Millwall in front against West Brom.

Expecting a few results to go against us before 5.30pm.

38 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

We were 7th in December but then the wheels came off and we were in free fall.

Yeah Andy Bayes shoots Gregg down on that one.

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

I found Scott Wharton interesting about JDT's man management style, playing style and him being dropped for the Burnley game. 

Scott is still feeling gutted about being dropped by JDT for the Burnley game which JDT did ballsed up. 

Scott Wharton wasn't at his best form last season but was that not down to being a bit part player and lack of game time. Which is fair comment but JDT did over achieved and players seem to enjoyed playing under JDT. 

Catch 22 situation here.  

Remember when we kept saying the players weren’t happy with JDT and you kept denying it and quoting one of the new players as saying he’s loving playing under JDT. Well it seems Brittain, Wharton and several others couldn’t, or wouldn’t, buy in to what he was trying to achieve.

That style of football you championed so much was hated by the players, and ultimately they saw to it that performances dropped away until they got rid of him. Unfortunately we are now finding out that under more conventional tactics, they are actually pretty average and JDT had them over performing. If I was Brittain or Wharton I’d be keeping quiet now and working hard, not coming out doing that interview. Especially when relegation is still a real worry. What a prick.

5 minutes ago, Tom said:

I’d rather players, managers and anyone interviewed showed more honesty rather than talking in platitudes so for that I say fair play to him 

But if he's being really honest he will admit for large parts of last season he was nowhere near the levels he had been previous. That's the reason why he wasn't playing much. Carter was much better.

10 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Is he really though?

He talks a great game but I predict

1) The Wharton and Raya money will disappear on running costs.

2) No-one of any consequence will be sacked.

3) He'll still be here regardless happily drawing his salary and telling us he's filed his reports as to what he thinks SHOULD happen on various issues without actually telling us what those recommendations are or what his own views are, and without giving a **** whether his recommendations are implemented or not.

That's if you even believe he does submit recommendations. Every time he opens his mouth I just assume he is lying and the opposite is the case.

6 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

You may be right. Broughton obviously didn't veto it though either way.

Because I don't believe he can veto it. I think he can only recommend stuff and if Pasha / Waggot want it, he will get it. He doesn't have the authority above those two. That questions what is the point of Broughton other than to stand in front of the media and take flack, and I don't know. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't think he's any good and he's only pushing for what is absolutely obvious to everyone else. But the penny-pinching attitude that see's no money spent and Travis at Ipswich is the work of Pasha, Waggot and ultimately Venkys.

Also, to think people will quit their job unless they have something else to go into it is just dumb. Rarely happens in the real world

8 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

In the words of Mandy Rice Davies "He would say that wouldn't he!."

Good at blaming one another aren't they - Waggott trying to make out Szmodics wasn't a Broughton choice and Broughton trying to dump the responsibility for Fleck onto Waggott - even though he is DOF.

I read it as Waggot told J*B himself that it was his transfer. Not Broughton who told him.

But it is ambiguous. Can you clarify @J*B

33 minutes ago, arbitro said:

He talks about the Watford game as a turning point when we were one up, relatively comfortable but doesn't mention why. Our keeper threw two into his goal costing us badly. This is a keeper who has individually cost us more than any other player.

Who signed him again?

There's now becoming two sides to Greg.

Do I believe Greg is actually pushing to try and get to use the Wharton and Raya money on new players. Yes. Do I believe he believes heads should roll for the Transfer Window cock ups. Yes. Someone above is stopping that happening. However at least someone in the club is still pushing for the correct course of action to be allowed to take place. I dont really blame him on those issues as its Waggot and above to blame.

But his judgment on Wahlstedt, Fleck, Travis, Ennis, Telalovic has been severely lacking regardless of budgets.

4 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

If he isn't listened to at all then I can't see much point in having him on the books. Just go back to the old model with SW and a yes man.

Financially I agree.

The problem being some of the stuff he's coming our with is obvious - on transfer deadline day dont be sat at St Andrews munching on prawn sandwiches when you should be finalising deals as the most senior person at the club. At least he's trying to make us more professional in those aspects, but Waggot would prefer his free lunch and do as little work as possible. 

I can't see this posted anywhere but not a big fan of this interview with Wharton here. He fails to address the reason he wasn't played much towards the end of last season is as he was looking a bit shit every time he played, coupled with his incredibly costly slip at Deepdale. A lot of finger pointing at JDT but it appears not much at himself.

