Ghost7

It was a slap in the face to the fans that had already bought a season ticket that's for sure.

Never rated him.

You are right and no, the owners have no interest in investing properly. I think we can be clear on that after 15 years of the same question being asked again and again.

Can someone explain to me why on every Lewis Miller long throw, we don't have two of our stronger players aerially stood here where the Brighton players are or anyone in fact stood in this exact corner of the 6 yard box where the ball is likely to go? Brighton are in the correct place for their throw trajectory and Palace are doing the same for theirs. Simple stuff.

The model attracts "crap" in both the player and manager section, obviously. We were inside the playoffs comfortably during a manager search and ended up with Ismael. They still couldn't attract anyone decent with barely any games to go which truly said it all, and didn't go after anyone good "in work" to give us the best chance, and a stronger platform for the following season if we missed out. No one thought to use it as an opportunity. We had ZERO chance of convincing Cooper, Edwards or O'Neil to join even in such a strong position, the club aren't serious and can't get anything major done. Yet some of the fans still support the regime. Far too many dim Rovers fans with their head in the sand, pretending Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth and Burnley don't exist in the Premier league. 5,000 more fans turned up with ease yesterday. They'll be there weekly under new owners and up to it footballing executives.

Didn't feel like we were undone by 3 changes to the side today. It felt like we were undone by careless, amateur transfer business in the summer. Importantly the complete negligence in sanctioning the Hyam sale without a last minute replacement - a player who played all 46 games last season. He should have been under lock and key until another CENTRE BACK came in. If they didn't make it in time, no deal Wrexham... whatever the price. I'm all for selling with 1 year left but they were far too late in the day with their bid. Whoever agreed the decision was sensible and for the good of the club needs firing immediately. The problem is it was likely an agreement between Suhail Pasha, Gestede and Ismael. Idiots the lot of them! They have either severely underestimated the league, miscounted the number of true senior centre-backs or decided to gamble with the future of the club by handing nearly every team in the league an advantage for the first half of the season. It's a farce. Who was Ismael trying to kid at the end of the window that this wasn't an issue? Of course it was going to be and it is already. He's starting Championship games with an attacker at left centre-back. It's insane stuff. Plenty of managers would have their names into other clubs again (Eustace, JDT), MOST WOULD HAVE THREATENED IT ON DEADLINE DAY IF HYAM WENT but he was seemingly part of the plot. Anyone who has watched Rovers enough last past 3 or 4 seasons could have easily predicted that Wharton and Carter would not be around for decent parts of this season. Why would they be? They've got some of the worst injury records in the league. 16 appearances last season for Carter. 0 for Wharton. Zero due to a major injury, a player who struggles to make 25 games a season in a good year and has had multiple career harmful injuries. There's 46 games in a Championship season, sometimes 3 a week....... is our CEO even aware of that? We have a guy called Moussa Baradji at the club to come in and play attacking midfield? Never heard of him. We didn't need him. We needed senior defenders on decent wages! That was clear at the START of the summer. They are asking fans to pay for this. The club is a total circus and it's getting left behind in the division by nearly everyone. Gestede has got to go and whoever else was involved.

If he or Henriksson offered for the ball in midfield, the CBs wouldn't have to keep playing hopeful 60 yard balls into the forward line..... terrible setup today asking defenders to do things they aren't good enough for. Still major question marks over the manager, whoever signed Tavares and whoever sanctioned the Hyam sale.

The player he skinned for the assist was left back Victor Kristiansen who Leicester signed for £17 million and he got nowhere near him.

It's nearly every team so far this season that can't handle Alebiosu. Excellent to have someone that can stand defenders up and run at them with pace. Really pleased for Gudjohnsen and glad the manager stuck with him. Two outstanding results but so much more to do. Hopefully there's more to come from this team.

I agree part of supporting Rovers for me or any football club is about an honest journey towards success that the fans feel part of, whether it works out or not doesn't matter if it's something you know everyone wants and is trying for. That was taken away from us the moment Venky's bought the club.

I bet Gestede fancies some loans in January looking at Preston's results. What an imbecile.... That's what happens when one of your top men is work experience.

I wouldn't mind some lighthearted banners in support of the players on a match day. They are being thrown under the bus by a dangerous manager too. "Hayden Carter's mattress is the least of our worries." Would be mine. At this rate nearly all English players that might command a reasonable wage now or in the future will be sold. That isn't how a club like ours is built. Ismael is paving the way for a further exodus and there is less and less rapport between the fans, the manager and players. Perhaps the club can add that to their "rate your match day experience" answers. It's not worth the entry fee at the minute.

I want administration for Rovers, it's the only way. Venky's turn the tap off please and let us go.

Some nice ideas but not feeling the "wear all black". That will go unnoticed and is largely the colour of winter football grounds anyway. Really like the missing 15 years graphic, also agree this needs to hit home in India somehow if at all possible, not Pune. They are mad about English football out there and probably have no idea what Venky's have done to this club. It's time to turn the heat up on the owners... 15 years we've wanted them out for, all they've done in that time is brought shame.

Not removing Ismael? The issue is I don't think anyone at the club will regret that decision, even when we go down. They aren't in it to see Rovers do well. Pasha and Gestede that is. It's also incredible they are the two names "in charge".... they shouldn't be anywhere near the club and are a far cry from the people we've seen in the past. This isn't about having the best manager to get results, it never was, we're shackled by incompetence enabled by absent owners. I'd like to know when a member of the Venky's family last checked the league table... or had a look who the current CEO is, can they name our strikers? Can they name the last player they genuinely signed for over £2m? There aren't many managers that would have been happy with our summer business, particularly the timing of the Hyam sale. In fact I think nearly all would have challenged it. Instead he pretended to be happy with their inept business and so is a perfect fit - they'll stick with him as long as they can. The fans were right and usually are but soon there'll be none left.

