A dilemma devoid of an obvious answer

On the face of it Blackburn Rovers have had a steady and, barring the now complimentary needless faffing, sensible start to their summer business.

If you are a blind optimist like me then you can view some low risk but fairly logical signings, the manager issue being put to bed and one of the more important young players in the side signing a new long term deal as news you can file under the "cautiously pleased" section in your Blackburn Rovers mental cabinet.

But, and let's face it, there is always a but... the major task at Blackburn Rovers this summer is yet to properly get underway. It's an issue that could very well dictate not how next season starts, but how the future of the club we love pans out...

Venky's, owners of Blackburn Rovers, have a massive metaphorical chasm of a financial black hole to reduce, despite Gary Bowyer's protests to the contrary.

Last summer's all spending, less thinking super gamble on an instant return to Premier League football didn't work out desirably and this coming pre-season we'll need to lick our wounds and pay the price of some huge overspending. The owners can point to being the generous souls who have footed the year long bill, but ultimately when the next set of annual accounts come out that won't mean a jot when the full extent of the damage comes to light - only an increased level of supporter panic and worry is ahead for us.

As things stand, Rovers are apparently losing £2m a month, the club deny this but all things considered it can't be too far from the truth, with a massively reduced income following relegation swallowed in full - and then some - by a wage bill that is relatively colossal in comparison to virtually every other Championship club.

To state the obvious, Blackburn need to severely cut down what they're paying out to players, and the solution isn't as straight forward as one would hope.

A fair portion of the club's players are on Premier League money, without the top division TV rights compensation to supplement them.

Danny Murphy is reported to earn £35.000 a week at Ewood Park, Dickson Etuhu was signed last summer to a FOUR (yes that's 4) year deal on similar financial terms,  Leon Best was bought from Newcastle at a price of £2m and on, again, the same sort of salary. Nuno Gomes, didn't cost much in terms of a transfer fee, but his £40,000 a week wages certainly do.

Then there is Jordan Rhodes who cost a Championship record £8m - which in itself is a stonking outlay - and on a circa £35,000 - 40,000 a week wage packet.

This isn't even covering the likes of Gael Givet (somewhere in the region of £30,000 a week) and Paul Robinson (similar to the Frenchman). Oh and Morten Gamst Pedersen. And Scott Dann. And Martin Olsson, who are all on eye watering cash.

It's even more galling when you look through the listed players and weigh up whether they're contribution over the last season amounted to even a fraction of what their pockets are bulging with.

For a club on a Championship income it's beyond mental as thing stand and without question unsustainable in the long run, that's apparent to anyone who has taken even a passing look at our recent activity. Venky's financial generosity aside, the numbers don't add up and for the sake of the long term future of the club a more sensible financial structure needs to be put in place.

Especially with the Financial Fair Play rules creeping up on the horizon.

Moving these players on is a seemingly straightforward answer.

Sadly though that's easier said than done with the former Fulham duo, Portugeezer Gomes and Leon Best all unlikely to have vultures circling to sign up their talents on their current pay packets. Murphy and Etuhu have been a combination of underwhelming, lazy, injured and wasteful - that Murphy for example was offered more than a one year deal at his age when at least two Premier League clubs baulked at the thought tells you everything you need to know, in hindsight was a flawed move.

In the case of Gomes, he seems a nice chap and a willing worker but at 37 years of age and on mega money will there be any takers elsewhere? The answer doesn't look a desirable one if you're of an East Lancashire persuasion.

Best, who was unfortunate with injury I'll grant him, was signed on the back of a 10 game run of form from Newcastle and has done nothing since to suggest he'll be anything more than occasionally bothered... his needless sending off at Watford aside. He's a lot to prove and his history suggests that his guaranteed salary of nearly £2m a year will unlikely generate a lot of interest or swooning glances from other bargain hungry entities looking to boost their prospects.

Long serving club stalwarts Givet, Robinson and to a lesser extent Pedersen have spent all season doing very little, either chucked out in the cold, injured or relentlessly booting set pieces into the first defensive man they can see available. Between those three alone that's roughly £100,000 a week, or if you prefer £5,200,000 a year, leaving the Rovers bank balance in exchange for so little.

Players such as Scott Dann and Martin Olsson - another has done very little this season - should be easier to form a coherent sales pitch to the summer vultures that do circle, they'll at least attract money and have positive playing merits/sell on value.

