JHRover

If Broughton had the skills to replace the proven quality players we have lost due to mismanagement (Rothwell, Diaz, Lenihan) with no budget, continual wage cuts, the worst owners in football and a spiv running the club then he'd be one of the most sought after people in football. He'd have other clubs banging his door down wondering what his secret is and how he is able to do what others cannot with both hands tied behind his back. I suspect Broughton is cheap, these idiots wouldn't have paid well to get a proven D of F, so part of the issue is you pay little you get what you pay for, but even if he's the best in the world at his job he's on a hiding to nothing at a club content to tread water, cut costs and keep the Indians content with those running it here. All about priorities. The Wharton sale keeps them content for another few years and vindicates their approach since 2021. We're all worrying about points, league position, relegation, the summer. The Indians and their underlings just interested in the cuts and savings.

That sounds suspiciously like a normal football club where the manager is allowed to recruit and select based on the attributes of the players. What hasn't changed is the ownership and finances, both of which override any footballing factors, including what JDT, Eustace, Travis or any of us want.

As I said the other night, even if Ipswich decide not to bother signing him permanently, he won't be short of Championship options. Assuming we are still in the Championship by the summer then at best it seems we've another transfer window of cuts and money raising to pay the owners' bills whilst they continue to be investigated by the authorities. So they'll have anyone and everyone of any value earmarked for sale / departure. Travis will have to ask himself whether he wants to return to a joke club, focused only on making cuts and downgrading / making up the numbers in the Championship, or whether he'd rather embark on a fresh start at a serious club that actually has some degree of ambition and aim. I know which I'd rather have if I had the choice....

Convenient to say the least that all the players who 'fall out' with people or who have their 'heads turned' always happen to be the most expensive experienced players and those who can attract interest from rival clubs. Maybe the two are linked. End result of course is money in and wages off. Convenient again.

Most people could see that loaning out Travis in the first week of the window was not a rational or football-motivated decision. It was short sighted and done purely with financial factors in mind. The opportunity to get his wage off the books until the summer too enticing and so the deal got done. In hindsight it is of course even more ludicrous when you factor in the inevitable Adam Wharton departure, failing to spend any of that money on a replacement and then changing manager. But remember not to look at things here through the lens of football - decisions at BRFC are not made with results and performances on the pitch in mind - they are made with finances and individual targets for the likes of Pasha and Waggott in mind, and it is clear that those targets do not relate to footballing achievements. So we mere fans may be baffled, I suspect the rest of the Championship are too, but that's because we are football people, who want to prioritise football and results, whereas the owners and their employees are not, and never will be. One look at Ewood Park and what has gone on here over the years tells us that.

I think they believe that the managerial change does all the work for them, nothing else to say. New era, look and listen to Eustace, forget about what happened before. What January window fiasco? What £20 million? Who is Adam Wharton? Nothing to see here folks, business as usual. Issues addressed. Another few years on the train for Waggott, Lowe and the rest.

I expect a far better display than we saw last night. I think that is highly likely, it could hardly be worse, but we are also accustomed to dismal away performances and results on dark wet/cold midweeks. I'm convinced there is something psychological in it and the team will always be more up for it on a Saturday. Add in that it is a derby game with a big following and I think that will take care of that. Of course that doesn't mean we will get a result, and I expect we won't, but what I expect is the old 'hard luck' tale of putting in a shift, playing some nice stuff at times, not being played off the park, doing the basics for 99% of the game but falling short by virtue of them being much more ruthless and trained in the dark arts, plus they are always well up for this one whereas our team of softies I don't think have it in them to cope when the going gets tough.

And let me guess....we need a few transfer windows to get the squad to a level Eustace is happy with and can play his way....and so the never ending project continues. Then they'll tell us we need to sell Szmodics and anothers because they don't fit Eustace's 'style' and we need to generate the funds to allow him to bring his own players in. The new era. They're conning us.

I suspect it will be a bit more complex than just change of manager and therefore he's back in favour come the summer. We want him gone and off the wage bill. So Eustace's views are likely to be secondary to the club's focus of cutting costs. Even if Ipswich don't want to make it permanent I am sure he will have plenty of other suitors in the Championship willing to pay a fee for him, and Venkys will sell if so. Also the question needs to be whether the player wants to return to this cesspit. He's already been jettisoned once supposedly surplus to requirements and is now experiencing what life is like at a club that actually wants to be successful and tries. I imagine after years being here it is something of an eye opener and not a reason to come rushing back to circus Brockhall.

Well I'm out. No game at Ewood tomorrow for the first time in many a year. I'm ashamed to even be associated with this club. The events of today alone leave me sick to the pit of my stomach. If it wasn't bad enough their shenanigans with McGuire, their disgusting conduct, lies, deceit and leaving the poor lad in the shit (just like O'Brien), forcing a good man and manager out of the door, the Adam Wharton sale, zero investment in January Within minutes of (eventually) confirming JDT is no longer manager they are labelling it as a 'new era' under the next patsy whilst those culpable continue in the shadows. Yes that's right, Venkys still owning it, Waggott still CEO, Suhail still 'consultant', Lowe, Johnson, Benson still on the coaching staff and they have the audacity to broadcast this as a 'new era'. I despise them, they are scum, and I'm not going to play along with their game.

"A new era" That's the party line. Except it isn't. There's no new era until the scum in India and the parasites beneath them leave.

