JHRover

Will they be advising the owners to immediately take steps to sell the club? That's the only question I'd like to hear them answer. Even then it ultimately makes no difference.

Venkys 'got away' with it before because people focused their energy / attention on subordinates - Kean, Singh, Shaw, Waggott, Coyle, now its Gestede and Suhail. Whilst I fully accept that those subordinates are a symptom of the problem and need addressing urgently as they should be nowhere near running a Championship football club - we must not lose sight of the ultimate control here. One thing that concerns me is that when, eventually, Gestede is moved aside and made into the fall guy for the latest disaster, that people think everything will get sorted out and that there is a future with Venkys once they employ someone better to run the show at Ewood. Isn't happening folks. Our problems will remain for as long as they do. This is all happening on their watch.

If anyone needed confirmation then the Hyam sale provided it - results, points, league position are not the priority here and haven't been throughout any of this summer. Those that were concerned with results - JDT and Eustace - moved on because wanting to be successful and get results was incompatible with the agenda being pursued by the owners and their stooges. Their desire to get Hyam out, his wages gone and their hands on a couple of million of cash overrides everything else, even Championship status. Remember that in May when they start pretending that relegation was unexpected.

I'm not blaming 'the fans' for our situation, but I do hold those (Increasingly few) who publicly defend the regime in contempt

How is the regime going to paint Hyam as the villain of this sordid affair? They pulled it off to perfection with Travis.....but pushing their luck expecting people to believe that sort of thing twice in a couple of weeks

Probably just realised that what his 'sources' at the club say and what actually happens are often the opposite and that he's been played for a fool just like everyone else involved with this operation.

They got taken over last season by one of those imaginary consortia that wouldn't ever buy a debt ridden struggling 2nd division club.....

Even Waggott could see the writing on the wall - announcing to the public in 2023, before a ball had been kicked, that his target was survival (despite finishing 7th and an FA Cup quarter final the season before). Two years on and they've worked damn hard to get us here. That squad was far too good to deliver relegation and the annoying interventions of JDT and Eustace derailed the operation. Fortunately both were forced out of here so that staff more receptive to the plan could be brought in. What we are now seeing is the culmination of a 2-3 year plan, orchestrated by the owners and delivered by their underling(s). Time and time again we are swimming against the tide with these owners dragging the club backwards every way it can. Still some can't see it. They deserve Venkys and what is coming next.

It's conscious, deliberate and planned. Venkys and their henchmen would rather rule over the wreckage of a League One or Two club costing them what they are prepared to spend than admit defeat, step aside and hand the club to someone prepared to fund and invest in a Championship club. Nice people? Selfish lowlife such that their own egos come before the status and survival of the club.

We won't be hiring him, we'll just be giving him work experience to keep him busy and try to get a job done on the cheap. Meanwhile almost 4 months on and still no replacement CEO for Waggott. Who is picking up 'the slack' that he was covering last year? The work that required a £400k a year salary seems to have just fallen into the cracks between those that remain. Interesting.

If Hyam wasn't keen to get out of here asap, especially if a club with ambition is sniffing, then I'd be questioning his sanity. If he has a choice between sticking here for 6-12 months until his contract expires trying to lead a collection of foreign signings to enough points to survive, or heading off somewhere to collect a pay rise and get a 3-4 year contract at a club that actually wants to get somewhere and do something, it is a no brainer.

Count yourself lucky that he's still here and the regime haven't seen him off. He will be the 'project' for January, expect Jackson to release stories about him being homesick and refusing to sign a new deal during November / December. I suspect the only real ambition at the start of the summer was to ensure that Dolan, Brittain, Hyam, Travis, Tronstad were all out of the door for as much money as possible. A normal functioning club would have moved heaven and earth to keep as many of them as possible after last season's efforts, but no, at Venky Rovers the only aim is to get them out asap. Deliberately and consciously breaking up the core and spine of the side that finished 7th last season. I've seen some classics on the delusion scale in my time following this club but the suggestion from some that the club are getting shut of all that lot because they failed to get us into the top 6 and we are trying to improve on 7th has to be the best one yet. Laughable. This is deliberate managed decline. It has been for the last 2 years and will continue for as long as the two stooges can get away with it. The chickens will be home to roost soon though.

