roversfan99

No one has suggested that Dolan should be the finished article. But the question is, how much has he really improved over 4 years, if at all? He still makes too many poor decisions in the final third and frustrates with the constant need to do 100 stepovers everytime he gets the ball. He also has lost that burst of acceleration he once had. I think you are right though, he shouldnt be starting games as regularly as he does.

Tomasson's departure wasnt anything to do with the defeat to QPR, it wasnt the club who decided to sack him. He was so pissed off and rightly so that he was having to be gagged pre game, he went because he was fuming in general at the restrictions and the decision was clearly because he had enough. Of course you can pick up quality frees and loans but you compared our budget to Luton as a way of criticising Broughton. Luton massively aided their promotion push by signing players for fees and signing more senior loans, last summer we spent less than a million and that was on the backdrop of having to sell our keeper, selling Phillips, losing our top scorer for 2 seasons. I criticised Broughton at times during his spell at the club, you only have (like with Tomasson) since he left, but last season both of them had a very difficult job on working with such small resources and even within that, there was a big gap where we couldnt sign anyone, a mid summer slashing of the budget and a potential signing blocked. Nothing comparable to what Luton did to go up. It seems a bit convenient that having continiously defended both Tomasson and Broughton throughout their time here, as part of an "end of season review" youve now grown fond of repeatedly criticising them, this player wasnt used right, this player wasnt used right, this performance was unacceptable, the transfer record wasnt good enough. Both of their exits werent the result of the club wanting better performance levels, especially Tomassons, they were because of the growing frustration between the pair at the absolute shit show above them. Had you said these things regularly when they were in employment here, you would have more credibility. Now with Eustace again, he cant do any wrong in your eyes. When he goes whenever that is, you will start to criticise him for what he did wrong. Im not sure where this "knee jerk reaction to one game narrative" has come from. Who is making a judgement on one game and which game is it?

Good point although the focus has to be Venkys out. Waggott is a dirty symptom that would naturally be flushed out once they go. Just getting rid of him as incompetent as he is would change little.

But as you touch on, theres been nothing in it for them for a while. The usual problem is waiting for Venkys to even decide exactly how low the budget is.

Does anyone genuinely believe that Venkys are contemplating selling up, another prediction from that account?

Well chaddy is basing the Lampard links on widespread media links, and you are basing your Robins prediction on a bloke who happens to pay for the more expensive seats at turf moor, passed on by someone with a terrible track record. So I would say chaddy is more likely. And I hope he is. Because Lampard is a terrible manager.

It all goes back to India. Waggott and Suhail are just willing puppets.

I don't have and haven't passed an opinion on Park either way. He was only here very briefly and then left again, and is set to come back. If you think it is good news or bad news then surely there would be a reason behind it. I suspect that if he is competent or not, ultimately the owners will be the main limiting factor as to how well he will do, like everyone else. On Dolan, not sure, his goal record has been pretty similar throughout all 4 seasons. But his poor decision making hasn't improved and when he was quicker, not that he was ever lightning fast, but that was an asset he no longer possesses. I don't think it would suit him being an old fashioned winger, he is quite slow and has never shown a particular crossing ability.

It wouldnt be a knee jerk reaction after one performance, no one has suggested that anything should be decided on one shoddy performance against QPR. Our budget last season wasnt comparable to Luton when they got promoted as they bought Morris, Doughty and Woodrow as well as loaning Nakamba, Horvarth and Drameh who arent young untested kids. Hardly being unable to even bring in Batth and having to shop in the German 4th division. Any credibility in opinions is lost when up until and including a manager/DOF's departure, anyone refuses to accept criticism yet now they are gone, blame is constantly put onto them as if their departure was simply down to the club wanting better. Tomasson went because he was being very public with his justifiable criticisms regarding the way the club is run and owned, nothing to do with losing faith. Had be not kicked up a stink and accepted the mess around him, he would have continued in his job. Broughton might have been a bit more down to a power struggle but I am not having that his exit was simply because his transfer business was deemed to be unsatisfactory. Perhaps more likely a mixture of a power struggle, cost cutting and again unhappiness on his part as to what has happened above his head compounded by Tomasson going.

That probably quite isnt on par with twitter accounts calling themselves Rovers Insider.

You are still assuming that we are a normally run club and shifting the blame for the dysfunction onto the 2 that have now left. Tomasson went because he clearly wanted to go and had become publically unhappy with the shit show, it wasnt a choice based on performance. And Broughton never got this level of criticism regarding his transfers (his record was always not the greatest albeit the main issue was he was forced to scrape the barrel because of the owners) from you when he was here. Both exits were ones greeted with frustration and annoyance from you.

Dolan is still young but has not progressed as you would expect, he lacks intelligence, is slow and his decision making is still poor, endless step overs and not much end product. That being said, if we do sell, we likely again wont reinvest and replace adequately.

