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I couldn't agree more. And there was a 'conveyor belt' to it. Think back to 2018 time when Travis was coming out of the academy and into the first XI. He learned from people like Mulgrew, Conway, Graham, Bennett, Johnson, Dack - characters and lads who had been around the block but were perfectly placed to pass on their knowledge to a younger group. Dolan, Buckley, JRC others who had been here for years, grown up around the place and together, knew each other well on and off the pitch. When the League One team was broken up and retired/moved on these guys especially Travis but a few others emerged as the new leadership group . For the next 3-4 years they stepped forward having grown up with it and led the show, then in came other great characters Szmodics, Brittain, Tronstad and it resulted in a great blend. In the last season Weimann and Batth. You only have to look at how they hit it off with Eustace and how he has rapidly spent his budget on taking several of them to Derby and how they are succeeding. So, so important, so valuable and something that no amount of clicking through screens on a laptop and talking shite in interviews can ever give you. What carried us under Mowbray, JDT and Eustace wasn't having an expensive squad or 11 top drawer players, it was a really good blend of some quality mixed with great spirit, hard workers and camaraderie. You felt these guys genuinely enjoyed playing for each other and the club. So to see that ruthlessly and deliberately dismantled in a matter of a few transfer windows - for no real good reason - let's remember it wasn't an expensive squad, it wasn't unsustainable or unaffordable - it was built on a Championship budget doing the exact thing they still claim to want to do - using our academy - is really tough to take, and unforgivable. Many of us knew where it would lead and we are on track to do just that. I suppose the only question is why. Why hand Gestede and the other stooge free reign to do all this. Is it really all to shave down the wage bill? Or is there more to it - agency business - wanting preferred clients in the building, asserting authority and wanting to remove threats to that power block by getting rid of established, vocal players willing to speak out and stick up for themselves and their team-mates. By doing this Gestede is now 'dominant' or will be once Tronstad and Cantwell are disposed of in the summer. It will then be 'his' squad and 'his' head coach and not the legacy of uncle Tony and the past regime. I'm not ashamed to admit I look at Derby with envy, because in 12 months we have swapped places and for no real good reason. They aren't bigger, better, richer (or shouldn't be). They are fresh out of league one but have an owner who is engaged and wants them to succeed and will back a good manager.

Yeah, agreed and I've said this since he was with us. Sparky was an excellent figurehead, but it was Bowen, Neddy and team who did the work on the training ground - and his Scouts who identified the Sambas and Nelsens. Take nothing away from him, as the best leaders know how to assemble a good team around them, but it does highlight the importance of the right 'support' team around the manager. Personally, I'd look at Will Still. Soton was a disaster, but he's the one who I think could possibly aim/achieve higher than just staying up each season (which is all I see with the likes of Rowett). Forward-thinker and tactically flexible - I've followed his career loosely for years.

Out of those mentioned I am fine with bilic, savage, rowett the two I threw in Kevin muscat and dean smith my outsider motherwell manager anyone else- probably not unless it was somebody I thought was unattainable

Chris Sutton is always a top guy. Only ex rover who still gives a shit

I want to bang Taylor swift...ooh I'm getting off point

I want new owners

Maybe Di Canio is your man?

Made me chuckle

I would like another 20 points…

A character like Sav working under this pair of clowns has disaster written all over it. Unpopular opinion but someone like Waggot would be better overseeing a Robbie Savage not some jumped up over promoted tea boy.

Savage could either be brilliant (and highly entertaining 😄) Or an absolute shit show No in between. Either way he'd garner a lot of media attention and could put a tighter spotlight on the clowns running the club

Must admit, I quite liked the food and the relaxed vibe in The Eagle garden when I stayed over last season (long weekend). As for the football, no expectations...