The players don't seem to acknowledge that for a large part of last season JDT has us competing at a level above what many of us thought we were capable of. It's becoming clear that player attitude is as much to blame as JDT for our fall from grace. Of course, in that situation if the manager has lost the players then he has to go. However dont come on bleating about it when it's you that cost us at the end of last season and have been a large part of our shit run this season.

13 hours ago, arbitro said:

Why wasn't he questioned on why the deal changed so much whilst the player himself was in mid-air and why he ended up in a hotel in Sheffield ready to sign for Sheffield Wednesday

To be fair he does mention that. He states that we pulled out of the original deal whilst he was still in America sat with his representatives, and that rumours of him being in the air when the deal got pulled are absolutely not true. He then came across as he had the opportunity to sign for another Championship club. It's in the Jackson interview.

What is telling in the Bayes interview is when the questions are slightly off what he expected how his answers aren't as pre-rehearsed. He trots the "up until the Watford game" out in every interview. As soon as Bayes calls it out that over the last 46 games we have been relegation contenders, not just since Christmas, he doesn't have an answer other than to waffle.

Fair play to Andy Bayes. You often find Radio Lancs interviews with all of the local clubs will pull out the more difficult questions when things are not going well and it felt like that again. The Jackson interview and the academy interview were all pally, pally plain sailing. The Bayes one is a bit more awkward.

Overall I just dont think Broughton is very good at his job. I'm not even sure what his job covers any more as he's now making it very clear in all interviews that the manager will have the final say, on whether we sign Maguire or on past JDT recruitment. Therefore is all he do negotiate contracts with people.

He is shining the light a little bit for us though. He's sending out enough clear signs to say that the others at the club are incompetent and he knows what should happen to make the club successful but whether he is listened to, or that model of re-investment is followed, he cannot guarantee. 

14 minutes ago, OJRovers said:

The "human error" excuse is clearly a cover up. 

Thing that shocked me was we had a permanent deal agreed for £2.5m for Maguire, Venkys mess around with the Wharton deal, tell Orlando it is off, then a week later we're paying £3.5m for Maguire (plus probably a loan fee)! 

TBH I am sympathetic to whoever pulled the deal. Especially in hindsight Eustace might not want to sign him anyway.

 

It doesn't make much sense why we pulled the permanent deal in the first place. Broughton just says a permanent deal couldn't be agreed because the Wharton transfer took longer than expected. Yes there was a delay with the Wharton transfer, but that should have just delayed finalising the Maguire transfer. Once one was complete, the other should have been completed. 

I only got half way through the Jackson interview but we learn nothing other than confirming we are generally incompetent. How is there an enquiry to someone supposedly not pressing send still ongoing 2 months after the incident? 

He makes it clear that there is no commitment to spending anything on transfers in the summer because he has no idea if the goalposts will move like last season.

He also has thrown Waggot under the bus on 2 interviews now for being at Birmingham on transfer deadline day last year. Certain posters kept telling us that wasn't strange and that didn't contribute to the O'Brien failure. At least we know Gregg disagrees.

4 minutes ago, JHRover said:

They also aren't bothered if away fans don't buy tickets because they can allocate the bottom area to home fans if take up is low and will sell out when top of the league.

Previously yeah, but not so much now as they will offer you guaranteed £21 tickets if you reciprocate which means away fans likely can sell out. 

I think the idea of what Leeds are trying to do should be applauded, but it's got flaws such as the example with Rotherham above and I believe also with Huddersfield.

11 hours ago, JHRover said:

Even with Rovers' 'subsidy' it's still £35 a pop at Leeds for an early tv game, and still £5 more than their fans had to pay at Ewood. 

I know this is done to death, but Leeds fans get overcharged as category A+ games everywhere they go. Even. couple a years ago we introduced a special category to charge them £40 at Ewood !

Therefore following discussions with their fans, Leeds agreed to offer all clubs this season the offer of either £21 or £28 tickets at Elland Road if this was reciprocated in the away fixture. We decided not to take them up on this in order to charge then £30. Therefore look back at Ewood for the blame on that one.

What is shitty by Leeds is that it appears the tickets have to be fixed at £21 or £28 and discounted to one of those prices for the reciprocal pricing to be agreed. Therefore Rotherham charged them £27 as that's their standard away pricing but, as they didn't discount to £21, they then got charged £45 at Elland Road. That's nonsense. The argument is if we are discounting tickets to make this work then so should you, but their should be a £25 option as well.

