Just waiting for the inevitable 'we can't compete with Bolton' with reference to them getting double our gates next season. 

Mark my words it will be the very same people who used Bolton as an example of where we'd be without Venky's involvement.

2 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I think at Birmingham, obviously he left them in 6th but it was somewhat misleading in that it was so soon in the season, there was about 2 points between them and something stupid like 17th, and they then had Middlesbrough, Hull, Southampton and Ipswich in the following 4 games following his departure, so I suspect they wouldnt have stayed 6th.

They'd also played an extra game than the other teams when they were 6th having played on a Friday night against West Brom.

It really is the most extreme form of desperation that we are already at the stage of artificially adding wins to Eustace's record in games that he had no input into, just to make his record appear less awful, and that even if we do give him that win, which he shouldn't get, it is STILL ONLY 3 wins in 17

We are arguing about whether it is a 17% win record or an 11% win record. Most of us agree it is 11%. Irrational people desperate to try and fluff his record up a bit claim it is 17%. Still rubbish, just a bit less rubbish.

5 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

If Bolton come up next year that's 6 derby games we'll get smashed in.

It's also Bolton going bust, dropping to the 4th division, administration, new owners, and coming back up 2 divisions to the same level as Venky Rovers and being in better financial and fanbase health. Similar with Derby. 

I feel jealous.

13 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

This squad isn't suited to what he wants. 

So as I said I would allow him this squad to bring in what he wants this summer and reshape this squad 

Which is precisely the attitude Waggott and the rest of them down there will be crossing their fingers for.

Forget about the past, it's gone, nothing we can do about it, forget JDT, forget January, forget the £25 million raked in.

Just get behind the lads FFS! Hand over your £400 quickly before you discover there's no money in the transfer window and we will keep playing the same old never ending rebuild (created by our own negligence and decision making).

Well some might forgive and forget but I and others won't be. 

Reshaping starts at ownership and board level. Anything less isn't enough.

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

JDT was open and honest with the media. He told you the situation. Disbelief him if you want. 

Ayari was signed the same week as Travis left. Ayari fitted how JDT wanted to play as a 8

Of course. I'm not going to persuade you otherwise, you can keep repeating this it won't change my mind.

2 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

I look at JDT comments about why Travis left Rovers. Travis wasn't playing the role he wanted for us and wanted out. 

Your financial point doesn't stack when we brought in Fleck and Ayari in January. 

 

 

Who was paying JDT's wages when he said that?

See above. They were signed with the crumbs that fell off the table once they'd offloaded Travis and Wharton and realised they were catapulting us towards relegation.

Ayari, like Moran, a kid costing very little and Brighton quite happy to have him here playing games. See Khadra and Van Hecke. 

A youngster on loan is not evidence of financial health, quite the opposite.

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Id be amazed if Fleck was on near £20k, he will have been paid up to leave Sheff Utd.

Either way, whatever we spent on a guy with a plate in his leg was a waste.

Agreed.

It was panic time when they'd grabbed the cash and left us woefully short. So it was speed dial to whoever was available.

Fleck was getting no game time at Sheffield and was told his time was up. He had the chance to come here, play a few games and see how it went with his injury. 

I suspect Sheffield paid up all or most of his remaining deal with them and we paid a small portion of it or even a pay as you play arrangement. 

They were happy to oblige, got him fixed up elsewhere and off their books earlier than expected.

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

You and others know exactly why Travis left Rovers cos he was unhappy about not playing the position he wanted too and Tronstad has been excellent in there and been our second best player all season, so would Travis had got a look in if JDT was here? probably not. Also let not forget he wanted out last summer aswell. Of course the footballing reasons add up cos JDT wouldn't play him in the 6 role 

Also factor in that we brought in Ayari and Fleck in January so did we actually save any money? not in my opinion

If you say so.

Do you deliberately just ignore everything else that has gone on at the club over the last 3 years when you delude yourself that we are a normal functioning organisation or does it happen subconsciously?

Your account, stated as fact, is possible.

My account is just as possible.

My account suggests he was rapidly offloaded because of financial concerns, the owners and spivs they employ quite happy to save on the wages for half a season.

Your account suggests that we make our transfer decisions based on what is best for the manager / team. I'd suggest we don't, one look at our overall transfer business is evidence of that.

2 minutes ago, had.e.nuff said:

could be a first on Saturday our club captain could be in a promotion party while his club is relegated.

Insane isn't it?

The predicted re-writing of history continues apace.

Now at the stage where 12 months after being disappointed at missing out on the play-offs on GD and collecting 69 points we are now hoping to 'celebrate' limping to survival on 50-51 points.

He claims we'd had a lot of defeats in a row prior to his arrival which simply isn't true. The game before he took over was Stoke, which we won, in the 6 games prior to that we'd drawn v Rotherham and Huddersfield, won in the 2 cup games and lost at West Brom and at home to QPR. So not a run of defeats. A mixed bag but admittedly against quite poor opposition.

Whatever happens on Saturday they'll play the game - forget about what happened, new era, Eustace has done well, lessons to be learned, can't affect what came before, rebuild is on.

It's a con.

Love or hate Travis simple fact is that this club was simply not in a position to be loaning him or anyone else of first team level out, especially not in the first week of January.

We haven't got enough options or depth to consider doing it.

We knew that we had issues with funding from India. So the suggestion that we were getting him out for footballing reasons and that we were expecting to replace him just doesn't add up.

Deep down beneath the BS is a simple financial calculation. Out he goes for 6 months and that's a saving of £100k or so.

