Is it not just the £3m to Akon (whoever that is) that is Illegal? If that £ went through VLL then it brings Rovers into the picture, but it doesn’t mean the funding of the club is Illegal - even if the article is trying to imply that. I don’t like the BJP and their right wing nationalist ideology one jot, but they have not, as far as I am aware, abandoned the rule of law. Nor would they be able to overturn the rule of law easily in a seventy+ year democracy with long established divisions of power. However fucked the Raos are they can still afford top lawyers. No way can the government of India seize land or assets for all Venkys money into Rovers by suddenly declaring those payments to have been illegal. The BJP are a shower of shit, but this is not the Bolsheviks in Russia or the Nazis in Germany - the Indian Government have to follow rules and laws. The payments to Akon were clearly breaking rules - as was the house purchase - and the Raos will be punished. But to suddenly suggest that their funding of Rovers has been illegal is nonsense. Unless Indian democracy and the rule of law over there is in a far bigger mess than I realise and somebody who knows more would care to enlighten me?

I’m not sure he’s got the balls to try and even if he did I doubt JDT would give a shit.

Three at back with Britain LWB and JRC RWB - surely?

I traveled through east Texas Where many martyrs fell And I know no one can sing the blues Like … …. Apologies, I couldn’t help it.

I wish I could disagree with you. However, Russel Martin’s ridiculous appointment as Soton boss is strong evidence you might well be right. I think the man is a hilarious joke of a manager. He has never achieved bugger all (except possession stats), moans and whines about the opposition like a sore loser - and now he’s managing ex-premiership players and a parachute payment budget. It is insanity!

Sunderland and Preston out. What a good night it turned into.

Mowbray tended to play a second 11 in the cups and JDT also tends to play a second 11 in the cups. The difference is the first team is now run as meritocracy. If a player plays well in cup matches he now knows he is in serious contention for a first team league start. Under Mowbray too much of the first 11 in the league were always guaranteed starters. He rewarded loyalty to himself above anything. He was also too scared of upsetting the dressing room to drop his high earners. He wasn’t the worst manager in the world, but JDT is on a totally different level when it comes to motivating the entire group, keeping the senior players on their toes and simultaneously letting all the players know exactly who runs the team - and all done with a big ruthless smile. Our improved cup performances under JDT are indicative of hugely improved group management of the entire squad.

Are you his Dad?

To most people it is important that students in higher education should have a reasonable standard of written English. If you don’t give a shit, then fair enough. However, there are plenty of us who do give a shit and we will absolutely judge students on their written English. That’s reality and I’m personally glad people pointed that out to me when I was a student. I genuinely think the essay sounds really interesting though. I wish the guy every success and I hope he produces a fantastic piece of work. I’m sure he will.

Hi - firstly you mean ‘century’ not ‘centuary’. Secondly, as this is currently the 21st Century- you must mean ‘how things have changed since the START of the 21st Century’ or maybe ‘how things have changed since the 20th century’. It’s a very interesting question - genuine good luck - but I would not answer a survey that had a spelling or a typo in the question. I would also be frustrated by the imprecise or erroneous use of the current century. Best wishes. I’m sure it will come good and be an excellent essay in the end.

I grew up in Lancaster, lived a long time in Inverness. I appreciate my deep fried chippy food but I never heard of a John Bull until now - just googled some pics - that looks amazing! I will seek one out next time I’m in the right part of the county (never ever saw one as a kid in Lancaster). Generally you’re better served for deep fried stuff up here, if you’re a connoisseur of this kind of food - battered white pudding, red pudding, black pudding, haggis & smoked sausage are all worth a try if you’re up here and are available in all chippies. The world famous Mars Bar, before you ask, is nice on the first bite, two sweet on the second and positively sickly by the time you finish it. Pizza (yes with batter) is not worth it either - tastes like over greasy fried bread. I miss quality chippy pies though. Pies up here are a disgrace! Not even trying to stay on topic am I?

In an ideal world I would keep Gallagher. He would be a super sub to bring on (up front NOT on RW) when the team is trying to defend a lead. JDT seems to expect his forwards to work really hard. If we get a goal scoring striker, the ideal scenario would be to keep that player fresh and injury free by having Gallagher come on and work his socks off to help defend from the front towards the end of games.

Add to the problem above two other factors: 1. Our academy has done a wonderful job of producing defenders and midfielders, but for some reason seems to struggle to produce forwards of the same potential. 2. GB has failed in two consecutive windows to sign a striker. This creates yesterday’s painful 0-0 home draw against a well organised Hull. They were defending well, but hardly doing much else. I don’t think the set up or instructions from the management are the issue. We just don’t have literally any players at all who offer a serious goal scoring threat. Hedges, Dolan, Szmodics, Gallagher will score a few goals every season, but are nowhere near capable of being relied upon to produce goals regularly and consistently. Similarly the defence and midfield will chip in with the odd goal. More often than not this will be enough, but also sometimes it is very painful and frustrating to watch us trying to score when we actually have no natural goal scorers on the pitch. The only players in the entire club who have the natural instinct of scoring regular goals are BBD and Dack. One is injured - a lot - and the other goes through dry patches (sometimes lasting for over an entire season) when his striking instinct seems to totally desert him and he becomes about as potent in front of goal as Sam bloody Gallagher. He is lucky to get his big move, like others have said, as soon as Villarreal fans see the non-scoring version of his game, he could be in for a very rough time out there. I presume the manager is struggling to trust that Leonard can do enough of the hard graft and physical stuff to warrant a starting spot. Although he persisted with giving Hirst and Vale so many chances, you have to wonder just why he is so reluctant to give Leonard the same opportunities. When is Dack back? Can he play as an emergency centre forward? When is Ayala back? We may as well stick him in the centre forward position, at least he would be unpredictable up front.

