DE.

I like how the video is just called "Jason Lowe" with no description. None needed. Everything you need to know about the lad summed up in 9 seconds.

I can't say I care about any letters being written by the manager. I don't care if it was written for him or not (although some of the lines were verbatim from his introduction interview video, so we would have to assume that was written for him as well). It's fine for fans who want to get emotionally attached to a manager but I'm long past that point. For the most part all I care about is performances and results on the pitch. The media stuff is just fluff. It's nice that he's got long-term ambitions for what he wants to do at the club, but so did JDT and Eustace, and look what happened there. Without the support of the owners it's irrelevant, unfortunately. For now all that he or the fans can focus on is the rest of the games we have this season. Anything after that is at the whim of owners who have consistently shown they could not care less about the long-term future of the club beyond keeping the lights on and losing as little money as possible.

If anybody wants one of their recent posts from the previous thread moved to this one, send me a DM and I'll do the necessary.

Difficult to have any optimism after what happened with the last two managers. Or indeed, what's happened in general over the past 14 years or so. However, I'll judge him based on how we perform on the pitch. Clean slate and no pre-judgement. Let's see what he can do.

New thread opened:

Officially announced. https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2025/february/25/welcome-valerien-ismael/ https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2025/february/25/-to-be-the-head-coach-of-the-club-is-something-special-for-me-/

A long read here from The Athletic on Ismael's Watford tenure (apologies if already posted): https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5311623/2024/03/12/valerien-ismael-watford-exit-explained/

Unfortunately the £600k pa salary tracks if you assume Venky's are not putting any additional money into the club. If we guess Eustace was on around £600k, and factor in his compo to be between £500k - £750k (conflicting info from different sources) you'll end up at around £1.2m. £600k and a 2 year deal (or 2 years + a few months into June) would mean a manager coming in on £600k pa essentially costs them no more than they had already budgeted for. Zero ambition, as usual.

One of the issues with the three promoted teams going down two seasons in a row is that it gives the existing Prem clubs two additional seasons to continue strengthening at that level, which in theory makes it increasingly more difficult for the teams coming up. I don't think we're at a 'closed shop' point yet, as it's always possible for an existing PL team to implode with poor recruitment, but it's worrying to see two consecutive seasons of the promoted teams all going down - as seems likely to happen now.

Weimann is a decent option to come off the bench, particularly if we need a goal as he has that in his locker. Shouldn't be starting though.

Yeah, it's scary that he'd rather take that huge risk than stay here even for another few months. Makes you wonder what's lurking beneath the surface. I don't think it can just be incompetence and lack of budget. Can't rule out the ol' snake theory though, of course.

I agree, but then there are other similar sized clubs who have really struggled under incompetent ownership. Sheff Utd and Leeds spent a lot of time in League 1. Ipswich too. We've generally bumped around the Championship fairly comfortably in spite of Venky's, 2016-2018 aside. Those clubs all bounced back in a big way eventually, however, whereas we're stuck in eternal purgatory because we have owners who refuse to release their stranglehold on the club. You just wonder at this point when will it ever end?

Hedges being a first teamer perfectly encapsulates the downgrading of the team in recent years. He was brought in as a cheap sub and for a club with top six ambitions that's all he should be. The fact we keep getting in and around the top six (before inevitably falling away at the end) despite Venky's best efforts to sabotage us just calls into question WTF the other teams in the division are playing at. Is ownership/leadership at all clubs in this division just at a truly abysmal level?

Other than him being a former player, why? Wasn't his last managerial role in 2015?

Tbf zeros mess up averages and are often rounded up to 1 anyway if included.

Not looking good for the bottom three. Impressive win for Wolves away at Bournemouth, whilst the others all got hammered by mid-table sides at home. At least Ipswich can legitimately note they were in League 1 two seasons ago. Leicester and Southampton have only had one season out of the PL and already look well below the required standard.

At this point I would put Toth in because, well, why not? Pears' purple patch is over, confidence clearly gone and he's back to his usual self. Doing nothing will cost us points as he continues to sabotage us in goal, so we've got nothing to lose by trying something different, even if it seems unlikely to significantly change anything. We need a proper manager in place to actually make these bloody decisions though, not an interim repeatedly picking insipid lineups.

Realistically not very hopeful though, is it? We can't have ambition as fans whilst accepting the owners' refusal to build the team with proper backup options. It's why we always end up outside of the playoffs, time after time. Injuries and suspensions kill us, whilst underperforming players often get away with it simply because there's no viable alternative. You can't be successful with this kind of strategy, as we've seen since day one of these fools buying the club and darkening Ewood's doors. 13 years since we were relegated and not a single Championship top six finish. Absolutely pathetic, and this season will be no different.

Did you think he played well in those matches?

It took him a while to get us going, basically the last few games of last season, and that was largely Szmodics stepping up. He doesn't have that time at Derby and he doesn't have a Szmodics either. Getting out of League 1 no easy feat either these days. Big, big gamble he's taken. If he gets relegated with Derby and then can't get them up at first attempt it could damage his career trajectory immensely.

Problem is our backup is yet another cheap punt who looks to be just as dodgy.

Honeymoon period definitively over, as well as any idea these players can self-motivate themselves for the remaining matches. A new manager in asap is essential if there is any ambition for us to get top six (I have my doubts on this as ambition and Venky's don't go together without 'no' in the sentence somewhere).

At least this will hopefully put some pressure on Waggott and Suhail to get their arses in gear and appoint a manager. Embarrassing result today, 3 points thrown in the bin as we dawdle on hiring Eustace's replacement.

Losing 2-0 to this lot, after fielding that poor excuse for a starting lineup, is totally unacceptable. Really embarrassing. We need someone brave in the dugout who isn't going to pick a player because he usually averages a 6/10 (looking at you, Hedges). Kargbo should have started. A braver manager would have gone for it against this poor team.

Looks like Coventry are the team having a late surge to the playoffs this season. If Lampard can have that kind of impact then maybe Gerrard would work here. Lose today and we need an appointment announced asap. Stop fucking around and sort it out.