2025-26 Relegation thread

[DE.]

2 hours ago, NJRover said:

Thing is, the results have been crap when he’s had the better players available so I have zero faith in him digging us out of this when they are back. 

I tend to agree, but I do think if we had our preferred first eleven out every match we'd probably just about survive.

Football doesn't work that way though. You need solid players available to rotate, and we were so utterly decimated in the summer that it is zero surprise to anybody with a modicum of common sense that our form has instantly tanked the moment we needed to call upon those in reserve. 

Ismael is a poor manager, but the league is full of 'em. If we go down the largest share of responsibility will lay, as always, with our clueless owners and those they employ to "run" the club. 

Edited Saturday at 21:00 by DE.

[JHRover]

A penny for the thoughts of a Eustace, Travis, Hyam, Batth, Brittain right now as their clubs compete for promotion/play offs whilst we nosedive towards League One.

Almost like we should have fought tooth and nail to keep that lot and build around them rather than ripping it all up and forcing them all out. 

[Cherry Blue]

9 minutes ago, JHRover said:

A penny for the thoughts of a Eustace, Travis, Hyam, Batth, Brittain right now as their clubs compete for promotion/play offs whilst we nosedive towards League One.

Almost like we should have fought tooth and nail to keep that lot and build around them rather than ripping it all up and forcing them all out. 

Even Rudy knows that but he wont admit it to others, including his employer.

[broadsword]

I can't even get angry any more. What's the point, it doesn't change anything. 

I expect it's to be crap. It saves disappointment. We've been run like a joke shop for fifteen years. I think this season yes we're going down. If not this season (and there won't be much in it) then next season. 

And that would really be it for a long long time. We're may even drop another division after that. Will venues ever for the decent thing and fuck off? Have they ever done anything decent? 

Bearing on mind you never know who's coming after them, at least of wet got the bastards gone we can start again. But our agency in this situation is precisely zero. Living on hope it's not a good position to be in.

 

I think in the end, they will actually kill the club, given enough time. And even the singles will be sad then, because they'll have no-one left to hate 

[Ferrit]

Another step towards the drop, shit squad, shit manager, shit management. It’s not a good combo.

[roverblue]

Expected it and so far they are more than delivering on my expectations.
 

A new manager might have a chance to keep us up with a bounce but Ismael is only taking us down. 

[davulsukur]

20 hours ago, JHRover said:

A penny for the thoughts of a Eustace, Travis, Hyam, Batth, Brittain right now as their clubs compete for promotion/play offs whilst we nosedive towards League One.

Almost like we should have fought tooth and nail to keep that lot and build around them rather than ripping it all up and forcing them all out. 

All the Venky plants on twitter that were arguing with me that Ismael is a much better manager than Eustace, seem to have disappeared for some reason 🤔

[London blue]

21 hours ago, JHRover said:

A penny for the thoughts of a Eustace, Travis, Hyam, Batth, Brittain right now as their clubs compete for promotion/play offs whilst we nosedive towards League One.

Almost like we should have fought tooth and nail to keep that lot and build around them rather than ripping it all up and forcing them all out. 

Thinking about the "Travis is ordinary and we won't miss him" posts that I saw everywhere when he left.

Absolutely crying out for a hard working captain with a bit of needle.

It's fine, I'm sure Tavares will become the next Fernandinho any time now.

Edited yesterday at 18:19 by London blue

[Mattyblue]

21 hours ago, JHRover said:

A penny for the thoughts of a Eustace, Travis, Hyam, Batth, Brittain right now as their clubs compete for promotion/play offs whilst we nosedive towards League One.

Almost like we should have fought tooth and nail to keep that lot and build around them rather than ripping it all up and forcing them all out. 

Of course, no red flags there and at least a load got satisfaction in waving inflatables in his general direction. 

Edited yesterday at 18:33 by Mattyblue

[Upside Down]

1 hour ago, davulsukur said:

All the Venky plants on twitter that were arguing with me that Ismael is a much better manager than Eustace, seem to have disappeared for some reason 🤔

You know he's shit when even the bots won't come to his defense 

[Blow-in]

Feels like Oxford are gone with Wednesday, Norwich are too good to go down and will pull away. 

So, us vs Portsmouth?

[Blue blood]

10 minutes ago, Blow-in said:

Feels like Oxford are gone with Wednesday, Norwich are too good to go down and will pull away. 

So, us vs Portsmouth?

Yes as suspected Oxford are really struggling. A poor appointment wont have helped either.  Good news is its likely only 1 space to play for/avoid. Feel theres a few teams it could be and a poor appointment from West Brom means its no certainty it'll be us whatsoever. Portsmouth and Charlton also in the mix with small squads and Norwich aren't out of the woods either. 

[danger19_80]

27 minutes ago, Blow-in said:

Feels like Oxford are gone with Wednesday, Norwich are too good to go down and will pull away. 

So, us vs Portsmouth?

West Brom currently sinking like a stone...

[sverrehh]

I would expect media to put high pressure on the club to at least get rid of VI and also continuously highlight the long list of troubles regarding Venkys. I'm surprised that Elliot Jackson, a young journo early in his career, seems so alone in reporting on Rovers. 

Perhaps it's due to the high numbers of clubs around Lancashire? 

