because your earlier posts to me, made it sound like you where happy with the situation.

I don't disagree. At the minute he still appears to have kudos with the fan base so his words are being taken at face value rather than ridiculed. He is a good platform for the club to spin their narrative. I doubt we will start seeing the frustration in interviews we saw from the previous managers. I really hope I'm wrong because in the past 10 years we've always felt like there has been some good fighting a lost cause within the club and usually it has been the manager.

Of course he's in on it. All these cheap foreign imports from inferior Leagues are allegedly the right profile of player to suit him and the exciting high intensity pressing football he is claimed to favour. And of which there is absolutely no sign. I think they're all taking us for mugs - including the manager.

Why are you telling that to me?

Sell your best players. Re-invest the bare minimum in cheap Euro fodder. Eustace surprisingly had us solid and over-performing last year until injuries hit and the squad depth was shown up. Despite being in the top 5 we refused to invest anything proper in January (although the club said investment was 'significant') which saw us fall away. We also refused to discuss contracts all year with key players whose current deals were expiring in July 2026. Frustrated, and recognising it could only go one way, Eustace walked. Ismael came in. We plummeted, then rallied. Now we are selling the players who only have 1 year left and re-inveting in more cheap Euro-fodder, so the squad is weaker again. A major struggle looks to be on the cards. Add in owners that now only send the bare minimum to keep us afloat (possibly due to an ongoing Indian court case), everyone can clearly see we are running out of golden geese to sell, so where do we go from here? Even if we stop up, when the remaining out of contract players walk next summer and the taps remain turned off, it will be a grim situation - at the very least on the pitch. It's like we are now hitting a new period in Venky-run decline and it's happening in slow motion.

Having a squad bulked out with sub-standard players is not a good position to be in.

That's beside the point because we will still have academy products making the matchday squad in Michalski, Wharton, Carter, Tyjon, Montgomery and Leonard. Buckley is still in the squad, so is Travis for the time being. From the U21's Atcheson and Mullarkey-Matthews will probably make a few md squads as well,

But they shouldn't be.

Didn’t realise he was injured but torp is and has been an ever present when fit he chips in with more goal contributions whilst grimes will do the holding role - Travis doesn’t get in ahead of torp for me - Travis much more aligned to grimes and he doesn’t get ahead of him either imo

Yeah, Ismael like loads of managers on the market just needed a job and he would have gone along with what was laid out as the plan. As time passes he'll either 1) do well, attract attention and find a new job and be off same as JDT and Eustace; 2) do badly and be stuck with us in a hate spiral as we cant afford to sack him

Apart from Wharton and Carter nobody comes close to being championship standard. i'd argue both Wharton and Carter are top end L1.. So it does make you question.. the only way it stays in tact is the sheer lack of quality elsewhere and having to throw 17year olds who last played on loan at Blue Star and Darwen Rangers.

I think Wharton needs to be that guy, local lad, old school enforcer CB

Streak will remain intact, for sure. Several academy products still in the squad.

Big worry for me is the “togetherness” weve had top managers over the years, we’ve had a squad over the last few years who would die for each other, that is what made us playoff contenders. Now we have a squad full of strangers, no connections, nobody who the fans can call their own, get behind etc. There aren’t any players left in that squad that I think “he will win this for us” he’ll bang the lads heads together. There isn’t even a real captain left tbh. rough year ahead.

How do you know that either has a "ceiling" that is higher than a player that a player who has repeatedly proven to be a very good Championship midfielder. Baradji should be a non starter anyway if he needs an operation. And likely will be anyway for work permit reasons. Also, you say that Tavares is very highly rated. By who? I liked the look of him admittedly against a League 1 second string. But he WAS highly rated by Leicester years ago, then went to Porto and stayed with the B team aside from a brief and unsuccessful MLS loan, then was in and out at Moirinense. If he is better than Travis or even on par then its a hell of a signing.

We had five guilt edged chances four in the first half, one in the second, we scored one of them. They had four, two in each half and scored two of them.

So basically the Sam Szmodics sale last year wipes out the difference and then some. Luckily for us we've also got billionaire owners to support us, unlike Derby.

Is it true that @Herbie6590 and @4000Holes are entering the competition again this season.....but representing Derby? Have heard rumblings.... ITKer 😆 Great effort guys. Niall from Wanderers was too strong

Do the owners realise we can be relegated? 😉

So the club likes to semi themselves with this "proud academy" stuff... With Travis leaving - and somebody please correct me if I am missing a time period - (Edit - I think there was a period in the mid 00's), this may be the first time in the entire Premier League era that a Blackburn Rovers best XI (ignoring injuries) does not feature an academy player? Maybe you could squint and say Carter/Wharton as a CB, but I think we will see McLaughlin as the CB2. Looking through the entire timeline from 1992: Jason Wilcox, Damien Duff, David Dunn, Phil Jones, Martin Olsson, Junior Hoilett, Jason Lowe*, Marcus Olsson, Grant Hanley, David Raya, Darragh Lenihan, Ryan Nyambe, Adam Wharton, Lewis Travis. All those players seem to cover the majority of the past 23+ years - maybe there is a gap when Dunn/Duff left in 2003 in the Souness/Hughes eras. Which would make sense with the 720+ match streak putting us around that time. Still though, for where we are nowadays (as shell of a club), with an apparently excellent Academy, to say none would be in our best XI, is scandalous.

Re: a yearly Academy minutes target...: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart's_law And who counts in that regard? Surely Carter, Travis, Wharton, Buckley, etc still count as the Academy paying off (to mixed effect). The worth/output of the Academy needs to be assessed over 5-10 year windows. Decent players like Travis, Nyambe, JRC, etc should emerge every 2-3 years, while you hope unicorns like A. Wharton or Jones emerge every 5-7 years. (Just pulling those numbers out of my ass, but would be interesting to see how our output compares to other Cat 1 academies, on a per pupil basis of course!) Expecting/financially imposing that 1-2 Academy lads will break through every year is insane.

Really good post.

Don't think Derby have a bottomless pit. Paid a decent amount for the USA striker (who is injured, sound familiar). Also had 2 bids turned down for right back Max Johnstone at £1.4m and £1.6m. Think we would have looked at him before settling on Miller

Isn't Sheaf essentially in the same position as Travis? (out of contract at the end of the season, not signing a new contract, and wanted by clubs higher up the ladder?). Coventry like to sign replacements before selling, (Kessler-Hayden whilst they still have Van Ewijk), and also like to have strength in depth I would personally see Travis & Grimes as the 2 main men out of what would be left should Sheaf be sold Edit - Sheaf is injured at the moment anyway

Not that I’d ever work for them, but I’d want every promise they made me to be contractual.