roversfan99

To be fair, even if it was pre budget cuts, and based on this assumption that he came as a back up, Ennis simply shouldnt have been signed. The very fleeting appearances he made had flickers of promise but with continued absence perhaps make him seem better than he actually is. His injury issues make him totally pointless and he certainly cant be seen as a "good one." But its very difficult to really judge Broughton. Its not as clear cut as with Waggott as to whether he is out of his depth, but like with Waggott, the problem doesnt lie here. Any DOF would struggle to work under these conditions. Its not only the budget cuts which are beyond uncompetitive. We couldnt even afford an extra loan as a body for when Buckley left. Its the fact that everyone seems to be totally in the dark as to what is happening and if and when these vague issues will ease/go away. Its the fact that Venkys occasionally stick their nose in and make random decisions which have long term ramifications, ie turning down a considerable bid for Brereton with a year left.

It didnt appear to be motivation he lacked here. Just ability.

It allows further blame to be funnelled away from the owners.

Well I suppose, but that isnt in any way on him. Thats on the owners 100%. The journey stuff is standard manager talk.

His usefulness or otherwise is definitely almost irrelevant compared to the sad stain on the club that are Venkys. Its interesting that Glen found out that the buys last season were targets from before Broughton joined. Makes it even more difficult to judge him considering this summer was shall we say mixed but under ridiculous restrictions. I suppose he seemingly did identify Tomasson.

Would it be that funny? Not convinced it would be a downgrade, surely you would want a terrible manager in if you wanted to see them suffer. Spending our last millions? He spent up to £15m but its not as if he blew it, Armstrong brought in a big sum back, and its not his fault that it wasnt invested, then the owners turned down money for Brereton that would have led to an overall profit after a considerable goal tally from the 3 combined. And then to add insult to injury, the owners then continued to slash the budget after that. The "spending our last millions" bit is on the owners. Not sure ive seen mentions of him being a great manager. The common opinion seems to be steady and solid at this level. Thankfully we upgraded but not some sort of laughing stock either.

I always think that the narrative of him complaining about location were taken out of context a bit. He regularly rambled on about his life story in general, but he was clearly happy hence why he would have probably stayed longer if possible. Obviously family means a lot to him and he has had tragedy in his personal life but he also seems genuinely obsessed about football.

He is a coaster, he often has spells where not only his form falls off a cliff but he totally downs tools, hes stroppy and lazy. They have had big stars in the past (Ronaldo and Pogba) who dominated the press and he got a bit of a free pass when he was equally as bad in terms of attitude whilst arguably contributing less. He clearly has ability but hes not a top player. There was obviously a lot of focus in the last England squad with the likes of Henderson, Phillips and Maguire selected despite form as Southgate favourites. Rashford was also very lucky especially with Sterling not included.

With Venkys only becoming less and less interested, the worry has to be though that it would lead to a further reduction in quality. I would certainly agree that he is average. Yet in the last 2 and a half seasons, average is better than any of the alternatives because they come from either the academy, loans or for a pittance. Leonard has something about him but its a massive ask to keep flogging him so young. Vale was hopeless. Ennis is a waste of time, Telalovic is a million miles away and Hirst was a waste of time too. Its probably wise to let him go, but it probably will not be a case of the potential to improve the squad. Purely more cost cutting.

It feels even more frustrating that when we have such an exciting manager and a few of the younger players seem to have kicked on, that Venkys simultaneously have doubled down on their budget cutting to the point that we arent going to be competitive over 46 games. The team under Tomasson could have been but the squad isnt. This "situation" over in India seems all very peculiar to me. Its never been explicitly explained, the owners havent had the decency to clarify and those underneath still seem in the dark trying to maintain the image of everyone working together in full understanding but with very little answers. It seems from the meeting that its almost accepted that Tomasson will leave when he can.

