2025-26 Relegation thread

[RevidgeBlue]

1 hour ago, MarkBRFC said:

Looks like we'll be out of the relegation zone for the next week at least.

Nope.

And still waiting in vain for this "We usually seem to pull out a win when we really need it" type victory.

(Although I appreciate you've changed your mind and now only think we'll beat Wednesday 🙂 )

[davulsukur]

Leicester have sacked their manager.

[StHelensRover]

We've been averaging roughly 1 point per game 28 played, 29 pts).

If we continue on that run we'll get 46-48 points.

Some seasons that's enough to stay up, some seasons it isn't.

Our squad is getting gradually worse as the season progresses, morale is (presumably) getting lower and lower, I think it's 50/50 whether we survive. Two home wins only so far, if we only win another two home games before the end of the season, we're going down. 

Edit - we need to get to 50 points, that is usually enough. We need 21 points from 18 games, so 7 wins or 6 wins and a few draws? 

Edited yesterday at 16:31 by StHelensRover

[wilsdenrover]

Returning to our points per game of the first 14 matches gets us to 51 points

Maintaining our points per game from the last 14 matches gets us to 44 points.

 

[Hasta]

It’s that run in after Easter I don’t like the look of.
 

I know this league pulls out unexpected results, which we have really highlighted this year, but I can’t help thinking we are squandering the fixtures in which I expect us to garner points.

Edited yesterday at 21:09 by Hasta

[DE.]

4 hours ago, StHelensRover said:

We've been averaging roughly 1 point per game 28 played, 29 pts).

If we continue on that run we'll get 46-48 points.

Some seasons that's enough to stay up, some seasons it isn't.

Our squad is getting gradually worse as the season progresses, morale is (presumably) getting lower and lower, I think it's 50/50 whether we survive. Two home wins only so far, if we only win another two home games before the end of the season, we're going down. 

Edit - we need to get to 50 points, that is usually enough. We need 21 points from 18 games, so 7 wins or 6 wins and a few draws? 

The loudest alarm going off for me is the fact we haven't seen able to beat any of the teams around us. As far as I can remember we have dropped points to every single team from 16th downwards, even Sheffield Wednesday. Granted some of those were draws, but still, I think the signs are extremely ominous if we are not able to prove ourselves superior to a single one of the teams we're battling out with on an individual basis. With how tight the league is this year, it's entirely plausible that as the season ends there will still be a ton of teams competing for a top six spot - which means less likelihood of teams being 'on the beach' or resting players for upcoming playoff games. 

[RossendaleBlue3]

The whole "18 games to play, 54 points still to play for", really loses its gravitas when in the last 18 games we've played, we've only picked up 22 points

Forgive me for being cynical Val

[lraC]

4 hours ago, RossendaleBlue3 said:

The whole "18 games to play, 54 points still to play for", really loses its gravitas when in the last 18 games we've played, we've only picked up 22 points

Forgive me for being cynical Val

That return, would probably keep us up, but I can’t see us picking up even that many.

The next 2 at home could be crucial, but I can’t see us picking up even a point on Saturday, so the Sheff Weds game, then becomes high pressure.

[TimmyJimmy]

If anyone has access to an AI tool I'd be grateful if you could get this answered for me. Of the managers sacked this season how many of their clubs had more or less points than Rovers at that date (complicated because Wednesday had a points deduction).

My gut says that we're hanging on to VI well after other clubs fire their managers.

I have a bet with the wife!

This might help:

Danny Rohl (Sheffield Wednesday)
Departed: 29th July, 2025 

Ruben Selles (Sheffield United)
Departed: 14th September, 2025 

Paulo Pezzolano (Watford)
Departed: 8th October, 2025 

Will Still (Southampton)
Departed: 2nd November, 2025 

Liam Manning (Norwich City)
Departed: 8th November, 2025 

Alan Sheehan (Swansea City)
Departed: 11th November, 2025 

Marti Cifuentes (Leicester City)
Departed: 25th January, 2025

[JHRover]

15 minutes ago, TimmyJimmy said:

If anyone has access to an AI tool I'd be grateful if you could get this answered for me. Of the managers sacked this season how many of their clubs had more or less points than Rovers at that date (complicated because Wednesday had a points deduction).

My gut says that we're hanging on to VI well after other clubs fire their managers.

I have a bet with the wife!

