roversfan99

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.

There would be a game before any of those due to the ridiculous tournament size.

De Neve wishes he was mediocre.

It also relies on those other teams topping their groups, and then theres a round of 32 which will have plenty of crap in there too. In the past weve been fortunate with results in other groups.

What would he offer at 5 a side? Its that point in the season where every team will keep picking up injuries. Ours are only amplified by having injury prone players in some cases, and because we are overreliant on too small a pool of players because the alternatives are so bad.

Hedges is out for a couple of weeks which presumably will turn into over a month as tends to happen now. Under no circumstances should he bring in the useless De Neve.

Why would it require talks if he has a pre agreed fee in his contract? Im not convinced by him. Very average and wouldnt be rushing to sign him permanently.

Exactly. The quality will be massively reduced now there are 48 teams and most of the jeopardy is removed in the group stages now most 3rd place teams go through. Making the top 4 seeded teams is also a stupid decision. Thats before you even consider non footballing issues.