Jon Dahl Tomasson - Officially No Longer Our Head Coach

[sympatheticclaret]

3 hours ago, Ianrally said:

I have heard that a lady office worker/secretary has been binned and carried the can for the McGuire charade. These tossers must not know that only the CEO or the club secretary can deal with the EFL regarding transfers. It seems they have found a sacrificial lamb. 

Need to see full evidence, but if true I trust she was well paid off !! Only two are authorised to deal with the EFL regarding transfers with the necessary codes, and if either of the senior staff " delegated " these roles, it is they who should resign ...

I give you the example of Peter Carrington, ( 1919-2018 ), 1st Tank Commander across Nijmegen Bridge in 1945, ( Military Cross ), various political offices until becoming Foreign Secretary, under Thatcher in 1979. Negotiated the Rhodesia settlement in 1979, but after the Falklands Invasion on 2nd April 1982, he resigned 3 days later, because " It was my responsibility, my team failed to see the problem, I didn't ask the right questions, and I am ultimately responsible " .. A man of honour, and decency ..

He's chucked an admin Clerk " Under the Bus " whilst failing to take responsibility ... In days of old, he'd have been asked to take a bottle of Malt Whisky and a service revolver into the woods, and do the decent thing !!

[Bbrovers2288]

Liked jdt but few of the responses are a bit ott, he had his faults.

we could never turn a game around

we conceded too many late goals

we didn’t score any late goals that were meaningful 

he was a breath of fresh air from Mowbray and I liked him as a person.

im not too against eustace, I think he will give us more steel and guile to grind out results which we are going to need

im also not really holding gregg responsible for the circus show.

i want the whole thing to fold from the top but i would take waggot just now to appease me. Guy is an absolute rat

[philipl]

Devastated to see JDT leave despite the departure being so protracted.

From the moment he got gagged from talking to the press before the QPR game, we all knew he was being elbowed out.

What a thoroughly classy man. Brilliant communicator and passionate football coach. I used to look forward to JDT's pressers just to hear the way he spoke in what is, let's not forget, his 5th language.

And yes he gave us all a glimpse of what Rovers could and. should become in both the league and cups. The highlight for me was the West Ham penalty shoot out- I would never in a million years believe 10 Rovers players could take 10 such brilliant penalties!

He had a vision and a project cruelly destroyed by Venky's again reaping the results of their idiocy a dozen years ago and a CEO who is so far below the standards and professionalism set by JDT that he is worse than an earthworm to JDT's eagle. 

[Jimmy612]

10 hours ago, Oldgregg86 said:

I don’t understand how losing Ennis ,Wharton and Travis plus our manager and bringing in kids on loan and old age crocks plus relatively inexperienced manager who doesn’t know the players and said in his own words we don’t have much time on the training field due to the amount of games puts us in an UNDOUBTEDLY better position.   

I can understand what Jones Rover is saying. Without doubt, 6 weeks ago the squad was in a better place. IMO it was a shameful window, topped off by losing AW and never replacing him. 
 

BUT, we are in a better position than we were a week ago. JDTs job was untenable (as I said the night the McGuire transfer fell through), and we couldn’t have limped on with a head coach who simply had lost his spirit and with it I think his ability to turn around this awful run. 
 

Now perhaps we can have some semblance of a fresh start, in the dressing room and on the pitch at least. I’ve a feeling Eustace will be more pragmatic, take us back to basics and number 1 priority, stop conceding goals. He’s a relative unknown from a head coach point of view, but he knows the league and importantly, he knows what the bottom half of the league looks and feels like. I’m more confident of avoiding relegation than I was 48 hours ago.

The club is a mess, the save/send fiasco stinks of sabotage, the AW money will never be seen again and the Indian court issue looms large in the background. But from purely a football point of view, I think we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance. 
 

JDT leaves with my thanks and a huge amount of respect. A good man and a decent coach sadly fallen victim to this charade of football club.

[jones_rover]

11 hours ago, Oldgregg86 said:

I don’t understand how losing Ennis ,Wharton and Travis plus our manager and bringing in kids on loan and old age crocks plus relatively inexperienced manager who doesn’t know the players and said in his own words we don’t have much time on the training field due to the amount of games puts us in an UNDOUBTEDLY better position.   

I should have been clearer, I in no way believe the transfer window was a success, it was the complete opposite.

