JBiz

35 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Our season is done - we will slide down the league whoever is appointed.  We are about to see just what feckin miracles Eustace performed with bang average players.

Cooper, no chance - there'll me much better opportunities for him.

Edwards - why?  Bottled it at Luton when the going got tough.

TBH, I no longer give a feck.  IMO, we are absolutely rotten to the core and how any supporter can continue putting his/her money into Rovers' coffers to perpetuate this total sh1t show is beyond me.

 

You’re probably right but you’ve said the same things umpteen times and then “Tony Hawked” your way into 3-1 rovers predictions by the weekend.

I personally wouldn’t like Edwards either. I hope whoever it is gets sorted this week though. That happened last time, as tiny as that prospect may be.

1 hour ago, JHRover said:

There's no plan or future here beyond the next few weeks / couple of months and there hasn't been for the last few years. The owners don't give a feck and their stooges are just limping from one stage to the next.

This is a disaster club and unless we get promoted (or even if we do get promoted) things are only going to get a whole lot worse come the summer. Eustace knows this which is why he's seen the writing on the wall and got out now.

So the appointment should be until the end of the season to galvanise and maximise the return from this squad before the board take a wrecking ball to it and smash it to bits again and then we have to cobble together a new squad from frees, loans and the youth team.

Fancy talk about projects, plans, development isn't needed now. The sham has been exposed - there is not and cannot be any of those things here. People are being hoodwinked if they think or believe that there is some grand strategy here. The end of the season is long term here.

So we need to simply focus on who is out there who is

a) Available - rules out any currently in work managers

b) Affordable - rules out established names or those collecting pay-offs like Cooper

c) Willing to come for just 15 games - rules out those looking for a multi-year long term job

d) Bonkers enough to take it on and embrace the challenge - rules out those worried about the worst owners and board in football

For me it has to be Warnock now. He's shown at other clubs - Rotherham, Huddersfield, Middlesbrough - he's prepared to come in at very short notice and take on a challenge even where the situation looks desperate or there are ownership issues. He's done it extremely well. I think he would absolutely love a free hit at the play-offs and then go back to Torquay in the summer. 

What we will actually get is firstly a toss off of Wednesday's 6 pointer by leaving the drone pilot and bib and cone man in charge and then eventually a dismal yes man delighted to be back in work just to finish the dismantling of the season in 6 weeks off.

 

Really bloody odd to hear someone having a go at Damien Johnson but this is BRFCS.

I must be in a strange mood to engage with this, and despite many reoccurring “Rao induced” themes you post about on every subject and thread, you’re missing the fact football (again) is a business.

You put a club with a decent squad (sorry but there’s more opinions than just here) 6th in the league, open to a new manager. Taking someone from another club aside, it would take some mental gymnastics not to see this as a better proposition than the previous times we’ve stuck up the VACANCY board.

There is very little to lose for any of those out of work managers who could take over a well organised and well drilled John Eustace team. 
 

Mid table mediocracy as probably worst outcome is likely more enticing than you’d ever expect. Whilst I don’t think Waggott could find his arse in a fog, I’m yet to fall down the “Gestede is a schill” rabbit hole many here are.

Just now, Forever Blue said:

He asked for a new contract and assurances over budget. He didn’t get either commitment from the club. But you expect him to stay committed?

You’re very selective over who you expect commitment from. 

I would take anything in the press with a pinch of salt. Remember I said there would’ve been no approach if he hadn’t already talked to them.

10 minutes ago, Forever Blue said:

Advocating ‘togetherness’ has nothing to do with seeing a contract out. ‘Togetherness’ was about getting results on the pitch.

It’s a bit naive to think it was meant in any meaningful way 🤣

It’s an obvious lack of commitment despite expecting it from players, staff and fans. 

10 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

He's welcomed the approach, yes. I'm sure he's had feelers out for a while - he was simply not backed in January and he can see the writing on the wall in the summer. I'm sure any  manager would do the same after working under Steve and Suhail for any period of time.

Even today, he told them what it'd take to retain his services - absolute basic necessities and they've released that bitter, pathetic hit piece of a club statement in response. I would love a transcript from that meeting, I bet it was scathing.

 

You can see what's coming. Go and read some of Nixon's tweets (their chief propogandist) - he talks about how we're still top 6 and it's a huge 15 games coming up etc in response to people questioning the long term future of the club. The fact of the matter is there isn't a long term future for this club - contracts are being run down, 5 of the 6 January transfers have been brought in on a 6 month contract and multiple players are out of contract in the summer.