This might help:

Danny Rohl (Sheffield Wednesday)
Departed: 29th July, 2025 

Ruben Selles (Sheffield United)
Departed: 14th September, 2025 

Paulo Pezzolano (Watford)
Departed: 8th October, 2025 

Will Still (Southampton)
Departed: 2nd November, 2025 

Liam Manning (Norwich City)
Departed: 8th November, 2025 

Alan Sheehan (Swansea City)
Departed: 11th November, 2025 

Marti Cifuentes (Leicester City)
Departed: 25th January, 2025

Interesting that all of those clubs (Sheff Wed being exceptional case and Leicester too early to judge) have noticeably improved since making changes. 

[frosty]

30 minutes ago, TimmyJimmy said:

If anyone has access to an AI tool I'd be grateful if you could get this answered for me. Of the managers sacked this season how many of their clubs had more or less points than Rovers at that date (complicated because Wednesday had a points deduction).

My gut says that we're hanging on to VI well after other clubs fire their managers.

I have a bet with the wife!

This might help:

Danny Rohl (Sheffield Wednesday)
Departed: 29th July, 2025 

Ruben Selles (Sheffield United)
Departed: 14th September, 2025 

Paulo Pezzolano (Watford)
Departed: 8th October, 2025 

Will Still (Southampton)
Departed: 2nd November, 2025 

Liam Manning (Norwich City)
Departed: 8th November, 2025 

Alan Sheehan (Swansea City)
Departed: 11th November, 2025 

Marti Cifuentes (Leicester City)
Departed: 25th January, 2025

This is a good site for things like that - https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/. Enter any date and select the Championship and it'll show you how the table stood at the end of that day.

[LeftWinger]

1 hour ago, TimmyJimmy said:

If anyone has access to an AI tool I'd be grateful if you could get this answered for me. Of the managers sacked this season how many of their clubs had more or less points than Rovers at that date (complicated because Wednesday had a points deduction).

My gut says that we're hanging on to VI well after other clubs fire their managers.

I have a bet with the wife!

This might help:

Danny Rohl (Sheffield Wednesday)
Departed: 29th July, 2025 

Ruben Selles (Sheffield United)
Departed: 14th September, 2025 

Paulo Pezzolano (Watford)
Departed: 8th October, 2025 

Will Still (Southampton)
Departed: 2nd November, 2025 

Liam Manning (Norwich City)
Departed: 8th November, 2025 

Alan Sheehan (Swansea City)
Departed: 11th November, 2025 

Marti Cifuentes (Leicester City)
Departed: 25th January, 2025

I think it's only Leicester that probably had more points than us when they sacked their manager.

[TimmyJimmy]

Thanks chaps and to Frosty in particular (very handy site that).

I was interested in what the league as a whole defines as a firing level of incompetence and how VI compares.

These were the points when Championship managers were fired compared to us at the same time.

Watford had 5 more points yet they still fired Pezzolano

Swansea had 1 more Yet they still fired Sheehan

Leicester have 11 more than us now and they fire Cifuentes

Southampton had 1 less than us when they fired Still, so virtually level pegging

Norwich had 7 less than us, so Manning deserved it!

 

Seems we don't hold our manager to the same level scrutiny. Other boards look to have more of an idea as to how to manage a club - especially when you see they are all ahead of us now.

[Herbie6590]

5 minutes ago, TimmyJimmy said:

Thanks chaps and to Frosty in particular (very handy site that).

I was interested in what the league as a whole defines as a firing level of incompetence and how VI compares.

These were the points when Championship managers were fired compared to us at the same time.

Watford had 5 more points yet they still fired Pezzolano

Swansea had 1 more Yet they still fired Sheehan

Leicester have 11 more than us now and they fire Cifuentes

Southampton had 1 less than us when they fired Still, so virtually level pegging

Norwich had 7 less than us, so Manning deserved it!

 

Seems we don't hold our manager to the same level scrutiny. Other boards look to have more of an idea as to how to manage a club - especially when you see they are all ahead of us now.

Ismael signed up for the project.

If they change him then Suhail & Rudy have to indoctrinate a new guy…too much like hard work that, so keep the current guy.

[rovers11]

Norwich certainly not going down. It's now 2 from us, Oxford, Pompey, Charlton.  

I think WBA will have enough to claw away and Leicester have too much quality even though they will have a big points deduction.

It's looking grim. We have by far the worst manager. Us and Oxford will be the two to drop imo. 

[G Somerset Rover]

4 points clear of us with a much better goal difference. They won’t be in the mix whatsoever as many of us thought.

Relegation gets more likely by the day. But don’t fear, Val still isn’t worried. 
 

[wilsdenrover]

11 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

Norwich certainly not going down. It's now 2 from us, Oxford, Pompey, Charlton.  

I think WBA will have enough to claw away and Leicester have too much quality even though they will have a big points deduction.

