Bethnal

At best, I am whelmed. Can’t really judge him on results until - I would say - Cardiff. He’ll be heavily relying on existing coaches for the weekend and Derby will be the first game where he’s had a good look at everyone. Stoke will be a “what are these guys about” match, after which he’ll have an idea of who he can trust and who he can’t. Again - whelmed. It’s a championship football manager, we’re a championship club. It’s not particularly ambitious, it’s not particularly unambitious.

Whoever it is, I’ll back til the end of the season, as we all will. By “back” I mean, support the team they’re managing by watching, giving a shit, heading to the games I’m able to, taking an interest in. But to be clear - whatever happens this season, either of the two “leading candidates” for the job will see us slide down the table. My impression has always been that Wagner needs a budget and not much of a tactician. Kind of a middle manager, really. Ismaël is a charmer who can brute force a response/surge with a combative and direct approach, but isn’t a man manager and doesn’t have a plan B. Throws his toys out with everyone when it starts to fall apart. I hope this is Nixon taking a stab in the dark, but I think he’s going to look extremely stupid after his recent tweets if it is just that and he didn’t need to over-egg the story or the tweets with no source/lead on the story, so he’s probably got the story here. Ironically, his story about the rigidity on salary for the new manager laid the groundwork for this appointment. We’re picking from the people who will accept the salary on offer.

Look, it’s got too much of a specific knowledge/interest in JDT not to be somebody with a working knowledge/perspective on his reign here. It’s genuinely only concerned with his time at Rovers, too. I hope it is his burner account, because it somewhat aligns with my thinking on the club setup and squarely points the finger at Suhail as being the up-fucker. For all the shit that JDT and Gregg caught on here (as managers and DoFs are rightly and justifiably open to receiving) the real issue at that time, before the time and subsequent to it, has always been that fucking anti-talent orange juice salesman. I do believe any normal club setup would’ve enabled those two to at least get us into the playoffs, if not further.

Inclined to agree. Spoken to one of the two mentioned managers’ agents and pulled a tiny little article out of that chat. Cooper earned no playing career money and is likely still on good money from Leicester sacking. No point dropping that for a job that’s less-than-optimal (batshit owners; dogshit board and exec team; zero budget in future). O’Neil will be similar, albeit probably earned good playing career money. I think there are some who earned mega money trying to make their way into or back into English football - therefore less concerned with short-term remuneration - who you could tempt. I think Gerrard would be one, unless the Saudi tax bill thing is the main priority for him (earned £15m/year out there, so very much could be). I imagine Duff is similar. £600k is probably a significant salary upgrade, but I still think he has a bigger motive than just his own personal career. I think being in the League of Ireland is a mission to him.

Soft goal, 3-0, game over. Enjoy what you can of the rest of your days, lads, I’m off for a massive shit.

John Buckley sprints like he’s got a hamstring injury.

Hope that’s the last time we see Forshaw and Hedges start another Rovers game.

He likes “working with the players” which is why he can’t be the manager for another game. This is about winning, not pandering to the inflated egos of mid-to-lower-table championship footballers who you like “working with.” Needed to be bollocking the ones who’d fucked up and hooking them.

He is probably a nice lad around the place and therefore probably a dependable backup, but the idea he is a #1 keeper at a Championshio club and has been for two years is shambolic. Still, his dad is mates with Waggott isn’t he? Probably the first contract renewed since December 2023 as the door slams on Waggott’s massive arsenal, post-retirement.

Pears culpable for both goals. Hedges partially for the first, ref largely for the second. But make no mistake, Hedges had a hand in both. The second was a neat finish, but Pears had a week to prepare himself for the second and got his angle fully wrong, his rushing out didn’t happen at all.

Yep, 100%, very loudly and pointedly towards the directors’ box: Lowe Out.

A lot of players hiding out there, which is a disgrace given where we find ourselves.

Fuck this, Lowe Out.

Free kick with an opportunity to cross into our in-form, 6’5” striker and we roll it square to our ancient midfielder who scored his first goal in 9 years last week.

I expected him to be on the end of Gueye’s cross earlier, which may be a sign you’re right, but he was on the end of them earlier in the season, which makes me think he still has it.

That elicited a big chuckle from me

Niall Ennis with a brace for Blackpool. Comfortable level for him down there.

Think Gueye and Weimann have been good so far, but Dolan so inconsistent and Hedges really only performing to a fair standard, no moments of quality for a long while now.

I like Neal a lot, I think he says a lot without saying anything at all on the more controversial things but that co-commentary with Carter a few weeks back was such a massive misstep from Warren.

Warren Lucy is such a suck-up. I get why he has to be, but he lays it on THICK.

Conservative, which I can forgive as Lowe’s not here to make a statement. Losing away at Swansea is a poor showing. A draw there is a little disappointing. A win is a good result for a caretaker. The front four will chase and press, Gueye’s in good enough form to connect with a cross or a fumble. It’s not very ambitious, but Lowe’s keeping a seat warm. Even with all the caveats above - Forshaw is not someone to be starting ahead of Buckley or JRC.

To his credit he was pretty definitive about Gary O’Neil having had the conversation but about Karanka it was “thought to be amongst” the candidates, so not quite definitive. I will say that there’s someone at Rovers watching us/Twitter get riled up and stepping in with an off-the-record line to squash the rumour. Jackson’s take on it is based on the same rumours. Interesting, because who actually cares if the candidates are leaked? We want to know, of course and certainly in-work managers wouldn’t want an employer to know, but there will be out-of-work managers that the club could subtly mention to the LT and choose not to, creating an information vacuum and the kind of thing we’re currently experiencing. It shouldn’t take this long to hire someone, really, but especially when we could be waiting however long for Venkys to check their spam to approve it.

On Duff - I’d love it. The job he’s done at Shelbourne (I didn’t end up going to see their game against Derry City due to grim weather and a supplier “meeting” running quite late into the Friday evening/morning) was described to me as “unbelievable.” Won the league and has instilled a real sense of… “togetherness” doing it. They hadn’t won it in something like 20 years and were 25/1 odds to do so, when he did it. I don’t think it can be sniffed at. I do not think he’ll do it based on what I heard over there from fans/observers. Almost sounded like he wanted to build the standard of the league up. Heard he donated his Shamrock Rovers wages to charity in his final season of playing, so he’s not exactly after money, either. So yeah, I think it would be compelling but I also think he has more noble aims than breaking into English football.

Karaoke has fallen out with a lot of club chief execs to date. Makes no sense, but fits their profile (if they even have one)

If new managers are being shot down on new contracts for existing players and Category A academy status, then the people interviewing and making that assessment need removing. Physically, if necessary. This needs to be confirmed in whichever way is possible, but it’s actively sabotaging the club’s future. Enough is enough.