Eustace has lived this day to day. He's not asked for the world and they will not (or more likely cannot) provide him with anything so he's done the honest thing and left with his head held high and his reputation intact.

 

TLDR: he's left for a smaller, poorer club in a desperate relegation dogfight - that tells you everything you need to know.

I don’t read nixon news or posts if I can help it, especially Twitter. It’s all so monetised now, you’ve no way of disseminating what’s fact or opinion, and most is click based. Wouldn’t be surprised he’s trying to engage rovers fans into arguments to get a higher monthly pay out.

Re the contracts - there’s plenty of posters who would drive dolan hyam and hedges to derby with John, so this “contracts expiring” isn’t as simple as that. Also loans cost money, and many of those leaving are on loan, that could be argued as opportunity, especially if we’ve money in the bank.

On a specific contract, I think it would be pointless giving someone like Dolan 15k pw for 5 years, and as an example of that - his advisors will know that his best wage will come from free transfer - we aren’t going to beat that for numerous reasons, the main one being 150+ games into his career his final contribution be it shot or pass is often shite.

Eustace has done a very good job at rovers with the Willy he has wee’d with, but it’s surely not a surprise to anyone that many passionate rovers fans would be frustrated at the timing an obvious manufacturing of this scenario!

You never know, I’d imagine the CVs are flooding in, despite what we know about the Rao’s. Managers will see 15 (18) games to get a huge tick on the CV and very little chance of a X.

Just now, Dan said:

Are you and California Rover going to be on there with your Venky's hats on?

Shots fired 😂 You know controversy gets hits?

Being serious though, can I unequivocally state that I regularly reflect and rue the day, that we ever ended up on the shelf of a billionaire conglomerate. Thank god I wasn’t born in 1997 (sorry @Gamst21)

18 minutes ago, onlyonejackwalker said:

Ouch. Not your normal style 47er. I'll stay here if that's ok with you.

------------

Let's hope we get a new manager bounce. Let's hope this unites and galvanises the players. Let's hope we start scoring some goals. 

With every problem there is an opportunity.  There are some strong characters in the dressing room.  It remains all to play for and Eustace hasn't kicked a ball.all season.

I'd love it if we could somehow get promoted. And Derby go down.

Actually love this post - however @47er would be the first to admit he’s always been “spiky” 😂 

17 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

Listen to the 4000 Holes one tomorrow morning...🙂

When am I guest starring on one of these podcasts anyway 😂 

2 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

He gave them every opportunity to provide him with assurances - they refused to. It's painfully obvious he didn't want to go to Derby.

To me it seems painfully obvious he has engineered his way to derby, the culmination of this announcing it on IPlayer 

Edit - you don’t speak to a club you haven’t already spoken too, if that makes sense 

22 minutes ago, Forever Blue said:

I suppose it depends on what he was promised, and what promises by the club were reneged on. 
 

It’s easy to criticise Eustace, but we don’t know the full story. Each side has put forward their own narrative in the last 24 hours. I don’t believe the clubs narrative for one minute. 
 

Eustace isn’t a Rovers fan, he’s a paid professional trying to carve a career for himself. If he doesn’t feel supported at Rovers and another club comes in offering that support then it’s understandable he wants to move on. He owes Rovers nothing. Togetherness can only take you so far if the Owners and Board don’t play their part. 

The black and white of it is Eustace is moving to a club he probably prefers to work for, closer to his own pit, with a carte blanche expectation level and likely a long term contract to boot.

Thats the engineering of someone who understands the game from the point of view as an employee.

The unfortunate part that this ignores, he also was a custodian of a “public” establishment and if you’re preaching togetherness and family, you’ll look a cock if you can’t even see your own contract out.

27 minutes ago, 47er said:

If you're looking at the timing----surely its the transfer window that's the last straw.? Spending zilch while raking in money from transfer fees.

He won't be the last manager/coach to lose it with this crowd, unless we appoint Steve Keane again.

 

It’s not a coincidence we’re looking for a manager exactly 12 months on (after the transfer window). Anyone with any inkling of knowledge of football, specifically rovers, knows what’s holding us back and it’s not Mowbray, JDT or Eustace. All those three have their flaws, but I still think the position were currently in (insane after our recent form!) will attract a better level of appointment than previously. 