I meant compared to a week ago, as Jimmy says below!

1 hour ago, Jimmy612 said:

I can understand what Jones Rover is saying. Without doubt, 6 weeks ago the squad was in a better place. IMO it was a shameful window, topped off by losing AW and never replacing him. 
 

BUT, we are in a better position than we were a week ago. JDTs job was untenable (as I said the night the McGuire transfer fell through), and we couldn’t have limped on with a head coach who simply had lost his spirit and with it I think his ability to turn around this awful run. 
 

Now perhaps we can have some semblance of a fresh start, in the dressing room and on the pitch at least. I’ve a feeling Eustace will be more pragmatic, take us back to basics and number 1 priority, stop conceding goals. He’s a relative unknown from a head coach point of view, but he knows the league and importantly, he knows what the bottom half of the league looks and feels like. I’m more confident of avoiding relegation than I was 48 hours ago.

The club is a mess, the save/send fiasco stinks of sabotage, the AW money will never be seen again and the Indian court issue looms large in the background. But from purely a football point of view, I think we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance. 
 

JDT leaves with my thanks and a huge amount of respect. A good man and a decent coach sadly fallen victim to this charade of football club.

 

[Gav]

11 hours ago, DE. said:

Amidst the gloom of the past decade, that FA Cup match against Leicester will be one I'll always be fond of. We were electric for those first 70 minutes and looked like we belonged in the PL. 

Agreed DE.

I'd also put the Sheff Utd FA Cup game up there.

Ok we lost the game, but the lead up to that tie, the ticket sales flew off the shelf, arriving in Sheffield to see thousands of Rovers fans was sight I thought I'd not see again. The match was scintillating, the result not so much, but to see over 6000 away fans at Bramall Lane, we could have sold 10,000, just proves this club still has the pulling power, we just need new ownership for the fans to come back and that will happen, its only a matter of time.

VENKYS OUT - NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

[Mattyblue]

Nothing lasts forever, but foreign courts forcing their hand aside, I just don’t see them unilaterally just deciding to give it up as a bad job and selling.

Why? Not a fecking clue. So this matter of time could still be pointing at many years. And Christ knows what will be left by then.

[jim mk2]

The Leicester Cup match was an electric night - the way we played, the fans enjoying themselves, one of the best for Rovers supporters in many years and even Sam Gallagher had a good game - but has to be set against the background of a club starting its own slide towards relegation and a manager in Brendan Rodgers who had lost heart and interest in the club and didn't know how to turn it round.

Rather like Tomasson in recent months in fact. 

Tomasson left some good memories (and some terrible ones too), and his honesty and engagement with the fans was refreshing compared to most of his predecessors.

However I'm not sorry to see him go.  It's been reported that he offered to resign in the summer when he realised the "project" was a sham and probably also that the people he was working for were such low grade.

If he were being honest with himself, he should have walked out then, like Paul Lambert did many years ago, but chose to carry on and has now left us in a dire situation from which we might not recover. If we do go down, this will be his legacy unfortunately, however much his fan club like to spin it. 

 

[jw_]

I'm an old git probably one of the oldest on this forum if not the oldest and I don't post much but I read on this board every day, some times several times a day. I grew up in Darwen saw my first game when I was 12 and have followed Rovers for over 70 years since, and I have never in all that time felt as I do now.

This club is being dragged down to a disgusting level by terrible so called owners and a totally inept and incompetent managerial personnel, in fact the incompetence is bordering on unbelievable and making Rovers a laughing stock.

I was gutted at the way JDT was forced to leave and I do mean forced. The decision makers at Ewood made his job unbearably difficult with their shambolic transfer manipulations which left him with a depleted squad ravaged by injuries. In this situation it started to become evident on the pitch and JDT started to get the blame with the usual "why didn't he do this or change things etc" The simple answer is the personnel he was left with were just not capable for all the above reasons. In the end JDT must have thought he was banging his head on a brick wall asking for new transfers then watching the so called management gyrations in the market, this must have made his job unbearable and that's why I say he was forced out. 

As many have correctly said the owners and the management are fully to blame for the miserable state of affairs that exist now at Rovers.

[rigger]

11 minutes ago, jw_ said:

I'm an old git probably one of the oldest on this forum if not the oldest and I don't post much but I read on this board every day, some times several times a day. I grew up in Darwen saw my first game when I was 12 and have followed Rovers for over 70 years since, and I have never in all that time felt as I do now.

