The problem is the same as it has been for 10 years. Forget the CEO, the DOF or the Head Coach. This club will never achieve like it is capable under Venkys rule. The longer they’re here, the longer the road back will be.

Just off Dolan, who’s playing as a striker?

I’d play Siggy. Leo Brittain Hill Wharton Pickering Wharton Tronstad Dolan Szmodics Siggy Ennis That would be my team.

I’m confused — are you suggesting we don’t have a player on one of the two wings? As it stands we play 4-2-3-1. If we play 4-3-3 we either have to play Sammie out of position as striker or false 9, or play him on a wing?

A Gold, Green and Bronze system is making my eye twitch, @Herbie6590

I'm going to need you all to be extremely careful about what you post on this subject. As a reminder by creating an account you have taken all liability for your posts and given me permission to share data we have about you with relevant authorities if asked.

Relevant to this thread too

Here’s the reality. If JDT saw his long term future here, he should sure up the defence and adapt the style of play to ensure we navigate ourselves to a 9th (or similar) place finish. He doesn’t have the squad to begin to challenge the top six over a full season, but equally we’re far too good to go down. But the manager doesn’t see his future here, because the promises he was given when he joined “the project” have been broken by Waggott, Pasha and Venkys. His budget has been cut and he’s being asked to adapt his expectations, which he is unwilling to do. So he’s now protecting his reputation. He’s sticking to an appealing playing style and is happy to lose games as long as the media talks about “great style of football”, “fantastic attacking movement” and the like. Why? Because when clubs with budget and ambition sack their managers, he’s going to be right at the top of most shortlists for the top of the Championship, bottom of the Premier League and across European leagues. Because they’ll see he created positive, entertaining football with a terrible squad. And Rovers can’t do anything about it. Waggott can’t sack him for results, because everyone knows who is to blame - Waggott, Venkys and Pasha. JDT has the management over a barrel because he’s made it absolutely clear across the media that he wasn’t given what he was promised and isn’t happy. What happens next? The season carries on exactly as is. We’ll beat teams like Cardiff 5-3 and get smashed by the better teams in the league. They won’t back him in January, not only because of their own geo political issues but also because it’s clear he’s no long term future here. The tension will build until JDT decides his time here is done.

Sizing is hugely inconsistent.

Funny story, I was once given non-paid work experience at CreaTV who controlled (at the time) anything video related to do with the club. I had assumed, given I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, that I would just be watching people do their job. I was wrong. They put me in charge of the big screen, with what felt like a 10 second demonstration, then walked out the room. I predictably fucked everything up - two things were playing at once, videos playing without sound, the screen was changing every couple of seconds. Nobody ever got back to my emails.

Good to see you, Abbey.

He should be offering free tickets throughout the stadium, not closing stands if he’s only selling 1,500 tickets. Every school, church, mosque, sports club and youth zone within 10 miles should have the offer for unlimited free tickets. I dislike this man more and more as days go by. Lacking in ambition, lacking in awareness, a glorified credit controller that doesn’t dare rock the boat. Exactly the type of person I actively avoid hiring.

I legged it from this photo because I knew this post would come back to bite me one day!

Happy Arnor day.

@StubbsUK what is this?!

https://fb.watch/m-9tYT-MCg/ Looks bad. Hope people are safe and it doesn’t effect too many jobs.

Here's my opinion - which of course, is all fairytale, hearsay and speculation. This issue in itself is part of an ongoing biggue issue Venkys have with the Indian Government (has there been a change in Government recently? Or is there an election coming up which the current party needs to get people on board for?), like all big business it revolves around money. The house buy in the UK has some question marks against it and they're being investigated. Like all good accountants, they're working the system into their favour. This issue with the Government isn't just about the house, it involves them in other departments too. This is linked to the budget cut this season i.e. "We're not just going to pay you extra because you ask for it" and not just rolling over when sanctions which effect them economically are brought against them. The house purchase, from what I can see equates to less than 1% of Madame Desai's personal wealth, never mind the full family. The valuation of the Venky's brand/business is much harder to actually work out.

