If Tony could park the bus as well S he throws players under it our back line would be unbreakable.

My take on it too. Too much quality against a weak non-established Championship team. TM will make it harder than it ought to be but the players' quality will win through. I have this as one of our three just win games to avoid relegation. And i think it will happen.

Hard not to agree with these posts. As stated a ton of contradictions. Beginning to use his family as a shield - where have we seen that before? It gets more like the beginning of Venkys reign every day. Utter lies. You can't say that you don't feel the pressure whilst putting an article out saying you don't feel the pressure and using every non footballing reason to justify yourself as possible. Fwiw I know a ton of guys who are great father's and work very hard but I don't think it entitles them or makes them suitable to manage this great club. Have we had a week where he hasn't contradicted himself? No moments he is proud of Vs very proud to manage us being today's. His second contradiction after Nayambe gate. Or third using arbitros criticising youngsters comment. Oh and when you have to tell people you are a great guy you generally aren't. Thing is we will win today giving the clown a free pass for another 6 months.

My worry with Hughes is not just the negatives on his CV but how long it has been since something positive. Time makes a hell of a difference. Contrast with Pearson's good work at Watford, McCarthy at Ipswich and Warnock at Cardiff and Rotherham all of them had recent - as in the last few seasons - successes on their CV before taking their latest role. That said we are getting to the point where any manager would be better simply by not playing loco-coco formations and seeing what batnuts position they can find for Elliott Dack or Gally. Good thread though. Made me think about some different candidates.

What a load of bull. 4 years to assemble a squad and he gets a free pass. And the implication that no manager could do better. What the hell has he done to warrant such fanatical devotion?

Agree Aside from the defence, and with the caveats that a) players are played in the right place and b) they aren't rushed back from injury, then yes it's probably a top 6 squad or just outside of it. Sure some of them are a bit limited but in the right system, under say McCarthy, playing to their strengths they should do well. On their day many of our players look good. The issue is their day isn't that often. A good manager could increase this. Imagine if Johnson upped his good performances from 1 in 4 and wasn't stuck at CB. Holtby on his day can be excellent. Gally has shown glimpses of being a good plan B on occasions through the middle (sadly glimpses only). Rothwell in the middle has looked more promising. If Travis and Dack weren't rushed back they are both good players. Armstrong and Elliott are doing well despite the mess. Lenihen with the right partner has looked good (the rest of the time he looks gash). Heck even a defence of Douglas, Lenihen, Warton, Nayambe - which we could have put out for a bit - doesn't look too bad. Problem is the players, the formations and the positions they play in all change regularly so it's no wonder there is no consistency. They are on easy street with TM, it's not a meritocracy for places, there's no pressure on any of them. It's no wonder they don't perform as well as they can in such circumstances. Put it this way - I'm certain that s better manager would get a lot more out of them and I don't think Bristol or Cardiff or Stoke or Boro's squads are any better than ours yet they are knocking on the doors of the playoffs.

Yeah it's a fair point, the last 5 were winnable. The lack of fight is a worry and I do think that will cause us trouble in games Vs the bottom. And it is something you see in relegation sides so I totally get and share your concern. But the flip side is we do have quality and there is a lot of dross in this division. We have got points in games we have played badly in. So I don't think three wins is an unreasonable or even unlikely in 15 games, even with the handicap that we have.

Oh aye, teams fighting for their lives in the last few games is just what we need! What you want for the final few games is teams already doomed or mid table nothing to play for on the beach. That sounds a bit harsh as I agree with your point! Just that I don't think I want all these relegation scrappers to be our last few games as this team has zero fight in it. Think the next three games are key. All winnable, Reading having a wobble, Coventry aren't great and Millwall average. 4 points from that I think will take us a lot closer to safety and worrying about next season instead. Personally I think we will get about 4 points from those games before losing the next 4 - which all look very daunting - to make for an interesting finish. That said I think 3 wins plus our 10 point buffer at the moment will be more than enough to keep us up. Wins Vs Coventry, Wycombe and Rotherham - all immensely doable - will mean the bottom three need to win 6 or 7 of the final 15 games to catch us. That means they need to win roughly half their games which I cannot see them doing. Of course the flip side is we aren't winning at the moment. But we do have the quality to and we have picked up some wins whilst playing badly so I don't think 3 wins in 15 is an overly optimistic target even accounting for TM being a clown.

I hope (and think) this is sarcasm. The only players who will sign new contracts are dollopers like Evans and Williams.

Nah that graph can't be right as it suggests that the previous manager was sacked after a run of defeats. That doesn't happen round our way.

My take on it was before he was trying to convince Armstrong he wasn't ready for the Prem and to sign a new contract. Now he knows Armstrong won't sign a new contract and so is trying to ramp up the price for the inevitable sale.

I wasn't convinced by TM at all in our promotion season. That said he did get us promoted which imo gave hin the chance to have a crack in the Championship even though I had reservations, especially given Venkys record of recruitment. That season increasingly convinced me however that he wasn't that good a manager at all.

Well that's the height of tactical naievity. There are times against better opposition (and according to TM that's a lot of teams) that you need to keep it tight and get something on the break. It's stupid to play better teams at their own game. Does he think this makes him sound noble? He just sounds out of his depth.

