Ohashi you beauty

I think Ismael will be happy at HT, we've defended well and not given much away except the sitter Hamer missed. Need more going forward in 2nd half but we're is a solid position so far.

As a side note Ribeiro needs a transplant or to shave his head, the combover is horrific haha

We've looked solid without threatening. Unlucky not to get at least one penalty. Dolan not been involved enough and Cantwell is playing lazy. Hedges has to be replaced, we need some pace on that side, we have no forward option. Maybe Kargbo/Dennis on 50 minutes.

Ref already having a shocker.

Few links to Dan Gore from Man Utd in last few days, likely nothing in it. Talented by all accounts but also an injury nightmare which I don't know if I'd want to risk. Maybe we can offer a swap for Pears....

Pretty sure we were linked to Geubbels in Jan/last summer, so it could be similar to the Kargbo situation where we have been tracking him. Plays in Swiss league so technically the sort of small market we are looking at now.

Glad people are finally waking up to Broughton's competence. Look at his career elsewhere at Bodo/Chicago, and his record here, he knows how to run football operations. Between him and JDT I have no doubt we could have made the Premier league if Waggott/Suhail/Venkys had not interfered to ruin our chances every chance they got. With them at the helm I was finally excited to watch us play and believed in the wider plan for the club. Loved JDT, and he explicitly did not blame Gregg. Gregg also communicated consistently unlike Rudy et al.

Ismael has said he wants Hedges renewed, watch them rush to sign him up instead of Dolan. In all honesty I think he is a solid, if extremely limited player. He works hard, especially in defence and pressing, but offers next to no attacking threat or pace out wide. I don't mind if he is here as 2nd choice but we need an upgrade if the "project" is to advance.

"We want to develop the club, if we get promoted that is a bonus, but not the aim this year" "Venkys invest every year"..."We need to sell to cover running costs every year" Excuse me what? How can it be the case that they invest but also we need to cover our own running costs before we get a transfer budget? Utter stupidity as an excuse and should have been called out by the interviewer. He keeps saying fans need to trust the plan but they have done nothing in 15 years to garner any faith in them or their ability to do so. Disgrace

Awful interview by Rudy, just platitudes and excuses. No accountability or ambition in sight. If the owners wanted to invest they could, end of story.

A little unfair to criticize Gueye for not gelling with Ismael when 2 weeks ago we all wanted Ismael out, and in Jan/Feb Gueye was comfortably our best player and scoring.

I wonder if the wise men are now panicking that Ismael has started winning and explicitly stated he wants Tronstad and Brittain as key players and to renew them. With all their doubling-down behind him during the slide they don't have anywhere to go if they want to pretend to maintain credibility.

He wants a new deal; he's been one of our best players since he joined; we lost form as soon as he was out of the team. And our oh so competent execs are "trying" to resign players. Probably means we'll sell him. No excuse, just get it done. Unbelievable that some posters on the LT are questioning if Ismael would want a "better progressing midfielder", do they even watch games.

Definitely not staying, which is a shame as he has always fought hard and given 100%. 200 games is not a small number and even if I don't think he has the premier league quality he might think he has, he is a very solid top-half championship player. As others have said, the indictment on the club is that he doesn't think he can achieve his goals here and will end up at another championship club, potentially Derby with Eustace.

Agreed, until a buyer/consortium can be put together Venkys will not have to address the structural issues, they can just keep batting away questions like Waggott and Pasha tried in their interview, ignoring problems and convincing enough of the fans that things could only be worse, which we know is nonsense. It would be great if "celeb" fans could be involved somehow, even just registering desire for change. Thinking Matt Smith, Liam Livingstone, Harold Varner etc.

If Director wages are included we might have an idea from the latest set of accounts....

He's an excellent player and visibly gives his all every game which is great to see. From his first game with us he showed quality above that of most of our squad, and his finishing stands out (Bristol game especially). Injured disrupted season but he is probably a 15 goal championship striker if we can actually give him service...

Kargbo did look pacy and talented in his limited game time. I wasn't convinced we should have signed him, but I think he showed enough to suggest he can be one of our 2 left wingers next year (still need another for rotation). His assist for Dolan was genuine moment of brilliance that not many in our squad would/could have done. Issue is we have so many holes to fill with all the guys leaving (loans and frees), and if (when...) we sell our spine of Trav/Tronstad/Hyam/Brittain we won't replace them with as good quality.

Would like to see Tyjon get on in 2nd half. A lot of faith being shown in Montgomery, he must have been impressive in training having been at Chorley so recently. He's not the one I would have seen coming through at RB this year, I had higher hopes for Duru.

ST sales a huge problem, they need as much revenue from fans as they can get to stop Venkys having to spend. It's why they've been all over waves doing interviews all of a sudden trying to pretend everything is ok.

Given a c.10% reinvestment from Wharton/Raya/Sammie money, gives us maybe 500k...

He did at times, but he also had to start from next to nothing in our League 1 season and fly to India every time he had to even try and persuade the owners to buy someone. Not to mention how they screwed up the Rothwell and Lenihan situations in all too familiar contract bungling. The Rothwell situation was particularly frustrating as it ruined the playoff push (he didn't care anymore), and denied Mowbray money to reinvest in January; another classic anti-ambition January window. By the end he was also abruptly and disgracefully ignored by the owners, who let him walk at the end of the contract without even talking to him.

Exactly right, Mowbray, JDT and Eustace all managed to drag us to top-8 championship form, despite constant meddling and kneecapping by the execs/owners behind the scenes.

Exactly, this is a decision they are choosing to make, and it makes them unfit to be owners of a football club. End of story.