StHelensRover

As much as I can't stand the owners and am tired and fed up of Steve Waggott, there is no way that Rudy Gestede will be the club's next CEO. Don't let talk of it distract anyone from the current issues at hand. I'm not pretending to be ITK or anything like that, the idea itself is just bonkers for a hundred reasons and not even the Venkys for all their other failings are going to do something like that.

This is the time people do need to be careful on spreading rumours because as others have said, if they are untrue they will massively backfire and play into the club's hands: "Yes half the things they're posting about online and protesting about simply aren't true, we can't take them seriously, they're creating problems that aren't there, they're affecting the team negatively, we all need to be united" etc

If there really is the level of chaos behind the scenes that is being alleged in some posts on here, it will go some way to explaining (not 100% excusing) the recent results. Footballers aren't Einsteins but not usually idiots either. They are paid professionals but it must be pretty hard to do any job when everything going around with other colleagues, senior management etc is just bonkers. If things turn sour on Friday I hope the fanbase doesn't turn on the players themselves - boos, groans and screaming at the individuals on the pitch won't help, but I fear it will be the go-to response for many in the stands. I imagine the players are privately really pissed off too, they're as powerless as we are in many regards. You can be really good at your job but if your line manager, middle manager, CEO, owner etc is bonkers then you're not gonna achieve your potential.

Potentially the most exciting end to a championship season in years with half the league having something to play for on the final day (except us obviously, thanks to the players, manager and especially the owners)

Christ that stinks. When you consider the opposition we've played it's laughable. The players need to take some blame for that as well, VI might be picking them and setting them up awkwardly, but they shouldn't have forgotten how to play the game they've played since they were about five.

It's the longevity of it that's so depressing isn't it? Pompey, Coventry, Bolton, Birmingham, many others have had horrendous owners who took the club off a cliff and humiliated the fan bases, but they're all clubs who eventually got through it and are now on the up. We've had this over us for 10% of our entire existence, as one of the oldest football clubs around. When you consider that length of time it's galling. There hasn't even been any 'good times' of note, unless you count pipping Shrewsbury Town to 3rd division promotion. We've bottled every big occasion and had nothing to be proud of. What I wouldn't give for our 150th year to be the one we had their curse lifted!

It's so close at the top of the division that it is likely to go down to the final day now. If we need to, we absolutely better chuck that game at Bramall Lane. I can see it now, I can see our stinking run continuing until that that game and then us somehow accidentally winning 1-0 against Sheff Utd to send the Clampetts up, our players coming over thumping the badge and clapping us while getting pelted with allsorts.

Dreading Friday now. Boro will be salivating at the prospect of this game. The playoffs have opened right back up for them and they get to strike first by playing on the Friday, against statistically the current worst team in the division. They'll have done their homework and worked out our confidence is shot and that we don't even look awake until we concede and will come flying out at us. If we concede early it's gonna get nasty.

Looking at our remaining fixtures just now, the only one I think we WILL win is Millwall at home and even that's not a given. We could easily finish in the bottom half after being 5th when VI came in.

That keeper they have must be related to Pears. He saved a penalty in the first half and then has had another complete howler. They could bring out a feature length film together of their gaffes

Whereas when we stank the place out against Derby, we were told by VI that this was because the players "wanted it too much" 🫣 I've no idea at this point

That little statistic crops up each time and it's quite mindboggling. Says something about the culture and mentality of the club, it has gone on too long to be a coincidence.

Getting very frantic down the bottom now as it stands, with Stoke, Cardiff and Luton winning or having won. Stoke play Derby away last game of the season, a bit of a local derby and could be do or die for both. Derby play North End on Tues, if Derby win that they would go only 6 points behind PNE who might start looking over their shoulders... I still personally really hope Derby go down. Even though Eustace ditching us is only a small part of the circus that is this club, I don't want him to be rewarded/vindicated for how he fucked over the players and fans here.

If you get chance, you can catch a brief interview with him on BBC Lancs prior to this fixture where he confirms that he always targeted the international break as where he would start implementing his system and ideas.

The Maleficent Seven

Anyone heard VI's Radio Lancs interview for this game? He said that when he took the job he had targeted the international break as the period he would use to change the tactics and get his message across to the players, this was apparently agreed when he took the job, according to him. So I'm curious to know what they worked on in the last fortnight, as it is well and truly on him at this point.

Quality, get that painted on a bedsheet for Boro at home 😂😂😂

I'm guessing he has SK in at #1 but Coyle not far behind him. Sounds awful, but truly I hope I never hear about SK again unless he's in prison or an obituary.

Could end the day with Pompey closer to us than we are to top six. Imagine if you had said that on January 1st 😂

Hope we haven't been negligent in bringing Beck back before he's ready, won't bode well for getting other players from parent club Edit - sorry that was lacking a bit of empathy, I obviously really feel for him as well. He must be beside himself

😂

I don't want to be a dick about it but don't bother worrying about other teams doing us favours at this point. 5 games ago, we had the best run in of anyone and we were in pole position. We've tanked even harder than fans expected and now have a horrendous run in. The watermark for 6th is usually around 70 points meaning six wins needed from eight games. The bookies have us 18/1 to finish in the top six. In reality it's probably even longer than that, but they don't offer mad odds since Leicester.. Put yourself out of your misery and try and somehow enjoy the remaining games, as difficult as it now is. We'll probably pick up just enough points to finish just outside the top six and look like "we had a cracking good go" when really we haven't. At this point I'd rather Bristol City took points off the Clampetts. Them avoiding promotion and halting their Premier League yo-yo is the only thing in the short term that will start to redress the balance between the two teams while we're stuck with the Wankys

100% they will try and kill any dissent with this sort of stuff. People just need to engage with it online in a reasonable way e.g. "glad to see there are people at the club trying their best to do X, but unfortunately there are problems higher up which need addressing that fans can't ignore"

I'm surprised they're as long as that to be honest, they turned over a much stronger Leeds side there recently!

Great isn't it, that after a season of 'significant investment', we require 6 wins from our last 8 matches to get into the playoffs. Non-starter In reality the only thing we'll have to be remotely interested in after 10 months and 46 matches is whether or not we'll play the Dingles again next season. The playoffs themselves will be quite interesting. B*rnley and Albion have drawn twice, so clearly not much between them, maybe Mowbray can do us a favour. Sunderland and Coventry is a genuine needle/rivalry fixture. I didn't realise this until visiting both grounds in recent years and seeing all the stickers posted around about Jimmy Hill (some proper nasty stuff!) then reading up on it..