roversfan99

None of that warrants hatred, 4 years on, especially when much of those things are speculation on your part. McGinn went to Villa the summer we wanted him. I think you are confusing that with Reed who he played wide. Perhaps the wrong decision, but something that should warrant frustration at the time, no more. My recommendation would be not to watch that podcast, purely for your own health.

I dont even understand why you even would put yourself through it such is your irrational hatred of him.

It sums up our club that our own COO has no idea whether a long standing member of staff still works here. Amateur is being generous.

But my initial point was to dismiss the idea that we have discarded Travis (and the other departing players) because he has been left behind in our pursuit for better. We have successfully sorted one proper contract in 2 years. We arent willing to pay competitive Championship wages. Its not as if that £20k is there but we have decided to utilise it elsewhere. We have gone for players that will require much less in wages. We dont have to pretend that he is worse than he is because he has left either.

He shouldnt need to "press the owners." But they probably wouldnt have given him more money anyway. They havent in any of the Januarys since. Which i am sure you will pin on Mowbray too. It makes absolutely no sense for him not to want promotion. I have no doubt that he gave his absolute utmost to get results with the players he had. He just came up short. The initial theory that you said was that he actively told them that he didnt want more money. Which isnt true. If we fixate on people who pass through, similar to the Travis situation. Our angst goes to the wrong place.

Where has this suggestion that he wanted £30k come from?

So the fact that none of the players we wanted to keep have all refused new deals was just because we didnt see value in any of them? Why did we (eventually) offer contracts to them at all?

Did he say that he wasnt doing his utmost for the club he was working for? Like with the theory that he actively didnt want promotion, which makes no sense. Your imagination runs wild when Mowbray is involved.

Thats not the case. Travis hasnt been let go as part of aggressive attempts to make us better. We wanted him to stay, like with any of our better players we couldnt get him to sign a new deal so have had to replace him with someone who will take a smaller wage.

I find the narrative that hes collateral damage in an attempt to "change" to be a bit of a stretch. We wanted him to stay, he was an important player. We offered him a contract that like many wasnt sufficient. The manager didnt want or expect as much change that has happened. He isnt this hanger on that has been left behind as we move forward for the better. And he is a good Championship midfielder who knows how to win games and leads by example.

Excellent news. The usual suspects will be like blood to a hound with this. He didnt ask for more money will be turned into him actively not wanting to get promoted, even though all logic suggests that it was in his best interests to do it. And more blame can be taken away from the real reason that we have never really come close to promotion.

Greedy for not accepting a sub par contract here like everyone else? But a crap player moving to Saudi Arabia is emotional?

I dont think Ohashi is a number 10 but he is our only competent striker.

But Ismael has been here (and so has McKenna at Ipswich) for longer than this season. I personally dont agree with setting random dates as to when judgements can be made. But each person is entitled to their opinion. Im not saying that Ismael is rubbish and we should sack him, just that I have been underwhelmed so far with him and his results have not been very good. But early days. Also have different opinions or at least impressions on the players good and bad that have signed but again, obviously not in stone.

I remain very unconvinced that we will bring in a striker but I desperately hope to be wrong as we really need one. This seems like a busy agent.

He chose to rotate the team, including picking a kid in net when we have 2 senior keepers, did he not? Not as important as the league results, but overall they have been poor too. Like I said, its not all been bad but I am unconvinced so far.

They didnt have a competent left back, they were short there. I think he is a good signing like I said, but obviously if we are witholding opinion on some (which i dont think we should, as long as there is a caveat that it is very early) that havent started well then surely it becomes a widespread rule. I mean theres a lot of mental gymnastics there. Discounting cup games, putting games lost into a "should have won category" etc. I am unconvinced but equally I certainly havent written him off and there have been glimpses, there have been mitigating circumstances and there are new signings to consider. But results across his tenure overall, especially this season, are poor.

If that is the logic, doesnt that make Dolan the best of all of the players that have left? I think McLoughlin will be a good signing, but he struggled to nail down a starting place as a centre back at Hull.

Is he winning matches? His record isnt the best and its 1 win 3 losses so far this season.

Equally, would it not be poor to assume that McLoughlin and Alebiosu are good enough just yet?

He joined an Ipswich team already at the top mid season. They weren't going to change their team regardless of the ability of Travis. They had an established duo performing in his position, they signed him to strengthen the squad. It doesn't prove an inability to do anything. Your second to last paragraph implies that we have actively chosen to keep him. What has actually happened like with many others is that we have failed to offer him a contract sufficient of a player of his standing and ability, it's being made out like we have decided we can do better. We wanted to keep him but with a year left, we can't. So we have had to sell and paint him in a bad light with no real substance as a result.

As @MarkBRFC mentioned, it was part of the plan. Gestede said one of the summer priorities was getting someone to compete with Ohashi and Gueye. Then it dropped off.

Whatever has happened, we dont know. But he is being painted as the villain and its being assumed that hes this bad egg. A narrative pushed by the club but without saying what hes actually done wrong.

He has asked to leave with reports that he didnt want to run his contract down and that he asked to play v West Brom. Im still not seeing any substance as to what he has done so wrong.

I think Dolan was really well suited to Ismael. He improved when Ismael came in and hes really energetic and a good presser. Some of the players we have signed dont even fit into the remit of pace and power so I dont think its critical that every single player has it or the intention to build a team where everyone has to have it. Morishita is tiny and quite slight, on paper he doesnt fit the mould. No reason he fits and Dolan wouldnt have. McLoughlin is quite a slow centre back, he doesnt fit the mould. And with some of the current players. Ohashi doesnt fit the mould, but still plays above Gueye who is bigger and stronger but ultimately is crap. Hyam is an important player, as is Tronstad, Ribeiro is a regular too. Hedges isnt really an athlete. None are stand out athletes, so I dont think the intention is to build a team where every single player has to be purely an athlete. You need more than that. I still also think that Travis as much as anyone was a real athlete and would have suited Ismael down to the ground. Buckley and JRC were coasting. Certainly neither of those 2 will be a miss.