It got us closer to the playoffs than ever before. It wasn't the style, it was the constant undermining and budget slashing from above. In terms of the manager's failing, it was a lack of a plan B.

I've nothing against GB but I'm not giving him credit for such a bland appointment (unless it works) just because it was quick.

I just think it's a very sad state of affairs that fans are reduced to worrying we won't get bog-standard John Eustace in the hotseat. I'm finding it really hard to stay invested these days. Every time optimism grows for a new dawn, Venkys find some way to fuck everything all to shit again. That's no way to follow a club, feeling like any hope you get is pointless because a fresh shafting is just around the corner. Wow, we're playing attractive football and 2nd in the league, it's happening! Oh wait, here's a godawful and embarrasing January window to ruin it. Oh, we still only missed out by a gnat's hair on the playoffs! I'm sure next season we ca- oh we've sold our best goalkeeper, replaced him with a dogshit one, sold a massively promising young CB for well below what we should, and reinvested very little of it. Ok cool. Well maybe the January window can get us back on track, keep the manager onboard and reverse our form. We also have this absolutely prodigal talent in our midfield, a Rovers fan too! We will probably get at least another year out of him and then maybe up to 30 million we can strengthen the squad with - oh fuck nevermind. We've sold him for a little over half that, and reinvested fuck all from a club record fee so that we can help out the owners, pissed the manager off enough to leave, and now we're worrying about whether a guy with a brief and very middling record joining. (I wrote all this before the appointment, I just didn't get to posting it)

Eustace isn't remotely in the same ballpark as Warnock.

Eustace will be a very uninspiring appointment. And that's very unsurprising too.

Yeh I think I'll ignore Nixon's opinion of other options being better, if he's even heard names. Didn't he say Kean was a 'gem'?

I actually got most of these right...I think it was just the waterfall one I got wrong. But no doubt I had to think about a few and they could have easily been attributed the other way. That simply shouldn't be the case. Joke of a CEO.

If this (or anything else we've heard about docs not being submitted) is true, the appeal is utterly pointless, beyond the obvious advantage of conning a portion of the fanbase into believing they 'did everything we could'. The club surely know this. Last year I think there was a case for the league being overzealous. The paperwork was submitted in time, the league took a bit of time getting back to us to point out the errors, which were minor, then they were resubmitted what was it, a couple of minutes after the full deadline? I think you can make a case, albeit one we lost. What case are you supposed to make out of 'we're thick as fuck, learnt nothing from last year, didn't send the docs in time at all and don't know the difference between save and send'? When they lose they'd better not waste club money on dragging this embarrassment out for longer again.

The rules don't allow that I believe.

Feels like the first team would probably lose to a side from the moon right now. And nobody lives there.

History has shown that the fans don't really matter to Venkys. It'll take more than an angry fanbase to get shut of them.

I disagree, I think it would be much worse if the same exact issues had occurred a year after being told they'd be sorted. At least if it's something different, it may have escaped the review. I would guess it's something to do with the added complications of the weird MLS system. I don't think the club has ever bought a player from the MLS before? Nelsen was a free agent. I'm not excusing it btw, we have followed this player for a long time and all the necessary homework about how to deal with that league should have been done. Just saying I don't think it's worse that it's a different problem to last year.

Before everyone runs with this interpretation (as this board frequently does, demonstrated by the 'nice food' myth from last year's saga), this Tweet does NOT say that not all documents were submitted. It may be implying that, it may not, but it doesn't explicitly state that some documents were missing. It's still quite vague. The club need to come out and comment on this, they're simply compounding the problem by staying silent. Especially since they already announced his signing.

Aye I know, I was being optimistic!

Anybody else looking forward to Rory Finneran helping to pay for Venkys' next set of cutbacks?

That's impressive if he even botched up for a goal.

And you don't think the ridiculous working conditions and budget-fuckery from Pune might be impeding the work of such staff here and making them look like bigger chancers than they are?

Nah we cocked up Ethan Brierley too, that wouldn't have been an expensive deal.

17/1 on Bet 365 for some reason. They must like losing money.

Love the credits, especially 'Confused Person' and 'Snowball Artist'!

Ayari, Moran, Gallagher, Telalovic. As that list shows, playing in the Prem is no guarantee of quality. The Champions League is also definitely one of the elite competitions in Europe, it definitely counts as top level experience. It doesn't matter if somebody came from the Prem if their body isn't up to it anymore, especially if they're not match fit. Danny Murphy and Etuhu had played tons of games in the Prem and they were dogshit in our midfield at this level. Adam Wharton had never played a Prem game but he was worth 18 million.

I'd be very surprised if Fleck is up to speed with any system. He has played 89 minutes all season, and the last of those was on 6th December. He hadn't even sat a bench in a month and a half. Suffered a broken leg for the second time in the summer. Doubt he will play much, or impress much when he does. Don't think you can say he has played at a higher level than anyone else either, unless he has scored in the Champions League in a win over Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.

And get sued? He doesn't owe us that.

Yes, now. The half time boos clearly didn't invigorate us...

Agree. I'm not a fan of his but I call it as I see it and he's had a pretty good game. Very harsh he will end up with an OG in the record books for something that wasn't his fault.