JHRover

All correct except this part - he hasn't publicly stated anything of the sort - our manager has publicly stated this is what he wants. There's potentially a big difference - I personally don't believe anything the hierarchy at Rovers have to say and Ismael will be getting his information and instructions from them.

So basically the Sam Szmodics sale last year wipes out the difference and then some. Luckily for us we've also got billionaire owners to support us, unlike Derby.

If you've got ambition as a player then surely Coventry more attractive than Derby. Stronger financial position, a few years ahead on development, play-offs last year and managed by 'Super Frank' Lampard which will probably appeal to players.

Rovers will budge eventually, but probably in a couple of weeks once they realise Derby aren't paying the figure we want. Derby know we are in a financial crisis and know that all parties want the move and we need the money. We are in a very weak position of our own making.

Since joining Rovers on 25th February we have played 14 games under Ismael and Travis has started all of them save for last night's League Cup game. Of the 13 starts he's been captain in all of them and has played 90+ minutes in 10 of them, being subbed off after 88 minutes at Sheff Utd last season as we threw the kitchen sink at a winner, after 65 minutes against Millwall as we cantered to a win, and after 81 minutes last week as we tried to find an equaliser. Strange way of not favouring a player, but this sort of revisionism becomes common as a popular player heads out the exit door. He's been favoured and picked by all our last 4 managers save for JDT's second season and I remain convinced that saving on his salary and freeing up a wage was at least part of the thinking behind that loan to Ipswich

The only way the owners will even know if we get relegated is when the money men have to find another £5-10 million to offset the drop in Sky revenues. They'll make up a chunk of that through further cost cuts and wages off the books but not all of it. Only two ways this ends though - either the Indian authorities / Court force them to get rid of us or the hassle/cost of the legal action and bond eventually tips them once they can't plug the gap with player sales. I'm not confident of either but we are quickly reaching the stage of finding out.

I think he's still getting used to this. Remember Lambert was quite blasé about losing Jordan Rhodes seemingly because he was led to believe that in return he would get all of the £10 million+ to spend in the following window. I think Ismael is probably still operating under such a pretence - offload the 'big' earners and bring in a few million from the 'troublesome want away' players and then we will be able to get out there and spend before the window closes. We know how this one goes, always room for an admin error or two on deadline day if all else fails. By the time he realises he's been had it will be too late. I heard that Eustace had offered to resign last summer when it became clear to him what they were up to, that he wasn't getting any of the Szmodics money to spend and that they were going down the Gestede route and signing unheard of randomers on low money. It was only after they backed down and allowed him to sign Weimann, Batth and McFadzean that he agreed to stay on, however the damage had already been done by then and it appears he had one eye on the exit door after that point. I'm expecting a similar process to unfold here this season. What we don't want however is the deluded mob thinking that all our problems are just the result of a poor manager,

The side that finished 7th in the Championship last season hosting a side that was in League One last season at home and yet most people expecting a resounding defeat. Tells us about what sort of job has been done here this summer.

Average tenure across his previous 8 clubs - less than 30 games. Our lot give him a 3.5 year deal. It's either rank stupidity or something dodgy going on.

Unfortunately the rats don't want out, they're more than happy to stay on board as the ship goes down. Infact no amount of sinking will rid us of the rats. The players and staff able to get offers elsewhere are simply jumping onto lifeboats whilst they can.

Their aim this season won't be to get promoted. It will be to significantly improve on last years' near relegation and then crucially BUILD towards a future promotion push with a plan, philosophy and structure. All we are building for is League One.

I said it at the start of the summer that offloading these players like Travis, Brittain, Hyam and Tronstad was the only 'ambition' for the summer and between them they'd eke out another £5-6 million of cash. They've obviously pocketed the season ticket cash first and brought in a few cheap and cheerful signings to hoodwink people into thinking all is well here but after dealing with the Brittain departure and banking that cheque they've moved on to the Travis offload and are really cranking it up now -using Ismael's post match press conferences to issue a 'come and get him' on Saturday after WBA and then tonight with his 'transfer request'. Make no mistake there is as much pushing here from Rovers' end as anything else this has been priority #1 all summer long. Anyone thinking we've made serious efforts to keep him or that this has suddenly taken us by unfortunate surprise in mid-August I feel are being played for fools. And once they've done this one they've another few weeks to get to work on the last couple. Maybe not so easy those though.

If we'd have offered him a pay rise and another 3 years on his deal 12 months ago, even in December/January, he'd have snapped our hands off. The liars and shysters running the club won't mention that to Jackson when they claim to have tried really, really hard to keep him (lie) and will be patting themselves on the back though for 'saving' that wage increase. Only it has led to his departure, a manager's departure and probably will end with relegation to League One.