This club is being dragged down to a disgusting level by terrible so called owners and a totally inept and incompetent managerial personnel, in fact the incompetence is bordering on unbelievable and making Rovers a laughing stock.

I was gutted at the way JDT was forced to leave and I do mean forced. The decision makers at Ewood made his job unbearably difficult with their shambolic transfer manipulations which left him with a depleted squad ravaged by injuries. In this situation it started to become evident on the pitch and JDT started to get the blame with the usual "why didn't he do this or change things etc" The simple answer is the personnel he was left with were just not capable for all the above reasons. In the end JDT must have thought he was banging his head on a brick wall asking for new transfers then watching the so called management gyrations in the market, this must have made his job unbearable and that's why I say he was forced out. 

As many have correctly said the owners and the management are fully to blame for the miserable state of affairs that exist now at Rovers.

I agree on most parts, but if (a big if )Eustace comes in and turns things around, that will debunk the arguement for JDT not having enough competent players, and just maybe, it was JDTs system of play that let the team down. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

27 minutes ago, rigger said:

I agree on most parts, but if (a big if )Eustace comes in and turns things around, that will debunk the arguement for JDT not having enough competent players, and just maybe, it was JDTs system of play that let the team down. 

He put all his signing eggs in the “ playing it out from the back “ basket and we’re stuck with that now to a great extent. I was surprised that we played that way after JDT mocked it as “ The Dutch Disease “ in one of his early press conferences.  It’ll be interesting to see how Eustace deals with the issue. He’ll know as much about our players abilities as most of us do, possibly more, having played against most of them.

There’s an interesting article in my paper today regarding David Moyes. He’s one of the last ones to hold out against the new “ keep ball, walking football “ way of playing  apparently. It refers to  “ L’Equipe’s report on West Ham’s game in August against Brighton describing it as a “ clash of styles that verged on the cartoonish “ as West Ham made 13 passes to Brighton’s 221 in the opening half an hour but still won the game.

There’s a message there. Passing for the sake of passing doesn’t get you very far.

Edited February 10 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[den]

1 hour ago, rigger said:

I agree on most parts, but if (a big if )Eustace comes in and turns things around, that will debunk the arguement for JDT not having enough competent players, and just maybe, it was JDTs system of play that let the team down. 

Impossible to judge that. Any new manager can get a new manager bounce that might last only a short time. Comparing the two managers over a longer time will also be impossible because you have to take into account many other factors in that case.

Edited February 10 by den

[den]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

He put all his signing eggs in the “ playing it out from the back “ basket and we’re stuck with that now to a great extent. 

There’s a message there. Passing for the sake of passing doesn’t get you very far.

All the best teams in England and probably the world,  play that way Tyrone. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

8 minutes ago, den said:

All the best teams in England and probably the world,  play that way Tyrone. 

Yes they do, and when Rovers have players of that stature again I hope we can play that way. At the moment we don’t have those players.

[Mattyblue]

Loads of teams of all ability levels play that way now.

Pep’s lot do it, so it is now the newest incarnation of that nebulous phrase ‘playing the football the right way’…as some lumbering centre half passes the ball to the opposing centre forward for the third time in order for him to smack it in.

Edited February 10 by Mattyblue

[rigger]

14 minutes ago, den said:

All the best teams in England and probably the world,  play that way Tyrone. 

The problem is a lot of the poorer teams also attempt to play it, usually with little success.

[jim mk2]

2 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Yes they do, and when Rovers have players of that stature again I hope we can play that way. At the moment we don’t have those players.

 

Luton won promotion last season playing a "basic" style - let's put it that way. A big centre forward and hard working grafters who competed in every area of the pitch. No one special. I went to the match at Kenilworth Road and guess what, we lost 2-0 by farting around with the ball at the back.

That's the way to get out of the Championship and I can't think of many teams who win promotion playing the continental way. It's interesting that Luton have changed their style a bit this season to play in the Premier League, helped of course by being able now to sign top class players such as Ross Barkley

I'm hoping Eustace is far more pragmatic than Tomasson and mixes up the way we play more. Tomasson was too dogmatic, and that's was just one of his failings

 

[Mattyblue]

Dogmatic this season. He certainly wasn’t for large parts of last as many folk were saying it how ‘boring’ it was as we kept grinding out 1-0 wins.

