Here’s a very difficult question. Who is our best player come kick off on Saturday? Trav gone by then. Britain already shipped off. Dolan walked…who’s our best? And come kick off on Saturday would that player even make the bench for our opponents who just got promoted from league 1

I'll say it again, isn't this exciting...club just dulls my mood, has done all summer and for the most part of the Venky reign 🤮

Baradji is out for months. And needs a permit.

Are you really surprised at this stage? Tbf this was a seasonal occurence under Mowbray.

Midfield: Not as worried about losing Trav since watching Tavares. Hes a good player, much higher ceiling. Now shitting myself about cover because Forshaw cannot be first sub and Montgomery isn’t ready - Baradji for Trav. RW: Needs bringing in asap. Replacements for Buckley, Pears, Hyam? and I reckon Cantwell also need to be sourced, if and / or when they leave. I’d also do a couple of forward / creative loans too because we look light on goals. So, that’s potentially between 2-8 players in and 1-5 out. In the next 20 days. What could go wrong? 🙈🤬🤣

Can see us going in for Isaac Hayden when Travis goes, previous interest big tall athletic, decent experience and is free

Pardon, maybe I should have been clearer, in my analogy the rats were the players. Obviously the RAT rats are steering the fucking ship, through a sequence of icebergs, whilst telling us they have a plan, just not telling us that the plan is to remove all the rivets and silverware and sell them off to buy themselves a luxury yacht.

He can do that with us next season at this rate

I agree with all of that but he's never going to resign. He'll wait for the golden handshake. I don't feel sorry for him either, he'll get a huge payout. His reputation (which isn't great anyway) won't be in any way tarnished because the wider footballing world knows we're a managerial basket case (like Watford, but with absolutely no ambition)

Average tenure across his previous 8 clubs - less than 30 games. Our lot give him a 3.5 year deal. It's either rank stupidity or something dodgy going on.

Just seen result. Have we really gone out in first round at home to fucking Bradford?

Tbf he has already had two loans in non-league, Bamber Bridge and City of Liverpool FC. Admittedly he could do with more after that showing. As much as I don't rate Pears, if we sell him we definitely need to buy or loan another more experienced keeper.

Where is Forshaw??

If he resigns soon it will show Venkys up to the national press, 3 managers walked out in 30 months

Until I watched him tonight I forgot how below standard he is for this level, he needs to go and try and resurrect his career in L1 or L2

The point was more that you clearly are allowing your pre conceived dislike of him to cloud your judgement if you are specifically just posting numerous critical posts about him during tonights game. There are many players who warranted a number of critical posts about today and he was certainly not near the top of that list, or indeed one of them at all. He was only on for half an hour but on a few occasions he played nice correctly weighted passes and was let down by his technically inept team mates. He did also play one brilliant through ball to Kargbo despite the ball being played at him at a stupid height which led to Ohashi's chance. Surely Elliott Jackson saying that he was impressed by him in an open training session doesnt carry any weight? He did well tonight and was one of very few positives. He did make a few stray passes and got caught dawdling once or twice but overall he was a semblance of calm amidst a chaotic and inept performance around him. I feel like in the main we are going for athletes and not considering ability as important but to be fair he seems to have a bit of both. A good performance against Bradford and impressing in a training session, good signs. But Tronstad and Travis are very good Championship midfielders. Its a hell of an assumption and expectation. If Travis goes, to be honest we need a replacement whether Tavares moves ahead of him or not due to the alternatives. We certainly need a lot more players. Lots of surgery to do, not just one player plus replacements. As you say, attack needs a lot doing.

Unfortunately the rats don't want out, they're more than happy to stay on board as the ship goes down. Infact no amount of sinking will rid us of the rats. The players and staff able to get offers elsewhere are simply jumping onto lifeboats whilst they can.

I thought tonight highlighted the lack of depth we have in the squad. On the evidence of tonight we can't allow Travis, Buckley and Pears to leave without replacing them. There is no hiding the fact that this was a hugely disappointing performance against a well organised Bradford outfit - newly restored to League One and who made several changes themselves for this game. I felt sorry for our young lads who were asked to step up. Michalski is an outstanding prospect but I've seen him make similar gaffs in the Under-21's. At that level he often got away it but not tonight. He needs a loan to play senior football on a weekly basis. The making of David Raya was his stint at Southport on loan before claiming the number one jersey at Ewood. Michalski needs to do the same. A season sat on the bench as our number two is not going to benefit him. Likewise Montgomery and Tyjon. They are decent young players but not ready for the rigors of Championship football just yet. Miller looks a decent acquisition and Tavares showed some neat touches and the ability to get forward from midfield. Henriksson looked slightly better today than on Saturday but is still very much a work in progress. De Neve took his goal well but was otherwise largely anonymous on the left wing. He looks a bit frail and reminds me - one for older supporters - of Brian Hill. Lets hope he's more successful. Kargbo was a huge disappointment for me. He looks so raw at times and struggled to get the better of his full-back. Of the other subs, I thought Cantwell looked good as did John Buckley. I'm not really sure why we are so intent on moving Buckley on with such a wafer thin squad. The only good news was that my digital ticket worked!

He’s a bigger man than I if he resigns on a 3 year contract - wait for the pay off surely

I would bring in another midfielder and sell the shit out of Buckley. I'm absolutely done with him. He has had far too many chances and doesn't even have the right attitude.

I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I find it highly depressing that our homegrown club captain has asked us to leave in order to join Derby fucking County. After our manager and two other players we've allegedly wanted to keep have also chosen to go there (possibly Brittain would have too if Boro weren't in). No disrespect to Derby, they're a solid old club, but this really shouldn't be the state of affairs here. Venkys have utterly ruined us. It's a miracle we're still a Championship side for now, let alone that we were in a position to barely miss the playoffs last season. But the fact all these players and the manager wanted off to Derby despite our utterly different league placings last season shows all is rotten behind the scenes. We're a sinking ship and the rats want out.

In some ways, we were unlucky to go be relegated, shenanigans with Huddersfield and Birmingham. But this team will be down by Easter!

Can't keep a clean sheet and struggle to score more than one.

In the interests of retaining at least a bit of stability at the club I would look to now keep Buckley and let him battle it out with Tavares who I thought looked extremely promising tonight. No need to replace Travis, our immediate pressing need is for a goal scorer and that's where any money must go.