Morecambe top of League 2 by 2 points with a -1 goal difference. Cannot remember a team topping a league with a negative goal difference before.

He has looked very decent playing for the under-23s v City, Leicester and United. Looks cultured but also looks like he has errors in him without actually getting caught out.

I broke my duck of starting match threads which produce a win with our 3-2 victory at Cardiff in the twilight zone in May so I hope I am not resurrecting previous perennial bad luck by starting this thread... Being a contrarian.. Forest changing Managers at least means TM won't have spent two weeks obsessing about what Forest are going to do and disappearing up his own tailpipe producing a team and tactics that totally bemuse the out of position Rovers players. Unless he is Mystic Mog, he won't know what Hughton is going to conjure up from that huge Forest squad which will most likely include at least two new signings making debuts. His only option is to concentrate on what Rovers are going to do and hopefully formation and tactics are a given. We will have 4-3-3 with players in their natural positions again please Tony. However, choice of Personnel could be a bit more tricky. Hopefully we will only have Travis, Dack and Butterworth unavailable which means Stergiakis, Rankin-Costello, Lenihan, Ayala, Evans and Gallagher should all be available and that is without reckoning on one or more AN Others signed before the transfer window cut-off to be available for selection. Established players are not going to be in the matchday 18, quite apart from getting a starting slot. It would be really cruel to see Buckley and Chapman not making the bench but that would seem likely for at least one of them. Big decisions will need to be made selecting between Nyambe and JRC, Ayala, Williams and Lenihan, whether to bring Evans in especially if he has two more good games for Northern Ireland, and one from Gallagher and Dolan. I suspect if an AN Other signing is a left back with a sweet cross in him, Gallagher will get that nod in the expectation he will nod in a cross or two coming in late at the far post... Equally I expect Gallagher will be ineffectual and replaced by Dolan before the 70th minute. I just hope Mowbray doesn't overthink permutations and starts saving players for the journeys to Watford and Coventry which happen within seven days of the Forest game. We know Forest will come to Ewood all fired up wanting to start their season five games late under their new boss. We know they have some very good players. We know Kaminski is going to have to be outstanding to keep his run of clean sheets going. We know Rovers are going to have to be at their best in taking their chances to win this one. Deep down we also know if 20/21 is going to be a very special season for Rovers, this is the sort of game we have got to be winning.

I should have taken more note of Malta's 2-0 win against Gibraltar two days ago. Malta rotated their squad so it was in effect a second XI and I hear we should have won more convincingly.

Yes that. When you have a falling out of that magnitude which was only resolved in public Court years later to the humiliation of all concerned, rationality goes out of the window. So I am not even beginning to speculate why. Rovers were resented by part of the family but I believe the club was not the root cause of the ructions which lead to the Court case. I think that archived article does not contradict my view on this. This much is common knowledge. By 2006, Flybe (an airline created by Jack Walker) was doing so well and growing so quickly, the Trustees became inadvertently in breach of the Trust covenant. One asset - Flybe- had become worth more than the Trust was allowed to hold in any single asset as a proportion of total Trust assets. This was in the press at the time. Privately this huge success destroyed everything because it triggered a row over how to rebalance the excessive Flybe value, whether instead to grant the Trustees a waiver over the composition of assets, or whether the proceeds of a partial Flybe sale if forced by the family should be distributed to the family beneficiaries in cash. It degenerated into members of the family questioning the professionalism, competence and impartiality of the Trustees.

UEFA ruled out multiple club ownerships in different countries very shortly afterwards. In fact the rule would have forced the sale of one of PSG and Rovers (had Rovers stayed up) shortly after they bought us. This rule doesnt apply below the top divisions so Forest can fart about the way they are doing. Not in the public domain so don't ask for proof, but I believe the Walker family over-ruled the Trust and refused to sell Rovers to Qatar in 2008. In 2008 the rift between the young Walkers and the Trustees was starting its journey to the Courts with the Trustees being accused of mismanagement and destroying wealth but that only became public knowledge through the 2014 Court hearing in which the young Walkers lost decisively. In 2010, the Qataris had no intention of going back into English football having been twice rejected (Liverpool and Rovers) in a period of three months (August to October 2008) in what were by their standards pretty humiliating circumstances. You also have to remember Qatar were awarded the 2022 World Cup on 2 December 2010. I hope Kamy won't mind me posting this but he rang me up after Blatter had opened the envelope to ask if I was watching it because three of the seven Qataris on stage in Zurich to receive the award from Blatter were people we had been negotiating with...

