Commondore

Disregarding everything that goes on off the pitch in the sad shell of a club we’ve in many ways become; Johnson until the end of the season, then regardless of what division we’re in someone hungry and on an upward trajectory. I’d much rather have an appointment like Mousinho at Portsmouth, (pointing) Keith Andrews at Brentford or for that matter Eustace at Rovers than another Ismaël or Mowbray type.

I agree in principle, but in 1977 newspapers held massive sway over football clubs in a way that's been completely reversed. Today clubs can send out their own news, interviews, or anything else they want via social media and get way more eyes on them than they would in the local paper, all without any pesky followup questions or negative angles. Local media is basically hanging on by a thread.

Surely a deflated fee would be more advantageous from the club's perspective? Less pressure on the player, and the club doesn't look as wasteful if he turns out to be a flop.

Dønnum is apparently a right midfielder/wing back. I wouldn't complain if he came here, but it does seem like a strange position to spend what I imagine is relatively serious money on for us.

Isn’t Gardner-Hickman supposed to be able to play there as well?

That's actually a pretty good way to run a football club though, if you do it correctly. Get young and/or "unknown" players in the door, develop them, sell them for a substantial profit, re-invest. If our main transfer business would concern players with Championship experience and high wages, we'd just end up with Paul Downing, Matt Kilgallon, and Chris Brown again (unless we're bought by modern slavers or become vassals in a "multi-club project" of course). You'd of course still have to have a solid backbone of experienced players likely to stay at the club for at least 3 or so seasons, and the economical infrastructure to re-invest transfer fees rather than patching holes in a massive wage bill, but in theory I'd like us to go down that road.

Brönner was on the Guardians list of Europe's greatest talents born in 08 last year. I didn't see enough of him last season to form an opinion, but his team were dreadful despite having an OK squad and went down against the odds.

Apparently the local paper in Doncaster has a higher opinion of O'Riordan than what's been showing in his post match grades lately (from the LT): It's no exaggeration to say he's probably been one of the best players for Rovers in the first half of the season - probably only skipper Owen Bailey beats him to that title. Safe to say the majority of Rovers fans were gutted when the news of his recall was officially confirmed by Grant McCann. He looked a Rolls Royce at times. Just so calm and unflustered on the ball and dominant aerially. At first glance it's hard to spot any weaknesses. He has the height, recovery pace and defensive nous certainly to make an impression at Championship level. Perhaps against more physical forwards he may have a job on his hands, and there's the obvious issue of second tier experience (or lack of), but that only comes with being given the chance - and it seems he'll certainly get that back at Blackburn in the second half of the season.

Yeah significantly might be pushing it, I forgot Lenihan had already broken through at that point. Still, we had Jason Steele in goal. A midfield with, apart from the solid Conway, Jason Lowe, Hope Akpan, Liam Feeney... And I can't say I'm the slightest bit nostalgic for players like Emnes, Ward, Guthrie, Gallagher or Bennett.

That side had Danny Graham and very little else, I honestly think the current lot is significantly better. Doesn't mean we'll stay up mind you. I can see us keeping Oxford and obviously Wednesday behind us, but avoiding 22 will be a scrap.

He won and laid off the ball in midfield that led to Baradji's shot against the crossbar. He was about as dreadful as the rest of our players, but at least he has the excuse of being played wildly out of position with a striker he doesn't complement one bit. I thought both Baradji and Cantwell did some criminally lazy backtracking today, and if Tronstad is not on hand to stop or at least slow down balls like the one that led to their 0-1 I don't know why he's playing.

Seems unnecessary to check the pitch at 3 if you're going to reassess it at 5 anyway.

There’s a case to be made that Mori (needlessly) goes down too easy in that situation and should be cautioned for diving, but then where does the yellow card to the Ipswich player come from? Just a monumental f***kup from the referee regardless of how you see the situation.

