That can only end one way ! RELEGATION by Easter not just that but another deliberate one too boot ! Venkys Out !

Well... we've had lots of times where we look like we will get battered and then it hasn't happened. As supporters we tend to over interpret a good performance or a bad performance. So while I am also very concerned, I also know I have been here before and actually the opposite of what I expect has sometimes happened. So I cling onto that! I agree that goals are going to be a big issue. Gueye looks very poor at the moment (gutting as for a while in the new year he looked brilliant but that is a loong time ago now), and Ohashi is busy and can finish but will not create things on his own. Travis openly deciding to leave could be a bit of a wheels coming off moment. Will be very demoralising for the team, who currently mostly a group of bodies flung together who do not really know how to play together. With Travis out of the picture we only have Tronstad and Hyam who have more than 50 games in a rovers shirt and are definite starters. Cantwell, Riberio, Ohashi have had 20-30 games each. I guess Wharton, Hedges, Pickering and Pears have a lot of experience but they are not favoured as starting players. Then it's a bunch of totally new characters. We've lost hundreds of rovers games of experience with Dolan, Travis, Brittain and to a lesser extent Weiman and Baath gone. I think it's really under-estimated how important it is for the players in the team to know each others abilities and qualities, and have time to figure out how to play with each other for the best results. Ideally turnover in the team imo should be 20% to 30%ish, but we are looking at 70%/80%.... Anyway we are where we are... what we are doing out wide is very concerning as De Neve and Alebiousu are wing backs not forwards, Hedges struggles, and Kargbo looks very talented but raw and prone to fading out of games. I would switch to a 343 as we don't have the wide players for 4231. Toth Millar Wharton McCloughlin Alebiouso Tavares Tronstad Pickering Cantwell Ohashi Kargbo Will watch in hope as often, especially early season, you can be surprised.

I just hope we don't give away any comedy goals, as I do have a feeling we might. Once we are behind that's it, so if they score though some sort of wonderful move or skill, it might be a bit more palatable then a goal from a long throw, or the keeper playing keepie uppies right in front of their strikers.

I can't remember exactly, but wasn't it something like '150 applicants' and we picked VI as the most suitable? I wonder if we interviewed other candidates who then walked out when we told them "we'll get to the summer and get rid of every player who has scored or assisted a goal this season and replace them with £200k players from European lower divisions that no one has heard of on League One salaries and hope for the best"

I think West Brom was the first proper test - a game against a fairly average squad with a brand new, untested at this level manager, at a club where there is always pressure to deliver and be in the promotion mix. We should have been licking our lips at going there and getting something. Instead, we were awful and wouldn't have scored against them if we were still playing now. Birmingham will be watching the highlights from last night and Saturday and be thinking this game can't come soon enough for them. We concede early again on Saturday and it's gonna get sour at Ewood, exactly as you are saying. Worrying!

A Hedge fund.

As you are , I'm only going off last night, but on that performance by Tavares , I'd say it's one of the others who will be pushing for 3rd choice.

Why? As you keep pointing out, if he's done his due diligence, he knows exactly what to expect.

Think we'll start 2 hours before games in future and get absolutely plastered to make us look a bit better 🤣

There have been incidences of other managers being incentivised by also being given a cut of the subsequent transfer fees earned by the young players. Just saying

Be interested to see ohashi and gueye swap places

We are a small distant outpost in a vast business empire. A toy at the back of the cupboard that has long been forgotten about. We are the monthly subscription that occasionally see and think "Am I still paying for that? I should really get around to sorting it out." and never do. We are being run not for the benefit and ambitions of the club, but the bottom line of a poultry conglomerate. Nothing changes while they remain here.

Agree. However, toxic fans at Ewood? If only.........!!!!!!!

Our faithful fans keep blaming individuals for poor performances in a team sport once the PR changes. Imagine working in a high growth challenging role and every 12 months all your colleagues get replaced with work experience kids

Wishful thinking, he is actually a championship quality player so would demand a wage at least what Trav was on, so no savings for Pasha, so ignore and move on to someone cheaper.

Won more than us in the last 20 years to be fair.

No they didn’t. It was a big bone of contention between Eustace and Suhail/Owen/Gestede - they felt he didn’t play enough youngsters and were sold on Ismael’s willingness to do so. They are financially incentivising him to make sure it happens.

I don't think he cared about the cup to be honest, it was more a run out for some of the players on the fringes. I don't rate him as a manager but I genuinely think anyone would be struggling with the squad standard and likely morale around the place at the moment. Birmingham on Saturday is the first proper test of the season. If we go a goal or two down early in true Ismael style then it could get toxic pretty quickly this season at Ewood.

Where are the goals?

Early days, of course, but at the end of the day to keep the show on the road at this level with constant budget cuts you need a manager that does the basics well and has a good relationship with the players - I.e Eustace. It doesn’t look like this fella can/will do that so it’s looking like this may well be the year the music stops… ah well, we can be sustainable at a lower level instead, like the women.

We've had the misfortune of being the only club in England owned by owners with bulletproof finances. They've completely torn the heart and soul out of the club, but they have enough money to keep paying our (dwindling) bills so nothing is done. It's a zombie club. A shell of the club we all started supporting. We're in football purgatory.

If we improve 100% then maybe 1-1,if not then dominated and a 0-2 defeat infront of 7,000 piss taking 'won fook all' Brummies. The thought of Kyogo bearing down on our defense frightens me to death. 20,450. 😟

The only way the owners will even know if we get relegated is when the money men have to find another £5-10 million to offset the drop in Sky revenues. They'll make up a chunk of that through further cost cuts and wages off the books but not all of it. Only two ways this ends though - either the Indian authorities / Court force them to get rid of us or the hassle/cost of the legal action and bond eventually tips them once they can't plug the gap with player sales. I'm not confident of either but we are quickly reaching the stage of finding out.

They haven't played in front of silent or toxic fans.

I think he's still getting used to this. Remember Lambert was quite blasé about losing Jordan Rhodes seemingly because he was led to believe that in return he would get all of the £10 million+ to spend in the following window. I think Ismael is probably still operating under such a pretence - offload the 'big' earners and bring in a few million from the 'troublesome want away' players and then we will be able to get out there and spend before the window closes. We know how this one goes, always room for an admin error or two on deadline day if all else fails. By the time he realises he's been had it will be too late. I heard that Eustace had offered to resign last summer when it became clear to him what they were up to, that he wasn't getting any of the Szmodics money to spend and that they were going down the Gestede route and signing unheard of randomers on low money. It was only after they backed down and allowed him to sign Weimann, Batth and McFadzean that he agreed to stay on, however the damage had already been done by then and it appears he had one eye on the exit door after that point. I'm expecting a similar process to unfold here this season. What we don't want however is the deluded mob thinking that all our problems are just the result of a poor manager,