They thought it was easy and that they'd get away with it because we'd limp our way to safety and ultimately it would do us no harm. They might yet be right on that, but it's one hell of a gamble to play with our league status.

But when the owners don't care about league status it is easy. Act now, tick the boxes and worry about the consequences later.

1 hour ago, wilsdenrover said:

He’s played 333 minutes for them including only 20 minutes in their last 10 matches (albeit one was against us when he couldn’t have played)

Whatever they saw which made them sign him hasn’t translated into them wanting to play him on anything like a frequent basis.

He joined a team top of the league in January and looking for reinforcements and cover to their team.

I doubt the intention was for him to play every week, they wanted cover, especially whilst Morsy went off to AFCON.

Again, a side at the top of the league wanted proven capable depth to see them through the fixtures and get over the line, and happy to call upon him when needed.

I wish we'd have signed players of that ilk in January 2022 and January 2023, but instead we did nothing and paid the price.

20 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

I think if you make comments like "we really are the pits" that should be on the basis of something that has actually happened rather than your doom laden predictions.

Of course, because my 'doom laden' predictions have never come to fruition and have been entirely misplaced to date....

Travis will have about 10 clubs all interested in him provided the price is right.

And it will be from Rovers who will be happy to offload anyone and everyone provided some cash comes in and the wage bill goes down.

Ipswich and a manager many lauding saw qualities there that are valuable at this level. It's not all about picking a pass or banging goals in. It's about having people available who can play 95 minutes 3x a week, know the league, committed to the cause.

Wouldn't be surprised at all to see us flog him for £1 million to Millwall, Birmingham, Stoke etc.

They'll then use that to 'fund' a few naff incomings.

Of course like with Sammie we are talking about selling a couple of proven Championship players who have shown great commitment to the club before we entertain making any much needed signings.

We really are the pits.

36 minutes ago, G Somerset Rover said:

IF we stay up I'm gonna lost the plot at the "give Venky's and Eustace the summer to sort it out FFS" brigade.

That's coming whether we stay up or go down

They'll try to 'box off' this season by blaming the boogeyman - in this case either JDT, Broughton or the Indian authorities - and then the aim will be to extract season ticket money from people by claiming lessons have been learned, changes have been made, problems resolved.

All will be false, there will be no serious change and cannot be without ownership change, but they need something to try and stave off a catastrophic drop in sales, and they won't be cutting prices to do it.

When the CEO is tasked / paid / bonused on getting costs (wages) down every year we ain't going to be in that sort of market.

I fully agree that after the last 2 seasons what we definitely need is some proven experience in key positions. But that costs money and I suspect we will be offering less than a few League One clubs on the wages front. 

Makes it all the more baffling why we continue to incur losses north of £15 million with such a small and inexperienced squad of players.

The other way of looking at it is you have the likes of Waggott, Shadow Man, occasionally other staff members when granted an audience, telling them how wonderful they are, how we are ever so grateful for their support, about how the club would cease to exist without their benevolence, about how without them we are a poor small impoverished club.

They might listen to that sort of stuff and genuinely believe that they are doing us a favour. I imagine sitting across a table from paid employees, especially those who talk a good game, might convince the fools that we want/need/like them.

Of course if they had any interest in what was going on they'd realise that this isn't the case

But you get snippets of it from comments made by the likes of Waggott and Mowbray. How they are wonderful kind people, about how we should be ever so thankful for their input. The local media help contribute to this as well, not to mention a large portion of the fanbase.

It may be totally irrelevant but if they are pig headed and listen to sycophants it might explain it.

Bad news in my view if they are flogging the house

It appears this was the source of the 'problems' in India. If they are taking steps to get rid of it that suggests the problem is going to be removed and they can return to business as usual.

A terrible shame if so IMO because the only chance we had of being rid of the scum was if the Indian authorities forced it.

Any mention on whether he is going to appeal his red card so he can be in the dugout on Saturday?

6 minutes ago, Aqualung said:

All games on Saturday 12.30 KO. 

Anybody know why? 

Just the usual thing for the last game of the season. Everyone has to kick off at the same time and Sky want them on at lunchtime so they can broadcast them all. 

21 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Tbh JH, Slivester should have gone after O'Brien mess in my opinion. After this January deadline mess with McGuire transfer. He would have gone with 48 hours of that happening if I was in charge at Ewood. 

She clearly has the experience of 9 years being assistant club secretary and I have no problem with internal promoting someone as long as they can do the job and has relevant knowledge and expertise. Does your workplace not internal promote staff instead of always looking external? 

So many problems.

You're just accepting the party line and that Silvester is to blame for this.

I ask why a bloke who has worked as a Secretary for many many years and overseen countless transfers many more complex than a 6 month loan deal would suddenly forget how to do his job.

He didn't forget how to complete the sale of Adam Wharton, or any other deal that brought cash in to the club. He didn't forget how to complete naff loans and cheap deals that have served the club little purpose. Only the big juicy deal that was costing cash and big wages. Interesting.

Why do you believe Silvester is to blame and who are you listening to for your information?

My workplace requires people to be qualified to do the role, is she? Club secretary is a very important position, these days you even get the blame when other people make mistakes 🙂 

One of the reasons the club is in this state is because we take the easy and cheap route and promote inexperience from within rather than heading out into the big wide world and finding established proven operators.

1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

She has been assisted club secretary for 9 years and been at Rovers for over 12 years

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-logan-7390a347?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app

So you think the solution to what happened in January is to get rid of a vastly experienced Secretary and replace him with his assistant, and expect everything to be fine?