DE.

Maybe, but I think Eustace was smart enough to know we were capable of doing something that stupid, and he was prepared to get out at the first sign Venky's were gonna Venky.

For what it's worth I agreed with the majority of the statement, it was really only the last page I had an issue with. It implies that a statement from the owners would have value, when it wouldn't, and the suggestion is that if such a statement was released the coalition / trust would "continue to hold them accountable". Frankly, that is just a retread of the "critical friend" overtures that have failed for well over a decade. It didn't work with the FF, it didn't work with the AG, it didn't work with the Trust and it won't work now. The demand simply has to be for the owners to put the club up for sale. Nothing more, nothing less. Whether such a statement achieves anything is another matter - it probably won't - but my view is that this should be a message repeatedly reinforced no matter what. I'm just one guy from the outside looking in, so I don't expect any weight to be assigned to my thoughts, but nonetheless that's how I feel.

JDT will have looked at Mowbray's tenure and thought if I can have that time and manage to get some of that backing I can achieve something. The club seemingly agreed to his "project" at the beginning, so whilst I wouldn't have trusted the club to deliver, I can understand why he thought he might be able to do something here. Eustace knew what he was walking into and had an escape plan. Much like Lambert, he made sure he had a way to get out if all wasn't as it seemed. I think he believed the squad was good enough for him to do a decent job, and if things looked like they were heading south he could jump before the ship sank. There were risks involved, especially if he couldn't get the team into a decent position, but he did a good job and therefore had the interest needed from elsewhere to get away in time. Ismael also knew what he was walking into, but likely didn't have the leverage to negotiate a release clause. Maybe he does have one, but I'd be surprised. He's only comparable with Eustace in the sense they both knew what they were getting into. I agree that their situations are completely different otherwise.

I have zero sympathy for VI in terms of the position he's in. He knew the score when he arrived. Same with Eustace, for the record. JDT had made it publicly known he'd been messed about and not even allowed to resign. The only difference being that Eustace took us on as a calculated risk and made sure there was a release clause in his contract as an escape route. He had confidence he'd be able to do well enough in the meantime to generate interest and fair play to him, it worked. I doubt Ismael is in the same position, in any respect. He's likely stuck here. He'd have known what he was getting into though. He'll just have to deal with it I'm afraid.

This is a league where Preston are 3rd, and we can't beat any of the worst teams in it.

Ohashi is a great squad player. Doesn't have the talent to be a regular starter in a team with serious ambitions of top six, but we aren't a team with that ambition. Today has crystallised to me that, barring a January miracle where we seriously beef up this poor squad, we are going down. If Ohashi sticks around for League 1 I think he'll be decent there.

We can't score more than one goal in a match. We can't keep a clean sheet. Obvious that we will go down at this point.

Yeah, we're cooked.

Obviously, but still, if the coalition believes the current owners could be part of the solution then the group is unfortunately misaligned with my view. Venky's have had fifteen years and the only constant is failure (17/18 aside, but we were in League 1). They will always be part of the problem. The call must be for them to go and nothing else, in my opinion. Of course, the coalition can do as they please and if the idea is still to engage with the owners, good luck.

The only goal should be to remove them. I wouldn't care if they did give assurances about the club's future, because I don't trust them.

All relegated sides have hard luck stories. We set ourselves up for failure in the summer by jettisoning almost every player worth a damn and replacing them with cheap punts, or just not replacing them at all. The end result was entirely predictable, as many posts on here during pre-season will prove.

Lose this one and we really are in trouble. Not being able to beat any of the teams you're scrapping for survival with is a surefire way to get relegated.

I don't think Ismael is a particularly good manager, but yeah, for me the issue is and has always been those above the manager. The owners and those they employ to run the club are what is holding us down, not whichever patsy is sitting in the management dugout at any given time.

It's what most of us knew before the season started tbf. As soon as injuries and suspensions hit we would be cooked, because we have nothing useful in reserve.

This league is the polar opposite of whatever a good quality competition is. Look at the amount of teams that struggle to beat Sheffield Wednesday - and I say that as no disrespect to the Owls, but that's a team ripped apart and destroyed by the owner before the season kicked off. Yet the majority of teams in this league are scraping past them. Watford had to score in the 97th minute tonight to avoid losing to them at home. It's embarrassing. A significant portion of players in this division are either stealing a living, or the standard below the PL is truly dire.

I was about to ask if we were going to bring anyone else on. Then I looked at our bench. Depressing.

These lads should be playing for the Blackburn Centurions water polo team. Unbeatable when Ewood is submerged in water, useless otherwise.

He wasn't even playing regularly for the average Portuguese team he'd ended up at. Total waste of money.

I said it in another thread, but Alebiosu would have at least 3 or 4 more direct assists if we had any worthwhile attacking players besides Gudjohnsen playing regularly.

Are we changing formation, or is Ribeiro moving to centre-back and De Neve to LWB?

Look at our team. Alebiosu and maybe Gudjohnsen aside it's utterly abysmal. A random team which looks like you went into the football manager editor, set the current ability to 100 or less and let it arbitrarily pick a player for each position.

The problem with their hard-luck rhetoric is that it assumes there is some kind of microclimate in the area of Ewood Park which the majority of our local rivals at a similar level don't experience. Seeing as we haven't seen matches being called off in the past three decades due to rain, it also assumes the rainfall this year is the worst it has ever been in the last 30 years or so, which I am skeptical of.

Was there any statement from the EFL about our second abandonment for rain in a matter of months, or have they been silent on the matter as well? If they aren't taking any action then I consider them just as complicit as the club at this point. A template statement about replaying the match doesn't address any of the obvious concerns.

Did O'Neill want the the job in a long term capacity? I only remember him saying he'd keep the ship steady until a new manager was identified. He's 74 in March and hasn't managed full time in 6 years - presumably by his own choice. Very early days for Nancy - you can't judge after one game. I do think it would have made sense to hold off on the appointment until after the Hearts match, mind, but it may have sent out the wrong message to do so.

Sounds he's losing the will to be the human shield who absorbs blame whilst the real culprits hide in the background. It's what he signed up for, granted, but I doubt he envisioned being grilled over not being able to play games at home when it rains.