Something along those lines yes, but I interpreted that as him offering the club the chance to get rid of him for free, both because the project had changed and they might want someone else to oversee it, and also because if they were in cutback mode it might be attractive to them to save some more money, and not that JDT was desperate to leave and from the summer. In the end they said no and persuaded him to stay on, I suspect they also told him that the issues with India were a temporary matter that would soon be fixed and that by January we'd be back on track. I think going off his comments he went into January expecting business to get done, and only after they've let him down again has he concluded there can be no future here with liars and con men.

I think we already know the answer to that one. Which makes the appointment all the more immaterial.

Who has said Tomasson wanted to leave in the summer? All I have seen is Tomasson himself confirming that he offered the club the chance to get rid of him without him claiming compensation, an offer the club declined. That isn't the same as him wanting to leave. But I see the narrative is being gradually laid down, block by block. Within a few days it will be all about JDT not being committed to Rovers, wanting to be elsewhere, should never have started the season, and if he ends up in the Sweden job this will be evidence of his 'non commitment'. End result of all this is, as ever, to shift the conversation away from the real cause of his departure. I understand he also moved his wife and kids over to the UK which is hardly the conduct of a bloke who doesn't want to be here and who intends on leaving at any moment.

Allardyce will be the typical outsider looking in and having a view or perception of Rovers based on that. He'll have seen and heard all the usual stuff; owners who have learned lessons, once great ex-PL club stable in the Championship, in need of some slightly better management, two recent play-off pushes, a good season away from promotion. Probably in a drawer alongside the likes of Birmingham, Sheff Wed, Cardiff but just up the road from his home. For those reasons he and many others would have a look at us, but once around a table with the 'consultant' (NOT a director), the 'CEO' and whoever else gets involved in these things he'd realise that it is amateur hour and run a mile. I think he and Hughes would be aghast at what this club has become having left it in such good condition were they to get beneath the facade and see what it is like after a decade of mismanagement.

Don't compare this unprofessional disgraceful outfit to other 'teams who have sold players' Yes it is a fact of life in the Championship that occasionally you will lose or have to sell your best players. Nobody is suggesting we shouldn't. But as others have rightly pointed out the key is what happens next. Rivals may have reluctantly lost important players, and have responded to that by reinvesting and attempting to improve. We haven't made any such attempt because the owners and stooges haven't allowed it. Improvement was never on the agenda, it was always about cutting back and downsizing. Our response has been to pocket the cash, reduce the wage bill and force the manager to use kids who aren't ready or scrape the depths of Europe to try and unearth someone good enough. 'In game management' I equate to having absolutely no depth, quality or experience to turn to and being totally hamstrung by a lack of options. I shake my head in bewilderment at Ewood when people around me shout 'make a change Tomasson' or 'sort it out Tomasson' as though we have options on the bench capable of turning a Championship game around. We don't. That isn't JDT's fault. So I think we agree on a lot of points but I'm sure not holding JDT responsible for this mess we are in. He's had 18 months out of 13 years and of which we spent all of it up to December 2023 in or close to the play-off positions. They've made his job impossible, he's understandably had enough, and inevitably that has led to an impact on results. Next bloke will get exactly the same, so it matters not whether it is John Eustace or Jose Mourinho, they might have an immediate short term impact and then Venkys will get to work at undermining them come the summer window when they've no budget and no communication and it will all unravel again.

Almost as though selling off all your best players and experience and not replacing them and using the academy kids has a direct impact on results.

Don't know, don't care Even if he's brilliant it won't be enough, not with these owners and stooges doing everything they can to hold us back and undermine us.

Indeed, but unfortunately whilst owned and managed by such people it is the club that obtains the reputation and the damage that comes with it.

It just sums up the contempt the owners have for the club and its fortunes. A blind man could see Tomasson was going last Saturday, yet here we are almost a week on and nothing. I can only assume that they either can't be arsed giving it their approval or they are squabbling over compensation. Meanwhile this sorry state of affairs the day before a crucial game. Another finger up at the club and its league status. If correct that Eustace or another waiting to take over it isn't helping their job to keep them waiting all week until too late to prepare for the Stoke game. Fly people over from America and muck them around before sinking their transfer, can't even get rid of a manager in a timely manner. Just a despicable club.

Plenty of managers will want to manage Blackburn Rovers, even for the awful people who own and run the club. But not many proven in demand managers will. They can wait for a proper club to come along. Not many decent managers will come here and those that will won't last more than a year or so until they get worn down by Venky nonsense and leave. Conversely if the new manager gets on a plane to India he'll be here as long as he wants to be (Mowbray, Kean)

On what basis would Eustace be 'exciting' or 'forward looking' I'm just genuinely unclear what it is that he possesses that has led you to conclude this. It appears to me to be the fact that he hasn't managed many teams or for very long. He might be a good un I'm just not clear how he has earned such a solid 'exciting' reputation from 1 season battling the drop at Birmingham

They were actually 5th, two points above 11th having played an extra game than everyone else by virtue of a Friday night fixture.

Agreed. Its all pointless but its the oldest trick in the book to divert attention away from upstairs failings and distract the masses with a new manager Then let me guess come the summer it will be about 'new structure' and 'learning lessons' from past mistakes and a change of strategy. All a load of shite, designed purely to keep people quiet and distracted.

Amazing how perceptions are in the game isn't it. Neil: Championship promotion with Norwich, a season managing in the PL 3 top half / play-off pushes with PNE Promotion from League One with Sunderland Mid-table/mediocre with Stoke (where everyone struggles) Eustace: 1 season, 17th with Birmingham, much fanfare I'm struggling to see why some would be happy / content with Eustace but not Neil.