Commondore

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.

This has pretty much been his tenure in a nutshell. To be fair, he was given a brief to play attacking football after the usual Swedish approach of hard teamwork and defense had grown very stale, and we've produced a lot of attacking talent in the last few years while there's been a dearth of defenders and defensive midfielders. Still, the result of JDT's tactics have been that those not very good defenders have been badly exposed without the support of the players who are roving forward.

Fair enough. I just find it annoying when, of everything there is to be angry about, people are upset at the prospect of a player being sold, especially someone we've brought in from an obscure league mainly to make a profit on him in the future!

As opposed to playing his whole career with Rovers?

Looking at the statistics, Kargbo was an impact sub in the Serie B and I’d be surprised if he moves beyond that status in the Championship.

I’ll eat my hat if the LT weren’t already under strict instructions from the club leadership to not put Rovers in any kind of negative light, but this is a new low.

I think Buckley is easier to like for a particular sort of person (including me) in that he's not a typical modern footballer. He's unpredictable, highly talented and skilled in a way that you often have a hard time wrapping your head around, but also uneven and seemingly a bit lazy or dispassionate. Modern football is becoming more and more uniform by the year with players seeming more and more like robots, and Buckley stood against that.

I just got caught up on the rumors about Gestede bullying staff and demanding a woman employee "cover her arms". Unbelievable nerve from that deeply mediocre journeyman footballer to think he's cock of the walk just because he fell ass backwards into a corporate position with some small amount of power over others. If it's true he should be sacked immediately.

Of the players we've lost it's only Brittain and possibly Dolan that I feel are very tricky to find solid replacements for, but more or less having a fire sale from our starting 11 of last season to teams in the same division is seriously bad news. I feel like this season and the club as a whole can go south very quickly.

Seems a likely explanation.

Permanent purchase option must mean Rovers don’t believe in him much. Too bad, this would have been an interesting test of his ability otherwise.

2 goals in 3 games, all created after some calamity in the box from a long throw or corner. Nothing wrong with those, but we need to create goals from open play. Cantwell is one of very few in the squad who’s able to do that, Ismael getting a tune out of him is probably his main achievement as a manager for us so far.

Definitely seems like he’s under orders to not upset anyone at the club in order to retain access.

It was never in doubt how good he is at pressing and helping out his full back, it’s just that he’s near useless once we go behind.

Pears would have let in at least one more of their chances, possibly two. I don’t think it was a penalty, but a free kick just outside their penalty area and possibly a red card. I think we missed Cantwell, and dare I say it Buckley.

With all this endless back and forth over Baradji, it would be kind of funny if we did finally sign him and he turned out to be absolutely mediocre.

Championship winner: Soton Runner-up: Ipswich Semi-finalists: Sheffield United, Norwich, Leicester, WBA Relegated: Wednesday, Oxford, Hull Rovers finish: 16th First manager to go: Jakirovic, Hull PL winners: City Wild card: A former Rover comes out as a Trump supporter, dividing the fan base.