2 minutes ago, Salgados Hair said:

Didn't take long for the one who resides in California to turn on Eustace..

Easy to understand, football business aside. Following a club is a personal love and decision, when you’ve just watched someone who preached togetherness basically engineer their way out - you can’t blame fans for being very fucked off. (At the owners AND JE)

23 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

I’d certainly agree re the interest levels of Boro’s owners vs ours, I was just pointing out the (monetary) investment element.

Of course the fact their owners don’t need to ‘plough’ endless millions into Boro could (and probably should) be argued to show how properly run they are.

The Venkys believe they’ll get their money back if the club is promoted (source Venkys London accounts) - perhaps they need to back up this belief with some action.

I have long given up expecting they will and the day they leave (please say they will) is a day that can’t come soon enough.

 

There’s loads in that we all want, I mean the expectation of a new owner - I can fully understand why you’d give up on that but I don’t want too 😂 

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/middlesbroughs-psr-situation-explained-amid-29463544.amp

Re Boro though - have a read of the quote. To be right on the limit, they’re playing a different game. Exactly what happens with active owners, look at City ffs, spent more in January than the entire league last January! Football is fucked ultimately.

6 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

I’m not sure Middlesbrough’s owner does invest regularly in the club.

What they do appear to do is borrow regularly against future transfer fees due (Akpom, Tavernier etc).

 

 

The sort of active interest though that I’m sure we all agree we’d want, however our story is over a decade of disrespect. I’m not sure it’s Gibson who still owns or runs Boro but I’d rip the arm of a Blackburn businessman prepared to take the club on.

9 minutes ago, islander200 said:

I don't believe they will ever have a realistic enough valuation of the club to change hands.Certainly not as a championship club 

If they wanted to sell the club at a reasonable price, they would have takers now, as would every other championship club that make losses (most of them)

I agree but to a certain extent it’s negligible because I have an overriding feeling that we’re never even thought about by the Rao’s, unless it’s an annual AGM on losses!

11 minutes ago, islander200 said:

Is that because you feel if they stop putting money in they will sell up/leave?

If that is the reasoning I think you are sadly mistaken,  if bills need to be paid and there isn't money In the bank or a player to sell to cover it, they will send the money over 

We will watch ourselves get worse quality players,  the stadium will go into further  disrepair and we will be playing league one football at best 

As if we do go down spending a couple of million won't make us the financial heavyweights of the division like it did last time 

Well that’s subjective I think, easier to sell a business not regularly losing money.

1 minute ago, 47er said:

Come off it! You disappear for months and come back every now and then just to tell others how negative and boring  they are.

The over-riding factor at Ewood remains under-funding by an ownership that doesn't care. Whether we take 2 steps forward at times, we always end up 3 backwards so it comes back to the same old problem.

If you really can't take any more reality, ignore the site for longer. 

What sort of contribution is it anyway that discounts the factor that most affects us?

 

I don’t understand the last sentence, in terms of ignoring the site there are times when (we both know this) that it’s useful for rumours, especially for those like me who don’t use social media.

In terms of the other point. I’m sorry that I have the opinion there are a group of “legacy” posters who simply won’t stop bringing the same old arguments into every thread. That’s just where I’ve got too!

5 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

When we’ve received £41 Million in transfer fees in the last 18 months, our owners are billionaires and we’re 5th in the league, yes, I expect us spend more money on incoming transfers.

How did Middlesbrough manage to find £6 Million for Morgan Whittaker?

Because their owner is day to day investing in the club, ours isn’t and I’d rather they didn’t. If that’s hard to understand then fair enough.

25 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

Other teams seem to manage it 🤷‍♀️.

If they can’t afford to buy players to replace ones they sold, they shouldn’t own a football club.

You mean those with 100m+ year wage bills with parachute payments? Btw if you took them out of the equation we would 2nd.

1 hour ago, 47er said:

But those "means" have been drastically diminished by the decisions of the owners over more than a decade, so much so that they have long since ceased to be viable.

This is the January transfer thread, whilst I agree that their mismanagement has caused us untold grief, could we try and focus on recent times? Does every discussion need to relate back to the same problem? 

45 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

But if we sell all our best players and don’t replace them, what’s the point of it all?
Why should we be the only football club in the world where winning football matches and success isn’t the ultimate goal?