A good article but my main takeaway is that none of you can complain about the minor ads on BRFCS.

It's done through a subscription service - they should update it over time. We have flagged the Adam Wharton one a few times, disappointing they haven't updated it yet.

Yes I agree, a small squad has been made smaller by one (-1 defender, -1 midfielder, +1 striker).

Trying to do this in context, so I'm based this off.. Transfers Out Thomas Kaminski Ashley Phillips Ben Brereton Diaz Bradley Dack John Buckley Daniel Ayala Jack Vale Tyler Morton Dan Butterworth Tayo Edun James Brown Clinton Mola In red I've put players who played an active part in our season. I make that eight first team players out, two squad players out and two players that made no impact (where on loan) out. So I'll base it on ten squad players leaving. Transfers In Leopold Wahlstedt Sondre Tonstad Niall Ennis Semir Telalovic Arnor Sigurdsson James Hill Andy Moran All of which assumed to be squad players at least. Therefore I'm basing my assessment on losing ten squad players and gaining eight squad players - a -2 deficit. 1) Kaminski - Wahlstedt: Hard to judge any success yet, but exactly what the 'system' is about so in principle a good signing. 2) Phillips - Hill: Replaced one promising youngster with another, although we don't own this one. It sounds like we got the best deal we could for Phillips, so no qualms there. A shame we haven't replaced with a perm signing, but Hill could easily be as effective as Phillips was for us. A good signing in principle, but unfortunately a short term signing. 3) Brereton - Sigurdsson: In principle Arnor has a better worldwide reputation and we've done well to sign him. There's some confusion as to whether we're going to get Arnor perm after his 12-month deal. If we do, in principle this is could well be a good signing. If he leaves next year then we've not managed to replace our best player. 4) Dack - Moran: Replaced an experienced player on a big salary that has had injury issues with a highly rated loan for 12-months. A good short term answer, but I can't see a world where we sign Moran so this will need filling again next year. 5) Buckley - Tronstad: Tronstad has good pedigree, but hasn't shown much yet. Buckley is a different player than Sondre, so this signing seems to be a change of direction. I'm not convinced as yet. 6) Ayala - Not Replaced: A huge hole in our squad. Whilst Ayala had injury issues, the defence is lacking in experience and we're already seeing lack of depth in this area becoming and issue. A bad decision. 7) Vale - Telalovic: An unknown player replaces a player which I don't think is anywhere near good enough. Hopefully this was cheap. Not a bad decision based on the fact that Vale wasn't good enough to start with. 8 ) Morton - Not Replaced: Would in principle be fine if we had kept Buckley, despite Morton not setting the world on fire we've essentially replaced two 'creative' central midfielders with one 'defensive' midfielder in Tronstad. A worry I'm sure we would all agree. 9) Ennis: We needed more strikers and Ennis comes in to fill that gap. In principle a good signing, he was Plymouth's best player when fit and comes on a free. His injury record is a concern especially considering his start here. In principle I make that a 6/10 window. I think we've signed some decent players, although there's a lot of short term thinking - which makes sense given the owners financial issues. The biggest issue is we're at least two key players down (Ayala, Morton) although we're one up as a striker (Ennis) and three of the players (Sigurdsson, Moran and Hill) are potentially short term.

It’s worse than that - Buckley sent out on loan because we had to lose someone to get someone else in, we confirmed the Buckley deal and NOT the other player.

And I’d have similar hopes for him as I do the one we have signed! I don’t mind the signing, I hope he does well. My frustration is with people who suddenly think all our goal scoring problems have been answered despite never seeing him play and having nothing to compare him against.

The only thing from your first paragraph which actually reflects my post is the last five words. The rest of it I didn’t say.

I do get the point, I just don’t agree with it. For the avoidance of any doubt, despite his limited technical ability at this level I rate Travis because I think what he does bring to the team is desperately needed.