We need a response like we had at Leeds last season after the Bristol City thrashing. Losing games and bad performances happen. The way a team responds is far more telling.

Draw your away games and win at home. Ugly display but an away point.

Was expecting an underwhelming draw/defeat yesterday after some moderate excitement about recent performances and signings. How wrong I was! You will seldom see a more comfortable win! The big difference between this season and our good JDT starts is the strength in depth we suddenly have. On a shoestring, the recruitment team has performed miracles. I’m also encouraged by our new found ability to score late goals and come from behind to gain points. I hope this marks a change in our collective mental fortitude. I’ve felt for years under TM and JDT that we were mentally fragile and would always stutter when the pressure was raised. You don’t get that feeling about this team and Eustace…..Might be an interesting season!

It’s the law. You can’t force someone to come to work if they don’t want to and you can’t say no if they want to quit. It’s not a gulag.

The story that has been reported is that he offered to walk away for free though. Maybe the story is rubbish and I’m not sure where it came from. I’m sure this seldom happens in reality but he could walk away for free if he felt it was the best thing for the club. As I say, he’s not a fan and has every right to put himself first so I understand why he wouldn’t do this.

Not according to ACAS “You cannot reject an employee's resignation. However, a conversation might help you find out if there are problems that can be resolved. This might be enough for the employee to choose to stay”

Can an employer actually do this though? There’s more to this than meets the eye. It’s his right to resign surely?

He downed tools as he clearly wanted sacking and his ambivalence filtered down to the team. He should have just resigned if he was unhappy but instead it dragged on to the detriment of the club and by the time he finally left we were completely broken. I’m sure they would have accepted his resignation once things turned sour. I don’t blame him for this as he’s not a fan of the club and has every right to look after his own personal interests. Of course the ultimate blame lies with our ridiculous owners/Waggot. JDT is an excellent coach and was let down terribly.

I don’t feel Eustace gets the credit he deserves for keeping Rovers in the championship last season. He touched on what a huge challenge it was in his post match interview. He inherited a team that were almost totally devoid of any confidence. People forget just how awful we looked in Dec/Jan time after JDT had essentially downed tools. Picking up that group and generating a team spirit again must have been a huge task. He appreciated that the only way we were going to survive was by scraping together unspectacular draws. Anything more expansive would probably not have worked. Whether by design or luck, Waggot might just have stumbled upon a gem of a manager!

I’m hoping they make T-shirts, prints etc commemorating the Weimann strike like they did for the Manuel Benson goal! A thing of incredible beauty!

Proud.

It would be nice if they could announce it soon.

I wonder whether there is any chance we could loan Stansfield at the last minute? Fulham obviously don’t want to sell but I’m guessing they consider him playing regularly in the Championship to be better than sitting on the bench every week. With the links to Eustace I wonder if we would be a convenient destination for him?

Nicko reporting an interest in loaning Harrison Ashby RB from Newcastle.

I think you might be right. If our objective is championship stability, then the logical decision would be to shelve the Cantwell transfer and spend the money on a proven goalkeeper. The importance of a good keeper trumps all the other deals in my view. De Lange was the keeper who the recruitment team identified. He had excellent pedigree and sell on potential and if you believe the journos he was keen to come to us. Of course we scrimped and saved and Marseille swooped in to sign him. This has really cost us and is the latest in a growing line of recruitment F*** ups.

Late goals and substitutes scoring. This hasn’t happened for a long while!

Stansfield would make perfect financial sense if £6mill is the actual asking price. A good season and his value skyrockets as a young English forward player. A very prudent way of reinvesting the Szmodics money. Whether we have the sense to see this is another matter.

When it comes to outgoings our fax machine is one of the most reliable out there!

If we somehow keep Sammie then we know we have a top quality player on our hands. Possibly the best player in the Championship. The small amount we would reinvest from his sale would likely be spent on unproven players. I think I would happily only sign loan players from here on in if it meant we kept Sammie. If this means we can’t spend money on a Keeper then I would hope our previous dealings with Brighton would mean we had a chance of signing Rushworth.

Google suggests Pipe Sierra who broke the Puerta story was the first to link Diaz to Liverpool so he may well have his finger on the pulse when it comes to Colombian players. It seems too random for there to be no truth in it. Actually securing a deal like this is another matter, but that would be an unbelievable signing!!

Surely the value of something that is being sold is controlled by the seller as they either ultimately decide the price. You could offer me £50 for my car and if nobody else bids and I refuse to sell it to you, it doesn’t mean it’s worth £50.

If that’s truly the case then there may be time to change his mind if we stump up the money (we won’t).

There was consensus that this signing would be a game changer when it comes to our ambitions for the coming season. Absolutely criminal from Waggot et al.

Sounds like the lad wanted to come initially but we dragged our feet over a few hundred K and a better offer came in. I really thought the asking price was very reasonable. He’s going to a good club and it shows he is probably very decent if Marseille are interested. You’d think if you are in a position where a player you really rate is willing to sign and they are not far apart on the asking price, then you move heaven and earth to get it over the line. If the player is actually decent then a bigger team will always come in. Complete mismanagement as usual.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we are looking at Karamoko Dembele. It would make a lot more sense than signing his brother Siriki given his potential resale value and likely lower wage demands. He is rapid and we are crying out for some pace!