Middlesbrough one of those sides that always seem to be looked upon with apprehension and trepidation, no matter how well or badly they are actually doing in the division from one season to the next. In reality this season they are a middle of the road Championship side, 11th in the table after 36 games and behind dismal outfits including PNE and Cardiff. If in our 'battle' to survive we aren't targeting a win there I don't know where we will be targeting one. At their place since the start of this year they've won 2 games, against 10 man Norwich who were winning before the red card, and 1-0 v West Brom. In that time they've lost to Plymouth, Bristol City, Coventry, Hull and Ipswich and drawn against Rotherham. 'No excuses' yet we need to emulate Rotherham and Plymouth and get a result at the mighty Boro. They're virtually safe after 2 wins in the last week, so under no pressure, and being 8 points off the play offs would probably need to win all or at least the majority of their games to sneak into the top 6. These sort of mid-table teams should be exactly who you want to play when desperate for a win.

I'm still at a loss as to why they need permission to send funds from India tomorrow when at least a portion of the Adam Wharton cash will have been received in the last few weeks. Any ideas?

Which is why I hold out a distant hope that the intervention of the Indian authorities and Courts may ultimately be a blessing in the long run. In the short term not - the stripping back of the last 12 months or so shows that - but ultimately there's now the involvement of a third party infinitely more powerful than Venkys. Up to this point they've been free to do as they please with nobody able to do a damn thing about it. Get the authorities and Courts involved and things get interesting. It took Court action to bring the Oystons down and get them out of Blackpool, and it might take the same to get rid of the poison here. As long as the investigations and restrictions continue I'll hold out hope that it is leading towards findings or an end point. The worry is that the investigation goes nowhere and the restrictions are released, then we are back to square one. Personally I hope they are found guilty of some very serious stuff, and it ultimately brings their entire empire crashing down.

We all know how this goes. We can cling to hope that relegation is the final straw. That the financial implications or otherwise of another drop to League One finally pushes the vermin into leaving the club. For 99.9% of people it would be the end. But not here. It's just more of the same. Waggott making up statements on their behalf about their 'commitment' to the club, playing down financial concerns, trying to shift the blame onto fans, EFL, JDT. I expect a similar course to last time around - Eustace has our support, determined to put it right and get us back up, blah blah blah all the usual soundbites. Unfortunately large swathes of the fanbase will forgive and forget after a few weeks it will be a clean slate, no point talking about the past, we should walk it in League One (we won't). Of the estimated £10 million black hole we have the Adam Wharton and David Raya cash. We can sell Szmodics, Carter, Travis, Gallagher and bring in another £5 million or so. With the exodus of loans and expiring contracts and the rump of a squad left over costs will be slashed again. Forget about investment and building a promotion worthy squad, it will be an opportunity for further cost cuts, stand closures and Waggott's only task will be filling that £10 million hole.

The signs were positive for the first 10-15 minutes. They often are. Under JDT and Mowbray we often started home games brightly and with high energy. Many away teams will let us do so. But it is what comes after the 15 minute mark that is such a concern and has been for a long time. We run out of ideas and energy and have little or nothing in reserve to change it. There's not really any more to be said beyond @arbitros excellent analysis. The result alone would have been disappointing and damaging enough, but the performance was in my book deeply alarming considering we were at home in a 'must win' game against Plymouth. We were lucky to get anything out of the game. My frustrations building again as I am trudging away from my seat, a feeling of disappointment and despair, yet am surrounded by rounds of applause presumably for 'digging in' and holding on to a point. I wonder when the inevitable relegation comes will these people perhaps look on this week with regret or just a shoulder shrug? For me the Millwall game was dismal, but today was even worse. At least with Millwall we were value for a point and they never looked likely to beat us. Today we were fortunate and on another day would have been comfortably beaten.

Phillips is playing regularly for a side above us in the table and is getting paid a hell of a lot more for doing it than he was for sitting on our bench last season. Sounds like a good move to me. That's before you factor in that at Spurs and Plymouth he's playing for real clubs that actually want to be successful and have an element of professionalism about them.

https://x.com/PNEBenHD/status/1766156870203343107?s=20 Saw this on twitter and thought it was interesting. We are virtually flatlining on attendances over the last decade, whereas the vast majority of our rivals are seeing massive increases in their attendances. Quite a useful tool to highlight what a disaster the Venky era has been and the medium term impact of their policies. Perhaps someone who can find him and stomach speaking to the man could ask Waggott what he thinks about this.

It almost makes me wonder if that is part of the project here. Playing in League One will give a more appropriate platform to the likes of Vale, Leonard, Markandy, Garrett, Telalovic, Wahlstedt and co. to get the minutes and opportunities under their belt ready for their sales.

He was obviously desperate to get sacked and was doing everything he could during December and January for that to happen. Unfortunately for him this lot won't sack anyone, so instead he was left in situ for months when he didn't want to be. Eventually, after they 'did it again' in January even he couldn't stomach hanging around and so came to an agreement to get the hell out of here.

Hopeful of a profit. Wonder if Swag gets a juicy bonus if that happens. If we need Court permission to release funds in March where has the Adam Wharton money gone?

Also worth noting that the likes of Hull, Ipswich and Coventry were all getting much lower gates at this level, down in the teens rather than 20's, until recently. Then all three got taken over and new owners delivered a wave of optimism and engagement and attendances rocketed. Still apparently such a fate is impossible here.

