Agreed, the madness here was offering him such a long deal. What would make sense is when offering a contract to a manager is to have points clause where if a certain low number of points accrued activates a mutual termination if not hit (say an average of under a point a game over 30 games). I know a decent manager wouldn't go for it, but if we can't afford to sack managers then we have to be going for a model like that and take a risk on someone who accepts it. Tieing ourselves to long contracts with no exit is not something we can accept. All I can hope is we have something like that in place, and that offering such a long deal is the result of having a safeguard like that as part of the arrangement...

Yeah this is what worries me... Football is a game of fine margins, you can play well but lose frequently and vice versa. So what's important to peer into what the future looks like is not really individual results, its more does the organisation, patterns of play, level of effort and commitment look like it will be effective at creating chances going forward and stopping chances being conceded defensively. Ismael looks the most concerning on the above since Coyle. Soft touch for goals, nothing really working in midfield and attack. He also looks personally confused and lost about what to do which is even more damning.

Really clever whoever came up with this.. totally different spin to what is usually heard, creates a story and puts direct pressure on the local leadership rather than the absent owners. Very smart.

Sort of agree that classic Championship is go on a poor run and then pull a decent result out of nowhere. So wouldn't be that surprised if we got a win against the odds.

Id say really our struggle is your last two categories there... We only have one proper wide player in Saka, maybe Gordon. And we have one proper striker in Watkins, maybe Solanke. Every other forward player from Kane to Bellingham to Foden to Palmer is a number 10...

England have got a lot of good players but its hard to see how to build a well balanced world class team out of them. Everyone loves coming short, ball to feet, central. Just too samey... It will be interesting if Tuchel can get anything different out of them.

An enjoyable read about one of Rovers academy's own... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cy9drzpj79ro

This has changed recently as Venkys have massively reduced input, I think down effectively to zero in the last 12 months as we have lived off the Wharton money. I would say it's not guaranteed they will turn the taps back on if we run out of player sales. That they are not renewing contracts suggests an extreme desire to not commit to future expenditure. So we may well be in quite a different situation to a couple of years ago.

All id say to give a bit of perspective is under Eustace on 10th April 2024 we got battered 5-0 away at Bristol City to leave us only 3 points above the drop. Since Eustace had taken over by the Bristol game we had managed to win 1 in 10 games... I guess I am saying what Ismael has achieved is terrible so far, but not really different to where we were under Eustace last year

Hey Im a glutton for punishment, what can I say! In all seriousness, i dont mind watching a defeat in a time of change like now to just try and understand what is in store over the coming months.

Haven't watched the game yet as away with the family, sounds horrendous. The only thing Id hold out is that many managers have an initial bad run before they get a grip with their own ideas. But.. with Eustace you could see he was starting with organisation and building from there. With Ismael the basics don't seem there. Will watch the game back looking for those basics as would love to see some light at this dark time...

I think the window was not really that relevant, it was being able to commit to offering new contracts to players and being clear on what the funding looked like next season. We could have signed better players - though tbh compared to most Jan windows in the last 10 years this looked one of the best ones albeit a low a bar - and I don't really think it would have made any difference. Eustace was already applying for jobs and had decided to leave. The only thing which would have kept him is to provide the quite reasonable financial and planning assurances he was asking for.

Yeah Im not sure I really blame Ismael... Hes come into a really strange situation with no pre-season or any of his own players. Potentially it looks like maybe he is confusing them more, but I don't really know the template for a manager to come in and completely mimic what went before. Ultimately the manager will try and do things their own way, and that might work quickly or more likely not. The avoidable issue here is 100% the owners not being able to put basic long term planning in place. Its not really about huge investment money, its just the ability to be clear on what the plan is over the next couple of seasons. Not being able to do that has lost us both JDT and Eustace. A decent owner with much less money than Venkys would be better if they just had an ability to be engaged with the club and create a plan.

I dont think theres anything wrong per se with any formation as long as you have a clear system everyone is signed up to and you know collectively how you are going to defend and create chances. But we didnt seem to know our plan to do either.

Yeah - in JDTs first season we won only 2 of our last 11 games and only missed out of the playoffs on goal difference. Madness. But thats the Championship.

Dennis has offered absolutely nothing... Really disappointing. Lots of slating of the players on here but they've been pretty good for much of this season. The big issue is the manager looks all at sea. Players who have looked decent like Brittain, Hyam, Pears, Travis, Gueye look confused and demotivated. The defensive solidarity we had seems to have gone. Its hard for a new manager to come in mid season and make an impact. Eustace had a terrible start with us. But got bad vibes about Ismael, if you dont look organised its always a bad sign.

I reckon this is the worst we have played this season, genuinely absolutely terrible.

Surely we need to go to a back four and get another mid on. Buckley I guess?

There are few things I am more sure of than Gallagher will score in this game.

Yeah Eustace got the best out of players who had previously struggled by giving them an organised defensive platform - Travis, Hyam, Pears all really benefitted. Feels like we've lost that now and they are all back at sea.

Have to agree... I dont like writing anyone off early but we seem so unorganized. A real mess.

I don't think its just that... Eustace would have had a specific way to work the defence and him going it will atrophy away. The team generally looks a bit unsure about how to play.

Definitely feels like we've lost the defensive organisation thats been our major asset this season and added nothing elsewhere.

Yeah really annoying as he looks a genuinely good one. Was looking forward to him and Gueye combining. Injuries a big problem for us again.. Very annoying. Team I would go : Pears Brittain Carter Hyam Riberio Travis Tronstad Ohashi Dennis Dolan Gueye Would love to see a reaction but not that hopeful.

Yeah.... I dont think we'll ever make the playoffs until we are able to win away at the bottom teams. We are absolutely horrendous in those games.