roversfan99

https://owngoalnigeria.com/2025/12/08/tella-boniface-tolu-uche-iheanacho-not-in-super-eagles-28-for-afcon-three-new-players-in/ Reportedly has made the squad. Which is awful for us.

The fact that theres a chance of a 3rd game not finishing as planned is embarassing. The fact that presumably in the hope that the game is passed fit to play and finished, then they can pretend there was never any jeopardy. That they havent said a word about potential inspections is absolutely pathetic. No care for people travelling especially a long way from Oxford.

They are the sorts of idiots who are best ignored anyway though. They dont need an excuse as they come up with enough of their own. Fixing the pitch does not excuse not investing in the team to any rational person. They still do the same now, they still have to. The one exception was the season we sold Wharton because the whole fee counted as profit. Had he not come through, even with the court case, they would have had no choice but to offset the losses again. I dont consider it financial support not to be sniffed at. But all Championship owners have to do the same. It isnt very significant spending, its just offsetting losses that occur even in seasons where they dont spend a penny on transfers. Even Mowbray didnt have continued financial support, it was just one season really of reasonable spending. Similar to Tomasson albeit double the fees. No manager has had any prolonged support, the odd one has had fleeting support. If a manager is performing poorly, or a player, or a staff member, they deserve criticism of that I dont doubt. I also do respect when people kick up a fuss but again that is still largely based on protecting themselves, knowing they cannot succeed in these conditions and maintaining their personal reputation. Its not them taking a personal stand on behalf of the fans as part of a noble and ethical cause. Some of those you mention obviously go beyond that. Suhail is an extension of Venkys. Anderson and Kean also went beyond merely protecting their own self interests. As a side note, a lot of it is speculation. I dont personally believe that all current players are on less than £10k, Cantwell for one wont be, even if I can clearly see the intention to keep cutting the wage bill. Equally, not convinced Mulgrew was on £20k and even if he was, he had become surplus to requirements for footballing reasons, but had a contract from when he was a key player, we didnt do him a favour to keep paying him.

But I dont think its an unfair suggestion to say that you have defended and deflected away from the owners over the years. You often become too fixated with individuals and then anything that happens, you pin it all on them, even at times if theyve left the club. The perfect example is how often you say that they pump x amount in a year, but dont respond when questioned on it. Them raising shares or incurring debt to offset standard Championship losses is mandatory, it doesnt correlate with willingness or ambition. Repeatedly suggesting/speculating that the owners havent been asked for things pins most of the blame on an individual employee. It seems a far reach to think that so many different people simply all didnt ask for money at various stages. Suhail is different to the various other members of staff that have been here over the past 15 years, in that hes essentially an extension of Venkys. He was a Venkys person before he gained any power here. His primary focus is to support Venkys objectives, which focus on cutting losses and conflict with Rovers objectives, and he knows his job is always 100% safe. All of the others have been employed specifically as Rovers employees, none of whom could have 100% job security. The others, no matter how incompetent do not fall into that same dangerous category. No matter how incompetent they are or were, and regardless of if they ever tried to strengthen the stabilitt of their own job. I think you misconstrue what I say as me sticking up for Waggott, for Mowbray, for Broughton etc. Its not what I am doing. I am not comfortable with giving them such big chunks of the blame in a way that alleviates the blame away from the problem and the common denominator throughout these 15 years. Suhail has been the biggest symptom of all but even he isnt THE problem. An excuse to who though? If anyone defends the owners for again cutting costs on account of a throwaway comment of a pissed off manager stressing the importance of not having a pitch in working order, then they clearly are not very bright.

Its not in any way an excuse. It wouldnt excuse cutting the budget somehow even further. My issue all along is that you consistently look to deflect away from the owners. You do criticise them at times to an extent but there are often mitigating circumstances. One being the suggestion that its just that they repeatedly havent been asked for money, year after year. By numerous individuals, numerous times.

But on Ismael, he has come out publically when we all expected him to bat it off/blame the ref/authorities has had a go at the embarassment caused by those above him instead. I am not a fan of Ismael to be honest. And you arent. But I can acknowledge that I like that he has done that as an individual thing rather than twisting it. The owners (if it was specifically them) shouldnt be interfering with matters they cant possibly be in the best position to judge. But especially with hindsight, I cant fathom how not selling a player for £4m who (and the owners wouldnt be aware of this) had downed tools to exchange for 2 new players who could benefit us both short and long term would be deemed as a positive. The spending thing, you are twisting it as if they were ready and waiting to go on a spending spree, similar to how you regularly suggest that they are/were "pumping in £20m" a season as if its anything other than something they have to do to cover the losses all Championship clubs incur. And most importantly, the owners. Dont forget that.

I think you are allowing your dislike of individuals to cloud your judgement. As has been proven by quite a few different individuals. I also referenced that I dont like the idea of it being either the pitch or transfer money. But that is not the take home conclusion of what Ismael said today. He spoke very critically of those above him, he said it is "embarassing" and questioned the structure at the club. Him saying that he would sacrifice funds just to me suggested quite how desperate he is not to be embarassed in such a way again. Similar to how you have twisted Mowbray going out of his way to stop the owners from investing loads of money or wanting to sell 6 months worth of a Rothwell who downed tools in order to get a couple of new players in another season where the owners had turned the taps off.

I wish he hadnt offered to reduce the transfer budget to compensate although I understand its just him stressing the importance. It should be either or. We badly need new players and a suitable pitch.

