Contracts I think Ismael has asked that we re-sign the four out of contract to keep a level of consistency in the group. Personally, I would offer Batth and Weimann (once fit) new deals as a priority. I think Forshaw did quite well so a cheap short term deal in addition to someone to push Trav and Sonny would be fine for me also. Dolan and Hedges, though far superior to many of our other players technically, both needed to go. Because neither of them do the actual job they’re paid to. Hedges goal contributions are horrific and we shouldn’t let Dolan’s mini renaissance cloud the fact that he’s stunk most of his 200 games out with flicks and unnecessary extra touches, combined with a lack of end product. Both are hard working, honest players but forwards are paid to effect the final third. See ya. Sales Pears - had his best time for us in the first half of the season and was integral to us being in the top 5. Form tailed off in the new year, won’t wanna play second fiddle. Buckley / JRC - Time is up. Club an manager made their feelings known Hyam - may go if they can’t get him to sign. Assuming we have Batth, Carter and Wharton Pickering - may go, can’t see him wanting to sit behind Ribeiro Free / £1m GK, CB, RB, CM and 2x wide forwards. Any gaps will be filled by U21’s We know from Rudys interview and the last few summers that we will have approx £5m to spend across both windows regardless of what we bring in. So I expect two or three 1m ish fees, a couple of free’s and loans / short term deals. Im still undecided as to whether I will renew. Be the first time I haven’t since Keans last season. Weirdly, Rudys honesty in that interview has completely killed me because I know now, there’s no flippin hope! It’s formulaic. Zero imagination so no point in dreaming, whilst they put the ticket prices up 🙈

Overall, we’ve overachieved for the season. There’s not a single Rovers fan who wouldn’t have snapped your hand off for finishing 7th when the season started last August. The clubs problems are well documented but I do think Ismael will do ok long term. Start next season with Toth, Brittain, Hyam, Batth, Ribeiro, Sonny, Trav, Cantwell and Ohashi. With Carter, Wharton, Pick, and Kargbo. For the live of god, get rid of Hedges and I pray Dolan leaves too. Both absolutely crap, hardworking but genuinely useless. Dennis, Sanderson and Woodrow can disappear too. I wouldn’t be against offering new deals to Weimann and Forshaw. Big summer ahead!

Because there’s a big difference between playing in the first team in the championship and playing for the U21’s at United??

All opinions of course, and Dolan is doing a fine job of finishing in a high, but 200 games in, I think he’s crap mate. Hard working show pony, who has far more bad’uns than good’uns. Is the deceptively slow and takes 1733637 touches when one is all is needed. Granted, I may be proven wrong on him, and for his sake I hope I’m wrong, but my bet is he’s more likely to do a ‘Nyambe’ than a ‘Raya’. All fairly irrelevant anyway because he’s taking the coin. Meh…next!!

The keepers, regular defensive unit (Plus Carter, Pick and Wharton) and the regular midfield base (Trav and Sonny) have proven they are top half championship players for me. The question marks are all around those top four forward positions and there’s a few who’ve proven not good enough in terms of goals and assists. I’m hopeful that Gueye, Ohashi, Kargbo and Cantwell can kick on under Big Val next season. I’m strongly in the camp that Hedges and Dolan aren’t good enough as demonstrated over a few hundred games in Rovers colours. The annual drop off is mainly down to squad depth when injuries and suspensions kick in. We don’t have enough depth and we don’t have enough firepower due to lack of funds. I think we’ll target a GK, CM, Wide forward and a striker in the summer. Expect Buckley, JRC, Pears and Dolan to go. Then maybe a couple of loans and promote some young lads to flesh things out.

Pears Brittain. Carter. Hyam. Ribeiro Travis. Sonny Kargbo. Weimann. Cantwell Gueye Subs - Toth, JRC, Sanderson, Forshaw, Dolan, Hedges, Woodrow, ACD, Ohashi I think we have to get Cantwell out of the #10 position. He doesn’t carry a goal threat, nor does he assist. Imo he’s better from deeper / the left and could be a good foil for a flying player like Kargbo on the other side. Plus, we need to get goalscorers like Weimann as close to Gueye as possible. Derby 1 - 3 Rovers - Gueye x2 and Kargbo.

