There are folk in the Riverside near me who, believe me, have often referred to him as selfish & sulky if things aren't going his way. Crazy I know, but that's us Riversiders for you!

I don't disagree Matty, but that has to be seen within the context of shit owners, a shit CEO, shit recruitment processes, a threadbare, weak & morale-sapped squad, and 2 games a week preventing meaningful tactical work on the training ground throughout nearly all his tenure. Hopefully, if (big if, given our financial strife & incompetence re transfers) he's given the opportunity, he can mould the squad more to his liking for next season.

I'm really torn on this. He was brought in to keep us up; whatever the reasons, we were undoubtedly dropping like a stone under JDT & conceding goals left, right & centre. Eustace stopped that but in doing so we lost forward momentum, hence the many draws under his tenure. Were it not for stupid schoolboy errors against Bristol C & Sheff Weds (and that's being v unfair on schoolboys), we'd be safe now; there's nothing Eustace could do about those as the threadbare squad (more so minus A Wharton, Travis, failing with McGuire then losing Fleck to injury) just did not allow for players to be dropped or rotated, & that's no fault of Eustace because he only came in in February. And let's face it, no-one on here is that complimentary about our attacking options besides Szmodics; and even he's been criticised at times for being too selfish & not creating enough assists. Eustace has had to wee with the willy he has, so the saying goes. I never take too much notice of press releases & publicity interviews. He can hardly say, going into Saturday, the squad is crap & needs an overhaul, even if everyone knows it's true. I remember reading that at Brum, on arrival he did similar to what he's done here i.e. shored up a v leaky defence with uninspiring football; but for 2 standout games he's done that here with players that most folk on here don't rate. Then the following season (albeit short in tenure) he apparently made them much more offensive & attractive to watch, and brought in players that better suited his wishes. Hopefully he can do that here, but of course we all know that he'll be swimming against the tide due the inevitable sale of all players of any value allied to the major incompetence of the owners, their cronies & many backroom staff members. If he keeps us up it's mission accomplished, at a very base level. It's not been what we hoped for on his appointment & certainly not something to "celebrate" (he's made a faux pas there) but I think, just, he ought to be given the benefit of the doubt to start next season unless an outstanding candidate comes available (and I don't mean Coyle!)

Do we know what sell on percentage Peterborough have on him?

Has this happened yet? Or do you not have a printer?! 😉

He did it against Stoke too, when Dolan scored. He's frustrating, but not as bad as is often made out.

Is Leeds a nailed on defeat though? I mean, they failed to even score at home against Sunderland last night! I'm trying to be glass half full, but I'm more concerned about the evidence of fight in our relegation rivals, as evidenced by Sheff Weds, Millwall & Plymouth tonight. In all honesty I'm v concerned as it's silly season results-wise. Pressure (or the lack of it) does strange things to the psyche of teams... At least it's in our hands still but, as unlikely as it is, I really don't want to go into the Wednesday match with anything less than a 6 point gap (i.e. 7 inc the favourable GD).

Totally agree. Both much signed on here & of course they have their issues, but they are crucial to us offensively & those stats don't lie.

Oi, leave us alone; divide & rule is what Waggott wants!!

Precious buggers, they've managed to get a league goal out of him & I've seen more of him in a Stoke shirt than I did in a Rovers one!!

Eustace out, Johnson in!!

Eustace: “At the moment, we’ve had some difficult moments, but we have an exciting group of young players and, with a little bit of help, we can really push up that league." Er, John, about that "little bit of help"....

Gilsenan on target again tonight, Rovers 1 up at Fulham after 20 mins.

Well, I think this is as good as the week could've ended, given the shit show we've all had to endure. Thanks JDT, he leaves with my absolute best wishes & thanks for his efforts. Good luck John, you're going to need it. I'll be there tomorrow supporting the team, the manager & the club. I will be vocal in joining in the Venkys / Waggott out chants, though my voice will probably not match my strength of feeling.

Catch up Rev!!

Moston have probably had better options tbf.

Not on Rovers website it isn't!!

Nah, they've ordered a curry in and are just finishing off their peshwaris.

Gregg does seem to be more implicated here than I thought. Not only for not making personally sure the papers had been sent (as he was the one who said he'd ensured last Jan's problem couldn't happen again, even though he personally could not submit the docs & ought to be able to trust those who could), but also it seems like he was happy to all but commit the club to spending £7m on a late-developing college football rookie. If he was keen on this player for months (his prerogative as DoF), why was due diligence elsewhere in recruitment only done on deadline day?? As for Waggott, on £300k p/a and being the only other person able to submit docs besides Sylvester, he ought to have done it himself given what happened last January. An absolute derogation of duty on his part, added to his derogation of duty last Jan when at the match instead of overseeing deadline day. I think both have to go (somewhat reluctantly in GB's case), and Sylvester of course.

I've argued Gregg's corner on the Phillips situation & generally in his time here, but if that is a correct analysis of what happened then it would arguably a much bigger error in financial terms than the O'brien, Brierley & McGuire fiascos combined.

"Ashley Phillips, the highly rated England Under-19 defender who had been with the club since the age of 12, left for £2m after Spurs activated a release clause that Rovers failed to omit from the teenager’s contract." Hmm....

Wow, that's knocked me sideways a bit too tbf!!

Dunno if you read the link I posted earlier, but it was comments from a Brum journo made to a Bristol City journo when he was on their radar a couple of months back. Included: "To start with, Eustace was quite negative with his play as Birmingham relied on long-ball football and set pieces a little. As time progressed, though, there was more of a possession focus. The recent summer transfer window really helped Eustace’s style to become more exciting and attacking as Blues signed a handful of tricky wingers. "Eustace showed some good tactical versatility during his time at St Andrew’s as he switched between three main formations – a wide 4-2-3-1, a narrow 4-2-2-2 diamond and a 3-5-2 with wing-backs. "The Robins would definitely benefit from Eustace’s strong man-management skills and his working-class mentality. He used to speak often and passionately about getting his players to fight for one another as if they were a working-class family. It brought about brilliant results, especially in the latter stages of games. "The downside would have to be Eustace’s decision-making with substitutions. Birmingham fans would often get frustrated by the lack of changes or the lateness. Eustace clearly likes to keep some sort of continuity in his lineups, including throughout matches, but sometimes subs were needed quicker to shift the momentum." There's definitely some positives there & parallels between what awaits here in terms of the club background, and also some ability to improve significant weaknesses our team have (e.g. set pieces, strong in the final stages of games). Someone on here also recalled that his Brum side played brilliantly against us, only losing as Kaminski was inspired, and I remember that too. Look, I'm not saying he would be ideal, but he would be better overall than Neil would as a younger, more dynamic man at the helm. Just my opinion, but certainly not without logic.

Alex Neil is just Mowbray Mk II. All of his success was a decade or more ago, since then he's just been a serial merrygorounder, achieving very little. Eustace, whilst arguably more of a gamble, would be a more exciting (in context) & forward-looking appointment imo. I think he was discarded from Brum just as he was taking off, and if you look at the link I posted a few pages back he does seem to be inheriting similar circs here to those he inherited there. And fwiw I think the Coventry link to Waggott is coincidental. Given their respective times in the game, I would guess Waggott knows Neil better than he does Eustace.

https://www.bristolworld.com/sport/football/john-eustace-bristol-city-birmingham-city-nigel-pearson-4390690 Some interesting low down on Eustace. Watch out for Khadra's return...!