He has spent all season making excuses, and didnt look internally when this happened the first time. Fair play to him for having a go today though, not only at the embarassing pitch situation but also a little go at the structure of the club too with too many "heads of." He is spot on. Anyway, who do people want as the next manager? One thing Venkys and the board dont like, its stuff like this.

Obviously it would take ages to find the minutes for numerous meetings but I am almost certain that following the initial meeting where Waggott said he had proposed that, there was a subsequent meeting where the idea had been knocked back due to cost. More recently it was touched on and it was said that the cost was quite low prior to covid (and the court case excuse) but they hadnt given the go ahead, and after a year or two the price had gone up. Who is it fault isnt immaterial, its really important. And again, its the owners.

The owners are on record as refusing to totally replace the very old pitch a few years ago. I think even before the court case but cant be sure on that. Anything else seems immaterial in comparison.

Im not saying specific to January. I am saying thats how much work needs doing, as a minimum. Its obviously not ideal that the squad is so imbalanced and has so many poor players. Hence why we are so much lower in the table. Obviously some will work out and some wont, the issue is that so many not only havent worked out but they are so bad.

Obviously what I think we need is not what we will get it. It never is. But the change of formation, gaps in summer recruitment and a number of Gestede signings being incapable of even to contribute as squad players means that the squad needs a lot of work doing to it. Its little surprise we arent far from the bottom 3 and once the squad is tested further it will likely get worse.

We need far more than that. A Tronstad replacment 6 months in advance is not as important as other positions. We have no depth at right wing back, or at left wing back. We are 2 strikers short too. But we really need to properly bolster centre back aswell. Plus there are hangers on including Gueye but also De Neve, Henriksson and Tavares amongst others that should be shifted as soon as we can convince a gullible team to take them. None of them are useful in any way. Andersen would be good company for Carter in the physio room. I dont think the issue is confidence. The issue is a total lack of ability and effort. That West Brom game is very much a one off. Hes not good at anything.

You speak as if the primary focus of recruitment is giving us what we need. They wouldnt have let Hyam go without replacement if it was. At best, we will sign some sub par crap from a low foreign league. The problem is, you became so obsessed with Gallagher and your dislike grew so unhealthily strong of him that you have struggled to just judge what is his replacement as just a seperate player. What about Gueye would be serviceable? Even the stuff youd expect him to be good at, hes not.

Do you think we will splash out on an experienced, proven defender as well as bringing O'Riordan back to directly replace the sorely missed Hyam? If you think theres a chance of that then you havent been paying attention.

So they did strengthen the squad, a lot. Just not in perhaps the most efficient way or in a way that Slot can maximise and get the best from.

Nixon again going out of his way to try and defend the club. Bit fishy. The owners refused to invest in a total needed relay of the pitch a couple of years ago, a pitch over 30 years old. The rest is just immaterial noise.

Well timed propaganda. Well, of sorts. Recalling O'Riordan alone would certainly not be a sufficient replacement for Hyam nor solve our defensive vulnerability. They would presumably sign young players purely to further limit the wage budget as its not what we need.

They werent, the pitch wasnt quite as bad as v Ipswich but was still unplayable and would have got worse. After the Ipswich game, you echoed the club that there was nothing we could do and it wasnt our fault. It was bullshit at the time but a second abandonment seems to have turned those defending the club last time into criticising the club which is at least one small positive. The club and the owners deserve the blame so fair play for not sticking to your guns.

The summer when we went down, we spent just over £1m on fees. Is that not sparing any expense? And that was off the back of a season where anyone remotely sellable was sold. The summer when the court case really started was possibly the strongest in terms of cut backs but far from an isolated incident. There has been the odd summer where we have had even a reasonable summer in terms of net spend, the one upon promotion and Tomasson's first season which are both exceptions to the rule. Think the season I just mentioned that led to relegation, think the season we sold Armstrong and they wouldnt spend a fee, and think the season when we sold Cairney/Gestede etc and brought in a whole host of cheap crap, and even in those years they would have had to offset some sort of loss. Many other summers we barely spent a fee too. This idea that they "pump in £20m a year" seems to linger in some minds as if have been actively and willingly putting in money, rather than just the standard Championship owner raising share capital/adding debt to offset general expenses. Im not even sure that the worst of the problems have been in line with the court case. Seems like a bit of an excuse.

Not the most pressing matter but how bad is Lewis Miller on the ball? He is like this every game so cant blame the weather, spooning every ball including the most pathetic free kick I think ive ever seen. I didnt think our performance for an hour was particularly good but the conditions made that very difficult. Miroshita though was the one looking to always make something happen. Forshaw was good but an injury to him seemed inevitable and was for nothing.

Good post and well done for not doubling down. Last time it was that it should have carried on, it was just a bit of rain, the referee was wrong, it was McKenna's fault etc. All along its been the fault of the owners. The reaction when the ref stopped the game was anger towards the owners and rightly so.

It has. By Venkys.

Absolutely shameful and embarassing. All comes back to the owners not funding that full pitch revamp. Dont allow for or get sucked in by the nonsense. Referees, opppsition managers, rainfall miles higher specifically in Blackburn, how its not our fault. It is 100% our fault. Its on the owners. Last time they were struggling to find precedent on how to finish the game. This time, we have some from the same Championship ground a couple of months ago.