Gamst

Wonder whether they are considering/are even aware of Jimmy Thelin who is out of work. Did amazing initially with Aberdeen including winning silverware and then it all seemed to fall apart.

He left us for a club in the relegation zone whilst we were in the playoffs. Modest investment and contracts for players who deserved contracts is all that was required. I'm confident that we would be in promotion contention again if he had stuck around. His decision has been completely vindicated though and good luck to him. He saw that joining a team with a bit of ambition was far better than sticking around at a club who are doing well but lack any leadership or credibility.

That's not what I was saying. I fully agree with him being sacked and his record deserves this outcome. My concern is that they didn't sack him based on results like at normal clubs. I suspect there was some bust up regarding transfers which resulted in him going whether he walked or Rudy felt undermined and sacked him. The timing was all v rapid. It came out of nowhere and Nicko who is clearly well connected didn't seem to think he was under threat until about 10 mins before the announcement. We are obviously not a normal club but surely if it was solely about results he would have been sacked on Saturday night so the focus could shift for a couple of days on finding new signings that might be wanted by the next manager.

No. Why would I have forgotten this? Confused.

Big Val was pretty useless but I'm even more concerned about his replacement. For a few hours I was delighted that the board had taken assertive action...maybe they do care after all?? It then became clear that this was about our inability/unwillingness to sign a striker that we so desperately need and he clearly just left as we never sack a manager. Absolutely no manager with any credibility or self-respect will take this job. I thought Val was maybe the bottom of the barrel, but I suspect he left (like those before him) due to not being adequately supported in the transfer market. This is a man who was happy enough to accept a restrictive wage structure that meant all his best players were going to leave and was happy to support sub-standard cheap European replacements. Obviously this month's transfer dealings are even too poor for Val to accept. I think it's quite possible that we just get relegated now without barely a whimper.

So time for the traditional 6 monthly question - Any free agents out there willing to pay as you play? What’s Kuqi up to nowadays?

Currently I’d say despite wanting strikers in urgently on New Year’s Day we are maybe slightly worse off than we were at the start of the window when it comes to striking options. Gueye is absolutely rubbish but at least we had the option of a target man with him. We are crying out for this kind of a player, but my suspicion is that even the mediocre ones want paying more that we are willing to pay.

If the club insist on keeping Val and Val insists on his formation then surely we need a LWB tomorrow. A late prem loan where we pay 4% of the salary in exchange for guaranteed game time would suit Pasha and Rudy!

Makes even less sense than not playing him when we had no fit strikers. An eager Labrador would have been more effective than Henricksson.

I do think the single biggest impediment to our on field successes has been Pasha's alleged self imposed wage cap. I seem to recall him being quoted as saying we should 'wash our own face/arse' or some similar nonsense. Events since have strongly supported this wage cap existing. It presumably resulted in us being unable to tie down our better and more experienced players to new contracts. This had the knock on effect of upsetting Eustace who wanted to reward his charges. It has also meant the we have been restricted to buying replacement players from obscure European leagues where the wages are lower. I suspect Pasha and Rudy saw themselves as geniuses thinking they could beat the system find worldy players for pennies. It turns out this tactic is nothing but self-destructive and the majority of fans who called them out on this have been vindicated.

Yes apparently this season is 'complicated' according to Val. I think you've summarised the situation pretty succinctly here.

I suppose if we have any real hopes of remaining in this league then we have to roll the dice and sack the manager now. It's not going well for Val and it doesn't look like that's about to change anytime soon. Maybe there's no manager on earth who could save this ragtag bunch, but we may as well try. If we wait any longer we could be cut adrift at which point it will be too late. Unfortunately, I suspect saving some money on Val's severance payout is more of a priority than anything on the pitch.

Val has basically told us that the current available team can't compete at this level (I agree with him, but it's probably not the most encouraging thing for the players to hear!). Seeing as the transfer window is open, the fact we are not desperately trying to bring a couple of players in who can play on Saturday suggests we are basically throwing this match and the next few until some players are back. Makes you wonder how bothered they are about whether we get relegated or not.

This is supposedly a project. The reality is that it's a project to reduce costs for our billionaire owners and the club is being destroyed in the process. We are supposed to believe that they are signing younger, fitter and more dynamic players supposedly signed after close inspection of their performance data. VI is aligned with this and claims the squad is stronger than last season when we missed out on the playoffs by 1 point! It's all absolute nonsense! We have sold the heart of the team and we are left with young players and unproven cheap foreign imports. Mostly they try hard but they are not good enough and there is almost no leadership anywhere on the pitch. The fans knew this project would fail as it's clearly a recipe for disaster, but as usual we are treated with contempt. The cap on salaries below the going rate is what's killing us mostly as we will not pay our better players what they deserve and it turns out most of the players who command a L1 wage are of L1 standard. Whenever the main objective is to reduce costs failure will ultimately be the outcome. Our best hope of survival is hiring a pragmatist manager like Rowett who will drill the players to play basic no nonsense football and scrape together the points needed. When you consider the the last manager of that ilk (Eustace) was not supported because he stood up for his players who were not being given new contracts, the chances of their being anyone in our ranks who has the wisdom to see this is highly unlikely. Im not even sure Rowett would be willing to take the Job. We are toast.

