to have little to do with who the manager is or what he's up to. For me the players are just not up to it, end of, the owners and board to put it kindly are not up to it the backroom staff seem to have confused creating a friendly homely family style environment for one that produces results. The Fergusons and Cloughs of this world cared little about family atmospheres or friendliness, they just demanded win after win after win and if you weren't up for it they explained it to you with teacups and hairdryers. So for me Ismael is just the next victim sacrifice to the cult of failure that's been developed at Venky FC. He can't be expected to succeed no matter how good he is as long as he's surrounded by so much crap wherever you look. I dislike his appointment but I'll cut him some slack this season, our death spiral was inevitable and as we all know nothing will change until the ownership changes (excepting that we will likely be enjoying new pastures in leagues 1 and 2 before too long. Joy).

As I said earlier, we are now Venkys FC, Blackburn Rovers ceased to exist when Big Sam got fired. A sleeping giant waiting to be awakened once these malevolent leeches final sell up. Speed the day.

Saw that VI said this "Not to be afraid to make mistakes in the right area", Mr Hyam please take note. There are 'right' areas and there's 'wrong' areas. I hope he's banged that message into them before they emerge today at 3:00. Take some risks to get into THEIR box not to get out of OURS. Today's match, who knows, really, who knows. Like many others I feel a loss but can't allow myself to say it out loud. COYB (please).

Beats me how players can have such an attitude. For almost all of them this season was for them a one and only career opportunity to become a Premiership player, a remote possibility I grant you but strange stuff happens in the play offs. How can it be that players can 'cut their noses off to spite their faces' and think, you know what, this guys useless and I can't be arsed to put a performance in today. For me there's only one answer, they're just not capable of performing above a mediocre level and don't have the fitness to get beyond Christmas each year. JDT said as much when he took over, fitness had to improve. It hasn't. As long as we have the Venky handcuffs on and a 'board' (I use that term tongue in cheek) comprised of training scheme go-fers who spend all day looking around for left handed screwdrivers we are dead in the water as a club. As said above, we are now Blackburn Venkys FC, whatever thats supposed to be but whatever it turns out to be it's not a football club anymore.

The formula for beating us is widely known. High energy full on pressing coupled with bulldozing Orks who collapse at the first opportunity looking for set pieces. Why? Because our players think to slowly and you can't coach that away. We don't have the quality of player full stop. Who's that down to (?) Correct! We are no longer Blackburn Rovers, they died long ago when Big Sam got fired and he who shall not be named took over. We are Blackburn Venkys and I'm not supporting them anymore. When they've gone and we've got our Rovers back then I'm there but until then no. Enough has to be enough.

Eustace on Derby County. "I was under no illusions coming in that it would be a difficult job and a tough task. It is about the bigger picture and not the next two months. It's about the next three, four years. That's why I've come to this football club ... great fans, blah, blah, blah ..., it's set for the Premier League, I want to play the part to make sure Derby get back there, however long it takes. It will be a process but a very exciting one. I'm very proud to be the head coach now to get them back where they can be." Now I'm full of sympathy for Eustace's Rovers experience with our board and owners, arses the lot of them but come on John didn't we have 'unbelievable' fans, didn't we belong in the Prem, deja vu? Tomorrow I'm hoping for an away end rendition of the classic Willie Nelson song: Well, hello there My, it's been a long, long time How am I doing? Oh, I guess that I'm doing fine It's been so long now And it seems now that it was only yesterday Gee, ain't it funny how time slips away? How's your new love? I hope that he's doing fine? I heard you told him That you'd love him 'til the end of time Now that's the same thing that you told me It seems like just the other day Gee, ain't it funny how time slips away? I gotta go now I guess I'll see you around I don't know when though Never know when I'll be back in town But remember, what I tell you That in time you're gonna pay It's surprising, how time slips away

Come on Piccaso get them still lifes cranked out, no time to waste on excellence 🤣 Maybe ARTE and Labore? I liked Wagstaff. And yes I have had a very boozy lunch.

Systems Theory says it's the whole. You can't look at the parts in isolation. Our troubles start at the top and seep down. Occasionally the stopped clock gets the time right and we get a sound manager who wins a few games, then doesn't. My finger points in one direction and I know where I'd like to stick it.