ROVERS have showed their intention to fall in line with the Championship’s controversial financial rules by transfer listing five big earners.
But you would not bet against all five of them still being here when the season gets under way.
As there is next to no chance that there are clubs willing to match the wages Dickson Etuhu, Leon Best, DJ Campbell, David Goodwillie and Jordan Slew are on at Ewood Park.
Will the players accept lower terms elsewhere if offers, as hoped, come in?
Probably not.
As the five know they are unlikely to get better contracts – the vast majority of which were signed in the dark days of Steve Kean and Shebby Singh – again in their careers. That leaves Rovers with a big problem.
They need to shift Etuhu, Best, Campbell, Goodwillie and Slew if they are to get anywhere near Financial Fair Play.
FFP rules, in their current format, state that any clubs making a loss bigger than £8m for last season will be hit with a transfer embargo.
Ridiculously it remains unclear whether the rules will still be the same by the time the first ball is kicked in anger on August 9 despite the fact the Football League has held several meetings, the latest the AGM last week, over proposed changes.
Rovers, as one of the clubs set to be hit by an embargo, are backing an alteration to the rules.
A further meeting is set to take place later this month and it is there that must be a resolution.
Clubs, particularly those who will be affected, need to know what the impact will be both short and long term.
But even if the rules are confirmed once and for all, should they not be reviewed annually?
At the end of each season a quarter of the Championship’s membership changes, with three clubs coming down from the Premier League and three coming up from League One.
Rovers never got the chance to vote on the rules as they were playing in the top flight at the time of their implementation in April 2012.
That doesn’t seem right.
But the powers-that-be running Rovers at the time should have at least been aware of the rules.
And their decision to hand out long-term, big-money contracts to Etuhu and Best, in particular, will come back to haunt the club – despite its best attempts to run a tighter ship.
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