Of course. Just as they would never say PNE are idiots for releasing Dolan. Doesn't make it any less true.

Norwich City 41% Nottingham Forest 38% Millwall 33% PNE 28% Reading 25% Rovers 23% Bristol City 20% Swansea City 10% (but the parachute payment is reduced this season so more like 20% now)

I won't get into pantomime season but you will see I answered it. Let's look at hard cash matchday income lost amongst clubs currently in the Championship likely to be pushing for promotion this season: Norwich City £14m Nottingham Forest £9m Swansea City £7m Bristol City £6m Millwall £6m Reading £5m PNE £4m Rovers £4m Parachute payments are more than swallowed up by outsized wage bills incurred when in the Premier League.

YES 100% agreed If Brennan continues his development, he will be a threat to Gallagher being selected as well.

Can we agree on the following? 1) If football grounds are open to a %age (probably under 50) of supporters, Rovers and Rovers' fans will be at a huge advantage compared with every other club in the Championship 2) Compared with the clubs Rovers are hopefully competing with for promotion, Rovers are less badly affected by Covid 3) Venky's are doing much less worse today than they were prior to appointing Tony Mowbray

This needs merging with the Summer Transfers thread.

Tony Green- what a talent he was! Blackpool was notorious. A combination including more than the normal proportion of maiacs in a relatively small home following and the away fans being enlarged by people travelling for the Pleasure Beach before and after the game turned Bloomfield Road into a battle ground .

Don't forget Junky Johnson on the wing. That WBA side I think was everybody's second favourite team. I was living in Leeds at the time and always went to Eland Road when they were the visitors.

I posted this on the 6th of June last year: The Leeds link has been around for a few days- their owner has said no but this has just been posted: https://www.teamtalk.com/news/french-journalist-provides-huge-update-on-leeds-investment-talks If you want to link Qatar and Rovers: https://www.arabianbusiness.com/blackburn-rovers-deny-deal-talks-with-qatari-royals-430269.html https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/15722809 All those stories are completely for real. I have explained this on another recent thread somewhere on the MB. There is a particular reason why this particular Qatari being in the market would stimulate some lazy journalists to think Blackburn Rovers. This thread should be entitled "Potential Buyer for Rovers" Rovers are emphatically not being sold.

tomphil wonder no more. There are oodles of evidence that 2+2= 4 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/venkys-denies-intent-to-sell-blackburn-rovers-g6kwfkbj9rfhttps://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/9362126.blackburn-rovers-owners-tell-qatar-oil-giant-dont-want-sell/ https://www.theguardian.com/football/2011/nov/14/venkys-interest-selling-blackburn-rovers https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2011/11/15/2758862/blackburn-rovers-owners-dismiss-reports-linking-club-with-qatari- https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/blackburn-rovers-fc-up-for-sale/articleshow/31975419.cms https://www.rugbytradedirectory.com/shock-takeover-bid-for-blackburn-rovers Al-Khelaifi was previously linked with a move for Blackburn Rovers- https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/10322277/nasser-al-khelaifi-leeds-united-psg/

Isn't Tyrhys Northern Irish?

That is what the fans of Wigan, Bolton, Blackpool, Bury, Macclesfield, Stockport and Chester all thought too....

Having actively worked on finding new buyers I can tell you there are more hen's teeth than serious candidates. To my knowledge, there has only been one buyer who 1) had the cash to pay-off the Venky's 2) had the cash to invest seriously in Rovers 3) did their homework 4) submitted a serious offer in writing. That was Qatar in 2011

Belgium only got a 1-1 with Ivory Coast last night although that probably says more about the quality of Ivorians emerging.

Of course- absolute genius of a player

And your list of buyers is....