Something flipped in him over the summer, possibly because it had soured and he knew he was on borrowed time and he thought ‘feck this, I’m just going to work on playing my way’

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

 

Luton won promotion last season playing a "basic" style - let's put it that way. A big centre forward and hard working grafters who competed in every area of the pitch. No one special. I went to the match at Kenilworth Road and guess what, we lost 2-0 by farting around with the ball at the back.

That's the way to get out of the Championship and I can't think of many teams who win promotion playing the continental way. It's interesting that Luton have changed their style a bit this season to play in the Premier League, helped of course by being able now to sign top class players such as Ross Barkley

I'm hoping Eustace is far more pragmatic than Tomasson and mixes up the way we play more. Tomasson was too dogmatic, and that's was just one of his failings

 

All I know is it’s 10 times easier being the pressing player than it is being the player trying to play out from the back. One mistake in the last third and it usually ends up in a shot on goal. Which in our case usually equals a goal.

[jim mk2]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

All I know is it’s 10 times easier being the pressing player than it is being the player trying to play out from the back. One mistake in the last third and it usually ends up in a shot on goal. Which in our case usually equals a goal.

 

As a young player I went on trips to Europe and played in tournaments against teams from Germany, Italy, France etc. Unlike our lads, their defenders were all comfortable on the ball and played it amongst themselves even then, forerunners of the Guardiola era. It was interesting to say the least and as a forward, I found myself chasing shadows half the time. 

 

 

[B16Rover]

10 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Dogmatic this season. He certainly wasn’t for large parts of last as many folk were saying it how ‘boring’ it was as we kept grinding out 1-0 wins.

Something flipped in him over the summer, possibly because it had soured and he knew he was on borrowed time and he thought ‘feck this, I’m just going to work on playing my way’

'You want your fucking "project" then here it fucking is then'

[Eddie]

It is, without doubt, something of a bitter-sweet feeling.

I was a huge JDT supporter. I thought he was a breath of fresh air post-Mowbray. The brand of football he tried to play was, when it worked, some of the best football that we have seen in a very long time. Until recently, it delivered entertainment even in losing efforts. He was honest. He was thoughtful. He brought a sense of decency back to this club that had been sorely lacking for some time. Most of all, he had ambition.  

His tenure will be one that I fondly remember. Many have already highlighted the cup runs and some of the fantastic performances. There were some incredible enjoyable moments. Not only that, with a bit more luck down the final stretch last season he could have delivered playoff football and potentially even promotion. 

With all that being said, his position had become untenable. Not only because of the very poor run of results, but also because it felt as if he had lost his commitment to the job. Once it was revealed that he'd asked to step aside last summer it is difficult to imagine how he could keep the dressing room.

Good teams require buy-in and togetherness and his eagerness to leave showed that he wasn't really fully committed to this job from last summer onwards. It is easy to understand why and I don't think he deserves too much blame for that, but we can't forget that this is a well-paid position in one of the top 10 leagues in the world. As a football club, as a set of supporters, we deserve to have a manager who is fully committed to the job and who really wants to be here.

JDT was not that this season. He left with the dignity that he brought to the job on a daily basis and, for the first time in a long time, I actually wish a departing manager well in his future endeavors. There is little chance that I will develop the same level of fondness for Eustace that I had for JDT, but Eustace could be an excellent appointment who proves to be more successful as a manager at Ewood.

Time will tell, but it is a real shame.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

33 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

 

As a young player I went on trips to Europe and played in tournaments against teams from Germany, Italy, France etc. Unlike our lads, their defenders were all comfortable on the ball and played it amongst themselves even then, forerunners of the Guardiola era. It was interesting to say the least and as a forward, I found myself chasing shadows half the time. 

 

 

That’s why you’re out there Jim, they only have to get it wrong once.

[yoda]

 Can admin automatically change any posts with Venkies in to Raos, Glen might remember how it’s done 😀

Edited February 10 by yoda

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

52 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Yes they do, and when Rovers have players of that stature again I hope we can play that way. At the moment we don’t have those players.

If you take 2 similar quality teams, one plays out from the back, one sits deep and counter attacks with pace. 

I know which one I would back to win 8 times out of 10 and its not the tippy/tappy.

I also know which I'd rather watch. 

That said,  I always thought Rovers best performances over the last few years have been when we used a high press.