Jon Dahl Tomasson - Officially No Longer Our Head Coach

[philipl]

JDT undoubtedly the best boss we have had since Sparky.

Really appreciate the way he has set out achieving his project at Rovers.

His man management seems exceptional and has engendered a fantastic team spirit amongst a really nice decent set of lads who are responding to him.

Fitness levels are great which obviously is at least equally down to Gregg Broughton and the back room team.

JDT also comes over as a really decent eloquent bloke in that way.

We have a gem of a first team coach.

 

 

[M_B]

"But we're 3rd"

That's been the most important factor this season,when the poor performances and results came along, there was always the league table to fall back on. Tomasson has been doing his work at the top end of the table all season, thanks to that win/lose sequence. 

Booed off by some at half time against Millwall, when we were top 6 was a good example. 

The young heads were far too good for the old heads yesterday, superb performance just missing the 2nd goal. 

[47er]

9 minutes ago, M_B said:

"But we're 3rd"

That's been the most important factor this season,when the poor performances and results came along, there was always the league table to fall back on. Tomasson has been doing his work at the top end of the table all season, thanks to that win/lose sequence. 

Booed off by some at half time against Millwall, when we were top 6 was a good example. 

The young heads were far too good for the old heads yesterday, superb performance just missing the 2nd goal. 

Scoring remains our achilles heel. Our GD is 1!

You have to go down to 12th to find a team with a worse one.(Preston)

1 place above us are Boro with a GD of 21!

Edited March 5, 2023 by 47er

[Mattyblue]

All that ‘false position’ stuff and taking the piss out of others for merely pointing out that ‘we are 3rd’ was always a bit silly.

This fella isn’t TM and even in bad runs of form we were still picking up odd wins, no death spirals with this mon.

[Upside Down]

It was more the way that people were pointing to the league position to try and gloss over the gutless performances where the team just couldn't be arsed.

The Burnley and Preston games were not acceptable. 

[Mattyblue]

No it wasn’t just that. It was also a ‘false position’ and we’d soon be 10th, just like usual… but there is no ‘usual’ when it’s a different fella in charge.

[Upside Down]

Some of us overreacted for sure 🙋‍♂️

 

Fortunately JDT has turned things around it seems.

The rest of the club is operating at the usual pace though.

[philipl]

35 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

Some of us overreacted for sure 🙋‍♂️

 

Fortunately JDT has turned things around it seems.

The rest of the club is operating at the usual pace though.

Is it in entirety?

Somebody got to the bungalow compound and got Madam sign off on £10m for O'brien within a couple of hours on 31 January. 

That is a complete change of gears in Pune.

Yes the ball got dropped a few hours later in the Company Secretary office but the transfer offer suggests Venkys are much more engaged behind the scenes.

 

[goozburger]

24 minutes ago, philipl said:

Somebody got to the bungalow compound and got Madam sign off on £10m for O'brien within a couple of hours on 31 January.

Firstly, that's only if we were promoted, after which we could easily afford it without Venky-credit. Secondly, I'm sure the EFL document said it was an option to buy, not an obligation to buy.

Edited March 5, 2023 by goozburger

[J*B]

2 hours ago, goozburger said:

Firstly, that's only if we were promoted, after which we could easily afford it without Venky-credit. Secondly, I'm sure the EFL document said it was an option to buy, not an obligation to buy.

It’s worded strangely - the ‘option’ was automatically activated on promotion. 

[philipl]

10 hours ago, goozburger said:

Firstly, that's only if we were promoted, after which we could easily afford it without Venky-credit. Secondly, I'm sure the EFL document said it was an option to buy, not an obligation to buy.

You are missing my point.

In the past there would have been a weeks maybe never delay on getting a decision like that. 

They made a decision quickly and irrespective of the conditionality and PL riches, making a 10m commitment is not a small decision. If we went up, it automatically triggered the purchase for 10m as soon as the summer window opened. From a cash flow perspective, that meant millions going out before PL riches come in.

 

[goozburger]

47 minutes ago, philipl said:

They made a decision quickly and irrespective of the conditionality and PL riches, making a 10m commitment is not a small decision.

The deal itself is conditional. It's clearly based on having Premier League money in the coffers. Otherwise we'd have committed regardless of promotion.

£10m is peanuts in the Premier League, even for teams recently promoted. I'm not sure what your point is. That Venkys are being generous?

Edited March 5, 2023 by goozburger

[XLM]

I think their point is that (presumably Broughton) managed to get sign off on £10m of spend from Venkys in hours, where over the past few years Waggot/Mowbray/Venus couldn't get sign off for basically anything for weeks or more. 

It's a reasonable point I hadn't really thought about, regardless of it being a drop in the ocean compared to PL riches. It shows either Venkys have greater trust in the new setup, Broughton is just a better operator than the previous dollopers for thinking of that type of deal as an option, or Venkys are more engaged with the new setup. Probably a combination of all 3 to different degrees.

Whatever the reason,  it can only be a good sign.

[philipl]

7 hours ago, goozburger said:

The deal itself is conditional. It's clearly based on having Premier League money in the coffers. Otherwise we'd have committed regardless of promotion.

£10m is peanuts in the Premier League, even for teams recently promoted. I'm not sure what your point is. That Venkys are being generous?

It could be 10 pence, the amount is irrelevant. 

In the past decisions from Pune were very slow to come through.

Finally, there is a mechanism and a focus to get an instant ok out of the Venkys compound.