Don't you just know it. £2-3 million cash guaranteed from Wrexham, a top earner out the door. In his place a loan and miniscule contribution to his wage with an 'option' to buy. Job is a good one indeed. Couldn't have designed it any better. Meanwhile the regime defenders will point to Hyam's (self inflicted) contract situation, and 'versatility' of the incomer and continue to try and argue it is a job well done.

Deliberately. I hope people remember this when we are struggling to retain Championship status. Or will it just be shoulder shrugs and excuses?

At least there's no worry hanging over us about potential last minute departures. With the exceptions of Hyam and Tronstad I can't imagine anyone having any interest in any of our players and there's not much noise about either leaving this window. We've already quite efficiently got rid of the assets.

Why do you have to? You can increase the budget if you want. I can guarantee Derby have significantly increased their wage bill this summer judging by their recruitment and desire to progress as a club. Wrexham another. Birmingham. Charlton. All budgets that will have shot up. We didn't even need to increase or break our wage bill. Could have simply maintained what we had but that would have required the owners to maintain their financial input. They clearly don't want to. Their choice, we have to live with the consequences of those choices. Constantly looking for cuts and reductions and hiding behind 'wage structure' is just a race to the bottom.

Right. So that February 2024. At the time Gregg Broughton was Director of Football and it was another 3 months before he left. Around that time Rudy Gestede, fresh off the back of a playing career, was 'shadowing' Waggott by following him to meetings etc. allegedly with a view to him pursuing a future role in football senior management. Broughton, a bloke employed to run the football operation and presumably the 'knowledge' at the club (to be fair he quickly got us JDT in his first act at the club which in my opinion is the best managerial decision made at this club since 2004) is ignored/sidelined by Waggott, and then within 3 months of appointing Eustace we have Gestede taking up the role of 'Head of'. You think all this is normal, logical, conducive to anything other than total chaos at the club?

Mowbray said the owners are nice caring people. All the evidence shows they are the opposite of that. What people say and impressions people get often don't correspond to actions and what happens.

I'm not sure he would, certainly the installation of Gestede (no track record or experience) by persons unknown happened 2-3 months after Eustace arrived. When Eustace got the job officially Broughton was still Director of Football yet appears to have been a lame duck from January 2024 onwards and by most accounts Waggott was the one who gave Eustace the job. It's little wonder we are the shambles we are when you look at the number of different people and jobs there have been making decisions. Even in the last 18 months we've had Waggott, Pasha, Gestede, Broughton, JDT, Eustace and Ismael all applying their own thoughts and plans, and probably others in the background we don't get to know about. I don't think it is much of a stretch to imagine Eustace was told one thing when he joined in February 2024 and by the summer with Gestede in the driving seat something completely different was being pursued. Agree he will have known before he took the job what a shambles the club was and the ferocious appetite it had for cost cutting.

Ah right so everything is fine at Rovers' end, it's just the 'model' that Eustace didn't like?

Any thoughts or observations on WHY he wanted out? Or does that just get swept under the carpet along with everything now he's the big bad wolf?

Everything you see and hear down there just stinks of corner cutting, cost cutting, going through the motions The photos of Ewood, flaking paint, ad boards, naff attempt at installing safe standing rails, just cheap and tacky. The Blues Bar stuff - tells me that they have this in their crosshairs as the next mothballing exercise. Keep on reducing it until most people don't bother going, tell them to go into Jack's Kitchen instead. They've already done it during the week, match days will be next.

Derby are fresh out of League One and survived last season by the skin of their teeth. We are an established Championship side having been in it for 7 years and should have finished in the top 6 last season Notwithstanding that Derby have had a tougher run of games than us - Stoke, Coventry, Bristol and Ipswich - why are you attempting to use Derby's results so far as a metric? Should be embarrassed given the head start we've had on them over the last 5 years.

Should have, would have, could have, context needed, performances good - all meaningless 3 points from 12, 1 win and 4 defeats is all that matters and if that doesn't alarm you then I think you are deluded.

Yeah but what about revenues? One look at the Blackburn End should set alarm bells ringing in the directors box after their needless price hike there but I think Yasir is just about to collect his bonus for increasing revenues off it.