I don't think we have any idea about what promises were made or not made during the job interviews. If Ismael was lied to he could have done like Tomasson and Eustace and jumped ship, but you could argue that he's being professional by staying at the club and trying to make the best of a bad situation while JDT and Eustace simply threw their toys out of their prams when things weren't going their way. How much would it have helped us if Ismael walked out on principle when they sold Hyam? I'm not defending the owners or Gestede, but they are who they are and need to be taken into account as such.

Not rocket science. With the current formation we're desperately short of strikers and centre backs, although I'd prefer it if we kept at least some faith in academy players like Pratt rather than signing another Matt Kilgallon or or Paul Downing. We also need someone to challenge and/or deputise for Alebiosu at right back. There are currently about 27 left back in the squad so we could do with losing one or two of those, and the manager clearly has no faith in Gueye which means he should go as well.

Tosh. I assume you take personal responsibility for every failure from other departments at your place of work then? For me the jury is still out on VI, we know he can get the team into a purple patch but it’s not worth much if they follow it up with five straight defeats. I appreciate that he’s not precious about formations or tactics though, he saw that his chosen formation wasn’t effective and switched to one that fit our squad better. A lot of our former managers could learn from that.

Henriksson picked up lots of yellows in Sweden as well, that’s always been a weak part of his game. I’m still partial to his player type and I think he’s showing signs of improvement, he was involved in the buildup for the first goals both today and against Soton. Whether he plays for us when everyone are available I think will depend on what formation we use, but I do see him being of use to us throughout the season.

I'd except Ohashi from that, he always works his socks off and makes clever runs and touches throughout 90 minutes. I respect him as a Rovers player but he's just not enough of a goal threat to lead the line. Grim result yesterday, although I can't remember the last time we beat Sheffiel United anyway. It's tempting to just accept defeat an dream of a fresh start in League 1 without Gestede or Venkys, but I think that's a dangerously optimistic dream of what a relegation would look like.

Considering the absolute villains who buy and sell football clubs now without ever turning up with serious skeletons in their closets during due diligence, it would surprise me if Venkys are uniquely bad in that regard. And as for a managed decline, they’d have to want to avoid something truly terrible to prefer facing the alternative cost of keep bleeding money (not enough for a championship team with any ambition, but surely enough to harm them financially?) into the club for 10 more years. To me, this doesn’t clear occam’s razor. But who the hell knows what goes on with them, truly?

I still don't understand. You refer to obvious reasons why they won't sell and then mention a managed decline, but why? The only thing I can come up with is that they're hell bent on getting their investment back but also not willing to spend money for a promotion push, which leaves them in a catch 22. That doesn't track with a managed decline though. But I'm not an accountant, so if I'm missing something I'm happy to be corrected here?

Brentford on course for about mid-table on current form, despite having a fire sale in the summer. Didn't know Keith Andrews had it in him.

Apart from that they won’t get their money back?

It’s becoming harder and harder to find three teams that might end up behind us when the season’s finished. I can see Derby and Birmingham continue to struggle, but more than us? It’s a stretch. Don’t think sacking Ismael will make much difference barring some miraculous new manager bounce, he’s doing about as much as he can with the players at his disposal. Switching to a 5-3-2 against Coventry was the right call for example, there’s just not enough firepower in the squad to make the formation or tactics matter.

We're going off topic, but no one is suggesting Britain or the rest of the western world are in any way perfect, and we are indeed in many ways profiting off the misery countries like Saudi Arabia inflicts on others. I would love for PL clubs and others to show a minimum amout of backbone and say no to money and sponsorships from them, for example. However, Britain and most other places in the western world are not dictatorships with state sanctioned slave labor, murdered journalists, jailed and tortured dissidents, and women being rightsless wards of their husbands. In these matters it's morally wrong to stay silent and mumble something about getting out own house in order first, and even worse to help these dictatorships clean up their public image by going there and playing football like it's a nation like any other, just because the money's good. By your logic, when is it accpetable to have an opinion on how other nations conduct their bussiness? I assume you would have had a problem with Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany, for example?

I hope he's happy profiting off slave labor, murdered journalists, jailed and tortured dissidents, and women being rightsless wards of their husbands.