That is the point I am making.

 

[arbitro]

Unless we are going against what is almost a convention now no transfer fees are paid entirely in one payment. They are structured over the length of the players contract. So lauding these owners for something that would probably never happen anyway and if it did they wouldn't be throwing £10m in one go is poor in my view.

[goozburger]

3 hours ago, philipl said:

It could be 10 pence, the amount is irrelevant. 

In the past decisions from Pune were very slow to come through.

Finally, there is a mechanism and a focus to get an instant ok out of the Venkys compound.

That is the point I am making.

We've had "quick" decisions for big money moves on deadline day before, haven't we? Brereton for one?

The owners won't change their ways. The only thing that changes is who roams the corridors of Ewood and Brockhall. That could easily get worse, again, and we still have a few no-hopers, it seems. I'd be wary of believing that these owners have learned lessons. At best, they are very slow learners.

Edited March 6, 2023 by goozburger

[JHRover]

I usually look enviously at rival clubs managerial appointments and wish we'd have got A, B, C instead.

Right now I look and don't think there's a Championship club whose manager I would prefer over JDT.

The fitness and discipline we've seen at times this season is on another level.

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

Unless we are going against what is almost a convention now no transfer fees are paid entirely in one payment. They are structured over the length of the players contract. So lauding these owners for something that would probably never happen anyway and if it did they wouldn't be throwing £10m in one go is poor in my view.

They sanctioned 8 million for Rhodes a decade ago paid at 2 mill per season, presumably because they'd been told he'd fire us up. Then they sanctioned 7 million for an investment signing in Brereton paid in instalments and add ons so they do do theses big commitments every now and again when the wind is blowing in the right direction.

So it's not really a surprise and quite a sensible one seeing as it would only kick in IF promoted. Doesn't really matter though because it fell through so there is still something very wrong with the process.

 

[Gordon Ottershaw]

Obviously I understand the infatuation with Tomasson and he's clearly an upgrade on Mowbray but I just can't get past his team selection and the subsequent surrender against b*ly. Unforgivable unless we batter them at Ewood.

Edited March 6, 2023 by Gordon Ottershaw

[oldjamfan1]

1 minute ago, Gordon Ottershaw said:

Obviously I understand the infatuation with Tomasson and he's clearly an upgrade on Mowbray but I just can't get past his team selection and the subsequent surrender against b*ly. Unforgivable unlessess we batter them at Ewood.

Actually turning up and giving them a game would be a start wouldn't it?

[Gordon Ottershaw]

Just now, oldjamfan1 said:

Actually turning up and giving them a game would be a start wouldn't it?

Exactly. What made it worse was Tomasson assuring the fans that he knew how important the game was to us. That CANNOT happen again.

[Mattyblue]

Surely we’ve got to move on. He made mistakes on the day, we got well beaten. It was an awful day, but it was four months ago and we’ve bounced back strongly.

All this about it being ‘unforgivable’, of course it’s forgivable, he has us in with a chance of completely transforming this football club after just months in post.

We are getting as bad as them for obsessing about that one fixture. 
 

[Gordon Ottershaw]

1 minute ago, Mattyblue said:

Surely we’ve got to move on. He made mistakes on the day, we got well beaten. It was an awful day, but it was four months ago and we’ve bounced back strongly.

All this about it being ‘unforgivable’, of course it’s forgivable, he has us in with a chance of completely transforming this football club after just months in post.

We are getting as bad as them for obsessing about that one fixture. 
 

We have bounced back well of course but I'm an old school Rovers fan and I'm also from Accy so I do obsess about that game! I'll move on and forgive if we beat those ****s at Ewood.

[joey_big_nose]

We're playing really well at the moment, but that we seem to win despite creating lower quality chances than the opposition is a continuing head-f***.  There's very few games all season, including Sheff Utd on Saturday, where our xG has been higher than the opposition. I think that's where the reticence to get behind JDT comes from it doesn't quite stack up and gives the feeling of a "false position".

It's weird as you'd think it would eventually catch up with us, but it hasn't. 

Maybe it's just we are absolutely shit hot at last ditch defending? It's been 35 games now so that's long enough to say it's not a blip, we must be doing something right. 

This table is absolutely crackers : https://footystats.org/england/championship/xg

[Admiral Nelsen]

12 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

We're playing really well at the moment, but that we seem to win despite creating lower quality chances than the opposition is a continuing head-f***.  There's very few games all season, including Sheff Utd on Saturday, where our xG has been higher than the opposition. I think that's where the reticence to get behind JDT comes from it doesn't quite stack up and gives the feeling of a "false position".

It's weird as you'd think it would eventually catch up with us, but it hasn't. 

Maybe it's just we are absolutely shit hot at last ditch defending? It's been 35 games now so that's long enough to say it's not a blip, we must be doing something right. 

This table is absolutely crackers : https://footystats.org/england/championship/xg

 

Crackers indeed.

 

I think one thing which is an important factor is that we take a very old-school Italian approach to protecting a one goal lead. Scoring the first goal then shutting up shop is something we've done plenty of this season, but that's always going to harm the number of chances you create per 90 compared to teams who don't do that. 

Having said that, I think the position that we were in just before the World Cup did flatter us pretty significantly. Equally, our form over recent weeks I think shows more that we're capable of being one of the better sides in the division when it all clicks, so hopefully we can cash in on our slightly fortunate first few months!