Good job our away form is good….

I think he could so with a loan spell in League 1 until the end of the season. There might be a player in there somewhere. His record in Sweden was decent albeit its a lower standard. Currently he is shot of confidence and being played in a position he's completely unsuitable for. His effort is always excellent so he deserves a chance and I think dropping down a division could be his best bet.

It's fair to say we are in a right pickle.

Val is the least of our problems, but we may as well throw the dice and get rid now. A pragmatist like Rowett would give us the best chance of survival now. Having said that, there doesn't appear to be the slightest pressure on the manager as we are not a normal/functioning club.

I didn't expect to win today, but our best hope was frustrating Ipswich and getting a 0-0. Cashin literally ruined any chance of that happening 3 mins into his league debut. What I'm most annoyed about today is why Cashin or Maclaughlin started ahead of O'Riordan who was excellent away at Hull City. If we are contractually obliged to play Cashin at the expense of our own young players then we deserve everything we get.

It would take some kind of miracle for us to win this looking at the two matchday squads. It’s a shame as we deserve some revenge for the misfortune we’ve had against them this season. I just can’t see this team having a chance. I think with Alebiosu, Andri and Mori added to the squad soon along with the new players (hopefully more to come too) then there is some hope, but today looks like a big ask.

I had no idea the other Messageboard existed! It's a shame that posters over there don't feel comfortable posting their different views over here. I think we need to ensure that we are respectful of other views. I wonder whether sometimes people mistake someone disagreeing with them in a measured polite way as being offensive because they don't like being questioned, but personal insults etc are not really acceptable. I am concerned at how divided the fanbase is as this greatly reduces the impact of any protests and I obviously feel we need to do everything we can to rid ourselves of these horrendous owners. I do understand the opposing view and respect it though. I can see where they are coming from that they pay the bills etc but I just feel we are eroding as a club under their neglectful (albeit they do the bare minimum) ownership and I cannot see this trend being reversed whilst they are in charge. You only have to attend Ewood and witness the general malaise of the fans and the progressive dereliction of the facilities to see this. I read a post over there about fans being 'entitled' who want the owners out....this might be the case for some, but personally I would take a relatively poor owner who is engaged and L2 football than the current footballing purgatory we find ourselves in. If wanting owners who care and the return of a passionate fanbase regardless of the league we are in is entitled then I'm guilty. The other fairly annoying comment I read was about members on this Messageboard being 'lefty liberals' and not allowing free speech. I wonder how welcomed my comments would be if I signed up and defended migrants in the 'migrant watch' thread. Free speech works both ways.

Well the Donnum article has mysteriously disappeared from the LET website...

I had the great misfortune of attending today. Easily the worst match I've ever seen. Huge positives were the young defenders who looked top class up against experienced pros like Millar and McBurnie. Cashin was decent and Toth looked his usual calm self but didn't really have a great deal to do. Doherty did well and looks to have a bit of pace. Offensively we were clueless really. Could have played until midnight and not scored. Complete lack of any talent on the pitch was stark. Really depressing to see how far we have fallen. Baradji was a slight improvement when he came on but we still created nothing. Henriksson was really poor but did actually improve a little as the game went on. I thought the effort generally was really good but that almost makes it worse as I cannot see how they could do much more. They're just not good enough and we won't pay the wages needed to recruit the players we need.

If you don’t pay championship wages the inevitable outcome is relegation. Whether that’s this season or somewhere down the line. If we survive this season which is quite possible then we will be without even more senior pros next year (Tronstad, Hedges, Cantwell, Pickering) and we will need to sell promising players like Alebiosu and Toth as they will want more money to sign a new contract and we won’t want to lose them for a free transfer. Once again we will need to find 10 + unknown players from overseas to fill the gaps. They will have no championship experience because any player with any experience will want a higher salary. This model is flawed and the only logical endpoint is relegation. This is so obvious that you would need to assume that relegation and a league 1 team with smaller costs is the objective. So once again you have to ask the question why the hell do they bother??

Sunday update from Nicko…we are supposedly making a profit on Gueye and we have money to spend on attackers. The issue seemingly is that we are reluctant to pay them.