So impressed with Ohashi. Really puts in an effort and tries to win the ball back even after he has lost it. The kind of player where you can overlook the faults. Hopefully, he can find a goal to cap off one of our few good performances today.

Slight improvement this half, although we had small periods like this in the first half. We still look very vulnerable every time Oxford get forward.

The sooner we can get Dolan off, the better.

Somehow 1-1. Not pretty. Not deserved.

Deservedly behind. We've been awful and we're lucky to only be 1-0 down. Terrible at the back, totally disjointed in midfield and up front. Difficult to see us turning this around.

I do think the flurry of signings pre-sale made it seem like the club might actually be about to go through period of increased activity. There was always the risk that they were pre-spending the Szmodics money, but it wasn't unreasonable to believe that at least some of that was going to be made available for further signings. Maybe it still will be, but it is becoming increasingly unlikely with each passing day.

Agreed and it is a dangerous thing to keep around - particularly for new signings.

But would it surprise you?

I'm always happy to sell non-young players one season too early over one season too late. I've loved watching Szmodics play for Rovers. He seems like he genuinely cares and last season was pretty magical. But there's a far stronger chance that last year will be the outlier in his career and not the norm. I don't think he's really a Premier League player and if we had just been promoted I would be very disappointed to see us investing serious money in bringing him in. I wish him the best of luck, but I think there's every chance that he's back in the Championship next season with Ipswich after a non-event of a Premier League season. I don't begrudge him trying to get the move. It will undoubtedly be a huge payday and a chance to prove himself at the top level, but I think this is good business from us. I'll also say that his attitude at the start of the season has seemed off. It was notable how unhappy he seemed during the cup match. There's always a risk that this sort of thing can rub off on other players and it's not worth keeping him around. Now we will just have to wait and see how much will be reinvested. If we can get another 5/6m in players coming in then this will feel like a decent summer. But there's every chance that the Szmodics money was already used to bring in the last batch of signings and we will be left scraping the barrel with loans.

I'd rather have the link-up play and be missing the finishing. We have finishers elsewhere in the squad, but our play up front has been severely lacking for some time. With good build-up play and a good positional sense (which he seems to have) he will find himself on the end of chances and get goals - especially in the air. I think he will be 15 goals this season and he already seems to be a huge improvement on what we got out of Gallagher. There will certainly be some frustrating misses, but Gallagher was never even in a position to miss a chance, let alone take one.

I'm sure you'll tell me that I'm missing your point again, but this has to be addressed. In what world do you think we would go into administration with valuable player assets still part of the squad? It's one thing to think that administration is a viable way out of our current situation - although I think even that is insane - but there is no way in which we get there without losing every valuable player that we have. As the financial walls begin to close we would conduct a firesale and raise money as fast as possible to delay the inevitable. But I'll humour you, let's say we somehow get to the point of administration and still, somehow, had valuable assets. The first step would surely be to try to avoid administration with a CVA. You then have to trust that our owners and administration wouldn't mess that process up (see Bury) and that we wouldn't find ourselves kicked out of the league by way of sheer incompetency. A very likely outcome. Even if we managed to handle the CVA properly, we would still need to pay off all existing debts. Outcome? A firesale. If we didn't go the CVA route and just accepted our fate with administration, then the first step would be to pay off all of our debt. That would mean that the administrators would oversee a firesale as this would be the only way for us to raise that kind of money. Let's also be real here, only selling players in either of those scenarios would be a win. We would likely end up selling our ground, losing our training ground, and any other asset deemed even remotely valuable. Don't forget, Venky's own our training ground separately now and they would also be our biggest creditors. Basically, all roads lead to Rome on this one and you're pretending that we could somehow end up elsewhere. If you see administration as a painful solution to a very big problem then that is one thing, but don't be delusional. There is no eventuality in which we find ourselves in administration, free of our current owners, and with key part of our playing squad still intact. Best case scenario it brings with it a 12-point deduction and we lose every decent player that we have. Worst case scenario this club ceases to exist

I dunno, looks like they were fairly good just before World War II, but that doesn't count as that's not your 'vintage'. But it's alright, I just look forward to us getting promoted back to the Premier League someday and not being able to say anything to anyone born after 2005ish when they say they can't believe that tiny old Blackburn Rovers are in the big time.

I never really understand this kind of logic. There are plenty of football fans who see Blackburn Rovers as a small club. Does that make them right? Should we be getting snide remarks on football forums from supporters who weren't born during our good times?

Significantly younger, some Premier League experience, and did well at Celtic on loan. Some of these comparisons are bizarre.

Totally owned me there.

If you're comfortable with the idea of the club running out of money and going into administration then you have to be comfortable with the idea of the club selling off all valuable assets for well under market value. The club won't go into administration with players worth 10m+ on the books. We would just have a fire sale and raise the money needed to keep the lights on for a bit longer. I think anyone even remotely hoping for administration is as thick as the proverbial, but you're in dreamland if you think that process will also involve us holding onto good players.

By that logic you should want the club to let him leave on a free and you should stop complaining about the Wharton deal.

Except we can basically remove Telalovic from that list as he was never used in the second half of the season - even when needed. I do actually believe that we will end up with a slightly bigger squad once all of the dealings are wrapped up as we are almost certainly looking at one or two more permanent signings and we will definitely see a couple of loan signings.

Actually seems like a fair price.

Why? I don't think promotion is on the cards, but the relegation talk is a bit premature now that we've actually added to the squad and will likely add a further 3/4 players.

Isn't he just taking that from the fans forum meeting? That's basically the remaining targets that were mentioned in that plus an assumption that Szmodics would be replaced. A left footed central defender is not absolutely essential.

I think you're rewriting history a bit on how 'good' of a signing Szmodics was when he joined. He'd made 39 appearances in the Championship prior to signing for us and hardly shone during that period. He'd had two good seasons in League One, but 'standout' might be a bit strong. I don't think he was in the team of the year for League One the season before we signed him and there was hardly huge enthusiasm surrounding the signing at the time. Too old to be a prospect and fundamentally unproven at the level we were at. It paid off, and then some, but it didn't exactly seem like an incredible signing at the time.

It may partially be in jest, but it's a valid point. We don't complain about the system when we benefit from it.

Well, you know, sometimes I get the boys to translate for me and, you know, the boys tell me if, you know, remove most of the filler words that you might, you know, understand what he's saying about the boys, you know.

Eustace can barely speak English. He will fit right in.