I was aware of a smell of something not right in South Ribble but this is now a full on stench. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-lancashire-48393541

https://www.ft.com/content/6e42c740-7f1e-11e9-b592-5fe435b57a3b?emailId=5ce9996c2b88b00004c4b06d&segmentId=ce31c7f5-c2de-09db-abdc-f2fd624da608

The FT are reporting that Qatar are in negotiations to buy Leeds United.

If we are not after players who are attracting that level of clubs, I am not interested. Will probably mean frustrated chases missing targets but over to Mowbray to sell Rovers and our ambition level.

You have to remember: 1) Man U still labouring under Glazer ownership costing them gazillions 2) Man U have the highest wage bill and in a post-Champions League era need to get the wage bill down 3) Man U not confident of signing targets with OGS as Manager and no Champions League football to offer I stressed Dack is on their radar, I didn't say expect an offer tomorrow. In terms of quality of my source, the Man U one is much closer to the action than the Everton one.

Liverpool recruitment system: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/magazine/soccer-data-liverpool.html?te=1&nl=morning-briefing&emc=edit_MBE_p_20190524&section=longRead

Smallwood in current negotiations to move to Doncaster Evidence of us hawking Dack to Championship clubs? I haven't seen any but I have posted about Man U and Everton interest.

I was a little obtuse before but from a contact at Man U, Dack is on their radar and I hear Everton (who are at risk of losing Richarlison to Atletico Madrid, Digne and Gomes to Spurs and Zouma going back to Chelsea) are seriously looking at Dack.

I read the Lancashire Telegraph and watch Mowbray interviews and then I read the comments on here and think I'm living in a parallel universe. For what is worth it is my take: Conway did not reach the levels which would have triggered an automatic renewal of his existing contract. Rovers have clearly offered inferior terms for the one-year extension. ditto Rodwell has not been offered the type of contract he had been hoping for As I have pointed out before, we have an unusually young squad and that is before some of the stars of the under 23s and I believe the even better development squad of under-17s have broken through. So it is very sensible to have players of the experience of Conway and Rodwell as backup but backups which are not costing a fortune. It is clear from Mowbray's comments that he is beginning to lose patience with both Conway and Rodwell and needs them to make a decision which rather suggests that both of them are struggling to get much better terms elsewhere. Both Conway and Rodwell did a job for us last season and Rodwell might do an even better job if he were playing alongside better players who are able to make space for his Incisive passing. My immediate reaction to the news of Leutweiler getting an extension was incredulity. Then I thought that they showed absolutely no confidence in any of the young keepers being able to step up next season and sure enough Albinson has been released so the Canadian is in effect cover as number 3. It is rare but not unusual that a team does have to call on its third choice keeper because of injuries. Again he has been offered a contract which is still thinking about so I doubt it is very lucrative. Looking at Raya, here is a player who must have taken a huge psychological blow as well as a physical blow when his face was rearranged at West Bromwich. I have said often enough that there was far too little communication coming from the players in front of him and therefore I do not hold him uniquely responsible for all the 69 goals let in last season. When watching a team it is obviously great to see a promotion chase but if that is not to be then pieces of individual brilliance are what live in the mind. From last season, about half of the highlights for me were breathtaking saves by Raya. So yes, by all means, bring in much stronger competition for Raya but if Frank Fielding is that competition, it suggests that the field is wide open for Raya to claim the number one slot on merit. Incidentally, I think there is too much emphasis on distribution by Raya which was an extreme problem but significantly improved last season. We all know that the club was gutted of all meaningful management until the last 2 years and that included the Scouting system. I have just been reading about Liverpool having a data-based system with 100,000 professional players in it: all matched against Liverpool's current squad and how they might fit in. This is not something which was created overnight and therefore when I read Tony Mowbray's comments that it might take 3 years to develop a proper scouting system for Blackburn Rovers, I am actually very encouraged. It means that the short-term recruitment might be a little hit and miss and in those circumstances, you would expect both owners and management to be somewhat hesitant about betting the club. Finally to comments about Dack. Mowbray rightly points out that Norwich sold £37 million worth of players yet still went up. It is inevitable that all 20 Premier League clubs will be looking at what's available in the Championship and therefore there are 20 clubs who will have Bradley Dack on their radar and most likely he is on at least 15 long shortlists of 10 to 15 players whom they are seriously considering making a bid for. The player will be aware of this, the player's agent most certainly will be aware of it and all Tony Mowbray is doing is saying he's aware of it too. When you look around the championship for a player of 25 who has that little bit special who could make a difference in the Premier League, I think there's only one name and that is Bradley Dack. For all his occasionally indifferent performances last season which folk on here love dwelling on, I suspect if one bid comes in, there will be others and a transfer fee would be well into 8 figures. I hope we will see him at Rovers next season but I think we are hardly short of attacking midfield or in the hole forward players so I doubt we would even need to go into the transfer market to replace him and could use the proceeds more usefully sorting out that defense. PS no idea why I cannot unbold this post.