Making the playoffs is important psychologically. After years and years of Bowyer and Mowbray failing to get there, time after bloody time, the players, the non-playing staff, the fans, the non attenders, everyone who cares about the club - we all need to see that JDT, the young players and our DofF are making some measurable progress. We need to believe that the seasons were our forward planning and tactical prowess went as far as giving it a ‘right good go’, or consoling ourselves with a bit of lemon drizzle cake in the face of being endlessly outwitted by opposition managers, are in the past. If JDT is going to make a name for himself as a manager in English football, if GB is going to recover his reputation after the shambles of January, if any of our promising young players have any ambition of playing at a higher level, if our attendances are ever going to recover, the difference between sixth and seventh this season is very important.

Mine too, came into the front room to see what I was getting so excited about. Same as Leicester game.

Do you still think JDT is out of his depth, or are you eating your words along with downing the booze?

We only have two goal threats - BBD & Dack. One has been nullified by his own head, the other is currently revitalised. It doesn’t matter one jot what ‘style’ of football we play - we have zero other goal threats. That’s our major problem.

Thanks for a touch of positivity Tomphil, I’ve been so pissed off about what’s happened I have been staying away from reading the board. When I have come on it’s generally painful reading. Everyone is sore. I know you sometimes go in for your conspiracy theories at the club and I have to admit the past few days have really had me wondering “how? how? how can you miss the same form - twice??”. However, reading what GB said backs up what I’ve felt all along. He’s not cut from the same cloth as Waggot, Cheston, Shaw, Agnew, Senior, the ones I don’t want to name and the leeches whose names I don’t even know. All my instincts are that GB is at the least an honest man of some integrity. I wouldn’t say that about any of the others. I need some hope to cling on to.

Maybe we can offer a guaranteed starting place if fit, a la Morton. Not saying I would agree, but it appears we have done it before.

Oh God no, please not. Surely just unfortunate coincidence. I certainly hope so. If GB is reading this board he could do well to research our recent history and make himself fully aware that one thing that will lose him support of even the most patient and tolerant amongst us is regular dealings with that particular individual. My advice to GB would be, if that piece of work has to be conversed with by anyone at this club, it should be done in a short, professional, non-friendly and very brief manner. No one at BRFC should ever shake hands with him, thank him or even be polite to him. Even if an email is exchanged I would advise taking an immediate shower with plenty of soap. If GB ever wonders how one of the best run clubs in the PL, somehow turned into the shambles he took over, or where all our parachute cash went, or why some fans are still so reluctant to trust the motives of him and his new regime, or why so many posters here still detest owners who actually keep us financially afloat, he should start by looking at the background and connections of that particular current employee of Hibs. A man never to be welcomed or accepted by anyone who cares in anyway at all for BRFC. Speaking to you Gregg!

On Undav’s wiki page someone has added this.

That is a fair point, but two points: 1. As far as I remember there was nothing concrete in summer and offers even merely talked about were derisory - low enough that they weren’t considered enough, even with him having only one season left. Without his contributions at the start of this season we would be in deep shit in the table, not sitting fifth. With no time or set up to find a replacement, selling him for a stupid low price (if one was even made) potentially could have taken us from play off contenders to relegation candidates. 2. I seem to remember JDT talking as if he felt BBD might sign a new contract at the start of the year. In fact I think he said something like he’d make him breakfast everyday if he signed a new contract. It was not at all the talk of a manager discussing a player who’d just been offered ‘tenfold’ to move to a PL club. I don’t know what offers were made to the club and/or Diaz before the season started, but if he’d been seriously interested in any offers being discussed in summer 2022, instead of waiting to see what came by summer 2023, he would have got his way - players usually do. I am not creating a narrative that he refused a move. I am stating the objective narrative that we couldn’t force him to move then or now. Not that it appears we had any sensible offers to move him on to anyway. The narrative that needs knocking down is that this is a problem caused by the current management. The previous management left the contract discussions far too late. I think we’ve established that now. BTW - still just about time to sell him this window and spend the cash, if anyone wants to pay to get him six months early.

Absolutely, very true, completely agree. However, to attempt to bring some closure to the debate, that situation is not in any way Broughton’s fault, which is an opinion that was clearly and scandalously being asserted by one poster, and being liked by others. Two recent, very detailed, lengthy and excellent posts have timelined beautifully when and how BBD could and should have been tempted with a new offer, long before Broughton came to the club. We can bash Broughton at the end of the window if the signings look rubbish and we can bash him at the end of the season if the signings were rubbish. If in two years time we still have a large number of players winding down their contracts then he can fairly have some very tough questions to answer. However, some of the Broughton bashing on here recently (from a small but vociferous minority) is at best ridiculous and worst is quite suspicious as to what people’s motivations are. It needs to be called out.

I am getting tired of this B.S. it’s not the 1970s and we can’t just sell a player who doesn’t want to be sold. If a player wants to run his contract down he can run his contract down - he can’t have a sale forced on him as a punishment. Can you wake up and smell the coffee please? The only strategy a club could possibly take is to force a player to play in the reserves if they are choosing to run their contract down. That’s a different argument and absolutely filled with pitfalls and potential negative, if not disastrous, consequences. If you want the club to take that strategy then argue for it, but please stop pretending we can just sell players who don’t want to be sold. They’re not fucking slaves who are personally owned by the club, however much they may earn. They sign contracts and they pick and choose which ones to sign. Ahh, coffee smells good!

We don’t only need players who take responsibility like Dack does. We need players who can actually play skilful football, like Dack can. I felt on Saturday that Bradley was getting frustrated by the lack of ability of his team mates, just as we were.