JHRover

We aren't going to sign experienced free agents because it isn't 'the project', we aren't paying competitive wages and our budget is probably maxed out from the summer. The accountants and Suhail will not authorise and extra wage or two on the payroll. If that means we get relegated off the back of it, then so be it. It will be the same approach in January unless they can offload people first to raise money, despite Nixon's nonsense about investment coming, which is simply an attempt by the regime to buy time and get them through the next three months. That's why Ismael is saying this.

Occasionally you might get a 'surprise' relegation - if Sheff Utd, Norwich or Southampton stay down there they would be huge surprises based on their squads, investment and expectations. In reality - and it seems Southampton have already turned a corner now that Still has gone - all three are likely to get themselves out of trouble because they shouldn't be going down. I am still struggling to work out who the minimum two other clubs are going to be that we need to finish above to survive this season. On paper you'd think Oxford and Portsmouth maybe, but both seem to have the ability to pick up results, particularly at home, when they need to. Swansea were my pre-season prediction to struggle and it looks like some rot has set in there, but I don't think they'll just sit back and leave it to chance - they'll sack their inexperienced manager and replace before too long. I suppose maybe QPR another but they seem to be competitive. It is going to be a close run thing in my view. You can't lose 5/7 at home and win 1 and expect anything other than a struggle. One thing is for sure - we aren't going to be anywhere near 7th this season so perhaps the chuckle brothers running the show could explain why we've clearly regressed by 10+ places in the table under their management.

When he joined we had Waggott and Broughton running the show. I've made my views on Waggott clear before and others don't rate Broughton but at least there was some facade of professionalism and footballing nous there. Within 3 months Broughton had gone, Waggott pushed aside and someone had parachuted Gestede into the top position despite having no CV or track record to warrant it. It has since become clear that Gestede is being employed to oversee massive cutbacks and a revolving door policy of predominantly foreign players. We are about as far away from what Eustace walked into as possible. Pretty reasonable to suggest that the goalposts moved and what he signed up for wasn't what ended up happening.

There seems to be a misconception that Rovers are, or should be, vulnerable to the advances of Eustace and the might of Derby County. With the exception of Beck and Sanderson, neither of which were our players to begin with, none of those who have joined Derby - Batth, Weimann, Travis - we needed to let go. We chose to. Our choice. We chose to run their contracts down, we chose not to engage them in talks about new contracts, we chose accept the cash offered for our captain. Reading comments such as yours it seems to be structured in a way that poor little Rovers are the victims of some evil scheme by Derby and Eustace to extract our quality against our will. But that is nonsense. We had the power of contracts in our favour for all these players including Eustace and his staff. We agreed those contracts could end and took the cheaper option of avoiding improving them and grabbing the compo. Our choice. We could have dealt with the contracts, improved and extended them, or even sold the players to clubs other than Derby. Our negligence has cost us. Eustace knows what an absolute shambles this club is and knows that we have a diminishing pool of quality players that the disgusting owners and board will grab cash for any of them even at the expense of results. Not our fault he's trying to do a good job for a club with some ambition. This is competitive cut-throat business. Not amateur hour although I think our lot would prefer if it was.

We can all throw figures around. 3 wins in 4 yes. 3 wins in 13 home games. 1 win in 7 home games. 5 defeats in 7 home games. 19th in the table. The 'players are playing for him' doesn't really interest me - it's a results business and if they aren't up to scratch then 'playing for him' doesn't really compensate or help. But remember that the ownership and management won't be concerned about results one way or the other. So we can chat all day long on here the only way Ismael gets the boot is if he turns the spotlight on Pune and their mate in the shadows.

No way old Tony could cope with the commute from Teesside to Norwich after his struggles with getting to/from Brockhall.

Norwich have sacked Manning at last so they'll be on the lookout for a new manager too. Russell Martin probably top of their list with his connections there.

Seems strange, only a few days ago Rudy was boasting of the owners' support and investment with their '10 signings' and now we have lost a few to injury and we are all concerned about coping with a threadbare squad. In reality they've left us short, again, by cutting corners and costs on recruitment, contracts and the squad. Only an imbecile would sell Hyam on deadline day with no replacement coming in and then seriously expect treatment table regulars Carter and Wharton to see us through a 46 game season. But that's where the difference comes in - this lot aren't arsed if it means we lose more games or plummet down the table. They'll just shrug shoulders and moan about 'bad luck' whilst collecting their bonuses for cutting the wage bill and bringing in millions.

We go to Bristol City it's 9 minutes added (Play over 10) when we have a narrow lead to protect. At Leicester it was 6-7. As usual when Rovers are chasing a game it is the bare minimum.

Not going to shift many of those surplus replica shirts by closing the club shop on a home game with 18,000 fans walking past the locked doors.

Loads of seats available in the Riverside if you want 3 together. Won't get close to selling out.

Well on numerous occasions, including Derby's manager today, you have accepted location as a reason for someone moving club. Being closer to home, family reasons etc. You did the same with Joe Rothwell to Bournemouth and others. So Rob Edwards, who comes from Telford and who played for Wolves for years, who actually seems to have very strong family ties to that area, yet you don't seem willing to accept this might play a part in him moving there rather than staying with Middlesbrough.