Yep a fanbase beaten by totally absent unwilling to sell corrupt billionaires and legal threats.

He was an underwhelming and shitty appointment at the time and the best a bad bunch could come up with. Shame on the owners of this club. You're responsible for them all.

That fee was 100% made up to make it seem like we were investing above 500k on individual players. He wasn't even a starter at Moreirense. I suspect the only player we paid more than 500k upfront for this summer was Morishita. This is largely a team of 500k players from lesser leagues and unsurprisingly it's incapable of winning any Championship fixtures. If there was anyone in charge they'd have removed Gestede a long time ago and fired Ismael without hesitation after tonight.

Ismael wanting Baradji doesn’t change anything I’ve said. All that does is make me doubt him further as a manager - even if he turns out to be a good player. Other positions needed to be a priority and every player had to be able to play. I also didn’t say proven Championship striker. I said proven goalscorer. I’d expect it to cost £3 - £4m today realistically. If you’re interested in doing reasonably well in this league. A good centre back I’d expect to cost £2m also, for what it’s worth. Javov Medic at Norwich and Wrexham’s Hyam being good examples. We left ourselves in a position due to further boardroom negligence where too many players exited at the same time, meaning the budget was spread too thin across high risk, cheaper players. If an owner was interested they’d fire whichever individuals put them in that position in the first place and I’m talking proactively - as it was happening. Interested owners would know it was happening and wouldn’t allow it. If it did happen they’d fire whoever was responsible. I’m seriously starting to question who owns the club. Something isn’t as it seems.

Agree but the people in charge appointed Ismael when we were in one of the most desirable positions you can be in mid season, with plenty of good managers available who they chose to not pay for, they probably didn't even speak to them, he was the best they could do - who do you think they'll find now in the hands of Pasha and Gestede? The current "board" is incapable of landing the right manager at the best of times.

I'd have more sympathy had he been upset about the club pulling the rug from under him with the sale of Hyam. The board downgraded our defence majorly at nearly every opportunity and the manager pretended he was pleased, without any pressure on those above him to do more for him. The summer should have started with a top centre back coming in. We were linked to a few ambitious ones (probably falsely) and they never happened as per usual. We now have a Hull 3rd choice, playing alongside a RB at CB or Scott Wharton (who previously wasn't getting in the side) - this is the reality; they are either making mistakes or can't manage the workload and the result is a new pairing each week or month. The fans knew Carter and Wharton couldn't play regularly once a week - and even if they could play 90 minutes twice a week, which they need to be able to, I still sensibly questioned in pre-season - were they good enough. Are they? Really? Compared to the rest of the league? I have my doubts. Decent backups... but now nearly all our centre back pairings feel like backups. Gestede, Ismael and Pasha all have to go. Ideally starting with Gestede and Pasha but none are fit for their respective jobs. The minute we ignored spending solid money on a proven striker and a high quality centre back, combined with recklessly selling Hyam - we were doomed. Dolan was never replaced and we instead loaded up on attacking central midfielders - when our best player plays there (Cantwell)... bizarre strategy since we were clearly weak on the wings, needed to replace Dolan and upgrade Cozier-Dubbery and Hedges, adding to that being short of a proven goalscorer and needing more quality in central defence..... Now piece in the Moussa Baradji transfer (for a fee!) and tell me where that fit into a strategy to start the season strongly? It didn't. There was none. Naivety and arrogance led by Gestede. Further to that they bragged about ignoring the loan market, something that has arguably kept us in the league many times in the past. The fact we're now even more reliant on Ryan Hedges tells you all you need to know about our summer recruitment. It's that poor our manager has no idea what his best XI is (understandably difficult when the majority haven't played at this level)... and we can't see where the goals are coming from in any front 3 combination, that simply can't shoot with conviction at goal or beat a man - how was that not showing up in the pre-season data? Yet a need for an injured Moussa Baradji was - along with Henriksson both as competition for Cantwell? Underfunded and not taking the league seriously enough is the theme in the departments that matter most behind the scenes at Rovers. A low wage cap will never work in the Championship if you plan on winning games but yes it will get you relegated - you get what you pay for - other teams have goals and we aren't getting any. The irony is we're over reliant on the one man (Cantwell) that costs more per week than what Pasha is willing to spend. The board, the owners, the agencies and the current manager have all got to go. We are going down and deservedly so for how the club has chosen to operate and hire.

Signed us up for League One in the summer this guy. He should be making brews and filing papers for a proper CEO, not anywhere near having a say in a club like what ours used to be. Shambles still off the pitch........ no results on it. There's a good few senior people that need firing, including the manager. Problem is there's no one interested in doing it. Not sure how that ends in anything other than relegation yet again.

Sounds like the perfect manager for Rovers to me.

Always thought the telegraph was too kind to the club and didn't dig into its poor operations enough for obvious reasons. Quite pleased they've fallen out. We might finally get to enjoy some better journalism and more truths... UNLESS the club goes crawling back with its tail between its legs and I suspect it might.

I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve here? Fans (in the ground and on here) are already on his back after about a game and a half. I heard someone insist he was a dud 30 minutes in. Spreading negativity about a player when they've hardly seen them play isn't backing them - neither is writing insulting comments online like we've seen tonight. Some of the reactions to Gudjohnsen are irrational, too soon and are well beyond being critical, so I'm glad the people making them aren't anywhere near the training ground. My only real point was we're guilty of trying to judge players too soon... it's a fair and reasonable point. Certainly feels it since some are already ruling him out. Szmodics should be enough to make everyone think twice. Brereton too.