But in the main it's an awful financial predicament bought about in the main by ownership and operational naivety. You can chuck as much blame at these player's agents as you want but when it's all said and done their job is to palm these players off on the best deals they can, it's our club who've sat by and accepted deals for players that other clubs wouldn't and didn't entertain.

It's a multi-faceted conundrum without an immediately apparent solution, but it's one Rovers have to find an answer to over the course of the summer or face the prospect of something much graver. The club seems to be stuck paying out millions of pounds to players they would, given the choice, be happy to let go.

But the situation doesn't offer much in the way of said options and simply paying off contracts as has been done with the likes of Ryan Nelsen and Simon Vukcevic won't save a great deal. A lot of players from around the globe the world over have shown that they'll sit tight, happy to be paid large sums for simply turning up on matchdays in a suit until something of equivalent value comes along. Meanwhile the club has little choice, the contracts are that iron clad.

Maybe the likes of Murphy, Etuhu and Gomes will be different, maybe not.

The other option Rovers have got is to part with the in demand Jordan Rhodes, but then we'll be claiming cash back on the one player ideally we'd rather keep and be stuck with the six or seven we could do with shedding.

Right now it looks a dark situation, we can only sit, hope and pray Blackburn Rovers find a way out...

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A rarity at Blackburn Rovers - a thoroughly enjoyable occasion

It's been a while since we managed to leave a matchday at Ewood Park and state with absolute authority that a good time was had by all. But last night, after another season riddled with the now customary doom and gloom, there was a night to really savour.

You will always get the same drawbacks with "charity" matches - such as the lack of players in peak physical condition and the game being played at a third of the tempo of professional standard fare, but put those to one side and it was a brilliant occasion.

The pressure was off, there were no stresses and expectations, just a showcase of past glories and players from yesteryear doing their thing. It showed in the crowd and on the pitch.

I myself was one of those lucky enough to be taking part as a member of the never outworked but always outclassed supporters side whose sole job it was to take away a once in a lifetime batch of memories. It was very much mission accomplished - despite spending 90 minutes being thoroughly schooled and embarrassed.

As a group of 16 players, we were all in concurrence pre-match that the contest was hardly going to be a closely matched affair, the legends may have been "past it" in a sense that their fitness levels aren't what they used to be, but as many an ex-pro will tell you... they never miss a beat in the mind. We were going to get a hiding regardless of how much "headless chickening" we did.

We spent 80% of the time without the ball, whilst vastly superior footballers danced rings round us with slick passing and first touches that we could only dream of as paying guests.

Tugay was very much the star of the show as we all suspected, to stand next (or nearish when I could get close to him, which was never) to someone who made the game look so effortless and stylish was truly awe inspiring and despite being made to look like glorified traffic cones it was an honour and a privilege for us all to be on the same pitch as him. Furthermore you can see from his reactions and interactions with the crowd that he still loves Rovers - even if I did test that by spanking him in the forehead with the ball from point blank range after 10 minutes.

As a player for the night though the enjoyment wasn't just limited to ex-players. We were given the VIP treatment - a ground tour, a chill in the players lounge, a warm up style pep talk from Paul Gallagher and David Dunn and customised kits/training tops. The full matchday experience.

We may not have exactly had the physiques to match, but to stand on the inside of the tunnel and walk out in front of a good few thousand people was a buzz none of us will forget in a great hurry.

Special mentions must go to our goalkeeper Paul "Spitting image of Robinson" Anderson who kept us very much in single digits conceded with some stellar reaction saves and to our goalscorer Greg Paul who, I'm not lying or being biased here, scored the goal of the night to make sure we got a consolation near the end.

Yours truly, for those of you paying attention, stuck mainly to my awkward running style whilst looking knackered from the off and keeping my passes simple as to not looking too daft (one criminally bad throw in aside). I did almost trouble the scorers in the first half when I decided to try in vain to channel the spirit of Dennis Bergkamp for a few seconds with a curling effort... but plonked my shot just wide.

Other than we all just spent our Wednesday in the pockets of the nearest player wearing a home kit.

Jokes aside though, it was a fantastic evening and by the sounds of things the 2,500 or so plus corporate guests who turned up in attendance to join in the fun had an excellent time as well. We're all to aware from the fans side that none of you were there to see us in particular but just to be part of the spectacle and to play at the ground of a team we've all supported since the beginning of time was just amazing and surreal in equal measures.

Thank you to everyone who organised the event and to all who at the club who made every effort to ensure we could play the part for one night. You've made the inner romantic and fantasist boy inside of me very happy.

Perhaps more importantly than that you made a dream come true.