"Ryan isn't feeling confident, he said something about a manager who doesn't have much faith in him lingering with the Sword of Damocles over his head, in the prospect of being dropped at any time, for no clear reason, in favour of Captain Fistpump. I dunno, I wasn't really listening because Benno's balls were slapping my chin and his shaft tickling my tonsils. But I decided to boost Ryan's confidence and reassure him by dropping him for no clear reason in favour of Captain Fistpump. See? He had no need to worry that this could happen at any time, it's happened now. 3 million please, anybody listening, but we'll take 1."

He signed a new contract last season. It was insultingly short. It expires again summer 2021 I believe, if there's no hidden extension.

Or with whoever they actually want as their number 2.

Ooh exciting times!

In fairness though I never normally would accuse Bennett of it. Maybe his legs are going. If that happens he's entirely useless instead of just a sub-par liability.

The only reason I never mentioned it was the replays didn't show his movement during the goal buildup (or if any did I was looking for something else at the time). But that video shows clearly what I suspected from what I could see, that Bennett wasn't working hard enough to get back into position and get his man during a clearly dangerous attack. Especially frustrating as I've always said working hard is the one thing you can expect from him. I'm so sick of seeing this lad start games when he isn't earning it.

And the potential corona hole for next season. I kinda suspect that that one will dictate the FUP relaxation more in a way. They don't know how long the problems will run on for and this makes it difficult for clubs to set their budgets accordingly for staying out of FUP. Otherwise the sensible thing to do would just be to take the largest estimated loss by a club due to covid, add a little bit, and add that to what every club can lose before the penalties hit. And I'd expect it to have been done by now, so clubs know the rules and can go about their business. The fact the issues could be ongoing means it makes more sense to kick the whole thing down the road until the picture is clearer.

Think you're right that it was Millwall. It certainly wasn't long after if not. Thing is, TM can turn to them and say 'I got us promoted, I consolidated, I'll probably get us more points this year than last' and has years of personally dealing with them. They're clearly comfortable with him and that means it will take a lot more than it took for Appleton, Berg et al to get the boot. Especially as you say with his mate at the helm. They don't know enough about football to see the telltale signs we all see of a manager who won't be able to take us to the next level, will stagnate and eventually go backwards. It seems from history that as a Rovers manager your job is most on the line in the early days. They almost broke club records (or maybe did?) in binning off Berg and Appleton. Coyle was in his first season and what was it, about 6 months in when he got canned? Meanwhile, Kean survived intense fan fury, a close scrape with relegation then an actual relegation before he wasn't even fired, but walked. Because he was the one they had faith in. They liked the cut of his smarmy jib because he visited them frequently, kowtowed, etc. Bowyer lasted ages once he was well in with them too. I wonder if he started to complain once Cairney was sold from under him at a stupidly low fee. TM is the next one to have survived the inaugural pressure stage and is now on easy street if he doesn't put us in a relegation fight or stop paying them the 'proper respect'.

I get that, I'm not 100% sure it hasn't been said in public too, but I can't recall it. It's definitely not been his main excuse, he has mostly talked about not knowing his budget. Which tbf, what can you do about that (without a time machine to un-buy BB and SG)? Someone really needs to get insistent with Venkys that their late budgets are hamstringing the club, and if they want to get the best value for their investments they need to just schedule the decision a bit earlier in the year. But we know people who get insistent with Venkys don't last long.

Yeh he's given us a good year and I thank him for it. I was worried it was going to be a waste of money. But he is showing signs of starting to dip that little bit, and I wouldn't be at all comfortable keeping him for another year on his current wages, which I think I read at the time were some 20k a week or so? At his age it's increasingly likely he will lose it at some point next season. With a significant wage drop I'd take him for another year. Like 5-8k per week, maybe, if the budget allows. But I can't see his agent agreeing to that.

I can't lie, I was considering posting something very similar and sarcasm-laden, for this game. But I thought I'd be an optimist and wait til it really wasn't possible. One of the cut-outs is Dr Who. I hope he's here to fix the timeline.

Did you just ask about consequences, for failure, at our club? I know I've seen you post on here before but that almost makes it sound like you're a fan of another club, who is lost

Except for the excuse of not knowing his budget, which is the only excuse he has used. I'm fairly sure it's only people on here who have excused the apparent lethargy on account of the notion that we didn't know which league we were going to be in.

Let's have it right. That same one is the club captain, an experienced professional who at 31 has learnt pretty much all he is going to learn about footy and yet is still young enough that his engine seems fine. We have seen him give his all but fail at being good enough for most of two full seasons now. Yet we still have to watch him constantly. The other one is a young player with a handful of appearances being played not only in the wrong position but the wrong side of the pitch so that Benno doesn't have to get as embarrassed there. He has years and years to improve, good reviews from all the youth games we haven't seen and isn't an automatic pick every game irrespective of his form. He also nearly scored a decent equaliser at the death. He has also had a few people criticise him today. Yeh I'm comfortable with cutting JRC more slack for now.

There is a game on Saturday at 3pm. We are in it. Reading are also in it. This is an absolute must-play game. It's crucial that we play this game. For Reading also, it's extremely important that they play this game. Mid-table mediocrity bragging rights are on the line. If we don't field a team that can play this game, we will have no chance of achieving our dream of fulfilling our fixture list. The stakes are now very real. I'm hoping we can field a team that definitely includes Bennett. This hope is the best way to make sure I'm not disappointed. It might be best if he plays in goal, as I think it's the only position he hasn't been crammed into, with Walton as a false 9. I expect Tony to field a never-before-seen formation so that we can have a talking point. With the playoffs and relegation no longer on the cards, we should probably try out more of the youngsters and players with a future who need to keep developing. So the out-of-contractors and the loanees will definitely play in our 2-6-1-1 formation, with 6 CMs, Gally RW, no LW and Walton as the false 9. I can't emphasise strongly enough how excited I am that we are in with a great chance to play this game. Anything less than 0 points is just unacceptable.

Just tryna fit in with the rest of the lads so he can start the next game...

No matter how you rate them though, they do have a chance if they beat us. Which is more than can be said for us, yeh.

Rothwell starting like he left off last game. That version of Rothwell is a menace and may give us a half chance here.

Very poor half, though I don't really need to tell anyone that. Not at all surprised to see the possession stats are heavily in our favour whilst we are losing again. I'll do another statistical analysis of that at some point if I can be arsed, like the one I did back in November or whenever it was that clearly showed we do worse when we control possession like Tony wants. I suspect the picture won't have changed.

How have they got no chance when they could be in 6th by the end of tonight with just two games left? Yes they're worse than the other playoff sides, but the playoffs are a lottery.

Yeh as soon as I heard how poor they've been at home, I knew we were in trouble. We are very reliable for ending your bad run (or your good one to be fair) and always have been in my time following.

That sounds more like punishment than compensation.

But...how could such a thing happen?

Nope. But you've probably still got the email or whatever with it?

Fucking farcical that Nyambe has been benched so his useless pet Bennett can play again. Pathetic. I thought he'd finally stopped making that particular mistake!