Miller11

This seems very reminiscent of when Mola and Garrett were seen as the answer at Turf Moor. Carter spent about 20 minutes on an exercise bike in the tunnel against Derby. Obviously worked a treat. Wonder if Baradji will be subjected to the same.

Even if he does I expect we are on a hiding to nothing with him. He’s been built up in the minds of the supporters, and the words of the Ewood brain trust, to be the answer to all our problems. Unless he’s extremely good he will no doubt divide opinions in the extreme. Half of us will see him as a pointless signing and waste of money, half of us will cling onto any positive shoots he shows and advocate for patience. Pretty desperate for a player who didn’t even have a Wikipedia page til well after we signed him!

Eustace and Waggott wanted Cantwell. Gestede didn’t. Waggott and Eustace met with him early in the window but it didn’t progress due to finances - probably Suhail putting a block on it. It became apparent towards the end of the window that he was available on the cheap - 250-500k - so Waggott went rogue and had talks with Rangers - whoever he was dealing with up there said something along the lines of “Thank god, we’re desperate to get rid of him” so Waggott revised the offer to zero. After about 2 days of wrangling they agreed that it would be zero upfront with a big sell on clause and various appearance/promotion payments. Announced as undisclosed to appease both sets of fans. Getting him on a free allowed Waggott to make the case to Gandhi Babu (circumventing Suhail) to pay the required wages and get the deal signed off by Venky’s, as did claiming he would be worth 7 million if he could rediscover his form. It’s certainly plausible that an appearance trigger is approaching. It’s also plausible that the man who never wanted him in the first place and thinks paying any player more than £10k per week is unnecessary might want rid of him.

Very likely. Remember this deal dragged on for a while when we signed him. We paid nothing at all up front and it was all based around him hitting certain numbers and a hefty sell on clause.

All this comes down to now is their arrogance. They don’t like being told what to do. They sold off our best players rather than put money in a bond that they objected to. Now the requirement for that bond is gone they have no inclination to improve our situation or reinvest any of those funds brought in back into the squad. lets be 100% clear, neither the Indian courts or FFP/P&S rules are preventing investment in Rovers - they just don’t want to.

Shit day. Shit anniversary celebrations. Shit line up. Shit pyrotechnics. Shit players. Shit performance. Shit manager. Shit attendance. Shit staff. Shit owners. Shit club for the last 15 years.

Here’s a little snippet from the programme. The usual amount of care and attention has gone into it I see. Absolute husk of a club.

Someone on Twitter is correct. No prizes for guessing which genius at Rovers made the decision to delay it til after Christmas.

The only people who deserve any boos on the day will be in the directors seats, corporate lounges and in bed in India.

Paul wrote a superb letter outlining the clubs unique achievements and importance to the game of football over the last 150 years. There had been hope/expectation that we would be actually making a big deal of celebrating our anniversary so inviting representatives from the above bodies as guests, or to open exhibitions etc seemed like a good idea.

You’ve definitely not misinterpreted. I’ve attended a total of 3 fans forum meetings. The first one saw Steve Waggott, Christina Haines and Lynsey Talbot sat amongst the supporters. At Suhail’s instruction an additional table was dragged over so him, Gestede, Yasir and others could sit at the head of the table, very separate from us mere mortals. The disconnect between Suhail and Waggott was evident, but the meeting was conducted professionally despite some robust discussion. The last 2 have seen the most senior member of Rovers staff lose his rag within the first few minutes and act in a bizarre and unprofessional manner. The issues with the minutes have been well debated on here, and I’m sure will be again. The entire tone has changed and blatant bare faced lies are being told by club officials. Aside from the fans forum meetings I’ve attended dozens of meetings at the club over recent years. From my perspective the culture is absolutely horrendous at the moment. Plenty of previously warm, engaging and competent staff are like frightened children. Everything has become combative and disingenuous. Worst of all there is a complete lack of accountability throughout. I get the feeling that any sign of contrition would be viewed as unacceptable weakness - which gives the impression of most people there being completely arrogant, which coupled with low levels of competence is a dangerous thing. It should be no surprise - it’s a top down thing. The owners are like that, and so are their staff.

It should be a 30,000 crowd. The fact it will be not much over half that just shows how much contempt our owners and their trusted employees have for us. We must mark the occasion by showing them how much we want rid of them.

Uwais Patel. Trustee of the Community Trust.

WATR have already met with the head of the regulators office. It won’t be a quick fix, but lots of what we said raised eyebrows and was very much of interest to them. It was definitely a very positive meeting.

Feel free to use this graphic anywhere you like. Plaster it on social media. Respond to all the clubs posts regarding the anniversary with it. It should hopefully be all over Ewood on the 8th