Time to reflect… First half we were slow. We set up in a 4231, but there were notable differences tactically. Out of possession, we didn’t press as high and the left side were much deeper than the right. In possession we were more direct, and we tried to use Kargbo’s pace. I thought the defence and Forshaw did ok, Trav looked a little laboured, Cantwell and Dolan, horrific and Kargbo our brightest spark. Big Mak, the new standard. A very good target man at this level now. Norwich had the two best chances and probably should have been winning. The second half started much the same with Norwich controlling the game without threatening, until tye 60 min mark when the subs came on…from that point, we grew into the game and it felt like there was going to be only one winner. Tactically we looked better with Sonny back and there was an obvious ploy to get the wide players running ‘out to in’ and behind their defence. The red card was harsh as Dennis had to go for the ball and Chrisene clearly tricked the ref, who officiated like he’d never played the game. Poor. Then at 85 mins we get hit by the sucker punch goal and you could have forgiven the players for thinking it wasn’t their day. 100’s fans began streaming out of the ground…but this team is made of stronger stuff! Credit to Hedges and Weimann who made a difference in an attacking sense, then the ref gives a free kick for a foul which looked blatantly like it was in the box before we draw level with 20 secs to spare…it felt like a win and a huge moment! If we can keep that defence, plus Sonny snd Trav fit, then VI’s job is to find a combination solution between Dolan, Cantwell, Kargbo, Weimann, Hedges, Dennis and Woodrow. I would personally like to see us play someone like Yuki or Dennis up next to Gueye. Especially if we’re going to be more direct..Cantwell doesn’t carry any goal threat and so needs to be played deeper or off the left. interesting few weeks…

I’d go with this, mate…genuinely think it’s 50/50 whether VI works out at Rovers or not. The next 12 games are an interesting ‘free hit’ for him! Big game today.

The managers brief is clear, keep us up and sustainable and you can have the keys to the club for good” Im not even sure they have lied to Big Val this time. I think he’s probably looking at it thinking, he’d like some stability and job continuity himself. You don’t get sacked at Rovers. I don’t buy into the narrative that the club would sabotage us getting into the PL. On the contrary, a ‘budget’ promotion would be a blessing to the mission of reducing debt, a guaranteed £200m over two seasons (including parachutes in season two) which would more than cover costs, and pay down the owners debt. Then, once you’re in the promotion cycle, the chances of bouncing up and down are higher…which all means Money!

Good spot, he also steered clear of admitting the club wanted promotion…it’s clear that the brief is to be self sufficient. Heres how I think the chat went… ”Val, keep us in this league, bring through plenty of homegrown players for us to sell, so we never have to go back to our bosses for extra cash, and you’ve got £600k a year for life!” Job done.

Nooooo….think of it like this! Youve been in a relationship with your new squeeze for a year. You think she’s amazing but recently, she’s had a wondering eye, you’ve seen her flashing other fellas the eye in Preston, Hull and Plymouth and decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, and then your worst fears come to light when you find out she’s met a guy from Derby. In your final showdown, she tells you how he’s offering her “so much more” and if you’d just propose to her, commit to her then she’d turn him down….what would you do?

Having had some time to read more about Ismael - his methods, past experience etc. I genuinely think it’s 50/50 that he works out. The comparisons between us and Barnsley are good, but there’s no doubt that he didn’t hit the heights at West Brom, and trying to analyse a managers performance at Watford just hurts my head. It seems that Big Val, is a strict disciplinarian and whilst that’s a brilliant trait in many ways, IF it goes wrong, you can lose a group and it’s basically over. In a dressing room like Barnsley’s, or ours currently, where players aren’t earning what others at rival clubs are and have been written off, then you can forge an ‘us against the world’ mentality which drives everything. That’s what I think the board are hoping for… Alternatively, if the wheels come off, he’s proven his teams can hit severe death spirals and im not sure we’d survive another in the Championship. I hope this works out! 🤞🏽

And you know that, how? Waggot hired JE. But the search and due dilligence was done whilst JDT was in post, after they decided to begin the process.

Eh? How many people have you hired? Leadership / Execs standard = wishlist plus applicants sift, get down to a midsize list 10x, first iv’s (online), Get 10 down to 5 and then do second interviews (f2f) for the final group. Review and select successful candidate / finalise. 2-4 weeks Standard process.