Quick question, what criteria are you using to define these as great signings? I presume by great, you mean better than good? And that would suggest have made a big positive impact on the club. Would that be a fair assessment? If that's the case I genuinely can't see how Rothwell and Holtby get on that list. Neither has hugely shaped the team, the stats and end product for both are ok at best and they have been in and out of the team. Even with blue and white tinted specs I struggle to see how that is great. Compare them to the impact that Dack has had since joining for example, or Smallwood in his first season, or Elliott this year and you see a heck of a difference. Good signings maybe, but great I think is stretching it. Also if we are going on what they do here rather than raw potential then am not sure that Armstrong in League 1 or Reid count as great either (assuming that we can count Armstrong twice, that seems cheating a bit (how do you spot s player twice?) Armstrong in League 1 was nowhere near as influential as say Dack or Smallwood and Reid spent most of his time shunted out wide. Hard to say either of those players had a great impact. Now Armstrong since signing permanently, my word, would agree has been a cracking buy. So even with a favourable outlook I really can't see how you can justify saying more than 6 top of the range signings. Tbf that's not a poor record for a manager. Problem is there have been some absolute clangers too, often at great expense Gally, Bereton and Whittingham took up significant portions of the budget each year for nothing in return, their cost as well as their inability causing damage to the team. Walton cost us so many goals it was untrue. Ayala has been shocking for fitness reasons hugely contributing to our defensive issues and Harper was an utter waste of a loan. I also think all the full backs he has brought have been substandard but wouldn't quite class them as terrible as apart from Caddis on paper they looked decent moves. In short, I think TM has made some good buys but he is no Mark Hughes in the transfer market for us. Far too many clangers and costly ones at that for him to be classed as having done well (as oppose to decent) on that front.

Where to start?!?! Firstly I'm fairly confident that the 20 different backlines are significantly self inflicted. If you have three crocks at centre back it's only natural you're going to see some changes. Likewise, if you decide the right back is to be the resident scapegoat and dropped every now and then in favour of others, it's also not going to help you get a measure of consistency. Not a burden on the club. Well aside from the stagnation, the 5 losses on the bounce, bringing in Venus and Waggott and hatching a plan to sell off the training facilities, oh and the lies and drivel in interviews and idiotic formations and players our of position, there's scarce been a burdensome moment. Burdensome, he's more like a sodding albatross. The comparisons with Klopp, Liverpool and Brentford don't half get on my wick. Thing is I wouldn't mind a slump like any of those teams if it, y'know came with the success as well. We don't have success. We have slumps and treading water. Had we had half the (relative) success of Liverpool over the past few years I might have a bit more patience for this latest epic slump. As it is we don't get the good, just the bad. best to part company asap and take his mates with him.

Goodness, talk about them being a different animal away from home. Far, far from unbeatable. Terrible excuses which aren't backed up by the stats at all.

Goodness me, I think I must be going senile. Because i am sure I have seen Rovers beat better teams before, both in person and on the screen. Maybe I'm making up those historic wins vs Arsenal, Manure and the like. I think I am also imagining the mighty QPR beating Watford recently as well. And I must have misread the stat about the number of away goals they had scored being pretty low. Aside from the terrible logic of said post implying Watford are unbeatable, and therefore its unreasonable to expect a win, said defence also falls down because people aren't unhappy that we didn't win. It's not a one game unhappiness context. It's a 5 game loss on the bounce. It's the fact that Watford were poor (as you have admitted) and we didn't do anything to take advantage of that, be it for a point or three. It's because we continue to use a tombola for a team selection, because we are reliant on kids at centre back, because Dack is stuck out wide and Rothwell is subbed for playing well. So it's not unreasonable to think we could have got something from the game, and it's a culmination of crapness that is infuriating fans. Your defence of TM is almost as good as our current centre backs. Also if the bar is so low that only 6 losses suggests something is worrying, then my word, standards are even lower than I thought.

Great way of describing him. He does nothing - not a good passer, a strong tackler, doesn't make great runs into the box. But like you say can look busy. Unfortunately in an underperforming team these players get found out.

A miraculous recovery for Nayambe. If only the medical team were as good with the rest of our crocks. That said Evans makes an appearance. Not sure on what planet that is justified. Other than that and the two kids at centre back it's not a bad team.

Another hold my lemon drizzle cake moment for TM as Rovers fans complain the back 4 of Johnson, Bell, Douglas and Lenihen is the worst ever.

Well it is detached enough from reality to be a genuine quote I suppose. It's another falsehood though. Watford have pretty much combined drawn and lost as many games as they have won which suggests from pure stats alone there's a roughly 50% chance of us getting something from the game. Admittedly good form over the last 5 games but then the footballing giants QPR and Coventry also got points off them in that time. So to make out we are at a huge disadvantage coming into this match against an unstoppable juggernaut is another fabrication from TM. Can he actually tell the truth any more?

Think Keane would be a disaster and isn't that good a manager. That said I too would love for him to share a few home truths with our players. Much needed and would be a heck of s shock to them after TMs mollycoddling.

This isn't a real quote surely? It sounds like it could be but if so it's beyond horrific.

Don't worry the goal posts will change to topping the mini league of mid-table. And with the form of Forest, QPR and Derby we could well be dropping further. Thankfully it looks like Preston and Luton are running out of steam too. Mind you the fact we are pretty much on a level with them with vastly superior resources speaks volumes. The downwards journey continues.

I could be reading too much into it but is the performance related coach also a way of him distancing himself from as much responsibility from the current mess? Or am I just getting cynical that we are no further on then the early years? If it is an I just coach the team plea, it's a load of guff as said coaches don't appoint their bosses or set up scouting networks or buy half the Boro team. Also Jim why wait till another loss. Get rid now.