I wouldnt go that far. He cryptically posted about a rumour that has been doing the rounds for weeks, and also suggested that Venkys might sell which sadly is bollocks. Lets hope that whatever formation Eustace plays, he can actually win a home gamd this season.

Why would you be happy, out of interest? What makes you confident that Park would be an asset? Seems a bit of a strange one, been here before, went as soon as he came and might now come back.

You knew that Real Madrid would find a way to win. Bellingham was poor on the big occasion.

*under Venkys. Waggott is just a useless puppet.

This thread sums up the risks of adding people in technical roles at a dysfunctional club. It adds unnecessary confusion and conflict if it is at a club that cant operate efficiently.

Impossible to get excited about such an appointment. His career path seems quite random, but whether hes up to the job or not, he will almost certainly at some stage find his job to be made untenable by the owners. More fool anyone for not realising 14 years in.

Comparing to Preston and Bolton, ultimately you are having to go through the different scenarios of potential adult and concession groups that may go to try and make us seem comparatively cheaper but the main stand out figure will always be the adult ticket price, naturally the most expensive and the most common and that hasnt changed much, certainly not enough to make much of a difference. Anything else the club does and like I said, it is great to see the kids prices etc decrease, pales somewhat to insignificance, the only way of making significant inroads is by reducing that adult amount. I appreciate the balancing act finding that sweet spot and the issue is the club dont look at the bigger picture, everything is so short term focused whereas even if it is say a season or two at £249 or even £299 (looks better starting with a 2) and then you can potentially push it up very gradually in the future but youve then got a bigger number of current season ticket holders in the system to begin with. And they also dont consider the indirect revenue that comes alongside tickets and also the improvement in atmosphere that then improves the product which makes tickets an easier sell. The £15 a game headline is obviously factual but also a little misleading in that, especially with this stupid Sky deal but even before, I bet most people have to miss at least a game or two anyway due to holidays/family issues etc before you consider night games and other movements of kick offs.

Interesting or dont care less?

Not really addressing the point myself and others have made, fair enough.

I cant see many players that you have that would necessarily attract a top flight club though to be fair. A lot of the players you went up with that you know are really good at this level struggled or more often just didnt play much in the Premier League. Even with the ones you signed, im not seeing many that did enough to be top of the list of bigger clubs. The one that bizarrely seems to be linked elsewhere is Trafford and he wouldnt be a loss anyway.

The kids prices are the primary success story undoubtedly, kudos to the club for that. But the adult prices are not really much different so numbers wont change much, even if you consider adults taking children, their ticket will still be quite steep so the overall price of their ticket and a childs ticket wont have changed that much. Everything continues to be so short term focused, based on each individual season and not considering both the indirect potential (other sales, merchandice, food etc) impact, the atmospheric impact of having more people and also crucially the long term benefits of having more season ticket holders going forward who might then buy one going forward. Waggott obviously wants his bonus and the owners are notoriously inflexible and also desperate for money now so I doubt if he turned round and said, bare with us this season, pricing reductions might even cause slightly less ticket income this season but other income might go up and in the long term we are planting foundations for healtheir numbers, they wont want to know. Youve also got to factor in the additional unnecessary issues such as these stupid phases where prices then go up after a short initial window, the £10 charge and also the many things youve raised that have just been ignored including flexible ticketing. I do feel that as much as I respect anyone giving their time and effort to try and put across very good points and I do think its help, anyone involved will naturally be biased in terms of the impact they feel they have made and spinning that to be a succes beyond perhaps what it actually is. You have all made a positive impact but I dont feel like they are "really pleasing" pricing policies.

I totally agree that the commercial side etc (including match day experience and communication etc) needs an overhaul, you seem to have total focus on that though as if its the main and only issue. You clearly dont think the footballing side of things is all good, thats not just the manager and staff. You think that we basically need a new teams worth of players and youll be hard pushed not to find anyone who agrees, its clear. That comes from losing key players and not seeing any money being reinvested. I feel like its tunnel vision focusing solely on the commercial side when any additional income would be dwarved by even having a fraction of the sales proceeds available to reinvest. You want £5m available, even that seems very unlikely but just for perspective, that is a quarter of the Wharton sale, whereas to generate that additionally through commercial avenues would probably take even the best commercial team 2 or 3 years, so that isnt the main issue.

I don't think they did necessarily think Batty was ready, as it isn't the only example. In fact, Tomasson was desperate for more players and made no secret of it. But they aren't going to come out and say, we can't afford a left back so we have no choice. If you own a Championship club, losses are par for the course, even if you have a good commercial side. The only way out is promotion. The way to generate money to invest is by selling players, we manage that part (sometimes, when players don't run their deals down) but money to reinvest never materialises. I agree that half the money should be reinvested. The thing is, it never is with Venkys. You seem keen to defend them by mentioning the losses but that isn't an excuse. The thing is, when you reinvest, then if you do it properly, you then potentially can profit on those players and the cycle continues anyway. Any bang average striker would improve us in that we only have one senior striker at the football club who himself is a bottom half Championship standard one.