Bannon will make a big difference compared with the midfield they had against PNE but Trav gives us more steel in the centre of the park.

Wednesday have quietly climbed to 9th after an indifferent start so are dangerous opponents. Watched that game against Preston North End which was an odd one. North End should have been 3 up rather than just the 1 in the first 20 minutes. Intelligent passing was getting them in round the back at will combined with Wednesday generosity in making mistakes. Second half, Wednesday were a different proposition but didn't look like scoring until a slick move got them in behind the defense for a simple tap in. Although. Wednesday stepped it up looking for a winner, Preston had few alarms and had a golden chance themselves. Wednesday have two good wingers, Windass can score and Chelobah excites the locals. They are much more potent than Hull but not as dangerous as Leeds or Boro against whom we kept clean sheets. Cautiously optimistic we will get at least a point.

Cantwell is proving both hard working and a class act for Rovers. Great signing.

Three consecutive 1-0 wins now is the hallmark of a well coached side. We didn't really look in trouble for the vast majority of the game and always looked the class side of the two when in possession, not least the way we swept the ball around to force the og winner. Apparently 8 players unavailable but unlike in previous seasons when so many were missing, it was not noticeable today. A very thorough job well done in bad weather conditions. Great to be back in the top 6!

There has to be some real quality sitting on the bench at Premier League clubs desperately in need of games. Championship clubs will be snapping them up on loan in January- will we?

We have beaten two sides challenging at the top. Now to see if we can tackle the Championship anyone can beat anyone else syndrome in our two Yorkshire visits.

Being simplistic, I want sufficient to be in 6th so that it gives Venkys no hiding place when the Window opens.

Given the abuse Dolan has received, why would have any loyalty to the fans? The renewal negotiations will be purely transactional and unless we are in the Prem, he is going.

Palace have more or less confirmed this as the case. They knew we were vulnerable and exploited it.

Obviously this will be won or lost on the training ground with Tronstadt paired with someone from JRC, Baker and Buckley. If that doesn't work we are likely to struggle. Would still like ADC get some minutes if that isn't a dangerous luxury. Has to be said, as things stand, we have survived selling our best players and losing an iconic manager better than Hull have. But on Saturday, both clubs are in the same bad ownership off-field management mess except Hull get the crowds and Swag has killed our's. Here's to the loyal away fans cheering us onto victory.

Boro have scored 4, 5, 6 in their last three games so we are on for a 7 goal thrashing. If we defend like Oxford, we wuill deserve it too. We have had a very decent run of results at the Riverside since the turn of the century so here's hoping the absence of talisman Sam (only scores at Boro) Gallagher doesn't cost us.

Citeh are human after all. But where did that Spurs performance come from?

Waggott is going to severely restrict away sales at most of those games

Separately to the civil Court case brought by Venky's to restore the right to fund Rovers without guarantees, prosecutors have been reported to be looking into the case. Prima facie, the birthday party and Neville Mansion were misreported to the tax authorities. Prima facie anywhere in the world, that is tax fraud and a criminal offence

On 20/11/2024 at 12:38, wilsdenrover said: The most recent Venky London accounts include the following wording (my emboldening): ‘if the court does not permit the release of future funds there will be a significant impact on BRFC’s ability to trade and therefore on the group remaining a going concern’ These accounts were signed off by the owners on the 9th July this year, therefore any change (if there really has been one) would appear to have taken place after this date. Clearly not everybody at the club has been truthful - working out whether anyone has been in the tricky (impossible?) part. I didn't comment on this because in light of the Indian Court case, the Indian Government and Courts would definitely not clear transfer of funds without guarantees if such a statement didn't appear in the Venky's London accounts. But that is not what is being written here- it raises the prospect that the Indian Courts, not the owners, might block future transfers. Is this posturing or is there a real risk of a Court order preventing transfers to VLL?

Gautam Adani was charged with fraud yesterday. Indian prosecutors going after him means small comparatively fry like Balaji Rao have huge reason to worry in current circumstances. I am sure one or more family members facing the prospect of prison time over matters they got embroiled in as a result of or linked to their Rovers venture must be changing perceptions and calculations in the Pune compound. There is a possible new normal with Rovers if that is what Venky's decide they want, but for supporters, all old norms and assumptions about 20m a year etc are gone.

