Thank's mum- exactly the point I was making. Undoubtedly the JWT have had offers which were not accepted. Odds on the Trust Deed might have been compromised had they done so.

Alan Smith writing an excellent profile of Bentley in the Dialy Telegraph. Interesting to read of him feeling isolated as an Englishman at Arsenal in the youth set-up. A good thing about Bentley, having just bought him from a Champs League club, press clamour for him to be transferred away from Ewood will be a long time in coming. I still think the Joe Cole analogy for this lad could hold good. In which case, thank you very much Mr Wenger.

Online, the article had no attribution when it first appeared. LDRover consistently produces excellent articles well-thought through, well-written. Andy Nield is a weak link and there is no sense of Rovers being "our club" at LET in the way you get that sense of belongong with other local press for their club. That doesn't mean blanket loyalty is asked for but Peter White wrote like a Rover and called it as it was. Nield could be describing a small earthquake in Chile for all the sense of place or belonging he brings to his reports. Back on topic, stylistically this piece is different and not written the way Garns' articles usually appear. Who knows what the real authorship but I've noticed in the past a similarity in writing style between Keeley and Garner (and perhaps?), the Roverall View. However, it is no secret that Garner remains well in touch with the football world (isn't he working as Deputy to Gorman at Wycombe now) so could this be a tacit come and get me from Dunn? Meanwhilst the Brum fans are getting wound up that a fully fit Dunn is their only possible route to survival salvation. Will the Baggies pull off a miracle against a Barca-obsessed Chelski at lunch time??? Very unlikely.

Sparky says he welcomes the new contract in this Times interview. Elsewhere, it is reported the club are offering a 50% increase.

Never mind the scanner, I'd forgotten that was a really useful Forest outfit we marmelised that season- pretty well all internationals or u-21s.

Conde's coming (read that how you want)!

The club owns its ground, its training ground (several acres of developable prime estate), an indoor training centre and the land around the ground including the site of the club shop outright. Historic book value of fixed assets is over £40m. Turnover £41m last year (about the same this year- greater prize money offset by decrease in gates and League Cup semi-final less valuable than reaching the FA Cup semi-final). Wages £31m. EBITDA about £9m, Operating Profit £1m (so cash positive last season), loss after tax and player trading £5m. Figures are after receiving the annual £3m gift and discretionary £3m loan advance from the Walker Trust. I haven't looked them up so my memory might be slightly wrong on some of the numbers. I'd expect if the JWT were selling, they would want the current valuation of fixed assets (perhaps £50m?) plus a premium for the Premiership "franchise"- say another £15m. But they would want assurances that the investor would support the club in the event of relegation and evidence that they would be willing to invest net more than the £6m a year they are putting in. My guess is that the Trust has pretty high commitment and propriety hurdles stipulated by the Settlement. After all Gaidumuk has probable plopped £50m down the Pompey already and I bet they looked around the Prem before going to that dump. I doubt there is anyone around who both has the cash, commitment willingness and the background to satisfy the terms of the Trust deed.

The LET adding to the speculation about a possible Dunn return.

I have to say dream on. The likelihood of anybody other than the JWT putting £6m a year into Rovers, year in year out, let alone funding a transfer spree is as great as Burnley making it into the play-offs this season.

Went for 7th on the basis that: - we have a fixture list which could get us into 4th place if everything goes brilliantly from now to season end so there is upside. - Realistically, Spuds, Arsenal and Bolton have enough to take 4th, 5th and 6th from their current league positions. - West Ham, City and Everton are capable of coming into contention for top 6 places. So I've opted for midpoint of those three scenarios which should give us Intertoto and a decent possibility of straight UEFA with Liverpool and Chelsea having OK draws in the FA Cup.

He's in this list of "famous" Spurs supporters. Mihir Bose also wrote a book about Venables' tenure at Spuds and the reason why I knew of his affiliation is that an Arsenal fan I know reckons he always writes biased articles against them. For such a well-regarded journalist, he got three facts (gates, loss and ownership) wrong in a three paragraph article. Allan is correct re the sale of flyBE although that airline is relatively secure financially.

Does it need an inside source? We are playing the journos' favourites Spuds and could displace them from a Champs League place. Up pops a story headlined "Walker legacy turning sour" (standing 5th in the Prem is really sour) and claiming inside knowledge that our gates are 21,000 (if only- GAV would win his bet!- in reality they are barely 20,000) and we lost £4m (£5m if he'd looked at the accounts). Need I go on? If Bohse spoke to anyone, whoever it was knows sod-all about Blackburn Rovers. PS Splitting hairs over who was told- family members would be told in their capacity of being family members, not as Blackburn Rovers Directors. For all I know, JW could be fully in the know but technically all he needs to know is what the Trustees chose to tell him.

