v Bradford City (h) - 12/8/25 - Carabao Cup

[JCRovers]

Owners to Pasha/Gestede: we want the club to be self-sustainable by increasing academy minutes and sell them later on for big money like with A. Wharton. We wont support the club with additional funds on the transfer market; you will have to generate it on your own with player sales and salary cuts.

Gestede to Ismael: you need to start playing our youngsters. There will be an incentive strucure in place with bonuses paid out if we reach our target (3 000 minutes per season).

Ismael to Gestede after cup exit: this is the current level of our academy players. As you can see, they aren't good enough to even compete with a newly-promoted L1 side who fielded six reserve players themselves for the tie. If we play these in the Championship, our standards will drop considerably and we'll struggle to pick up points in the matches. Can we please go back to recruiting players that we need to strengthen the squad? You know, 'Allez les bleus' and so on. 

[MarkBRFC]

8 hours ago, DaveyB said:

I don’t understand why we’re so intent on getting rid of Pears & Buckley in favour of Michalski and Montgomery, when the latter are so far off the quality required. 

Making the mistake of thinking the playing side is the priority here.

Michalski and Montgomery are probably at least 80% cheaper than Pears and Buckley.

That is the answer to why those two are favoured.

[K-Hod]

9 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

What did he do tonight? 

After he gave the ball away on the edge of our area he perked up a little and played one or two nice balls but nothing earth shattering. The receiving player still always has it all to do.

Does he score any goals? - No

Does he provide any assists? - No

Does he provide any defence splitting balls which leave the receiving player with a clear cut chance? - No.

And this was against League 1 opposition.

Apart from 7 in the league last season......

[MarkBRFC]

Kargbo.

For me he should only be used as an outlet when we're winning a game and the other team are chasing a goal. Leave him on the half way line and hit his pace when we win the ball back.

You can't bring him on when needing a goal he runs down blind alleys far to much, and with defending team sitting back he has no space to exploit with his pace.

[47er]

1 hour ago, Mike Graham said:

We were told it was a new addition.  In my humble opinion it is all about trying to increase value for future sale.

and not having to spend in the meantime! Win win.

[Penwortham Blue]

12 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

Kargbo.

For me he should only be used as an outlet when we're winning a game and the other team are chasing a goal. Leave him on the half way line and hit his pace when we win the ball back.

You can't bring him on when needing a goal he runs down blind alleys far to much, and with defending team sitting back he has no space to exploit with his pace.

I also think that with the pausity of what we can field up front, he might also be better suited going down the middle with more space and pace more of a threat.

[Jimmy612]

1 hour ago, Herbie6590 said:

Yeah…so more likely to be a KPI that if reached pays out, akin to a sales target…

If true, absolutely atrocious.  You can't just shoehorn kids in for what essentially boils down to personal gain.  A key performance indicator is defined as "a quantifiable measure used to evaluate the success of an organisation, employee, etc. in meeting objectives for performance."

Academy's don't necessarily produce first-team ready players every season, there are duff years.  During the first 3 or 4 Championship seasons who actually played from our academy?  Lowe, Henley, Kean.  Hanley did but he was already established, an earlier batch really. 

It wasn't until Lenihan, Nyambe, Raya, Mahoney came through in 16/17 that we started seeing real Championship quality come through, and even then, a lot of them weren't ready for the cut and thrust of the Championship straight away. 

Players should only play first team football if they are good enough, not because of some fanciful KPI.  There's a reason Eustace went for experience and didn't opt for many academy lads last season.  Quite simply, because we didn't have any that are ready.  Not to mention that any that are considered decent appear to get hoovered up by PL clubs.  Finneran, Phillips etc. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

41 minutes ago, JCRovers said:

Owners to Pasha/Gestede: we want the club to be self-sustainable by increasing academy minutes and sell them later on for big money like with A. Wharton. We wont support the club with additional funds on the transfer market; you will have to generate it on your own with player sales and salary cuts.

Gestede to Ismael: you need to start playing our youngsters. There will be an incentive strucure in place with bonuses paid out if we reach our target (3 000 minutes per season).

Ismael to Gestede after cup exit: this is the current level of our academy players. As you can see, they aren't good enough to even compete with a newly-promoted L1 side who fielded six reserve players themselves for the tie. If we play these in the Championship, our standards will drop considerably and we'll struggle to pick up points in the matches. Can we please go back to recruiting players that we need to strengthen the squad? You know, 'Allez les bleus' and so on. 

The chicken chokers probably think we can whistle up a Wharton every season. We all know that players like him come along every 20-25 years, if you’re lucky. We only kept hold of Wharton as long as we did because he was also a fan.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Still reeling from last night,there were no excuses for that poor level of performance.We will have to improve 100% for Saturday or face a mauling infront of a packed Darwen End.

Can only reiterate that I believe there is a lot of discontent behind the scenes,quite a few of these Players would be more than happy to jump ship at the first opportunity,is VI capable of man managing this situation?...Heads must be really down after last night.

Pissed off already with how matters are going.Dont need this worry tbh.

[Miller11]

1 hour ago, wilsdenrover said:

Do you know whether any previous manager has had such a clause in their contract?

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.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

10 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

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.

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

[...]

20 hours ago, Old Codger said:

Would love to one day, but we are away this week. Another time,yah ☺️

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

[M_B]

10 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Definitely some promising signs but Travis is a proven quality Championship midfielder and our captain.