In administration, the club would be run for the benefit of the creditors and maximising their return. The extent of the job losses would be a function of the Adminstrator's assessment of the trade off between reducing out goings to prolong the business running and having a juicy enough asset to optimise the selling price to new owners. If no new owners are in prospect, the administrator would quickly opt to liquidate Rovers.

That in itself could be problematic. First question - establish the bona fides of acquisition of full title. Or without the jargon, can you prove what you are selling to me you own, you bought it with your own legitimate funds and you did so without any restrictions in your ability to operate as the owners? Kentaro might not have acted as simple agents in that process. If for arguments sake, Kentaro signed a management agreement over Rovers while also holding a football agent license as part of arranging the sale in 2010, then as buyer I would need reassurance from the FA, Football League and Premier League that the ability of Venkys to pass ownership to me was not restricted and any punishment was either waived or restricted to Venkys so that I could make myself immune from the consequences.

Struggling sides are especially dangerous after having just picked up a big win so strong banana skin alert especially as Pompey have an excellent keeper in Schmidt. Spent breakfast watching highlights of Pompey games. Murphy and Lang are quick and tricky respectively on the flanks and will pose a real threat. Lang has been winning penalties thinking of our recent track record for giving penalties away. Beyond that Pompey look purpose made opposition for where we have strengths against their weaknesses. They score goals from presses inducing errors when teams pass it around narrowly at the back but have a hugely error prone defence particularly when their press has left the defenders exposed. This is a game that calls for high possession football from Rovers and getting in among the Pompey defenders. Zip that ball around and transition quickly back to front and we should be very alright in this one. Dolan, Ohashi, Weimann and Cantwell would all be in my starting team.

Are we seriously looking to bring back Jordan Rhodes in January?

250m is more than 10% of their official acknowledged wealth.

They are reported to be worth 2 billion, I have seen 4 billion reliably estimated. Squirting 0.25 billion on Rovers is not a "drop in the ocean" and it is also by far the most public thing they are involved in.

It is very obvious 14 years in that the Raos are trapped in having to own the Rovers but the reason and nature of the trap can only be guessed at. Kentaro folk were not very nice people and that is a massive understatement. Horrific things were done, extreme threats issued but I find it difficult to believe that a family of the wealth of the Raos living where and how they do could be effectively threatened even by the worst of the people in the Kentaro circle. More possible is that bad as the reputational damage has been to the Venky's name, there are revelations which could emerge which would be even worse and are worth the size of cash hits they are taking at Rovers. If Venky's didn't even put the original purchase price in themselves, it wouldn't look particularly good for them. That is just me speculating... However, a more likely scenario could be the following. For all its bureaucratic sclerosis, India is a country of law with criminal justice which can go after the richest and most powerful. For a family as wealthy as the Raos, it is beyond comprehension that they misrepresented 10m spent on a property and a birthday party to the tax authorities. Rao rich families have professionals working for them who make sure all documentation and reporting is immaculate so the really big tax saving schemes which will have been intricately negotiated and agreed with the authorities can never be looked at again because eg a birthday party categorised as a pharmaceutical investment triggered a general taxation investigation. That was either sloppy or Balaji hiding his errant ways- either are bad looks, or symptomatic of far worse that needs to be kept under wraps in Pune. These are also potentially criminal issues and it could be other things in the Kentaro/Venky's interface went on which run counter to Indian Law. Perhaps Indian Betting legislation is an area which could be problematical? The surest way of controlling access to any evidence is by sitting on it... Long and short of it is there has been no commercial or even emotional logic to the continuing Venky's/ Rovers entanglement. So folks like me will speculate...

3 points off 6th and 7 points above 22nd. Extremely congested down there. 4 points cover 11th placed Swansea to 22nd placed Cardiff.

Watched the first half of Chesterfield v Stanley. Markanday not involved much but looked different class the few times he was on the ball as he should be in League 2. Hilarious that the Stanley commentators didn't mention him at all for the first 30 minutes until he put in a bit of a run and there was a begrudging "Blackburn loanee".