As it stands Wednesday, Millwall, QPR and Huddersfield are showing that they have the ingredients to stay up. All are picking up points at a healthy rate. All still in trouble but if they keep doing what they are will be fine. The ones sinking fast are us, Plymouth and Stoke. Birmingham struggling a bit without Mowbray but are showing fight. Could have got a point with 10 men against Southampton and got a good point at Hull last night. So I don't see them going down. Thing is that Plymouth have a good solid home record and will win games there against the poorer sides. So not sure about them Think we are destined for the drop, only positive at the moment is we aren't losing every week and are getting a few draws but those could well cost us as they did under Mowbray when draws against Wolves and Bristol were celebrated and then we were relegated.

Disagree the Wednesday owner is worse than Venkys. A loose cannon yes, but I don't think anyone is as awful as Venkys and that includes the Reading owner. They really are despicable.

Nobody. They'd buy West Brom, Birmingham, Forest, Hull, Leeds, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Bolton, Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Charlton, Ipswich, Sunderland, Sheff Wed, Coventry, Wolves But not Rovers Definitely not.

We score first and I'm fairly confident we win. They score first and I'm fairly confident they win.

A post transfer window interview at the end of March, for a window that closed at the end of January and with the end of the campaign 6-7 weeks away? Hardly any point is there? I'm not sure there's anything that Broughton can or will say that will make an ounce of difference now.

Doubt it. The owners clearly don't care about league status, if they did they'd have made an ounce of effort in January 2023 and 2024 to get us promoted. If they cared then at least one or more of Waggott, Broughton and Silvester would have been down the road long ago, fired for their involvement in the January fiascos (assuming they were responsible and not merely making excuses for the owners). If / when we end up back in League One the only concern of the owners will be how much cash they need to pump in and whether that is acceptable to their current line of thinking / situation. If so they'll let the show roll on for longer, if not they will make further cuts and sales. They don't fire people they like. Waggott, like Mowbray, established the personal link with his jollies to India and thus is in place as long as he wants to be.

Well he's already got rid of Fan Consultation Meetings (mandated by the League) and shareholder meetings (held for decades prior to his arrival) so it might not be long before he knocks the Fans Forum on the head with some more claptrap excuses.

Agree though I suspect there is some sort of wage saving going on. Suspect Fleck is on much much less than he was at Sheff Utd, a kind of short term audition / shop window for the summer exercise. But yeah, a ridiculous move that most of us could see was insane and so it has proven to be. I really just think they make it up from day to day. Week to week. Ipswich came in with an offer to pay Travis until the summer. The pound signs flashed and the deal was done with amazingly no administrative issues. They might have got away with it had Palace not come in for Adam or Tronstad got injured, but that's playing roulette with our future and was never likely to happen. So when Adam is on his way they realise we're in a mess in midfield and have to act quickly. Of course it's the loan and short term frees market and Fleck arrives, just a hope and prayer that he gets fit and stays so.

Fleck was a desperation stage gamble that ticked all the boxes for all the parties Sheff Utd got shut and off their books and squad early. Fleck got a shot at earning a longer deal here or impressing suffiently to attract interest from elsewhere. Rovers got a quick fix at favourable cost to address a problem of their own making. Unfortunately for us the risk was all on Rovers, because someone with his recent fitness record was always at risk of issues and so it has proven. But when you operate like this club has operated you get what you deserve. We wouldn't have needed Fleck if we hadn't taken the unprecedented step of loaning our captain (excellent fitness record) out in the first few days of the window But when you are more interested in cutting costs than winning games these are the sort of decisions you get. We are now going to probably lose Championship status and all that goes with it as a result of such short-sightedness

I think (hope) Waggott will be sh1tting himself right now. The 7 years of relative plain sailing mid-table security now in real jeopardy. I suspect another relegation to the third division and £7 million+ straight off the revenue streams next season is the only development that might turn the heat up on him and his invisible friend. He'll be battening down the hatches and hoping the storm blows over. If it does happy days, he can plan for a well orchestrated in house interview in May, collect his bonus and look forward to another year of whatever it is he does. If things don't work out the anger is only going to increase and rightly or wrongly he is the one in the crosshairs with those fans who are becoming more and more vocal and angry with the way things are going here. So I suspect it will be radio silence from him, cowardly as it is, until our fate is sealed.

If we go down he doesn't deserve to be here next season. But he will be because they won't pay 2 years up on his deal. To be fair as ambivalent as I am on Eustace I doubt this operation in League One would have any prospect of getting anyone better. None of it really matters though because the overall trajectory and destination of the club is a downward one and that is set by the owners. Eustace, JDT, Pep, Jose, John Coleman, they're all going to have the same issues and scumbags dragging us down.

Players in poor sides raise their game in the big no pressure no expectation situations. Kean managed to lead us to impressive performances and results at Anfield and Old Trafford when nobody gave us a chance. Berg took us to a win at Arsenal in the Cup where nobody expected us to. Coyle nearly knocked out Mourinho's United whilst we were bottom of this league. I'd read very little into the performance and result against Newcastle. It was enjoyable on the night but of little to no relevance to our league campaign. We're a soft weak side that crumbles under pressure and can't cope with expectation. Easy raising your game and giving it 100% when live on national TV against a Premier League side and you simply have to give it your best shot. Harder to travel to Championship outposts and grind out wins against seasoned battlers. That takes bottle.

'A must win game' So what happens if we don't win? Nothing, we just say that Plymouth is then a must win and on it goes. I know which side between Rovers and Millwall I'd put my money on in a relegation scrap.

We can but hope. I think sensible people would long ago have taken proactive steps to get rid of the club knowing the situation they were facing. The fact they have done nothing but force us to sell more assets tells us they really don't give a stuff about the best future for the club or doing anything to mitigate the damage to it, it's more important they keep hold for no purpose and drag the club into the gutter whilst doing so.