Oops- testator, what was I thinking?! However, I stand by my guns re the Club not knowing the Will and Settlement. The Directors should be informed by the Trustees of those parts relating to the club which the Trustees deem to be proper exercise of their trust for the good running of the club- no more. Florida is spot on with his analysis. In fact I suggested the lease concept on this forum a couple of years' ago. It would easily be the best value bang for buck in European sport. Why would some dodgy Indonesian gambling outfit pay £60m to have their name on the Manc shirts for five years when they could lease an entire club for three times as much for twice as long?

JW has been quoted as saying we budgeted for 10th in the two seasons we finished 15th. Don't know where we budgeted for this season but I'm sure we didn't budget for losing yet another 2,000 off the gates.

But its almost not the family's decision... Do we have to go round that loop again?

Going back to JW statement on the future shape of the club, I'd say Dunn is one of the few players around who (when fit and motivated) is both undoubtedly better than the first team squad and likely to be available at an affordable deal for Rovers. The way Sparky is handling the club, we could sign Best and Maradonna and there wouldn't be a squeak out of place from either of them.

I was about to type "bow down and grovel" but lets leave that sort of triumphalism for the end of season. £42m turnover at the BIG CLUB? Virtualy the same as our's

It was an undisclosed deal but there was no press speculation at the time that it was anything other than a stright transfer deal.

Let's look at this a bit dispassionately. Jack was a pretty straightforwards guy by all accounts- tough, good deal maker but not a duplicitous type. He chose to plough 25% of his wealth into the Rovers and died at a time when the club were in the second division and far from assured of getting promoted. I am sure his Will looked to Rovers' long and short term future. Only Jack's testators will have any legitimate right to know the content of his Will. Only the Trustees of the Jack Walker Trust have any legitimate right to know the contents of the Trust Deed I am equally certain that the club does NOT know the contents of the Will nor the Trust Settlement. The Trustees are legally obliged to operate the Trust according to the letter of the Trust Settlement so long as the requirements conform with law. My guess is that we can simply interpolate from the actions of the Trustees in the five years since Jack's death many of the provisions of the Trust. - the £3m donation a year is a known fact - they can make loans at non-commercial rates of interest particularly if the club's status is under threat (Andy Cole) - they can convert loans into share capital - they are averaging advancing an additional £3m a year After that it is speculation. But imagine you were Jack Walker- what would you do in your Will? In 100 years' time, the only thing which will keep the Jack Walker name in the forefront of people's attention would be Blackburn Rovers. My guess is that there would be provision for additional loans for offensive as well as defensive reasons and that there will be a clause with extremely strict safeguards for selling an interest in the club. I would also expect that the Trust will provide for a bail out from the club in the interests of the family but as the Trust was worth £680m at the last estimate, I doubt the family could plead in extremis even if they were so minded which it seems they certainly aren't. Mihir Bohse is a respected journalist but he has some bloops in his career. One thing I am absolutely certain of is that given the extreme professionalism the Trust has conducted itself with thus far, I doubt it would communicate offering Rovers for sale through the medium of that miserable little article.

Bentley profiled in the Daily Telegraph Verbatem the same story is in the Independent. Some journo is in the soup!

A very simple question. Each Premiership game sees 20,000 paying £13 each on average yielding £260,000. Who believes the Rovers' AVERAGE gate would rise to 30,000 if the average yield per seat were reduced to £8.50?

Well done Bob- absolutely brilliant!

I'm not dismissing the article out of hand but Rovers aren't the media darlings and putting that sort of negative stuff out is probably just what the Arsenal/Spuds ordered, especially if there are attempts to screw us on players. It's timing points to lack of authenticity: The Walker Trust have put a lot of development money as well as loss coverage into Rovers over the years since Jack died- if the intention were to get rid, the recent capital conversion would have been less likely (selling equity is one thing but debt is in theory reclaimable and so the WT would have a stronger hand in driving the cash amount realised with more debt on the books). The actions of the WT are not those of an owner preparing for sale. Also our low gates have been known all season- funny how they get mentioned now as we threaten the North London apple cart. Having said all that, our gates ARE our achilles heel. I keep repeating the point, we have had an AVERAGE of over 26,000 since we returned to the Premiership less than five years ago. In the intervening time, Rovers gate prices have not gone up disproportionately yet the Blackburn public have uniquely in the Premiership abandonned their football club. No other Prem club has suffered a 20%+ loss in attendance in the last four seasons. I repeat the point I made in my financial summary- why should the Jersey Trust financially back a project the town of Blackburn does not seem to cherish?

...If only he can play all games to the end of the season... Glad he came through last night unscathed playing for the John Tossack XI masquerading as Wales.

I have been away in North Africa so missed most of this tournament. I found out which hotel the Georgians were staying in but the security was blocking access to the players.