We’ve replaced all the players over the last season, but did you expect like for like or near in fees? Also how fierce would be the competition for a ready made Szmod? That’s part of the previous post - a club that’s currently not relying on a billionaire to cover the 150% turnover to wage bill ratio can’t afford to spend all the proceeds. I don’t want us to rely on them personally.

On second part, If you believe that our manager / team aren’t trying to win, or that there’s some sort of agreement with directors / owners that to hold us back, that’s up to you but I think it’s nonsense. Childish, paranoid and simplistic bollox to more precise.

Sometimes the most obvious and answer is the truth you know? For example; careless disinterested owners hired directors who are shit at their jobs?

33 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

Substitute ‘club’ for ‘team’ in my post and you’ll understand what I’m getting at 👍.

They’ve sold all our best players and not used the proceeds to replace them, which is the least they could do.

I think where me and you disconnect on this is I don’t see the Rao’s (ergo ”They”) as running the club.

I see a club that’s currently having to live within its means, and whilst you me agree that the people they pay to run the club are shite, I’d rather not rely on them ever again.

28 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

I think we can all do better than calling each other happy clappers and negative.

Thought we were past all that, tbf.

Given how shite our owners are and how little of the transfer fees they put back into the club, the window was as good as it could have been, really.

Just need Eustace to continue to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear for the rest of the season now….

Re the specific terminology in bold, I’m not sure that’s how it works. Previously they just allotted shares to the tune of our losses, but now we’re not making a loss so they’re not putting their own cash in.

They have no interest in us, and are shit: however it’s important to use facts, they don’t take money out. They never have.

6 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

That's completely fair! You just shouldn't say you've fulfilled his request when you haven't. You didn't even give your assessment of the other four signings.

I still think it would be early go one way or another with some of the other signings from the summer so I wouldn’t expect anything damming / supporting from me, on players who’ve been here a fortnight.

TDLR; Dion replaces Fadz, Forshaw replaces Baker, Kargo is someone I’ve never even heard of and haven’t watched braga this season. There’s literally no assessment to make. 
 

18 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

You didn't even fulfil his request, you just danced around it. He asked, what do you think of the signings?

I’m not going near the latest two until they’re in the shirt on the pitch 😂 

2 minutes ago, JCRovers said:

Go on then, prove your footballing skills. What's your rating of our transfer activity this window? Do you find it acceptable that we only spent £1 million in total on six signings, whereby three on loan and two on a free? Do you acknowledge the fact that the club now has not spent more than £1 million in a single window during the last six winter transfer windows? Do you know anything about Kargbo that we don't?

I'm trying to be realistic in my judgement but some posters on here seem to be happy to cheer the club on regardless of what is happening. 

I’m not employed in football in any form, I’m as clueless as everyone else here but I would ask if you’d consider some of these points I wrote that I think, instead of going to sleep;
 

1. Any acknowledgment of competition for a small group of players that fit the “model” aka they’re potentially a profit, they’re better than the players you have and they’re leading championship players ready to roll? How many clubs are looking for that?

2. What about finding fees and wages for those specific players from 1. that fit into a structure that suits a budget? A budget that would take a £50m+ (Burnleys annual wage bill for 24/25 btw will be at least 5x total) per season investment to match the 3 relegated teams?
 

This, in an agent era, when players would rather leave for free to enhance their options. Dolan next?

3. There’s genuine agreement, acknowledgment or whatever you’d call it, that we’re basically on the shelf of a multimillion rupee conglomerate. I’m as depressed as anyone regarding this, however I just can’t get my head round the volume of people wishing and hoping for more Rao cheques. Fuck them, I don’t expect or want big investments from them. I know I’m not the only one. If the recent transfer receipts give us a marginally more competitive budget over a longer period compared to a team losing money, it’s a better investment than relying on billionaires who don’t care and can meddle IMO. We’re surely a better proposition for a new owner if we’re not burning through cash too.

4. I really rate Eustace and I also think our academy is basically pushing us forward, however I think the likes of Waggot and other backroom staff are jobs for the boys level shite. I don’t think they’re capable of organising some sort of conspiracy that others constantly reference - as recently as accusing Travis being told to say “we’re already good enough for top 6” to lower expectation. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone cocked these transfers on deadline day up again, but it would be another example of incompetence, rather than notion that shadows are at force to hold us back.