roversfan99

Dread to think what the team will be. Bristol City will be expecting their easiest 3 points of the season. Our attack has failed to score in 5 of the last 8 games and our defence is ridden with injuries and has gone from being incredibly well protected to likely the flimsiest midfield pairing in the league

On a night when we lose and our small fragile squad continues to disintegrate, you choose to focus partially on someone who managed us seasons ago, describing him as "despicable" and justifying it with illogical nonsense. The owners deserve all of the blame.

The team we will field at the weekend is beyond worrying and its very difficult to give us a hope of a result. The squad is falling apart because of a lack of quality and crucially depth. We are in terrible form and our players are falling apart due to over playing leaving us with a skeleton squad. Its happened over the last 3 seasons causing a tailspin in the second half of the season and it is happening again. There was a lack of quality on show throughout. Hedges, Buckley, Forshaw, Dolan etc all not up to standard. Gueye could still be out there now and would still not have scored.

Its not down to luck that we didnt put the chances away. Its a lack of quality due to a lack of investment. Our attack that started has 6 goals between 4 players all season. We havent scored in 5 of our last 8 league games.

Despicable? Get a grip. Nothing makes more sense for a man intent on lining his pockets (like all managers) than purposely avoiding a considerable pay rise, bonus and likely new contract upon promotion. The blame is solely with the owners.

Been a big push on the expectations of relegation in recent days. Play offs my arse.

Terrible night and the embodiment of years of lack of funding leaving a paper thin squad full of journeymen and players not up to it falling to bits. Eustace has done so well to get this rag tag bunch as high as we are but you can already see us preparing to slide well away. Gueye deserved man of the match and @Tom has pre empted my comments. The one player with any urgency, some excellent link play but wouldnt score if we played for another 24 hours. His shots with his feet are always telegraphed, poorly hit and never in the corners. Some of the others that deserve a mention. Ryan Hedges, how can anyone defend him, he offers absolutely nothing at all. John Buckley, a half decent display seems to have tricked some people into thinking hes anywhere near good enough, hes not, every time he gets the ball he takes 2 or 3 touches minimum more than is necessary and just loses all momentum. Rankin Costello was falling to pieces at the end and is not a central midfielder. Adam Forshaw is a joke of a signing. Toth straight off the Wahlstedt conveyor belt. Hard to find any positives tonight if any.

Thats us playing well?

Its not the only thing that matters, even if it is clearly the most important. We have 4 crucial games between now and then, if you include QPR the day after deadline day when no last ditch signings will likely play. A nice run of games on paper, and there are only 15 games after that If we struggle in these 4 those play off aspirations could really diminish.

That puts us on 82 points from 28 games I think (you did have us down for a draw once).

You can only have 5 in a matchday squad and we already have 3.

I never said theres nothing anyone else would want. Just no potential big sales.

You will always sign some duds and it only takes one or two big sales to cover them. Im not even suggesting signing players for £7m and £5m but forgetting the contract side, the owners stupidly rejected a combined total of £12m for Brereton and Rothwell with 12 and 6 months left on their deals. We wont get regular sales without reasonable investment. Everything worth selling has been sold.

But if you buy players, you then set yourself up to sell them at a profit, reducing the losses. Its not as if any money invested in players is just money out and then thats the end of it. Had we not spent £5m on Armstrong and Szmodics we wouldnt have generated £24m or whatever it was.

Quality?

You dont know that he wants to keep them or not. No one does. He isnt going to come out and say about any player that he wants them to go. McFadzean is going and he has waxed lyrical about him despite allowing him to play a minute all season. He didnt play Sigurdsson earlier in the season when we had very limited attackers, he has only played Buckley since he had no other option, he clearly doesnt rate every player. In the media hes obviously going to big everyone up to keep everyone happy, basic man management. I dont get why you think that if you want the manager to have the final say, it means you have to agree with every single decision he makes.

How do you know that Eustace wants all of the players to stay? You have just made that up. But even so, you clearly cant fathom that yes, Eustace should have final say. But that doesnt mean that people have to agree with and justify every decision he makes. I reckon if he was told he could have a couple of extra signings but he would have to sacrifice some of the squad players, he would snap your hand off.

But on Dembele, he was not chosen despite Eustace's wishes. Therefore to have total faith in the club getting what we need purely on the basis of having a good head coach even though he clearly doesnt have total say (nor does he set the budget, in fact he seems totally in the dark based on his press conferences) seems a bit misplaced/deluded. We dont need the whole "stop writing players off" narrative. He obviously wont be left out and I will judge him as he plays, as I did on Saturday when he was crap. My point was that this 25 man squad isnt an excuse not to sign players. The most likely and obvious solution is to shed players who arent good enough. We are lumbered with Forshaw now. But the likes of Sigurdsson, Dolan, Hedges could maybe be shunted out. Failing that, a couple of non contributors could be simply not registered. You clearly think that Travis returning from injury, Buckley and Forshaw is a trio of midfielders capable of sustaining a play off push.

You arent going for the problem if you target anyone but the owners. Just unpleasant symptoms.

Do you still have faith in us signing the quality and quantity we need, factoring in that Eustace does not always decide on who we sign? And have you now given up on a left back? How have I tied myself in knots? Ive said what I would do. Not register players that are not good enough. Say we sign 4, tell Sigurdsson now if he stays he wont be registered. Players like Hedges, Forshaw, Hilton, any of them can be left out. But ideally shed one or two before the window closes. Dolan could be one to be let go.

Point being, you have faith in the club strengthening adequately. You said thats because of Eustace. You have an example from the summer of him NOT getting what he wants yet still have faith anyway. You are tieing yourself in knots to kid yourself into thinking that everything is ok. We shouldnt avoid strengthening important areas like midfield and left back (you said left back too) out of obligation to register crap like Sigurdsson who offer nothing. It could force their hand to seek a new club.

Eustace sounds deflated and totally in the dark. So weve made a bid presumably for a player that wont be available anymore. So no closer.

A new excuse. Dont register Wharton. Tell Sigurdsson if he stays he wont be registered. Youve always insisted that theres no possibility that the manager and the director of football will agree on everything and theres no risk of disagreement and the manager not getting what he wants.

"Saving the budget" to bring in loans in other positions.

After the QPR game the day after the window closes so presumably too late for any deadline day signings to realistically feature. We will have only 15 games left. Before then we have 3 crucial games, 2 very winnable home games against bottom half sides and an away game at fellow play off chasing Bristol City. It is criticial that we get a decent points haul in those games to keep us right in the pack ahead of the run in. We go into the first of them mainly fearing the worst because our sub par attack continues to misfire and we have gone from having one of the best midfield pairings in the league protecting our defence to most likely a player who hasnt shown decent form in 3 years and couldnt get into a struggling Sheffield Wednesday side and a veteran who couldnt get into Plymouth side. The 2 main arguments that I see defending the inactivity/business so far are firstly that we are "prioritising" the attack. That firstly assumes that we will get what we need there which is a big assumption and also suggests that we can just live with the issues we have in midfield. To go from one of the strongest to the weakest pairings in the league within a few weeks shows that as has been the case for years, the squad is not strong enough. For most clubs, the timing of Tronstads injury would at least come with the bonus of it happening in January where you can do something about it even if it means a bigger budget is needed. The second is that you can only sign quality towards the end of the window. Im not sure that is entirely true either.