Probably best to see how this turns out, before we get too worked up? Surely…

I’m not sure we can attract anyone of a higher calibre mate. It costs money that we’re not willing to spend and high profile managers want high profile budgets. Let’s see what the contract ends up being. I reckon it might be 18 months with a 1yr extension trigger. With NO release clause! - That’s what I’d give him.

likewise…I enjoy your posts.. I’ve met Steve a couple of times. He’s actually good company and very open (A little too open, imo). But I have no love for, or loyalty to him or Venkys. I’m a Rovers fan, 1st and foremost. From what I see and hear, my full belief is that we have been in managed decline for a number of years. I believe Suhails brief was to make us less costly to his employers and to stem the bleed of cash. I’m praying this is for a sale. In relation to the manager search, of course I would have liked Gerrard or Cooper. But honestly, I don’t buy into some of the negativity around Ismael. It’s easy, and lazy to say “He’s been sacked from X, Y and Z” or “My mate Dave who lives with his cat in Solihull reckons he was shit at West Brom”. It’s a matter of opinion, and honestly, the season he had with Barnsley, I LOVED that team! They were all action. His stock was high, and I’m sure he was linked with several jobs, including a couple in the PL. The fact he was sacked at West Brom in 6th, and that anyone is sacked by Watford doesn’t worry me. Every manager has been sacked, right? My only concern is if Ismael can motivate this group of players to somehow stay in the playoffs and, maybe just get us up. Promotion, imo is the only way we can stop the ‘downgrading’ of our beloved club. It’s also our biggest hope of ‘them lot’ selling us. Over to you, Valerian…

I’m no Ismael fanboy. I don’t genuinely know how his teams play… But, I really liked that Barnsley team that he had that season including Brittain, Callum Styles and Woodrow. I mentioned last season that I thought there were similarities to that Barnsley team and what McKenna was doing at Ipswich. A fast, ‘killer’ type of game plan. There’s no doubt he did a brilliant job at Barnsley in motivating a group of underdogs, on a small budget, to to perform. Sound familiar. Also, you can look at his perceived ‘failures’ at Watford and West Brom. Firstly, you can be fired for nothing at Watford, literally nothing. They’re arguably a worse run club than ours. Secondly, West Brom sacked Ismael when he had them 6th and are currently out of the top 6 and managed by Mowbray!? Who none of us would want back. fwiw - I think there’s potentially a very good manager in Ismael. We would’ve been delighted with him at the end of that season he had with Barnsley. The question is, is Rovers the right environment now? I would say Waggott and Suhail are banking on him being a bit more Barnsley, than Watford or West Brom. Lets see!

Confirmed? I’m abroad and disoriented!!

I would be ok with Wagner or Ismael. Ismael in particular did a great job at Barnsley under similar conditions to those at Rovers.

Fwiw - I wouldn’t be surprised if the new manager is completely left field. The betting is aligned with press reports. It’s not accurate. Here we goooooo!

It’s 6 days since the managers exit was confirmed, 9 days since Derby triggered his release clause, and 10 days since JE claims he knew about the interest from them. But even two weeks is not a lot of time, to speak with those on the initial list, sift a further 150 applications, have informal calls to get that list down to a shortlist of candidates, then conduct remote 1st interviews, review and conduct in person 2nd interviews. In normal businesses, for similar profile roles, that could take 4 weeks to resolve. In respect of O’neil now being a ‘no go’ do we know for sure if it’s us or him who have pulled back? I haven’t seen anything other than one line on X from Alex Crooks…?

Waggott picked Eustace and they were talking long before JDT’s exit was engineered by the club. Sure, he wanted to go, but no one came in and paid for him…the club decided it was time to grant JDT his wish, went and sourced a manager and orchestrated the departure and arrivals within 15 mins. As I’ve said, completely different set of circumstances.

Who says he wasn’t? And whether he was, or wasn’t, what’s clear is the the club engineered his exit and this was proven by the announcement of Eustace on the day JDT left. it was a much different scenario to this one.

Absolutely. When was it announced JE was gone, a week ago? So apparently they did a round of video (first) interviews last Friday (probably those they were already in touch with) then they’re interviewing, online with second interviews in person this week. Travel, scheduling etc. Seems fine to me.