There is a real lack of professionalism and feel of integrity associated with the Rovers ownership & board. You only have to look at Chris Sutton's recent comments to know that this is felt within 'the industry'. As with anything, if you work in a particular sector you get to hear of the horror stories of working in a certain place. Once that reputation sets in it takes mammoth shifts in culture and results to change. We will not see that here, as the 4 people pictured at yesterdays game are the same 4 people who will oversee the recruitment of the new manager. I have made previous posts of why I think Rudy Gestede is a truly terrible appointment but there is no greater example of his destructiveness than the shape of the squad and its outwardly facing 'togetherness'. I want to start this point by saying I hold no ill will to any of the current set of players we have as I think all have the best intentions for the club - Cantwell aside, for reasons I will touch on. But when you compare the togetherness of this squad compared to the recent years gone by I don't think you would be over presumptuous to say there is just no sense of teamwork or camaraderie at all. At times it feels like 11 individuals, and not a team. I think this can be summed up by Szmodic's interview on joining Derby. He was asked who his best friend in football was - his answer, Travis. Dolan has said the same. We have lost so many big characters in recent years the squad just looks and feels decimated. I look back at a squad with characters like Dack, Danny Graham, Mulgrew, Travis, Szmodics - all players of fine professionalism but who were clearly just good team mates. When we lost the first 3 of that list it felt ok, we had others coming through and they were brought on by more senior players and good coaches. But losing Trav, Szmodics and Hyam in that short space of time has been hard. Since Rudy has come in he has just dismantled that sense of togetherness that resulted first from Tony Mowbray's involvement in the Club, but then built on by JDT and Eustace. People slag off Mowbray's "not just getting anybody in the door" line but I don't think anybody can suggest he did not build a squad that felt much more like "a squad" than this lot. All that hard work has been undone by Rudy in less than 12 months - first, the fall out with long standing staff members and then the petulant and very obvious forcing out the door of senior playing staff who clearly let their opinions be known. I refuse to believe that the freezing out of Pickering is anything but Rudy Gestede's peevishness. What has been left is a squad that is defunct of leadership - where we have had our captain and all-round shitehawk Cantwell going on Sky Sports laying bets our out of confidence striker misses the target. Could you imagine Trav or Mulgrew saying that publicly? When you look at what Rudy has built it is very testament to the type of person he is. A squad full of nomadic players being used to blend in a model pushed by Suhail and that other peevish rat-Rao of churning our young players who are simply not ready for the level of exposure being asked of them. You can use the academy when you are putting him in to the trenches with a midfield of Tronstad and Travis, with Sammie up top battering centre halves about. But what Rudy has ensured is that these young lads are thrown in at the deep end with the type of leadership that suits him - a journeyman with an attitude problem that won't give him grief as long as he is paid and told he's the best. Overall I think this squad represents Rudy Gestede perfectly. Eustace saw it coming. I think other managers will to. If rumours that their top 2 targets refused to interview are true then we are in for a rough ride here.

Just thinking then about when Robbie Savage left Big Club to come here and the rage/bewilderment among Big Club fans and the porn brothers/Steve Bruce who were totally baffled/fuming that he had jumped at the chance to come to Rovers, not falling for the guff about what a massive club they aren't. But then a name came to me that ticks a lot of the required boxes - Steve Bruce - available, relatively local, probably desperate to get back in, managed Gestede at Villa (albeit got rid of him to Middlesbrough). Would they?

Savage and Bilic shortened, Coleman drifting 😅

He came to a bigger club and that’s a fact - both then and now.

I loved Savage as a player, even his shithousery leaving big club to come here. But he would soil his repuation working for these idiots, please stay away Robbie, you should know better, this gig is an impossible task.

Savage has had very good reviews from fans of Macclesfield & Forest Green. Had both of those playing some very nice football... but, both of those teams are/were one of the the financial heavyweights in their respective divisions, so it remains to be seen if Savage can be successful when he is coaching one of the paupers in any given division. I also don't think he would put up with Venkys/Pasha/Rudy etc for a second

The chances of the 3 stooges appointing a loose cannon are slim to none.

I want passion and some lunacy on the sideline.

Cantwell annoys the crap out of me - the personality he radiates just makes me want to slap him. Playing wise - he tracks back, tackles and does put a shift in but then fucks up what, for him, should be simple passes that would create chances. Has a tendency to put his teammates under pressure but does make himself available for a return pass - can understand to a degree that it must be difficult playing with players much more technically limited than himself. All said: it is down to the coach to find a way to utilize Cantwell more effectively in an attacking sense but therein lies a big part of our problem. Tronstad aside we have nobody who can reliably do the hard work to be able to push Cantwell further up and be "free". Pretty much every game i have seen has involved Cantwell doing a fair amount of the donkey work. It is also baffling that he still seems unable to see many of the runs that are made ahead of him and i genuinely cannot comprehend why he has also become so shot shy (instructions??) as he gets in fair few positions inside left that cry out for a curling effort towards the far corner. As for our set pieces: make the players watch this game on repeat. Sheff W caused chaos whilst we seemed to aim for areas where we didn't have any players...

I tend to agree. More Harry Andrews, Jack Hawkins or Dickie Attenborough than Gloria from "It Ant Half Hot Mum" lol

Mungo Jerry - In The Summertime

Savage would be intriguing. Wears his heart on a sleeve. Would get the best out of players. Might save us from the trap door. Boring it wouldn’t be. I am done with boring and failure. Not a good combo. I want to be inspired. If I am, I am sure the players would be. Klopp wasn’t a winner because he was a master tactician. He was, but he was a people person. I am not sure about Bilic. I don’t know enough of his people skills. He has had a mixed bag of results. All I know is we have to get something out of Norwich to stay on the right track. That would give a prospective manager confidence that he can build on the momentum. let’s hope Johnson is the current day Tony Parkes caretaker manager mould. According to ai the resemblance is uncanny🤔

Nothing. Just another who some friendly agent has constantly tried to get through the door again here. Standard lower league fodder.