DE.

At any normal club JDT would have left in the summer. As soon as he offered his resignation, saying this isn't what he'd signed up for - offering to walk away for nothing, as well - it should have been a case of "OK Jon, give us some time to get things sorted from our end and we'll let you go". Instead he was, seemingly, told he'd be held to his contract whether he wanted to be here or not. He could walk out but wouldn't be able to work anywhere else until his contract expired in summer 2025. Whilst the owners are technically within their rights to do that, it's complete stupidity as we then go into the season with a demotivated manager who doesn't want to be here, and players who no doubt were well aware of that fact. It's a miracle that we got the results we did until November with all of that factored in. It all leads back to the same place - we're a dysfunctional club owned by people who should be nowhere near any football club.

This time last season we'd just beaten QPR away 3-1 and were sitting in 4th, unbeaten in 7. Now we argue about our team being shit or slightly less shit with a single win in 13 matches. Thanks Venky's.

After the past 12 years I'm out of patience or hope. I just want Venky's and all associated with them to fuck off and never come back.

Another result to add to the rest where we go behind and can't come back to win. Finding it difficult to be thankful for a point at home to Norwich, who we handily dispatched at Carrow Road only a few months ago. How the tables have turned. They've gone from strength to strength whilst we've transformed into one of the worst teams in the league. Can't wait for the season to be over, regardless of the outcome.

Pack ye bags and head home boys, 1-0 is game over for our soft lads. (happy if they prove me wrong mind)

Interestingly in 2014/15 when we finished 9th, 11 points off the playoffs, we actually conceded less than the previous year when we'd finished 8th and only 2 points of the playoffs (59 conceded in 14/15, 62 conceded in 13/14). We also only scored 4 less goals (66 in 14/15 and 70 in 13/14). The division was just a lot stronger in 14/15. The teams above us scored more goals and conceded less than the year before. Brighton took 6th spot in 13/14 with 72 points, whereas Ipswich took 6th with 78 points in 14/15. We didn't really decline, we just didn't improve whilst other teams around us did. Adding Gestede to the mix for a full season didn't really help improve on 13/14 (when Rhodes was the only player we had in the top ten Champ goalscorers) as others evidently did not contribute as much as they had the season prior in terms of putting the ball in the net. I consider 13/14, when we didn't have Gestede in the top scorer charts, as far more of a wasted opportunity than 14/15. The 0-0 at home to Yeovil will always stick in the memory as particularly infuriating. Ultimately even if we had won that match we still would have lost out on GD, assuming results went the same way for other teams in the run in, but if we'd won that game then more pressure would have been on the teams around us and who knows what happens next. With that said, considering we've been a soft touch since Venky's turned up, we probably would have found a way to blow it anyway.

Way too early to be talking about Eustace's "style", he's barely been at the club five minutes. What we're seeing is a back to basics approach to try and reduce the amount of goals we're conceding and stop losing. For the most part that has improved things, and we'll probably be in this firefighting mode until end of season, so expect plenty more turgid performances. If it scrapes enough points to keep us in the division then that'll be job done for Waggott and Venky's until they continue operation oblivion in the summer and decimate what's left of the team. I'd say we'll likely see more what Eustace is about next season (much like it took six months or so before we really starting seeing JDT's footballing philosophy coming through properly) but lord knows what he'll be left with to try and survive again, assuming we don't drop this season.

These last few months are going to be a slog.

https://90sfootballparty.wordpress.com/2016/08/02/home-too-soon-hodgson-at-blackburn/ Really good write up here of Roy's time with us.

Very much an underdog manager. He knows how to get a team punching above its weight. His methods simply don't work when there are significant expectations and dressing room egos involved. At the time he came to us we were very much in that category. If he'd come to us after Hughes left he'd probably have done well here, as we were a completely different proposition by then.

Jack had offered him the chance to resign a little while before, and Roy confirmed that even in resignation Jack was willing to pay his full contract up. I believe Hodgson later admitted that at the time he was too arrogant to realise he couldn't turn it around. He said he held no ill will towards Rovers and very much respected how we handled the situation.

All the best to Mowbray, hope he recovers and takes time out of the game if he needs to.