Keifer Sutherland comes almost as expensive as Patrick Bauer

Based on the Doncaster game, Bauer is rubbish.

Bauer's agent

One of my all time favourite Rovers goals. Parkes corner hit with pace beyond the far post and McKenzie back to goal hooked it right footed over his left shoulder on the volley from an acute angle and over the keeper into the net. One of those you have to be there to see it but afterwards you wonder if you really did see it- so special it was in the "how did he do that category?" Not the same brute strength as the Shearer goal at Anfield which ended Jan Molby's commentating career (his live on air radio comment was "Fuck me") but much more difficult because the angle was tighter.

Good to have an FA Cup Final which wasn't big 6 v big 6. Watford needed Pereyra or whatever he is called to have had as good a game as he had a stinker. Certainly they would have scored twice in the first half if the guy hadn't had complete brain freezes.

I have already answered both questions as far as I am willing to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHclBYf4Xmc blueboy- "oh look fireworks"

Nothing strange at all. You are treating this as a message board joshing game. Without any comprehension of what fellow fans and others went through.

And an apology.

An acknowledgement of proof?

Glen posted a commendable record of events. But Glen like many of us at that time became far more expert in the laws, consequences and suppression tactics relating to publishing or not than any of us had any wish or need to before or since... Hence no documentation of the type blueboy is looking for. He should have been around in 2011 then he wouldn't be so flippant. Think of it as an iceberg. What you can see on the surface automatically means there is something far bigger and nastier underneath the water line. Anyway, it is a shame all of this is on this lad's thread whom I understand is genuinely a youth footballer and is genuinely being assisted philanthropically by the Raos. in no way has he any guilt by association with events of more than five years ago when in all honestly there was a shift from the evil to the merely clowning incompetence. Ian Herbert called it right in the season review pod cast I believe in identifying a further shift to something pretty good when Coyle got sacked.

After a Madonna like performance on the big stage and albeit a bigger stage to come to redeem himself on, it looks like Bauer played himself out of contention with the Rovers fans at least. Apart from the Sheff U trio (including a player we should never have let go), were there any central defenders in the Championship worth considering?

Conversely selling Raya (which I oppose) and buying an older proven better keeper sends the message of promotion or bust.

London is totally different. Brentford is in what has in the last decade or so been transformed into one of the wealthier parts of London with a rapidly growing population. New stadium is part of a vast new development and has the benefit of being close to the University of West London (about 20,000 students) and developments of over 10,000 new housing units. It is also part of a commercial building so Brentford will make money from that whereas they can hardly raise a bean at Griffin Park. But the huge advantage of the new ground is travel time getting there will be reduced by at least 30 minutes compared with Griffin Park for the vast majority of fans. Plus the nearest station is now also on the underground and overground. It helps being the nearest league football ground for about 1 million people. In the last decade or so, Arsenal, Spurs and West Ham have collectively increased capacity by 70,000 and by and large are selling the extra seats. I might be proved wrong but I doubt they will have problems selling the 17,000 seats. Griffin Park has a capacity of 12,763 and they averaged 10,257 last season.

I am saying Brentford should not be dismissed as non-entities and I am strongly opposed to selling Raya. I believe the Coyle appointment was an epiphany when it came to doing things behind the club's backs but we are sadly vulnerable to a wrong 'un from outside the club smarming their way into the Rao compound. It hasn't happened since but who knows if we are seeing a permanent change for the better.

If you want BRFCS closing down...

I am only aware of one death threat and that wasn't made to a fan. I suspect the person who told me had also received a similar threat and he wasn't a fan either. the seven people whom I know received credible threats which were communicated to appropriate authorities is in fact nine thinking back now of whom only four are fans pure and simple. I can think of an additional five fans I heard of or suspected had been threatened but am unaware of whether they took matters to the police. Fans I am thinking of received other types of very violent and credible threats but not death threats to my knowledge. I never made it my business to know about everything that was going on beyond knowing that terrible stuff was being directed at fans on the ground in Blackburn which you and your friends were clearly subjected to.