It's looking grim. We have by far the worst manager. Us and Oxford will be the two to drop imo. 

WBAs form is as bad as ours, I wouldn’t be ruling them out yet.

I doubt Leicester will end up in trouble but you never know where a bad managerial appointment might lead.

[Ghost7]

Gestede should be ashamed of himself

[RevidgeBlue]

36 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

Norwich certainly not going down. It's now 2 from us, Oxford, Pompey, Charlton.  

I think WBA will have enough to claw away and Leicester have too much quality even though they will have a big points deduction.

It's looking grim. We have by far the worst manager. Us and Oxford will be the two to drop imo. 

It's going to be the lamest stumble to the line in many a year. Out of the five sides realistically vying for the last two relegation spots - they have four wins between them in each of their last five games. Twenty five games!

Portsmouth have two wins from the last five games

Charlton have one

Oxford have one

Us and WBA have none.

It wouldn't take much for one team to get out of trouble and if we sacked VI and got a bit of a bounce it could make all the difference.

Still think we'll go unless we sack Ismael. Couldn't really pick the next worst out of that lot.

Edited 1 hour ago by RevidgeBlue

[JHRover]

Predictably both Norwich and Sheffield United make changes, bring in good managers and underperforming players start to haul them out of trouble. 

So down to the dross now. Us, Pompey, Oxford, Charlton and maybe WBA/Leicester if they continue to sink though I suspect both have enough quality to keep their heads above water.

[bazza]

Remember when we were saying Rovers managers whose surname began with "I"

[Bohinen1983]

Championship quality:

GK: Toth, Pears
DL: Ribeiro, Pickering
DR: Alebiouso
DC: Carter, Wharton
DMC: Trodstadt
AML: 
AMR: Hedgen/Jorgensen
MC:  Baradji
AMC: Cantwell
ST: Gudjohnsen

Squad's absolutely vile.  Pears is back up, We don't play left backs,  Carter, Wharton and Hedges out.

So that leaves us with seven championship quality players. The rest of the cast are league 1/2 standard. Awful.  Of those I've said I think are championship quality- I'm not saying I think they're good or particularly useful.

We've no ball carrying players, no pace, no creativity, no strength or guile up top, no aggression, no fight, no cohesion, no obvious pattern of play- well, other than just running around wasting energy "pressing"

Ohashi is probably one of the least clinical strikers I've ever seen.   

The lack of spirit, cohesion etc is there for all to see. Just a shit side full of shit players that have no bond.  Great work!

 

[lraC]

30 minutes ago, Ghost7 said:

Gestede should be ashamed of himself

He won’t be. Don’t forget, here is a guy that cares so much about Rovers, that he refused to play.

Getting us relegated, will not bother him in the slightest. Here we all are, spending out evenings worrying about our club, he won’t have even thought about it tonight.

The man is a first class clown. 

Edited 58 minutes ago by lraC

[lraC]

2 minutes ago, Bohinen1983 said:

Championship quality:

GK: Toth, Pears
DL: Ribeiro, Pickering
DR: Alebiouso
DC: Carter, Wharton
DMC: Trodstadt
AML: 
AMR: Hedgen/Jorgensen
MC:  Baradji
AMC: Cantwell
ST: Gudjohnsen

Squad's absolutely vile.  Pears is back up, We don't play left backs,  Carter, Wharton and Hedges out.

So that leaves us with seven championship quality players. The rest of the cast are league 1/2 standard. Awful.  Of those I've said I think are championship quality- I'm not saying I think they're good or particularly useful.

We've no ball carrying players, no pace, no creativity, no strength or guile up top, no aggression, no fight, no cohesion, no obvious pattern of play- well, other than just running around wasting energy "pressing"

Ohashi is probably one of the least clinical strikers I've ever seen.   

The lack of spirit, cohesion etc is there for all to see. Just a shit side full of shit players that have no bond.  Great work!

 

Is Carter not back in contention now?

[DE.]

Norwich should never have been in such deep trouble - their squad is far too good for that. Manning really screwed up there. I wasn't convinced Clement was the man for the job there, but fair play, he's really turned them around. They're still going strong even with Sargent basically persona-non-grata at the moment. 

WBA also have a squad that shouldn't really be at the wrong end of the table, but their managerial strategy is questionable. Pretty much just rolling the dice on novices and hoping one will work out. We'll see whether Ramsay is the answer there.

Us, Oxford, Portsmouth and Charlton will almost certainly be down there until the bitter end. Only one of the four hasn't been in League One in the recent past, which tells you everything about how Pasha, Gestede and Owen have wrecked us this season.