Rotherham yet to win away this season. What could possibly go wrong? 😉

For a minute I thought you meant the singer, rather than one of our more bizarre, pointless signings 😂

You could also imagine yourself as Chris Brown, if you wanted to wear it 😉

I think the flat track bullies may ride this afternoon, leading to the optimists / fantasists waxing lyrical about a play off push this evening 😉

Final reply, as we're going round in circles. Of course we want to develop our own young players, but other than freak intakes, (eg Man United in 1992), it's totally unrealistic to expect every academy player to make the grade, and probably a passport to League One. It has to be a realistic blend of academy players and players bought in. We have lost fourteen out of twenty five games this season, (half of them at home), and our record of recovering from losing positions is pathetic, as is our defensive record. If that doesn't constitute a soft touch, I don't know what does.

Having a Category 1 academy is great, but becoming obsessed with developing young players at the expense of ambition is not. For several years the narrative has been “jam tomorrow “ , but tomorrow never comes. We are a soft touch, as our home form clearly illustrates. A 20 year old full back on loan from Brentford and a young centre back from Crewe are unlikely to change that.

Yes, his FIRST interview. Clearly, the landscape changed last Summer, which JDT has alluded to several times in more recent interviews.

Thank you official club spokesperson. Wheeling and dealing involves the buying and selling of players, including astute free / low money transfers. We are on a puritanical youth quest, led by iffy DOF, gunner Broughton.

You really should be on the payroll at Rovers. More spin than a Shane Warne googly. No - one is saying that JDT doesn’t like working and developing young players. However, that isn’t the be all and end all, and it is blatantly obvious that JDT is not happy with the “change of project”, and the fact the club do not match his ambitions.

Correction - that is the market we are choosing to be in because of "the model". Send your players to the Ewood development scheme. Unlikely to be a great help to us short term, and then he goes back to the parent club. This is where a more savvy, orthodox set up, ie a canny manager, would wheel and deal in the market. How much did Luton spend last season, and yet they weren't obsessed with player development.

JDT is more ambitious, but is playing along with the "developing young players" narrative, because his only other option is to resign.

A 20 year old on loan. That sounds silly enough for us alright.

When his name came up last time around, a Norwegian journalist said he and Broughton barely spoke to each other.

I can’t see on the list being an improvement on what we have. They will be younger managers or coaches.

The only way we would end up with the likes of Rowett is if Broughton leaves. Wouldn’t want Rowett, and the DOF model makes a young coach more likely. Given our circumstances (skint) that might not end well.

I guess we would only find out if someone else took over.

I think anyone would struggle under the current circumstances. The die has been cast for the season, and I can’t see the owners changing course anytime soon. That means more of the same in the January Window, (eg the young Crewe defender), and we just have to hope things improve on the injury front. That would at least mean a stronger bench, and that is so important in modern football. The folly of “the project” is being exposed. If you’re skint you need a manager with good connections to keep you competitive. We have Broughton drip feeding a head coach with hopeful punts.

JDT isn’t perfect, and I don’t think a head coach is the right fit for our circumstances in any case. However, I think it’s remarkable that it’s taken this long for the wheels to come off this season, and that’s to his credit. The squad has a relegation look about it. It’s too young and weak, mentally and physically.

I'd happily take him, but this is the point. Warnock is an old school MANAGER. There is no chance we would go for him as head coach, and no chance he would come in that capacity.

We do not have a manager. We have a head coach who selects players bought by a very iffy director of football. There is a big difference.

A lot of people seem to overlook the fact that we don’t have a manager. Even if JDT leaves or is sacked (no chance), whoever comes in has to cope with the same ridiculous set of circumstances and is essentially Broughton’s underling. We are not going to attract a “proper” manager, who could wheel and deal in the market. We would end up with another young head coach, who will face an impossible set of circumstances. We are b*ggered.

Well I did say after Southampton that I feared a Christmas horror show. We have crap owners who re-arranged the deck chairs on the Titanic in the Summer of 2022, but who will not / cannot provide an adequate level of funding, with a totally futile model of allowing only young players to be signed. We still have a useless CEO, with an inexperienced DOF (a constituency somewhere is missing a crap MP), and a struggling Head Coach, who I still believe would succeed given a half decent set up above him. It’s no surprise that it’s all caught up on us in the end, and we could well end up in a relegation struggle, with a squad of players wholly unsuitable for that scenario.

Probably prior to Venkys turning the taps off?

JDT is only still here because no other club has yet been convinced enough to take him on. I wonder if he might have resigned anyway, had he not relocated his family in England during the close season? A poor January Window , coupled with a sustained run of poor results might yet change his mind.

I agree, but he really needs taking out of the firing line for his own good, and that of his team mates, Until Chaddy mentioned him, I d forgotten about Hilton. Clearly, JDT must not rate him, as otherwise he surely would’ve been given an opportunity by now. He’s the same age as Wahlstedt,(24). The defence will start the match at Hull in a very nervous frame of mind. As per usual, it’s imperative we score first.