Interestingly it was Ken Bates who moved the away fans at Leeds into the West Stand. Home fans are charged £47 in the West Stand and it is EFL rules that states away fans have to be charged the same as home fans for the same seating. Reciprocal pricing is the loophole that allows this to be reduced. I know their EFL brought that rule in to stop away fans being ripped off, but in this instance it's actually doing the opposite.  Bates probably knew full well that if away fans didn't take their allocation, the home fans would fill it instead at £47. 

It’s like Gregg is the modern day Shebby, in place at the request of the owners but ostracised by the people supposedly running the club at Ewood.

Just watched it. I thought GB come across OK although it wasn't really a taxing interview. I suspect the questions, including the McGuire situation, were pre-vetted. There were opportunities for the interviewer to expand, For example when Bropughton says: "But the situation had come to a head by [the end of January] where a head coach change had become inevitable.", there is no investigation why that situation had arose.

Similarly on McGuire we agreed a fee but then we were "Unable to do a permanent transfer". No inquiry as to why. 99% of the people who watch that YouTube channel will have no idea to the background of this.

It does feel a bit like a PR piece. For the neutral viewer, the insistence (twice) that Hyam and Sammy were not on our radar prior to the new recruitment team would seem a bit weird. It's clear he's talking to the Rovers fans specifically there and not the show itself.

"I've been told it won't affect the budget". Hmm. Season tickets are going to be an absolute nightmare to sell this summer. I think we will see this line about the budget from the club all through the summer until it dawns again it's all bullshit.

Interesting he does throw others under the bus with the two January screw-ups. 

Overall much ado about nothing other than a few interesting confirmations. The big questions on GB, such as why when we are skint are we wasting good money on the likes of Wahlstedt and Fleck, will never be touched on in any interview unfortunately. 

Stoke hold their season ticket prices for the 17th consecutive season.

Adult tickets from £344.

Don't know what division they will be in next season.

edit - should have been in the Fans Forum thread but as we got talking about attendances.

20 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

owns a couple of horses and looks like he,along with the trainer have been attempting to profit from the non performance of one of his horses,i.e they`ve been betting on it not to win,always gets you a lengthy ban if you get found out🙂,when he retires from football,barnes is the type who will end up living in a shop doorway

Jockey was suspended (still is) but the trainer actually wasn’t involved and subsequently instructed the owner to remove both of his horses from his yard (obviously indicating he thinks the owner and jockey had colluded). It’s pretty blatant when you see the race. The investigation is still ongoing 9 months on with the BHA saying the jockey and the owners are not co-operating. I would speculate they will have been able to trace who made money from the horse losing and that may have led back to Barnes.

1 hour ago, K-Hod said:

Imagine being a club in the second tier of English football and charging £47 for tickets… Absolutely obscene.

A Leeds fan at work was saying, they try to price out away fans, so they can justify reducing allocations and then sell them to home fans. Proper dick move.

Imagine turning down £28 reciprocal deal just to charge Leeds fans £2 more, knowing full well we would get stung for £47 in return.

22 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

Leeds tickets subsidised by 25% by Rovers...

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/march/22/ticket-news--leeds-united-v-rovers/

If we take 2000 to Elland Road that will cost Rovers £23,500

Charging 8000 Leeds fans the extra £2 instead of agreeing the £28 fee with Leeds generated us around £16,000.

Therefore I hope Waggot managed to squeeze the extra £2 out of 3750 Rovers fans for the home game in order to break even on this masterstroke.

Sheff Wednesday game now 12.30 on a Sunday on Sky.

Yay .

47 / 48 points may well keep us up, but may still lead to a nervous last day where someone else needs to do us a favour.

Id hope we are safe before we go to Leicester.

International break has arrived.

Let’s have the cover up story now please Greg.

The players had downed tools under JDT as results show, albeit he was operating without Hedges, Hyam, Dolan, Gallagher and Pears. Leo alone cost him several points. The body language in that QPR game from the players and the bench was appalling and Britain’s comments after JDT had left had told us that his departure was inevitable.

However under Eustace the players  seem to have been slow ‘picking back up’ the tools. To me his job this season is to stop up, and I believe with the players available and points we have on the board that should have been fairly easily achievable. If we do stop up then next season I will then start to judge him albeit with the off field situation giving him plenty of slack. However if we go down this season it will be an absolute failure on his part.
 

12 hours ago, tomphil said:

Some might say they are very slowly tactically withdrawing bit by bit.

Some might say we will find a brighter day.