I think to get Sunderland into the play offs last season was a little more of an achievement than is implied. They went up through the play offs and a start of 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses prior to his arrival hardly was him riding the crest of a wave. It was an excellent achievement especially without his main striker. Sunderland are in a position where they can afford a gamble as of course Mowbray has his limitations and even if the next appointment backfires, its not as if they will get sucked in to a scrap. Their recruitment has not been the best, all done above the managers head similar to here it seems. Total focus on signing projects and dismissing more practical needs for experience amongst it, lots of misfiring young strikers signed. As you touch on, there will be clubs at this level that would benefit from appointing him. Safe pair of hands and a steady manager.

Not surprised that Mowbray has been sacked with the set up there but I do think its quite harsh. He has done a good job, to get them into the play offs last season was a good achievement. The manager has little autonomy there and they seem keen to strip away any experience and have lumbered him with loads of random signings from abroad, the majority of whom are crap. It seems to be the way forward, data obsessed analysts helping to assemble young, technical squads with lots of gambles but not much glueing it together. It does seem similar to when he left here. He is a 3 or a 4 on a dice. To get promoted you need a 5 or 6 with a team like at Rovers or Sunderland. We rolled our dice successfully but the benefits of us upgrading the manager are offset by the accompaniment of severe budget cuts. They dont seem to have owners that are so disinterested and hell bent on cost cutting but it remains to seen where they will pluck the new manager from. That being said, they are in a good position in a poor league to take a gamble and build on the foundations set by Mowbray.

Its absolutely crazy. There should be a cap, more games should be at 3pm. By all means keep 2 for super sunday, show any games that are midweek. Then maybe one on Saturday. Not the vast majority.

I dont think anyone will bid for him especially off the back of 3 months out injured when he has 6 months on his deal. And the owners wont be willing to allow him another deal if he is a high earner, they clearly only care about saving money.

I dont think we will get a fee. But with all the budget cuts and him being almost certainly the highest earner, he will be off and replaced internally.

Its a depressing read. It sounds like Venkys have just totally washed their hands of us and it is genuinely up in the air whether day to day bills are paid.

Interesting to see Rashford get some deserved criticism at the weekend. He has the odd patch of incredible form but also many spells where not only is he ineffective but he totally downs tools. He did it during the Ronaldo days and the Pogba days but the focus was elsewhere. He doesnt deserve to be in the England squad considering the alternatives barring a massive change. Not one we would want in the trenches.

Absolutely crazy how few games will be on Saturdays at 3pm.

VAR is inevitable.

Not good enough against the bottom side and we got what we deserved. Obviously the second Wednesday goal was dodgy and VAR would have intervened but the general performance was below par and for me the main issue was obviously the total lack of options available to us. We used the least players in the league and then to the frustration of the manager have come into this season even less prepared than last. We needed to change things, Leonard followed up a good performance midweek with a totally anonymous one, we can't expect him to perform repeatedly 2 times a week, Moran was really poor and I don't like Brittain as a winger, in attacking areas you don't have much time and he always takes one or two too many touches to set himself. Yet we had nothing on the poorest subs bench I have ever seen, and we had to just persist. Telalovic eventually came on and looks like a competition winner. Worryingly, it seems like none are going to be back soon so with such few options being repeatedly flogged, maybe more casualties are inevitable.

Now Sigurdsson is injured. That bench is totally pointless.

Hes never played repeated senior football and broke down before the last international break because of it. Plus we dont have any reasonable alternative to change it up if he is struggling/we would want something different alongside/instead of him.

Its a big ask expecting him to play repeated back to back 90 minutes though.

It doesnt sit right that we have millionaire/billionaire owners yet fans who already struggle to pay inflated ticket prices are being asked to fund stadium developments in a less than average affluent area of the UK. Being unaware would fit in with the general disinterest they have towards the club but they wouldnt fund it anyway, especially amidst the budget cuts.

Dolan out for 8 weeks. Such good form with absolutely nothing to rotate with both in game and between games surely will catch us up.