They expected to fill Ewood Park with home fans which is why they limited Derby to half the DE. That's right, a 12:30pm Championship kick off after everything they have done to humiliate, degrade and alienate and they seriously thought the floodgates would open for fans to come today. As it happens there will of course be over 10,000 empty seats for the biggest milestone in the Club's history. Something for them to pat themselves on the back over. I have no doubt whatsoever that the planned release of the anniversary shirt has been postponed either because they want to first sell off the remaining stock of the 3 main kits or because someone is annoyed that the anniversary shirt has been leaked online this week and is making a point not to release it now. Of course logically having FOUR different kits this season, none of which are particularly impressive efforts, was always going to stretch budgets and luck. The home shirt is the most boring effort I can imagine and has the halves wrong, the gold one I don't understand why pictures of the railway station and Wainwright bridge are being used and the green one has no connection to our history and includes a white rose of Yorkshire, but apparently matches a shade of green contained on the town coat of arms. But even if you loved all three buying them all and then being asked to cough up another £90 for a white shirt with an ironed on cross was a lot to ask. Naturally of course they should have done what was suggested on here - have a proper anniversary home shirt that was released in the summer and worn all season - an all white one if necessary - and then a decent away one like all gold to honour the occasion. Job done. Two unique shirts for a one-off season. No need for fiasco or confusion.

What if your Mrs told you she wanted to move to the Midlands?

I'd like to know why the ban is only 9 games when you consider that only a year ago the same player received an 8 game suspension for biting Owen Beck. So to twice in a year be found guilty, this time of an 'aggravated breach' suggests that there is a big problem with this player and his conduct, and the League have effectively handed him the same punishment as he got last year (one extra game ban and £6k more fine), rather than a more severe one you might expect for someone with a recent history of serious conduct issues. Presumably Preston, who support him in his plea of innocence, will be referring the matter to higher authorities than the FA to clear his name ? Will be interesting to see if they do.

Someone on Twitter (I can't access the link now) has suggested that the 150th White kit won't be released until the New Year because someone at Rovers is unhappy with the sales of the 3 other kits. Would make sense, they've been trying to drum up interest in the kits recently with a discount on the kids sizes.

They've won 3 of their last 10, one of which was against Sheffield Wednesday, and in those 10 games have scored 10 goals. Quite a lot of their fans say they've been lucky to get the points and results they have up to this point and the signs of a slide down the table have been there for a while. Edwards will know this and know that if he can jump ship to a PL club now whilst his stock his high before it goes wrong he's laughing. Leeds and Burnley are hovering just outside the drop zone after Forest and West Ham have had stinking starts and changed managers (Forest twice) who have also had to contend with European demands. That includes some fortuitous wins such as Burnley's last gasp grab at Wolves the other week. Both of them will be there or thereabouts come May.

Let's see what the police have to say about this. Remember Rovers wanted us to believe that our 12pm kick offs against Preston were on police safety grounds. So how they tally that with an 8pm Friday game will be interesting.

Both Norwich and Ipswich away moved to 12:30pm kick offs. Thanks Sky and the clubs for agreeing to it!

Middlesbrough are on the slide. They got off to an excellent start but results are starting to fall away. He's from Shropshire, probably a Wolves fan, played 100 games for them and worked there as a coach. If he has family still in that area that helps. He can jump up a division, get paid double what he's on at Middlesbrough, have 7 months minimum back in the PL, if he keeps them up he'll be worshipped and get a huge bonus. It appears to be a huge thankless task but this time last year they were in a similar state yet went on to survive comfortably.

Course it isn't, but remember this lot consider it too much effort / cost to keep Ewood in a decent state of cleanliness and repair or to reward established players with improved contracts so expecting them to cough up and make the effort for non-essentials like improvements, statues, celebrations just isn't in their mindset. Cheap and easy is the way of things at Venky Rovers.

Fair enough, I'm not against it in isolation but as far as I can see this week that's been about it for the 'celebrations' and requires next to no effort on the part of Rovers beyond asking these former players to record a short clip and send it in. I'd have expected a bit more than that really, at a club really making the most of this occasion.

Agree fully but remember all such things cost money. If you look at everything they have done none of them cost anything Cheap tatty range of clothing and merchandise for the shop Running off to former players asking them to record videos A fixture against the Old Etonians straight after a league game requiring minimal organisation or effort A book that covers its production costs based on pre-orders Things like you mention: Statues Permanent memorials Fascias Improvements to the ground Big events All require expenditure, pride and effort, all of which disappeared from Ewood Park many years ago.

What if Edwards' wife wants to go and live in Dudley?

Maybe Suhail could explain why the Club was paying Waggott £400k a year for 7 .5 years if his role could effectively be made obsolete simply by the remaining staff at the club picking up his duties and the slack. Because unless I've missed it that's all that has happened here. Another half a mill a year off the payroll and no senior management / board appointments since then. This all supports my theory that they have never and will never want a proper Chairman or CEO. They didn't want one from the word 'go' which is why John Williams was pushed aside and allowed to resign. We then had the charade with Paul Hunt being appointed 'deputy' CEO but no CEO. We then had Shaw as 'Managing Director' for a few years effectively semi-retired. Then another few years with nobody, just Myers, Cheston and shadow man doing bits. It was only when Mowbray got direct access to the family in India and insisted on getting in a CEO that they succumbed and let him bring his mate from Coventry in. Even then he had this weird double act with the shadow man never far away. This club will never, ever prosper or succeed whilst the people owning and running it refuse to take its management seriously. Any serious football club needs a capable, intelligent, driven, empowered board or at least Chair / CEO to run the organisation. We haven't had that in 15 years and won't do any time soon because they just don't take this seriously. The fact we now have senior management comprising Suhail, Gestede, Yasir Sufi and Lyndsey Talbot is beyond ridiculous whichever way you look at it.