When he goes, we need a proper replacement. We wont get one but we need one. 

Tavares can hopefully push as 3rd choice and beyond that, the cupboard is bare. Could roll up Buckley, Forshaw and Montgomery into 1 and wouldnt have a Championship midfielder.

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. 

Edited 4 hours ago by M_B

[Waggy76]

17 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

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.

That can only end one way ! 

RELEGATION by  Easter  not just that but another deliberate one too boot !

Venkys Out !

 

[...]

Anyone else trying to compute the last two games but not managing to come to a conclusion as to wtf happened? 

It's.like going out on a bender and waking up not knowing the chaos you caused. Baffled.

Edited 4 hours ago by ...

[den]

11 hours ago, Miller11 said:

I expect the fact that Ismael is bonused on giving young players their debut and minutes is a bigger reason for his team selection.

It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if that were true.

 At a proper football club the manager would be paid solely for results or league position. This is just more proof that there really is no real ambition to improve anything, any more.

[alexanders]

32 minutes ago, ... said:

Anyone else trying to compute the last two games but not managing to come to a conclusion as to wtf happened? 

It's.like going out on a bender and waking up not knowing the chaos you caused. Baffled.

Very much so. I have even rewatched Rovers v Watford and Rovers v Millwall to try to understand it. What is quite clear is that VI wants a style of play where we win the ball high up the pitch. This makes us very vulnerable when don't win the ball. Also we were very reliable on Ohashi collecting the ball, back to Cantwell and Tronstad who puts the ball over the defenders for Britain and Dolan to chase, going round the defender and cut back. Think 3 of 4 goals against Millwall came that way. 

We saw glimpses of this against WBA, where De Neve got round his defender and cut the pass back in only with Axel to arrive a bit late. We also saw that Alebiosu got by his marker and got the cut back in. This is defently a big part of our strategy. 

What also is very evident is that we are playing very sluggish, passes completely astray and a chaotic game. I have never warmed to VI. In small spells we look like a very good side with neat passing, running and winning the ball back, but when it doesn't work we are running around like headless chickens and look non-league. 

 

Also - how extremely bad was Gueye yesterday. 

Edited 4 hours ago by alexanders

[joey_big_nose]

The irony is clearly the directive was to use the Carabou cup to blood youngsters/ new signings but we over egged it and lost an easy game so now dont have any more games to do it. Kind of shot ourselves in the foot....

[Herbie6590]

2 hours ago, wilsdenrover said:

Would that still not be contractual though even if it’s conditional?

Of course hitting a condition on playing minutes is pretty easy when you’re the chap who picks the team…

In my (financial services) career I never saw that level of detail in a contract. The detail was in the job description & the annual objectives. With Rovers though…who knows? 

[...]

1 hour ago, alexanders said:

Very much so. I have even rewatched Rovers v Watford and Rovers v Millwall to try to understand it. What is quite clear is that VI wants a style of play where we win the ball high up the pitch. This makes us very vulnerable when don't win the ball. Also we were very reliable on Ohashi collecting the ball, back to Cantwell and Tronstad who puts the ball over the defenders for Britain and Dolan to chase, going round the defender and cut back. Think 3 of 4 goals against Millwall came that way. 

We saw glimpses of this against WBA, where De Neve got round his defender and cut the pass back in only with Axel to arrive a bit late. We also saw that Alebiosu got by his marker and got the cut back in. This is defently a big part of our strategy. 

What also is very evident is that we are playing very sluggish, passes completely astray and a chaotic game. I have never warmed to VI. In small spells we look like a very good side with neat passing, running and winning the ball back, but when it doesn't work we are running around like headless chickens and look non-league. 

 

Also - how extremely bad was Gueye yesterday. 

He doesn't seem to have picked up where he left off. Winds me up flapping his arms around at a poor pass but doesn't chase it down its like he runs abit to force place but gives up chasing. 

I think lastnight changed when cantwell and kargbo came on. They were playing to the right most of the game but felt we were more dangerous from the left when we started running at them. 

 

[...]

56 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

The irony is clearly the directive was to use the Carabou cup to blood youngsters/ new signings but we over egged it and lost an easy game so now dont have any more games to do it. Kind of shot ourselves in the foot....

Agree, I said we should of played full strength then filter the youngsters in . But what do I know

[Hasta]

15 minutes ago, ... said:

He doesn't seem to have picked up where he left off

He didn't start a game after Mid-March and made fleeting substitute appearances. He'd gone off the boil and been dropped long before the season ended.

[wilsdenrover]

2 hours ago, Miller11 said:

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.

Thank you - so can we add him to the list of people where results aren’t the most important thing to them?

Edited 2 hours ago by wilsdenrover
aren’t not are!!

[DuffsLeftPeg]

19 minutes ago, ... said:

Agree, I said we should have played full strength then filter the youngsters in . But what do I know

We only played 3 youngsters, 2 of which got minutes in the Championship last season. The rest of the team are seasoned professionals and/or recent first team signings. There are no excuses for losing, especially with a bench full of our very best players (if you can call them that!).

I’m hoping the new look team can kick on, starting with a win on Saturday which would change everything. But so far the signs aren’t looking good!

[wilsdenrover]

1 hour ago, Herbie6590 said:

In my (financial services) career I never saw that level of detail in a contract. The detail was in the job description & the annual objectives. With Rovers though…who knows? 

Not that I’d ever work for them, but I’d want every promise they made me to be contractual.