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Good luck to him. It didn't work out on the pitch but he won't be forgotten off the pitch. I think we were lucky to get as much as we did for him. I hope the recruitment team take this as a lesson learnt when it comes to future signings.

Where has all the money gone?!

Didn't ismael say that earlier in the season about some of the players? He certainly was critical of Taveres He said something along the lines of they have had their settling in period and now we need to see improvement

The point you were replying to initially was about the new manager saying the squad is shite. What you're saying now isn't exactly the same...but players can read between the lines and would know they're being told they're not good enough players.

I think we just look at them as mainly U18 games, (plus a few from the U21s), considering our competition in that competition are Preston, Blackpool etc who are no where near PL2 level

The pathetic penny pinching nature of this club screams out that we couldn't sign a striker until somebody took Gueye of us. All on the chumps running recruitment now.

Gestede: Hold my beer!

Now that's gone through there's really no excuses for having a striker in for the weekend.

'These lads need to improve if we're to be successful' Is that demoralising?

Roy Orbison - Only the Lonely

No argument from me that Eustace Is a far better manager But when he was here with a much more experienced squad when injuries hit key players he also struggled to win matches

Yeah can echo a lot of thoughts in here. My first game as a kid was September 1988 against Oldham at Ewood, first away game was a week later against Stoke. I'd say I have been obsessed with everything Blackburn Rovers from the start of 1990/91 season after the World Cup in Italy caught everyone's imagination. Been at all the key games over the years, Wembley 92, Anfield 95, Deepdale 2001, Cardiff, 2002, Doncaster 2018, plus a lot of low ones too that ended in relegations,aAll over Europe, cup games at Blyth etc I even stopped playing Sunday mornings in 2010 so I could still watch Rovers as much as possible when my lad was born as couldn't really be out all weekend with a new child. For me the apathy kicked in after the first relegation and it being clear that nobody in charge was bothered about this great club. Remember choosing to give my garden a complete makeover instead of going to the Peterborough game at Ewood in 2013, nipped inside to get a brew at half time and checked the score to see us 3-0 down, I just shook my head and went back outside to carry on, wasn't even angry. Family was just in complete shock that I was doing that instead of being at the game. Kept my season ticket for a few more years but found it very easy to miss a game here and there which would have been unthinkable a few years before. Finally gave it up when Owen Coyle was appointed, genuinely thought someone was taking the piss. However I started to take my lad the season before, and he enjoyed it to a degree without being desperate to go again. During this Coyle season he did ask to go a few more times so we did, and I probably ended up spending as much on match tickets as the ST was worth. Got ST back in league one, a novelty season with winning every week and achieving something at the end of it, and ticking off some new grounds in the process. 6 months into the following season under Mowbray I was at the same stage a few years previous where again, lad was 50/50 into it and when he didn't want to go I just didn't bother, then when covid hit and we had 18 months out I was very close to just not bothering again. Something changed with my lad in that 18 months though, he had just started high school, got into watching football a lot more despite playing it since he was 5, his mates all went to games watching the local teams to where we live (Stoke & Port Vale mostly) and he was itching to go back to games, so we got ST's again and he has been completely obsessed with Rovers ever since, much like I was back at his age and honestly it rejuvenated me to a degree too to have it to share with him, we have probably been to 90% of weekend games since coming back from covid and any midweek's that have fallen in school holidays, his face when we win is priceless and completely worth it to me. Sorry this post has gone on longer than I envisaged, I guess where I am at now is that as long as my lad still wants to go then I am in and will go anywhere with him, if he ever gets fed up with it, or in a couple of years he might go to a university far away or something, then if nothing has changed, which I don't think it ever will, then that will probably see me knock Ewood on the head. I do think I would carry on with a few aways though as I'm lucky to have a really good group of mates that we go with and the days out are always superb win, lose or draw.

So if he came in and completely demoralised the squad you'd consider that a good start?

Just got a push notification from club via WhatsApp that big mak has made his big move to Shanghai.

'knows the club!'

Yeah but he won't while Gestede and Pasha are doing the choosing then whoever replaces Ismael will be reading from the same script.

I'd support the guy that replaced him if he came in & said that yes.

Hmm. Seems a bit risky to enter this central league with that being the case so often, progress in other cups could cause the u18s to be overplayed too I would think. Maybe it doesn't land that way and has been considered though. Also strange the central league decides to have its fixtures the day after pl2 ones.

We don't even need to 'do a Wrexham' or even a Sheffield Wednesday or Birmingham (yet). For now we remain a Championship club and still have some vestiges of modern-day club infrastructure - 3/4 of Ewood Park, Brockhall and the academy. That's Jack Walker's legacy, which they've tried to destroy but bricks and mortar not so easy. Many of these other clubs - Wrexham, Birmingham, Wednesday, even Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth - needed so much more - multiple promotions, new stadiums, new training grounds, major works. We don't strictly need any of that, though the facilities and background do need some major renovations and investment. What we need to be looking for is an owner that wants to get to the PL fast which only needs one good season. Sadly these owners are going to ensure that this selling point is quickly removed by taking the club into League One, immediately making the job twice as long and difficult, requiring two promotions and more rebuilding. At least when we are there the nay-sayers will have more ammunition on the 'who would buy such a club?' game.

Me when venkys decide to sell

Carrick in at the Red Rats. I can’t see him making much difference.

It’s the hope that kills you.

I think we'll stay up this season by the skin of our teeth, maybe by 3 or 4 points. If Valerian stays, I'm sure we will go down next season, dropping like a stone, based on our trajectory of constant downgrading in every possible area of the football club. We've had an okay run of games in December and January, yet failed to pick up many points and we've built a gap but it's a fragile one. That true horror run of fixtures we have for the last 10 or so games will eat into any remaining point gap very quickly and we will be shitting ourselves til very late in the season.

I'd say we would be doing better than this. But of course that isn't a situation that could have occurred with JE as this squad needs manager willing to work with it.