Roy had totally lost the plot by the time he was sacked. Behaving strangely as well, to the point where players were openly mocking him. Can't come back from that realistically. Sacking him was the right call, but we made the wrong one in who we chose to appoint next. The first half of 97/98 was excellent and feels like what could have been, but the second half of that season was really poor and we never recovered. Between Jan 11th and May 10th 1997 we lost 10 of our 17 matches. Extremely poor purchases in the summer and the likes of Hendry leaving doomed any chance of returning to form the following season. With our budget we should never have been close to a relegation battle, let alone actually being relegated. One season's worth of poor decisions cost us dearly, in a time period where teams weren't afforded that luxury. Compare to today when multiple teams can make horrendous decisions year after year and survive (Everton especially) just because there are three teams who either can't bridge the gap between the Champ/Prem or are imploding at an even greater level. With that said, we came back strong in the end and I wouldn't trade the Souey/Hughes years for anything.

Replacing TM with Beale was so obviously a stupid move that it makes you wonder how Sunderland are 10th with decisions like that being made. Then you remember we've been just outside the playoffs a few times under Venky's, and realise the majority of the league has incompetents at the helm.

Considering how poor we are, and the fact Preston have been in decent form recently, I'll take a point for sure. Sad that Venky's have reduced us to this level though.

Must be nice to be at a club that isn't a total circus mind.

I don't think many people thought JDT's entire footballing philosophy needed to be thrown out, just that it needed some tweaking and a Plan B in the event Plan A wasn't working. We obviously needed to be more compact defensively. The whole "shackles are off" nonsense is a big red flag to me. Just feels like the players now have an excuse not to work or think as much anymore and can resort to hoofing and doing as they please. They aren't good enough to be allowed that kind of freedom. Stoke were expecting something different in the first half and are as bad as we are, so our attacking talent was enough to win that match. If they score that penalty I have no doubt our weak minded team folds and we get a draw at best. Against more organised teams we'll come unstuck repeatedly as we did last night. As I said in another thread, Eustace can't trust these players. He's got a job on his hands. He might get away with drilling some absolute basics into them over the next few weeks which may get us over the line, but looking at our fixture list it's going to be tough if we need to wait a few weeks to get going.

As is the case for pretty much all 'official' forums. Either heavily moderated to ensure no negative stuff posted, or ultimately shut down due to negative stuff posted.

Brittain probably not going to be as eager to pipe up tomorrow.

Have said this time after time when people talk about JRC having this spot in the team or that spot... he'll never be fit enough to consistently rely on. At best he's a bonus when he's fit.

The only thing I'll say in Rock and TKO's defence is that at least they immediately walked it back. Under Vince it would have taken a lot longer, if it happened at all. This probably doesn't do any lasting damage to Cody and does set up some really interesting possibilities going forward, so they've stumbled their way into something interesting in the end - they just went about it in a very backwards way. I did find it funny how at the press conference Cody basically pretended like he didn't make a decision on Smackdown and retconned that entire ending segment. That's exactly what they should have done - have Cody say he'd spoken to Rock and made a decision, then have Rock come out and engage in a staredown with Reigns without Cody saying anything else. Imply that Rock might be stealing the main event without outright saying so. Gauge the response and go from there. The press conference then makes a lot more sense. Nonetheless, what's done is done. They've done the right thing in the end, and I assume that going forward they'll just pretend Cody never actually said he was giving up his WM spot.

I think they had a fairly solid plan until Rock came in and forced his way into storylines. The Vince allegations obviously put things into a state of chaos as well. I actually think they have the opportunity now to make things more interesting than the original plans, but it depends where they go creatively. It's not ideal to have to retool a story that they likely had booked well in advance, and deal with the knock on affect of how that impacts other stories - particularly Seth's opponent at WM.

I know the Observer reported that it was part of Rock's contract when he signed to the TKO board that he would headline WM. How true that is, I don't know, but it would be baffling for them to go ahead with Cody winning the rumble if that was the case. With that said, everything about this has been baffling, so it's probably true. I'd like to see Rock/Seth on Night 1 and Cody/Roman on Night 2. Rock still gets his main event, but nothing to do with Cody and Reigns. Doesn't seem like that's the direction they're going in though.

Gally has been injured for significant amounts of time lately, so how could we build a style of play around him? Moreover the strikers that were foisted onto JDT by our DOF have by and large been completely useless. Fortunately Szmodics has stepped up otherwise we'd probably be in the bottom three. Too many players in this team who have shown their heads go down when things get tough. Easy to give it the big'un after beating a Stoke side who are struggling even more than we are. I don't trust many of the players out there and, imo, neither should Eustace.

I'm glad WWE did the right thing by backtracking (and the press conference confrontation was legitimately fantastic), but it's crazy that they misread their audience so badly. With Vince out of the picture I thought they'd be a little more sensible, but seems like TKO are just as dense. The one main difference seems to be that they're willing to change course rather than try to force the audience to accept what's given to them, which is obviously a positive.