 

[MarkBRFC]

I've always been of the opinion this season since it became clear we were going to sell off all our decent Championship experience that it will be 50/50 on relegation but we would eventually limp to safety when we get Toth back in goal, Alebiosu, Morishita & Gudjohnsen back in the side, and I think I still do but those results over the weekend were a killer. It's getting far too close for comfort. Although I believe that 2 spots are now taken and it's 4 maybe even a 5 way shootout for the last one.

The next two weeks or so are huge, against a poor Swansea side away, 3 home games in a row including Sheffield Wednesday, and then Norwich away. Think after these 4 games we will more or less know, if we're still out of the bottom 3 by a few points my original prediction of limping to safety will happen I think.

But as has been said further up, the main concern for me is if/when we fall into that bottom 3 do we have enough characters at the club to claw and scrap to get us out of it?

I'm not sure we do.

Edited 7 hours ago by MarkBRFC

[...]

18 hours ago, Blow-in said:

Feels like Oxford are gone with Wednesday, Norwich are too good to go down and will pull away. 

So, us vs Portsmouth?

That's the likely final story I think. 

[RevidgeBlue]

1 hour ago, MarkBRFC said:

I've always been of the opinion this season since it became clear we were going to sell off all our decent Championship experience that it will be 50/50 on relegation but we would eventually limp to safety when we get Toth back in goal, Alebiosu, Morishita & Gudjohnsen back in the side, and I think I still do but those results over the weekend were a killer. It's getting far too close for comfort. Although I believe that 2 spots are now taken and it's 4 maybe even a 5 way shootout for the last one.

The next two weeks or so are huge, against a poor Swansea side away, 3 home games in a row including Sheffield Wednesday, and then Norwich away. Think after these 4 games we will more or less know, if we're still out of the bottom 3 by a few points my original prediction of limping to safety will happen I think.

But as has been said further up, the main concern for me is if/when we fall into that bottom 3 do we have enough characters at the club to claw and scrap to get us out of it?

I'm not sure we do.

Im amazed you've had this confidence all season that we'll stay up. 

I've been of the view that those away wins in the first half of the campaign were very much an outlier and once those inevitably dried up we'd be in desperate trouble. Which is now proving to be the case seemingly.

If Ismael stays I don't think it'll even be close, I think we'll struggle to get to 40 points. A new voice, approach and pair of eyes and we might just get enough of a bounce to scrape to safety.

[RevidgeBlue]

18 hours ago, danger19_80 said:

West Brom currently sinking like a stone...

Watched them v Boro Friday night.

Although they lost 3-2 to a late goal right at the death they played pretty well and I can't see them going down.

[MarkBRFC]

6 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Im amazed you've had this confidence all season that we'll stay up. 

I've been of the view that those away wins in the first half of the campaign were very much an outlier and once those inevitably dried up we'd be in desperate trouble. Which is now proving to be the case seemingly.

If Ismael stays I don't think it'll even be close, I think we'll struggle to get to 40 points. A new voice, approach and pair of eyes and we might just get enough of a bounce to scrape to safety.

I think there are a few bad sides around us, and like I said I think its at least a 4 way shoot out for one place, it will go to the wire I imagine either way.

Like said in the previous post, if we're in the bottom 3 after that Norwich away game though, then I think that will probably be that when you look at the games afterwards.

Edited 6 hours ago by MarkBRFC

[JHRover]

West Brom's home form has been decent, away atrocious. 

Suspect their managerial appointment could go either way. If he's ok they should be fine with that squad but if he's not up to the job - and it continues to baffle me why some clubs have this obsession with finding the next 'big thing' rather than going with tried and tested - it could spiral rapidly.

We need them to because Swansea look like they have enough to get out of it and pretty much everyone else bar Portsmouth and Charlton are showing signs of having enough about them. 

Exciting times for the project.

[WacoRover]

We have 13 guys missing out vs swans. I’m not a huge Ismael fan or a detractor, but we couldn’t beat many L1 teams with this many first teamers out. 

[Athlete]

13 minutes ago, WacoRover said:

We have 13 guys missing out vs swans. I’m not a huge Ismael fan or a detractor, but we couldn’t beat many L1 teams with this many first teamers out. 

We wouldnt beat many league one or two sides with the dross we have ATM

[sharpysharps86]

4 minutes ago, WacoRover said:

We have 13 guys missing out vs swans. I’m not a huge Ismael fan or a detractor, but we couldn’t beat many L1 teams with this many first teamers out. 

Definitely missing some key players that would improve the first team, but I think to me it's more that the team doesn't seem to have a particular approach or plan and that Ismael is sending the players out like lambs to the slaughter. Maybe that's simply down to missing so many players, but there's no real identity to how the team want to play, no plan as such. Its just a bunch of athletes who can run around a lot and do very little with the ball.

[RevidgeBlue]

27 minutes ago, WacoRover said:

We have 13 guys missing out vs swans. I’m not a huge Ismael fan or a detractor, but we couldn’t beat many L1 teams with this many first teamers out. 

Keep hearing this, and not trying to have a go but........Alebiosu and Gudjohnssen have obviously been big misses,  who else do you think that's unavailable would make THAT much of a difference?

[WacoRover]

1 hour ago, Athlete said:

We wouldnt beat many league one or two sides with the dross we have ATM

I do not disagree, I’m simply saying it’s not all on Ismael.