Ismael playing the 'club have done everything they possibly can but rival club is putting an offer on the table we just cannot compete with' line I'm struggling to work out at this early stage whether he genuinely believes this or is just happy to play the game his bosses are instructing him to. It is nonsense - of course - we are talking Derby County here not a PL club or even a Leicester/Southampton. I think he probably knows this but is still learning what mugs his bosses take people for.

Ismael is being given his information by the Regime he works for. I doubt even he knows if that is the truth or not.

And just to rub salt in the wounds the regime has designated that fixture as our '150th celebration' match. Can you think of a more embarrassing and shameful way to 'celebrate' our 150th than that?

Careful everyone - watch out - the Club and Regime are going to be working overdrive this next week in making Travis out to be the villain of the piece. They've started it already with the 'rejection' of their new contract offer and this is cranking it up a notch with him 'asking to leave' to join Derby. All part of the game being played - not Rovers fault, it's the player - just get your plastic snakes out and give them a wave. Poor old Elliott Jackson is - unwittingly I suspect - central to this - the club using him to get their narrative out in a late bid to pacify the fanbase. Sadly I fear the majority of our fanbase are that thick they will fall for it. They've done it so many times now that they are quite skilled at it and each and every time the twitterati and Venkygraph readers are pointing the finger of blame at those leaving and not the rancid parasites that infest Ewood.

Who is replacing Lowe then? So far we are 2 coaching staff down on what Eustace had and 1 down on what Ismael had last season, no suggestion of any incomings. More to this than meets the eye IMO. It was during Gary Bowyer's spell that he was removed the first time around, and then apparently a short while later reappeared, appointed by persons upstairs without Bowyer's knowledge. In the time since then he established himself as an immovable object in the senior coaching staff under Mowbray, JDT, Eustace and Ismael. Maybe the finances are so bad that they are now cutting costs wherever they can on the payroll...

Gestede will be doing as Pasha instructs. His only task will be finding players on the shoestring budget Pasha hands him. Ismael won't be here by May and I'd be surprised if Gestede is either. He will be the fall guy for when this goes tits up.

What was the old saying again... "If it wasn't for Venkys we'd have gone the same way as Derby?" Wonder how many that said that are now feeling a bit foolish or still banging the Venky drum?

Agreed, but then we have to ask ourselves why the owners need two pairs of eyes and ears despite already having 'their' trusted man Suhail running the show. Do they not trust him? Or is he not really 'their man'? It is all very odd. I was surprised when rumours emerged that he had left the club given his immovability over the last 10 years or so surviving multiple regime changes and managers, and then once again as it always is at Rovers there is more to the story than first appears. It is certainly not normal for a 'lowly' first team coach to have such a muddled and drawn out departure, even less normal for the top ranking officer at the club to think he is still here when he clearly isn't, and then even less normal for the manager to go telling people he's gone despite no statement from the club and him still being named on the website as first team coach. Something smells with this one alright and it is more than just incompetence.

Owners with no money but a plan, ambition, and a brain would still have used a small fraction of the £40 million brought in to support an overachieving manager and help him retain his solid squad. They wouldn't have needed to use personal wealth to fund contracts. Maybe use some of the millions extra in TV revenue Sky have provided that gets forgotten about? Billionaires with lots of money but no plan, ambition or brains have chosen to gamble away the club's future by not doing any of those things.

Spot on, true story. If the club wanted to keep him it would have offered him a new improved deal last summer, when Eustace was pushing for it. They refused and now we pay the price. Their choice as it has always been.

This baffles me. Maybe I'm oblivious but I've seen nothing at all to suggest that he 'wants' to leave or that he hasn't 'bought in' to what VI is trying to do. He has been forced to leave by virtue of the club doing nothing to try and keep him until recent weeks and then if we are being realistic probably giving him an offer that isn't worth the time of day to a player of his ability and importance. That is all on the club - failing to sort contracts out, failing to make competitive appropriate offers and actively inviting interest in key players as a result. He, like the fans and like countless other players and staff members, has been mucked around and taken for a ride by the owners and their stooges. What he wants doesn't come into it any more than what me or you want. It's what the owners/their stooges want that is the source and cause of all our problems.

At the full time whistle at Sheffield United after just missing out on the play-offs all the talk from the commentary team at Sky was about Rovers learning lessons, addressing issues in the squad and going again this season to try and go one better by building on the solid base that we had. All logical, it could be done for relatively low cost simply by keeping the core and replacing some of the loans, maybe signing a couple of quality players. It was widely recognised that we had the foundations of a very competitive side that perhaps just needed some adjustments/a bit more quality. Instead we've demolished the core and spine of that side and replaced with cheap unknown foreigners and kids. The complete and total opposite of what we needed to do and what a side that finished 7th should have been aiming to do, But hey, the Venky stooges have personal financial targets to hit and reputations to forge by 'unearthing' gems and selling for profit so that's all that really matters.