DE.

Not sure I'd class WBA or Brum as the better teams in the division, neither looked like it playing against us, but even if we do put them at that level who are we expecting to be below us? Sheff Weds, probably - then...? Other than Cantwell, who's scoring the goals in this team? Who's creating the assists? It feels like blind optimism to think the likes of Yuki, Gueye or Kargbo are going to step up like that. Hedges certainly isn't. No evidence as of yet that the new signings are capable. I think to have any chance we need to scrape a win or two very quickly and hope momentum carries us for a while. It will be very difficult for such a technically barren team to reverse a downward spiral this early in this season.

I didn't say they were a bad side, but they were bang average when we played them. We didn't have a shot in the first 45 and two on target the entire game, at home. If that's decent then standards are frankly through the fucking floor.

The worrying thing is neither WBA nor Big Club were very good. I think our first 11 from last season takes at least 4 points from those matches.

Relegation written all over this squad I'm afraid. We don't create enough and one goal a game at best ain't gonna be enough. You can argue we were hard done by today, but it's a common complaint amongst poor teams. Good teams make their own luck.

Ayo, not only a shot on goal but also a goal. That'll do.

First 45 mins of the season at home and not a shot on goal. Nice. We are in fact the only team in the division this afternoon to have zero shots so far. Only positive is that Birmingham have been pretty shit as well. One of those games that would make somebody wonder why football is so popular.

Not a huge fan of our new strategy of never creating chances or shooting. Would personally prefer a different approach.

Yep, the 16/17 team under any remotely decent manager would have stayed up. Even being saddled with Coyle until Feb we still only went down on GD and what I think was a record number of points for relegation? Close to, if not.

Trying to think of another example in modern times, at this sort of level, where a manager has literally been stopped from attending a press conference due to his alleged incandescent anger over the incompetence of the people he's working with. To be a fly on the walls of Ewood on that day.

Laughable. I love Big Mak's personality but more often than not he looks totally out of his depth in this league. Yuki has done OK but he's not an Arma, Szmodics, or even BBD.

Honestly, I do see a relegation team. Even more so if Travis and Hyam leave. There just isn't enough reliable Championship experience. Aside from that I think we massively lack in creativity, have no real goalscoring threat and no squad depth whatsoever. If we stay up then fair enough, Ismael will have done well.

I understand Rooney being upset with Brady's words and his portrayal in the Birmingham promotional series. It was a bit cowardly to do that without giving Rooney any chance to put his side across. From the "documentary" we have no idea why Rooney was hired or what he was attempting to implement, nor do the owners show any real understanding of their culpability beyond Brady's brief remark on changing too much too soon (and then proceeding to blame the players anyway). Rooney saying he inherited a mess is baffling, though, considering they were 6th and had won Eustace's last match there comfortably.

Don't think we'll have a choice tbh, as even if we shopped him around for free I'm not sure he'd have many takers. Haven't heard anything about interest in Pears either. Need to get someone at Man Utd to remind Amorim to get that one done soonish.

Interesting. Massive mistake from Mowbray to sign him then, in your view?

I would take a look at the senior leadership and wonder why costs were increasing but our goals were not being achieved. With that said, this assumes the goal is to get promoted. Waggott already said during JDT's time that the aim is to develop players and plod along in the division.

Hedges might be a decent pickup as a squad player for a team at the lower end of the division. Probably wouldn't be able to afford him until his contract expires next year though, as one imagines whatever he's getting at Rovers are unlikely to be matched by the type of club he's likely to attract.

A bunch of cheapos from relegated clubs in minor foreign leagues. I'm sure that'll work out just fine.

Ominous reading this after one league game 😅 it does somehow already feel like we're in a months long spiral though.

Fair play to Trav if he can get that kind of money - frankly even if it was only a few thousand difference it'd make sense for him to pursue a move to a genuinely ambitious club where he knows (and presumably gets on well with) the manager. I've always found it difficult to blame any player (or manager) for wanting to leave the club under the current ownership. As long as they're professional about it until they leave, it's not a problem for me.

£30k pw for Travis seems a bit extreme for this division. I like Trav and have generally stuck up for him, but it's not like he's a PL player stuck in the Championship. He's at the right level, and £30k is far north of the wage for a solid if unspectacular Championship midfielder. Bizarre if true - even if Derby can afford to offer him that, it would presumably massively unbalance their wage structure. I am dubious on the figure, to say the least.

Hedges' deficiencies are less obvious when he's got a decent team around him, simply because he works hard and therefore looks like he's contributing. When he's increasingly surrounded by limited players then it becomes more obvious that he's not much use. He was brought in initially as a cheap option to come off the bench. The fact he's now a starter is emblematic of our on pitch decline.

I think attacking wise Brittain was a game changer at times and could have been yesterday. Obviously nobody is saying he's a world class player. Silly comment.

Alebiosu was quite alright, especially considering it was his debut, but against a very average WBA side just OK is a downgrade on what we would have had. I think Brittain would have really troubled that WBA team yesterday.

Gueye doesn't have history of being prolific in front of goal, so if we want to make use of Miller's long throw capability we're probably going to need to spend money on a proper striker. Love Big Mak but for me he's a rotational option, not someone we can pin our hopes on as the main man.

This 'transitional period' nonsense is just another dressing up of 'the journey' or the 'three/five year plan'. Never any ambitions for now, just in the distant future. The only thing we're transitioning into is a lower table Championship team - optimistically - or more realistically a League 1 team. There is absolutely zero evidence to suggest a bunch of players brought in from average to poor teams in leagues incomparable to the Championship are going to transition us into something better. At least when Mowbray and JDT were talking about it, their signings suggested the possibility was there even if reality always came along to bite us on the arse in the end. Eustace was the only manager in recent times who wanted to plan for the now, and his ambitions were swiftly wrecked by those above him. Not only that, but his desire to bring in players he believed could push us forward now as opposed to some magical time in the future was derided as "bringing in Eustace's mates" or "lacking resale value", as if we're a club who doesn't consistently allow valuable players to either leave for nothing or well below their true value. Venky's had a somewhat canny operator in Waggott who was willing and able to keep us bobbing along in the Championship. Zero ambition beyond that, but it was a target he could meet. I don't think the Pasha/Gestede combo have that same ability, and unless they get an experienced CEO in very quickly we could be looking at 2016/17 all over again.