Should we really be surprised anymore?

And to think at around 5pm last night it all looked so promising.

For once it seemed, Rovers had a clear plan of attack, a deliberate (if drastic) way to tackle the predicament the club had been left in after a scattergun approach to buying every classic no.10 forward in mainland Europe over the Venky's reign.

With the Rovers wage bill more than unsustainable in it's current guise and a large number too many sitting about either doing the square root of nothing or not producing on a consistent enough basis a clear out was needed - not just to reduce the outgoings column, but to reshape the side.

We can argue about the varying qualities and talents of Mauro Formica, Diogo Rosado, Simon Vukcevic and yes, even Ruben Rochina all day long but the cold, hard truth is that none of those mentioned were producing enough (or at all) on a consistent enough basis to justify the large wages they were on.

Ideally the exits of David Goodwillie, Paul Robinson and pay rise seeking Gael Givet would have been confirmed as well but it's testament to the poorly judged, lengthy and expensive contracts we seem to hand out willy nilly that we couldn't find any willing victims viable suitors.

But by getting shot of four big names, this opened up a chance for new boss Michael Appleton to add one or two new additions that could produce in the Championship, and come late afternoon it had transpired we'd identified those men.... DJ Campbell and West Brom's Jerome Thomas.

Hardly players you'd want to launch an assault on the Premier League, but two names who can more than handle themselves in the situation we're currently in. Sensible signings if you will, a complete change of pace from the norm and a hopeful sign at least that Appleton has a player savvy head screwed on (scant consolation right now) in a way plenty of others who are/were at the club don't.

The duo are perhaps not as flash and even as talented as the four we had let go, but they are certainly more battle hardened to the English league and allow us to mould the starting eleven around our one shining light, Jordan Rhodes.

It sounded too good to be true. And for an almost ironically comedic reason it didn't transpire.

Quite what the directors and powers that be in charge of pushing the deal through were playing at, I'm pretty sure the man upstairs would struggle to tell you. Getting the requisite paperwork completed and sent to the relevant authorities on time is a task that a reasonably evolved ape could pull off given basic training, but between Shagnew, the directors and quite possibly Appleton it waited... and waited... and waited.

11pm rolled around and still nothing. QPR's DJ Campbell had been sat in the club reception since 9pm waiting to finalise formalities, Jerome Thomas was made to sit with and brew and wait by a West Bromwich Albion possibly a little more preoccupied by the enthralling story of the night - the Peter Odemwingie breakdown.

I'm sure Rovers themselves will point to external factors that prevented things from moving forward but if they're really honest they'll finally treat this as the chilling wake up call some of the out for themselves power figures badly need.

It was another shoddy end to another shoddy transfer window, and the blame lies squarely in the Ewood offices.

And where was old Shebby in all of this? He was practically given the day off, he wasn't involved in the latest shambles. Quite possibly he was sat at home prank calling local residents and shouting "ROBBIE" down the phone at them. Maybe he'd nipped outside with a pen trying to find more 15 year old Portuguese prodigies to sign up. All joking aside though, he did nothing.

But what does that say? Your £400,000 a year Global Advisor/Chief Executive/Hot Air Production Machine is not involved in one of the busiest days of the footballing calender. Jesus Christ.

What it does tell us is that there is more than one clown performing at this circus, one more with the inability to tell his backside from his elbow. Another damning exhibition of the ineptness that has engulfed and crippled the club to the point where it's almost beyond parody.

Rovers are now faced with a situation where they are at least two meaningful players down, the starting XI still looks fairly serviceable but the bench looks like a house party after all the good looking people have suddenly left. The loan window and the free transfer market are available to rectify the latest moronic series of events but if it was me I wouldn't let this go.

The officials at the club have again demonstrated they're not up to this, that egos have hampered the need to service the place that employs them properly. Heads should roll this morning.

And to think Michael Appleton left Blackpool because he thought they were frustrating in the transfer market?