DE.

Imagine Ipswich had actually bought Gallagher in January. He'd potentially be a PL player now, lmao. Or more likely if he'd played he'd have missed chances that others have scored and they'd be heading into the playoffs now.

That's ridiculous. Really does suggest there were a lot of teams in the middle of the table on the proverbial beach, cheating their fans out of a proper performance on the final day of the season. Not that I care right now.

Rooooneh

Can't be many seasons where five of the bottom six teams won their matches on the final day?

Getting the points to survive away to Leeds and Leicester ffs. We really can only play as underdogs. Cheers to Sammie Szmodics. As for the rest, just be thankful there were three teams more deserving of the drop than us this season. Venky's, fuck off. You are a blight on this club and have been since day one.

All bottom six teams except Hudds winning, lol. Even Rotherham FFS.

Sammie deserves a fucking statue for what he's done this season.

Fingers crossed it's the last time we see him in our colours.

Sounds like a typical game under Eustace tbh.

I'm surrounded by jubilant Town fans today. Happy for them of course, but just confirms for me it could easily have been us if JDT was backed last January or this summer. We would have been back in the PL by now with competent owners. Probably a decade ago. But then we likely wouldn't have been relegated in the first place.

Duffy will probably score an OG to give Big Club the three points.

Genuinely not really stressed at all. I have zero attachment to any of the players, bar Szmodics, and think the majority of the non playing staff are incompetent or not good enough. I have active contempt, putting it politely, for our owners. If we go down it's fully deserved for almost all of them. Will be a shame for the decent staff who could lose their jobs as well as some of our fans, but so it is at every club.

Only positive so far is that Leicester don't look bothered at all.

Couldn't have imagined even at the height of our decline under JDT that we'd finish below QPR and Wednesday. A truly spectacular collapse, even by our lofty standards.

Imagine most clubs could tbf. Our squad depth has been embarrassingly shit since the first game.

It begins.

We still are. Next season is going to be abysmal even if we cling on to our Championship status this time around.

That's the biggest problem. Even when things are going "well", I can't really enjoy it because I know our owners will find a way to nuke everything through incompetence and neglect (at best). Even when we seem on course for something finally going right - Mowbray and JDT both having us in fantastic positions midway through the season - the owners and the club contrive to find a way to destroy it with near-instant results. We don't just fall away, we collapse to the point where we achieve nothing, not even a playoff spot. Literally the only exception to this is the one season we spent in L1, and that was simply because we had a squad that was far, far too good for that league and should never have been relegated in the first place. If we'd hadn't self-destructed by appointing Owen Coyle and keeping him in place for 7 months we wouldn't have gone down in 2016/17. I think even if we'd gotten rid in December rather than February it would have been enough time to save us. But anyway, yeah, Venky Rovers, not a fan. I desperately hope that one day the club will be freed from this prison of Venky ownership and we can revive the real Blackburn Rovers. What we've witnessed since November 2010 has been little more than a cheap imitation of what we once were.

Up there with my worst ever takes for sure. Incredible season for Town, just a point needed at home to Hudds to get promoted now. If we ever get rid of Venky's there's no reason it can't be us. Shame on them for running this club so poorly we've never even been in the championship playoffs once in their entire tenure.

I'm curious to know what people have seen from Leo when playing for us that suggests he has significant potential. I assume that judgement isn't just based on a single Swedish cap in a friendly against Finland. I believe he's a year and a few months younger than Pears, which isn't a significant difference, and Pears has generally performed better despite both being poor. 24 might be younger for a keeper than an outfield player, but by comparison Raya was playing in the PL for Brentford by that age. So I don't know. I haven't seen anything that suggests potential from his performances for us, in fact there are some fundamentals he still seems to be lacking. Just seems to be a case, much like when Gallagher misses time due to injury, where people start to forget how poor a player is because he isn't there every week to remind them. We likely won't have the budget for any replacement keeper, but in my view we need two unless one of our youngsters can step up.

We've had two coaches now who seem extremely reluctant to put Telalovic on the pitch, which probably says something. Does make you wonder what the recruitment team were thinking spending any of our limited money on him though. Might as well have kept Vale around - from memory he didn't go out on loan until 01/09, so we could have just decided to hold onto him if Telalovic was our only other achievable target.

Tronstad and Carter are probably the only players, excluding Sammie, who I'd somewhat trust in a starting eleven. The rest I have absolutely no faith in. Brittain and Hyam have, imv, shown their true mentality over the past five months and it's far from being good enough. Would have them out of the door to anyone wiling to buy for a decent price. JRC made of glass, has ability but not ever going to be reliable as a regular first teamer. The rest are largely players with a weak mentality who are, at best, somewhat consistent 6/10 or 7/10 players as long as the opposition doesn't score first or there aren't some scattered boos. Either of those things happens and it's game over for these lads. Not good enough if we have ambition - although granted we know Venky's and Waggot do not. Realistically we won't have the funds to clear out the squad, but it just means more disappointment next season, because I don't believe most of these lads are up to it. Most of them have had plenty of chances over the past three seasons and blown it in various ways. It's not a case of not trying, for most of them anyway, they just don't quite have the conviction and/or ability to make this club successful. We've collected a group of very soft players and it needs a huge shakeup to get us going again. I'm aware that won't happen, though, so assuming we scrape survival I'll enjoy the summer and, sadly, likely dread the beginning of next season.

Since December we've been a bottom three team - both in form and in terms of points collected. The points JDT gained us from August - November will, maybe, just about save us. It's been a truly abysmal five months. The quality is definitely not there, and unless there is a dramatic and ruthless clear out in the summer, followed by actual investment (one can dream), it will be even worse next season.

Agreed, if Sammie hadn't had a once in a career season we'd already be relegated. Probably not too long after Rotherham.

JRC can be very good creatively, but he's never really been consistent - again, though, I'd put a lot of that down to repeated injury disruption. His versatility may also hinder him somewhat as well, as it did with the likes of Phil Jones at United. Becoming a jack of all trades but master of none isn't ideal. It can work if you're a James Milner type with incredible fitness, but when you're injury prone as Jones was and JRC is then it becomes a bit more problematic. He's had a couple of games in CM where you think, yeah, he could be superb in this role. Unfortunately tends to be followed be a string of anonymous matches before getting injured. I'd agree that he's more effective in the RWB role, but it's a demanding position for somebody with a fragile body.